Free Mistress of the Wind by Michelle Diener

up completely to each other in this bed. Skin to skin.
    And there was an honesty to that she would never have believed.
    Whoever she was, whoever he was, when they lay entwined like this, blind in the dark, they were at peace. And that was enough.
    For now.

 
    Chapter Fourteen
     
    “Y ou look much better.” Jorgen seemed to step out of a tree trunk in the clearing, and Bjorn blinked in surprise.
    “You become more invisible with each meeting.” He gathered his wits. “I owe my wellbeing to you, my friend. I know it cost you to give me so much strength. I hope you have recovered.”
    Jorgen smiled, and gave a shrug. “I assume you were able to reach your lady before the troll?”
    “No. I was not.” Something huge and terrible squeezed his chest every time he thought about it.
    Jorgen looked at him sharply. “She is not . . . “
    “No.” He wondered how much he could trust Jorgen, then decided it was worth the risk to hear his thoughts. “When I got to her, the troll lay dead. Felled in a single blow to the heart.”
    “Felled with what?” Jorgen’s eyes strayed up the foothill, to the mountain.
    “An ax.”
    “Your lady keeps an ax in her chamber?”
    Bjorn grunted. He was not going to explain the ax to Jorgen. He’d rather face the troll again.
    “Well, I suppose she is a woodcutter’s daughter.”
    “Is she?” Bjorn let his gaze follow Jorgen’s up the hill. “Then why does the wind do her bidding?”
    “What does she say?”
    “That she asks it very nicely.”
    Jorgen shouted out a surprised laugh. “Why will she not explain?”
    Bjorn sighed. “Because I cannot explain to her. She is stubborn, willful, and . . .” Mine.
    “Beautiful,” Jorgen said, surprising him. Disturbing him.
    “You saw her?”
    “We both watched you fighting that troll. I knew you wouldn’t heed my advice to leave it be.” He assumed a pose, still as deadwood. “She thought I was a tree trunk.”
    “And she is not the Wind Hag.” It wasn’t a question.
    “Not the one I remember. Hideous creature. Eyes, ears, nose and mouth upside down. Topsy turvy, like the wind itself. But powerful.”
    “She has given the wind leave to obey Astrid, then. And we may discover why from Astrid’s mother.”
    “That would be ill-considered, with Norga watching you. Your lady spells the death knell to her plans. Rather keep her within for a year, safe.”
    “I cannot keep her in the mountain that long.” Bjorn knew the admission weakened him, but it was the truth. “She will not accept it, and I cannot watch both her and Norga. She will find a way out again.”
    Jorgen said nothing for a moment. “You cannot order her to obey?”
    “Can you order the wind to stop blowing?” Even to his own ears, Bjorn heard the thread of ruefulness, and strangely, pride, in his voice.
    Jorgen smiled, and Bjorn thought his friend was enjoying the merry dance Bjorn was being led, even if the consequences could affect him just as much.
    “If her mother can explain why the wind does her bidding, what will it help? The bargain with Norga remains.”
    “Norga has something to do with it, of that, I’m sure. And the better I understand Norga, the better I can defeat her.” He didn’t say it, but he knew the bargain’s end left Norga with truly nothing to lose if he should win. What would stop her trying to kill them both, then, bargain or no? Astrid was right. Rather seek out answers, try to end it now, than wait.
    “You are decided.”
    “I am. We will go in a week’s time.” He wanted more time to bind Astrid to him, to strengthen the connection between them that was growing beyond his wildest imaginings before he put her in proximity to her family again.
    “Then good luck.”
    Bjorn acknowledged the farewell with a bow. Both he and Jorgen knew they would need all the luck they could get.

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    T hey left just after dawn.
    Bjorn ran as if a troll were at their heels. And perhaps one soon would be.