Brenna didn’t sleep that night. Not a wink. A bit after dawn, her barred door cracked open a few fingers’ width. She couldn’t see who was entering and held her breath hoping it wasn’t that scoundrel Halvar, here to finish what he’d started the night before. She found herself wishing it was Calder, but then chastised herself for wanting that barbarian to come in as her savior.

Or more.

She exhaled in frustration at the thought and how much it bothered her.

The door opened farther.

“Astrid!” Brenna exclaimed, though she didn’t keep the excitement from her voice, she did keep the volume low. She jumped up from her furs, and wrapped herself in the blanket to preserve her modesty, then leapt into the arms of her cousin.

Astrid had been the one Brenna was visiting.

Astrid wrapped her arms around Brenna, and both women began to sob.

“What happened?” Brenna asked her. “I—I do not remember anything. I think someone hit me.”

“Two days ago,” Astrid said between sobs, “the raiders came and killed our men. They are ferocious man-beasts.”

More like beasts, plain and simple, Brenna thought. “They are animals,” she agreed with Astrid.

“Bears. All of them. Shapeshifters, all of them, each and every one.”

Brenna stared at her cousin. What was she saying? Did she mean… She didn’t want to think of this. By the gods, shapeshifters were the scourge of the north, shifting into an animal form at will. They were the creatures of mythology; tales used to scare children. They weren’t—they couldn’t be—real.

“No,” Brenna whispered. “No, that cannot be.”

“But we saw them with our very eyes.” Astrid put her hands on Brenna’s shoulders and stared into Brenna’s face. “Did you not see them? The way they attacked and killed men of the village?”

Brenna shook her head—a head that still ached from the knock she’d received. “I’ve been—they—someone—hit me. I have not been awake or aware.”

“I thought you were dead,” Astrid confessed. Tears rolled down her full cheeks. Her lower lip trembled, and her shoulders shook with silent sobs.

The horror was dawning on her, and yet, still in disbelief she began, “They did not…” Brenna couldn’t finish her sentence, couldn’t speak the horrible words aloud, but she knew the answer.

They had been attacked.

“By the gods,” Brenna whispered, “they will pay.”

“Who will make them pay? They are more powerful than our gods, or they wouldn’t be here doing what they are doing.” Astrid took a deep breath, then continued. “They kept the children in the thorn bush corral. They said if the women obey and do as needed, the children will be allowed to live.”

“Heathens,” Brenna whispered.

Astrid shook her head and was silent, the tears trailing down her face for a spell before she swiped them away with her fingertips. “They sent me in here to give you this.” She held out a tunic that Brenna hadn’t noticed in her hands. “And I’m to accompany you to the river to bathe.”

“They are holding me for ransom,” Brenna said.

“I know.” Astrid bit her lip. “Eerika told them not to kill you when you attacked one of them with a blade.”

“I did that?”

“You do not remember?”

“The last thing I remember, we were preparing for the feast.”

“That’s when they arrived,” Astrid told her with a grimace. “You went after one of them with a blade. Sliced his arm. Another one hit you on the head with the back of his axe. He was ready to strike you again, to kill you, when Eerika told him you were valuable. That your husband would pay a lot of money for your safe return.”

“And when the truth comes out?” Brenna whispered.

“Eerika was not thinking of that at that moment. Her only wish was to save you from certain death.”

Brenna nodded. “Tell her I thank her.”

There was a sound at the door, almost a knock, it seemed.

Brenna and Astrid both turned toward the noise.

Calder stood there, an axe in his hand.

Brenna shivered and wondered if he was the one who’d nearly killed her. And for some reason, she hoped not.

“Your bath, lady.”

Now she knew why he called her that. But yet, when he said it, it was as though there was mockery in his tone.

“You may bring her to help, if needed.” He turned away with a final word. “An assembly of guards will accompany you.”