It wasn’t really a hall, not in the sense that we were used to. The structure was taller, with door-sized windows on the second floor that let us see half-way to Galena. They had already been thrown open. A few of the younger, larger warriors were already posted for watch duties.
To the left of the door, three elaborate Saxon carriages lay vacant. Voices buzzed from within the hall doors. It was still early, but no less than two dozen of our own villagers were already gathered. A few men were in the midst of heated debates. The women huddled in their gossip circles, dramatically recanting their past few days and any scraps of sagas they might have garnered from neighbors.
The stalls had been disassembled so that it was all one open area. At the far end, a table had been arranged lengthways. A few chairs were positioned so that a handful of men could face those of us gathered when the time came, while the livestock was kept at bay in the remaining stalls behind them.
It wasn’t home, but it was a nod toward it.
We grabbed a few horns of mead and made our rounds. Indeed, feasting was in order. It seemed we had only lost two on the journey over. Cairn and a tanner named Belham. A blessing, considering the usual fate when sickness broke out in the small quarters of a longboat. The drink was warm. It coated my mouth and relaxed my spirit. Soon I was laughing and joking along with everyone else. Until my upper arm was bumped and Mother hauled me by the ear, down to her waiting whisper.
“Look at her. A fine specimen. That one could give me proper grandsons.” My shoulder clipped toward my ear. I jerked away from her, scarcely comprehending what she had said until she flicked her finger toward a woman in the corner. She had a mothering figure alright, the dress covering it was grease stained and laced in muck, leaving no doubt she was a worker to boot.
“I’m sure Thorne will adore her, if Thane hasn’t already ruined her,” I quickly quipped. Thankfully, my father snatched the back of my tunic and jerked me out of the way before Mother found the sense to swing.
“Quit shittin’ around. I need you lazy lot to pay attention. Do ye hear me? Pay. Attention. Alert and ready,” he grumbled under his breath.
“Aye, aye,” Thorne answered, in the same tone. A scorched look was passed over Father’s shoulders, but Thane remained undaunted by his scolding. We followed him to the front and perched to the right, behind a bench littered with women.
“Look at this fool. He probably thinks he will be in charge of something,” Thorne scoffed on a laugh.
I glanced up to find Einar standing in the center of the elders’ table. His hair freshly braided, and a polite smile pinned in place. To his left, Osanna stood twisting her hands and wiping her tear-stained face against her shoulder. After a moment, her brother shot his elbow out and hissed against her ear. She forced her hands to her side and wrangled in a breath before Einar presented her and Sven to those closest to him.
“Where the fuck is the woman?” Thane whispered. I scanned the room, slowly taking inventory of the many animated faces and feminine forms. There was no Zhenni in the crowd.
Something plucked on my sleeve, and I looked down into the big round eyes of Osanna.
“Father wouldn’t let me stay to tend to her. He said we had to leave, that she wasn’t our problem. Please check on her, Alexavier.” Desperation rang in the little one’s voice and fear misted in her eyes.
“Cocksucker,” Thane mused almost inaudibly.
“Of course.” I winked. It was all there was time for before Sven came and lugged her back to their scowling father’s side. I glared back at him, only to be met with a hard flick to my ear.
“Mind your own,” my mother advised. “You tend to your affairs and let Einar tend to his women folk.”
“Shh,” Thorne hissed, waving a finger toward the front.
Einar had stepped away from the table. It was now filled with the usual five elders. Father, Alrik, Frothi, Osvald, and Veleif. They were all formidable warriors, having led our people through many seasons of battle. Veleif, however, had been destined for glory. His father and grandfather before him were Kings. Usurped, it was he who had originally planned the raids and agreements that had secured our new land.
“To the safe arrival of our people and the hospitality we found!” Veleif called over the masses.
“Skal.” The crowd answered, almost as one.
The left row was segregated. A small crowd of regal looking Saxon men watched on nervously.
“As you all know, this is a big change for us. We are not used to having such plentiful trade or having neighbors so close.” He waved his hand toward a very important looking man to the left.
The Saxon and two of his associates trickled through the right side of the crowd. The man being summonsed rounded the table and approached Veleif, while the other two chose to wait behind a few feet away from us.
“Sin mongers,” The larger one hissed to the other. “They don’t even have the sense to realize this is for their fucking cattle.”
The other tipped his head toward the sound, but locked eyes with Thane in the process. Rather than respond, he dug his elbow into the bigger guy’s ribs and nodded toward the front.
“We are a community of people on the outlying grounds of Galena,” Alrik interjected. “It is true, we fend for ourselves, we fight for ourselves, but in time of need we will work with our neighbors to keep all of our interests safe. We are not in the home villages anymore. That is why we must consider the Saxon rules when conducting ourselves in trade and day to day encounters.” Alrik didn’t sound as informative as Veleif, in fact, he sounded provocative. “We will obey their laws and keep their peace.”
People were cursing and barking furiously. Veleif’s hand floundered in the air, desperately trying to control the explosive volume around him.
We had not come here to be one of them, we came here to live beside them. Freely. Their ways were not ours, and it was undeniably apparently that almost everyone felt that way.
“We will not adapt Galena’s laws. We will modify them to suit us!” Father bellowed, sending everyone back to a whisper. His face was flushed, and he leveled a murderous gaze at Alrik.
It was always Frothi and Alrik that shook the boat. The younger of the five elders, they tended to be far more radical in judgement and execution. The other three clung tightly to the old ways, while hopelessly trying to find a peaceful ground. We were a people in need of recovery. The usurping had lowered our numbers, claimed a good deal of our men and young. We needed peace, but it was not in our nature to lay low and accept ugliness. If there was to be peace, it would have to be mutually built.
“We will have our ways.” Veleif smoothed, “People… you all know I will always hold dear the ways of our people. Of our ancestors and the true Gods. We will have our laws and ways, but they will fit inside the laws of the nation we sit upon.”
The fussing erupted again, but it wasn’t as violent.
Thane
It seemed each elder had a different way of washing the facts. It didn’t matter which piece of ribbon they tied the shit up with, it was still ugly. And our people would still balk.
I spat between the chummy bastards who had been deposited in front of us and nudged my way from the crowd.
“Thane,” Mother loudly whispered, but I couldn’t be bothered with her.
The tavern was so empty that the frail wood door seemed to echo when it scraped past me and clicked shut. Gunner looked up and tipped his chin in greeting.
“Sounds like a damn hen house over there. Did they outlaw ale or women?” he asked, laughing.
“Might as well. We’re all going to be laying about getting fat a few days a week if we live like they want us to.” I shook my head and saddled the stool. It had a slat of wood just the right height to scrape the mud off the back of my boot while I perched. His ale was as great as I remembered it to be. If only because he kept it cool and coming.
I managed three of them—I’d say in peace and quiet, but I didn’t believe anyone ever felt t
ruly at peace in there. I laid the empty mug on the counter the moment the door burst open and stood. That was my cue. It didn’t matter who it was or how many. I didn’t want to deal with anyone or anything that still breathed. I wanted to numb myself to the thousands of images that played through my head each night. The close calls, the split skulls, and all the atrocities in between. They were necessary things, but they were the things that haunted me. The things I brought home from the raids and wars.
I weaved around those filing in, cringing as a random clapped my shoulder in the spirit of comradery. If he only knew the impulses that unsolicited contact provoked. I knew the moment the homicidal thoughts registered in my eyes; I could always tell by their reactions alone. The man’s brows knitted, and he nearly tripped over himself trying to place distance between us.
“Fuck me.” I sighed, stepping out into the cool sobering night.
“Oh, that I would,” Adira lustfully crowed. She may as well have buried her nails in my shoulders and dragged them to my ass. I winced, jerking my neck a few times to chase the creepy feeling away before I turned to face her.
“We all know ye would, lass. Any of ‘em that stop long enough to toss ye a smile,” Mother ranted from behind me.
By then, I had both shoulders around my ears. It was all just… the outburst crawled with the steam and promise of something furious, but before I lost it, Alexavier giggled like a girl. A look over my shoulder revealed Mother’s tightly clenched fist and tense jaw. No one laughed at her, not in public.
“I don’t know what you think I jest about. She would have both of you, if you let her,” Mother added furthered.
Alexavier and I locked eyes over her shoulder. A guilty grin split his features.
If she only knew.
“Well, fuck, I’m not settling...” I began while starting toward the house. Unlike Alexavier, I was smart enough to walk and talk. “If she can’t stomach all three of us.”
Mother inhaled so hard she choked. I could hear her heavy steps but paid them no mind. She couldn’t run if she had to… I held every confidence that I could walk faster than she could waddle.
“Stop talking that way. Filth. How will I ever get grandchildren if you speak so in front of the ones that come from good families?”
I whirled around, astounded by the ignorance of such a statement.
There was a limit to the crudeness I would subject her to. Especially when her stall tactics had worked, and she was now of a close enough distance to throw shit. “Ye want a grandchild from the village pool then?”
“Is there a difference in the village pool and the family wash tub?” Her voice strained and stretched until I thought she would croak. I had only meant to tease her.
Never in life had I ever pictured myself being honest about such things with my mother. With anyone, really.” I leaned in and laughed while searching the nights sky.
“Maybe I don’t want children.”
I forced my face to scrunch as if it were the grandest of jokes, but pain rippled acrossed her blue eyes. I sucked my teeth, allowing my gaze to flee towards Alexavier, who massaged the back of his neck while staring at the dirt.
That was my younger brother. Quiet, reserved, unoffending. He was the thinker, the one with his heart on his sleeve. That was why it worked out. I was no longer able to do that. I was too terrified to do that. No one wants a weak man. A man crippled by the nightmares of battles past and no longer able to remove his armor for fear of the next one.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she managed before trailing toward the cabin. I knew she was crying, I could hear the gaspy waning breaths.
I knew what I said. I might be different, but I was as brutally honest in my self-observations as I was with everything else in the world. It didn’t matter how many times the village women whispered of only wanting to fuck. The truth was, they wanted more. They hoped I would like it, or that they amongst all women would be special. And they were… They were good women. Women who deserved a whole man. A man who could match the compassion and warmth that they brought.
I was not such a man.
I could make their every carnal desire come true and could put food on their table, when I was of a mind. There were many days, however, that I only cared for two things; to find the distraction of pleasure and to disappear into the solitude of nature.
Together it just worked out. Thorne had the calmness and stability about him, and Alexavier was the tenderness.
His elbow, however, was not so tender when it checked mine. The impact bit bone on bone. I fought the impulse to throttle him, but only until I saw Einar and the kids.
We both forgot the shenanigans and stalked the man to the edge of his yard. He shoved Sven toward the doorway without a word. Little Osanna scrambled after him like a trained pup while their father walked off toward the forest. I hadn’t realized I intended to follow him until Alexavier’s arm planked across my chest.
“Leave her be,” my mother hissed from behind us before welcoming Thorne with a hug. “Leave it and get inside, all of you.”
Thorne wasn’t having it. He marched past her and picked up the axe. Within moments, he had two logs split. Mother flailed across the yard, crying once again.
“Stop it! You will not stick your nose into someone else’s home affairs. And stop dawdling about over that damn girl!”
Thorne glared back at her before collecting the firewood and carrying it over to Einar’s porch. This time, Alexavier had to restrain her. It was a ridiculous display. She had no reason to hold ill will toward Zhenni. They hardly knew each other.
“You. It is you who needs to stop it,” I loudly redirected. “Hear me well. That man is no good. I can sense it as clear as any o’ the beast I track. A foul creature, that one. He reeks o’ cowardice and broken oaths.”
The emotion of it all jolted through me. I had no reason to yell at her, but there we were, on the verge of a family melt down, over what… Einar?
“For fuck sake,” I spat, before throwing my hands up and stomping toward the lodge.
That night, as I laid in bed, I heard the firewood spill onto the floor near the hearth. A few hours later, the door creaked, and Thorne squirreled into the furs. I smiled and wondered who would win the battle of wills and just how long it would take before we were spending much more time with Einar’s new ward.
***
“Thane,” Mother whispered, pain echoing through her voice. Her eyes were red and her hair disheveled. I threw the furs aside and rolled from the bed. I searched blindly for my axe while my mind reeled to process what was happening.
“Thorne…” I called.
“Shh. Shh. He is outside, just look.” She was weeping.
My arm went limp, leaving the axe to dangle like an anchor. I pressed past her and craned my neck. Across the way I noticed my brother delivering the firewood to Einar’s stoop.
“Come.” She tugged on my shoulder. I wiggled free, eager to see if Thorne would find the balls to knock or if it would end up being a not-so-anonymous delivery. “We must… please, son.”
I sighed and hung my head. She knew how to work us, that was for sure.
“Fine. What is it? Go where?” I groaned.
“To the Seer,” she gushed, grabbing my arm once more. She hurried me out the door and around the side of the house before Thorne could see.
“Yeah. I…I could walk you to the Seer. Sure.” I stammered.
“That is good.” She gasped, waddling all the faster.
My words were for naught. When we arrived, she jerked me inside with her. Leaving me to choose between stumbling after her or making the mother of all scenes. I glared at her and wrapped my arms around my chest. The place was worse than the fucking tavern. A thatch-roofed, circular hut with all number of animals and amphibians lurking about in cages and bottles. One large jar even boasted an unborn babe.
“Sick,” I hissed.
“I usually refuse help to those who come seeking the knowledge of
others,” an ominous voice called from the shadows.
I brought my hand up to my mouth and pretended to stroke my facial hair. I’m not sure what I expected to be hiding in there, but it sure wasn’t the short-robed woman that emerged.
“Since one of the three is present, however, I will make an exception this time.” Her hand came out expectantly. Mother gasped and stepped back, inspiring a deep dark laugh from the robed woman. “Come now. I haven’t all day. You came with three cords, did you not?”
Even in the dim light, Mother visibly paled before nodding. She slipped her hand to her pocket and pulled out what looked like three tiny pieces of dark apricot. I wanted to ask what they were, but dread filled my throat. I thought I was choking for a moment.
“This one is his?” the woman mused, holding one up in my direction.
“One of them is, yes,” mother agreed.
“My what?” I nervously laughed.
“Your cord. When you were a babe, this is what fed you life.” She stared into her hand, holding her nose close enough to have snorted the other two. “And this one is Thor’s...no… Thorne.”
Mother stepped back so quickly I feared she would trip if I didn’t do something to steady her. I reached out and pulled her to my side without taking my eyes off the seer. The woman sprinkled powder over some candles and a green spark emitted. A bit of powder and a drop or two of oil was placed on a metal offering plate and held over the candles until it started to bubble and thicken together.
It was fascinating and terrifying all at once. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t move. Not until she threw those three cord stumps onto the offering plate. While they began to sizzle. I squirmed and took a breath. Panic came in deep, dark waves.
“Stop,” I said firmly. She paid me no mind. Her head tipped back, and she stared up at the smoke billowing from her creation.
“The prize of Domhain will change the fate of all three of your sons, forever. Theirs is an eternal path. A sanctioned journey,” the woman prophesied.
Between Mortals and Makers Page 4
