Free Back to the Dream Sequel 2 Dreamland by Felicitas Ivey Page A

asked.
    "Fuck if I know,” I said.
    "They're speaking Norwegian, I think. Or one of the Scandinavian languages,” McGann said. “Other than that, I don't know what's going on."
    "They want to know who we are,” Wolf told us. “And why we are here."
    "Shit, that would be a good idea, if I knew what the fuck we were doing here,” I said under my breath.
    McGann shot me a dirty look for that one. Seriously, even with the briefings and Mrs. Adams saying why we were here, I still had no clue what was going on—and I had been paying attention to the briefings. Making allies sounded like a bullshit reason to me, given the fact that the Trustees were more likely to screw anyone than ally with them. They were after something, and I couldn't figure out what it was. This place was backward, with no technology or anything that would make an alliance with anyone worthwhile. I knew that from the little discussion with Tamazusa. It had been in my report, and I was certain it was in everyone else's.
    So why were we here? And more importantly, how long were we staying?
    "You know why we're here,” McGann said patiently, sounding like my mother more than my boss.
    Logan didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. “They're Norse,” he finally said. “Other than that, I don't know anything, because Norse covered a lot of different cultures. All I know is that I don't think this is where we're supposed to be."
    "Why don't that sound about right,” I muttered. So they aimed us at the Mayans, and we ended up... someplace else. Why didn't that surprise me? Good thing Wolf spoke Norwegian, or we'd have been screwed, and not in a good way.
    McGann shot me another annoyed look. I grinned at her. “Have you ever known me to be polite?"
    She shook her head and relaxed a bit. Logan continued to split his attention between us and Wolf. Wolf was relaxed and acting like meeting these guys was the best thing in the universe for us. After a couple of minutes of talking to them, he came back to us.
    "These men are from the farm of Grima Njalsson,” Wolf said. “They would like us to go back and guest with them."
    "Don't look at me,” Logan said when we all looked at him, expecting him to pull the answer out of his ass. “My expertise is on the Mayans. Anything else was covered on long-ago undergrad days."
    "Shit, tell me that you were a good student,” I practically begged him. Fuck! We were stuck again someplace where we had no fucking clue about what was going on. I was beginning to hate that.
    "Fair,” he said. “I don't know anything more than the basics. Most primitive societies think that guesting is a sacred custom, and they don't attack or harm their guests. But for all I know, these people are brigands or worse."
    "I told them that we would be glad to go with them,” Wolf said. He hesitated for a second. “They were curious about you, Mason, why you were so dark, were you sick. I just told them that was the way your people looked."
    He sounded embarrassed, but I wasn't too pissed. I didn't think that a lot of Vikings saw too many African Americans, and being curious about what I looked like was what had happened at Tamazusa's place too.
    "And?” I asked, knowing there was an “and” to this. He had been talking with those people for too long for there to not be more to the story.
    "That you were my sworn men, you and Logan, and that McGann was my wife."
    I laughed, and McGann glared at me. “Congratulations, the two of you. I'll buy you both a round when we get back."
    "Mason,” McGann hissed at me, trying not to check out the Vikings’ reaction. They might figure out it wasn't true, or they just might think I'm a loon or that it was something I did because I didn't look like one of them.
    "Telling them you're married is the best thing,” Logan said. “If you were his sister or an unmarried woman, there might be trouble."
    "Yeah, when we run across Amazons, he gets to be the little woman,” I teased them. “Shit, this