by Morgan Rice
As another mug of frothing ale was put into Thor’s hand, he took a long drink, feeling it go to his head; then he reached out and took a huge chunk of the venison laid out before him. He was starving, but first he bent over and handed this chunk to Krohn, who happily snatched it from his hand. Thor took another piece for himself, and he chewed and chewed, starving. The food was delicious.
Serving girls, barely clothed, passed by the rows of men, refilling their mugs of ale and goblets of wine, and as one walked by, one of the warriors grabbed her and yanked her down onto his lap. She giggled. Another servant girl came close to Thor, and a warrior grabbed her and tried to thrust her into Thor’s lap-but Thor held up his hands, and gently prodded her away.
“Don’t you like the women?” the warrior asked Thor.
“I like them just fine,” Thor said. “But there is one in particular who I am saving myself for.”
“Just one?” the warrior pressed, disappointed. “Take two or three. Don’t fall for just one. You’re too young. Take as many as your hands can grab,” he said, and with that, he grabbed the girl himself, who screamed with delight, and carried her over his shoulder, off to a far corner of the room, to a pile of soft rugs.
“Don’t listen to him,” came a voice.
Thor looked over and saw Reece, sitting beside him, who reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Gwen would be proud,” Reece said. “I am proud. That was exactly the kind of response I would want from a brother-in-law.”
Thor smiled at the thought.
“If I were to propose to her, would you really accept me into your family?” he asked.
“What kind of questions that is that?” Reece asked. “You already are my brother. In every sense of the word. My true brother.”
Thor felt honored. He also felt the same way about Reece.
“Be good to her,” Reece added. “That’s all I ask. She’s tough, but sensitive. Don’t take a second wife. And don’t look elsewhere.”
Reece went back to his drinking, and before Thor could respond, Kolk suddenly stood, across from Thor, and banged his mug on the wooden table several times, until finally the room quieted. All that could be heard was the crackling of the fire, roaring at the far end of the hall, and the growling of the dogs who fought with each other for a spot beside the flames.
“Men of the Legion!” he called out in his booming voice. “Men of the Silver! The King’s soldiers! Today was a day of glory day for the MacGils! And we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the exploits of one warrior: Thorgrinson!” he called out, raising his mug to Thor.
The entire room suddenly stood, raising their mugs.
“Thorgrinson!” they shouted, breaking into a cheer.
Thor stood and felt hands patting him on the back, tugging at him roughly. He was embarrassed, but elated at the same time. He hardly knew what to make of all this. Kolk. The warrior who had always rebuked him. He had never expected this.
Kolk banged his mug again, and everyone sat back down, and the room fell silent.
“Thor’s courage today typified everything we want in a member of the Legion, everything we want in a member of the Silver. Honor must be rewarded, at all costs. So from this day, Thorgrin, you are promoted to Captain of the Legion. You will answer only to me, and the rest of the Legion will answer to you. You have in your command now hundreds of the finest young warriors our kingdom has to offer. To Thorgrinson!” he shouted again.
“To Thorgrinson!” the room shouted.
As they all sat back down, Thor sat there, stunned, hardly able to breathe, not knowing what to make of all of this. He, the youngest of the Legion members, promoted to Captain of them all. A part of him felt he didn’t really deserve it. All he had done what was he had been trained to do.
The room settled back into its festivities, and Thor heard a whining beside him. He looked down and saw Krohn, resting his head in his lap, and realized he felt left out-and hungry. Thor reached out and grabbed another hunk of venison, even bigger, an entire leg, with the bone, and Krohn snatched it from his hands and carried it happily across the room. Krohn found a spot beside the fire, walking boldly right between the pack of wolfhounds. Although they were all bigger than he, as Krohn walked down the center, they all parted ways, none of them daring challenge him. Already, Krohn exuded an energy unlike any other animal. Thor could see him growing bigger and stronger every day, more powerful, more mysterious.
“It is an honor well-deserved,” Reece said, standing and embracing Thor. Thor stood and embraced him back, and received embraces from Elden, O’Connor, and the twins. One after the other, Legion members shook his hand and clasped his forearm, all showing deference to him, clearly all pleased to have him as their Captain.
“A battle won by mere witchery and tricks,” came a dark voice.
Thor turned to see standing behind him his three real brothers, Drake, Dross and Durs. His heart skipped a beat as he saw them, standing just a few feet away, looking down at him coldly, unsmiling. He hadn’t seen them in ages, and had nearly forgotten about them. He could see in their eyes that they still held hatred for him, and it brought back fresh memories of his childhood, of his feeling unworthy, feeling small next to them.
“You did not fight like a warrior,” said Drake, the eldest. “You did not fight like one of us. If you did, you never would have won.”
“You are not deserving of the honors they heap on you,” added Dross.
“Despite what these men think, we know the truth about you. You are still just our younger brother,” said Durs. “Still just a poor sheepherder. The smallest and least deserving of all of us. You cheated your way into the Legion, and you cheated your way into the honors you won today.”
“And what do you all know of cheating?” O’Connor said back, stepping up and defending Thor.
“And what makes you all so superior?” Elden added, at his side. “Just because you are older?”
“That’s right,” Drake said. “We are older. And bigger. And stronger. We could beat you all to a pulp one-on-one, any day.”
“So why don’t you?” Reece countered. “Let us arrange a one-on-one combat, and see who wins.”
Dross laughed derisively.
“I don’t need to listen to you,” he said. “You are too young and ignorant to even talk to me. I’m a far greater warrior than you will ever be.”
“Oh no, but you do need to listen to Thor,” Reece countered. “He’s your Captain now. Did you not hear Kolk? You’ll have to listen to Thor’s every word from now. How does that make you feel?” Reece smiled.
The three brothers scowled down.
“We will never listen to you,” Drake spat to Thor. “We will never take an order from you. Ever. As long as we live.”
Thor was taken aback by their anger towards him.
“Why do you hate me?” Thor asked. “You always have, ever since I could remember.”
“Because you’re not worth anything,” Durs sneered.
With that, the three of them turned and walked off into the crowd, disappearing. Thor felt his heart pounding, felt a pit in his stomach.
Reece reached up and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it. They’re not worth the ground you walk on.”
O’Connor turned to him.
“Some people hate for no reason,” he added. “That’s just who they are.”
“Others are just filled with envy, for everyone and everything,” Elden added. “They need someone or something to blame, so they decide that you are the reason they don’t have what they want in life, and they hate you for their own failed lives. It is the easy way out for them-to blame you instead of being truthful and blaming themselves. It is just bullying-in another form.”
Thor understood. But it still stung him to the core. He did not know what he had done to deserve such animosity from his own family. Not just now, but his entire life. Why had he had to be born into this family? Why had they ha
d to be there, always, at every turn, to ruin things for him at his happiest moments?
“My friend,” Reece said.
Thor looked up.
“There is something across the room that might cheer you up,” he laid a hand on Thor’s shoulder and turned him in the direction of the opposite side of the chamber.
There, standing in the doorway, smiling across the room at him, was Gwendolyn. Thor’s heart leapt.
“It seems she waits for you,” Reece said, smiling.
Thor had completely forgotten. With all the excitement, he had forgotten to meet her at the back door.
Thor hurried across the hall, whistling for Krohn, who raced to catch up. He saw Gwen smile wide, then duck out the back door, and Thor’s heart raced as he realized that finally, after everything, they could have time to be together.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Thor held Gwen’s hand with anticipation, as she led him through the moonlit night, down winding paths that turned through the gently rolling hills outside of King’s Court. Krohn walked at their side, and as they nearly crested a hilltop, Gwen came around behind Thor and smiling, placed her hands over his eyes and made him stop.
“Don’t look,” she said, leading him forward, one step at a time.
Thor smiled, holding his hands out in front of him.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“I want you to see something,” she said. “But wait until we reach the top of the hill. Just a few more steps. Don’t open your eyes until I tell you. Promise?”
Thor smiled wide. He loved Gwen’s playfulness; he always had.
“I promise,” he said.
Slowly, Gwen removed her hands. Thor waited, until finally she said: “Okay.”
Thor opened his eyes and was breathless at the site: stretched before him as far as the eye could see were rolling meadows, filled with the most beautiful and exotic night flowers he had ever seen. He had never even known that flowers like these existed. Under the moonlight, these flowers were alive, blooming, and even more so, they were actually glowing, lighting up the night. There were entire fields of glowing yellows and violets and whites, swaying in the nighttime breeze, making the fields look alive, as if they were holding thousands of swaying candles. It was the most breathtaking thing he had ever seen.
“Glow flowers,” she said, coming up beside. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
She took his hand, as they looked out at the fields and he learned in and kissed her.
They held the kiss for a long time, and finally they clasped hands, and continued on the trail, through the glowing field of flowers, side by side, Krohn leaping into the flowers beside them.
They had been walking for what felt like forever when Thor asked, with a smile: “Where are we going?”
She smiled back.
“Some place very special to me,” she replied. “It is a place I hold dear to my heart, a place that few people know about.”
They walked for a while in silence, with no sound but the whistling of the wind, and the occasional night bird’s song, along with Krohn’s breathing beside them as they went. Every now and again Krohn would bound into the flowers, pouncing on some animal they could not see, then come victoriously back to the trail, trotting along beside them.
“I prayed for you,” Gwen said, softly. “I thank god that you were delivered back safe to me. The thought of you being gone was too much for me to bear.”
“I’m sorry to have left you,” Thor said. “I wish I did not have to.”
“It’s funny,” Gwen said, “but ever since I met you, I’m finding it hard to think of anything else. You have a way of getting into my veins. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re gone. But it’s hard to concentrate when you’re near me.”
Thor’s squeezed her hand harder, overcome with love for her, amazed to hear that she felt the same way about him as he did her. He was burning with a desire to ask her to marry him. He was starting to wonder if now was the right time and place. He was about to, and cleared his throat, but then felt himself getting nervous, afraid she might say no.
He steeled himself. He opened his mouth to speak, and was about to ask her.
But suddenly they rounded a bend, and they stopped as there came into view a small but magnificent structure, built in the shape of a miniature castle, intimate and quaint. It was nestled in the hills, high up, with a commanding view of the meadows, surrounded by thousands of glowing night flowers.
“My mother’s house,” Gwen said.
“Your mother’s?” Thor asked.
“She and my father found it harder to take each other as they grew older. She had this place built for herself, mainly, to get away from him. From all of us. She liked to be alone. Not anymore. Now, ironically, she’s confined to the castle-at least until she is better. So this place sits empty. Few people know of it. I would come here, sometimes, when I was young, to get away from it all, when she was not here. I wanted to share it with you,” she said, squeezing his hand.
Thor was amazed this place existed. The site of it took his breath away, so quaint, the ancient stone nestled into the hills, its facade covered with clinging, glowing flowers. It looked magical.
Gwendolyn led him across the meadow, up to the structure and in through its small, arched door. She lit a torch as they entered, and used that to light others, lighting up room after room as they went. It was cozy in here, the stone rooms not too large. Gwen lit a fire in the fireplace, mounted the torch on the wall, and she and Thor lay on the pile of furs close to the flames. Krohn came up and sat a few feet away, near the fire. He faced the door, on guard, protecting them.
As Thor and Gwen sat beside each other, Gwen reached over, clasped his fingers between hers, and they leaned in and kissed. Thor felt her hand trembling, and he felt nervous himself. He caressed her cheek, and they held the kiss for a long time.
As Thor lay there with her, feeling overwhelmed with love for her, there were so many things he wanted to say. Most of all, there was something he wanted to ask. Something he needed to ask. He wanted to be with her forever, and he wanted her to know it.
“There is something I need to ask you,” he said, finally, his heart pounding.
But Gwen reached up, placed a single finger on his lips, and quieted him. She leaned in and kissed him.
“Now is not the time for words,” she said softly, smiling.
Thor did not resist as she kissed him again and again. Soon they were in each other’s arms, rolling in the furs, beside the crackling of the fire. It had already been a day beyond his wildest dreams, and being here, in Gwen’s arms, topped all of it. There was no place in the world he wanted to be more in this moment. He only prayed this night would never end.
*
Gwen swam in the Lake of Sorrows. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the water was clearer than she had ever seen it. As she swam she looked down, and beneath her there passed schools of fish, of the most brilliant colors she had ever seen-bright blue and pink and yellow-swimming all around her. They swam past, and she looked towards the bottom, and saw that the sands below were all lined with gold. Gold was everywhere, lining the lake floor, and it sparkled as she went, sending a million reflections of light through the water.
Gwen decided to dive down, deeper and deeper, determined to grab some, to bring it back. But the deeper she went, the farther away the bottom became. Soon, it disappeared completely.
Gwen blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing atop a hill. She was in a desolate landscape which she recognized immediately as Argon’s. But as she looked, his cottage was nowhere in sight; in fact, there was nothing as far as the eye could see. There was only the howling of the wind over the rocks.
She suddenly felt movement inside her stomach, and she looked down and was shocked to see that her belly was swollen, sticking all the way out. She was pregnant.
She reached down and felt her stomach with both hands. As she did, she was startled to feel a kick.
>
She suddenly heard Argon’s voice:
“You carry within you a great being,” he said.
Gwendolyn looked down and welled with tears, knowing what he said to be true. With both hands she caressed her stomach, wanting to send it love, feeling the power radiating from within her. It kicked back.
Gwen opened her eyes and looked all around, breathing hard, wondering where she was. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she saw that she lay in Thor’s arms, in the pile of furs, in her mother’s castle, beside the dying embers of the fire. She turned and saw the first light of dawn breaking through the window, saw Krohn lying asleep, close by, and realized it was all a dream.
Gwen rose, gently extricating herself from Thor, who was sound asleep, and walked over to the open air window. As she did, she looked down and rubbed a single hand over her stomach. Nothing had changed.
Yet somehow, she felt different inside. She felt an energy coursing through her. She couldn’t explain it, but somehow she felt as if she had changed forever.
And in that moment she knew, she just knew, that she was carrying Thor’s child.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
King McCloud fumed as he marched across the plaza before his castle, riddled with his injured and defeated soldiers. Everywhere, his men lay about, moaning, bleeding; those that weren’t hurt, sat on the ground, dejected. It was enough to make him sick. Never mind that they had just had a hundred days of unprecedented victories, of spoils, of a reach into the MacGil side deeper than any of his ancestors. Now all that these men would remember would be their defeat, the loss of their spoils, of their slaves, their injuries, their lost brethren. And all at the hands of the boy.
It was a disgrace.