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eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: Before Bera began her training as a seer, she believed that truth was simple. But while the men argued over which king to follow and whether they should keep the faith of their ancestors or follow the White Christ, she was expected to find a murderer.

eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, Published: Sword & Sorceress 13, 1996
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2007

This eBook is part of the following series:

• Diana L. Paxson's Bera Steinbjornsdottir Series

19 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [24 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [39 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [18 KB] , Portable Document Format (PDF) [190 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [20 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [67 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [89 KB] , hiebook (KML) [75 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [54 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [16 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [21 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [52 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [31 KB]
Words: 6063
Reading time: 17-24 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

At midsummer the sun circled round the sky, barely dipping beneath the horizon. The folk of the Tronds who had answered Jarl Sigurd's summons to the Althing spent the long twilight talking and drinking in the tents of skins and bothies of woven branches that had flowered in the meadow below the grave mounds of the ancient kings. Bera Steinbjomsdottir, searching the woods above the encampment for pot herbs, envied them. But the Voelva must have something that grew in this place in her dinner so that the landspirits would help her to see truly when they performed seidh tomorrow, and Bera was under orders to gather what she could find.

She peered through the shadows and jumped as she realized that what she had taken for a fallen log was a man. He lay sprawled on his belly, the skin over his back and arms the blue-black of a bruise. Bera held her breath, afraid she had awakened him, but he did not stir. After a few moments, it occurred to her that if someone had come up here in search of a quiet spot to rest, he would have worn a tunic, or at least folded a cloak to lie on. This sleeper would never waken again.

She bent over the body. There was no blood, but there was something wrong about the shape of his skull. Shuddering, Bera drew back. From the field below she heard the shrill squeal of a stallion and the shouts of the men who were watching the horse-fights, but the wood was silent. The body had that indefinable air of abandonment that comes when a man has been dead for some time.

Bera bit her lip, stifling the impulse to run. Men who killed for honorable reasons proclaimed their deed and paid the weregild. This was secret murder, the worst of crimes. A man who left his victim's body out of sight might well return to hide it more effectively, and would hardly hesitate to kill her, too!