Ash looked around and saw Rurik standing in the doorway with Kara. His uncle’s men blocked her path. Valdar was nowhere to be seen, but Kara appeared furious. She shrugged off the restraining arm as Rurik darted forward. Ash saw with a smile that Rurik wore his sword.
‘And who are you?’ the king asked, nonplussed.
‘I am Rurik Ashson and I have brought the brooches of the men my father fought. A warrior should always have proof of whom he fought. My mother agreed with me when I reminded her. It is why we have come.’ Rurik placed them on the floor in front of the king. ‘My grandfather said that you were a fair man and would listen to me if I ever had a boon to ask. He said you would grant it because of the pledge you gave my grandfather at the battle where you won your crown. But it could only be one request. He said I could ask to be a warrior, but I have a different request. Listen to my father.’
‘I will listen to him...for your grandfather’s sake,’ the king said.
Ash peered at the insignia. He had told Kara that he didn’t need anyone, but she had come anyway. That alone gave him hope. His hand closed around his uncle’s captain’s brooch and held it up high.
‘Here is your proof, Uncle. Or do you deny the evidence of your own eyes? Your captain attacked me and my family. The same captain who attacked my ship. I can remember his crest from years ago. My father used to make me recite the crests as punishment. A snake curled about a raven.’
His uncle’s eyes darted about the room. ‘I fear I may have been mistaken. My captain acted without my orders.’
‘I thought your men always obeyed your orders.’
‘I...I...’
The king lifted his hand and motioned to the guards. ‘Seize Harald Haraldson.’
For a telling pause, none of them moved. Then one of them grabbed his uncle and pinned his arms behind his back. ‘My loyalty is to the king!’
Ash bowed his head. It was over. His uncle had lost.
* * *
Kara waited outside the king’s hall for Ash. Auda had come into town and had taken Rurik away to play with her sons so that Kara could be alone with Ash. However, the king had requested a private audience, which had gone on and on.
Ash’s uncle vanquished, Ash triumphant. Everything that Ash once wanted was coming true. He looked to be every inch the warrior hero, a man other men could admire.
She should be happy for him, but it meant she was going to lose him. She wanted to go back to the ease they’d had in the woods when it had been just the two of them, before any of this had started. She wanted someone with her, sharing her life, but how could she deny him his dreams?
She had been wrong earlier. She had not safeguarded her heart. There was nothing left to safeguard. She had given it to Ash years ago. She wanted to beat her fists against his chest and cry that she wanted him to stay.
Kara hugged her arms about her waist. She couldn’t do that to him seven years ago and she couldn’t do it to him now. But she could let him know she would welcome him back and she would wait. For ever if necessary. She could take a risk with her heart.
‘Kara!’ Ash came out of the hall and enfolded her in his arms.
‘You must tell me everything.’
He rapidly explained that his uncle had confessed everything, including his plot to overthrow the king. Kara listened with mounting horror as she realised how close they had come to disaster.
‘But all that doesn’t matter. You waited for me,’ Ash said, smoothing the hair from her forehead. ‘I wanted to apologise. Your quick thinking and Rurik’s saved me. I said earlier that I didn’t need you but I was wrong. I do. I need my family.’
‘I will always wait.’
He laid his cheek on the top of her head. ‘It is good to know.’
She inhaled, breathing in his spicy scent, savouring the moment. ‘You’re going away again. You need not be gentle with me.’
He loosened his arms and peered down at her. ‘Do you want me to go? Will you let me go without a fight?’
‘If it is what the king commands, who am I to say no? But you will have a fight on your hands if you don’t come home. I will go and search you out.’ She squared her shoulders. She had to take the risk and say the words. If she didn’t say the words and he went again, he’d never know. ‘I love you, Ash the person, not Ash the hero or Ash the warrior or even Ash the farmer if you wish to be that, but they are part of you. They make you into the man I love. And I’d rather have you to love than a thousand other men.’
‘But you want me to go. You will find it easier if I’m not underfoot, making changes to your well-ordered life.’
She shook her head, smiling. ‘I prefer your chaos to my order. I would like you to stay and be a farmer, but I don’t think you would enjoy it.’
He laughed. ‘Answer the question. I can always beat my sword into a plough. I’m willing to try.’
Kara sobered. ‘I want you to stay, but I saw your face in the aftermath of the attack. You live for adventure. It makes you alive. I’ve no wish for you to live a half-life. You would be bored at Jaarlshiem, being a farmer. I can carry the burden of the estate, knowing that you will come back to me.’
‘You are wrong there, Kara.’ He smoothed her hair away from her forehead. ‘I live for you. The only reason I am alive is because of you. You are the face I fight for. I didn’t realise it fully until we were attacked and I had to fight, but I have been always fighting to return to you. I am not fighting to get away from you. Quite the opposite. I need you in my life. I once selfishly loved you because you made me feel like I could be a hero. You believed in my dreams. Then when my dreams turned to dust, I couldn’t face you turning away from me. I still want to be your hero, Kara, but I want to be part of your life more.’
Her heart did a crazy flip. He wanted to be with her. ‘Why were you closeted so long with the king?’
‘The king has offered me a new position as his advisor.’ Ash stood a little straighter. ‘He wants someone who has knowledge of today’s world. He wants someone who can inspire the younger men and who can tell them where the best markets are. But I don’t need to go to those markets. I can tell the men where to go.’
‘And you are going to take it?’ Kara clapped her hands. ‘It is the sort of thing you were born to do, Ash.’
‘I wanted to speak to you first before I gave the king my answer. He granted my request.’
‘Then what is the problem?’ Kara withdrew her hands from his. ‘You should take it.’
‘You were wrong earlier when you said that all I was doing was trying to prove myself to my father.’ He touched her cheek. ‘It ceased to be about making my father proud years ago. I wanted to be a hero in your eyes.’
She closed her eyes, silently cursing her younger self. ‘You were, Ash. You have never had to prove anything to me. You still are.’
He put his fingers over her mouth. ‘I was wrong. You are wrong. Instead of wanting to be your hero I should have wanted to be your husband. A husband is more than someone to be admired. He is someone you can count on and who is there to share life’s ups and downs. I want to share my whole life with you, instead of consigning you to the outskirts. Will you let me be that husband?’
‘And that is what you want for us?’ Kara stared at him, hardly daring to breathe. ‘You want to be my husband?’
‘With my whole heart.’ Ash knelt down on one knee. ‘Will you stay with me always and be my wife in truth? I might not always be the perfect husband, but I will always be the husband who wants you by his side. I love you, Kara, and I’m unafraid of admitting it.’
‘I will.’ She grasped his hands and raised him to standing. ‘Go and take the king’s offer. We will stay in Sand for the time you need to be here. Our family will be together.’
He gathered her face between his hands. ‘I don’t deserve you.�
��
‘I know but you have me.’ She cupped his face between hers. ‘Just as I don’t deserve you. I was so frightened of loving you again, Ash, that I nearly missed my second chance to be loved. I need you in my life because you complete me.’
‘As you complete me.’ He put his arms about her and knew that he had truly come home.
* * * * *
Author’s Historical Note
Researching the early Viking period is like doing a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. The period is often referred to as ‘the semi-legendary period’ as most of the history we know about Scandinavia at that time comes from sagas which were written down long after the event.
The earliest history of Norwegian kings is the Morkinskinna saga, which in its current form dates from approximately 1220 but is reputed to have been first written down in about 1025. ‘Morkinskinna’ literally means ‘the mouldy parchment’ and refers to the condition in which it was first found. We know from that the names of various petty kingdoms of Norway, and can make some guesses as to who was in power then, but there are huge gaps in the historical record.
Because of various ship burials most of the artefacts date from this period, but the exact meaning of the burials and who was actually in them is something that historians can only guess at.
We know a bit from other sources. For example, the Lindisfarne raid is well documented, but the true cause of the raid is a matter of conjecture. One recent theory is that the militant Christianity of Charlemagne’s Frankish empire against the pagan Scandinavia caused the Vikings to be more violent than they had been in the past. Certainly there is evidence of some violent conflicts in the years immediately preceding the Lindisfarne raid.
If you are interested in the period, and want to read something other than the Morkinskinna, I have found the following books to be very useful:
Ferguson, Robert. The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings (2010 Penguin Books, London)
Haywood, John. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (1995 Penguin Books, London)
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (2005 The Boydell Press, Suffolk)
O’Brien, Harriet. Queen Emma and the Vikings: The Woman Who Shaped the Events of 1066 (2006 Bloomsbury, London)
Magnusson, Magnus KBE. The Vikings (2008 The History Press, Gloucestershire)
Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings revised edition translated by Susan Margeson and Kirsten Williams (1998 Penguin Books, London)
Wood, Michael. In Search of the Dark Ages (2006 BBC Books, London)
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ISBN-13: 9781460331675
RETURN OF THE VIKING WARRIOR
Copyright © 2014 by Michelle Styles
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