by Joanna Bell
And then I was suddenly suspended in darkness blacker than any night, with only her hand in mine to orient myself, and a feeling like I could not quite draw the breath into my lungs. At the moment where I was about to make a liar of myself and my pronunciations of being unafraid, the light suddenly came back and I looked up from where I was lying on the ground, next to Heather.
We were in a wood, but not the one we had just been in. The trees were taller, sparser and –
I leapt to my feet, drawing my sword from its sheath and turning towards the direction where the sound – what was it? A beast? A man? – came from. A roaring filled my ears, of such loudness that it seemed to be all around me, as if it were not even coming from a set place. I whirled around to find Heather, to pull her close to me, and saw that she was relaxed, unworried.
"Come," I urged, taking her wrist. "Do you not hear the beast, girl? Come stand with me, I have my sword."
But Heather just looked around – up into the trees, behind her shoulder, to each side – and she did not seem afraid.
"I was right," she whispered in awed tones. "Oh my God – I was right."
And then, before I could even ask her what it was she spoke of, she reached up, took my hand, and tumbled back into the breathless darkness with me. And that time, when the light filled my eyes again, I stepped away from her.
"What was that place?" I asked, looking around to confirm that we were no longer in the other wood. "What have you – where did you take me, girl?"
She must have seen the suspicion on my face because she reached for me again and I snatched my hand away before she could touch it.
"Fine," she said. "I probably shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. I just – I didn't think it was going to work. I thought that surely it was something else, that I was wrong. But – I'm not wrong. That's where I come from, you know. I can go back there right now if you like, if you cannot trust me now. Just let me know and I'll go. But if not, I'd like to stay here with you. I'd like at least to know that you're on your way home, that you're safe."
"I'm as safe as I'll ever be again," I replied, almost angered by the casual tones with which she spoke of leaving – even though I knew I had no claim on her.
It did not seem possible that she meant me harm. She stood in front of me with such concern in her eyes, such truth behind her words. I reached out and drew my fingers down the side of her face that was not swollen and bruised by my own hand.
"There's nothing there for me," she said quietly, a moment later. "Where I come from, I mean. There's nothing. I have a few friends, but they'll be fine without me. I want to stay with you, Magnus – if that's alright? I don't know how to do anything, you already know that – but I can learn! And –"
Why was it such a boon to my heart to hear her saying she wanted to stay with me? I had a journey south to complete – one that would not be eased, as Heather already seemed to know, by a companion with no fighting or hunting skills. And I had not yet known her two nights – who was she to me?
The answer was that she was something. Already, she was something to me. Already I seemed to hang on her words – her opinions and her little thoughts on this or that – more than I hung even on the words of my most trusted warriors.
"You shall come south with me," I told her, as we both smiled with the relief of knowing we were not parting – not just yet. "I will teach you how to find a length of wood, and what type, to turn into a spear. And then I will show you how to form the point so it's not so fine it breaks off in the animal's flesh and not so dull it doesn't piece the hide."
"I don't think I can kill an animal," she replied.
We laced our fingers together and turned to walk back to the sea, before turning south. "You might find your mind changed on that point," I told her, "when you're so hungry your belly aches with it."
There was a feeling to that day, coming so soon as it did on the heels of the fight with my brother and the chance encounter with the beautiful girl who walked at my side along the sandy path. It was a feeling almost of being in a strange dream. I kept finding myself thinking of the way my mother would smile when I brought Heather home to meet her, and then remembering that I was not going home. That I was, in all likelihood, never going to see my mother again.
"You're sad," Heather said after we had walked in silence for a little while. She was gentle with me, I could see that part of her already. Her words did not accuse or even question – they simply observed, they cleared a space for me to speak if I wished, or not if I didn't. She made me want to take her in my arms again, lay her back in the sea-grasses and show her my happiness at being at her side. But we were still too close to where I knew my father and brother might be. And even if they had already sailed for home – something I doubted – we still had the Angles to worry about. A raid does not give the lords of the estates time to call in their men, but already I had been in the Kingdom for much longer than the time it takes to launch a raid.
"Aye," I replied, keeping myself alert to our surroundings. "I was just thinking of the smile that would mark my mother's face to meet you, girl. And as soon as I thought it I realized once more – how many times must I realize this? – that I will never see my mother again. It reminds me of almost ten winters ago, when my grandfather died. For many days, indeed for many moons I thought of him whenever something happened to me, or whenever I had a thing to discuss with someone. Even as I knew he was gone, still my first instinct was always to run to him. When the happening is large enough, enough to shake a whole life like the wind shakes a great old tree in a storm, I see that it takes some time to get used to it, to let it sink in. And so it is still sinking in that I will never see my home or my mother again."
I was glad of the foreigner's hand in mind as I spoke those words and felt my heart swept with bleakness. When I saw her pretty face turned up to mine, and her eyes wet with tears, it was all I could do not to throw myself at her feet and beg her to remain with me for the rest of our days. She had already hinted at her own troubles in life – perhaps she would see fit to speak of them that night, after I built her a fire and killed some more rabbits for her to eat?
For the rest of my life, I remembered that walk down the coast in the land of my enemies. Just as the path upon which my feet fell marked the border between land and sea, it also marked the border between what I came to think of as the two territories of my heart – before Heather, and after Heather. Did I know it at the time? How could I? But it would be a lie to say that I didn't feel a strange momentousness to being with her, to walking south together into a new future.
We stopped not long after beginning our journey. We stopped because she reached for me, and because she was beautiful and I was stupid and young and I did not have it in me to keep refusing my own desires. Even as I knew it was dangerous to take her there, out in the open, neither of us was in mind of any dangers when my hands found their way into her dressings and down to the slippery softness of her sex, so enticing it set my jaw on edge with desire.
"We should move off the path," I said as Heather tilted her head at me, smiling, and ran her hands over her own bare breasts until I forgot we were even on a path, or that there was anything more important than what it was going to feel like to slide my body between her soft thighs.
I clutched her against me, kissing her neck with such hunger as I had never felt, and lay her down on her back. And then, just as I was about to enter her, a sound reached my ears and I froze. And so lust-crazed was I that it didn't immediately register what the sound was, although I must have heard it a thousand times by then.
It was the sound of a sword clanking against another weapon, the way they often do if a man has another knife or dagger strapped to his waist.
"What –" Heather started, and then didn't get to finish because it all came back to me in a rush and I leapt towards the spot where my own sword lay in the grass. Almost too late. A man was in the midst of reaching for it – a moment later and he would have had it, but I kn
ocked him away with the back of my hand and grabbed my blade.
There were four of them, each armed with blades of their own. Angles in their traditional dark-stained leather and summer tunics.
"What's this?" The one I had immediately pegged as the leader asked, cocking an eyebrow at me – and then down at Heather as she lay naked a short distance away. "Couldn't make it into the woods, could you? Can't say that I blame you – look at those tits!"
Quickly, I moved my body between the men and Heather, and held my sword at the ready. Four Angles was more than one, but it was not so many that I did not feel confident in my ability to take them. They were generally badly trained, and these four didn't have the look of full warriors, or King's men.
The one who was goading me seemed oddly confident, though, and that worried me.
"Go on, look at those tits," he commented to his companions. "Not a mark on them! I think I'll fuck her first – but if you bring me two fat rabbits for my supper I'll let you have a go when I've had my fill."
Blind rage. There was no thought, then. Just rage. I stepped forward to take the man by the hair and drive my sword through his neck. And then a small cry came from behind me.
"Magnus."
Heather. Even before I turned I knew from the terror in her voice that we were in trouble. And sure enough, a fifth man had appeared, probably having hidden himself in the woods to effect the ambush – why had I allowed myself to let down my guard like that?! – and he had the blade of a small dagger at her throat.
"Drop your sword!" the first man bellowed, as their eyes crawled sickeningly over every bare inch of Heather's body. I looked down at her, silent and wide-eyed with fear, and then back at the men.
"Drop it! I'll cut her throat right now, bastard, if you don't drop it in –"
I dropped my sword. At once, one of the men stepped forward to pick it up.
"This is a fine blade," he commented to his leader, "this is –"
"It's a Northman's blade," came the reply. "A Northman and his wench, alone in the Kingdom? What happened, did you lose your way? Or are you two just off on your own for the afternoon, because you couldn't keep your hands off each other?"
"We should take him back to the estate," the one with the dagger to Heather's throat said. "The lord might want to –"
"Yes, yes, we'll take him back to Lord Eldred. But before that –"
He took a step towards Heather, then, and began to fumble with the leather ties at his waist. I knew what he and his men intended. And I knew I was not going to let it happen.
Luckily, the Angles were even more poorly disciplined than I myself had just been. The man standing over Heather moved to pull his tunic off over his head, immediately revealing the dagger strapped to the back of his waist. I didn't even think. I stepped forward, slipped the weapon out of its leather sheath and leapt in front of him before any of them had time to understand what I was doing.
The man with the knife to Heather's precious neck didn't even realize I had a weapon until I'd plunged it right up to the hilt into his own. He fell back onto the grass, pouring blood from the wound and making an angry gurgling sound in his throat.
I lifted the dagger up, pointing it at the four remaining Angles as I dragged Heather back to me. Four of them, one of me. Four swords, one dagger. One of them bellowed angrily, running at me, and I easily rolled out of the way of his clumsy attack, running the dagger's blade neatly across the back of his ankle, which turned his bellows to howls.
The remaining three men were not so willing to help me best them. Their leader, seeing that my real concern was for Heather and not for myself, did the intelligent thing and snatched her away from me as I defended against another attack. And that time, when I heard her scream, I saw that the threat was no longer rape but death.
I flung the dagger to the ground and showed them my empty hands.
Chapter Eleven
Heather
It didn't take long, as I found myself dragged naked down a path through the woods in a time that was nothing like my own, to come to the conclusion that I might have made a very big mistake when I decided to stay. The men who took us captive held the tip of a sword against my left breast for the entirety of the time it took to bind Magnus' hands and tie a blindfold around his head. They took no such precautions with me, recognizing as they did that I was absolutely no threat to anyone.
And soon we arrived at what looked to be a small, enclosed village surrounded on all sides by stone walls.
The man who had his hand clamped around my upper arm, and whose putrid breath I had been inhaling for the past twenty minutes, came to a stop in front of a tall, sturdy-looking wooden gate. He leaned in close to me after calling to someone on the other side that it was Hringwyn and his men returning with two prisoners, and promised that he was going to give me a night I would not soon forget. And then he slid one grubby hand down my back and squeezed my ass hard enough to bring tears springing to my eyes.
After what had happened to me back in L.A., I was surprised at how calm I was. But really, what choice did I have? My life was in danger. A man had already been killed, blades had already been held to my neck and my breast. I wanted to survive. To that end, it was as if the calm that lay over me was instinctive, the freeze of a rabbit when a predator appears.
As the gate was opened and Magnus and I dragged through it, I saw that the place was quite crowded. Eyes fell upon my naked body, but with my arms being held I could not cover myself.
"Who is it?" A tall man with a crooked nose and a very large sword asked Hringwyn.
"A Northman. A Northman and a pretty wench – and just as soon as the lord decides what to do with him, I'm going to need some time alone with her."
"A Northman?" The first man asked. "Alone? Are you sure? Why didn't you –"
"Bring the lord," Hringwyn replied heatedly. "I don't have to answer questions from anyone but him."
It wasn't a military encampment. I could see women carrying buckets of water to and fro, and small children in ragged tunics chasing each other around. A few animals – dogs, a large spotted pig – roamed freely. How were we going to get out of this? I had to get a weapon to Magnus. But before that, I had to free him from the ties around his wrists and the blindfold that covered his eyes. And how was I going to do that with two men on either side of me, one of whom had expressed repeated interest in raping me?
So far, I'd been passive. And I would continue to be passive, so long as there was hope of escape. But if it came to what I could see Hringwyn wanted it to come to, I would not be passive any longer.
"Hringwyn!" A voice suddenly boomed as we all turned in the direction from which it came. "What interesting things have you brought from your patrols for me today?"
A man approached, and I knew at once that he must be the lord that everyone was talking about. To my relief, something about him seemed to signal a good nature – he was smiling, almost welcoming in manner. And as soon as he saw that his men had brought human captives – and that one of them was stark naked – he ordered a blanket be found so I could cover myself.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"You're welcome," the lord replied, looking at me and then back at Magnus. "I am Eldred. Why have my men seen fit to take you captive today, do you think?"
I looked around at the men the lord spoke of, but none of them chose to speak in my place.
"I don't know," I replied. "I don't –"
"Come," Eldred smiled. "Do not play games with me, girl. I see that you were naked when you arrived – I hope that Hringwyn here has not –"
"Haven't touched her!" Hringwyn said, leaving out the part where he had definitely tried to touch me, before Magnus stuck a knife into his friend's neck. "Her friend here attacked us and killed Swidhelm, that is why –"
"We didn't attack you!" I cut in, desperate for Lord Eldred to hear the truth. "Hringwyn was going to –"
A bright, sharp pain suddenly radiated outwards from my cheek, the one that wa
s already swollen and sore, and I looked up to see one of Hringwyn's men standing there, having delivered the blow. Seconds later, the sensation of warmth running down my neck told me that he'd broken the skin.
"Don't look at me to save you," Eldred said, raising his eyebrows, surprised, when I glanced towards him to see if he was going to do anything. "If it's true your companion here has killed one of my men, you'll find no mercy in my heart for either of you."
There was blood in my mouth, I could taste it. I'd been hit very hard – hard enough that my ears were still ringing. Not hard enough to shut me up.
"He was going to rape me," I said quietly. "Hringwyn was going to rape me."
Everyone turned to the lord, too see what he would say. He looked at me critically. "And is this man your husband?" He asked, gesturing to Magnus.
"N–"
I didn't even get the word out before Magnus finally spoke, cutting me off. "Yes. Yes, I am her husband. Your men meant to rape her, Lord, surely you –"
"We found them fucking in the middle of the coastal path!" Hringwyn broke in. "Like a pair of dogs! You saw her as well as I did, Lord – you saw her body. Surely you cannot blame a man for being tempted when her husband – if that is what he really is – allows his wife to display herself so brazenly to –"
The sound of Magnus struggling came from behind us, but the men holding me would not allow me to turn and look. A few seconds later there was a loud thud, followed by a groan. They'd hit him.
"Fuck you!" I yelled at Hringwyn, seething with rage at his lies, at his making it seem like Magnus and I were in any way at fault for their attack. "We didn't do anything to you!"
Hringwyn gave me a sneering smile, revealing a set of rotting teeth so foul they almost turned my stomach. "Lord," he said, addressing Eldred. "He's a Northman – what else needs to be said? He's a Northman who killed one of your men. Surely we should hang him tonight, before he has time to plot an escape?"