by Lena North
The Jarl seemed shocked, and he swayed a little.
"Torunn?" he said incredulously.
It was a question but somehow also a sad plea. Since I'd heard his rambling nightmares, I knew how much he'd cared for his first wife. His eyes were hard when he looked at his current one but I needed everyone to stay focused on Heidrun's death, so I continued quickly.
"You unlocked my door on the way to the altar, Freyja. Then when the sacrifice was performed you rushed back to lock my door again, feigning that the sight of blood made you ill and that you had to leave to throw up," I said, turning to Josteinn. "You told me, remember?"
"Yes. She wasn't sick seeing the blood from the animals, but I thought that seeing a dead person would have caused it. It was hard for us all, so it didn't appear strange to me." Josteinn said calmly.
"Blood makes me throw up or faint, you all know this," Freyja protested, but no one seemed to listen to her.
"You said that the hood was taken off Heidrun by a tall man, Sissa. Did someone help her then?" Einarr suddenly asked as if he hadn't heard Freyja's protests, and my heart jumped. He believed me, and he'd been right. We'd get through this.
"I didn't understand that for a long time, but I fell when I saw Heidrun hanging in the grove, remember?" I replied. "I told you that I stumbled on a branch and kicked it into the bushes to the side. Except I think that it wasn't a branch, it was the skewer from the Jarl's kitchen. One of the men found it in the bushes and brought it back. No one thought much about it," I said as I walked over to the wall. Then I brought the skewer back to the table, putting it down with the stained part of the handle up.
"Clean on one side, stained on the other. It could have been laying in blood that wasn't cleaned away."
"What has a stained skewer to do with anything?" Freyja said. She sounded annoyed, although I could see that she'd started to fidget a little.
"You used it to pull the hood from Heidrun's head, Freyja," I replied calmly.
"Nonsense. How would you even know that?"
"Because there are holes in her hood," I replied calmly.
Then I pulled the hood out of my pocket and spread it out next to the skewer, making it clear that the holes were just as far apart as the tips of the skewer.
"Take the horrible thing away," Freyja groaned. "It has our dear Heidrun's blood on it, I can't stand looking at it."
Suddenly she got to her feet, grabbed the hood and moved toward the fireplace. I was too far away to stop her, but Joss had been sitting next to her. He quickly got to his feet, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back.
"You should probably sit down, Freyja," he murmured calmly, but his brows were low, and he looked furious.
Then he pulled the hood out of her hands, spread it out on the table and nodded to me.
"Why would I even pull the hood off Heidrun, you make no sense at all, Sissa," Freyja snapped.
"Because you wanted to put blame on my family and me," Einarr growled. “It was found behind my house, and if it hadn't been found by Sissa, it would have been seen as evidence that one of us were guilty.”
"You could have done it, Einarr. You have ambitions, you can't deny that," she snapped.
I realized suddenly that the breathy, lisping, high pitched voice she usually spoke in was gone. Her voice was strained but also low and hoarse, full of malice.
"There's another reason," Mother interrupted. "It looks like the same material that you gave me to use for Sissa's hood. If either, or both, were found, then we'd notice. The fabric is special. It's soft and somehow treated to get that yellow color."
"I gave you that," Astrid ground out hoarsely. She had been staring at the hood in shock, but suddenly she wailed, "We gave you that when you married Ingolf. You said you were expecting his child, and we were so happy for him. We got the cloth from Torunn, for Josteinn when he was born, to wrap him with. I gave it to you, and you used it to make a hood for Torunn's girl..."
She got to her feet, and I thought that she'd charge at Freyja. Einarr got up too and held her in his arms.
"Sit down, wife," he ordered, and his words were harsh, but I saw him give her back a soft caress.
"You have all gone mad, this is all speculation from a thrall. I'm not strong enough, and I have no reason at all to do something like this," Freyja said.
I saw her give Jarl Ingolf a look under her lashes, knew she'd try to sway him, but Ulf interrupted.
"You are strong enough."
We all turned to him, and I tried to intervene, but he wouldn't be stopped.
"I will speak," he said giving me a hard glare. "You are strong enough, Freyja, because you took the top plank off the gate to the horses' pen. You got one of the horses out last night, and you drove my sister through the forest and into a pack of wolves." His voice had increased in strength, and the last came out as a roar. Then he seemed to calm down a little, and he continued, "That plank is heavy, but you got it both down and up again, twice, so you are strong enough to have handled Heidrun the way Sissa says," he concluded.
"Another accusation from a thrall," Freyja said breezily. "Will you let all of them come with these ridiculous lies?" she asked Einarr, and she sounded almost bored.
I had to admire her courage because by then everyone was looking at her with ill-concealed anger. Jarl Ingolf was the only one who showed no emotions at all. He looked stunned, staring at her as if he'd never seen her before.
"Explain why you think it was Freyja who chased Sissa last night," Einarr said gravely to my brother.
"Sissa, explain what you were doing in the forest," Ulf countered, frowning at me when I hesitated.
"Ulf met me outside our home, and he said that Josteinn wanted to see me in the clearing. It sounded urgent he said, and you..." I turned to Josteinn, but I couldn't make my eyes meet his so I continued quickly, "You told me that we were to meet later. I thought you meant another day, but when Ulf said you wanted to see me... I went out there assuming you'd asked me to come," I finished, trying valiantly to sound calm, but even I could hear that my voice shook a little.
"But I never -" Josteinn started.
"Freyja gave me the message for Sissa, Josteinn. She said it was from you," Ulf interrupted.
All heads turned to Freyja, and her face grew hard.
"Oh, now you all think that I did this when I had no reason. No reason at all," she spat out.
"You are expecting, Freyja," I said calmly. "If Heidrun and Stein had been here then they would have led after Jarl Ingolf. With them both gone, your child would be the next Jarl, or married to the next Jarl."
The Jarl made a strangled sound and I turned to him.
"You didn't know?"
"Freyja?" he whispered hoarsely.
"Yes, Ingolf. I carry your child," she crooned and stretched her hand out toward him, but he reared back. "But, Ingolf, Sissa said that this had been planned for a long time. I only found out just a few weeks ago that you will be a father again, so why would I have -"
"The seer, Freyja," I interrupted calmly. We were coming to the root of it all now, and I looked her straight in the eye. "You went to see the seer late last summer. You took only the new girls with you and they didn't understand much of our language, but they said you seemed very pleased. They recognized one word. Child."
Freyja started to protest, but Einarr interrupted.
"We can easily find the seer, and ask her."
He sounded completely calm. I watched him, thinking about what I'd seen in the forest and wondering how he could talk about the woman in front of his wife, and me, so casually.
"Freyja," the Jarl said, and his voice was harsh. I saw on his face that he knew the truth too, and he was furious. "Tell me to my face, is it true?"
"Ingolf," she murmured, reaching out for him again, but he slapped her hand away.
"No more, Freyja. You've played your games with me long enough. From that time during the end of Torunn's illness when you crept into my bed and told me I made a chi
ld with you, through the years until the moment you started talking about how our gods wanted a special gift this year. And you started talking about that gift long before the sacrifice. You've been whispering your lies and deceit since the end of last summer," he growled.
Then he got up, leaned over her, and roared, "Tell me to my face, Freyja. Is it true, what they say?"
They stared at each other for a long time. Then she straightened, and her face relaxed. To my surprise, she smiled sweetly. When she spoke it was suddenly in that high-pitched, childish voice, and the change was so absurd, I reared back a little in surprise.
"Of course, it's true. And it doesn't matter because I carry the future Jarl. The seer told me that I would, before the next summer she said, and she was right. So I had to make sure nothing would stand in the way of my son, and that is not so strange is it? Heidrun was a horrible person anyway, no one liked her. She was always running around giving orders when I should have done it. And Disa was old so no one will care about that."
We stared at her. Did she really believe what she was saying?
"Freyja," the Jarl whispered, but she kept talking.
"We'll simply announce that it was the gods' wishes, and everyone will believe that, Ingolf. Then everything will be as it should be. You will have your son, and he will be Jarl," she said contentedly. Then she leaned back a little and put her hands on her lap. The smile on her face was serene, almost a little smug.
"You think that we will just let this pass, Freyja? That you'll not be punished for what you did?" Einarr asked, and I heard Astrid make a strangled sound.
"Oh, Einarr," Freyja said indulgently. "Your son is weak and would not be a good Jarl. We all know that. I don't think he even wants it. It'll be much better for him to help my son, just as you've helped your brother all your life. You are not leaders, Einarr, not like Ingolf. My son will be a leader too, just like his father."
Einarr had a strange look on his face and at first, I thought it was because of her insults but then it shifted, and he looked somehow... satisfied.
"Ingolf?" he just asked, turning toward his brother.
"Lock her away, in the shed where she put Heidrun. Maybe my daughter will haunt her there," the Jarl said tersely.
"Ingolf?" Freyja said. For the first time, she sounded uncertain.
"Odin gave one of his eyes to gain wisdom, and when I lost one of mine I finally got wiser too," the Jarl thundered. "You must be mad to think that I would let my daughter go unavenged."
Chapter Twenty-five
Aftermath
Hjalvor led Freyja away, and Einarr went with them. When the door slammed shut, we all jumped. Then we sat there, staring at each other.
"Jarl Ingolf," I murmured.
He turned to me, but he didn't look like our strong leader anymore. He was completely undone, the pain in his face seemed endless, and he crouched a little as if he also felt physical pain.
"Gudrun," he whispered, sliding his eyes briefly over my mother. "Tell me. Did she kill Torunn too?"
"No," Mother replied instantly. "No, Ingolf, she didn't. I would never have let her do that, you know this. Torunn was gravely ill, and she left us when the gods called for her, not because of anything Freyja did."
"You are sure?" he asked.
"I am certain, Ingolf," Mother said confidently.
He straightened his back then and some of his usual hardness seemed to return to his face.
"We need to decide what to do with -"
"Ingolf, I think this is for family," Astrid interrupted.
He frowned at her, but I could see that she was going to insist. Then suddenly Mother got to her feet.
"Of course, Astrid. We wouldn't dream of interfering with family matters," she said blandly, but I could see that Astrid understood the sarcasm behind her words.
I had just helped them figure out that the Jarl's wife was behind the death of his daughter, and it was both rude and ridiculous to suddenly ask us to leave. I turned to Joss, hoping that he would agree but my heart sank immediately. He looked away, clearly not interested in getting into an argument with his mother or Uncle. And Astrid was right, we weren't family. Even if Josteinn paid for me to move into their house, I would never be family. I'd still be the thrall.
"Sissa, come now," Father said gently.
I jerked. My family had moved while I'd been staring at Joss, and now they were waiting by the door for me.
"Of course, sorry," I said as I got to my feet.
When I was about to close the door behind me, the Jarl called out.
"Sissa!"
"Yes?"
"Thank you," he said.
I watched him, expecting him to say something else, but he didn't. Then he looked away so I closed the door and followed my parents to our home.
As soon as the door closed, Mother started to push the dress off my shoulder, to look at my wounds, but I stopped her. With heavy steps, I walked over to dig out one of my own garments. Then I stripped out of the beautiful blue dress, folded it carefully and stowed it. When I felt the familiar rough fabric scrape my legs I sighed. My arm was hurting more than I wanted to admit.
"There," I said calmly as I pushed the dress off my shoulder. "It hurts, so if you could take a look at it and see if something needs to be done then I'd appreciate it."
"How did you know, Sissa?" Ulf asked while Mother worked on my shoulder.
"Huh?"
"How could you figure it out? You knew that Freyja had asked me to give you a message from Josteinn without me telling you. And you had all the details figured out. So, how did you know?"
"The cat."
Then I had to chuckle because they were watching me and they looked too funny with their mouths open.
"Jarl Ingolf had a nightmare, or maybe he heard you mention the mice and the need for a cat, Ulf. He said that they couldn't have a cat, that they didn't want to believe it, but she'd killed her cat. Nailed it to the fence and watched it die, he said."
"What?" Father asked, and he looked shocked, but he'd not been there to hear it so he would be.
"I heard it too, Raudulf," Mother murmured. "You know how surprised we were when they took Freyja in as a foster child, and that there was something about it that Torunn didn't share. It might have been because of what had happened with the cat. I'd guess that there were probably other things as well so her family wanted her gone."
"I still don't understand, Sissa," Ulf interrupted, and he sounded a bit annoyed.
"You weren't there when Disa died," I started, watching how Mother's eyes narrowed. "She said that it had started with the cat, and Freyja made such a fuss about how they had played with her first kitten. If that was a lie then maybe Disa had meant something else."
I turned to Mother to see if she got it, but she just looked back at me, questioningly.
"She never left," I said slowly. "That's what Disa said, and it suddenly struck me that she could have tried to tell us that Heidrun never left the storage house. But if she never left the storage house then Freyja must have lied about that. So I started wondering what else she'd lied about. Suddenly all the things I knew just fell into place, one after the other, and they all tied to Freyja."
I shrugged and grinned ruefully, "I should have figured it out sooner. Freyja was the only one who went into the storage after Heidrun had disappeared, you even said so Ulf. And I thought that only a tall man could get the hood off her as she was hanging in the grove, and that was a stupid assumption..."
"You're not stupid, daughter," Father muttered. "Not stupid at all," he added.
"I wonder what they'll do with her?" I asked.
"They'll keep her in the shed until the child is born, and then they'll take her to the Thing for proper sentencing," Father said confidently. "I hope that's what they'll do at least, but I wouldn't blame our Jarl if he killed her immediately," he added.
"He won't kill his unborn child," I said.
"If there is one."
We all turned to
stare at Mother, but she just shrugged.
"I could be wrong, but there's a certain look to a woman when she's expecting. Her body changes too. I haven't seen any of that in Freyja, but she could be different."
"Huh," Ulf said. "Well, she's certainly different," he added laconically.
We laughed a bit at that, and it felt weird but good to laugh at the situation. Mostly I felt relief, that we had a solution and that they had believed me.
It was still early in the day, but since my arm was injured everyone would think that I needed to rest. I didn't expect anyone to give me chores just yet, so I walked down to the beach, following the water line for a while. Then I sat down to watch as the waves slowly rolled in. We had a mild winter so the sea wasn't frozen, not even in the inner part of the bay like it was some years. The wind was picking up, and the fresh smell of salt and seaweed tickled my nostrils, but it felt good. It smelled like home. I needed to think about my future, and I'd been convinced that I would say yes to Joss' offer but after the past couple of days, I wasn't sure anymore.
"Sissa?"
I didn't turn to look at Josteinn when he said my name. Just as I'd been thinking about him, there he was. I didn't want to hear what he had to say because I knew what it would be already. He would apologize, of course, for shouting at me and maybe for other things. Could I be like his mother? Could I forgive and forget, simply because he said he was sorry?
"Can I sit down?" he asked quietly.
I didn't reply and kept my gaze on the waves. Memories of watching him as we grew up went through my mind. I closed my eyes, thinking that he'd been such a sweet boy. I'd had such a crush on him for so many years, had dreamed about a life with him. But I'd fooled myself into daydreaming about a different kind of life than what I would be offered. I'd dreamt about love, and respect, and how we would build a life together.
"Please," he whispered hoarsely.
I knew that the only way to have the kind of life I dreamed of was to be free. And I'd never be truly free, not if I stayed in the village. So the life I'd have if I stayed would be a different one. I'd be his thrall, his property, and I might have been able to do that if it had only been the way we were around the others in the village. But to be just his thrall also in front of his parents and Uncle? I knew that I couldn't do that. And I couldn't do that to our children if we had any.
