"Saga" - Chapter 26, Part 1
Content - Saga is a Brokeback AuAu fic taking place in the Viking era (Scandinavia, ca AD 850). This chapter rated NC-17, and ca 6,600 words long.
Disclaimer - The original Ennis and Jack who inspired this fic do not belong to me, but to Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry and Focus Features. I intend no disrespect and make no profit.
A/Ns - Links to previous chapters follow after the cut. Explanations of names and terms follow after each chapter. Thank you to Soulan for betaing this chapter!
Links to all previous chapters are available here: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/43336.html
Saga - Chapter 26
Einnis and Eoin did not seek each other out or steal away together by night or by day while the ættleiding gathering lasted. The day after the ceremony they happened to both walk across the yard at the same time. The look that briefly passed between them drove crimson heat into their cheeks and fixed wide irrepressible grins on their faces. Joy like sunlight sparkled in their eyes.
“I ride north in three days, after the noontide meal,” Einnis said under his breath as he walked evenly and without stopping right past Eoin.
“I’ll be waiting,” Eoin responded, equally quietly, and moved on.
That was all. Content that they would have time alone, they each thereafter kept themselves occupied as was expected of them.
All through the next days Einnis was cheerful and friendly, if also sometimes distracted, participating in storytelling, discussions and betting over the ale bowls. Many noted his ebullient mood, loud laughter and bright smiles and found him to be much better company than his younger self; the cautious, serious and guarded Einnis who always used to rein himself firmly in.
Eoin spent the three days after the ættleiding going over the woodcarving work with Gunnar. They looked at the hall and the other houses where Torgeirr wanted new and grander carvings to replace the old ones, carefully studied the available wooden material that had been stocked on the farm, chose the wood that would be used, and planned the carving patterns and progress in detail. New and more magnificent dragonheads for the gables were first on Torgeirr’s list, and those would have to be made and affixed while there was summer weather to work in. Gunnar and Eoin climbed about on the roofs, examining the wood and deciding whether any of it would need replacement.
Torgeirr took time to talk briefly with the woodcarvers and explained his intentions, but mostly he was occupied with matters of the clan. His many family members used the rare opportunity of such a large gathering to not only exchange news and renew friendships, but also to take up unresolved clan matters, most of them related to inheritance disputes.
As the gathering came to an end on the third day, Torgeirr decided that he would follow his father’s brother Olaf Haka and his cousins back to their farm to be a witness in the final settlement of a long-standing inheritance quarrel. Tempers had flared between the men at the gathering the evening before, and only Torgeirr’s cheerfulness and even temper had stopped a couple of his cousins from coming to blows.
Before Torgeirr left he sought Einnis out and said his goodbyes, wishing his brother-in-law a fair homewards ride.
“I wish I could have joined you, Einnis, I would have liked to see my newborn nephew and greet my sister at Einstad. But achieving lasting peace among my clansmen is more important. Much as they all are good men, they’ve proved once more that the ancients had it right;
Friends may be many
And all in agreement
Till they meet to drink and be merry.
Ever the same source
of strife this proves;
guest will quarrel with guest.”
Torgeirr couldn’t help laughing a little, but loud bickering and heated disagreements within his own clan went against the very grain of his own conciliatory bent and easygoing nature, and he was clearly tired and annoyed. He was also in a hurry, and only exchanged a few further words with his brother-in-law before they took leave of each other. Soon thereafter the last group of visiting clansmen departed, Torgeirr among them.
The farm became a quieter place, though still filled with hustle and bustle. Sverri climbed about high and low, eager to get to know his new place of living, and enjoying himself with the children of servants and thralls alike. But he always returned to his mother’s side in the evenings, and he also now and then appeared to follow in Eoin’s and Gunnar’s footsteps for a little while, if they happened to be in the wood storage area or carrying ladders back and forth.
“Do you like your new home?” Eoin asked the boy, stopping to mop sweat off his brow and unthinkingly speaking in Gaelic. The weather had gotten very warm, with the sun baking the walls and roofs of the tarred wooden farm buildings.
“Yes, Eoin. Everyone’s nice here and father has promised me my very own pony,” the boy said brightly, skipping about excitedly. “But there’s no-one here except you who speaks like mother does.”
“No, Torgeirr doesn’t own any Irish thralls at the moment,” Eoin said, muttering his thought aloud to himself, a slight downward twist to his mouth as he watched Sverri running off to join some boys playing with toy warships by the stable.
This brief moment proved the single sour note in an otherwise harmonious time for Eoin and his companions at Torgeirr’s farm. Eoin himself was as happy and seemingly carefree as a fox cub jumping to catch butterflies in the sunlight. He laughed at the least little opportunity, humming to himself while mulling over carving patterns. Both Gunnar and Muirenn remarked on his good mood. Eoin merely brushed their comments aside with a joke, though not before taking Muirenn’s hand and dancing some steps across the yard with her. His mirth was infectious. Not only did it make the normally dour Gunnar grin widely, it also clearly lightened Muirenn’s heart.
“It’s summer, things are going well, Sverri looks happy, you’re feeling better. Let’s rejoice while we can!” Eoin smiled, spinning Muirenn around. She shook her head at him in mock disapproval, but she laughed. The troubles that the new pregnancy had been giving her had lessened, and she had noted how much Sverri was enjoying himself among the children of the farm.
Eoin kept close to Gunnar and stayed among the servants. Except for the discussions with Torgeirr about the carving he kept himself away from visiting clan members. After three days however he made ready to depart, having mentioned to Gunnar the reason why he chose to leave the master woodcarver alone.
“I will go back to Kaupang and work on our easier assignments, the tent poles and the bedposts for Earl Hogne’s mother. You and Muirenn should remain here as long as you can - it will ease her heart, I think, the longer she can stay close and watch over the boy as he settles into his new life.”
Gunnar was in full agreement. “This is a good place to work. The longer I can stay here, the more I will like it. And when we get back to Kaupang, Muirenn will by and by have a new child to occupy her mind.” The wood-carver couldn’t help grinning, though he averted his eyes in an attempt to keep his innermost feelings of gratitude and wonder private. His life had taken a new direction with Muirenn. After his years of drunken misery, a fine wife and the prospect of raising children of his own that would one day honor his memory seemed good fortune beyond any hope or expectation.
In the early morning light Eoin said his goodbyes with a light heart. Even his parting with Sverri did not weigh too heavy on him; the boy would after all be coming to Kaupang with his father later in the season.
---
The last day before Einnis was to ride northwards he sat with his sister by the High Seat after the evening meal. Sigrid looked at him. “You seem so happy and in high spirits, Einnis, it gladdens my heart. I wasn’t expecting you to be this eager to rejoin Arna. I must admit have been wondering what had happened with the two of you and whether there was some quarrel between you. You yourself looked out of sorts the first day of your visit, and Arna left unexpectedly and in a hurry. Though she was polite about it, to me she seemed both angered and grieved.”
Einnis stared at her in obvious surprise. “Quarrel? Angry? Not at all. Arna and I have a good marriage. She was tired from waking over little-Arna, that’s all. It isn’t strange or unexpected that she longed to see her father. The two of them were always very close. ”
“So all is well between the two of you?” Sigrid probed.
Einnis frowned. “All is well. As you say yourself, sister, I am happy. My little family thrives, and our farms are expanding. You’ve seen for yourself that little-Arna is the very apple of our eye, and Freidis is a promising child and growing steadily. I hope we’ll soon enough give the two of them a brother.”
Sigrid nodded and lowered her eyes. “Well, then. I am glad to have been mistaken.... I did not have the opportunity to speak much with Arna while she was here.”
Einnis moved his legs restlessly, looking shamefaced. “How goes it with you and Torgeirr, Sigrid? Is all well with you two? It pains me that you must see another woman’s son step forward as Torgeirr’s heir. Is there nothing to be done?”
Sigrid shrugged, looking away. “We’ve tried it all - seid, sacrifices at the blots, runes carved in secret and the rune-sticks placed in our bed, every possible advice that the wise women of the dales have had to suggest, potions, rituals for the moon phases, baths in Freya’s sacred spring…. The gods do not want it to be, and I shall have to accept that.”
Though she carried herself with pride and dignity as always, Sigrid’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Torgeirr is a good man, the very best - I have come to care for him deeply. I wish for no other husband, and he assures me he wants no other wife, though by now he could easily have divorced me for being barren.” She looked down into her lap, studying her fingers, turning the hands this way and that, her face in shadow where her coif blocked the light from the hearth fire. “If that ever happened, I would return to you, Einnis. Not easily would I find a new husband willing to take on an infertile wife, unless it were an old man with many heirs already, one who looked mostly for a woman to assist him in his dotage.”
Einnis took her hand for a moment and squeezed it hard, looking at her earnestly. “You would be more than welcome to return to us, Sigrid, but may Frey and Freya both see to it that such a thing will never come to pass! If our parents hadn’t died, or I had been older, you would have married much earlier. Maybe then it would have been easier … I do not know what to tell you, sister mine, except that I yet hope the norns will grant you children. It is not too late for you. And remember what the godi foretold at your wedding; there would be more than one son.”
She bit her lip, shaking her head. “Yes, Torgeirr will have several sons, according to that prophecy. Perhaps he will take himself a fridla soon who can bear him more children. It’s common enough, and I couldn’t blame him if he did - a man should have heirs to honor his name and his life’s work after his time is through.” Sigrid looked up at her brother and sighed, her face pinched and pale. “Perhaps there are some among Torgeirr’s clan who will ask us to foster a child. Gladly would we do so. A farm is not complete without children growing up round the high seat.”
Sigrid paused for a moment, then carried on in a low voice. “I very much wanted children of my own. But fate and fortune do not always go hand in hand.”
Einnis shuddered slightly, as if from an icy draft across his shoulders. “Ketil spoke much of fate, the day before he died…”
Sigrid turned back to him, worried. “It’s a well-known saying, and we all know that fate rules all events and all lives, Einnis. Don’t see such a small coincidence as an omen of ill tidings for our clan - I don’t.”
They sat silent for a little while, lost in their separate thoughts. When Sigrid eventually spoke again she changed the topic.
“Well now, have you talked to Jaran while you’ve both been here? I’ve not seen you two together, but then I haven’t had much time to see you at all.”
Einnis stiffened, his mood visibly darkening, much like the sky when a thundercloud suddenly blocks the sun on a summer afternoon. “I haven’t got anything to talk to him about.”
“Truly? Hasn’t he even wanted to thank you in person for the valuable gift that made his liberation possible?”
“Well yes, he’s made it clear he appreciated that.”
“As well he should! So, you two have nothing left unspoken? ”
“He’s a former thrall, Sigrid, and well you know it. I cannot be seen to show such a one attention, or spend time talking to him. It would do us no good. People would talk.”
Her eyes narrowed a fraction. “Torgeirr speaks freely with him, and so do I - no-one in the clan seems to think we endanger our honor on that account. You seem strangely over-prudent and cold in this, not at all like your kind and generous self. He’s a talented wood-carver and has come to be respected as such. And more importantly, he’s almost been a second foster-father to Sverri. The boy cares for him very much.”
Einnis didn’t respond at once. He pulled his knife out of its sheath and started fiddling with it, looking down at it as he kept passing it back and forth from one hand to the other.
“Yes, well…. Better safe than sorry, sister. Honor once lost may never be regained, and ill fame lasts forever.”
Sigrid couldn’t quite manage to let the matter go. “I sense that there is something more at work between the two of you, and well do you know that I do. You two spent time alone together building Einstad. That was no mean feat. You were there alone for months on end, working and living as closely as ever did foster-brothers, and in the end you gave him his freedom.”
She paused, but when she saw that Einnis would not respond, she carried on. “Jaran seems to me to be likable, trustworthy, honest and loyal. It is passing strange to me that you would have no time for him now, and no words to say to him. If he became your friend at Einstad, one you could open your mind to, you should not hide it. Are you mayhap afraid to admit to having found a lasting and deep friendship with a loysing, and a foreign one at that?”
Einnis looked up, his face going pale.
“I think the less said about this, the better, Sigrid. Ketil made it very plain what a shame it was for me to have worked side by side with a thrall for so long, and warned me of the malicious slander and gossip that might arise. Others will think as did he. I am heeding Ketil’s advice and will say no more.”
Sigrid frowned and shook her head in exasperation. “Building a solid farm with your own hands brings you honor, not shame! Ketil… was a very unhappy man, as we both now know. Perhaps some of what he spoke to you, and to me, and some of his actions too, reflected his own unhappiness most of all.”
She leaned forward to reclaim Einnis’s hand. “Never would I see you that unhappy, brother. Be very sure that I would give my all, do whatever it takes, to avoid such a thing coming to pass. I have worried for a long time that my favorite brother has oft-times seemed so sad. Since you came back from Einstad… “
She was silent for a moment, but Einnis didn’t respond, nor meet her eyes.
“Know that it has eased my heart this time to see you smiling and enjoying life.” She squeezed his hand and smiled. “When you put your mind to it, you’ve always been as stubborn as any ox being pulled away from a field of clover, Einnis Eldhug - I could never make you open up to me if you didn’t want to. I will say no more about Jaran now, except to remind you to heed the lore of the wise ones:
Cherish those close to you, never be
The first to break with a friend:
Care eats the one who can no more
Open his heart to another.”
---
Eoin met Einnis an hour’s ride down the trail, sitting peacefully on a little knoll overlooking the track, whittling a piece of wood while he waited. Their greeting was no more that a brief handclasp, but their eyes and smiles said all that they felt as loudly as if they’d shouted it from a hilltop.
Eoin gestured to his horse and the bulging pack tied behind its saddle. “While you’ve been idling and taking your time back up at the farm, I stopped by the little farmstead down the valley, bought us bread and a big cheese, some dried meat too. Told them I was in a hurry and would have to travel to Kaupang without stopping all the time. We should have enough for a few days, I trust. And anyway… sitting around munching food is not what I chiefly plan to do!”
“No, but what you plan to do instead is very hungry work,” Einnis laughed. “A man needs nourishment to keep it up and to keep going!”
Eoin grinned. “I’ve got good blankets too. Just in case you don’t manage to keep me warm…. all the time.”
The look that passed between them held heat enough for a smith’s forge. Einnis’s ears turned pink, and he hastily indicated his own horse’s pack. “I’m bringing food as well, lots of it - you’d think Sigrid believed she was fitting me out for raiding abroad. I even have a mead-skin! And I borrowed a bow and arrows from Torgeirr. Told him I would be riding cross country to get to Mjod’s faster, could shoot any small game that I happened to flush.”
He drew a breath. A flash of guilt at deceiving his wife, his sister and his good friend crossed his features, but the brief moment passed, and he couldn’t help smiling broadly with glee. “Let’s go!”
They rode for a little while down the track, but at the first suitable place they turned away from it and cantered in among the tall trees, disappearing from view and entering a world apart.
Continued in Chapter 26, Part 2: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/47384.html