by Speer, Flora
Erik led his little party to the house of a man he knew.
“Holgar is an old friend of Thorkell’s,” Erik said, introducing them. “I have traded with him in the past. We will stay with him.”
“If he is a friend of Thorkell, will he not also be a friend of Snorri?” Asmund objected. “Can we trust you, old man?”
The plump, pink-faced merchant spat on the ground. “That for Snorri,” he said contemptuously. “That misbegotten thief has cheated me too many times. He gives all Norsemen a bad name. Oh, I could tell you stories, young man, tales that would bring tears to your eyes. I’ll have nothing to do with Snorri Thorkellsson, and I will gladly help anyone trying to escape him. My house and all I have are yours.”
“Good enough.” Asmund laughed, laying a hand on Holgar’s shoulder. “Any man who hates Snorri must be an honest man and a friend.”
Holgar’s house was not small, but it was soon crowded as the six members of Erik’s party tried to make themselves comfortable. The wattle-and-daub walls seemed to close in upon them.
Lenora escaped from the main room through a door at one end and found herself in a smaller room that served as a kitchen. She found Holgar’s serving woman removing bread from a domed clay oven.
“Let me help you,” Lenora offered.
The woman looked up, startled, and replied in a strange tongue. Her wide, pale face was intense with the effort of communication.
“She won’t understand you,” Holgar said, coming into the room. “She’s a Slav. I bought her from a Frankish merchant who got her from the grasslands east of his country. She only speaks a few words of Norse.”
“How do you tell her what you want?” Lenora wondered.
“I point to something, or yell at her. If she doesn’t do what I want, I beat her.” Holgar patted the woman on her ample buttocks. “She’s nice and warm to sleep with in the winter,” he said contentedly.
“What is her name?” Lenora asked.
“I don’t know. I never bothered to find out. I call her Alara. That’s good enough.”
A few gestures made it clear that Holgar wanted the woman to serve food to his guests. This she did, with Lenora’s help. A shy touch to Lenora’s arm and a quick smile indicated the woman’s gratitude.
Holgar’s property was surrounded by a wooden fence, the gable end of the house facing the street. Behind the house, the land sloped down to the stream that ran through the center of Hedeby, supplying its inhabitants with fresh water. A barn stood to one side, a storehouse for merchandise on the other. Holgar proudly told them he had a larger warehouse down on the waterfront. Erik and Ingvar inspected the. premises and pronounced them defensible should the need arise.
“There is little room in the house. Asmund and I can sleep in the barn,” Ingvar offered.
“We had better stay together,” Erik said. “It will be safer that way if Snorri should come during the night. We need someone on guard at all times too.”
“We can take turns. I’ll begin the watch, then Asmund can take over,” Ingvar agreed.
Furs and rugs were spread upon the wide platform running along each side of the main room, and the party settled down for the night. Lenora lay wrapped in Erik’s arms, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, the fear and tension she had felt during the journey from Thorkellshavn beginning to dissipate at last.
Erik stirred, pulling her closer.
“You are so warm and sweet. I’ll miss you when I go away,” he murmured into her ear.
“Then take me with you,” she breathed softly. “I want to see Miklagard.”
She felt him stiffen and move apart from her, the tender moment gone.
“You cannot go with me, Lenora. I have made up my mind and nothing will change it.”
Erik spent the next day trying to find a merchant ship that would soon sail eastward. He took Holgar with him, for the merchant had many contacts among those who came each year to trade at Hedeby. Asmund and Ingvar remained at Holgar’s house to protect the women should Snorri appear.
Lenora used her time well, helping Alara with the cooking and washing, but she quickly tired of her confinement within the house and the enclosed courtyard behind it.
“Tomorrow I am going with you,” she told Erik that night. “If I’m to be exiled to Limfjord, then I want to see a real city first.”
“I’ll let you go if you promise not to delay me,” Erik replied. “We have been lucky so far, but I want to find a ship before Halfdan comes. Then I can send you and Freydis north with him at once, and we will all be gone before Snorri finds us.”
Erik’s luck held. At midmorning of the following day they found a merchant loading goods into a large cargo vessel. The merchant’s name was Rodfos. He was a big man, with a red face to match his bushy beard and the beginnings of a belly from too much food and drink. He wore enormously full, baggy breeches of bright blue wool, and high boots of soft leather, crisscrossed and fastened with thongs. This sartorial splendor was further embellished by a wide green cape that fastened with a large gold pin on his right shoulder, leaving his sword arm free. Under his cloak, a small silver hammer, symbol of Thor, dangled against his chest on an ornate silver chain.
“I am sailing to Bornholm, in the middle of the Baltic Sea,” Rodfos announced grandly, “and then on to Aldeigjuborg on Lake Ladoga. I leave the day after tomorrow at dawn. Be here tomorrow night and sleep aboard. When I am ready to sail, I go whether you are here or not. I wait for no latecomers.”
“I won’t be late,” Erik promised. “I will travel with you to Aldeigjuborg.”
“Bring your own food. There will be casks of ale and water on board.”
“If you don’t need my help any more, I will leave you,” Holgar said as they parted from Rodfos. “I should be about my business.”
Erik drew Lenora to the water’s edge. They sat down on the upturned hull of a small fishing boat. Lenora looked around her with interest at the ships drawn up on shore or moored to the strong wooden posts set in the water. Sturdy wooden warehouses lined the harbor. The inhabitants of Hedeby, secure in the strength of the Danevirke that guarded them, and in the additional safety of their own town walls, went about the business of trade that was the town’s only reason for existence. Ships were loaded and unloaded, goods bartered for other goods, silver weighed and exchanged for merchandise.
The waters of Hadeby Noor sparkled deep blue and silver. Gulls wheeled and dipped above, their cries a raucous punctuation to the human voices below. The sun shone brightly, but it was chilly, with a sharp breeze from the water. Soon the days would be longer than the nights, and here and there a bit of green had appeared, but winter had still not entirely loosened its grip on the land.
Lenora glanced at Erik. His eyes were fixed on the eastern horizon, his profile sharply chiseled against the blue sky.
“You are gone from me before you have left,” she said softly.
“Not really gone, just planning.”
“I hate Snorri,” she burst out. “This is all his fault. If it weren’t for him, we would all be comfortable at Thorkellshavn.”
Erik did not answer her.
“I know you have reason to dislike Snorri,” Lenora said, “but why does he hate you so much?”
Reluctantly, Erik withdrew his attention from the distant sky and looked at her.
“I think he believed I was his rival for Thorkell’s affection. Our father was kind to me when I came home injured, and Snorri was jealous. He thinks I am weak because my leg is lame. He has hated me since then. He is unable to understand that Thorkell could love us both.”
“I thought he had always hated you.”
“We were never friends, that is true, but we did not fight so much before I went to Grikkland. We were both away a good part of each year and seldom saw each other. Snorri went a-viking to England or Frankland, and I traveled here to Hedeby to trade, or on to Gardariki, where the Rus live. I always preferred to trade peacefully, but Snorri likes to take his goods b
y pillage and fighting. He enjoys bloodshed.”
“And you do not?”
“I like a good fight.” Erik grinned. “There is a feeling that comes over me when I stand sword in hand before an enemy and know I will defeat him. I cease to be Erik and become someone else, a berserker, until the battle is over. Then I look around me and scarcely remember what I have done.”
“Yet you let Snorri call you a coward and did not fight him.”
“Sometimes it is wiser not to spill blood. There are other ways of getting what I want. I learned that from the Greeks. That night it was more important to get Freydis safely away from Thorkellshavn than to defend my name. And you.” His hand stroked her hair, feeling the crisp, shiny curls, blown by the sea wind. “I wanted you away from Snorri too. I did not want him to have you. I can pay him back later for his insults to me. You know better than anyone, Lenora, that I do not want to kill Snorri, but I think, if we meet again, he will force me to it. He is an evil man, a true son of Ragnhilde.” Erik sighed.
Lenora moved closer, feeling his warmth, smelling the good masculine scent of him.
“But you wanted to leave me in Thorkellshavn,” she said.
“I could never have left you behind for Snorri to harm. I was worried that you were not well enough to travel, and I did enjoy arguing with you about it,” he teased, his mood lightening. “Arguing is something else I learned from the Greeks.”
She smiled, too content at that moment to be angry with him. As he had said, there were other ways than fighting to get what she wanted. Just now she wanted all the information she could learn about Miklagard. There was not much time left before he would be gone for good.
“Tell me about your last voyage to Grikkland.”
“We gathered a huge fleet of ships,” Erik said, his voice heavy with memories. “Askold and Dir were our leaders. They are the rulers of Kiev. We were going to attack Miklagard.”
“Attack the greatest city in the world? Why?”
“Gold. You cannot imagine all the gold there is in Miklagard. And jewels and silks, spices and slave girls. We were going to take them for our own. We were all going to be rich forever.” He laughed softly, remembering. “I was so young then. Only seventeen and full of dreams. I thought I would bring chests of gold back to Denmark to repay Thorkell for his goodness to me.”
“What happened?”
“We sailed across the Euxine Sea to Miklagard and laid siege to it. There was a terrible storm. Most of our ships were sunk. Many men died.”
“Is that when you were injured?”
“The ship’s mast split and fell on me. The man next to me was killed. My shoulder and leg were broken and I got this.” He touched the scar that ran from his left eyebrow to his hairline.
“I was lucky not to lose my eye, but that was the end of my luck. The ship began to list badly and I fell overboard. I remember trying to swim, but my left arm and leg wouldn’t work. I don’t know how I got to shore. There is a long time, many days, that I cannot remember. One day I woke up in a house outside Miklagard. The people caring for me were Greeks, and I spoke no Greek.
“Do you know, Lenora, the rulers of Miklagard will not allow the Rus traders to live within the city walls? They fear our swords. They only let small groups of Northmen enter, no more than twenty-five at a time, and the men are forced to leave their weapons outside the gates. And every autumn all the Rus must go home again, back to Kiev.” He laughed. “The emperor of the greatest and most powerful city in the world lives in fear of a few Northmen.”
“Who can blame him, if you send fleets and armies against his city?”
“Eirena told me there were special religious ceremonies to thank their god for sending the storm to wipe out our fleet.”
“Who is Eirena?”
“Eirena Panopoulos. She is the woman who cared for me when I was injured. Her brother Basil is a merchant. Because I was so badly injured I was unable to travel. Basil got special permission for me to remain in Grikkland. I lived with Basil for three years. It was from him I learned both Greek and Latin.
“I will go back to Miklagard,” Erik told her. “I will take silver coins and goods to trade with Basil. Perhaps I can go into business with him. I could travel far to the east to trade. I have always wanted to see what lies beyond Miklagard.”
Erik’s eyes were focused on sights half a world away, but Lenora did not notice. She cared nothing for the intricacies of international trade. Her interests lay elsewhere.
“Is this Eirena very beautiful?” she asked.
Erik considered her question for a while. “I’m not sure,” he said at last. “She was different from any woman I had ever met before, but later I realized she was not so different from other Greek women. She is small and dark, with big brown eyes, and she is learned. But beautiful? I don’t know.”
“Did you lay with her?”
“Certainly not. The Greeks are Christians. Their women remain virgins until they marry. Their male relatives can become extremely violent on that subject.”
“Did she want you?” Lenora asked.
“How should I know that?”
“I think you would know if a woman wanted you. Perhaps you don’t want to tell me?”
“Stop asking so many questions.”
But Lenora would not be discouraged from pouring out the unexpected jealousy suddenly welling up in her. First there had been Erna, now some Greek woman. She felt as though she had been stabbed through the heart.
“I hate this Eirena,” she cried. “I know she wanted you. You’ll go back to Miklagard and be with her. I hate her.”
“You hate too many people, Lenora. Snorri, Gunhilde, Bjarni, Hrolf...how many others? Hatred is a bitter thing. It will destroy you, not those you hate. You should forget the past and take what pleasure you can from life now.”
I would, Lenora thought, if you were not leaving me and taking with you all the pleasure my life might hold. Oh, Erik, what will I do without you? Why do I feel as though my heart is breaking in two?
Chapter 16
When Erik and Lenora returned to Holgar’s house they found Halfdan waiting for them. He handed Erik a sack of coins.
“Olrik caught up with me on the road,” Halfdan said. “I sent him on to Limfjord with the rest of your hoard. He will tell my father what has happened and that we will be in Limfjord soon.”
“Good.”
“Why didn’t you all simply ride north with Olrik?”
“Because I am going to Miklagard.”
“Then I am going with you.”
“No, you are to take the women to your father for safety. Did Olrik tell you Snorri plans to marry Freydis to Kare?”
“Snorri has no right to force her.”
“Snorri does what he pleases. He cares nothing for the law. But once Freydis is with your father and protected by his guards Snorri cannot harm her.”
“Erik, if Snorri finds you, he will try to kill you.”
“My fight with Snorri is long overdue, postponed for the sake of our father. Now it must be, and I can no longer avoid it. But,” Erik added, “when we do fight, I plan to take Snorri and at least a few of his men to Valhalla with me.”
Hearing the two of them laugh cheerfully at this, Lenora shuddered. She helped Alara to cook and serve the evening meal, but she could eat little.
On this, her last night with Erik, Lenora was possessed by conflicting emotions so strong they nearly paralyzed her. She still hated the Norse for all Snorri and his men had done to her family, and she resented Erik, Halfdan, and Freydis because they had done nothing to save Edwina. And yet all three of them had been kind to her. Halfdan had become almost like a brother to her. Freydis had cared for her when she was sick. And Erik, whose touch could send her spirit soaring into the sky, whose kiss was a sweet drug, whose body had been so intimately a part of her own, Erik who had been unfaithful to her with Erna, and who was planning to rejoin his Greek Eirena with not a thought for the pain it would cause Lenora
– what did she really feel for him? Her confusion intensified at the end of the meal when Erik rose and took her hand.
“Lenora,” he said with a glance at those present at Holgar’s table, “before he died, Thorkell charged me with payment of his debt to you. He wanted me to tell you that you had done your work well and that although you are a slave, he counted you among his friends.”
Into her hand Erik pressed a small leather purse. It was filled with silver coins.
“I never earned this much,” Lenora whispered, her throat tight.
“It is what Thorkell told me to give you.”
“I am honored, not only by the extra silver, but even more because Thorkell called me friend.”
“Now,” Erik went on, “I call all of you here to witness what I say. Lenora has been my slave. I hereby set her free.”
Lenora gaped at him, not believing what she had just heard.
“Tomorrow,” Erik said to her, “you and the others will leave Hedeby and travel to Limfjord. From there Halfdan will arrange your passage home to East Anglia.”
“What are you saying?” She still did not fully comprehend what Erik had just done.
“You are a free woman, Lenora. You can go home now.”
“I have no home. Snorri destroyed my home.”
“You must have relatives somewhere. You have told me your father was an important man. You will find your rightful place again.”
Before Lenora could say anything more, Halfdan swept her into his bear-hug of an embrace. Holgar scurried about the room, filling his guests’ cups with mead. Ingvar and Asmund raised their cups and toasted Lenora’s freedom. Tola kissed her, weeping. Alara hovered in the background, not understanding what was happening but her expression clearly showing how glad she was to see her new-found friend the center of rejoicing. Even cool Freydis took Lenora’s hand and said she was pleased.
Only Lenora stood unsmiling, trembling, watching Erik, wondering what she would do now that her last bond with him was severed. After tomorrow she would never see him again.
