Blood Eagle: A riveting historical thriller Read online

  “So, Egin,” I said, the words bubbling out of me, “tell me everything from the beginning. What made you come here? Did you find out that I am innocent? Because I am.”

  Egin nodded, his face taking on a grave expression. Only then did I realize how much narrower his cheeks had become. Anger rushed through my body. The Jarlabankes must be working my family to death to make them pay for my alleged assault on their honor.

  “Yes, I do know that,” he answered. “But I never thought you were guilty in the first place anyway. Only Father did.” As soon as those last words had left his mouth, his pale skin turned pink. He gave me an embarrassed look. “Well, he—”

  I held up a hand, feeling less magnanimous than I acted. “Egin. Don’t worry. I figured that he did.” I gave him an encouraging smile. “Tell me, how did you find out I was innocent?”

  “Thora and one of the Jarlabanke slaves overheard Ragnar confess to Loke that he set you up one night after they had been out drinking. The slave—Bosse, I think he’s called—sent his daughter to our farm to tell us about it. Apparently, Ragnar retold his deed in great detail.”

  I barely registered the significance of what Egin had just told me. The mere mention of Thora’s name sent shivers through my body, making me dizzy. I could feel my heart beating faster in my chest, my breathing picking up speed.

  “Thora…” I managed to get out finally. “How is she?”

  “Oh, she is… well.”

  Egin’s eyes fluttered then, and I knew something was wrong.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked. “She didn’t re-marry already, did she?” I chuckled, thinking my question was too preposterous to ever carry the possibility of being true.

  When Egin didn’t answer but just stared at me, my stomach turned and I knew it was not only true, but that it was worse than that. “Egin.” The next words stuck in my throat, making me choke; still, I had to know immediately. “Tell me who she married.”

  At length he nodded. “She has married Ragnar.”

  As the words entered my ears, I had to fight hard not to throw up where I sat between him and Orvar. All I wanted right then was to get outside where I could breathe. The air inside the cottage only seemed to make my chest tighter and tighter. My limbs feeling weak, I managed to push myself into a standing position. I stumbled toward the front door and walked outside.

  Walking mindlessly for a short while, I sunk down on a tree stump and stared into the ground. Egin came after me, asking me if I was all right. Waving him away, I remained seated on that stump for the longest time, unaware of anything that happened around me.

  After a painful, lengthy internal debate, I decided that Thora’s marriage to Ragnar in fact made sense. What else could she have done, given the circumstances? Divorced or not, she was still associated with me, a convicted rapist and murderer. No matter how beautiful, she was no longer considered a desirable wife. She must have been lonely, so terribly lonely and sad that she had felt her only choice was to marry Ragnar despite finding him obnoxious and vulgar. With all that silver and his standing in the community, Ragnar wasn’t a bad husband for a girl. She didn’t know that he was a murderous bastard. Not until she overheard him confess to Loke.

  It pained me to think of everything she had been forced to suffer through lately. But I also realized that, because of it, I had found someone who could endorse my claim that Ragnar had set me up. Even though the testimony of a female didn’t carry as much weight as that of a male, combined with Ragnar having married Thora so soon—proof of a clear motive—it should be enough. I had found a solution to my dilemma.

  Excitement rushed through my veins and I nearly smiled. I only wished that I didn’t have to mix Thora into this sordid affair. I hated that she would have to stand in the middle of the court square inside the People’s Assembly, the whole province staring at her, as she retold every sordid detail of Ragnar’s confession. It was no business for a girl. Staring at the tall fir that rose before me, an evening following our wedding feast, when life was good still, came back to me.

  “Each time I look at you, you’re getting more beautiful,” I had whispered, my lips brushing Thora’s small ear. I straightened my head and contemplated her glowing face again. She returned my gaze and gave me that special smile she only used for me.

  Thora and I had walked around the lake below our farm to admire the sunset together. We stood on a cliff, facing our home high up on the hills on the other side. The square farm buildings were outlined against the star-filled sky and smoke streamed from the longhouse’s roof, dissolving into the night. The full moon was mirrored in the dark waters beneath us, covering the surface with the thinnest layer of silver.

  I cupped my hands around her face. “I could stand here forever and just lose myself in those pretty eyes of yours. I must be the luckiest man in the world for having you as my wife.”

  “We are both lucky for having each other, Leif,” Thora said, her arms grasping tighter around my waist.

  I bent down and kissed her. It was as if her lips had put a spell on me: I simply had to kiss them over and over and over. And each time I did, I got dizzy from excitement.

  “I cannot imagine what my life would have been like had I not gone to Valstad that Sunday,” I mumbled between kisses. “I might have never met you.”

  “I know. We would both have been so unhappy. Everything would have been meaningless.”

  “We would have continued to live as two broken people. And we wouldn’t even have known why. That is almost the worst part.”

  “But now we’re together. We will always be together, Leif. Nothing can ever come between us. I won’t let it.”

  “Nothing.”

  Thora closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nostrils. Smiling, she removed my hands from her face and turned her head to glance out over the black, shimmering water.

  “I never thought it possible to be this happy,” she said and sighed. She turned back to me, every part of her gorgeous face grinning. “And this is just the beginning! Can you imagine how happy we will be when you win the tournament? Then our lives can start for real. I can hardly wait for that day. How many weeks are left now?”

  “Eleven,” I muttered.

  “Oh, so many? I thought it was sooner… Well, let’s hope they will pass rapidly. With all the silver you’ll win, everything will be wonderful. So nice and easy and wonderful!”

  “Yes.” I looked away from her.

  “Tell me again how much the King will pay you, Leif.”

  “200 silver coins.”

  “200!” She let go of my hands and stepped close to the cliff edge. With her arms stretched out to the sides, she spun around and around, her eyes fixed on the star-sprinkled sky. My insides twisted into a knot at the possibility of Thora slipping and plunging into the water below. I took a step toward her so I could catch her were this to happen. I didn’t need to worry for long. Thora soon stopped spinning and contented herself by just gazing out over the lake. “Imagine all the land we can buy with that silver, Leif, and how much more we will make on all the crops we’ll grow,” she said. “Dear Odin, we will be the richest in the province before long!” She took another breath of fresh fall night before turning around and grabbing my hand. “We better go back home so you get enough rest for practice tomorrow. You’ll need every little bit of strength to make sure no one will be able to beat you.”

  “I will win, Thora, don’t you worry about that. The way Jerker has been pushing me, you can be sure of that. And from now on Magnus will train with us, too. He is the best swordsman in all of Ostergotland.”

  Thora snuggled up close and kissed me long and deep. When she let go finally, my knees had gotten so weak and my head so dizzy I feared I would be the one to slip off the cliff. She stared at me. “I know you will win, Leif. You were born to be the best. It’s as simple as that. I could tell that the first time I saw you. And tomorrow I’ll show your father how many socks I have knitted so far. He will see for himself th
at you picked a good wife.” Defiance glittered in her eyes. “A wife who can take care of the house just as good as his own or your brother’s.”

  I pulled her closer. “I know he will because I have married the best girl there is. I could tell that the first time I saw you,” I mimicked her.

  Forcing the memory away, I wondered how she was doing, if Ragnar was treating her well. He probably is, I thought bitterly; after all, Ragnar had performed murder so he could get his hands on her. He must treat her like a queen. Jealousy made my stomach turn again. Well, I thought, pushing the jealousy back down as I got to my feet. That would soon change.

  17

  Orvar, Egin and his travel guide Magnus and I made the trip back to Karlsby in less than ten days—by foot. We left the dead Thanes’ two remaining horses with Knut and Helga as a token of my gratitude for everything they had done for me and Orvar. The third horse ran away, never to be found again, while I was fighting the boars. Few incidents took place that hindered our progress in the woods, and none with giant bears or angry boars.

  It was early evening when we reached my family’s farm where we would spend the night. Egin and his companion went first to make sure that it was safe for me and Orvar to leave the woods, as Jarlabanke sentinels patrolled our land these days. Everything seemed to be fine, but we still decided to wait until it got even darker before leaving the shelter of the large firs. Now that we were so close to our goals, we didn’t want to take any risks.

  As Orvar and I waited for night to fall, I took a seat inside a fir with particularly heavy branches and thought about how, shortly, my exile would be over. Soon, I would be able to continue my life as a free man again, and, if my recent luck continued, it would become even better than it used to be. The Jarlabankes would have to redeem my family dearly to pay for all the damage Ragnar had inflicted upon us, much more than the 200 silver coins I’d get by winning the sword fighting contest. I remember thinking how rich we would be with all the silver it would result in, as I had prepared.

  I had felt certain that I would win the sword fighting contest, but I felt a lot more certain that we would win at the People’s Assembly now. During our trip back, Egin had told me how Father had run into Hilda’s personal slave, Toke, in Valstad just before Egin left for Flemminge. Toke had given him some valuable information: Thora wasn’t the only one who had seen Ragnar disappear while Hilda and I were gone during the birthday feast. My friend Sven had seen him, too, having been with Thora then. Sven would tell the Assembly the truth if he got an opportunity. Having known him all my life, Sven wasn’t one to ever lie. Thora’s words combined with Sven’s and my own testimony of Ragnar’s guilt should be enough to convict Ragnar, even without a single oath-helper to validate me. The people believed in fairness above all, and the Law Speaker was a fair man, too.

  It was nearly midnight when Orvar and I finally dared leaving our hiding place and sneaking over to my family’s longhouse. Hurriedly, we entered through the low dark entrance. Our frail housekeeper, Elsa, stood next to the burning hearth together with Anna and Inga, my younger sisters; Petter, my 12-year-old brother and our two field hands, Jerker and Styrbjorn. They were all smiling like madmen at the sight of me, fighting to get to me first to kiss and hug me, welcome me back. Even the dogs seemed ecstatic to see me again. As I worked my way through everyone, my face smothered with kisses, both Elsa and our field hands told me over and over how they had never believed even for a moment that I had been guilty of anything.

  “I told your father many times that a mistake had been made,” Elsa said, cupping my face between her old hands. “My Leif could never do such things to a girl!”

  I smiled at the small woman, so old and sick-looking she must be at the brink of death now. Our housekeeper’s poor health was the very reason my father had asked me to marry a year younger than normal, which was when a man turned seventeen. When Elsa was gone, there would be no female in the house old enough to take care of it. Of course, he had much rather seen me marry Hilda than Thora, who was from a poor craftsman family and whose father was dead. Hilda would have brought plentiful dowries with her, making sure our family would never starve no matter how many of our crops dried up or rained away. But I had refused. I didn’t love Hilda that way. I could never marry for property only, like my father had done. There were other ways to ensure that our family would never starve, and I would prove it to my father. He would see that, in the end, my way was the better one, in fact, the only one. Winning the royal sword fighting tournament was the only way our family would get the respect we deserved at last, the only way we would become true equals in the community.

  When I stood there in front of the King, having taken down every one of my opponents, the best ones in the country, no one would ever think of the Blackhairs as former slaves any more. We would be the same as everyone else in Sweden.

  When my family was through showering me with kisses and hugs, I introduced Orvar to all of them. There was no need to vouch for the escaped slave being a good man despite the murder he had committed, which all of them were aware of. Egin had already explained what had really happened to everyone, why he had had no choice but to kill the man. Instead of considering Orvar a cold-blooded murderer, they considered him a hero.

  “Where is Father?” I asked Egin, who had been standing to the side as I greeted everyone. I couldn’t spot my father anywhere. I had to thank him for choosing not to have me killed, even though I knew now that it had been mere mercy, not a firm belief in my innocence, that had driven him to save me.

  “He is asleep already,” Egin said.

  “Already? How come?” Father never slept for long nor did he ever go to bed early.

  “He is sick.”

  Sick? Our father wasn’t one to get sick either. Ever.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I asked, instantly worried.

  “We don’t know yet, but it seems he has caught a cold or something like that. It doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “Where is he?”

  Egin nodded toward the back of the longhouse. “Come. I will show you.”

  Our father lay sleeping on old animal hides piled on top of a bench at the other end of our home. He was buried under layers of goatskin. What was visible of his gaunt face was glossy and red, and his breathing was uneven and strained. I stared at him, not liking what I saw at all.

  “When did this happen?” I asked Egin tightly. Not only did Father look as though he was boiling over with fever, but there was also something else the matter with him. Something that seemed far worse than a simple cold.

  “Elsa told me he began to feel bad in the morning four days ago,” Egin answered. “So not for very long.”

  “Did a medicine woman come to see him?”

  “Yes, Gulla was here last night. She prayed to the gods for him and said we must sacrifice a goat to get him better.”

  I snorted and shook my head. “Gulla… What does she know? Let’s not sacrifice any animals. We cannot afford it and I doubt it will do him much good. What he needs are healing herbs. Tomorrow, as soon as the sun comes up, have Gunhild the Clever come over. She is much better with sickness than Gulla. Her herb compote wipes out most illnesses.”

  “But it was Father who wanted Gulla to come. He said that she is the best with the gods and all the spirits. And she knows all kinds of magic to cure disease.”

  I put a hand on my brother’s shoulder. “Egin, trust me on this one. Sometimes Father has no idea what he is talking about. Magic is not as helpful as people like to believe, at least not on its own. Herbs are better, and prayers might help, too. They are his only chance, and it should have been done sooner.”

  Egin nodded. “I will go over first thing in the morning.”

  I gave him a smile, and then I motioned for him to leave me alone with our father.

  I sank down on my haunches next to Yakoube and studied him a bit closer, not liking the look of him at all. A renewed wave of fury surged through me. Had it not been for all the
extra work he and the rest of my family had been forced to do, I doubted he would have gotten so sick, or even sick at all. My father was too old to work as much as he had done lately to pay the extravagant tenant fees the Jarlabankes charged our family, according to Egin. Bjorn Jarlabanke had no intention of letting my family off easy, just like I had feared.

  Well, I thought bitterly. Even though my father might have chosen to save me out of mercy, I would make sure that he wouldn’t regret that decision. I would find a way to make the People’s Assembly give us all of the Jarlabanke estate to pay for what Ragnar had done to me and my family. And I suddenly felt sure that I would find it, too. Sadly, I didn’t feel as sure my father would make it to see that I had made his sacrifice worthwhile in the end.

  18

  The following afternoon, Orvar and I stood outside the Jarlabanke estate, about 100 steps away from the high wooden fence that encircled the clan’s premises. We were hiding behind one of the two great oaks growing in the meadows there. If our young messenger had done her job well, very soon Thora would come outside to meet up with me.

  The moment I had awoken in the morning, I made the necessary arrangements for Thora and I to meet without evoking any suspicion. The same little slave girl who’d informed Egin that Ragnar was the one behind the murder would tell Thora that she’d found a litter of newborn kittens next to one of the oaks. Thora couldn’t resist the sight of kittens, so it would be a perfectly inconspicuous excuse to get her to leave the premises for a while. People who knew her were well aware how fond of cats she was.