philtucker

Chapter 41: Time to hunt

“Let me bind that shoulder,” said Skadi.

“It’s fine. The cold’s… numbing it.”

“You’re a fool. Sit down.”

Glámr growled low under his breath and lowered himsel...

Chapter 40: Feeding the eagle

Kvedulf led them up the snowy slope, powering through the knee-deep powder to gain the bottom of the heavily eroded steps and charge them.

The warband came behind, shields unslung, weapons re...

Epub chapters?

How interested would you be in having these chapters available in epub format for you to download? It would add to my workflow and not be something I'm terribly excited about, but I could find a wa...

Chapter 39: Like a waking dream

Skadi awoke stiff, sore, and alone. The others were rousing themselves, talking gruffly, laughing grimly as they packed their belongings and chewed on dried strips of beef. Propping herself up on o...

New Map of Midgradr!

Introducing the map of Midgardr by the inimitable Soraya! I'm thrilled with how this turned out, and coul...

Chapter 38: The first and only time

“Listen up,” rumbled Hwideberg, moving to sit on a rock before the large central fire. They’d found a shallow cave whose rear narrowed to a chasm they’d been unable to sound, but which was ...

Chapter 37: Ten

The bear reared onto its hind legs, to stand more massive than a troll, a wall of pale pink skin crisscrossed with ridged scars. It roared down at Kvedulf, twisting its head to the side as it splay...

Chapter 36: The cursed jarl

They left before dawn.

Sixty warriors strode out the patchwork Raven’s Gate, clad in furs and cloaks, round shields slung atop their leather packs, axes and swords at the hip, and many with...

Chapter 35: One for the ages

Tonight’s feast was to be the sole moment of gathering before the warband ventured forth to assail the peaks. There was no disguising the ruin of the longhouse’s back wall, so Kvedulf had chose...

Chapter 34: Victory Bringer

Jarl Kvedulf strode to the altar and laid Dawn Reaver upon the stone. The metal flashed, a shimmer running down its awesome length.

Skadi drew back. Like most, she feared the All-Father. He w...

Chapter 33: To demand satisfaction of the All-Father

Skadi was unable to stop watching the fjord all that following day. With the night having proved silent if tense, hopes had risen. Even as she helped bind and hammer the new gate together, she turn...

Chapter 32: Challenges

Skadi staggered back against the longhouse wall and stared.

Kagssok lay unmoving, the tension slowly leaving his body, his back falling with his last breath, the sheer size of him aw...

Chapter 31: Her last golden thread

My wyrd against his own, thought Skadi, staring right back into the frost jotunn’s black eyes. My wyrd will win!

And with that thought echoing in her mind, Skadi ran along...

Chapter 30: Wait for my signal

Glámr awoke her with a touch. Skadi rolled smoothly up to sitting, Natthrafn in hand, and only then did she awaken, blinking at the half-troll in the pre-dawn gloom.

“The time has come,”...

Chapter 29: Make your own luck

Ásfríðr and Glámr stared down at the golden chain in unabashed wonder.

“She was here?” asked the half-troll, expression devoid of all cynicism for once. “In this room?”

“S...

Chapter 28: Seimur

The sere gold light burning off the gods’ gate was heatless; it raged but did nothing to the troll-folk. Skadi drifted through it for good luck, placing her feet as carefully as she could in the ...

Chapter 27: The gods favor the bold

“What just happened?” gasped Skadi as she ran after Glámr, racing between houses and toward the docks. “What the Hel just happened?”

Glámr slipped ahead of her, his rangy body navig...

Chapter 26: Surrender or die

The first thing Skadi saw was the giant.

It stood five times the height of a man and had skin the cool, depthless blue of the heart of a glacier. It loomed over the Raven’s Gate with awful ...

Chapter 25: Stay close, stay together

Jarl Kvedulf and his three dragon ships left Kráka on a fine and blustery morning three days later. The occasion was marked by Ásfríðr descending from her temple to bless the venture, and a gra...

Chapter 24: Resolve

“All this time!” Skadi resisted the urge to hurl a stool, her slaughter seax, anything against the wall. “All this time he was plotting behind my back!”

Her friends and crew sat or st...

Chapter 23: Your father would approve

Skadi worked harder over the next four weeks at the tasks set for her by Marbjörn than at anything else she had ever done. At first she had to force herself to get up each dawn and do her shield r...

Chapter 22: Forest spirit

The storehouse was greatly changed when Skadi returned. Her crew had not been idle. The floor was swept out and Aurnir tasked with stamping it flat. Kofri had dug a firepit in the center and lined ...

Chapter 21: Free him, or die trying

Skadi and Damian ate at the far end of the longhouse tables, devouring bowl after bowl of vegetable soup, dried mutton, freshly baked bread, and hard cheese. Stuffed, exhausted, she parted ways wit...

Chapter 20: Yri

The world swayed. Skadi staggered through the Raven’s Gate on legs that felt like leather that had been boiled to pieces, while her arms burned as if each was stuck deep in a mass of embers. She ...

Chapter 19: War waits for no woman

Skadi found Marbjörn with the other housecarls outside the great hall the next morning. The men were seated on benches set on either side of the entrance, laughing and watching as one of their num...

Chapter 18: Oaths

They re-entered the main temple chamber. Glámr sat uneasily by the entrance to the passageway leading out to the night; he turned a cup about endlessly in both hands, not drinking.

“Bad dr...

Chapter 17: Valkyrie of Freyja

Ásfríðr rose and filled a wooden cup with mulled wine then handed it to Skadi. She drank, trying to absorb the völva’s words, the promise, the threat.

“Finish your tale.”

Skad...

Chapter 16: Yours is indeed a mighty wyrd

Skadi dressed warmly in winter furs, with a great sheepskin mantle about her shoulders and fur-lined boots upon her feet. Her uncle gifted her a copper broach with which to pin her heavy cloak abou...

Chapter 15: Vengeance demands nothing less

Garmr picked himself off the floor, his expression one of shock and confusion. Skadi resisted the urge to feel sympathy; this was the way of warriors.

“We must talk, you and I,” said Kved...

Chapter 14: She-Wolf

Skadi squared her shoulders as she entered the great hall. She felt Natthrafn’s loss keenly and was painfully aware of how her fate threads had dropped to three. But this was her uncle’s hall, ...