Frida

Chapter 36 - Follow the Raven

Frida sighed out heavily when the meeting in the longhouse was finally over.

There had been many complaints to deal with, and meanwhile Frida did solve most of them with the help of Elisef, her thoughts were somewhere completely different the whole time. As she sat there in the boiling summer heat of the long-hall, she furrowed her brows thoughtfully, her hands swaying over her ever growing belly while she lightly bit on the nail of her thumb, thinking about last night's events.

After the two children had disappeared, Frida had not turned around to the longhouse to ask Helga and Elisef what on earth had happened. Instead she had found herself trotting her way, quickly, along the paths of the village, ending up at a door that she had only entered once before.

The door to the Seer's house.

The room had been just as dark and creepy as she remembered it to be, and she immediately regretted her stepping in there, when the door closed behind her and a hideous smell filled her nostrils.

A smell of rotten flesh and dust lingered heavily in the thick air, and she felt like she had stepped into another world. A world in which magical beings and the gods were more real than her own heartbeat itself. Frida had sat down on the stool facing the table that was placed in the middle of the room, as Ragnar had done when she had been there with him. She heard a gurgling laugh, a wet and throaty larking coming from the darkest corner of the room, and enormous waves of chilling goosebumps spread over her entire body, petrifying her as she sat there.

The cloaked figure moved slowly towards her, dragging his feet with him as he came closer, while he chuckled in slow breaths, filling the room with his unearthly tone of voice, causing the little creature in her stomach to stir nervously beneath her skin.

Frida still could not look at him properly. She felt like a child as she sensed his eyes upon her face, and while she kept hers lowered on the wooden table in front of her, she heard his voice coming over her.

"What brings the queen here, to intrude an old man's rest?" croaked the voice, and she closed her eyes as regret washed up in her mouth.

If only Ragnar had been here with her.

"Please," she whispered in a quick breath. "In here, I am just Frida."

She heard the Seer chuckling again, and she watched him out of the corner of her eye as he sat down in front of her on the other side of the table. His skin looked to be as deformed and irritated as ever, his lips as black as a Norse winter's night, and she felt his stare burning her face even if she could not tell if he even had eyes or not.

"Why have you come, Frida?" he asked her in a serious tone, his head tilting at her slightly.

Frida finally dared to raise her head and look at him directly, and she noticed his lips were curled into something that reminded her of a smug grin. However, his air was serious, and his movements still. Frida had a feeling that he already knew very well why she had come.

She felt her chest tightening as she cleared her throat. She did not know whether she really wanted to hear what he had to say or not. But she had to hear it.

"A young brother and sister came here," she started in a trembling voice, while she nervously twitched her hands in her lap. "They told me something which I do not understand."

The room was very silent, and the Seer breathed loudly into the room as he reached up his hand to grab a couple of bones that were spread over the table. The sound of the chalky pieces rattling over the wooden planks sent eerie shivers down her spine, causing her body to tremble slightly.