Aeleva; The Viking Saxon

Chapter 6

Three weeks had passed since my arrival at Torvik. Most days consisted of getting bruises from Hagen on the dreaded hilltop. Hilda would come and find me for amusement. Sometimes fighting me and other times attempting to speak to me in Danish. I am convinced she was deliberately speaking strangely to confuse me. Eventually, I picked up the language enough to converse with the villagers. It might have taken me a few attempts and gotten a few giggles, but I was understood.

My training had progressed to using real metal as a blade. The first time I was handed a sharp blade I ran my fingers over its edge. I had cut my fingers, only a few layers deep, no blood. Hagen had given me the axe as he picked up his. I saw my blade embed into his back, crunching through his spine and slicing the meat of his muscle. But I didn't move.

Hagen chose to train me; I knew there were others in town who could - Hilda for one. Instead, he was there every morning, weapons newly wetted. Each time he knocked me over he would wait for me to get up. The moment I was upright he spoke "Again," in Danish. And we would practise again and again.

He started to let others from the village fight me. He'd invite younger boys and girls to prod and poke at me. Hagen would sit cross-legged on the floor and watch in silence. Only when it was over, would he give me exercises to improve.

The town had grown used to my presence; I was not the only Saxon in town but I was the only free one. The Saxon slaves worked on the fields all day. In the midday sun, when Hagen and I would find shelter under a tree, I could see them in the Barley fields hunched over and raising the hoes above their head to drop them to the ground, over and over again. My station was odd. I had arrived a slave and I did not believe I still held that title. I was a warrior and therefore a free woman. But every time I saw the Saxons in the fields, a pang of guilt would drip down me.

Slowly, the warriors arrived in Torvik. A few groups at first, they arrived when the sky was trying to drown us, and so they went straight to the hall and drank themselves silly. I could hear their songs about chained wolves and mischievous gods from Hagen's house in the small hours of the morning. Then masses arrived, day after day. Men with swords and axes walking around with nothing to do all day. Fights would be hard to avoid, simply taking one's seat would cause a stir. The slave girls of Torvik were busy in those few weeks.

They came for the march on Ribe. Men had answered Hagen's calls or come to settle debts to help him reclaim his father's land. Each brought their dead idol's and hammered it into the door frame. A bear paw, a calf head, a giant's nose, each had a shield that was mounted in the hall as well. The more men arrived the happier Hilda was and that made me sure this was not a good thing.

"He must know by now, with all the movements with people from Hofslond, Helgafell and others." Earl Arne said to the other men in Danish.

The rain that had welcomed the arriving men had not left us. It had persisted day and night. The field that I trained on was a swamp and Hagen had decided he had better things to do than roll around in the mud with me. The hall was packed, I had sat on the table of Earls, next to Sven, on the side of his missing ear. No one seemed to notice when I sat down, or they were too miserable to notice. The rain hammered on the roof and flowed down to fall in cascades on anyone who walked under the doorway. Each person who entered huffed and groaned when they realised the downpour was unavoidable. The smoke from the fires and torches was trapped in the hall, more than usual. And so, the soggy crowd had a constant chorus of coughs.

"Possibly, but he won't find anyone to help him or want to fight for him outside of Ribe," Hagen said with confidence, the other men nodded in agreement. "It's been coming for years."

"He would have prepared for this then," Sven said sipping his ale.

"Perhaps. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's too confident to prepare. His arrogance might help us in this." Hagen remarked.