Tales of Infamy (Viking)

6 - Ailmær

I was angry. Angry that father had convinced the jarl that Hringr was ready. Angry that we were now stuck in England, waiting for that very man to return.

Half of our group was gone, but the new group was still intact. Sadly, the jarl was not in that group, and it became very clear that both Skarde and Fálki would not leave without him. Even if that was exactly what he would do if it was one of them. We were not leaving.

"Stop it Ailmær." Reifr said to me. I was without sleep, without my youngest brother, and I was angry. Without knowing it myself, I had developed a tendency to stare Skarde and Fálki down. My look wasn't exactly loving, and my brothers worried that they would kill me for it.

Reifr sat down next to me, with a little space in the middle. That was where Hringr was buried. In a foreign land, under a foreign sky.

Reifr wasn't a very emotional person, but that did not mean he didn't have any. Sometimes it would burst out of him, most of the time he waited to be alone to express himself. He placed his hand on the dirt, on Hringr's grave.

"The men want to leave." He said in a low tone. There weren't many people around us. We had moved away from the beach and into a small clearing in the trees. It was now day five of us waiting here, we had set up camp and defences. Still, we were just waiting for another attack if you ask me. "A lot of them are... Looking into your direction."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, laying down next to Hringr. When he was a kid he would point out every raven he saw. He said he could tell if it was Hugin or Munin, Odin's ravens. Two flew over us now, because Hringr was no longer around to tell me which one was which.

"It means that they know you're Ailmær Ulfarsson." He said in a sharp tone. "They know that you questioned Skarde's judgement and that you were the one to take the lead during that attack. It means, you dumb fuck, that they want you to pack up our ships, and sail us home."

I would not admit it to him, but I almost did not want to leave. I did not want to leave my baby brother by himself in this strange land.

I looked at Reifr, he was almost pleading with me. His hair was darker than mine, and his eyes were not brown, but pure black. He would make a great berserker one day, but jarl Valtar condemned the use of them. I wanted to say I would do it, but things were different now. I did not speak for just myself, but also for Thyra.

She wanted to farm and raise a family. To leave a quiet life up in the mountains, away from the crowdedness of Hraun. I could not take that from her. She was too gentle for the brutality of jarls.

"If we do not leave within the next three days, I will challenge them." I told Reifr.

"We do not have three days." Reifr sounded angry, he always sounded angry, but now he was seriously pissed off. "Ailmær, you have-"

"Why don't you do it then?" I cut him off. "Why run to your older brother? You don't like something, you change it. Father did not raise you to be a follower."

Reifr did not get more angry, he did not shout or throw his axe at me. His face instead went entirely blank. There was no emotion anymore, no anger or sadness.

"Father trained me, he did not raise me. You did."

I heard him get up and leave, but I just closed my eyes and wrapped my hand around my necklace. Fuck.