Fear Of Broken Glass

Drive Back

Rune, Justin knew, was a word that came from the Gothic word, Runa. It meant mystery, or secret. Surely that meant a runic secret was a secret's secret then? Whatever it was, it was a small word for big ideas, someone had once said. It was also the reason why they'd made the bloody trip in the first place.

He looked out of the passenger window at a rocky landscape that shifted from valley to hillock, from tall thin pines to exposed bedrock. Here and there little lakes, like watery pockets he thought, all of them hidden behind a thin veil of rain, drops turning the still waters into a pattern of a million circles. It was a fitting setting, these lost inner lands of the Norse. This was an older, more ancient people of old Scandza, Ash kept going on about, some of whom in time would come to be known as Vikingr, or Vikings. Some had to have believed in something runic.

Most of the time Justin just ignored him. But not this time.

Ash accelerated down the stretch of road leading north for Norra Vägen, his words falling into rhythm with the regular beat of windscreen wipers. 'Knowledge of such secrets could only truly be attained by the act of death,' he said from behind the wheel. 'So they'd sacrifice people in the woods and all that, you know, to appease the Gods. That's what they did in Tiveden. Place of sacrifice, been going on for donkey's years.'

'So now we know why Hörgrlund was important.'

'Old place of worship, old customs, fucked-up people who burned women just because they fancied a monk or two. Not that any of it was odd, mind. They'd pretty much been nabbin' people from time immemorial, to slit their throats and pour blood over the rocks. All to do with life blood, wasn't it? Putting all the life back into the land and all that. And did you notice the way the Pastor wrung his hands all the time?'

When Ash got the bit between his teeth there was no stopping him. The Pastor at the church had told them about a woman called Æsa. She had inherited the place called Æsahult after her father was killed. Some feud he'd said, not that it made a lot of sense. Æsahult was a what they called a stave church, because it was built of overlapping wood, the old-style church from Viking times. He'd been a dour old bastard, the Pastor, Ash said. This time, Justin had to agree with him.

His thoughts evaporated with the miracle of an evening sun as it broke briefly through a shift in the clouds, light playing across the contours of rock; looking like a golden bow across a granite violin. He turned to look behind them, the clouds as black as coal, the sunlight from the west, lighting the rain like wires of moving gold.

'What else did it say?'

Justin looked back down at the brochure still held in his hands. He scanned the rest of the text, looking down at the illustration of an old medieval map. 'As a girl, Æsa had been taken to the forest and left to die – by her father. Except, she was found by a dog and she followed it back to her father's house. Æsa survived. The elders of the community were called together to pass judgement, as was their custom. They took her survival to be an act of the gods.' Justin looked across. 'So they let her live. After that day, they honored the Elders, forming some foundation or something. Later, they turned against her.'

Ash kept his eyes on the road, taking it all in.

'That was after she killed her father. She was convicted for being a witch.' He looked up. 'It says she was burned for her sins. Sins... I don't get that. It sounds like...'

'That she deserved burning?'

'Exactly.'

Ash looked across. 'Why did she kill her father then?'

Her father had been an old Viking chieftain, the Pastor had said. Justin's eyes scanned the text again. 'He'd been on a raiding expedition. Came back one day with a monk. The monk and Æsa became friends, and he christened her, in secret. She must have hated her father, since she honored the monk instead of him, even dedicating the church to him. Later, her father found out and hung the monk from a tree.'

'The father hung the monk?'

Ash was looking across at Justin as the figure emerged out of the rain, standing in the middle of the road.

***

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