054

First pleasure, then duties. After a hard day, everyone deserves a moment of relaxation.

Olafur was lying on the floor in the previous Jarl's bedroom, bound and gagged. There was a mixture of fear and hatred in his gaze. I leaned over him and stroked his face.

- Olafur, my old friend. I've missed you, since I got back from the raid ... you don't visit me, you don't write, you do not like me?... but enough about me ... Someone really wants to meet you, so we're going for a walk now ... I hope you are as excited as I am.

Olafur tried to say something, but only muffled guttural sounds were heard. I picked him up off the floor and I tossed him on my shoulder.

When I was carrying him from the house, it sparked curious glances from several people, but no one asked what I was going to do with him.

After more than an hour, I reached the clearing where I had recently met Wiła.

I felt something wet on my arm. I put Olafur on the ground and took the gag out of his mouth.

- You always pee without taking your pants off?

- Alw... waysss!

- Olafur, I have two messages for you. Your pissed life ends now, but a new ... shitty life begins.

- Ulf what do you want? I was just doing what Jarl Haraldson said.

- You are nobody, the Wolf will not care about the opinion of the sheep and I don't care about your life or death ... but Żywia wanted to meet you ...

- Żywia ?!

- Sveia's wife...

- She is dead!!!

- I know, but she came back a ghost or a specter or something in between.

- Svein let me ... she was just an ex-slave ... She was no one important.

- Olafur I was touched by your story ... have fun, I will have it for sure.

- HE LET ME SLEEP WITH HER !!!

My companion did not see it, but behind him, the sky turned dark, the clouds in the sky moved at high speed, the wind grew stronger. At one point, a few meters from us, Wiła appeared.

- (giggle) Will you dance with me (giggle)?

- No, but Olafur will dance with you.

Wiła's eyes changed and at the same moment an invisible force carried Olafur up, lifted him in the air and began to spin him.

- (giggle) Sisters ... he will dance with us (giggle) ...

Several female figures emerged from the clouds and behind the trees, all dressed in white, the light shone in their pupils ... they looked almost identically, perhaps they could be distinguished by small elements such as the length of the hair, the size of the breasts ... in some cases they were not such small elements.

He formed a circle and they held hands, they also grabbed the hands of Olafur, who seemed to be unconscious ... and began to spin. Slowly at first, but with each subsequent rotation, the speed increased. After a while, I couldn't even see them anymore, the only thing that was visible was one large whirlwind... and everything stopped ... Wiła and her sisters disappeared, and Olafur's body lay in several pieces on the ground.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two badgers watching the whole thing.

- You can help yourself, it is a pity to waste good food. Only then do not spread the word that I have never done anything for you.

I turned and started my way back to Kattegat.

After returning, I asked Arne if he had finished checking Jarl Haraldson's vault. As I expected, there weren't many ... 19 slaves, good that all of them from the east. 80 pounds of silver and a total of 300 pounds of various metals, 10 horses, some textiles and other raw materials, some of the best farmland in the area were also on the list.

- Arne, you will take all of Jarl's iron, as well as the one I have at home, and take it to the blacksmith to make chain mail, helmets and swords. Chain mail and helmets first. As you are a farmer yourself, pick a few families that have bad land, I'm going to give them Jarl Haraldson's farms and also find out if Leif changed my twelve slaves for slaves from the East ... and that's probably all for this moment.

I have ordered all of Jarl's slaves to be brought to me.. Most of them were under thirty, ten women and nine men and I told them we were going on a trip.

About four kilometers from Kattegat, close to the mountains, the land was not the best, normally nothing would have grown here ... but for me this land is perfect.

- Now listen, a new settlement will be built here, it will be for slaves from the east only and for the children you will raise here. You can worship your Gods here and build a temple for them. You will also cultivate the land here, although it may seem weak and barren, it will yield more crops than other lands.

- Lord, this land is...

- This is not a discussion, I tell you what to do and you will do it. New slaves will join you in a while, when we come back from the raids and bring some children, they will be raised with you in this village and your faith... You don't need to know any more.

(Siggy / Seer POV)

- What do you want? Siggy, do you think the gods tricked you?

- I want to regain my former position ... everything I had has been taken from me and I am angry and bitter.

- You should be happy, Ulf could have you killed right after your husband died.

- Shall I be grateful to my husband's killer?

- Grateful to someone who saved you and your daughter from death ... but I ask you again, what do you want?

- I want to know if the Gods will smile at me again?

- The gods always smile at brave women ... like the Valkyries, who almost all men fear and desire ... almost all men.

(End POV)