Sigrun sighed at the thought. It had always been enough to her. She knew how important she was in regard to the end times. Someday, Ragnarok would occur and all the men she had helped to select would do their part.
The battle would be futile, she knew this. They would all die at Ragnarok, no matter how valiantly they fought.
Well, not all. Most would, for sure. However, a select few would survive and they would be the people who would start the world afresh once more.
“When can I see him again?” Sigrun asked Freya. They were in the great hall and servers were rushing around as men picked food off plates and drank honey mead. Some sang songs while others told bawdy tales about their previous lives.
These were the new stock of warriors, picked from the battle involving Helgi and Hunding. In a few moons time they storytelling would cease. They would remember their past lives only if someone prompted them. However, their earthly times would no longer be important to them. They would still feast, and sing. But their past lives would be shadows which they preferred not to explore any more.
“Helgi has tasks that need to be performed before he is given the luxury of leisure time,” Freya replied. She reached out and selected some meat from a platter that a server was passing around. The plate was pushed forward, towards Sigrun but she shook her head. She was too excited to eat.
“Please, tell me how long I must wait.”
“The moon is full tonight,” Freya said. “On the morrow, Helgi has another battle to engage in. That will take up a fortnight of his time. Finally, he will be bestowed with the name Hundingsbane. By the time the moon is full once more, you will have your opportunity to introduce yourself to Helgi properly.”
True to her word, Freya allowed Sigrun to excused on the day of the next full moon, a month later. Sigrun was used to the earthly realm of Midgard. She had been born in it, after all. However, she found very little need to travel there much. Her home was Valhalla. Her sisters were there. She had some emotional attachment to her parents, particularly her mother, but they were only human and Sigrun had always held them at arm’s length in fear of being devastated when she finally lost them.
Now, she returned home, not quite sure where to start in her search for Helgi. Who now went by the name of Hundingsbane and not of Hjorvardssonar like he had when she was known as Svafa.
“Father, Mother!” She exclaimed when she breezed through the door.
“Sigrun! How nice to see you,” her mother exclaimed before embracing Sigrun.
“Daughter!” her father spoke before clapping one hand down on Sigrun’s shoulder. She shied away from his touch. Glancing to her mother, Sigrun saw a flicker of fear dart across the woman’s face.
“Is that Sigrun?” A call came from behind a curtain. Sigrun smiled as her brother, Dag, swept aside the heavy leather in entered the main room. Bragi, her other brother, followed behind.
“Dag!” Sigrun exclaimed before rushing at the tall lad. She wrapped her arms around him, excited to see him once more. “Look at you, you’ve grown so much.” She said as she jumped back to take a proper look at him.
“Well, it has been a while,” Bragi said as he bumped past them, not stopping to hug her. Sigrun scowled at him and returned to smiling at Dag.
“Tell me what you have been up to,” Sigrun said as her mother handed her a cup of tea.
“I am head of Father’s army now,” Dag replied proudly and Sigrun bounced in excitement.
“As I always knew you would be.” Of all the humans she was related to, Dag was the one she loved the most. She was genuinely pleased to learn of his advancement. Luckily, Dag had a better relationship with their father than she did and this new position would not likely create any animosity between the pair.
“I have some exciting news,” her father, Hogni, interrupted and Sigrun turned, her look of displeasure returning. “You are to be wed.”
Sigrun gaped at her father, surprised that her father dared to take control of her life like this. She was a Valkyrie, after all. There was no need for her to have a husband and her parents knew that.
“Why would you even consider a match for me?” Sigrun finally asked. She frowned at him and sat down hard by the raging fire. Her mother squeezed her hand.
“It is a good thing, Daughter,” she proclaimed, although her words were softly spoken, hesitant like she didn’t truly believe what she was saying.
“But I am a Valkyrie, I am not expected to marry!”
Sigrun thought of Helgi. They weren’t expected to marry, but already she had been hoping to. Now her father had ruined everything.
Hogni was a prideful and selfish man. Always, he had bragged about being the father of a Valkyrie. He used her status to make himself more important than he really was. When it was convenient, he claimed Sigrun protected him from death, at other times he bragged that her position would offer him favour with the gods once he did arrive in Valhalla.
Sigrun seriously doubted her father would ever make it so far as the gilded halls of Valhalla. One had to be worthy in order to cross the threshold and Sigrun couldn’t remember the last time Hogni has earnestly fought in a battle. Mostly, he put on a show and expected his daughter to protect him.
Which she did. But only because he wasn’t worthy of feasting in Valhalla with the other mighty warriors she helped to select.
“I have made a wonderful selection for you,” Hogni continued, ignoring Sigrun’s statement. “Hothbrodd, the son of Granmar, who is the king in Sodermanland, has agreed to wed you.”
Now it made sense to Sigrun. Sodermanland bordered her father’s lands in Ostergotland. It would join the two kingdoms and make them much stronger.
Sigrun glared at Hogni. He had gone too far this time in his desperate need for power and glory. Normally, he put out the minimum required work in order to push for the maximum gain. This time, there was no output from him. Instead, he was marrying her off like livestock. His gain would be immense.
Sigrun would have to give up her destiny. Her life with Helgi, the very reason the gods had allowed her to be reborn, was now forfeit.
“I will not marry Hothbrodd!” Sigrun smacked her cup down on the table and liquid sloshed out. Her mother rushed in to wipe up the spill and that irritated Sigrun even more.
Sigrun’s mother seemed to love her husband. Yet, at the same time, there always appeared a sadness within the woman, like her life had been filled with regret. Sigrun vowed she would not end up like her mother, cowering below her husband and married off against her will.
No, she would find Helgi instead. Just because her father had promised her to another, it didn’t mean she actually had to follow his orders.
“You will do as you are told, Daughter!” Sigrun’s father roared.
Sigrun stood, her fists clenched and she leaned into her father, putting herself close to his face.
“Just try and make me!” she seethed before striding from the house.
Chapter 3: HELGI
The night was whispering in with twilight, promising more but hesitantly giving it up. It was a quiet moment after the day Helgi had had. However, this battle foretold of an end to war for a time. He had been victorious and the king of the opposing side has turned and ran, his tail between his legs like an admonished dog scurrying from the supper table.
Helgi sat at the bow of his longboat, enjoying the first few stars as they twinkled in the purple sky. His breath fogged out in front of him in the chill of the air and he tucked his hands further inside his cloak to protect them from the frigid cold.
It was his favourite time of day.
As he smiled at the night’s sky, he noticed clouds rolling in, threatening to obstruct his fine view. He frowned for a moment before seeing what appeared to be the figure of a woman.
Helgi rubbed his eyes and looked again.
The woman was still there, an obvious trick in the shape of the clouds. Helgi watched closely as the cloud woman appeared to approach. Her features growing in size and
morphing into a clearer vision.
Still, Helgi believed it was merely a trick of the clouds, not an actual female. When she also morphed into the woman he had seen on the battleground weeks earlier when he had defeated Hunding, he knew it had to be trickery on behalf of the weather.
Helgi thought he’d seen this same woman on multiple occasions since that first occurrence. Every time he visited a village or was mingling in a crowded room, he believed he witnessed her. The blonde ponytail, her pointed chin, muscular arms that looked like hers, a similar dress. Each time, though, the woman had turned out to be a random stranger. Sometimes she was a beautiful stranger, other times, not so much.
Seeing the figure once more in the clouds only further confirmed his obsession with the strange woman he had hallucinated on the battlefield. He had no doubts about her lack of existence.
Yet, he hoped she was real. An image or vision sent from the gods ahead of time to let him know he was about to find love.
While Helgi had been successful on the warfront, he lacked so in his personal life. Sure, he had been lucky enough to bed some amazing and stunningly attractive women, but they had merely been conquests to him. Enjoyed for a night and then forgotten in the morning as he moved on to his next destination, his next battle.
So, when the woman stepped free from the roiling clouds, from the mist that his mother was reputed to have control over, Helgi was confused.
Here was a woman who looked exactly like the one on the battleground. Her hair, her features, her clothing, finally were all the same.
Helgi reached out, trying to determine how far this hallucination would go.
He felt the warmth of skin as he touched her arm. The woman smiled at him and leaned in for a kiss.
Her lips were hot against his own, fierce, yet also gentle with their urgency.
Oh my, this is an exceptional hallucination, Helgi thought as he relished the embrace.
Reaching up, Helgi’s fingers traced the outline of the woman’s jaw before he cradled her face in his hands. She felt so solid beneath his touch. With his eyes closed, it was exactly like kissing a real woman.
She pulled away from him and Helgi opened his eyes.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Are you from my mother’s clan?”
“Who is your mother?” the woman queried.
Helgi reached into his shirt to pull out his necklace which held Thor’s hammer and the ring entrusted to his clan. He was the last of his family line and this ring was all he had left to prove it.
“This is the ring called Andvaranaut and my mother, Borghild, was a member of the Volsung clan.”
The woman froze with his words, her body suddenly stiff and her fingers dug deep into his wrist. Looking into her eyes, Helgi could see that his words had affected her.
“My name is Sigrun and we are destined to be together.”
Helgi’s mother was a famed shieldmaiden and said to be able to work magic. Over the years, Helgi had seen his mother go into trances, to suddenly speak out and claim she had seen things, some of which actually eventuated. At times she described these instances, telling Helgi that it was like a violent shiver running down her spine every time the gods chose to speak to her.
Right now, Helgi understood what his mother meant as a shiver of ominous portent ran down his spine. Suddenly, he could believe this woman, that she existed and that her words were true.
He blinked, and the sensation disappeared briefly like the spell was broken. However, when he looked deep into her eyes, he knew the words were true.
He remembered… something.
Helgi shook his head, trying to bring the memory back but it never came.
“Why don’t you believe me?” Sigrun asked with a frown, mistaking his gesture.
“I do believe you,” Helgi implored, his hands still holding her face. He leaned in to taste her once more, hoping the errant memory would show itself again. Alas, nothing. “I just can’t work out why.”
The tinkle of her laughter greeted him and it was the most welcome sound of all. “We knew each other in a previous life when I was known as Svafa.”
Svafa.
His memory activated with her old name. A flood of images flowed through his mind.
Their love, the day they got married, consuming her naked form in various nights of passion.
Then, he remembered something else.
“I died.” He whispered the words, his eyes downturned as he pulled his hands away from her face. Sigrun responded by reaching out and clasping them in her own. “And you lied to me.”
“I only lied because I couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing you, or of having to be with another man, and living my life without you. This way, we got to be together again. We have a second chance at happiness.”
Helgi clenched his jaw. He should be mad at her, for going against his dying wish. But, what if she hadn’t? Would he have lived this life without knowing her? That would have been worse, he realised now he had met her, than of her maintaining his dying wish. Besides, it was a wish he hadn’t really wanted to grant anyway. He had spoken the words entirely to make his brother happy, not because he actually wanted to see him with the love of Helgi’s life.
Diving in once more, Helgi stole another kiss. He was greedy for the taste of her now that he knew she existed, that she was his to keep.
“Oh, how I have missed you,” he exclaimed as he came up for air. “Even though I had no idea I was wanting all these years.”
Sigrun beamed at him and kissed him some more, her mouth parting and her tongue darting out, running over his lips. He opened his mouth and their tongues clashed. Helgi never wanted the moment to end.
Chapter 4: SIGRUN
The night was deep now. The blackest ink of colour. Although, a multitude of stars did their part in helping Sigrun see Helgi.
She couldn’t believe she had finally found him, that they were together once more. It was like their love had never been placed on hold. There was no need to be coy around Helgi or to suggest they wait. They had waited a lifetime already.
Sitting at the bow, Sigrun snuggled into Helgi’s lap. He stroked her hair as she gazed at the sky, wondering if Freya and Odin were looking down on them now. Sigrun shuddered slightly when she remembered Helgi’s words, of which clan he belonged to. She didn’t know why that was important, only that Helgi was supposed to be born to that clan, like she had been, years ago as Svafa.
It didn’t really matter, though. All that was important was that Helgi’s arms encircled her and she felt protected for once. Normally it was she who protected others, or who chopped down men. Either way, she was in control. Now, it felt like she could step back and allow Helgi to be the one in control for the moment.
It felt nice.
So did the hand that was now sneaking down her arm. A thumb flicked out and stroked the side of her breast and Sigrun closed her eyes.
Leaning back, she snuggled closer to Helgi, feeling his need grow beneath her. She turned to him and his entire hand brushed her breast. She shuddered in delight.
Kissing him, Sigrun wrapped her arms around her returned lover.
Helgi’s hand settled on her breast, squeezing gently and making her groan through their kiss. She bit at his lip and opened her eyes, watching his excitement form in the widening of his eyes.
“Make love to me,” she whispered, surprised at her own forwardness. Helgi smiled at her before leaning in and kissing her neck. Sigrun threw her head back and tangled her fingers in his hair. As the night’s breeze danced across it, the moisture from Helgi’s kiss froze on her neck and sent delicious shivers of delight down her spine.
She turned fully, pulling one leg over Helgi so she straddled him. Her body pressed against his and it was almost enough.
Helgi wrapped his arms around her, his fingers digging into her back and she tightened her grip also.
“I need you,” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion as Helgi ran his hands over her body. Sigrun
tried desperately not to think of her father and the promise he had made on her behalf.
As soon as he revealed that he was the was the son Borghild, Sigrun knew that their love was fated, that there was more to her life than being married off by her father. Borghild was of the famed Volsung clan and the skalds told stories of Borghild being a shield maiden or even of being in control of the evening mist. Sigrun could attest that Borghilr was not a controller of the mists as her Valkyrie sister, Mist, was. However, she knew little of the world of shield maidens and Borghild could very much be one of them. Or, perhaps she was even a magical volva and could control the elements to some extent. That would explain the rumour about her being in control of the evening mist.
But it meant that she and Helgi were a much better match already than her and Hothbrodd would ever be. Not wanting to dwell on her betrothal any longer, Sigrun stood and lifted her dress. Helgi responded by undoing his pants. His manhood broke free and Sigrun was tempted to lean over and take it in her mouth.
But she needed him inside of her more.
Slowly, she eased herself down onto him and watched as Helgi threw his head back and groaned. His fingers dug into her hips as they developed a rhythm that their bodies had known in their previous lives.
Sigrun screamed out her pleasure as Helgi pounded in to her.
“How did you know where to find me? Or that we even existed prior to this life?” Helgi asked as they settled down into the bed furs. It had been lovely on the bow of the ship but it was warmer in the furs. At least they still had the sky above them.
“I am a Valkyrie, I have always known to some extent.” Although, that wasn’t entirely true if she really thought about it. But, then again, even at an early age she had known there was something she was unaware of, something more that waited for her than just death and destruction.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter, anyway,” Helgi responded. “We are together now and there is nothing that can change that.”
Curse of the Valkyries Page 2
