The Viking Slave

Chapter 9: Emotions Run High

Silence crept in the room where Astrid lay, attempting to sleep before the raids which were on beginning the upcoming day. It had been three days since she visited the seer. His words echoed through her head, over and over until she was angry with herself in thinking about it. What powers could a slave ever reach? She thought to herself as the words ran through her head once more. Power was the last thing Astrid ever planned on reaching. It was never her intention to ever become powerful, her main goal was to be free and to be free meant doing whatever it took. She figured that she had no purpose anymore and if death presented itself before her, she would reach out and take it by the hand, for she did not fear death, if anything she longed for death to come soon.

She rolled over onto her side, only to find Jezebel was still in Erick's bedchamber. Astrid knew that tonight was the night that she would break the news to Erick that she was carrying his child. Bewildered as she was, Astrid accepted the fact herself that her dear friend was pregnant, which was uncommon for women of her age in most cases, But ever so often it would happen. Jezebel was only forty years old, while she was twenty-six.

The fire had all died away except for a few embers that were glowing red-orange. though it did not really matter since it was not very cold. The spring nights were beginning to get warmer, allowing them to not have to build as many fires. Darkness settled around her, not that there was anything important to see. She sat up straight on the straw pallet, shoving the sheepskin covers away from her body, exposing the thin linen shift that hung loosely on her small body. She leaned her back against the hard wall.

"Come morning, my world will have changed once again." Astrid mumbled under her breath, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.

She stood up from where she was, found her gray woolen apron dress and slipped it over her head, leaving off the blue apron covering. Next, she pulled on her soft-soled leather shoes, lacing the thick strings to the tops that rested upon her ankles. Once dressed made her way to a table where a lantern was burning. Before taking the cold handle into her hand, she glanced around the dark, shadowy room. Nothing but stillness was all that was seen. Astrid pushed the door open, slowly and as quietly as possible. Using the light from the lantern and what illuminated from the crescent moon to guide her way, she began walking down the dirt path leading from the village square to the rolling hills that rested beside the water. The village was dead. Not a soul was out. No candles flickered in the openings of the houses. Off in the distance Astrid heard a lone owl hoot. As she walked beside the animal pen, the sound a horses grunt rang out through the air.

She continued down the path, looking behind her ever so often to reassure herself that no one was following her. A cool wind blew through the air which blew the loose strands of Astrid's dark hair that was not contained in her messy braid.

After several minutes of hiking Astrid finally reached the peak of the hill. The glistening water rippled each time the breeze blew, giving Astrid a sense of peace. She hurried down the bottom half of the hill, reaching the shores of the water quickly, where she plopped down onto the bank, sitting the lantern beside of her.

Peace came over Astrid's troublesome mind. All the fears she had melted away as she watched the clear water roll up close to her then drift back away. Memories flooded her thoughts once more, remembering the way she would go sit by the Elbe river with her mother and sister on late evenings. She flash backed to the way her life was and then contemplated on how it was in the present. Then he painful memory of her mother and sister covered in blood came. Her heart sunk with the remembrance. She felt her heart began to pound more and more as the scene replayed once again in her head. Then...silence. It was the past and there was nothing she could do. They were dead and she had to face that dreadful fact as the tears began to fall from her eyes. Tears that stayed in her eyes until she was alone then occasionally one would fall.