Aeleva; The Viking Saxon

Chapter 18

I did not speak of my mother to Ove. Nor would I ever speak of it to anyone. Not even Osric. It was my moment; it did not need to be shared.

The next day, everyone was sour and delicate and even a few people vomited. Ove said it was the seed in the liquid we all drank. Even though I only had a few drops, I still had a thumping in my head and felt heavy and sweaty for the whole day. Ove let us relax in the hot sun, all of us, who worked the field. We sat from dawn on the few Rye bales we had collected.

Ove, two other men and myself just lying under there looking up at the clouds. We talked of nothing and everything.

"What if Sol didn't want to ride the chariot one day," spoke a younger boy. He was often speaking to whoever would listen. A few times he had passed the days with me, speaking of Gods, or fishing, or anything else he could think of.

"Why would she want to do that, Sihtric," Ove answered, as a father did to a questioning child.

"Well I don't want to work all day every day, it is tiring."

"Well that is because you are lazy, and human." Ove answered and rose some giggles from the group.

"Sol is of Asgard, she doesn't tire. And if she didn't want to ride the chariot then the sun would not rise," He said and sat up on his elbows to face him.

"But I see your point," He said and laughed in a smile.

"What if Sol and Mani swapped for a day?" Sihtric carried on questioning. He lay with his head resting on his hands, lying on his back and watched the sky.

"Then the moon would rise in the day, and the sun would rise at night. It would be chaos."

"I would not want to spend my days in a chariot."

"May the Gods save us if you did," Ove muttered.

I thought of Sol, in her chariot getting chased by the wolves across the sky. She did not have a choice. She had to pull the sun across the sky, otherwise it would be the end of the world. She had to run from the wolves or she would be caught and eaten. There was no choice for her. She had to do that every minute of every day.

Over the next few weeks, I lead a simple farmers life. I rose with the sun, fed myself and worked in the fields until dinner. Ove was very kind to me and let me sleep on his floor, as Hagen had done. We grew closer as the weeks passed. He taught me of the Danish ways to farm. It was not much different than the Saxon way and that comforted me. He was fair to the working men. He did not own slaves. He said they were too expensive to buy and he said he could only pay little and often, not large sums of money.

I did not share a bed with him. And I do not think he wanted me to. We had a friendship and despite all the secrets I kept from him, I think he knew me.

Although I was living more as a Dane as I had ever, I had found my Christian God again. I would say a silent prayer before eating and a prayer before bed. I would think of the teachings the priest gave in my home town while I worked the fields. I would not lie with a man again. For I did not wish to marry but I think in some way it would have felt wrong if it was not Hagen.

Hagen was always in my mind. I wondered if he had found another woman. If he had forgotten the words he said to me the night before Ribe. I wondered if he thought of me late at night as I did. I wondered if he had tried to find me, or cared.

After a week or so, news reached Brevell about Hagen in Ribe. He had successfully taken Ribe and the people had welcomed him as their Earl and King. It was said that he would live in Ribe, as his father did, and another would rule Torvik. Ove said that the region was as united as it had ever been. And peace was finally brought to the region because of Hagen.