Rumcofa was impressive. Saxons and Danes living together in pretty relative peace was a sight to behold. I discovered upon arrival that Uhtred was the lord here. I did not know I had came across someone so influential in the wilderness.
As he said I was set up with a bed in his home, which was spacious and nicer than anything I had experienced thus far. It gave me time to heal, and heal I did. I practiced swinging a new weapon, and conditioned my body to fight better and faster than ever before.
I honestly didn't see much of Finan and Sihtric at this time. I saw little even of Uhtred unless he was home, and he rarely was.
Eventually, he came to me and said he needed my help, that I should join them again in the wilderness. I could not refuse him of course so I agreed.
I gathered my equipment; my new sword, my bedroll and saddle bag. I put on my unused leather armor and fastened it. I pulled my red hair back into a braid and tied it off with a piece of leather. Then I met Uhtred downstairs in the main hall, and we headed off.
"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed him to the stables.
"It is a simple errand, nothing more. I must go to Winchester to see the King, and I need men to accompany me, as always," he stopped walking and looked at me seriously, "You are just as capable as my men, Red. I would like you to join us."
I didn't know what to say so I just nodded my agreement. We arrived at the stables to find Sihtric and Finan preparing their horses as well, they were outfitted in armor and furs, as fastening their packs to their horses, and I did the same. I was endlessly grateful I had landed here, and Uhtred had taken such care for me.
We mounted up and headed off for Winchester. Riding on this part of the horse was much easier than riding on the ass end as I had on the journey to Rumcofa, and time began to slip away as we trotted along. I found myself smiling, it felt like I fit here.
We made camp at dusk. It was spring at last and the night time insects were back in force, so at least it was not as quiet as it had been previously, and after the fire was lit, I easily lost myself into the sounds of the cracking and popping of the fire and chirping of bugs.
"Red?"
"Hmm?" I looked up to see Finan offering me a piece of bread, and I accepted it. "Thank you." I took a bite and it was still fresh enough to be enjoyable.
"So, what does the King want this time?" Finan asked.
"I do not know," Uhtred replied, "he only sent word that he needs to see me. I will respect his wish. Probably he needs my sword." He popped a bite of bread into his mouth.
The implications hung in the air. "I thought it was a simple errand?"
Sihtric almost laughed, but said nothing, apparently implying simplicity was not this groups strong suit.
"It is," Uhtred smiled. "Alfred would not request me here if it were not needed."
I nodded but said nothing, instead turning my attention back to the flames, and my chunk of bread.
That night I did not sleep well. Nightmares plagued me, and I ended up awake far before my watch. In any case, I got up and went to where Sihtric leaned against a tree just outside camp.
"You can go to sleep now," I sighed, "I can sleep no longer."
He nodded, his eyes still suspicious of me in some way.
"What is your problem? Speak plainly," I confronted him.
He didn't break my gaze. "How did you escape?"
Ice trickled in my veins. "What?"
"From Erik," he stated.
I bit into my cheek, "I am no friend to Erik. I want his head."
"So you have said," he cocked his head slightly, and then repeated the question. "How did you escape?"
I laughed dryly. "You are insufferable." I was so done with this. I shot a piercing gaze through him, "I have nothing to hide other than my own dignity. And what was done to me.. That, I will not share with you. I escaped. That is all. Leave it alone."
He didn't say anything. His face softened the slightest amount in the almost nonexistent light of the distant fire and moonlight. He nodded, almost too softly a few moments later, and left without a word.
In his absence I tasted blood, and discovered that I had bit through the flesh of my cheek. I prodded it with my tongue, unable to resist the urge to feel the wound. It fueled my anger for a few minutes longer before even that faded.
My watch was uneventful after my anger subsided and I filled my mind with thoughts of my eventual revenge on Erik. I imagined myself killing him easily. I imagined it being the hardest fight of my life. I even imagined that he killed me, and I went to Valhalla with my father and brother. I found myself to be satisfied with each ending.
Within a few hours the sun was rising, and my thoughts were still consumed with running scenarios of my or Erik's death when someone spoke behind me, making me jump out of my skin.
"Why didn't you wake me for my watch?"
"Gods," I breathed, suddenly realizing that I had been here almost all night, watching and thinking. "Finan, you can not sneak up on someone like that." I faced him as I spoke, "I suppose I lost track of time. No matter, the watch was covered."
Finan nodded his head. "Well, remember next time." Duh.
The camp was awake the next few moments. Everyone moving like they had done this a million times as they disbanded the camp. They began repacking items, saddling the horses, eating dried meat and sipping hot water. I tried to keep up, and within minutes, Sihtric was kicking dirt on the campfire to extinguish it.
We mounted up again, and took off. Winchester was another day's ride, but Uhtred promised we would make it to a village this evening to sleep in real beds. None of us seemed so concerned with this, but when he mentioned there would be mead to drink and a warm fresh meal, it was smiles all around.
It is often uneventful, riding through the country side, and so I allowed my mind to drift away with the rocking of my horse, back to a memory of my father.
"Redinfel!" He called for me from outside and I promptly put the broom against the wall of our modest kitchen and walked out to him.
He was at his forge, like most days. He motioned for me to come over and I did. "I need your help today." He told me. I nodded and he smiled in response. He handed me gloves and I put them on. They were massive, made for adult men's hands and not teenage girl hands, but I did as I was instructed.
He pulled something out of the fire and placed it on the anvil, it glowed with red hot intensity that could be felt radiating off of it from my place a few steps away. Father grabbed his hammer and swung down, hitting it one way and then another, then flipping it and hitting it on the other side.
"Do you see how I do this?" He asked between blows. I nodded in response.
"Now, you do it the same way." He offered me the hammer. It was not the first time I had helped make a blade, but I was not good at it, or at least not as good as my brother.
I took the heavy hammer and swung it down like he had showed. He adjusted the blade, as I swung, giving me pointers when I didn't do it quite right. Eventually, it began to take shape, a small axe. Once we had pounded it and it began to lose elasticity, he told me to put it back in the forge and I did.
He had grabbed a second item from the forge and began beating it on the anvil. "Bellows," he stated to me, and so I went and opened the bellows and then pushed it down, shooting air into the forge and re-igniting the heat.
He didn't ask me for help on this blade, and soon he offered it to me to dip. I dipped it into the water carefully and then placed it on the wooden table next to the grindstone. He pulled the axe back from the flames and put it on the anvil again, and again he told me to beat it.
At this point I was sweating profusely, and I was grateful that my father was willing to work like this everyday to care for us. I wiped my eye with my shoulder the best I could, noting that my arms were covered in dust and sweat.
We went on like this for some time, and eventually he raised the axe, looking at it carefully. He nodded to himself, his eyes held a glint of satisfaction in our work. He handed it back to me and i dumped it in the bucket.
"Red?" The sound of my name broke my dreamstate and I stared at the intruder, Sihtric.
"What?" I asked, my eyebrows stitching together.
He looked at me strangely, his expression still guarded. I looked up to see we had drifted back a little from Uhtred and Finan, or I had. It seems Sihtric probably slowed his horse to match mine so he could request my reasoning.
"What are-"
"I was lost in thought," I cut him off.
His eyes were trained on me. "About Craven?" I looked at him, my face flushing at the mention of my home. He was still suspicious of me, I noticed.
"Of my father," I said softly, diverting my eyes back to the horses in front of us.
Sihtric nodded. "What was his name?"
I looked at him carefully. "Why?" Our horses walked next to each other, for a moment all that could be heard was their footfalls and their breathing.
"It is good to remember their names. It keeps them alive."
My jaw clenched and unclenched. "Arne," I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, "and my brother, Hakon."
He nodded. "Arne the Kind".
My head snapped in his direction, but no words come out as I narrow my eyes at him. How would he know that name? He had not been called that name since I was a child. He noted my look, suspicion tensed the muscles in my back and arms.
"My father, if you could call him that, was Kjartan the Cruel. He.. did not like yours."
I looked at him squarely. "Kjartan? The man who took his thumb?" I ask recalling the story my father often told of how Kajartan had bitten his thumb off in battle and ran rather than die at my father's hands.. I recall how my father called him "Kjartan the Coward" when he told the story.
Sihtric nodded.
"You are his son?"
"The bastard son he kept around like a stray dog," he spat the words. "I joined Uhtred when he was on a quest to kill him for killing his father."
It all came full circle. "Oh. I..Oh." We rode in silence for awhile before speaking again. "And did he? Kill him?"
Sihtric nodded. "Of course."
That satisfied me. Perhaps Uhtred would assist me in killing Erik as well.. he deserved it just as much as Kjartan did. I looked at Sihtric again and this time I did see the resemblance, but only barely, he must have taken after his mother.
I said nothing more and we rode on into the evening. We arrived at a town I didn't bother learning the name of to rest for the night. Uhtred was welcomed at the gate and we were all granted a shared room. Uhtred and Finan took one room, and the second was given to Sihtric and I. I didn't particularly want to spend more time with him. He frustrated me with all his suspension and off hand remarks, and so I decided I would offer no conversation and just go to bed after we had dinner.
We sat at a round table in the corner of the tavern. The barmaid brought around stew and tankards of mead. I gulped down some of the mead before I even looked at the stew. Soon enough we were all eating and drinking and chatting.
".. and then she shoved him out of the window, as naked as a newborn babe, out into the snow," Finan shoved at Uhtred, as Uhtred recounted the story. He laughed heartily in response.
"It was very cold, all right?" Finan wanted us to know this fact especially, as Uhtred held up his fingers in a cruel and mocking joke against Finan's manhood.
"I would say that too!" Sihtric laughed.
We all laughed. "It's no worse than what happened to you Sihtric," Uhtred jabbed and Sihtric gave him a playful look before be laughed.
"We were stopped for the night at Winchester, and Sihtric had been seeing a girl there," Uhtred started. Sihtric rolled his eyes playfully. "As I was leaving the castle, I turned down the street and heard someone whisper my name. I look to my left, and there is Sihtric," he laughed, "naked behind a tree, his skin red as a robin in the cold. He had apparently said something stupid enough to get himself kicked out into the street."
Sihtric laughed as he took a sip of mead. "I had to walk through the streets of Winchester naked and Uhtred could not stop laughing the whole time."
"I missed that, and I am still mad about it," Finan laughed
"One woman fainted, I swear it." Uhtred laughed.
Sihtric tried not to laugh, but failed as he recalled the woman. "The sight of a naked Dane walking down the streets of Winchester must have been nearing blasphemy for her."
By the end of the night, I was sufficiently drunk, and had laughed hard enough to make me shed tears. As I settled into my bed, I felt content with the developments. I felt a sense of belonging.