Chapter 18 #2
“ ‘I have visited the netherworld that lies beneath the desert sands far to the south and east of here. I stayed with the demon of the desert sands, an odd title, Father, but that is who he said he was. He told me that I would remain with him forever, that I would become his heir. I told him that I couldn’t remain with him, that I belonged here, with you, here with all our people, that I was needed.
“ ‘He would not listen to me. I told him that he had to return me or the Viking warrior would come and hurt him.
He laughed, Father. He laughed loudly, then, suddenly, he choked.
His face turned blue and he clutched his throat.
Then, the Viking warrior was there and he was not laughing.
He raised his hand and the choking stopped.
He watched the demon regain his breath, then told the demon of the desert sands that even though he was his brother, what he had done was against all their rules.
He told him that he had the agreement of all the higher demons and that he would be forced to remain buried in his netherworld for one hundred years as his punishment.
The demon of the desert sands begged and pleaded with the Viking warrior, but he just stood there, shaking his head.
He raised his sword and the demon cowered away from him and left us alone.
“ ‘Then the warrior held me against him and suddenly I was here, Father, with you.’
“After the king had visited with his son, he gave him over to the servants to bathe him and garb him well. Then he called for his daughters and their husbands. Helga and Ferlain believed they were being called to their father’s deathbed to receive his blessing.
Imagine their consternation when they saw him, hale and strong, seated on his throne, garbed in his finest silks.
Their husbands, Fromm and Cardle, stood back, not understanding why their wives looked pale and ill.
They bowed to their father-in-law, bidding him good day.
They remarked to him that he looked in excellent health, contrary to what they’d heard.
They trusted he’d come to accept that Prince Ninian was dead.
“The king merely smiled at them and bade them seat themselves on a bench against the whitewashed wall of the huge chamber. Then he said, ‘Helga, come here.’
“She did, forcing herself to smile, but surely nothing was lost yet. So he looked healthy, so perhaps he was resigned to Ninian’s death.
She would see to it that he sickened soon enough.
She wondered if he had asked them here to announce that now because Ninian was gone from them, Fromm would be his heir.
That made her smile in truth now as she approached her father.
“She bowed before him. ‘You look well, Father,’ she said.
“ ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘All of us look well.’
“ ‘We are all very sorry for Ninian’s disappearance, Father. We pray you are not too distraught.’
“ ‘Nay,’ the king said. ‘I am very well, as I told you.’
“ ‘Do you ask us here to proclaim that our husbands are now your heirs?’
“ ‘Oh no,’ the king said. ‘I bade you here to welcome back your brother.’ He called out and Ninian came from behind the thick crimson draperies behind the king’s throne.
“Helga shrieked. ‘It is a demon! A witch!’
“ ‘Nay,’ said the king. ‘It is you who are the demon and the witch, both you and your weak sister. As of this moment, you are no longer my daughters. Your husbands are no longer my sons-in-law. All of you are banished as of this day. Go and be damned, all of you!’
“Helga felt fury wash over her. She raised her arms to the sky and shrieked, ‘Demons, come to me now! Strike down the man and the child! Kill them!’
“But no demons appeared. The Viking warrior was there, standing suddenly before them, radiant and shimmering, as if the sun were shining behind him. Helga cried out and stepped back.
“The warrior raised his sword high, kissed its finely worked iron handle, then said, ‘What is due you, Helga? You are the evil one, Ferlain is only weak, her powers enhanced only by yours. As for you men, you wretched husbands, you are pitiful. What should I do with you?”’
Laren quieted and looked down at her feet. There was utter silence. She slowly raised her head and looked at Merrik. “If you were the Viking warrior, what would you do, Merrik?”
“I would kill Helga and banish the other three.”
Laren smiled. “Do you agree, Oleg?”
“Aye, spit the witch on his sword!”
“Aye! Aye!”
Even the women yelled to kill Helga.
Laren waited until they quieted again. “All of you are right, in a sense. The warrior didn’t spit Helga on his sword.
He walked up to her, stared down at her, and spoke softly, very softly, strange words that even she had never heard.
It sounded to the king like a strange benediction.
The warrior’s voice was so very smooth and steady.
He raised his hand over her head, just held his hand there.
She didn’t move, didn’t say a word. It was as if she were turned to stone.
In the next instant, she began to fade away, growing dimmer and dimmer until naught remained but an armlet of solid gold that suddenly fell to the floor, thudding loudly.
No one said a word, even her husband, Fromm.
“The king once again told the others to leave and so they did, grateful that they hadn’t been made to disappear like Helga.
The Viking warrior walked back to the king and Ninian.
He said, ‘I have gained my freedom now. I will return to you, Ninian, but as a man. I will still guard you, but it will be with a mortal’s life and a mortal’s strength.
Look for me, Ninian, for I will come back. ’
“With those words, the Viking warrior, just like Helga, paled into nothingness, at last simply clear air against the whitewashed wall.”
Laren raised her hands and said finally, “It is over.”
“But did the Viking warrior return as he promised?”
Laren grinned toward Merrik. “Aye, he will return, and he will protect Ninian.”
When Merrik lifted the woolen blanket and eased down onto the box bed beside her, he said, “Are their names really Helga and Ferlain?”
“Aye.”
“I am the Viking warrior.”
“Aye, you are.”
“Why didn’t Taby say anything?”
“I told him not to.”
“Ah. Do you truly believe it is Helga behind your abduction?”
“I don’t know. Her dislike of Taby and me was the most obvious.
The husbands aren’t quite as stupid as I made them out to be, or as innocent.
Fromm is a huge man, ugly and vicious. Cardle is weak-chinned with stooped shoulders.
He whines when he doesn’t get his way. No two men could be more unalike than they. ”
“I will see, won’t I?”
“Aye, we will see together, Merrik.”
He held silent, frowning into the darkness. “Nay, you will remain here at Malverne. It is now your home, your responsibility. Besides, I would keep both you and Taby safe. It was my vow to you.”
“Nay, I must come with you. You do not know these people. I do. I could protect you. We will leave Taby here.”
“You will obey me, Laren. You are my wife. You will obey me. I do not need your protection.”
“Stubborn man,” she said under her breath, but knew he’d heard her.
Before he could reply, she rolled over to him and grabbed his face between her two hands.
She kissed him, missing his mouth, then finding it in the darkness, kissing him hard until he parted his lips, and she slipped her tongue within to find his and feel the warmth and sweetness of him.
“You think to seduce me,” he said, his voice bemused, for she was innocent, yet she had no thought to hide from him, to play the coy maid, or allow him alone to direct their lovemaking.
“Aye, of course I do. Now be quiet. I love how you taste, Merrik.”
He smiled and she felt the softening of his mouth against her lips. “You won’t change my mind, Laren, no matter what you do.”
“This I do for myself,” she said, and came over on top of him, her loose hair spilling around their faces, an erotic veil that made Merrik quake beneath her.
She was still wearing a linen shift, but it didn’t remain on her for very long.
He stripped it over her head, then felt the soft weight of her body on top of him, her breasts pressing against his chest, her legs atop his, his sex hard against her woman’s flesh.
And she was kissing him all over his face, her tongue lightly touching his ears, her fingers a light whisper over his brows, his forehead, his nose.
Then she began to move over him as she kissed him and he laid his palms flat over her hips and pressed her down hard against him even as he thrust upward.
He moaned and she caught the warmth of the sound in her mouth and parted her legs.
He thought he couldn’t hold on much longer. His hands were all over her now, tangling in her hair, pulling her back so he could kiss her breasts.
He rolled over atop her, coming up to catch his breath, for surely if he didn’t, he would spill his seed on the woolen blanket and not deep inside her.
His chest heaved and he shook with his need to come into her, but he held himself still, aware finally that she’d stopped squirming against him and was lying there beneath him, waiting, wanting him.
He drew her legs up and brought his mouth down to her, his fingers tightening on the soft flesh of her thighs, knowing vaguely that she would be bruised, but not caring, for she was arching upward, and keening softly into the darkness, calling out his name, again and again, and the wanting in her voice, the urgency and fervor, made him feel things he’d never before known existed.
He gently closed his hand over her mouth when her cries erupted from her throat, giving her the freedom to yell if she wished to without the others in the outer chamber hearing her.
And when he was stroking her with his mouth, easing her and calming her, she was tugging at his shoulders, urging him upward, and he came up to his knees and then guided himself into her.
He closed his eyes at the feeling of her, the smallness, the eagerness of her to bring him closer and nearer to her.
“Merrik,” she said, and clasped his back to bring him even deeper.
He couldn’t hold back, though he wanted to.
Once, then again, he came deeply into her, then nearly withdrew until he was shuddering with the frenzy of his need, then he was heaving over her, crying out, his arms stiff as he held himself over her, and she said his name again and again, accepting him, taking all of him, and he didn’t want it to stop, ever.
They lay close, her right leg over his belly, her cheek against his heart, her hair damp from her urgency, fanned out over his shoulder.
He kissed the top of her head, tightening his arms around her.
“You give me passion,” he said. “I wish I could have seen your face when you reached your pleasure.”
Her knee moved downward just a bit until she covered his groin. The scent of him was rich and dark in the night air, filling her nostrils, and her scent was mixed with his.
“Cease your movement or I will take you again. You must be sore from me, Laren.”
She leaned up a bit and kissed his chest, his shoulder, his throat. She sucked at the pulse in his neck, then kissed his mouth. “It was a man who struck Erik.”
He stilled. She came up onto her side, her fingers smoothing the hair on his chest, lightly stroking him.
“How do you know this?”
“I remembered that he stood over me, smiling in triumph. I wasn’t completely unconscious.
He stood there, Merrik, saying nothing, just smiling.
He didn’t try to help me, he did nothing save smile that loathsome smile.
It’s just that I can’t see his face, yet I know he was pleased that I was there, pleased because I would be blamed for killing Erik and none would suspect him.
I cannot be certain that he did murder Erik, but it does seem likely, does it not? ”
“You are certain?”
“Aye.”
He cursed then, soft and long, and she felt the tension coming into his body and hated it. She should have waited to tell him, but now it was too late.
“Oleg and I learned very little today talking to each of our people. But you know something, Laren, I have been thinking that this man must have followed you up the trail to the point. Perhaps he meant to kill you, but when Erik came, he waited to see what would happen. All knew my brother wanted you. When you escaped my brother, he struck Erik down. When he saw you unconscious on the path, he knew he’d won. You would be blamed.”
“There is but one man who would do that.”
“Aye. But we must be certain, very certain.”
She kissed him again, unable to stop herself, and that kiss led to another and yet another and her hands were soon wild on him, stroking her palms over his chest, downward to his belly and into the thick hair at his groin.
When she touched him, she breathed in and said into his mouth, “The way you feel, Merrik, ’tis nothing I could have ever imagined. ”
“Nor I,” he said. “Nor I.”