The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)

by John Gwynne

“Third?” Varg asked her. “Drop your shield,” she said. “Again, they will likely not be expecting that, so it will give you a moment in which to strike. Although, if you are in the shield wall, you will probably just get skewered by half a dozen spears from the second row.” “Sounds like a No-Sense thing to do, to me,” Svik called out. “And fourth?” Varg asked. “Røkia scratched at her freshly shaved head, which made her look even more fierce than she had before, something that Varg had not thought possible. “There is no fourth,” she said. “Ah, so, you’ve just told me three different ways of dying. Some quicker than others.” More laughter rippling along the deck. “It depends how good you are, and how lucky,” Røkia said. “Better to do it to them before they do it to you. Luck you cannot change, but your skill, now that is something you can bring to a scrap. I know your strategy is to leap in and chop, chop, chop,” she said, “and people think because it is an axe and used for splitting wood that there is no weapons craft or skill to be had with it.” She looked Varg in the eye. “They are wrong.” “So, all this you have been teaching me is in the shield wall,” Varg said. “What if I’m not in the shield wall, though?”