Runes of Fate

by Lena North

  Watching him, I realized that he truly didn't want to be Jarl, and I smiled. I didn't want him to be Jarl either, not if he didn't want it himself, at least.

  "Will we meet while you think, or should I stay away?" he asked, and he had cocked his head a little to the side so he looked like the small boy I remembered from our childhood.

  "Of course we'll meet, Joss. I like you, but you don't befuddle my brain so much that I can't think when you're around," I said with a grin.

  I'd meant it as a joke, but his face darkened.

  "Maybe that's the problem," he said.

  Then he pulled me roughly into his arms and kissed me again. This time, it was more than nice. When he pulled away, he had a satisfied grin on his face.

  "I'm sure I can befuddle you if we give it a bit of time," he said.

  Then we heard his mother calling his name, and I realized that it would be dinner time.

  "Go, Joss. I'll stay here a little while before I go home," I said.

  It looked like he wanted to protest but he must have understood that he wouldn't sway me so he just caressed my cheek, gave me a quick kiss, and walked away.

  I sat down with my back against the boat and watched the ocean in front of me. It was almost dark. The stars were coming out so I leaned my head back and watched them as I thought about my life. Perhaps it wouldn't be the life Fin and I had dreamed of, but it wouldn't be so bad, I thought. I didn't like Astrid, but we would learn how to get along, and I didn't really believe that Einarr had any kind of interest in me, Joss must have misinterpreted that. I didn't feel comfortable thinking about his future wife, and that could cause me a lot of problems. Maybe it would be better to wait until they had negotiated, and I could see who they picked. Then I could make my mind up if I could share him with her, and I could stay with Jarl Ingolf until after his wedding.

  I swallowed a few times as I sat there and tried to make up plans when these plans at the same time meant that I killed my own dreams one after the other.

  Was I a coward for giving up?

  "Oh, Fin," I whispered. "I wish you were here. You would have hated this for me, but I have to live in the real world. I have to grab the opportunities that I get." Then I sighed and got to my feet. "I wish you had taken me with you, wherever you are," I whispered toward the ocean.

  Then I straightened my shoulders and walked home. As I did, I thought about what Josteinn had said. Freyja expecting? Jarl Ingolf would be pleased to know that his daughter's death pleased the gods enough to give him that.

  Then my feet froze in place, and I stopped breathing. It was too soon for Astrid to know that Freyja was expecting unless she carried the child already at the time of the sacrifice. Mags had told me that Freyja had been pleased with what the seer said and that the only word they recognized was 'child.' If Heidrun and Stein were there, they would lead, but without them, Freyja's child would be the next Jarl. Who could have convinced Jarl Ingolf to pick me specifically for the sacrifice? Fin had told me again and again as we grew up how Freyja would walk over dead bodies to get what she wanted, and I'd always laughed but maybe it hadn't been just a joke?

  Surely it couldn't be Freyja, I thought. That was too preposterous, she was short, weak and incredibly stupid. I discarded the idea, but as I walked back to my home, it kept coming back to me. For the first time since I got out of the shed the morning after the sacrifice, my gut told me that I knew. I recognized the feeling because I'd felt it when we walked toward the boats to find the missing child, and when I calmly walked over to Torunn's bed to pull out the necklace. I'd felt that feeling deep in my belly many times over the years and I'd never been wrong.

  Chapter Twenty

  Disaster

  I had dinner with my family, but afterward, I couldn't remember a word we'd talked about. My mind kept spinning around Josteinn, Einarr, Freyja, Stein and Heidrun, and I couldn't get my thoughts straight.

  "Are you feeling well, Sissa," Mother asked.

  "Yes," I answered. "Or, maybe no," I added. "I don't know, too much going on in my head I think," I finished with an apologetic smile.

  "Josteinn has offered to pay Jarl Ingolf," she said with a sigh.

  "Yes," I replied even though she had not put it as a question. "And it's complicated," I added. I didn't know how to explain, and I didn't want to, so I trailed off and hoped they'd let me think this through on my own.

  "You'll do what you need to do, but in many ways I think someone like Einarr would be a better man for you," Mother said calmly, but I straightened.

  "What?"

  "There's an edge to Einarr that his son lacks, Sissa. And you crave that edge, or, at least, you used to. I'm well aware of how you and Fin snuck out. I don't know all the stupid things you did, but I know some. I also know what you looked like coming back from whatever it was you'd done. And with Josteinn, you would be giving up on that part of yourself. Are you ready to do that?"

  Looking at my mother, I suddenly realized that we'd probably talked more in the past few weeks than we had in my whole life. She also had a point, one that I'd tried my best to avoid thinking about. I knew that I should, though. The excitement I'd felt when Finnr and I had gone off on our adventures, or when Torbi and I laid the tracks... It had been a part of who I was, and I'd forgotten about that girl. I wasn't sure if I could keep her buried, or if Josteinn perhaps would let me be that girl, but I'd have to think about it.

  "I asked Josteinn to give me time, and he said I could have it. Until the Thing, he said," I whispered.

  "I see," Father said and both my parents looked grim. They knew well what would happen at the Thing.

  "I'll think about this, and I'll talk to you before making a final decision," I said, feigning confidence I didn't feel. Then I changed the subject.

  "Einarr and I have discovered a few things that'll help us find the one responsible for Heidrun's death, and he'll talk to Jarl Ingolf about it. There are some crucial questions only the Jarl can answer, but we'll probably solve the whole thing soon, we feel that we are very close," I said, again with confidence that I didn't actually have.

  I exaggerated, but I wanted them to stop asking questions. Disa had been killed, and I didn't want my family to be in danger.

  "We always knew that we could count on Einarr to get this solved. But, Daughter... Einarr, he is a clever man, but don't think that we aren't aware of who it is that puts it all together," Father said, and the pride he felt for me was so evident in his voice that my eyes stung.

  "Thank you, Father," I whispered. "Hopefully, Einarr will talk to Jarl Ingolf tonight, and then it'll all be over by tomorrow."

  "No, Sissa. Jarl Ingolf is out hunting again. He still has demons to chase so he went out again, riding that stallion of his and pushing it just as hard as always," Ulf said.

  "He still does that? I thought he'd stopped?" I said.

  "We all thought so, but he went earlier today. Suddenly he came rushing through the village as if he had the hound from Hel chasing him, got his horse and set out. One of the men heard him shouting that he would be back in a few days."

  "Oh." I was disappointed because I'd hoped for answers from Einarr already the next day.

  Suddenly there was a noise from outside. It sounded like the small pile of firewood we kept there had fallen over. Father and Ulf were outside immediately, but they came back in after a while, looking sour.

  "Rats, again. I wish the Jarl would allow his wife to have a cat," Father said angrily.

  I jolted and turned to him.

  "Freyja can't have a cat?" I asked.

  "He's never allowed her to have one," Mother said. "I don't know why and they didn't want to talk about it, but both Torunn and Ingolf were determined that there weren't to be any cats in the longhouse. Some people can't take cats, they get a rash from them and sometimes trouble breathing, so maybe Freyja is like that," she said thoughtfully.

  In my head, I heard Freyja crying when Disa had died. The old woman had mumbled that it started with
the cat, and Freyja had said that she had fond memories of how they'd petted her first cat together. I didn't get how it all linked together, but it was another thing that was odd when it came to Freyja.

  I needed time to think so I said goodnight to my family and went to bed, but there wasn't time to go through anything at all because I fell asleep immediately and slept deeply through then night.

  In the days that followed, I kept my head down and did whatever Freyja asked of me. I stayed away from Einarr, and I didn't seek Josteinn out either, but we met briefly almost every day. The women in the longhouse all seemed to expect that I would move into Einarr's house, and they asked me about Joss, but I was evasive, tried to not answer at all or changed the subject when I could.

  "Did anyone find out about the skewer?" I asked in one of my attempts to talk about something else. I'd asked Ulf, and he didn't know, but one of the women spoke up immediately.

  "Oh, Sissa, I forgot. My cousin found it. He said it was tossed in the bushes over by the grove. He thought that it had been put there because it would be needed for the celebrations, and it probably was. We would have grilled the animals, so it would have been useful to have it then."

  "It probably was, and it was good of him to bring it back. Be sure to tell him Freyja sends her thanks," I said, mimicking our Jarl's wife's haughtiness, and they all snorted with laughter.

  "What are you laughing about," the Jarls wife herself suddenly said behind our backs, and we all jolted. I could see how some of the women moved uneasily, wondering how much Freyja had heard.

  "We just talked about how lucky we were that the skewer was found," I said calmly. "It was apparently found standing just outside, leaned against the wall and it would have been ruined by the weather if one of the men hadn't brought it in."

  I picked up the skewer and held it out for her to see. I held it carefully so that the side with the stains were turned away from her and I smiled happily.

  "See? It looks as good as new, and it wouldn't have if it had been outside for long," I added.

  "Well..." she said and frowned a little as if she couldn't understand what I was talking about. "This was good. Please tell the man that I send him my thanks," she said, and I guessed that she had not heard me mockingly give one of the women the exact same instruction.

  "Yes, I will," the poor woman replied promptly, but she looked like she didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cower away.

  Suddenly there were loud shouts outside.

  "Astrid! Gudrun!" A horse approached quickly, and then they were shouting again, "Get Gudrun! Get Gudrun and Astrid!"

  I felt my blood chill because there could only be one reason they shouted so desperately for both of the healers. Someone was injured, and it didn't look good.

  When I came outside my heart skipped a beat. Then I ran through the village. I knew where my mother had planned to go, and I shouted as I ran.

  "Mother!" Mother!"

  People stopped and stared at me, but I ignored them and kept running, and shouting.

  "Mother!"

  She came out of the house I'd known she'd be in, and I kept shouting, but I was a bit out of breath so it wasn't as loud.

  "Mother, come quickly. They brought Jarl Ingolf in, and it doesn't look good. They will need both you and Astrid."

  She didn't hesitate. We ran next to each other through the village the same way as I had come. When we reached the longhouse, they had brought the Jarl inside and put him on the table. There was blood all over his face and chest, and everyone was in an uproar. The women were shouting and running around, Freyja was shrieking loudly, Einarr was barking out orders, but no one listened. A few warriors just stood there, staring.

  "QUIET!" Mother bellowed and even I froze. I'd never heard her sound like that, and we all stared at her.

  "Einarr, take the men and Freyja out of here. Find your wife and bring her here immediately. Then find Raudulf and bring him here too. After that you stay outside," she said and speared the man with a hard glare.

  He nodded, turned immediately and walked out, dragging a hysterical Freyja with him.

  "I'll need warm water, and plenty of cloths for bandages," mother said calmly, turning to the women. They stood with their mouths open, watching her as if they'd never seen her before. "Take the linen off the beds and rip it into long pieces," Mother added and when one of the women made a sound as if to protest she growled.

  I almost laughed when I heard that sound coming from my calm and controlled mother.

  "Sissa!"

  "Yes, mother," I said immediately. I knew that she'd need my help and that I had to remain in control of myself.

  "We'll start by wiping off as much blood as we can, to see where the injuries are. You'll help until Astrid comes. Let me know of anything you find," she said.

  "Of course, Mother," I said calmly.

  "Good girl," she murmured absentmindedly, and then we started.

  The Jarl's upper body was covered in blood, and his clothes were soaked. I hadn't known that a person could contain that much blood. I wondered silently if the Jarl had any left in him. We found several deep cuts, but they were small, and they looked strange. It looked as if someone had stabbed him repeatedly with a sharp object. There were shallow wounds across his chest and three deep ones in his right shoulder that were bleeding still, although not much. His left eye was just a bloody mess. There was a long, red mark across his face, from his injured eye, over his cheek and down to cross his injured shoulder.

  "Mother, what happened to him?" I asked in a whisper. I'd never seen injuries like that before. It didn't look like it came from any kind of weapon I knew about.

  "I don't know, Sissa," she whispered back to me. "It's strange but..." She trailed off, but I sensed she knew something.

  "What, Mother?"

  "I don't understand. And I could be wrong, but it looks like the wounds you would get from a very thin spear or maybe a big nail, but I don't understand the red mark. Maybe they used a thick whip?" she asked, raising her head.

  Our eyes met, and she looked confused, but my stomach clenched because I realized what very well might have happened.

  "Can I go outside just a little while, Mother?" I asked. Her eyes sharpened, but she knew better than to ask me then and there.

  "Of course, see if you can get them to bring Astrid here. He is in a bad shape, but I have found no lethal wounds. If we can stop the bleeding and if he hasn't lost too much then he will live," she said quite loudly. "Tell Einarr that," she added and winked slightly as she gave me a good excuse to go looking for the Jarls brother.

  I walked outside, and as expected, there was a large crowd waiting there. When I got out they all pressed in, but I turned my head to all sides, looking for Einarr.

  "Sissa," Josteinn said at my side.

  "I need Einarr," I said as I continued scanning the crowd for his father. "Help me to find your parents, Joss. Astrid is wanted inside, and I have to talk to Einarr."

  His mouth tightened. I could see that he didn't like that I wouldn't share my news with him, but there wasn't any time to soothe his feelings. I started walking through the crowd, shouting.

  "Einarr! Einarr!"

  "Here, Sissa," I heard him shout.

  When I saw him coming toward me, I exhaled. I ran to him and didn't stop until I was almost crashing into him. He grabbed hold of me, leaning down.

  Before he could say or do anything, I whispered in his ear, "Trust me, Einarr. Please. Send men out to look at where your brother came from. I think something was put there to injure him. It would be a rope or something like that, and full of nails, across the path where he usually rides so fast. It will still be there but not for long."

  I leaned back and our gazes held. Then he nodded once, turned to the men next to him to give them quiet orders. When he was done, he turned back to me. Suddenly he looked tired.

  "Mother said that none of Jarl Ingolf's wounds will kill and if they can stop the bleeding they'll save him. Jostein
n is looking for Astrid, she will help," I said, trying to comfort him.

  "Mother is already in the longhouse," Josteinn said behind me, and I sagged backward, happy to lean on him for a little while.

  He put his arm around my waist to hold me up, and I exhaled. Einarr's hard face got an even harsher look, but then he nodded curtly, walked away. I could hear him shouting orders to the men.

  Inside it was quiet and Mother, or Astrid, had sent most of the women out. My father stood to the side and when Mother or Astrid asked for something he gave it to them

  "What can I do?" I asked quietly.

  "Sissa, good," Astrid said calmly without turning. "Take over here, wash and clean the rest of the wounds on his shoulder. We will not sear them, they're small, and a stitch or two will do well."

  She gave me a faint smile over her shoulder, and I nodded.

  "Okay," I said.

  "Do you need help, Gudrun, or should I start preparing something to ease his pain and help with the loss of blood?" she asked.

  "I am good here, Astrid, something for the pain would be best if we can get it into him," Mother said but then she raised her head and looked with anguish at Astrid. "I will not be able to save his eye."

  "I know," Astrid said calmly. "But if you can't then no one could have done it. We'll have to tell him he looks like Odin, he will be fine with that," she added.

  Then suddenly both Astrid and my mother chuckled. I stared at them, and I couldn't believe my eyes. I'd always thought they disliked each other, but they seemed quite friendly, sharing a joke at the Jarl's expense over his injured body. My eyes met my father's, and then he suddenly smiled too.

  "Ingolf will be pleased by this comparison, Gudrun. Don't worry so, just stitch him up as nicely as you can," he said calmly.

  "Sissa, you are better than me. Come and do it," Mother ordered, and I jolted.

  "Huh?" I asked.

  "Sissa, get over here and do the stitches," Mother ordered again, and I stared at her.