[To be titled viking story]

FOUR

---Kadlin---

I was taken to the throne room and thrown by the hearth. My clothes were still soaked and I was shivering once I felt the heat of the fire. I crawled to the heat and started warming my hands.

The reality of the situation came crashing down on me then. The children around the hearth moved away from me.

Slaves didn't warm up by the hearth in the earl's throne room. I looked around to see several of the clan looking at me.

I was in trouble and I knew it. I was unkempt and dirty. None of these people knew or cared who I was. I was a slave. That's all that mattered now. The crest of the earl's family was on the shield over the chair.

I knew as soon as I saw it that I was in deep trouble. The northern villages were all pretty violent with their slaves, and if I knew the crest, I was probably not going to survive my slavery.

"Come here child," the earl's voice boomed, silencing the room.

I stood and kneeled before the earl, showing him the respect that I didn't think he deserved from me.

If I played nice, I might be survive. If I didn't, I was likely to meet the sharp end of someone's axe.

"She's not as young as your previous slaves Taf," the earl said as he looked over me. I wasn't allowed to look up at him, but I could feel his eyes on me.

"Need help with the family. She's old enough to be useful."

The earl nodded. "I approve. Next."

I was roughly grabbed by the old man who grabbed my braid on the boat and dragged out of the throne room. His name was Taf and I was terrified. I knew what old men like him did to young women. I had kept my virtue as a gift to whoever I would marry. I knew that wasn't going to happen anymore.

I wouldn't keep it for longer than a few days, if that.

The family was in a modest home. There were seven children, three younger, dirty slaves, and an older woman, who was obviously the wife.

I was quickly introduced to the children. I didn't even pick up their names with the speed at which they were excused.

When they were all out of the room, it was the first time that I noticed I was alone with the woman of the house.

Some fantasy side of me had hoped that she would be nice and motherly to me. I hadn't had a mother in a very long time. I had dreamed that one day I would have a woman in my life that acted like a mother.

But I was wrong.

The woman stood in front of me and looked down on me.

She slapped my face so quickly, and so unexpectedly, that I fell to the floor.

"That will serve as a reminder, slave, to remember your place here," Taf's wife seethed in my face. "You're lucky that you're allowed to live what's left of your pathetic life."

I could tell by the look on her face that I was headed for some very tough years ahead of me.