Chapter 80: Gardar's Assault

Gardar tells Arnheid she is lovelier than he remembered despite looking worn, realizing from her presence that he has reached Ketil's farm and that she has been only days away all this time. Thorfinn and Einar are stunned to learn the runaway is her husband. When Gardar asks after their son Hjalti and offers his hand so the three of them can go home together, Arnheid's face fills with grief and she begins to speak of the boy.

Snake bursts from Sverkel's house and warns Arnheid that taking Gardar's hand means throwing her life away. As Fox and Badger catch up, Snake slashes the throat of Gardar's horse to strand him, then orders the pair to drag Arnheid clear even as she cries out to her husband. Learning that Gardar truly beheaded Lizard, Snake stresses that the man's whole aim is to reclaim Arnheid and must be stopped.

Einar raises his axe, determined to fight for Arnheid's freedom, but Thorfinn grabs him and demands he think. Einar argues that as slaves they should want her freed, yet Thorfinn presses the real point: winning it would mean killing Snake, Fox, and Badger. When Einar protests that he knows he is outmatched, Thorfinn clarifies that the issue is not skill but whether Einar could truly cut short a human life with that axe. Einar has no answer.

Snake praises Thorfinn's reasoning and tells the two to stand aside, since he means to capture Gardar alive for questioning. Despite Fox and Badger's warnings that the wounded slave is too dangerous to take alive, Snake dances clear of his attacks, mocks his guests for losing to a single injured man, then lands a decisive blow that drops Gardar. He calls for Badger to bind him while Arnheid, held fast by Fox, frantically asks if her husband is all right.

Gardar is revealed as Arnheid's husband and offers to take her and their son home. Snake kills Gardar's horse to prevent escape and orders Arnheid pulled away. Thorfinn stops Einar from attacking by forcing him to confront the reality of killing. Snake overpowers the wounded Gardar and captures him alive.

Published January 25, 2012 in Volume 12, this chapter adapts into Episode 38. It deepens the parallel between Gardar and Thorfinn's pasts, using Einar's raised axe to test how firmly Thorfinn now holds to his rejection of killing.