Thyra Dane

A/N:

I`m so sorry for not having posted a chapter yesterday. I`m currently on a small island with very poor internet connection and when I was ready to post, the connection was down. It`s a lovely island, btw, and the fun thing is that someone has built a copy of a Viking ship, sailed around the world in it (in 1992) and now the ship is here. It`s always a great inspiration for this story to be able to go on board a Viking ship!

I want to thank Suki59 for being such a great beta. She has now posted her second Hunger Games fanfic – you should all go and read it.

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The sun was warm and my head was heavy. I felt sticky and dizzy and was glad I was lying down. Trying not to move and doing so I used the little brain power I had left to decide where I was.

I sent messages to my skin and, though with clear delay, I was told that my legs and the lower part of my torso were on a hard surface, possibly grass. My head was resting higher, though. Higher and warmer.

I was on my back and my arms were by my side. I moved my fingers a little, weaved them into something. Yes, grass.

But I couldn`t make out what was under my head.

A pillow?

No.

I lay still for a little while and then I realized it was alive.

Was it a dog?

No, I didn`t have a dog.

I took a deep breath and a familiar smell reached my nose. What was it?

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw … Odin? No, this wasn`t Odin. I`d found out that this wasn`t Odin. This one had both his eyes. Blue eyes staring at me. A mouth smiling.

The sun was behind his head and made his blond hair glow like gold. Definitely not Odin.

“Eric?” I asked, my voice not really my own. It was distant and … raspy.

“Do you need to throw up?” he asked and my hazy brain immediately found the memory of the last time I`d been intoxicated with Eric.

I shook my head and realized I was lying in his lap, his strong thighs under my head and shoulders.

“How do you feel?” Eric asked.

“Dizzy,” I said, still in that same whispery voice. “And thirsty.”

Eric leaned back and soon a leather flask was at my mouth and fresh water rolled down my throat. And my chin as I couldn`t swallow very well.

“Amelia told me you`d taken the mushrooms of truth.”

I nodded. “She`d had a vision where I was predicting the future.”

He grinned. “She told me about your predictions.”

“She did?”

“Yes, apparently you and I are going to grow old together. No house in Valhalla.” His grin was still there and I couldn`t detect if it was because he enjoyed that prediction or if he was just teasing me.

“Really?” My voice was now loaded with doubt.

“Really. Did you know that you and I are going to have eleven children?”

Definitely teasing. “I am not giving birth to eleven children. You`d be castrated long before that happens.” I took another sip of the water and felt my brain clearing.

“But imagine the fun we`d have making all those children.”

I couldn`t help enjoying the feeling of lying in his lap and staring into his teasing face. I tried to hold onto my anger. My frustration. But it seemed to fade away and my heart started fluttering as if it belonged to a teenage girl.

“You know I`m good with the sword. A little mishap during practice and I wouldn`t have to worry about you impregnating me at all,” I said but my smile undermined the threat.

Eric pretended he hadn`t heard me. “The boys would be as strong and brave as their father and the girls as good looking as their mother.”

“Or vice versa,” I countered.

“I know that I`m handsome, Sookie, but I wouldn`t want my daughters to have my looks.” His smile was wider.

“I meant that I was strong and brave, you oaf,” I said and tried to push myself up to a sitting position. It didn`t go very well as my dizziness came back and it brought friends. Headache and Nausea.

“I think I have to throw up anyway,” I managed to say just before bile filled my mouth.

Magically I was pushed to lie on my side and a bowl appeared under my mouth. I emptied my stomach – and then some.

“I seem to get to see this side of you a lot, wife,” Eric said in a dry voice and it wasn`t until I`d dry-heaved a couple of times that I realized he`d called me “wife.”

“Yeah,” I said, searching my brain for a snappy reply. “You have to wonder why I keep throwing up when you`re near.” Not exactly what I`d wanted to say but it would have to do.

“Ouch. I remember other reactions to being close to me. I can still hear your moans of desire, your ….”

“I thought I was going to die, remember?” I stopped him. I couldn`t help smiling, though, because I remembered those moans too.

When my stomach seemed to be through dry-heaving and I had nothing left for it to throw up, Eric gently raised me and half-carried me away from the camp and to a lake close by. He peeled off my clothes in silence and then undressed himself while holding onto me with one hand – which was good because I wasn`t sure I could stand on my own two feet without the support.

My brain noticed the fact that his arm seemed to work and I wanted to comment on it but didn`t.

He carried me into the lake, his right arm carrying most of the weight so apparently his left arm wasn`t back to full strength yet, and lowered me so that I had water to my chin. I dived under and took a large sip of water. Then I rubbed my face to make sure there wasn`t any vomit left on my chin.

I knew I should be embarrassed that Eric had helped his vomiting wife twice now but I just couldn`t muster the energy to care. If a large army had come my way now, threatening to kill me and everyone I cared about, I would probably just have welcomed them and asked them to be quick about it.

I was that exhausted.

Eric pulled me up and I remembered I had to breathe which was hard with my face under water. I gasped for air and realized my brain was in a poor condition when not even my basic survival skills were functioning.

“Thank you,” I said to Eric when my breathing was normal again.

“You`re welcome. I can`t have you drowning now that I know you`ll be the mother of my eleven children,” he deadpanned.

“I think I`m going to be sick again,” I deadpanned back while making gagging sounds. Yes, I`m hilarious when I`m recovering from a night of mushrooms.

He smiled and let his hands glide over my body. Not in a I-want-your-body-and-I-want-it-now way but to make sure I was clean all over, rubbing away invisible dirt and things too gross to think about.

Then he pulled me up and carried me to the grassy hill at the other end of the lake. He laid me down and stretched out next to me. We lay there next to each other, our bodies getting dry and warm from the sun and when his hand grabbed mine I couldn`t help sighing.

Imagine that – me, Sookie Stackhouse, sighing because of a man. And not just any man, but the man I`d cursed for weeks and wanted to give a good kick if I ever saw him again.

I was a disgrace.

We lay there for awhile. The sun moved over the sky, and the shadows from the distant trees and rocks moved with it.

I was at perfect peace. With the world. With myself. With Eric. It must have been some mushroom to have accomplished that and deep inside I knew the peace wasn`t a lasting one. No peace ever was.

“Why are you here?” I asked Eric when I`d listened to the birds and the bees and his breathing for too long.

“I expected you didn`t want to miss the war so I came to get you.”

I turned my head and found him looking at me. Eric smiled one of those smiles that turned his blue eyes warmer and made me want to smile back. “I thought Sophie-Anne wanted to wait?”

“Not when she has the upper hand.”

My mushroom-drugged brain didn`t connect at first but then I realized what he meant. “Victor,” I said.

“Yes. Felipe has received an ultimatum. He is to give in or Victor will die.”

“Sophie-Anne expects a battle?” I asked.

“Sophie-Anne likes to be prepared. And she assumes Felipe will be more likely to accept defeat if Sophie-Anne`s army is larger than his.”

“Which is why she needs me?”

“Sophie-Anne wants as many women fighting for her as possible.” One of Eric`s fingers glided down my cheek to my chin.

“She is sending Felipe a message.” I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his finger when it made another trip down my cheek.

“It`s a message I agree with,” Eric said and leaned over me. A kiss as soft as a butterfly`s wings landed on my mouth and I inhaled, taking in his smell. But before I could kiss him back he`d rolled up to a sitting position. “We need to get back,” he said.

“But ….” I wasn`t sure what I was going to say but it had something to do with the kiss.

“I would love to, Sookie,” he said and gave me another one of his special smiles. “But I`d prefer for you to be entirely sober. Our first time was on death`s door. I don`t want our second one to be with you drugged on mushrooms.”

And then he kissed me again.

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A/N:

This was a short one – sorry. It had to be like this because of the next chapter.

Vølve:

Since I have no internet right now I can`t double check, but I think it was AuntieL who asked me what a “Vølve” was. I`m sorry I didn`t explain the Vølve in my last chapter.

A vølve, or volve, volva or vola, was a person who could see the future. A vølve was a woman and usually the leader of a cult of women who would travel around the country and offer their services. She would be connected to Odin who could also predict the future.

Vølve means “carrier of the holy rod” and that rod would usually be the sign of their “profession.” Until Christianity the Vølve were met with a large amount of respect but later they were looked upon as witches which wasn`t as positive. In my story I`ve called Amelia a witch but this is meant as a positive Vølve – someone who will do good things for her people.

Vølve were closely related to Sejdmenn (men) and Sejdkonur (women) who were a kind of shamans. Often a Vølve would also be a handler of the Sejd. Women who were Sejd had much more respect than men, who would often be taunted for choosing that line of work. In some myths Sejdmenn were seen as sexual perversions and not “real” men.

Vølves (who were always women) were usually looked upon as experts in sexual seduction but men were also warned against having sex with them as they could lose their powers to the powerful Vølves.

A/N:

Thank you so much for all your nice comments after the last chapter.

I also want to thank Suki59 for being such a great beta. Did you notice that she is now writing a Hunger Games fanfiction? Go read!

Charlaine Harris owns the characters in this story. She also owns the brand new book she published last week – a book I loved so much. Now I can`t wait for the last one in the series.

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I looked at Tara, sitting by herself, staring at nothing. People walked past her on the boat and she sat there like she was in her own little world. She didn`t even glance at the goat that was chewing on her dress. The wind had pulled some of her hair out of her braid and it was making a poetic dance on her face, something she didn`t seem to mind. Or notice.

She was wearing short sleeves since it was a hot day and I noticed something new. Tara`s arm wasn`t soft anymore. All the sword training had left her with long and lean muscles under the skin.

Her face was different too. Where she`d always had a smile on it she was more stoic now. She hadn`t spoken about JB or her children and I knew she wasn`t going to. Tara had a plan. She had a purpose. And getting strong was part of that plan. I suspected all the muscles were an alternative to breaking apart and frankly, I preferred a strong and determined Tara even if I missed talking to her like we used to talk.

I looked over at Jason. He`d started to smile again but not the way he used to. Jason wasn`t that easy-go-lucky guy he`d been. He had the same set jaw as Tara and I knew he had made plans that corresponded with hers.

Tara and Jason were going to avenge what had happened to them and the thought of that revenge was what was keeping them up.

I took a deep breath of the sea air. I still had all my limbs and none of my immediate family had been killed recently so why was I the one who wanted to roll up and cry?

I had this big black hole inside me and I wasn`t sure how to fill it.

I`d filled my time – every waking hour since Eric had left had been full of Sookie-activities. I`d tried to make myself useful. To Sam. To Tara. To Jason. To the village. And I`d worked out harder than I ever had, making sure Tara and Jason would be ready for whatever they needed to be ready for.

But something was missing.

I cursed Eric. I cursed him to all the gods just like I`d cursed him every day since he`d left. He`d left me with this huge void in my stomach and every time I thought about him – which was way more often than I would have wanted – I ended up kicking something. Which was fine when it was a rock in the forest but my beautiful wooden cup would never be the same after I`d kicked it from one end of my house to the other.

Deep down I`d known Eric would be just like every other guy. No, like every other handsome guy (broken nose or not). Handsome guys were not trustworthy. They would gladly plant themselves between the legs of any semi-willing girl and I`d known it when I`d first met him.

And yet I`d managed to fall for him.

In spite of all my promises to myself. All my good intentions to stay clear of Eric the Smug Bastard. It was all for nothing. Not only had I had sex with him – that was excused by the imminent death threat I`d faced and my sudden desire to share a house with Eric in Valhalla – but I`d fallen in love with him.

I`d somehow managed to give him my heart without even realizing it. And what I had received in return was Eric the Grumpy jumping into his boat without even giving me a decent kiss goodbye.

I took another deep breath and pushed all thoughts of Eric aside. Eric was not here and the next time I would see him would be in battle. If he was lucky I would fight by his side and not slide a knife between his shoulder blades – the was very lucky and I`d forgotten my knives at home.

That made me smile. Violence was, after all, my favorite way of solving problems. Even if I only solved them in my head. I didn`t relish the thought of Eric being dead but the thought of killing him took some of the edge off my aggression and I managed to lower my shoulders a little.

“How are you doing?”

It was Amelia the Witch who came over to sit next to me. She and I had never been best friends but we`d grown up together and I had nothing against her. Nothing apart from the fact that she made me nervous.

I liked to fight with my sword and even if I had an advantage because the gods had given me the ability to see slightly into the future when I was in battle, I was still a straight forward warrior.

Amelia, on the other hand, was a vølve. The rod she was holding in her hand was her sword – her sign to the world about her special ability. If I could look a few moments into the future, Amelia the Witch could see days, months and years past today.

Which was entirely unnerving.

Amelia was not a mean person but every time she talked to me I had a feeling that she was trying to give me a special message about my future. A warning, perhaps.

Of course, her predicting the death of my parents contributed to the goosebumps I got every time she came close to me. Not that she`d outright said that my parents were going to die but she`d warned them about the trip. She`d told them not to leave the village but they`d chosen not to listen to her.

“Enjoying the sun,” I replied. I could have answered her question in a number of ways but most of them would have involved tears or anger so I chose neutral talk about the weather.

She smiled that smile that always made me feel that she knew I was going to say exactly what I`d chosen to say.

“It is a lovely day,” she said.

We sat quietly next to each other for awhile, enjoying the sun and the boat plowing through the water.

“Are you happily married?” she suddenly asked.

I looked at her. “I`m not really sure I am married,” I said. “We never had any ceremony.”

“Would you like to be married?”

I shrugged. “Marriage never was important to me.”

It was true. I`d never been one of those girls who pined for married life. I wouldn`t have been a shieldmaiden if I had been. And it certainly hadn`t changed with Eric. Or at least, that was what I was telling myself.

Eric had broken my heart. There was no point in missing what you couldn`t have.

“No, it never was, was it?” she said. “But maybe you just haven`t met the right man yet.”

I shrugged again. My shoulders were getting quite the exercise.

Amelia was probably right that I hadn`t met the right man for marital life because the right man didn`t exist. Eric was the wrong man – or at least he`d turned out to be wrong.

Amelia stayed close to me even when we had to get up and help lower the sails and row the boat safely into the harbor. And she walked next to Jason, Tara and me when we made our way up to the woods and the holy tree where the blot was to be held.

I noticed she was scanning the area and all the people there but so were we all. Blot was a rare chance to meet new people without having to kill them. People traveled several days to celebrate midsummer in Djupskog and there would be years between meeting some of the people who came from far away.

Djupskog wasn`t only a place where we celebrated midsummer and sacrificed to the gods. Djupskog was a place where enemies met without animosity, where men and women found spouses and where quite a few inexperienced girls – and some experienced – left with the beginnings of a new little life in their bellies.

Djupskog was one large party and we all knew that later in the evening it could very well turn into an orgy. Not that I would be participating. Luckily Sam decided we were going to camp at the outskirts of the blot area which meant that we wouldn`t be where people were going to cavort. Not unless we went there ourselves.

“Amelia!” someone shouted.

I`d heard the voice before but couldn`t place it so I turned around and saw a tall, dark man waving like a fool. He was too far away for me to recognize him so I squinted. He looked familiar and just as I realized who it was, Amelia raised her arm and waved back.

“Alcide the Wolf!” she shouted back. “Come over here!”

I rolled my eyes. Not that I had anything against Alcide the Wolf apart from the fact that he was a handsome man and handsome men weren`t my favorites in general and especially not after what had happened with Eric, but the wolfy glare he gave me made me shiver. And not in a good way. Alcide certainly lived up to his name.

“You remember Sookie?” Amelia asked when Alcide joined us, and pushed me forward.

“Who could forget the most beautiful and dangerous woman in the world?” Alcide said and I could almost hear him howling at the moon.

“It`s been several years, Alcide,” I said, though deep down it was nice to know that someone found be unforgettable. Not that it was important, of course. Me and men? Not going to happen. Not now. I`d learned my lesson.

“Too long, Sookie. I came looking for you recently but Amelia told me you were traveling. I`m glad you chose to come to the blot.“

Alcide gestured to his people and suddenly they had all camped next to us. Alcide never left my side and neither did Amelia. I noticed Jason and Tara get up but before I could join them they were gone. I figured they were just going to take a look around, maybe meet a few people, and forced myself to breathe easily and not worry about them.

I smiled at Alcide and suddenly I found myself much more relaxed than I had been the last couple of days and weeks. Alcide was easy to talk to even if he was a handsome man.

It was getting darker and the midsummer night was dark blue. A bonfire was being lit. People were moving over to sit around it and so were we. On the way over, Amelia walked to her bags and looked for something. She came back to us with a small leather purse and looked at Alcide and then at me.

“Sookie,” she said in a more serious voice than the one she`d used while teasing Alcide and making me feel comfortable. “I`ve had a vision and I want you to do me a favor.”

“Sure. What do you need?” I tried to smile even if I would have preferred not to be part of her visions.

“I need for you to enter the world of dreams and find the truth.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Amelia opened her purse and took out something gray and dry.

“It means that I want you to eat these mushrooms. They will show you truths I can`t see. In my vision I saw that your special eye is even more potent than mine. You are a true Vølve, Sookie, and now is the time for you to explore that side of you.”

I shook my head. “I`m not a Vølve, Amelia. I`m a warrior.”

“We will soon find out, Sookie. If you take the mushrooms and find no truths then my vision was wrong. But in these times of war we can`t afford to lose even a tiny glimpse of the future. I have already arranged with Alcide that he will be your special guardian in the land of now. He will take care of you. I will be close by and try to be your guardian of the future.”

“You`ll take mushrooms too?” I asked.

Amelia laughed. “No, Sookie. I had my vision after having eaten the mushrooms but now I`ll be of more use sober and listening to everything you have to say.”

“When do you want me to do this?” I asked.

“I sense that you`re relaxed so now is a perfect time.”

I exhaled. I`d eaten mushrooms before but that had only been the weaker kind, the ones that only made you laugh and have fun. The mushrooms for searching the truth were much stronger and there was good reason to fear them.

I looked at Amelia and then at Alcide. She seemed very serious but he gave me a comforting smile which made me nod.

“I`ll do it.”

That brought a big smile to Amelia`s face. “Good!” she exclaimed and before I knew it I was chewing on the grey substance she`d pulled out of her leather purse.

At first I didn`t feel anything. I just looked at the people around the bonfire, noticed them talking to each other, laughing and having fun.

My eyes ran back and forth until they chose to stay on Rene who was sitting on the other side of the large bonfire. I didn`t like Rene and having him sneak up on me while sleeping when we were on our raid hadn`t helped my feelings towards him.

Now I found that I couldn`t look away. He was talking to a young girl and suddenly it was as if everyone else disappeared from my vision. Rene`s lips moved in slow motion and the girl laughed. Her laughter seemed to go on forever and I could see how Rene moved closer. How he touched her. I felt his touch on me, his breath on my neck.

I wanted to push him away but the girl just laughed. She laughed when he pulled her up to stand. When he touched her hip, her waist, her breast.

I felt the touches too and tried to shove at Rene. Tried to make him go away.

Then I felt different touches. Calming touches.

“Tell me what`s going on, Sookie,” Amelia said but it sounded as if she were very far away.

“Rene…,” I started. Then I saw Rene and the girl move very fast. They walked twice as fast – no, even faster – towards the woods. They weren`t running, just walking, but it all happened so fast.

I heard the girl scream and felt her push me – no, Rene. She was shoving him but he was too strong, too fast. He pushed me – no, the girl – to the ground.

Tears ran down my cheeks and they really were my tears and my cheeks.

“Rene is raping the girl,” I whispered. “In the woods.”

Strong and warm arms pulled me closer. Alcide`s smell was in my nose and I was sitting between his legs, my back to his chest. I leaned back.”

“Rene is still sitting over there,” he whispered in my ear.

“She is seeing the future, Alcide.” It was Amelia`s voice. “I`ll send someone over to stop him, Sookie,” she said.

It was as if time jumped because Rene was gone and I was on the back of a raven going high into the sky.

“Raven,” I mumbled and I may have said more because I heard Amelia ask me questions that I answered from the sound of her continued questioning.

The raven – and I was the raven now – looked down at a land where people were gathering. They were listening to a man. Suddenly they were running back and forth and there was blood in the grass. They were fighting. It was a battle.

Alcide`s warmth was getting stronger and I felt his hands move on my body. He was touching my stomach and my shoulder – his lower arm crossing my chest between my breasts.

Then his hand was on my breast and I wanted to stop him but I was a raven and ravens can`t speak.

“Krahaa,” I said, like the raven I was and a large man moved towards me.

Maybe I was the raven Hugin? Or Munin? I wasn`t sure but the man seemed important. Maybe he was Odin and I was one of his ravens?

I glanced up and felt my head sway from side to side. No, it couldn`t be Odin. Odin wasn`t blond, was he? And Odin only had one eye. Not two like this man. And not blue.

The hand on my breast fell away and then the arms disappeared. My back turned cold and I fell backwards. I fell and I fell and I fell and I was not a raven anymore.

I was on my back in the grass, staring at the sky. I could smell the grass and I felt as one with the earth. I wanted to sink into the ground but something was holding me back.

Loud noise. Shouts. Screams. A thumping. Someone falling.

I couldn`t turn my head but I knew I should. Knew it was important.

Suddenly I couldn`t see the sky anymore. Something was between me and the stars.

Someone.

It was Odin. No, not Odin.

It was someone blond. Someone with blue eyes. Someone important.

“Eric?” I asked.

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A/N:

I hope this chapter didn`t leave you too drugged. If it did, do not throw yourself into the arms of the guy next to you (unless he is a guy you would normally throw yourself into the arms of) expecting him to be Eric 

Vikings and mushrooms

Mushrooms were used in the Viking age as a drug and also by the various kinds of “seers” to enhance their predictions. The “seers” also used other means to go into the trance they needed to be in. Singing/ chanting and being in a room full of smoke were other ways of getting into the trance.

It`s debated whether warriors used mushrooms when they went to war. For decades it was assumed that warriors who went berserk did it because of these mushrooms. Some warrior groups went berserk in battle after battle and it was assumed that they did it because they were under the mushroom influence.

Recently there has been cast doubt on that. Tests where young men were given mushrooms and then Viking weaponry showed that these men did not perform very well. The Vikings may have been more accustomed to the mushrooms or the use of mushrooms before going into battle is just a myth. No one knows exactly.

Blot

I was asked to write more about blot so here goes:

Written sources from the 11th century talk about four annual times of blot but not all were celebrated by everyone. The famous “Lejre blot” (Lejre was a city in Denmark) was held every 9 years and 99 people and 99 horses were sacrificed, according to one source that may have been exaggerating.

The word comes from blotan which means sacrifice. The animals were hung up, for instance in the trees, and their neck sliced. The blood of the animal was then sprayed on the people participating in the blot.

Midsummer and midwinter were often a time for blot since the Vikings felt it was a time where both good and bad were strong what with the sun turning from warm to cold/ cold to warm.

Today midsummer in Scandinavia is celebrated with huge bonfires and if you`re ever in my parts of the world around midsummer – make sure you make it to one of the bonfire parties. Bring beer 

A/N:

Thank you so much for your reviews and comments to the last chapter!

I also want to thank Suki59 for trying to teach me English grammar. It`s like teaching a rock, I`m sure.

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I sat there with Tara for a very long time, not sure what happened or who went by. I would like to think that I would have reacted if an enemy had come by, that I would defend myself and Tara, but I couldn`t be sure.

All I could see were Tara`s children. Their smiles, their laughter. All I could feel was my best friend in my arms,Tara being so very, very cold from the shock.

My sword had been the answer to all my problems for a very long time and there were probably still some of Victor`s people left to kill but my sword was the last thing on my mind. Holding Tara, keeping her close to me, was all I could think about. Apart from that my brain was empty.

I couldn`t even be angry.

At some point I felt an arm on my shoulder and a kiss to my temple but when I looked up no one was there. Only the smell of Eric in the air. Or was that my imagination?

The ground turned cold and Tara turned even colder – and that was what brought me out of my trance.

I got up and pulled Tara with me. Together we stumbled to my house.

I was relieved to see Jason on the bed and Portia the Healer leaning over his arm. Jason looked pale but he was clearly alive. He`d lost his left hand but Jason was strong enough to fight one-handed if he had to.

Seeing Jason ignited a tiny flame inside me. I didn`t want to disturb Portia and I also didn`t want to let go of Tara so instead of going to Jason, I walked Tara over to my bed where we both lay down.

I pulled her into me and kissed the top of her head when suddenly I remembered something vital.

“What about JB?” I whispered. If he were out there, looking for Tara I would need to find him.

Tara didn`t say anything but I could feel my tunic becoming wet where her face was and I knew he was gone too.

I should have gone out to check the damage. Out there to help put out the fires and save lives, if there were any lives that could be saved. Out there to make sure each and every one of Victor`s men were on their way to Helheim.

But I couldn`t leave Tara.

I woke up the next morning, surprised that I`d fallen asleep at all. Tara had her arm around me and was snoring into my chest.

Carefully, I slid myself out from under Tara and got up. I tip-toed over to Jason`s bed and checked on him. He was asleep too, probably sedated by some plant Portia the Healer had given him.

I went outside, noticing how peaceful the village sounded. The birds were chirping just like they always chirped and the waves hit the beaches as if nothing had happened. The only difference was the smell of soot in the air.

I walked outside the village to wash myself a little. I knew I was stalling, that I didn`t want to see what Victor and his men had done to the village, but after some time I took a deep breath and walked back to the village.

Two houses had been burned to the ground and some had damage. Three pigs were kicking in the dirt outside Sam`s house when I suddenly had an arm around my waist.

I looked behind me, expecting to see Eric but it was Sam`s arm. He didn`t say anything, just pulled me into a hug and we stood like that for a while. Then I took a step back and looked at Sam.

“Is your family …?”

Sam nodded. “They are all fine.”

My shoulders felt much lighter. “Tara lost her husband and her children.”

“I know.”

“How many more?” I asked.

“Six people have been killed apart from Tara`s family.” Sam managed to look angry and sad at the same time.

A wave of guilt hit me. “I came as quickly as I could,” I said.

Sam`s hand glided over my hair like a father would comfort his child.

“I know, Sookie. Eric told me.”

I looked at Sam and he looked at me. Then he nodded. “Eric is keeping Victor down by the harbor,” he said.

“Victor is alive?” I asked.

“Barely. He`s been beaten up and has lost a hand. But he is worth more alive than dead so Eric made sure he wouldn`t die.”

I nodded though I didn`t care how much Victor was worth alive. I wanted him dead ten times over.

After another hug Sam and I walked in different directions. Sam went inside his house and I walked towards the beach.

Eric got up when he saw me. Victor was on the ground, his one hand shackled in what looked like his own chain. There was some irony in that. He didn`t seem entirely conscious but his eyes were open.

“We`re leaving today,” Eric said.

Silly disappointment washed over me. Silly because I knew he had to go home with Victor. Home to Queen Sophie-Anne who would use Felipe`s foster son to her advantage.

It was also silly because I`d spent most of my time with Eric telling him to go away and now I was sad when he was going to do just that.

He took my hand. “You have to go pack if you want to bring anything more.”

I shook my head. He didn`t know? “I can`t leave,” I said. “Jason ….”

Eric`s mouth turned into a narrow line. “You`re my wife.”

“I`m Jason`s sister.” I needed to stay with Jason. I`d always looked after him and he needed me more than Eric did. It broke my heart but it was the truth.

If Eric`s mouth had been a narrow line, his lips disappeared altogether now. We just looked at each other for a long time, emotions thick in the air.

Then Eric glanced over his shoulder at Victor who seemed to be slowly regaining consciousness. “We have to leave now.”

A feeling of loss filled me. What was I supposed to say? I didn`t want him to leave and he didn`t want me to stay but that was not to be changed. But would he leave like this? As if he were indifferent? Would I let him?

Eric grabbed a bucket from the boat and filled it with seawater. Then he threw it in Victor`s face. “Wake up, you little slug!” he shouted and kicked Victor in the hip. “You`re lucky that you`re worth more alive than dead but don`t tempt me.”

Victor came to and his half grin told me he hadn`t been as unconscious as he`d liked us to believe.

A warm arm landed on my shoulder and somehow I knew it was Claude even if I hadn`t heard him coming. I leaned into him.

“You`ll leave too?” I asked even though I knew the answer. Eric couldn`t sail the boat alone with his broken arm and he needed help. A little behind Claude I saw Hoyt the Meek and Dermot the Twin.

Dermot wasn`t really the twin of anyone but he`d been born six months after Jason and everyone knew Dermot was our half-brother. He looked like Jason`s twin and that was the name he got. I liked Dermot even if he would always be the testament of my father`s infidelity. Infidelity while my mother had been pregnant with Jason. But then my father had been like most men – not to be trusted.

Now Dermot and Hoyt were leaving with Eric and Claude. I gave them a faint smile and turned my attention back to my cousin.

“I can have a family, Sookie. A wife and children. You know I always wanted that.”

“I know.” And I did. After all, he`d tried to have that with me.

“And now I can have a family with someone who will love me as a friend but not love me too much.” Claude kissed the top of my head.

I nodded. I`d loved Claude too much and Claude had learned how love can hurt. How my love for him hurt me. And even if Claude never loved me the way I loved him, he loved me enough to know it was wrong of him to cause me pain like that.

“I`m staying here,” I said but my voice sounded wrong. Thick and heavy.

“I know, Sookie. I told Eric you couldn`t leave Jason. Not now.”

I nodded towards Eric who was pulling Victor up and walking him down to the boat. “Be careful.”

“I`ll look after him,” Claude said. “And you`ll meet again in the next battle, may it come soon.”

“May it come soon,” I repeated.

Claude, Hoyt and Dermot started walking towards Eric and Victor but when Victor saw them coming, he only grinned. Then he stared at me.

“It seems I underestimated you,” he said.

“It seems you did,” I replied.

“I may have been influenced by my father`s opinion of women.”

Eric pushed him. “He`s not your father. You`re just his foster son, Victor.”

Victor laughed. “At least I acknowledge him. Did you know that Felipe made a command that no one was to kill you? You`re his favorite nephew. Well, his only nephew, really. And you keep pretending he doesn`t …. “

Victor never got to explain what Eric was pretending because Eric`s fist had landed hard on Victor`s face and Victor was now unconscious again. This time for real.

Claude walked over, picked up Victor and dumped him in the boat. Then he walked back to me, grabbed me in his long arms and gave me a big hug.

“Talk to Sam,” he whispered. “He`ll explain everything.”

I nodded and waited for Eric to come give me a hug too but he just got the boat ready and soon Eric and Claude, Hoyt and Dermot were a little dot far out there in the fjord and I was alone on the beach.

“Eric is the son of Felipe`s wife`s sister,” Sam explained.

“So he`s not related to Queen Sophie-Anne?” I asked.

We were in his house, his wife and children elsewhere. Sam had offered me a cup of mead and I was drinking it too fast, taking large sips when I should have been taking small ones. I leaned my elbows on the table to enhance my balance.

“Not by blood, no.” Sam poured me another cup. “And he`s not related to Felipe by blood either. But Eric is the only male relative Felipe has and Felipe had planned on making Eric his son and heir. An heir would strengthen Felipe`s claim to the throne since Sophie-Anne has no children and no siblings. She doesn`t even have a husband.”

“What went wrong?” I asked.

Sam took a sip of his mead. “First there was Eric`s mother,” he explained. “Then Pam.”

“What about them?”

“You know that Felipe is the Chief of Great Island?” Sam asked.

I didn`t know Felipe was chief there but I`d learned that Great Island was where he lived. Great Island was technically part of Queen Sophie-Anne`s kingdom but some of the areas still kept their own chiefs.

“Yes,” I half lied. I probably should have known more about Felipe but I`d never listened much to gossip and I hadn`t been one of Sam`s strategists. I`d been a warrior and I`d always known my limits when it came to politics.

Sam looked at me. “Eric didn`t tell you any of this?” he asked, his brows furrowed.

“Tell me what?”

“Why they moved?”

I shook my head and didn`t like the feeling of not knowing – not when it came to Eric. It had never bothered me before. I`d welcomed not knowing things because it was always easier to fight whoever I was told to fight and to look after Jason. I was friendly to most people and we usually had enough to eat even if some winters had been tough.

It had been an easy life but now I found myself wanting more.

And being annoyed at Eric for not having offered me the knowledge I should have had.

“Felipe wanted two things from Eric`s family. He wanted the women to submit …,” Sam started.

“How?”

“The women in Eric`s family have always been warriors. Eric`s mother was one and so was his aunt, Felipe`s wife.”

“And Pamela,” I added.

“Pamela was one of the best shieldmaidens ever to have fought.”

“So what happened?”

“Felipe married Eric`s aunt and slowly but surely he managed to break her fighting spirit. Then when Eric`s father died Felipe tried to break his mother and ban the use of women as warriors.”

Sam took another sip of his mead. “Alain the Cruel was getting sick by then so he did nothing to stop his brother.”

“Alain the Cruel was Queen Sophie-Anne`s father.” I tried to make it a statement but really it was a question. I hadn`t paid much attention to the royalties of foreign countries.

“Yes, and when he died Felipe assumed he could take over. That everyone would agree with him that women were too weak to fight the way a king should be able to fight.”

I mulled it over and then I remembered something Sam had said. “You told me there were two reasons Eric`s family left Great Island. What was the other reason?”

Sam smiled. “You could have been married to a prince now if they hadn`t,” he said. “Eric was the only male relative Felipe had and even if Eric was not of Felipe`s blood, Felipe wanted him.”

“Wanted him?”

“Felipe sought to adopt Eric as his own.”

It wasn`t until I entered my house I realized I hadn`t asked Sam why he had decided we should fight on the Queen`s side. We could have stayed out of the fight.

I didn`t want to think that we should have stayed out of the fight because I had never been one to shy away from a battle, but the thought had temporarily grazed my mind and when I walked inside my house and found Tara lying there staring at the ceiling and Jason doing pretty much the same, the thought came back to me.

Then I reminded myself that a man who found women weak should never be in power. At least not in a country close to where I lived. I also pictured how Eric and his family had run away from Felipe. How they had found it necessary to break up the lives they knew and leave them behind them to start new lives somewhere else – just because of Felipe the Throne-robber.

I knew without a doubt that Sam would never have put us in danger unless he had found it necessary to do just that and with that knowledge I walked over to Jason and sat down. I let my hand glide down his long hair and tried not to look at the arm with no hand.

Both Jason and Tara slept what seemed like an endless sleep. Jason was running a slight fever and Tara was cold so I put them in the same bed and made sure Portia kept them as sedated as they needed to be. Reality was too harsh for them right now and I figured some sleep would do them good.

I kept them fed and made sure they had bedpans and I made myself busy by helping out to rebuild my village. There also were the fields to consider. We`d sown seeds earlier in the spring but now was the time to weed and to spread manure.

We also had to catch some runaway cows and I`d volunteered to milk Tara`s. It was nice to be busy even if I`d always hated weeding and milking – not to mention spreading manure. It had to be done, though, and right now I was happy to do it.

I tried to think as little as possible. Jason missing his hand, Tara having lost her family, Claude gone and Eric having left the way he did – I tried to ban all those thoughts from my brain.

At night I was all alone. My bed – the bed I`d slept alone in since Gran died and up until Eric came to our village – seemed way too big and I couldn`t sleep.

The sun was up later and later which meant I could work late into the night but even if I were exhausted when I undressed and got under my covers, I just kept staring at the ceiling.

It wasn`t until the sixth day a change came. Jason stopped me when I was about to give him his medicine and as if Tara were an extension of my brother, she refused to take it too.

“We need to start working on our sword skills,” Jason said and I wasn`t sure who he meant by “we.” Was it Tara and him or me and him? Or maybe it was all three of us.

I nodded because he was right. It had been years since I`d gone that long without a good workout with my sword.

Instead of asking Jason how he would manage with his lost hand – or if he was supposed to work out at all so quickly after having had stitches – I helped him out of bed. He was a bit wobbly after having spent so long lying down but he got up anyway.

Tara got up too and wasn`t in much better shape than my brother. She looked as if she`d taken Jason`s “we” to heart so when Jason started walking towards the door, she followed.

I grabbed our swords and some clean clothes for them, and steered them towards the river so that they could clean up first. Then after we’d washed ourselves, we walked to the meadow.

The workout on the first day was slow and careful but the next days and weeks we got more serious. Jason had his stitches removed and was handling his lack of balance better every day. Even if Jason rarely had used his left hand on his sword, he`d used it in other ways – ways he now had to change.

Tara hadn`t worked out much with her sword after she`d married JB but she`d been talented when she was young and soon her old talents flowed back into her arms and hands. She had a new ferocity to her fighting and I knew she was seeing her children`s murderers at the end of her sword.

Tara was ready for revenge – which wasn`t a bad reason to become a shieldmaiden.

We`d been working out for hours every day way into the first days of summer when Sam found us in the meadow.

“I`ve decided that we`ll make a blot on Midsummer,” he said. “We need to have the gods on our side.”

I nodded and I could see Tara and Jason agreeing too. Sacrificing a few animals was a small price to pay if it could help us in the upcoming battle against Felipe the Throne-robber. We didn`t know when we were going to fight him – only that it would be before the first snow.

“When are we leaving?” Jason asked.

Blot always took place in the holy forest of Djupskog, half a day`s sailing to the south of our village. We only went to the Midsummer blot when a sacrifice was deeply needed. The last time we`d gone had been five years ago when three women had lost their children during pregnancy during the spring and two cows had died mysteriously. Sam had consulted Amelia the Witch who had gone into a trance and come back with a message from the gods. They were angry at us.

This time we were going to make a blot as a precaution, not an appeasement.

“I think it would be wise to be there a few days ahead of Midsummer. I think there will be quite a turnout this year,” Sam replied. “There always is when war is brewing.”

We were lucky to live fairly close to Djupskog. Some people had to travel for days to get there and if Sam was correct, Djupskog would be crowded this Midsummer.

Almost the whole village left for the blot. Only a few old people and four men to defend them stayed back. One would anger the gods if one fought during blot but with the lack of honor Victor had shown, we couldn`t be sure his foster father wouldn`t still attack us.

Four men weren`t enough to keep our village safe but at least they would give Felipe a fight if he decided to come for an honorless visit.

We`d brought both cattle and sheep for the blot. The sun warmed us from above and the wind was favorable. It felt as if the gods were pleased already and for the first time in a long time I felt a smile warm my heart while the sun warmed my face.

The blot was a good idea.

---

A/N:

I think I`ve touched blot in a previous chapter but if not blot was the way the Vikings sacrificed animals and, historians think, sometimes slaves too (you`ve probably noticed that I don`t have any slaves in my story – I just couldn`t fit them in). I`ve actually read that they would sacrifice the odd village chief if things were really bad but I`m not sure if that`s true.

I`m not going to sacrifice Sam 

Scandinavia

I`ve had a few questions about Scandinavian topography – what Scandinavia looks like. Here is the short version:

Denmark is very small, very flat (Denmark has absolutely no mountains – only hills) and consists of a lot of small islands. Denmark is the closest populated country in Scandinavia – a lot of larger cities and very little true nature apart from the sea. Denmark has the loveliest beaches in Scandinavia – nice, long sandy beaches.

In my mind Eric lives in the flatlands of Denmark.

Norway has less people than Denmark but is SO much larger. Norway is the second thinnest populated country in Europe after Iceland and it`s a very long country – and due to some very handsome grants from the government, people live in the weirdest places. Norway doesn`t have very large cities but plenty of small villages and farms scattered on mountain tops and in the valleys. The capitol, Oslo, is to the south and if you tip over Norway around where Oslo is and let the rest of Norway be south of Oslo instead of north of it, Norway would go all the way down to Rome, Italy. This is why there are huge differences in climate between the north and the south. Norway is often called Land of the Midnight Sun – which is very much true in the north where the sun doesn`t go down in the summer, but almost semi-true in the south since the summer nights are not very dark. Norway is also called Land of the Fjords because of the deep and very beautiful and majestic fjords to the west of the country.

In my mind Sookie lives in Norway – at the bottom of one of the minor fjords.

Sweden is the largest country in Scandinavia both in land and in population but most Swedes live in the cities to the south. The Swedish government never tried to make people stay in the countryside by giving them monetary reasons to do so, like in Norway, so most Swedes moved to the larger cities. Most of Sweden is therefore one huge forest with wolves and bears and what not. It makes it a bit boring to drive through Sweden – but the size of their cities make them all the more interesting.

In my mind the blot takes place in Sweden – which is between Denmark and Norway.

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Terrorism in Norway

I know that these A/Ns usually are about the Viking age but I had something else I wanted to write about today. As most of you have probably heard, Norway was hit by a terrorist this summer. Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb at the government offices and then he drove to the small island of Utøya where a group of young people from the youth branch of the government party were gathered for their annual celebration. He killed a large number of these kids and drove several hundred of them into the water in the hopes that they would drown.

Anders Behring Breivik is currently under trial where he claims the reason he did all this was his frustration that Norway is becoming more “multi-cultural” and that he thinks it`s the government`s fault (a government the majority of the people of Norway has elected). During the trial he mentioned that he truly hated a certain children`s song, “Children of the Rainbow”, because he felt the song brainwashed kids into thinking all skin colors were equal. This is a very popular song here.

Two women heard this and reacted spontaneously. They invited friends and relatives on Facebook to join them a couple of days later to sing that song and show Anders Behring Breivik that they loved the song he hates and that they don`t share his opinions. Friends and relatives sent it to all their friends and relatives and it turned into something huge. All in all we were 40,000 people who met up last Thursday at 12, in pouring rain, to sing that song. I was there and I can`t tell you how happy it made me to see that huge group of people, all wanting to say that we disagree with Anders Behring Breivik.

We sang the song, walked quietly to the courthouse where the song was song again. People put down roses and we all went back to work. It was very beautiful!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Sookie the Shieldmaiden. I just wanted to share a very touching moment with you.

If you want to see us singing – look up Barn av regnbuen 2012 on YouTube.

Have a nice week!

A/N

I was entirely blown away by the reception you gave the last chapter. Thank you very much!

I also want to thank Suki59 for being such a great beta. And after having been in hibernation for way too long, she posted a story today. Go read it – it`s so very sweet!

Her story is an early pimp for the new contest Northwoman has started up. Well, new-old contest. It`s the same contest she ran with Northman Maille last year, a contest that was one of the most successful SVM fanfic contests ever. Do you have a favorite song? Write a fanfic about it and enter it to the I Write the Songs contest.

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Eric was very quiet and first I assumed he was busy biting back the pain in his arm. I`d managed to tie a bandage, using a branch to help keeping it from getting bent or re-broken. My tunic would never be the same, torn down the middle and missing large parts that I`d used for my fingers and Eric`s arm. His tunic wasn’t as long as it used to be either. I`d needed plenty of cloth to make sure his arm was getting as much support as possible.

But now I realized Eric wasn`t just quiet. He was grumpy. Or angry. Or in a very sour mood.

His huffing gave him away. And his grunting.

I wanted to ask him how he was doing but you don`t poke at an angry bear so I kept my mouth shut.

We were walking downstream again, having decided it would be faster to go down and use our boat than to follow Victor over the mountains. That way we could also pick up Claude and Jason and hopefully have their help against Victor and his men.

I just hoped Jason was fit to fight because Eric sure wasn`t. Not that he`d admit it, though. He`d talked for a very long time about how rarely he used both hands on his sword, being as strong as he was. He`d sounded as if he was mainly trying to convince himself so I hadn`t interrupted him. I`d only suggested he needed to be careful with his left arm until it was healed and that had made him stop talking alltogether.

I carried the iron chain since Eric was more hurt than I was. A broken arm beats a few broken fingers. The chain was heavy but it would be a shame to waste good iron.

We`d lost our swords and we could only assume that Victor and his men had taken them with them which made me want to throw Victor into the river. Actually, I wanted to throw him into the river regardless of the sword but I felt naked without it and wanted him to pay. I`d won my sword in a fight a couple of years ago and it was a good sword.

But I was confident I would win it back. And anyone holding it would be killed. Slowly.

Going down the hill was faster than going up and it wasn`t even close to dusk when we made it back to the outskirts of Calvin`s village.

Not wanting to walk in on any nasty surprises, Eric and I waited in the forest until we were sure the only people in the village were people who were supposed to be there. And Claude and Jason.

I was glad to see some of the villagers alive and walked down to meet them. Even if I didn`t know any of them very well, we all hugged and cried a little. Eric stood by and watched and soon he turned towards the house where we`d left Claude with Jason.

After having given one last hug to a grandmother I couldn`t remember the name of – an old woman who`d lost all of her family, I followed Eric.

I found him standing outside the house where we`d left Jason and Claude. Dreading what would meet me I walked inside and a terrible stench filled my nose. Claude was standing by the door, looking down when I entered.

“There was nothing I could do,” he said and my eyes immediately went to Jason who was still on the bed. His eyes were open and he was alive but he wasn`t Jason. His face was empty and drawn.

I hadn`t been gone for long but it still seemed like Jason had lost weight. His skin was like paper, his golden-blond hair looked almost gray. And when I looked down his body I realized where the smell had come from.

Jason had not left the bed while I`d been gone. Not even to relieve himself.

“Oh, Jason!”

My heart broke from seeing him like this. My strong, gullible, sweet, happy and all too lovable brother had lost himself entirely over a girl I hadn`t even known he was interested in. A girl to whom he had made not promises. At least, no promises of fidelity.

How hadn`t I known this?

How hadn`t I known my own brother?

I wanted to throw myself into his arms and kiss him to make him better. Hug him and bring him back from the Land of Sorrow where he`d currently taken residence.

But I knew that was not the way to do it. I nodded to Claude and made a gesture at Jason`s feet and then I pulled Jason up with my arm under his shoulders. Claude grabbed Jason by the legs and we lifted him.

Jason was like a sack of rocks between us but somehow we managed to get him out of the house where Eric waited. With him in tow Claude and I carried Jason down to the beach. Without any kind of reaction from Jason, we waded out until we were hip deep in water and threw him into the sea.

Jason was still carrying his dagger and his sword and between them and his weight, Jason sank to the bottom. It wasn`t deeper than he could easily get up to breathe but he sank down and stayed there.

I grabbed Claude`s arm and soon I felt Eric`s hand on my shoulder. The three of us stared at Jason in the sea for what seemed like days.

Would Jason choose life or death?

Tears ran down my cheeks. All my life I`d done my best to protect my brother from his own recklessness and now I was the one who`d thrown him into the water to drown.

The irony of Eric`s and my just having escaped a similar death was not lost upon me. I`d used the last of my strength to save Eric from drowning and now I`d endangered my brother.

But it had to be done. Jason needed to choose between drowning and living because he could not survive where he was now.

I counted my breaths, knowing they were the number Jason needed but did not claim. Each of them was a breath Jason`s body craved but didn`t get.

It was the right thing to do but when I`d thrown Jason into the water, I`d been sure he would jump up immediately. That he would throw away his state of indifference if not the sorrow. But for each moment he wasn`t breathing my resolve diminished and I was just about to jump over to Jason and save him when his head broke the surface and he inhaled air in large gulps.

He turned towards me, anger burning from his eyes.

“What in the name of the Hel are you doing, Sookie?” he shouted. “Are you trying to kill me?”

He stood up and when he`d taken a couple of deep breaths he ran towards me. Eric walked in front of me and just stood there, looking at Jason without saying anything.

Jason stared at Eric and then he huffed. After a while he shrugged and walked past Eric without looking at me.

“Did you kill them all?” he asked no one in particular.

“Some of them,” I said. “But not all. And not Victor, their leader.”

“It seems we need to finish the job then,” Jason said.

With relief I went back to Calvin`s village to find some food and weapons. I found myself a belt for a sword I`d grabbed – a belt that would also keep my tunic together in front. Eric also found weapons and soon we were back at the shore where our boat was. Jason and Claude were there already and without a word we boarded the boat and started to sail home.

I glanced at Jason, waiting for signs of his being back to his own self or breaking apart again. I also watched Eric who might soon go into battle with a broken arm. His eye was still black and, like me, he was bruised all over. Eric`s nose looked slightly better, though, so he wouldn`t be Eric the Crooked Nose just yet.

Claude was very quiet as if he knew the outcome of the battle and the survival of all four of us depended more on him than it usually did. Even if I was in better shape than my brother or my husband, I wasn`t going to be as fast or strong as I usually was with my broken fingers and strained muscles.

As we came closer to home, the knots in my stomach tightened. Would we be there before Victor or would we land in the middle of a battle?

Victor and his men weren`t as numerous as they`d been before Eric`s and my raid in the night but they were still enough to do damage. Especially if they ambushed our village.

And especially since it was now dark and people in the village would have gone to bed.

We heard the attack before we saw it. Heard the screams and the fear, heard metal on metal. Heard the animals panicking. The mountains surrounding the fjord echoed every sound and every yell.

Without securing the boat, we jumped ashore as soon as we were close enough. We ran up towards the village, fearing the worst.

And the worst was exactly what met us. Houses were burning and women and children were screaming from inside the burning buildings.

Jane the Meadlover ran past us, her dress and hair burning and before I managed to stop her to help her put out the fire, she fell to the ground and died with a horrible scream.

I was about to give my orders to Claude and Jason when my brother ran past me, his sword raised, yelling out a battle cry that made my hair stand up even more than Jane the Meadlover`s death scream had managed.

My eyes met Eric`s and then Claude`s. We all recognized someone going berserk and that was exactly what Jason had done.

Warriors going berserk were killing machines and they wouldn`t always be able to separate foe from friend.

And they wouldn`t care if they died.

I ran after Jason and caught up with him just as he separated someone`s head from his body. It was an enemy, luckily. One of Victor`s men.

Jason continued his path of destruction, killing yet another man and then another. I looked to my right and left to make sure Jason wasn`t caught from behind or the sides. Jason only looked in one direction and he was only interesting in one thing – killing as many people as possible.

But even if I watched out for my brother, even if I did my best to save his life, I couldn`t help him when Victor suddenly jumped out from behind a house, his sword raised.

It was as if time stood still when Victor`s sword glided through the air. I shouted for Jason, tried to make him see what was happening, but Jason never realized the danger he was in until the sword had caught him and separated his hand from his arm.

I screamed and ran the last few paces to where Victor was raising his sword again to give Jason the final blow. I caught his arm with my blade just as his sword was gliding down and soon there were two hands on the ground – Jason`s left hand and Victor`s right one.

I was about to kill Victor when I heard Eric behind me.

“Don`t do it, Sookie!” he shouted.

I looked at him and was just about to ask him why when I knew the reason Victor was allowed to live when he truly needed to die. He would make an excellent hostage.

Instead of killing Victor, I bent down to my brother, tearing out yet another piece from my tunic to stop the bleeding from his arm.

Jason looked at me as if he were in a trance. No screams in pain, no anger, no sorrow over his lost hand or fear for the village he`d grown up in.

I managed to tie up the stump of his arm but his arm needed more attention than I could give it just then. I also knew it would have to wait.

Over my shoulder I saw Eric hit Victor with the handle of his sword and Victor fall to the ground. Then Eric ripped off a piece of Victor`s tunic and started tying up his arm to stop the bleeding. I got up and helped Jason to stand as well. I needed to bring him out of danger before I continued my part of the battle.

I looked up and noticed that our house was still standing. It wasn`t burning like so many of the other houses. I helped Jason into our house and laid him on his bed. He wouldn`t be entirely safe but I assumed the battle would be over soon what with Victor having been caught.

I ran out again to find Claude and Eric but it was Tara I ran into. She didn`t see me even though she was looking straight at me.

“Tara!” I shouted and she blinked a few times.

“Sookie?” she whispered.

“Yes, it`s me, Tara. What has happened?”

“It`s …,” she started, then she fell silent.

I took her in my arms and held her. My breath hitched when I felt her skin. She was cold.

“What happened?” I asked but I knew the answer.

“The children ….”

And I cried.

---

A/N:

I`m a mother myself and had a hard time writing those two last lines. I feel even worse about posting them, but the story needed them. I hope I`m not giving anyone any nightmares.

Iceland

Northman Maille had a couple of questions and her first one was: I read somewhere they also called Iceland that to keep people away, because it’s not, is that true?

I`ve never read that but it is a fact that the first Viking settlers left after a year because of the harsh climate and because they tried to settle in one of the areas where you couldn`t grow much food. If you`ve ever been to Iceland you`ll know that parts of Iceland is ice (obviously  ) as in glaciers and parts of it is dried lava with very little dirt on top. And then there are areas that are fairly fertile. I suppose if you land in the wrong area, the island just isn`t very accommodating.

On a side-note – scriptures from Ireland mention monks settling on Iceland before the first Vikings came there but modern archeologists have never found any traces of the monks. One can`t help wondering what happened to them (and if I had one kroner for every historical fate I want to know more about I would be a very rich woman now).

Freya`s house

Northman Maille had another question: You mention Valhalla and I know that is where the warriors go. I seem to remember you telling me once about Freya’s house, what is the difference between the two places? Did all people from the Viking Age go to one or the other, or was there a Norse version of hell?

You are quite right. Frøya had first pick of the warriors who died and she usually chose the warriors who were most honorable and not as blood thirsty as the rest of them. She got to pick half of the warriors and they lived with her in Folkvang.

I`m not sure what they did in Folkvang. I can find plenty of descriptions of what the warriors who ended up with Odin in Valhalla did all day but very little about Frøya`s warriors in Folkvang. But I assume she put them into battle training as Odin did with his warriors.

The reason Odin picked so many men and women who would spend all their time after death in eternal battle wasn`t (just) a prize for a job well done and a battle well fought. No, Odin picked his warriors for pure selfish reasons: He needed warriors who could help him in the battle at Ragnarok.

Ragnarok

Ragnarok is the end of the world and the final war against the jotne (there are basically three people – the humans, the æser, who are the gods, and the jotne, who are the enemies of the gods).

Ragnarok is thoroughly described: First there`ll be three years of war and then we`ll have the Fimbul winter – which is an extraordinarily cold winter. Three roosters will crow and there`ll be a flood. The Fenris wolf will come and eat Odin. The tree of Yggdrasil – the tree of life – will die and only two people will survive. They will be the beginning of a new era.

Icelandic names

I have to agree with a couple of reviewers who checked up on Icelandic names. I find their name tradition fascinating too.

I just read an interview with the Icelandic footballer Björn Sigurðarson who plays in Norway. He has a couple of very famous (well, famous for those of us who love football) half-brothers, namely Bjarni Guðjónsson, Þórður Guðjónsson, and Joey Guðjónsson. It wasn`t hard to guess that they had their mother in common and that she`d first been with Guðjón and then with Sigurð.

I remember the first time I was in Reykjavik many years ago. I was supposed to call a friend of a friend and was told he was in the phone book. It took me a little while before I realized I had to look under his first name, not his last name. Apparently everyone is listed by their first names in the phone books.

Oh, and I just love using those cute Icelandic letters ð and Þ 

I`ll stop here before I obsess completely over Iceland.

A/N:

Wow, that last chapter got quite a reception. Thank you!

Some of you had questions and I`ll try to answer them after the chapter.

I want to thank Suki59 for being such a great beta. She is also an amazing writer and I can recommend her stories if you haven`t already read them!

Charlaine Harris owns all the characters in this story. And now she apparently revealed the title of the last book in the Sookie Stackhouse series: Deadly Ever After. I just want to say that I love the title!

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When the sun rose I could see how truly beaten up Eric was. I probably didn`t look any better and we gave each other a little smile.

Sometime during the night we`d managed to pull our pants on again but not until we`d made love one more time.

We`d moved a little away from each other, not wanting our captors to know how we`d spent the night. No point in giving them something extra to taunt us over or extra knowledge they could use against us.

My whole body screamed from pain from all the bruises I`d received the night before but the soreness between my legs made me feel so incredibly relaxed. I knew there was a real chance I would meet death during the day – and probably in some terrible way – but I couldn`t help shrugging at the danger in my imminent future.

Amazing sex would do that to you.

Who would have thought that I, Sookie the Shieldmaiden, would be so unconcerned about dying just because I`d had a handsome – well, a little less handsome what with the broken nose – man between my legs?

If I`d been in my normal state of mind I would probably have contemplated whether I`d only had sex with Eric because I`d been sure I would die today. I`d rejected him ever since I`d met him and with good reason. Eric was born into this world to kill people and break hearts. I was fine with the killing – I admired him for that – but I`d never been too keen on having my heart broken.

But I wasn`t in my normal state of mind. My state of mind consisted of glancing at Eric and remembering all the details of last night`s activities with him. Not worrying about death and certainly not worrying about what kind of man Eric was.

I smiled at Eric`s suggestion that we would be housed together in Valhalla. I could live with that. Well, I could die with that, to be precise. An eternity of drinking, fighting and having sex with Eric. It didn`t sound bad at all.

He might flirt with the Valkyries but I would just have to kill him every time he did. In Valhalla he would rise from the dead every night and I would keep our bed warm for him.

My state of mind was definitely off. I hadn`t considered a future with any man since my teenage infatuation with Claude and here I was thinking about keeping Eric in my bed every night, even if it was after our death.

I gave Eric an extra smile but when I heard people moving in our direction I turned my back to him. It was better they thought we`d had a falling out. I didn`t want them using one of us to get to the other as they`d tried last night.

“Aaaw,” a voice said and I was fairly sure it belonged to Victor. “Did the love birds have a quarrel?”

Two men came over and pulled me up. They unchained me from the tree and tied my arms to my waist instead. I glanced at Victor to see if I could get any clues as to what he had planned for us but all he did was look at Eric with an evil smile on his lips. I thought it looked evil, at least. For all I knew, he was thinking about his wife and how much he missed her.

I knew Eric and I were going to die. Or rather, I expected it. I just wondered how they were going to kill us. I must admit that I hoped they would kill me first because I wasn`t sure I could watch them end Eric`s life. Not just because he`d come to mean something to me but mainly because Eric was not the kind of person who was supposed to die. He was too … Eric.

Eric oozed life and I couldn`t fathom death staring out of those blue eyes.

Eric was pulled up too and soon we were both being pulled towards the river. Would they throw us into the deep river and let us drown – if we weren`t crushed into the rocks or died from hypothermia?

I`d always imagined dying by my sword – from the blow of a sword. Maybe an axe to the head or a spear in my chest but always from a weapon. Being thrown into the river seemed dishonorable which was probably why Victor would choose that as our death.

I could hear the river as we stumbled through the forest. The hand on my upper arm held me in a bruising grip but kept me upright when my feet tripped on roots and rocks. Soon I could not only hear the river, I could see it too.

I glanced at Eric and noticed he`d lost some of his natural tan. He wasn`t looking forward to being thrown into the river any more than I was. Then his trademark smile was back and I appreciated it. Why die in fear when one could smile all the way to Valhalla?

But Victor didn`t push us into the river. Instead he nodded at three of his men who pulled me up the river while the rest of them, Victor included, stayed behind.

What were they going to do? Throw me in the river upstreams so that Eric could watch me drown as I went by?

The river had been deep where we`d left Eric but now it widened out and became shallower. We walked for awhile more, the river now very shallow and wide, and suddenly the men pulled me out in the river. Not to drown, though. We were crossing the river where it was only thigh deep and though I was struggling with the balance what with the slippery rocks and my arms tied to my body, we made it to the other side where the men began walking me down along the river again.

The river was freezing and my legs were cold but the water had given me new strength too. It had lessened the pain in my legs and cleared my head.

I was at a loss as to what they`d planned to do to me. We`d walked up the river, crossed it and now we were walking down again. Were they trying to confuse me to death?

To my very large surprise they pulled me all the way down the river to the place across from where Eric had been standing all along. He looked as astonished as I probably did and even gave me a shrug as to say he didn`t understand what was going on.

Victor`s men knew what they were doing, though. As soon as we`d come down to stand across the river from one another, Victor and his men started throwing the iron chain Eric and I had been shackled up with last night to the men standing next to me.

When they caught the chain – they needed four tries – they untied my hands, pulled me to the brink of the river and wrapped the chain tightly around my waist under my tunic, fastening it with a lock.

I looked up and saw how they pulled Eric close to the river as well and locked the other end of the chain around his waist, as tightly as mine was. We both had a large lock hanging down our stomachs.

Eric and I looked at each other and then at the chain that was stretched out between us. If either of us took two steps backwards, the other one would fall into the river and drown.

“I see you`ve both realized the situation I`ve put you in.” Victor stood at the river bank and shouted to make sure I could hear it too. “One of you will have to kill the other to survive.”

I saw Eric`s eyes widen but before either of us could say anything, Victor held up a key. “I`m sorry, Sookie. I`m going to give Eric a little help. He is a great warrior and it would be a shame if he were the one to die so I`m putting the key to Eric`s lock back here.” Victor walked ten steps – he counted each of them out loud – behind Eric and dropped the key to the ground and then he came back to stand next to Eric. “If Eric manages to pull you into the river, he only has to make it back to the key to release himself of the chain. That way your weight won`t pull him into the river as well.”

Victor smiled at Eric who looked as if he were trying very hard to kill Victor with his eyes.

“But I don`t want you to cheat, Eric. You might think you could pull your wife into the river and all the way to the other side. It would be hard but maybe not entirely impossible for a strong man such as yourself. So I`ll erase that idea from your mind once and for all.

Victor nodded at one of his men who walked over to Eric with a large club. Another man came over to hold Eric`s left arm out in from of him. The man with the club lifted it and to my horror he hit Eric`s arm – and hard. Eric yelled out in pain and I could see how his arm looked … wrong.

“Now you can`t save Sookie,” Victor said with a grin. Even over the sound from the river I could hear Eric`s groan of pain, though he was doing his best to fight it.

And with that all the men on both sides of the river started walking upstream.

I had not seen any of this coming. Usually I could predict any move, everything my enemies were about to do in battle. But all of this had been a huge surprise for me. And Victor and his men leaving us here, chained on each side of the river, forced to kill each other to survive, was the biggest surprise of them all. I`d have thought Victor would have wanted to watch it happen. That he would have relished seeing the pain he was causing.

Instead, Victor and his men walked up the river – towards my village. I stared after them.

That was when it happened. Eric turned his head and looked. He checked to see where they key was. How far away it was. If he could reach it.

Up until that turn of his head, I`d imagined we were together in this. That we would find a way for us both to survive this so that I could help Eric with his broken arm and we could get to my village.

But with Eric looking back I wasn`t so sure.

I focused on reading his mind, trying to decipher what he was planning on doing. I could feel myself hyperventilating from concentrating so hard, from being nervous about what Eric was going to do.

I did not want to be killed by Eric.

Then it hit me. I could take two steps backwards just as much as Eric could. Yes, he was stronger and heavier and I might be dragged down in the river since Victor hadn`t been so kind as to give me a key, but I could pull Eric down, let him drown and then walk (dragging Eric`s body) back to the place where we`d crossed the river, get back to the other side, hoist Eric`s body up to the ground and unlock myself from him.

I toyed with the idea for a short moment, mainly to tell myself that Eric wasn`t the only one with a choice here, but realized that, of course, I couldn`t do that. I might have the power to do it but I couldn`t kill him.

Eric, on the other hand, could.

Maybe.

What did I know about him? Really know? I`d found myself sort-of-married to him to avoid a marriage to Andre Beardless, but how had Eric known Andre`s reasons for visiting my village? Why had he offered marriage?

Why had he flirted with me in the first place? Tried so hard to manipulate me into coming home with him?

I took a breath through my nose. Inhaled deeply.

I was a fighter, not a thinker. Give me ten enemies and a sword and I would do my best to kill them all but this was beyond me. I`d never aspired to leadership because it involved thinking in many layers. It involved deceit and manipulation and that was just not what I was put on this earth for.

I wasn`t stupid; I just preferred the straight-forwardness of battle.

And yet, here I was, my lover standing on the other side of a cold river, holding the key to my death – and I couldn`t strike him with my sword. I couldn`t fight my way out of this.

We stood there for awhile, looking at each other. I could see Eric was in pain from his arm but he couldn`t seem to form words. And neither could I.

Eric couldn`t pull me over the strong river with his broken arm; the river was too wide farther up for us to be able to make it to the place where we could cross it and … that was when it hit me.

I could pull Eric over.

Victor had been so sure I couldn`t so he hadn`t bothered breaking any of my limbs apart from the fingers his men had broken the night before; he`d been convinced I was too weak.

But I wasn`t. Sword fighting built muscles and I knew I was strong.

I knew I could do this. I could pull Eric to my side of the river, we could cross the river and then we could go back down and retrieve the key.

Or we could just stay tied up.

I smiled.

Eric raised his eyebrow.

“Jump in. I`ll pull you over,” I shouted at him.

He looked at me for a little while and I could almost hear his mind working. Eric was a fighter too. Like me, he wasn`t stupid but having to consider whether I was going to betray him or not – I could see that he hated having to think those kinds of thoughts through.

He lifted his right arm to the chain between us and I dug my feet in the ground just to be on the safe side but then I noticed how he was trying to lift his left arm, the broken one, and he couldn`t.

He looked back again but this time not at the key. He looked at the forest behind him. Then he turned his head back with what I imagined was a resigned look on his face. What had he hoped to do? What was he planning?

I held my breath, knowing that if Eric pulled at me hard and suddenly, I would be down in the river and dead before you could say “Eric the Traitor” or at least before you could say “Eric the Double-Crosser” since that name was slightly longer.

And I wouldn`t see it coming. That was the hardest part of all of this. Eric could pull me into the water and I wouldn`t know until I was wet and cold and very dead because he`d somehow managed to circumvent my ability to predict people`s moves.

“Jump in,” I shouted again, trying hard not to sound desperate.

He looked at me but never insulted me by asking if I was sure I could pull him to the other side just as I never insulted him by saying that his broken arm prevented him from doing the same to me.

His chest moved as he took a deep breath and again when he released it.

“Are you ready?” he asked and I grabbed the chain to show him I was.

He then jumped as far into the river as he could and I pulled while taking steps backwards. I leaned back to give myself more momentum and grabbed length by length of chain to pull him closer. I knew I had to work quickly or Eric would die. I really didn`t want that to happen.

“I`m putting you on a diet,” I mumbled to myself when the muscles in my upper arms screamed from the pain of pulling harder and faster than what they were built for, but my efforts were rewarded when I first saw the blond head break the water.

I had no idea if Eric was dead or alive but at least he was almost on my side of the river.

I pulled again. And again.

Eric was getting heavier now and I was getting more worn out but I pushed the pain aside. I`d told Eric to jump into the river. I would pull him out of it. I didn`t understand Victor`s elaborate plan but I knew this. I knew how to make my body work hard to achieve a clear goal.

I knew how I could save Eric`s life. A life he`d trusted me with when he`d made the jump.

I couldn`t pull on the chain any more and I knew why. Eric was on my side of the river and I needed to grab his body. I needed to get him out of the water and onto the ground.

Soon I realized that I needed to bring him back to life because it was a very pale and lifeless Eric I pulled out of the river.

Quickly, I dragged him up to lie on his back on the ground and after having established that he was breathing, I rubbed his body all over. It seemed like a repetition of my actions from when he`d almost drowned after the battle where we`d met each other so I couldn`t help leaning down and whispering, “I can`t keep pulling you out of cold water.”

Suddenly Eric`s unbroken arm was around my waist and I was pulled down to lie on top of him. He was cold and he was wet but I didn`t mind.

He rolled us over until he was on top and soon his lips were on mine, his tongue deep inside my mouth.

Eric was definitely alive.

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A/N:

I hope you liked this chapter!

I just love any questions you might have to the story and to the Viking age. I`ll try to reply some of them here:

FFFbone asked: What I was wondering about, is how did Melkorla Myrkjartansdottir become a slave? She was the daughter of a King?

I`m not sure how she became a slave but I imagine she was taken on a Viking raid. Whether her slavers knew she was royal or not, I don`t know, but it probably didn`t matter too much to them. A person who was taken would be a slave if the person who took him/her decided so. But as the story of Melkorla showed, slaves could be treated almost like wives. Melkorla`s owner acknowledged her son as his and he seemed genuinely interested in her well-being, having been infatuated enough to buy her instead of the timber he was supposed to buy.

What I would really love to know was how she lived those ten years in Hordaland (in what is now Norway) without speaking. Did she have children there? Was she treated well? Why was she sold?

Why were the Vikings so incredibly bad at writing down things so one might have known and why hasn`t anyone invented a time machine yet? Arrrgh!

The Sleepy Wolf asked: Was it a custom for people to have a characteristic added to their name, i.e Sookie the Shieldmaiden.

Most people would have two sets of names but the first name would be the same.

The “official” name would be their first name and then the first name of their father + son/daughter. If you were called Bjørn and your father`s name was Erik, then your name would be Bjørn Eriksen or Erikson/Eriksson depending on where you lived. If your name was Bjørk and your father`s name was still Erik, then your name would be Bjørk Eriksdatter or Bjørk Eriksdottir depending on where you lived.

But most people would also have a more personal name. It could be a description of their looks like Harald Bluetooth, a description of their way of living like Erik Bloodaxe or Olav the Holy, their profession or it could be something else entirely.

These names could change all through their lives – Gorm the Old probably wasn`t given that name when he was 19 – and they could change even after they`d died. This was one of the reasons why one`s legacy was very important to the Vikings. No one wanted to go over in history as Brynjulf the Coward.

I`m in PR and we usually say the Vikings are our true ancestors since they were so great at it. Not only did they manage to explain a person in just one word but they also had a major PR stunt. They were the ones to come up with the name Greenland. If you`ve ever been there you`ll know that green is not the first color that comes to mind. Apparently, or so the sagas say, Greenland was given that tempting name to lure more settlers to move there.

The Vikings were clever PR people!