Free The Book of the Sword (Darkest Age) by A. J. Lake

she’ll surely burn.’
    Cathbar’s voice in her ear was urgent now. ‘Try to stand, Elspeth!’
    But she could not stand. She could not even feel her legs. She lay helpless, the shivering starting to seize her as the men drew nearer.

Chapter Eight
    Erlingr was a tall, proud fellow, near as white as his men. He scowled on me at first, saying he needed no help from the Iron people, as they call men of my race, who work with ore plundered from rocks.
    But the Fay who visited me had told me true, Erlingr admitted: the chained god Loki had begun to free himself, and the land was burning and full of fear. If I could use my skill to forge new chains, he said at last, a means might be found to bind Loki again. But he would not hear of the sword, nor look at it.
    The floor of the great cavern sloped downwards, and they had placed Cluaran at the lowest point, so though he was standing, his watchers looked down on him from all sides. In the many times he had been in this hall, he had never seen it so crowded: a mass of faces, pale as parchment in the dim light; most looking at him with cold hostility, though here and there a younger face that he did not recognise held simplecuriosity. The light filtering through the ice wall above him bathed them in a greenish glow that made their skin and hair look translucent.
They’ve all come to see this
, he thought,
even the ones who weren’t involved. So Erlingr has spoken to them – but what has he said? Nothing helpful, to judge by those looks.
Behind him, Ari stood impassively, more like a prison guard than an escort. It seemed there would be no help here after all. Cluaran sighed, and shifted his feet on the slippery stone.
    ‘I’ve told you already, I would not have come without need,’ he said again.
    ‘And what need could be great enough to draw
you
here again?’ The speaker was the oldest man there, his face so deeply lined that his cold grey eyes seemed to peer out at the world from crevices. He sat in a great carved seat in the centre of the hall, and held the yew-wood staff that by tradition was given to none but the leader of the Ice people – and Cluaran well knew the power of tradition in this place. He bowed low to the old man before replying.
    ‘One that should concern even you, Erlingr. The dragon,
Kvöl-dreki
, is flying. It has made at least two attacks on the southern lands, and now it has carried off two children, bringing them to these mountains.’
    An excited buzz rose from the listeners, and several of them rose from their ice-carved benches. Erlingr quelled them with a raised hand.
    ‘The blue dragon has been seen by our watchers,’ heconfirmed, ignoring the gasps from one or two of his people. ‘It has flown twice over our lands, but has made no attack. Dragons have long memories, and it will remember the defeat our people inflicted on it when it last flew in war. Why should this concern us?’
    ‘Because the two who have been kidnapped were to be taken to
Eigg Loki
, to the Chained One,’ said Cluaran. The assembled Ice people fell silent. ‘They are both important to him in their different ways,’ he went on. ‘The boy is a king’s son, and his kidnap could draw an army to this land before spring comes. He is also Ripente, and I need not tell you, Erlingr, what uses the Chained One can find for their kind. But it is the girl who will be the most dangerous in his hands. She bears the crystal sword.’
    There was sudden uproar. All around Cluaran, pale figures started up with exclamations of amazement, anger or disbelief. Erlingr, shouting and banging his staff, could barely quiet them. Cluaran stepped forward with both hands raised, and gradually the outcry faded to a suppressed muttering.
    ‘I said they
were
to be taken there,’ he told them. ‘Watchers from among your own people saw them escape the dragon. Ari, here, can confirm that.’ Ari, behind him, made a sound of assent as Cluaran continued. ‘They are alive, wandering somewhere on