PREVIEW: Enslaved - The Shield Maiden's Highlander
Excerpt from ENSLAVED: The Shield Maiden's Highlander - by Fiona Knightley
"Liv was beaming as her crew rowed their boat back down the River Ness. She couldn’t be more pleased. This beautiful boat that her parents had made was even faster than previous ones, and no Dane had been able to make one that could keep up. The front was beautifully carved with a dragon’s head. Her mother had done that, and her father had crafted the body of the ship.
This was the most successful raid they had been on in some time. Their boat and the three others held treasure from that church they had found. The fools there hadn’t even defended themselves; they had simply let themselves be cut down. Easy pickings, except the man who lay, bound and struggling, at her feet. He had killed three of her men before she had managed to knock him unconscious, and she wouldn’t let Inga kill him. It would be a waste to kill a man with this much spirit in him. He must have known some of those monks, and he had howled like a beast gone wild when Inga had killed the man that this man had been talking to. A spirited man.
They were well down the river now. They wouldn’t be caught. Liv turned and knelt by her prisoner. She didn’t understand his language, and he didn’t understand hers, but he could be taught. He belonged to her now; this man and all this treasure. She would turn things around for her clan, no matter the cost, and a few dead monks was worth the cost here.
“You’ll make a good thrall,” she told him. “And you are handsome, too. You hate me now, but I do not fault you for that. It shows your spirit. You’ll learn to love this new life I am leading you to.” She laughed as he jerked away, making muffled, outraged protests through his gag. “This haul will bring a new life for you, and much more importantly, for my clan.”
Her crew cheered as they raced down the river, leaving behind the village that had made them so rich..."
