Chapter Forty-Nine: Orka

Orka, with Mord and Lif, rides above the River Drammur and spies the Grimholt fortress spanning Grimholt Pass. She counts defenders, ships, and structures, deciding brute force is impossible and opting to watch for Drekr, children, or a night approach, or to lure scouts out for an ambush.

A distant, rising clamor—shouted pleas for help—pulls Orka into deeper pinewoods thick with frost-webs. In a glade, she finds a giant raven ensnared above a gutted elk while frost-spiders mass to feed. Another raven dives to help. Recalling Breca’s mercy, Orka hurls her spear, killing a spider and revealing herself.

The spiders swarm. Orka, Mord, and Lif form a line with spears; they kill several, but Lif is bitten and rapidly chills, convulsing as venom slows his blood. Orka hacks the spider off him, is pinned by another, and is saved when a raven seizes and crushes the spider. The freed ravens aid the fight and escape skyward.

Shouts and approaching warriors force a retreat, but frost-webs entangle Orka and Mord as spiders press in. Two mounted newcomers burst into the glade: a tall blond man with a rune-marked staff and a mailed woman who blows a horn. The man blood-marks his staff and speaks a charm; flames erupt and he incinerates spiders.

Grimholt warriors close from the trees as Orka lifts the freezing Lif to flee. Mord kills one assailant but is surrounded. The blond rider swings his staff, striking Orka’s head; Lif falls from her grasp as she collapses, ending the attempted ambush and leaving them at the mercy of the Grimholt.