“I’ll talk with the men, then be off. And God willing all goes well, I’ll be back to visit or whenever you need me.”
Raven’s chest tightened in pain as Clive walked away and began to talk with Iver and Brod. Family was growing but it was also separating and that was the difficult part of change. But she wasn’t losing anyone and she had to keep hold of that thought.
Gorm approached her and she wondered what dictate he brought from her husband.
“Lord Wolf is speaking with Sten. He asked that you join him.”
She nodded, surprised at the invitation, not that she had intended to wait for one. She knew he wouldn’t waste any time in speaking with Sten. It was something she would do and it was growing more obvious that they thought alike more often than not.
She followed alongside Gorm. “You do a lot here, Gorm.”
“It’s no chore,” he said. “It pleases me to serve Wolf. He is a good man and an exceptional warrior.”
That Wolf’s tribe thought highly of him had become apparent since her arrival here. Their view of him was in sharp contrast to what she had thought of him the last five years. It wasn’t easy seeing beyond the vicious warrior she had believed him to be. All she had to do was recall that day his warriors had attacked her clan and remember the carnage left in its wake, including her brother losing his hand and her family being ripped apart.
A sudden thought narrowed her brow. He hadn’t participated in that attack. Why?
Her eyes went straight to her husband when she and Gorm approached the area where Sten was being questioned. Her husband was a fierce warrior but not a vicious man, nor a cruel leader. He was commanding yet tolerant when needed and from what she had seen so far of him… he was fair in judgment with his people. She had chosen to wed him and it was growing more apparent by the day that it was time to make the most of her marriage.
“Nothing? You know nothing?” Wolf asked the man on his knees in front of him.
“I tell the truth, sir,” Sten pleaded. “Toke said nothing to me about an escape.”
Wolf shoved Sten to the ground with his boot and planted it on his chest. “You claim to know him well and yet he says nothing to you about his intention to escape?”
Sten continued to plead, his body shivering and not from the cold. “I’m truly sorry, sir. I don’t know if Toke intended to escape or just took advantage of a moment? The look in his eyes a few moments before he ran made me think he decided at that precise moment, but why that precise moment, I couldn’t say. I beg you, sir, please believe me. I speak the truth. If I knew anything I would tell you.”
“Or I could have the truth beaten out of you,” Wolf said and Sten paled when Lars stepped forward.
Lars fisted his hands and his nostrils went wide with a snort. “I say we beat him.”
Sten paled and the pitiful plea in his eyes fell on Raven. She couldn’t say why but she believed Sten told the truth. If Toke had known something, he hadn’t confided it to Sten. But why not?
She walked over to her husband and looked down at Sten. His shivering had increased and he was pale with fright. “Did Toke trust you, Sten?”
He went to respond and stopped, a sadness so heavy descending over him it was difficult not to recognize it. At least for Raven, since she was familiar with the heavy burden.
“I thought he did,” Sten said. “But now I wonder if either of us trusted anyone anymore.”
“Time with Brynjar can do that to you,” Lars said as if he understood.
“Toke never had a loose tongue. He listened more than he spoke. Now and again he would tell me what he heard, snippets mostly, unless he heard more and didn’t say.”
“Would fear hold his tongue?” Raven asked.
Sten didn’t have to think on that question. “Fear held us all prisoners, especially our tongues. Dare to utter a single word against Brynjar and he’d somehow find out and you weren’t the only one made to suffer for it and suffer badly.” He looked up at Wolf. “You are feared because you are a courageous and a ferocious warrior who knows victory more than defeat. Brynjar is feared because he is pure evil.”
Wolf moved his boot off Sten and the man sat up slowly.
“Can you think of any reason why at that moment Toke may have chanced an escape?” Raven asked.
Sten shook his head as he spoke. “He looked around as we worked just as I did, it all reminding me of home and my family. Though, Toke did seem focused on your men.” He nodded at Raven. “When the guards left us to finish the task at hand, Toke pulled his hood up and walked off, blending in with everyone.”