Beyond the Gap by Harry Turtledove Read Free Book Online Page A

Hamnet added, “For someone who’s not as young as she used to be.” Even a man with no other tool toward revenge had time on his side.
    Now her eyes stopped sparkling. They flashed instead. “You’ll pay for that,” she said.
    Hamnet Thyssen shrugged. “I’ve been paying for knowing you for years. What’s a little more?”
    â€œIf I tell Eyvind to stay home—”
    He laughed in her face. “You hurt the Empire if that happens—not that you care, I’m sure. But it doesn’t worry me at all. Your husband probably knows more about the Golden Shrine than any man alive. I know he knows more than I thought anybody could. He’d be useful to have along, yes. But he’s still your husband, Gudrid. If you think I want his company, you’d better think twice.”
    She made what sounded like a lion’s growl, down deep in her throat. She didn’t like being thwarted, didn’t like it and wouldn’t put up with it. She’d
taken up with Eyvind Torfinn not long after Hamnet killed her earlier lover. He judged it was at least as much to show him he couldn’t get the better of her as for any attraction Earl Eyvind held.
    â€œI suppose you know I’ve had your wizard as well as the Bizogot,” she said. Her red-painted lip curled. “He wasn’t what you’d call magical.”
    She told him to hurt him. She couldn’t have any other reason. “You’re not my worry any more,” he said. It wasn’t true; she would go on worrying him till his dying day. He added, “You’ve given us all something to talk about on the way north, anyhow.”
    Gudrid smiled—she liked that. “Something warm, instead of the Glacier.”
    Count Hamnet shook his head. “Something so cold, it makes the Glacier seem warm beside it.”
    Fast as a striking serpent, her hand lashed out. However fast she was, she wasn’t fast enough. Count Hamnet caught her wrist before she could slap him or claw him. “Let go of me,” she said in a low, furious voice.
    I’ve been trying to, ever since I found out what you are, Hamnet thought. He opened his hand. The memory of her flesh remained printed on his palm. She didn’t feel cold. Oh, no. You had to know her to understand what he meant.
    Then again, he wondered if he’d ever known her at all.
    â€œYou’re harder than you were,” she remarked.
    â€œIf I am, whose fault is that?” he asked harshly.
    â€œMay the Bizogots eat you,” Gudrid said. The mammoth-herders didn’t eat men, even if a lot of Raumsdalians thought they did. A lewd question rose in Hamnet’s mind. He stifled it. She went on, “May you fall off the edge of the world when you go beyond the Glacier. May one of the white bears Trasamund goes on about gnaw your bones.”
    His bow was stiff as a wooden puppet’s. “I love you, too, my sweet,” he said, and tried to match her venom so she wouldn’t realize he was telling the truth—the painful and useless truth.
    He must have done what he set out to do, for her laughter this time was jagged as shattered ice, sharp as sabertooth fangs. She stalked away, if stalking was the right word to use for something with so much hip action. Even without words, she reminded him what he was missing. He looked down at the rug. As if I didn’t know , he thought, and kicked at the embroidered wool.

III
    R IDING OUT OF Nidaros came as nothing but a relief for Hamnet Thyssen. He could deal with Ulric Skakki and Audun Gilli. He could deal with Trasamund the jarl. He could even deal with Eyvind Torfinn, though he would rather not have to. As long as he didn’t have to deal with Gudrid, he felt he could do anything.
    The Great North Road ran from the Raumsdalian capital toward the imperial border—and toward the Bizogot country beyond it. Armies had moved up that road more often than Hamnet could easily