“She could have called me about that.” Since their intimate time together, she’d not said a word directly to him about it. It wouldn’t have been clearer if she’d been walking around in a stop-sign placard.
“Yes, well, she wanted me to give this message to you personally, and now that I have done so, I can return to the estate.” His lips flattened thinly across his face in disapproval.
“Are you giving me that look because of Emili?”
“Well, I’m sure her ladyship will not be happy to know about your consorting with other women.”
“Consorting? So you’re here not to actually give me the message but to spy on me? She’s failed to speak with me for the past two days, and I only have one more week on this campus. She’s not going to dictate what I can do, see, be or who I kiss.”
“That is something you might wish to take up with the Madam. Shall we take that ride?”
Harley followed Siegfried out to the waiting black town car and got in the back.
Anger churned inside of him. He’d been accused of doing something wrong, when he’d done absolutely nothing. The ride to the estate took less than five minutes, it seemed, but it didn’t give him enough time to get his emotions in check.
Anger gnawed on him like a hound on an old bone, attempting to strip him of the decency in his marrow, his blood, and of his patience.
The car stopped and he jumped out.
Her dog's bark came from a distance followed by her command.
“Now, now, my dear, calm down.” She used a voice one would use with a toddler, and not a beast that could tear a human apart in three seconds with its razor sharp teeth. Though worse than any hunting hound, it had the appearance of just a regular dog, but he knew that was just a glamorous facade. What would the neighbors say if they knew they really did have the neighbor from Hell?
“Helena,” he shouted entering the foyer.
He flexed his hand and watched a tinge of magic jump from one fingertip to the next.
He flinched. What the hell was happening?
Harley slowly flexed and clenched his fist, and nothing happened.
"Harley, good you could make it. I was beginning to get worried."
All thoughts of the spark he’d seen disappeared as he watched her move. Again, she was dressed like a sex goddess, ready for him to defile her, and again, he frowned.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I am going to start taking it that you are only interested in this lithe body.”
“There is so much more that interests me besides the garden between your legs.”
She snickered. “You have such a way with words. Come. I've brought you here because you must begin your training if we are to head off on our trip.”
“That does not negate the fact that you sent Siegfried for me.”
“I do as I please,” she whispered, “or have you forgotten who I am?”
He paused, and crossed his arms. “I know who the Hell you are, Helena, and I also know that you need this to work. So you will either respect my limits or we can call it off now.” The magic began to spark, rising up his arms. It hummed in his ears.
“Well, this is an interesting change,” Helena said. She plastered a smile on her perfect face. “Would it be better for me act like a doe-eyed girl that needs you?”
“I don't want you to need me, but you will respect me, just as I do you.”
“Hmmph.” She clapped her hands, and a man wearing a fencing jacket with two swords appeared. “My lady, you rang?” he asked.
“Yes, Joffrey. This is Harley, and I need you to train him as if your life depends on it, because it does. He needs to be able to fight Vikings.”
“I can make him the best fighter, with time, patience and practice.”
“You only have one week.”
“One week?”
“Yes, then our travels will begin.”
“I cannot work a miracle.”
“Well, work as best as you can. Like I said, he must be able to fight great warriors, strong men who have been battling since they left their mothers' wombs.”
Joffrey nodded and stared at his feet.
“Come Harley, you’re wasting daylight and Joffrey's head depends on your success. Don't keep him waiting.”
Chapter 12
Helena
In her office, Helena watched Harley attempt to use his sword.
Magic?
In all of her time there, she’d never had one with magic cross the threshold. Usually the gods wouldn’t allow her such a treat, but then again, Freyja, Odin’s wife, and the main reason she was still there in the realm of humans, instead of in Helheim, did like to toy with her.
“Knock, knock,” Erich, her son, called out and entered into her office. He stood straight, and power radiated from his wide shoulders.
“Not bringing back the dead today?” she asked.
Erich was a necromancer who worked as one of the Chief Medical Examiners in the state.
“I only do that on special occasions,” Erich said.
"I didn't expect you to arrive so soon,” she said, and turned her attention back to Harley's progress.
“New boy toy?” Erich asked. Her son, a demigod and a formidable knight, plopped down in an unoffered chair and glanced out at the parlay. “He has a lot to learn.”
“I'm sure if you were here to teach him he'd be ready in no time.”
“That sounds like a fool's mission. Surely, you're trying to take this poor lad to only god knows where, convince him to love you so that he can come back home with you and the curse will be broken.”
“I plan no such thing.”
“Then why is he outside wearing a tunic and using an Ulfberht? The Viking sword was only used during a specific time period, and I can assure you, it would not include theatrical productions, especially one as sharp as that.”
“Well, Joffrey can't be hurt anyway. He's already dead like the rest of them.”
“Ah yes, the house of the undead. Does your boy toy know that, too?”
“He's met Siegfried.”
“Everyone has met Siegfried, and I still don't know how much his retainer must be for him to agree to your shenanigans.”
“Enough about me. How are you?”
“And you are not meddling. I shall tell you nothing. I just wished to see your face and know how you’ve fared in the face of your punishment.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Of course not, but I must say, I never thought that Odin himself would deem it worth his while to put you on leave. Whatever must be happening in Helheim? And who is watching your throne so that it will not be claimed by another?"
“You are evil, dear son,” she laughed.
“No, just having a spot of laughter about you.”
“You never used to be so—used to taunt me so.” She moved to wipe away invisible tears.
“Oh, crocodile tears. Where's the fun in that, mother?” He pushed up from his chair and moved to the window. “You know, if you threw some magic at him, he might react better.”
“He is not a magical entity like you and I, but he seems to possess traits of it.”
“Maybe you bring it out in him. I’ve heard that a good woman can bring out the best in a man.”
“Now, are you trying to tell me about your Jasmine, for you know we don’t talk about her,” she said.
“I just wish you understood. Love is love.”
“There are many others to love.”
“If your beloved was still here, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
She sighed and nodded. "He is something,” Erich said, “I can taste it in the air. But I can't identify it."
Helena paused. That could be why Harley hadn’t reacted to her sex appeal so easily, she thought.
“Well, it doesn’t matter what you might think, dear son, for he is just a means to fulfill my goal.”
“That’s you, mother. Always looking for an escape clause in an iron-clad curse.” Helena
began to frown. “You know, and I don’t say this lightly. The gods placed you in this situation for a reason. Why not make the best of it. Why not at least try to fulfill your obligations. I hear that Helheim is freezing over without you there.”
Erich moved to his mother’s side and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I would tell Jaz that you asked about her, but that would be a lie, and she’d know it. It would make it all quite uncomfortable. Instead, I’ll just tell her about your great love affair.”
“There is no great love affair. I don’t even like him.”
“Hmm, is that why he’s playing around with dad’s sword?”
Helena turned away. There had been a great love years before, but not all things were built to last.
“He needed something to practice with.”
“Mother, please hear me. Love is not a curse but a gift. Don’t compare this guy here,” he pointed out at Harley. “with the others before him. He is the age of a pup for god’s sake. Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “There is enough going on that is wrong, but if you want a chance to be back on your throne, break the curse and allow him the chance to know you. Where there is friendship, something else can grow.”
Chapter 13
Harley
One week later
Outside, Harley and Joffrey sparred. The bright noonday sun shone overhead. The English style garden, with its variety of rich green hues, served as a backdrop to their session. Metal hit metal. Their swords were indeed sharp.
“You have to be lighter on your feet,” Joffrey said.
Harley moved to the right, and lowered his sword just a smidgen.
“Keep your arm up. You mustn’t waver or show tiredness.”
After an hour of clanging his weapon against Joffrey’s and not understanding the rules of parlaying versus striking, he simply attempted to block any attack Joffrey made. It would’ve been easier to defend, he assumed.
Sweat ran along his brow, and the thick wintery clothes he wore seemed inappropriate considering it was over seventy degrees out there. He paused to catch his breath.
“You have a lot to learn, sir,” Joffrey said.
“You can just call me Harley.”
Joffrey nodded his head and a slight smile crossed his rather serious face.
“You know, I haven’t held anything that resembled a sword since my failed attempt at being Marvel’s Thor for Cosplay, blonde wig and all.”
“The real Thor is a redhead, a big burly guy. You’d like him.”
“There is a lot about the gods I have to learn. Although, I’ve studied Scandinavian history, including the rise and fall of the berserkers, I feel that there is still much that has not been explored.”
“I must say, you are quite knowledgeable about many of our ways,” Joffrey said.
“No, I don’t know enough. To be honest, all of my life I’ve been trying to put the pieces together and find out where I belong. Man, why am I telling you this?”
“Maybe because you think you need a friend.”
“Friendships are always important, but I feel that you just might understand.”
“Excuse my frankness, but I must ask. What are your intentions with her ladyship?”
“Intentions?” Harley asked. Once again they were at crossroads. Relationships took time, and their time was running out.
“Yes, as in what do you plan to do with her? Is this just a casual encounter or something of permanence?”
Harley paused. They’d not known each other long enough, but just the thought of Helena made his loins tighten and his heart quicken. “I like her a lot.”
“People like peanut butter. They might even like the color mauve, but someone like her, you can’t simply just like. She requires either a heat so hot that it can forge metals, or a coolness colder than the largest glacier. Let’s go in. I’m sure the Lady is waiting for you.”
They walked back indoors, and before his eyes could adjust to the darker room, he noticed the form of Helena walking towards him, carrying clothes stacked in her arms. She’d changed from her normal dominatrix black leather to the costume of an early medievalist in a green tunic dress, with its laced up bodice, and a cape fleeced with fur.
“Now that you’ve had your lessons, it’s time to travel,” she said.
“What?” Harley exclaimed. “I don’t think that I’ve learned enough to keep me alive yet.” He could hear the panic in his own voice.
Harley stared at the items: a wool tunic, leggings and boots. With a quick snap of her fingers, he was fully dressed.
“That’s a convenient trick. Does it work the other way, too?”
She ignored his question. “Here is your cape. You will need it.” She helped with it, and fastened it quickly with a round fibula on his left shoulder. “You will need to be able to use your sword, but only if you must.”
Dressed like a ninth century Viking in traditional Scandinavian garb of a rich red tunic, he tied the leather belt around his waist and tried to steel himself against asking Helena any questions about their trip. It would be what it must become. He’d learn all he needed to know, and when all was done and dusted, he’d have a better understanding and be better prepared for the next phase of his life. Evidently, she didn’t want forever with him, especially if she couldn’t talk to him after they’d had so much fun together.
Her scent had filled the room, an intimate reminder of what it’d felt like to have his hands around her waist and then for them to roam over her lush body. But even more, the way her movements sounded around him acted like a battering ram on the shell of his heart.
“Get your head together, Harley,” she said.
Chapter 14
Harley
“Is that a little bit of concern I hear in your voice?”
She smiled. “Don’t make more of this than it already is.” She patted him on the chest, and he took her left hand and placed it to his lips.
She didn’t pull away.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we just might have to find a way to delay this trip for fifteen minutes.”
“And you think fifteen minutes would be enough?” she asked.
“Well, if you’d shown up to my room these last few nights, you would have learned about what it is that young men do well. We have stamina.”
“You say the sweetest things.”
He couldn’t tell if she actually meant it, though, for her tone was cold as ice.
“The point I was trying to make, is that you should make sure that you don’t try to die. We are going to be in the throes of something big and the point is for you to watch and learn, not to engage, or they will run you through.”
“You’ll protect me though, right? Raise me from the dead?”
A sadness leapt into her eyes. “Unfortunately, even for me, that is impossible. Every being in the nine worlds has to agree that you should return to this plane. But death, it is something we all must endure.” She lowered her head.
“Hey, don’t think like that. Everything is going to be fine.” He raised his chin. “But if I should perish, before I do, make sure to kiss me goodbye.”
“Don’t joke like that.”
“Which part? Your kissing me, or saying goodbye?”
He refused to let this go. Before she threw them back in history, he wanted to make sure their present was secure. “For me to even agree to this, I have to trust you. I don’t know why, but I do. I know there is more to you than leather clothes, a powerful sex drive and sexual innuendos.”
No matter what he tried, she would never kiss him. It reminded him of that scene from Pretty Woman, the movie Emili made him watch because of her love for Richard Gere. He squinted in thought: she was Richard Gere and I was her Pretty Woman!
“Have I left you dissatisfied?” she asked.
“You’re driving me crazy. I can’t get you out of my head, let alone—”
“Don’t be foolish. You’re here because you need something. It’s not about me. It’s not about who I
am, but what I can give you.”
“But that isn’t true.”
“It is. By the gods, what is happening to me that I’ve even given you an explanation? We are nothing but acquaintances who had sex once.”
He took a step back.
“Is that how you really feel?”
“Do you want to do this or not? This is our only chance. When I thin the veil, then the time morph will begin.”
He nodded. A frown marred his handsome face.
“You know, you can be a real bitch sometimes.”
“Now, you know why my name is Hel.”
The glamour began to fade, showing her shifting appearance. Her face, which had been breathtakingly beautiful, began to morph, until one side darkened, like human decay. She pulled her cloak’s hood up over her head and turned away.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Now, please come here and hold my hands. The time veil will thin between us and, at first, it will feel like you’ve suddenly shot upwards. I need you to be calm. Do not scream and try not to throw up.”
He simply nodded.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” She dipped her hands in black paint on her desk, and quickly drew the Hagalaz rune symbol on his cheek. “This will help to protect you. And will help to tell the Valkyrie that you belong to me.”
“The Valkyrie?” He knew that they would only show up on a battlefield to escort the strongest of the dead warriors on to Valhalla. “Why are we going there again?”
“To find out if you are my beloved. The time travel is the test. If you are him, you will meld into your former self and awaken.” Before he could comply, she uttered words he couldn’t quite make out, and the quiet library simply disappeared, to be replaced with the rousing sounds of war.
Chapter 15
Harley
Hedeby, Summer, 804
The test?
As Harley stepped through the vortex, something within him stirred. It was like two pieces coming together—parts formerly separated for what others regarded as the greater good. Surrounded by men he didn’t at first recognize, in the midst of mighty alder trees, he snapped into his body, his then incarnation—as Herla—and whispered to his army—men he’d not seen in more than thirteen hundred years.
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