Chapter 11 - Lost in the Dark

Chapter 11

He had fallen asleep completely dressed on a blanket by the fire in the early afternoon. Stirring my stew I watched the light of the flames dancing on his relaxed face.

It had been a hard and exhausting lesson and I spotted countless red bruises on his forearms and hands. But he had done well. Smiling I ran my fingers through his hair, wondering again how weirdly normal it felt to be so close to him. Samu Haber. I would have never imagined ending up with him. God, he looked gorgeous, even better now with the breastplate and the small axe on his baldric.

Completely worn out myself, I leaned back against the wooden bench behind me and closed my eyes. Today had been a turning point for both of us. There had been a trial and an execution on our behalf. And all of a sudden we were accepted. We were no longer captives and the change in all of their behaviour felt like a change of room temperature. Suddenly we were welcome. Idun had given a small dagger to me for my own protection. Even though she remained grumpy and loud most of the time, she also seemed relaxed in our presence. And she had allowed Samu to carry weapons for his own safety as well as mine.

Suddenly Samu moved beside me and opened his eyes with an astounded sound. Rubbing his face, he sat up, trying to rearrange his inflexible brown breastplate. Then he yawned deeply, nodding at the large bowl in my hands. “Would you mind sharing?” he asked, moving closer to me on the warm floor in front of the fireplace.

I nodded immediately, handing the bowl and my spoon over to him. Hungrily he scoffed half of my stew, smiling apologetically. “Sorry.” He mumbled, offering the bowl to me again but I shook my head and patted his leg. “Eat up, I’ve had enough.”

With a sigh he leaned back again, gobbling down the rest of my lunch extremely fast. Accepting a drinking horn with a nod and a smile, he sat up straight again. “I wanna shower.” He simply stated, grinning wearily. “At my place I got one on those big rain-showerheads. I could stand or even sit there for hours and simply enjoy the hot water on my skin.” His sigh came straight from his heart when he took my hand. “You should have seen it.” He gave me a faint smile. “God, I will dream about this for the rest of my life. Having you in this shower, in my apartment, in my life.”

Moving closer I rested my head to his shoulder. “I am in your life.” I said with a very low voice, feeling his arm around my shoulders and his lips on my forehead.

“At least that.” He whispered back and lifted my face to meet my lips in a gentle kiss. Then he suddenly broke away, lowering his arm. “I’m sorry, I… I got carried away, I really wish that I could take a shower right now.” Carefully lifting his arm, he sniffed around his armpit, frowning in disgust. “God, I smell like a well fucked boar that has been dragged through shit for a few days!”

Giggling I cuddled closer to him again, ignoring his comments. “You smell fine.” I objected. “But if you insist, you could ask Idun if we are allowed to take a walk down to the river and wash.” Slowly I ran my hand over the leather of his breastplate. “There are a few things I need to talk to you about anyway.”

He nodded immediately, cautiously getting back on his feet. Giving a short whimper of pain, he grimaced and moved his head slowly from side to side. Thorbjorn was sitting on a chair right next to us and started to laugh. Raising his horn in Samu’s direction he yelled: “Hail Thor!”

Grimacing again, Samu did the same. “Hail Thor.” He repeated and emptied his drink. “You killed me!” he pointed at his new friend, making the huge warrior break into laughter and playfully pat Samu’s back at his attempt of speaking Norwegian.

We found Idun in deep conversation with two men of the Jarls household guard. She gave us a quick gesture with her hand, ordering us to stand aside and wait.

It was fascinating for me as an ethnologist to observe the way she took matters in her hands. For the last days I had almost kept her under review, sometimes wishing for a pen and some paper to make notes at least. The thought of asking her about it crossed my mind, but I scrapped it right away. As far as I knew, paper was a more than limited good. Maybe I could ask her when we moved to the Black Castle in Wicklow. There was a monastery and the church had always been well supplied with writing materials.

My thoughts came to an abrupt halt and I had to force myself to remember that I didn’t intend to stay here. This wasn’t my place. Neither my place, nor my time. And in no more than a week they would all gather and most probably kill me by trying to get my intrauterine device removed.

Rubbing my upper arms from the sudden chill, I threw a look around. As much as this whole place fascinated me, I couldn’t stay.

Idun waved us closer and nodded at Samu. “Alive?” she joked and I chuckled.

“He is.” I answered in his stead. “Are we allowed to go down to the river before nightfall and wash?”

“Of course.” She nodded at the door. “Feel free to take a walk, but return before the sun sets.”

I nodded thankfully, bowing my head in her direction. “We won’t be long.”

Samu’s steps were still a little stiff when he followed me. “Aren’t we gonna take some fresh clothes or towels or soap with us?” he asked a little puzzled and I couldn’t help chuckling.

“You brought your sponge bag with you then?” I teased, breaking into laughter when he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“They are on a foray in a distant country. D’you think that their most important task is soap boiling right now?”

“But they…” Samu fell silent, looking around the hall. “They are not as dirty as I expected. They change their clothes regularly and they also clean their teeth. I expected some kind of curd soap at least.”

In the end he had been right after all and to my surprise I was actually carrying a piece of brown soap to the river. We had decided not to bring fresh clothing because we didn’t want anyone to allege an attempted escape. There was still warm sunlight around us and from what I calculated it was May already. Taking a deep breath from the fresh air, I took Samu’s hand in mine.

He smiled down at me and bent forward to kiss me. “Don’t look right away, but I think we are being followed.”

I nodded and kissed him back. “Of course we are.” I whispered in response, slowly swaying our hands. “Idun needs to make sure that we are safe and also that we are returning to the village. I think she still expects us to run.”

“She should.” Smiling he closed his eyes, taking a long breath himself. “The question is only when.”

“Soon.” Lifting my dress a little, I walked around a large puddle of mud. “Oddgeir talked to me this morning and he has plans for me that make it impossible to stay any longer.”

Samu lifted his eyebrows. “Continue?”

“He … this man somehow knows that I have an intrauterine device and he wants to remove it so that the two of us can start a new dynasty with a symbolic child.”

The man by my side stopped short, looking at me completely perplexed. “Come again?”

“They want us to…”

“I understood what you said!” he interrupted in agitation. “But how does he plan on removing it? I mean, it… it is in your uterus!”

“That is the point.” Shivering slightly, I interlaced our fingers. “There is a … well some kind of a return string. It is palpable and can be taken hold of with pliers I guess. But the T-like shape it the real point of fear for me. I have no idea if it can actually be removed that simply. My cervix is not wide enough, it needs… well, … a lot of things they don’t have around here. Point is: I might lose my reproductive organs and most probably my life if we wait for them to carry out this procedure. So this means for me that I have to leg it within the next days.”

Samu nodded slowly, absorbing the news. Then he looked at me again. “Wherever you go, I will be with you.” He said hoarsely and gave me a tight hug. “God, with all the fun and the fighting today I almost forgot that we have to find a way out of here!”

Letting out a shaky laughter, I stared walking again. “Well, we should.” I took another deep breath, making my way over the small wooden landing stake.

It was still pretty cold, not more than 18 degrees Celsius, and the wind was chilly, but I needed to wash so baldy, that I simply pulled my dress over my head. Samu was quick to do the same, but he remained standing on the stake naked and with his dagger in his hand. Thoughtfully weighing it a little, he threw a look around. Then he grabbed his baldric and attached the blade to it, before wrapping it around his upper thigh. “Better safe than sorry.” He simply stated, putting his hand on the back of my neck before throwing another gaze around. “Come on, let’s wash.”

My teeth were chattering when I climbed out of the icy water with Samu’s help. Quickly I slipped into my clothes again, wrapping my underskirt around my wet hair.

“A fire, a fire, my kingdom for a fire.” Samu gave a citation of Shakespeare and I giggled.

“Are you aware that William Shakespeare won’t be born for another… well, 800 years?”

Samu looked at me confused, then realization flashed over his face visibly and he shook his head. “I tend to forget that we are stranded in the ninth century.” Pulling up his pants, he took his baldric between his teeth. “So what are we gonna do next?” he mumbled.

“We’re going back, we play nice and one night we run. Through the window and into the forest.”

He gave me a long look, slowly shaking his head. “Think it through.” He said and wrapped his waistcoat around his upper body. “We run away but we don’t find our way back. Maybe we are stranded here for good. And as soon as they realize that we have escaped they will hunt us down and we will no longer be their sacred guests.”

I hadn’t even given this possibility a thought and started playing with my lower lip. “What d’you suggest instead? We can’t stay and we can’t run. So one way or the other, I die?”

“Would you please let me think about this, woman?” he hissed at me, grabbing my arm to pull me along. “We will figure something out and no one has to die, alright?”

For the rest of the evening Samu remained close mouthed. With a mug of Ale he walked around the room, leaving me pondering over our situation alone by one of the smaller fireplaces.

I was almost ready to go to bed on my own, when he suddenly sat down next to me with a fresh mug. Mutely he offered it to me and starred into the flames.

“Maybe I got an idea.”

Looking up astounded, I sipped his drink. “What did you come up with?”

“We can’t leave this place in a hush-hush operation. But we are still sacred, aren’t we?”

I nodded confirmatively, moving a little closer to him.

“So we might need a place to pray or exchange some words with the Gods that created us, right?”

Looking at him again, I suddenly saw his idea and nodded eagerly. “Indeed. We need a place to meditate, we need to speak with our creators and offer up a sacrifice.” Thoughtfully I sipped his Ale again. “But they won’t let us go alone.”

“They won’t have to.” Samu grinned. “Do you remember the fog? It was so thick I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. If we managed to reach this bewitched forest and the fog, we might have a chance to run and hide. If we actually find our way back, we will be gone and on our way home. If we don’t we can still simply tell them that we got lost.”

Slowly I nodded again, thinking about the idea. It sounded simple, but there was one variable he had not taken into account. “What about the shaman?” My eyes were scanning the room, finding the old man by the biggest fire with a blanket on his frail legs. “He will know.”

“Don’t let him see it.” Samu squeezed my fingers. “The only thing on our minds should be their weird Gods right now. Tell him that you want to offer them a sacrifice and he will be pleased and allow us to leave. We won’t raise suspicion if we don’t take anything with us but the sacrifice and a blanket, don’t you think?” He got up and winked at me. “And now come along, lass.” He reached out his hands towards me. “The bath has cleared my head given me some strength that I would love to spend on top of you.”

“Always in for a little plunder and a hump, hum, Northman?” giggling I put a strand of his hair out of his forehead and he bent down to meet my lips in a passionate kiss.

“I could put on my cuirass again, if it turns you on, Mylady!” he offered teasingly and I grabbed his shirt to pull him down again.

“I’d love that!” grinning I took his hand and guided him through the rest of the Vikings. “Maybe your axe could come to use in some way as well.”