Chapter 21 #2
He walked to her, the sword still held in his right hand.
He stopped in front of her and, to her surprise, lifted her long braid in his hand, pulling it forward.
With quick, nearly angry motions, he pulled it apart.
He ran his fingers through her hair, then gathered a thick tress around his hand and rubbed it against his cheek.
a??I hate the braid. You must leave your hair free and loose.
The feel is as rich and vibrant as the color.
Ah, and the smell. Lavender? You are very foreign, just as Ingunn said.
The green color of your eyes is also unusual.
I have never seen a green so pure and deep, like the greenest moss deep in a forest where little sunlight filters through.
I wonder, is the rest of you different as well?
a?? He grinned then and chuckled. a??Of course, Ingunn would never admit that you were beautiful. She hates you, you see.a??
And then she knew. Ah, yes, she knew. a??You are Orm Ottarsson, arena??t you?a??
He was still grinning at her. a??Ah, so you still have your wits about you. My fame has preceded me. Aye, I am Orm Ottarsson and you are Zarabeth, wife of Magnus.a??
a??Why are you here? It isna??t safe for you to be here. Even now your deeds are being discussed at the thing.a??
a??I have come to take you away from here, away from Magnus Haraldsson.
I have long wished to do him in, and Ingunn has no tender feelings for you.
She has begged me to avenge her. She wants you dead, truth be told, but she would never admit to that.
What she so prettily begs me to do is to sell you to some Arab in Miklagard and thus turn a tidy profit.a?? He touched his fingertips to her jaw.
a??I do not believe you would make a good slave, though I doubt not I would get much gold for you.
Are there still marks from the slave collar Magnus put on you?
No, I see that they are gone. You must have angered him greatly for him to humiliate you thus.a??
a??Yes,a?? she said. a??But I meant not to anger him. a??Twas not my fault.a??
a??It matters not now. He forgave you and wedded you.
At first I did not credit it, for Magnus is such a proud man, unbending as an oak.
When we were boys, he could be more stubborn, more inflexible, than any of us.
I remember seeing him pale with fear when a wild boar turned on him, but he swallowed his vomit and made his stand, and he killed the beast. Aye, a proud man, Magnus.a?? He was looking at her again, and rubbed her hair between his fingers.
a??Ingunn is as proud as her brother. She can be merciless as well. I have always admired that in her.a??
a??Ingunn has no reason to hate me. I did nothing to her.a??
He shrugged, saying, a??She is a passionate creature whose heart is easily bruised, whose mind is easily twisted.
She saw you as a threat, saw you as the woman who would usurp her, and thus set out to destroy you.
She wasna??t wise in her methods, though, for Magnus cares for you above all others, including that little whore of his, Cyra, but Ingunn didna??t fully realize that until it was too latea??for her.a??
a??She has told you all these things? You kidnapped Ingunn from her home?a??
He laughed then, shaking his head. a??Helgi wants to believe that, I doubt not, but she is no fool and she knows that Ingunn came to me freely. I had but to send her a message and she flew to me.a??
a??Magnus, his father, and many others are at the meeting of all free men and they are considering evidence of your deceit and trickery. You should leave Norway, Orm. I have heard it said that many of your countrymen sail to the west, to lands discovered and settled by the Vikings.a??
He nodded, smiling at her as though he were her friend, a guest, not a man standing before her with a sword in his hand.
a??You are right, of course. There is little for me here now.a?? He looked bemused.
a??How odd that one of the Ingolfsson females lived and is right now telling of my rape of her.
I had thought her well dead with all the rest of them.
There was much gold and silver therea??the man who told me was right about that.
I have more than enough now.a?? He looked up at the strong palisade that protected Magnusa?? farmstead.
Then he looked out over the viksfjord to the mountains beyond.
a??But this is my home and it pains me to be forced away. Aye, I have wealth now, but no land.a??
a??No one forced you to kill and rob and rape.a??
He looked at her then, and there was no longer a smile on his face. a??I do not discuss my deeds with women. You have no understanding of what forces drive a man.a??
a??I understand Magnus, and he is more a man than any I have ever known.a?? The moment the words were gone from her mouth, she froze, understanding flooding into her.
Magnus was kind and fiercely loyal and he had truly wanted her to become his wife.
He had loved Lotti and mourned the childa??s death.
And to lose his own son on the very same day .
. . She felt small and petty and stingy.
She had given him no comfort, provided him no understanding.
She had wallowed in self-pity, ignoring him and his pain, selfishly shutting him away from her.
She closed her eyes a moment, wishing that she could shut out all that she had done, all that she had said and thought, for now she understooda??oh, yes, she well understooda??that she had lied to herself and to him.
a??Did Magnus take your maidenhead?a??
She drew back, her eyes still clouded with her thoughts, and then his words came cleanly into her. Again she looked up that winding path, and saw herself running and running. She saw him catch her. What would happen then? She didna??t see that.
a??Answer me, woman! Was it Magnus who took your virginity, or another man, that first man who wedded you?a??
a?? a??Twas Magnus.a??
a??Ingunn reviles you, calls you whore and slut, but I doubted it.
She calls you these names even as she screams out the pleasure I give her.
It is strange, but she is, still, only a woman and there is no sense to her actions.a?? He paused and looked upward toward the palisade.
a??You are right. Soon someone will notice that you are gone and perhaps even see me here speaking to you. We will leave now, Zarabeth.a??
She turned and ran.
The meeting of the thing had continued now for three days.
Harald was the chieftain who directed that the evidence against Orm be brought forward.
But it was the Ingolfsson daughter, a girl named Minin, who was only twelve years old, who brought the meeting to a near-hysterical climax.
Orm had raped her and then thrown her against some rocks, believing her dead.
She had lain without consciousness for three days.
She spoke in a quavering childa??s voice, and each man there saw his own child in her stead; each man knew such fury he choked on it.
Orm was proclaimed outlaw. He would have to leave Norway, if he wasna??t killed first, for the Ingolfsson men wanted his blood.
Magnus sat across from his father and his brother Mattias that evening. It was warm and still bathed in the summer-evening half-light.
a??I would go home,a?? Magnus said.
Mattias grinned at him. a??Your blood is heated, Magnus, and you would have your bride consume you.a??
Magnus said nothing. He was seeing Zarabeth on her back beneath him, her eyes closed, her arms at her sides, her hands fisted, as he took her.
That last night before hea??d left to come to the thing, he had taken her yet again, as he had told her he would, and when he was done, he saw the tears seeping from her closed lids down her cheeks.
She had made no sound. The tears had merely continued.
By Thor, he hated it, hated her and himself as well.
a??Nay, I would just leave here,a?? Magnus said.
a??My men wish to go on a-raiding, Ragnar tells me, just a small raid, he explains, to relieve the men of their boredom and fatten their caskets and relieve some fat English monks and their monastery of their gold and ornaments.a?? He sighed.
a??Perhaps we should go. Either a raid or we could hunt down Orm and take all the gold hea??s stolen.a??
Mattias said absently, a??Toke Ingolfsson will kill Orm, and it is his right.a?? He looked at his father, who was rubbing a knotted muscle in his shoulder. a??I agree with Magnus. Bring all this to a close on the morrow and leta??s go home. I have my own bride to keep happy.a??
Harald grunted, then winced as Magnus began to massage the knotted muscles in his shoulder.
a??Glyda isna??t a bride, shea??s a wife, and only Freya knows why she cares more for you than you will ever deserve.
Youa??re a rutting stoat and the poor girl must constantly suffer your pawing and youra??a??
Mattias laughed and buffeted his fathera??s other shoulder. a??Me? A rutting stoat? Glyda is the one, Father, who pats the side of our bed and gives me those long-eyed looks.a??