VIKING: THE THRONE OF BEOWULF: The Killing Beast Was Released (Viking, Throne, Legend, Thriller, Beowulf, Murder, Gotland Saga) by Arwen Grim Page A

not belong to him.

He had nothing to give to the devil that was capable of taking everything.
    And so, he had sought her out.
    “What do you want, my King?” she repeated softly, her tone guarded as she watched him carefully.
    “Glory,” he murmured, “To be remembered, long after I fall, long after the eternal sleep takes me. To live on, in the bards’ tales and in the stories wives and grandmothers tell the children around the campfire.”
    He looked straight at her, refusing to look away from her piercing gaze even it turned to mischief.
    “Can you give me glory such as this, hag?” he asked, “What will you ask of me in return?”
    She smiled, a wicked curve of her lips that set his heart racing with anxiety.
    “Glory such as what you wish for does not come without a price, Milord,” she said silkily, her hands playing with her hair. “Are you willing to pay it?”
    “I will do anything,” he said desperately, letting the ache in his heart become visible. How he had longed for this, how he had prayed for someone to help! He would not be forgotten, he would be remembered – this was not a deal with the devil.
    It was hope.
    She laughed softly, the sound resounding in a strange echo that magnified the silence they stood within.
    “Well then, Milord,” she murmured, her voice amused, “I shall give you your heart’s desire. Your name will forever be remembered. Bards shall sing tall tales of your bravery and you shall never be forgotten.”
    She smirked at him, “But you must pay the price.”
    “As you wish,” his heart thundered against his ribcage in anticipation. “What must I do?”
    “Simple, really,” she smiled, “Release my son from his prison. And I shall give you what you seek.”

A son – the swamp hag had a son. Hrothgar frowned; little was actually known about her, except that she had shown up close to five centuries previous. In fact, her very existence was a closely guarded secret of the state; when she first arrived in Daner, the then-King, Hrothgar’s ancestor had gone to fight her. Not a soul knew what had transpired between lord and hag, but at the end of it, he had declared that she not be disturbed and left to her own devices.
    Perhaps his great-grandfather had known even then that she was not truly a hag, only a mother whose son had been imprisoned.
    “Why was he imprisoned?” he asked, still suspicious and not fully ready to trust her. The look on her face wrenched at his heart – it was clearly that of a mother in anguish, her child lost to a world that had not been fair.
    “He…” she sighed, “He made a mistake, once. And he was punished for it, but that was a fair judgment. ‘Twasn’t until later that he was unfairly imprisoned, this time for a sin that was not his own.”
    Truly, she was a mother – not a complete hag or monster. Hrothgar may be a warrior, but he was also a man. He would help her, even as she offered to make his tale a glorious one.
    “I shall help you then, Milady,” he said quietly, “If you will do the same.”
    Her smile was beautiful; it made her eyes shine and her entire countenance light up with warmth. It was hard to see the monster within her then.
    “Well, then, Milord,” she whispered, “You shall have your heart’s desire.”
    If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, his sire also used to say.
    If only he had remembered that when he made the deal with the she-devil.
     

Chapter 1 – In the Sights of a Monster
    “He once saved our lands, in his name we shall dance – Hrothgar, Hrothgar! Again will he save our lands, in his name we will dance, all hail King Hrothgar!”
    The chant came from farther and farther away as the old king quietly withdrew from Heorot. He sighed to himself softly, his heart sitting heavy in his chest. Certainly, he had gone out and saved his lands from the monstrous beasts that had once threatened it, but now… now , he was helpless – he was nowhere near worthy of the praise his