As always, I wish you smiles in your reading.

Sandra Hill Keep reading for a sneak peek at KISS OF WRATH.

The next book in the DEADLY ANGELS series, coming soon from Sandra Hill and Avon Books

Prologue.

The Norselands, A.D. 845 When men turn beastly . . .

Mordr Sigurdsson, best known as Mordr the Brave, led his battle-weary men up the steep incline from the fjord to Stonegarth. His wooden castle and the surrounding village sat atop a high motte, a ma.s.sive, flat-topped earthworks mound in the Frankish style, rising high above the surrounding area.

He'd already anch.o.r.ed his longships. Later, but not too much later, the ten vessels would be brought ash.o.r.e to winter. Already, ice crusted the edges of the narrow waterway leading to his aptly named, grim estate in the far north where naught grew except boulders and hardy evergreens, which was fine with him. He obtained all he needed to subsist and prosper by trading, serving in the army of one grab-land king or another, or going a-Viking. A good life!

He and his men had been gone nigh on a year now, longer than he usually spent away from his homeland. In truth, they'd waited too long in trying to outrun winter for their return voyage, having to crack thickening ice ahead of them in many places, but that one last monastery to plunder had been too tempting. As a result, they were not only exhausted but cold to the bone with frost painting their fur cloaks and hats, not to mention beards and mustaches. Like Norse ice G.o.ds, they were. Their breaths froze into snowflakes on leaving their mouths, and below their noses, snot formed icicles into miniature tusks.

They were home now, though, and he for one intended to dig in for a long stay.

As if sensing Mordr's thoughts, his hersir, Geirfinn the Fearless, said on a frosty breath, "My Aud best have the fire stoked for my arrival because I intend to burrow in 'til the spring thaw."

Atzer Horse Teeth, one of Mordr's hirdsmen serving under Geirfinn, guffawed from his other side. "Which fire would that be? The cook fire, or the fire betwixt your wife's thighs?"

Mordr and other hirdsmen close by laughed, causing more frosty cloud-breaths.

"Did I not mention burrowing?" Geirfinn replied with a grin, hardly visible through his huge, walrus-like, ice-crusted mustache. "I do my best work beneath the bed furs . . . burrowing."

More companionable laughter. Ah, it was good to be home.

"First off, I want a horn of ale, or five," Mordr declared, joining in the levity. "A warm bath to wash away the battle filth."

"And lice," someone called out behind him.

Lice were ever a problem for fighting men ofttimes forced to bed down in unclean places and unable to take their customary baths. Nors.e.m.e.n did tend to bathe more than other men. 'Twas one reason women of all lands welcomed them to their beds. That, and other reasons, Mordr thought with silent humor at his own jest.

"Then I want a hearty meal in my great hall," Mordr went on to encourage his men onward. Many of them wore heavy hauberks of chain mail. Plus, swords and battle-axes and shields added to the weight on the climb upward. "Yea, you are all invited to my welcome feast . . . after your burrowing." He smiled before continuing, "Then a long night betwixt the thighs of my favorite concubine, Dyna."

"Dyna of the big bosoms?" Atzer teased.

"Precisely," Mordr said. "Forget a long night. Mayhap I will need a night and a day afore I am sated. I might even favor my wife, Gulli, with my attentions if she is not in her usual nagsome mood."

There was much nodding. They all understood the pain of a shrewish wife.

But, nay, Mordr realized belatedly, there was something more important than all those appet.i.tes. Most of all, he yearned to see his children, Kata and Jomar. Though only one year apart, being six and five, respectively, his little mites were naught alike in appearance or personality. Kata had pale blonde hair that would no doubt darken over time into dark blonde or light brown like his own. She was a saucy wenchling with an impish grin, always up for some mischief or other. Jomar, black-haired like his mother, Gulli, was more serious but always willing to partic.i.p.ate in Kata's childish adventures.

Yea, that is what he had missed most about Stonegarth. His children. He pictured himself, first thing, tossing Kata and Jomar into the air, giving them huge bear hugs and playful tickles. Was there aught more glorious to a man than the giggle of a child, especially when the boyling or girling was fruit of his loins?

He'd brought Kata dozens of ribands, all the colors of the rainbow, and for Jomar, there was a miniature sword crafted of hard wood with its own belted scabbard, so small it would fit around a man's thigh. Mordr couldn't wait to see their joyful appreciation. Also, both of them would delight in an intricately carved board game of hnefatafl with silly game pieces-giants and trolls and such, rather than the usual king, his defending soldiers, and the opposing foemen.

His first clue that something was amiss came with the realization that none of his housecarls, or even any villagers, rushed to greet them. The second clue, which had his comrades-in-arms unsheathing their weapons, was no smoke rising from the roofs of his keep or any of the longhouses and outbuildings that comprised Stonegarth on the flat-topped mountain. Always there should be hearth smoke, even in the summer months, from cook fires, if not for heat. The ominous silence had them all on alert.

And then they came upon the first of the macabre scenes. In the outer courtyard lay the dead bodies of his guardsmen, frozen into stiff, grotesque postures, eyes open, mouths agape in horror. Even the blood was preserved by the cold onto their wounds in splotchy patterns. Which gave Mordr evidence that the attackers must have come just afore the more recent freeze. No more than three sennights ago.

"Was it Saxons?" someone asked.

"Those cowards would not travel this deep into our territory," another soldier replied. "Mayhap Huns."

"Nay! 'Twas Nors.e.m.e.n. Look at this sword. Pattern-welded in the Viking style," Atzer pointed out.

"Hordssons!" several men concluded as one.

"Those slimy outlaws do not merit the name Viking. They have lurked about for years, waiting for a chance to attack," Geirfinn said. "d.a.m.n them all to the fires of Nifhelm."

Mordr heard these remarks through the roar that was growing in his ears. "Kata? Jomar?" he cried out even as he began to sprint toward the keep. The other men began rushing in all directions, swords aready, though, from the state of the frozen corpses, it appeared the invaders had been gone for days if not weeks.

Despite his heavy armor, Mordr ran like the wind across the courtyard, up the steps, and through the open double doors leading to his great hall, where the three hearth fires were cold, the logs long burned out. Tapestries had been ripped from the walls, benches and trestle tables wantonly hacked into kindling. Along the way, he jumped over the corpses of his housecarls and servants, male and female both. In the corridor betwixt the solar and the scullery, he found Dyna's body, her gunna torn from neck to hem, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s bearing dark bruise marks, as did her widespread thighs. Mordr would warrant that many men had partic.i.p.ated in the rape, if the bloodstains on her thighs were any indication.

His wife's body bore similar signs of mistreatment when he found it in a storage room where she must have hidden, or tried to hide.

And no sign of his precious children.

With foreboding, Mordr vaulted up the steep stairs to the upper level of his wooden keep where there were three sleeping chambers. In the first one, he found Jomar, who must have been hiding, facedown, under the bed when he'd been found by the invaders. He'd been dragged out by the feet, and his skull cleaved almost clear through from the back by a broadsword. Mordr prayed G.o.ds that it had been a quick death.

He dropped to his knees and gathered his little boyling up into his arms, keening with grief. His heart felt shattered like gla.s.s, sharp slivers cutting into his soul. But he could not fall apart yet. First he must find Kata. Laying Jomar carefully onto the bed, he spread his own fur cloak over the body, as if to warm him in death.

Kata's nude, frozen corpse lay in the next chamber. No sword blow to her perfect body. Instead, from the quant.i.ty of blood pooled betwixt her thighs, he concluded with horror that she must have bled to death from her girl parts. From numerous swivings by beastly Hordsson males.

What kind of men killed women and children? What kind of men found pleasure in raping little girls? Why had they not taken women and children, or healthy males, as valuable slaves, a practice employed by even the most vile villains? The slave marts in Hedeby and Birka and Kaupang would have welcomed them in a trice. Had that been the case, Mordr would have had a chance of recovering his children, by ransom or sword.

This was an act of violence, of evil, pure and simple. Aimed at him. Monetary gain had not been the goal, leastways not totally.

Mordr stood, arms raised to tear at his own hair. The roar of outrage, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" that came from him could be heard even outside the keep and beyond, into the village. Some say that was the day that Mordr the Brave became Mordr the Berserker.

Chapter One.

h.e.l.l hath no fury like a Viking wronged . . .

After being restrained by his men-it took Geirfinn, Atzer, and three other burly fellows to hold him down-and after being forced to drink horn after horn of uisge beatha, that potent, prized Scottish brew, Mordr fell into a deep, alehead sleep. When he awakened, the rage was still in him, but he restrained it inside himself in silent, cold fury toward the Hordssons. He began to plan.

No matter what he did-walk down the incline to check on the landed longships, eat a hunk of cold boar shank, bathe his filthy body, feel the warmth of the hearth fire-images of Jomar and Kata were ever with him. And those images were not of the laughing, happy children he had left behind at Stonegarth a year ago. Nay, all he could see was their b.l.o.o.d.y, defiled bodies and sad, frozen, tormented faces.

Their deaths, all the deaths at Stonegarth, must be avenged. Thus it was that, two days later, in his great hall, which had been cleared somewhat of the destruction, Mordr raised a hand high in the air and declared, "War on the Hordssons! To the death of every misbegotten cur bearing that name!"

A loud cheer went up from the men. There were no women or children present, of course.

Within a sennight, Mordr and his reluctant followers-reluctant only because winter was not the best time for warfare and his hirdsmen would have preferred a springtime march to battle-had razed the sorry keep and village of the Hordsson clan. Not a single Hordsson male over the age of ten survived the surprise a.s.sault. Some women were killed, too. Mordr, even in the berserk madness that overtook him when fighting started, had no taste for killing females, but if they got in his way, they were fair targets, to his rattled mind. Never young children, though. Never!

For a year and more, he sought out Hordsson kin in other parts of the Norselands . . . Hordaland, Jutland, Vestfold, Holgaland. It did not matter if they had partic.i.p.ated in the raid on Stonegarth, if they had Hordsson blood, Mordr decreed they must die. Then there was word of some Hordssons in the Irish lands; he traveled there and wreaked his still raging vengeance. Still others lived and died at Mordr's hands in Northumbria where a Viking king ruled that portion of Britain. After that, he moved onto the Orkney Isles.

Hundreds of dead Hordssons lay in his wake of terror. Others shook in fright and changed their names to escape Mordr's path of retaliation.

Though it had not been his aim, Mordr gained far fame for his berserk skill with a sword named Vengeance and a battle-axe named Fury. Every man with a speck of sense, even those not named Hordsson, avoided his path for fear of doing or saying something to set him off. 'Twas a well-known fact amongst fighting men that you never engaged a warrior, whether he was a berserker or not, who had no care whether he lived or died.

In truth, Mordr welcomed the road to Valhalla. Or did the Christians have the right of it? Followers of the One-G.o.d believed there was an afterlife where good deeds whilst living gained an entry into Heaven. According to their Holy Book, after death a man could meet up with those who'd gone before him. If that was the case, Mordr was lost. He'd never been baptized, and too many misdeeds would bar him from the heavenly gates. Alas, he would never see Jomar and Kata again.

By then, many of his men wearied of the vendetta and went back to Stonegarth, with Mordr's permission, led by Atzer. Mordr never returned to his home, though he had heard years later that the estate prospered as the men under Atzer took wives, had children, and drew villagers and cotters to newly built longhouses. Even his six brothers, who joined him at first from their estates scattered across the Norselands, gave up after a while. It was not their fight.

"Mayhap you need to swive a l.u.s.ty maid, or ten, to calm your mind," his brother Ivak suggested before departing.

"Ivak, you think every problem in the world can be solved with your c.o.c.k."

"Can it not?" his halfbrained brother asked, and he was serious.

Vikar, the oldest of the Sigurdsson brood, gave his usual sage advice, sage in his own not-so-humble opinion. "Your pride has been a.s.suaged. Accept the wergild offered by King Haakon to halt your vendetta, and use it to start over again."

"Dost think this is about pride? Dost think I care for bribe coins? Dost think I could truly start over?" Mordr stormed. "I can never replace my two children."

That shut up Vikar . . . for a while.

His brother c.n.u.t mentioned the widow whose prosperous lands adjoined his in Vestfold.

"Would that by chance be Inga No Teeth?" Mordr asked with growing impatience.

"Well . . ." c.n.u.t said defensively, "you know what they say about all cats being the same in the dark."

"Whoever said that did not know cats, or women," Ivak interjected.

They all turned to stare at Ivak.

"I am just saying," Ivak defended himself. "Besides, there are advantages to a toothless woman in the bed arts."

They all gaped at Ivak with incredulity.

"I am just saying," Ivak repeated, this time with a grin.

"I do not need another wife," Mordr said with growing impatience.

"You could go exploring with those Vikings who seek new countries to settle beyond Iceland," said Trond.

Mordr arched a brow at Trond, who was the laziest Norseman ever born. Trond would never go exploring himself because it would require too much energy. "The only way I am going to Iceland is if there is an Hordsson sitting on an iceberg thereabouts," Mordr declared.

Sigurd the Healer made one of the most outrageous suggestions. "Methinks you should let me drill a hole in your head. Trepanning, it is called. Mayhap all your body's bad humours would be released, and you would lose this madness."

His other brothers were as stunned as Mordr.

"I like my madness, thank you very much. You come within an arm's length of me with a drill, and you will find that instrument lodged in one of your body parts, the one where the sun does not shine, lest it come up from a privy hole."

Harek, the most intelligent and most wealthy of all his brothers-he was a moneylender and tax collector-said, "If you're going to continue on this path of self-destruction, can I have Stonegarth?"

Mordr could not be angry with his brother. Harek was what he was, a greedy Viking bent on ama.s.sing enough treasure to establish his own kingdom.

"I've already given it to Atzer," Mordr told him.

His brothers left him eventually, as did many more of his followers. In the end, Geirfinn was the only one of his original hersirs to stay. When Mordr could find no more Hordssons to kill, Mordr, Geirfinn, and a handful of loyal comrades-in-arms hired themselves out as mercenaries to kings and chieftains of many lands. For a while, they even became Jomsvikings, but Mordr chafed under the rigid rules of that monastic-like living.

Thus it was that five years after the invasion of Stonegarth and the death of his children, Mordr found himself in a battle against a band of Saxon villains. There were only twelve men with Mordr now, but thirteen powerful Norse warriors could handle twice, mayhap thrice, that many foemen. But not today. They were outnumbered five to one, and the G.o.ds were against them, pelting rain down in cold misery. If that were not bad enough, Thor raised his mighty hammer Mjollnir, causing lightning to flash, as if foretelling doom. Already vultures-ravens of death-circled overhead, just waiting to pounce on the human carrion.

The field became slippery with sword dew, as well as mud. The air rang with the clang of metal weapon against metal weapon, the death screams of the fallen, the grunts of soldiers brandishing heavy broadswords, and his own roars of berserkness.

Mordr cleared a path through the fray in front of him, trying to get to Geirfinn, who was being attacked from both sides. When he was almost there, he saw his good friend go down from a lance thrown from behind by yet another Saxon villain. A deathblow, it had to be.

With a bellow of outrage, Mordr tossed his shield and leather helmet to the ground. Storming forward, he wielded his heavy broadsword in his right hand and his battle-axe in his left. One foeman got his head lopped off. Another Mordr speared through the heart with the sharp b.u.t.t end of his battle-axe. Still another would ne'er swive any maids in the future, for Mordr firmly planted his sword Vengeance in the soldier's groin.

As he was pulling his sword back out of the groaning man's body, Mordr made a huge mistake. Ne'er turn your back on the battlefield. Someone had come up behind him, quickly reaching around and garroting him from shoulder to shoulder. Blood gushed forth, and he felt a flush of heat race across the skin of his entire body, as if he had been scalded. His arms went numb, and his legs gave out, causing him to fall forward. Soon, the sounds of battle faded as he felt his blood soaking the ground beneath him. Someone rolled him over with a booted foot and laughed. "King Edgar will give me a great boon for having felled this vicious Viking."

But then Mordr heard nothing as he sank into a dark slumber, and it was not a peaceful sleep as he'd expected death would be. It sounded like beasts gnashing their teeth all around him, just waiting for the cue to devour his flesh and bones. Is this death then? Why am I not on the road to Asgard? Where are my Valkyries? Why am I not being welcomed into Odin's great hall in Valhalla?

"Because thou art not in Valhalla, Viking," a voice boomed above him.

Mordr hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud. In truth, how could he speak with his neck nigh split through to his nape? He blinked his eyes open. He was still in the middle of the battlefield. Fighting was going on around him. Rain still came down in stinging sheets. Except for the circle surrounding him where a tall man stood over him. Instead of wearing a battle helmet and brynja of chain mesh, this lackwit wore a white robe, similar to those worn by men in eastern lands. It was tied at the waist with a golden rope, and his dark hair hung loose to his shoulder. Most amazing of all, a light emanated from the man, like a full-body halo. Mordr knew about halos, having once seen a Byzantine church mural depicting a saint, but that fellow's halo had been surrounding his head only. This must be an important saint.

"Are you a saint?" Mordr asked, oddly unsurprised that he could speak.

"You could say that," the man said, and from his back suddenly unfurled a ma.s.sive set of pure white wings.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l! An angel?"

The man-rather, the angel-nodded. "I am St. Michael the Archangel, and you, Viking, are in big trouble."

Mordr noticed that the angel did not say "Viking" in a complimentary way. "What do you have against Vikings?"

"You are a sorry lot of men. Vain. Prideful. Greedy. Vicious. Fornicators."

"We are also brave in battle. Good providers for our families. Yea, I know what you are going to say. We provide by plundering, but that is not so bad when you consider we are doing a good deed by relieving your churchmen of the overabundance of wealth they garner for themselves. As for vanity, some could say that your G.o.d made Nors.e.m.e.n beautiful; therefore, 'tis not our fault that we are proud of ourselves."

Michael's eyes went wide before he shook his head as if Mordr were a hopeless idiot.

In fact, Michael said, "Idiot! Thou art in the greatest trouble of your life, and you dare to make excuses."