The Summer Siege (Viking Omegaverse, #3)

by Lyx Robinson

“Those runes they painted on Hjor’s face, and the dead all around,” she says at length. “You wear the same. Your tattoos.” Astute girl. I touch the side of my head without thinking. “Some of these are protective spells,” I tell her quietly. “The Cathalain paint those runes to secure safe travels for the dead. This serves a similar function.” Her eyes roam over the spidery runes that climb up my neck and arch over my shaved skull. “What does it say?” “The gods are under me and over me,” I tell her. “It is part of a larger spell.” Still she stares. “I thought it was just decorative,” she mutters. “But it’s pagan magic, then, what you wear on your skin.” “Pagan magic,” I echo, amused. “We call it fjölkyngi, if you want to call it by its proper name. Protection is one of its main branches, and runes one of its many tools. That bind-rune you see there, on Hjor’s forehead – it is made of the runes raido and algiz, for protection on the long road to Odin’s hall.”