Chapter Seventeen: Orka

Orka sprints home from the ash vale to smoke, flames, and the sounds of battle. Her steading’s gate hangs broken, the hall burns, and the post of protective galdr-runes has been deliberately destroyed, implying a Galdurman or Seiðr aided the attack. Corpses litter the yard, including tennúr vaesen; Snort the pony is gone.

Inside the collapsing hall, Orka finds a trail of slain raiders and Thorkel at the center, pierced by two seaxes. Vesli, the tennúr, still breathes. Thorkel tells Orka that Breca has been taken and whispers “dragon-born” before dying in her arms. Orka arms herself with her spear and Thorkel’s long-axe, lays the axe in his hand, and sets out after the kidnappers.

Following a broad track of boots, blood, and a horse’s prints to a river, Orka ambushes four raiders butchering Snort. She kills three—spearing one, disemboweling an elder, and hacking the woman to death—while wounding a young man.

With the river forking around a granite slab and ruts showing two boats already gone, Orka pins the youth with her spear and interrogates him. He admits he opened Orka’s gate for his uncle’s coin but claims ignorance of which channel the boats took. Under torture he names their leader: Drekr. Orka executes him and faces the divided river, vowing to reclaim Breca.