"**" "Send a rider tonight and he'll be back by morning." "Why don't they let us dry ourselves and get warm?" "If I stay like this, I will rust." "What kind of fellow is this Jarl Borg?" "This is no way to treat guests, whoever they are." "Especially if they've been traveling for days on end." "Are you the emissaries from King Horik?" "Well, I can tell you at once, you're wasting your time." "It's my land, and I want it returned to me." "That's all I have to say." "He wants to make peace with you and come to some kind of agreement." "Then tell him if he leaves my land, we can have peace." "But not before." "How can you make peace, Jarl Borg, if you insist on humiliating him?" "If I invade and defeat him, will he not be even more humiliated?" "Not if he fights well." "In any case," "I am sure that he would relish a fight." "What's your name?" "Ragnar Lothbrok." "You are Ragnar Lothbrok, the one who sailed west?" "I am surprised that you've heard about that." "How are you surprised?" "Everyone has heard of your exploits." "Why have we not offered our guests dry clothes and food?" "Treat these folk well." "Give them ale, let them dry out, feed them." "Tomorrow, you and I will talk again, Ragnar Lothbrok." "You haven't eaten in three days." "You see?" "I have fears." "Go to the Seer, ask if your fears will come true." "It's sometimes better not to know one's fate." "I take it, from what you said yesterday, that King Horik is prepared to compromise and offer some deal regarding those lands of mine, which he still occupies?" "He is prepared to pay you to renounce your illegal claims of his lands." "You disappoint me now, Ragnar Lothbrok." "I thought you'd come here with a serious purpose." " If you would just name your price." " The land is priceless." "Which is why King Horik wants to keep it for himself." "Every piece of land has a price, just like every human." "Well, you don't understand." "This is not a small plot of land on which you grow turnips and onions." "We're talking about a vast swathe of land, and on this land, in the earth, are minerals, things of great value." "Why else would I assert my claim?" "King Horik resists your claim, but still, in good faith, he is willing to settle with you." "If you will name a reasonable price." "At the moment, my price is King Horik's head." "Well, then, it seems I am done." "Hold on, please, sit down, sit down." "Let's see if we can find another way." "What do you have in mind?" "What if my claim was acknowledged, but I was willing to lease the land back to the King during his lifetime?" "Or what if we deferred judgment on ownership, but shared the mineral rights?" "What do you say?" "Can we start negotiating in this manner?" "Why not?" "I have not been given the authority to negotiate in this manner." "You mean King Horik sent you here with nothing but a demand?" "And yet he speaks of peace!" " I don't know what is in his mind." " Well, then, maybe you should ask him." "Let me make a suggestion." "Why don't you send one of your men back so he can put to King Horik my ideas for a remedy?" "If you think that will work." "Good." "Your messenger will take several days." "So, in the meantime, why don't you and your men go and visit our famous ash tree?" "It is famous not only for its size, but because it never loses its leaves, summer or winter." "Some people even say it's Yggdrasil, the tree that holds up the sky." "And I will provide you an escort." "I only have one very small request." "I would like one of your men to stay behind here as a kind of security." "You understand, I hope?" "My brother Rollo will stay behind." "Floki!" "So how long must we travel?" "It can take us three days to reach the tree." "It looks like rain." "Come." "Why have you come?" "I am frightened for my husband." "Do you think your husband is in some kind of danger?" "I've had strange and disturbing dreams." "What happens in your dreams?" "Dark shapes come to me at night." "Monstrous forms." "When I wake, they skulk in the shadows, shapeless, but no sooner am I asleep than they creep forward again." "Ah, yes." "The shadows come from Hel's hall." "No one can ensnare them, not even the gods." "What is it that they want?" "To take something from you." "My life?" "No, something far more important to you than that." "My husband's life?" "Tell me." "Why must you all force me up and unearth me to sorrows?" "Your husband is in danger, but not for his life." "He is in danger from the magical world." "How?" "Answer me." "I was unwilling to speak and I will say no more now!" "So, Rollo, how do you get on with your brother?" "We get along fine." "Why shouldn't we?" "No reason." "But not all brothers get on so well." "I know that from personal experience." "What do you mean?" "I, too, had a brother." "I loved him." "We were very close, as befits blood brothers." "We fought together in the shield-wall." "We shared the same women." "When my father was killed, there was fierce competition to replace him as Jarl." "And although I was his eldest son, I was not sure I was going to succeed." "However, I was elected at the thing." "We had a feast to celebrate." "My wife was there." "My young, beautiful wife." "We'd just gotten married." "And all the others who had stood for election against me." "My brother poisoned them all." "I only survived because my wife took the cup I was about to drink from and drained it herself in celebration." "I will never forget her screams." "It's my wife's screams that will haunt me for the rest of my life." "My brother denied responsibility, but his guilt was too obvious." "So I blinded him with my own hands, and then I burned him alive." "Although he laughed while he was burning." "That's what I know about the love between brothers." "Ragnar would never do such a thing." "Of course not." "No, your brother is different." "Your brother's a great man, a great warrior." "As am I." "I'm sure you are." "And yet I've never heard of you." "Our camp is set up over here." "There's some excellent fishing upstream, under the waterfall." " I will go." " And I also, for everybody knows..." "Three eyes are better than one." "You!" "Look away!" " Who are you?" " Look away at once!" "What are we supposed to be looking at?" "I'm blind!" "See?" "I can't see anything!" "Arne!" "What?" "You're going to try to kill us for protecting the reputation of our mistress?" "Shame on you!" "We came upon your mistress by chance." "We are strangers here, traveling to the great ash tree, guests of Jarl Borg." "Jarl Borg?" "Then why didn't you say so at once?" "We will just return to our horses then." "You spied on me." "We meant no harm." "They say they are guests of Jarl Borg." "Are you alone?" "We are traveling with Earl Ragnar Lothbrok." "Then I think Earl Ragnar owes me an apology on your behalf." "Don't you?" "I never knew that fresh fish was also packed in salt." "Listen, it's not our fault." "We just saw her bathing." "What were we supposed to do?" " Fish." " You did not see her, Ragnar." "So you get your cheek slashed, and now I'm supposed to apologize for you two staring at a naked body?" "That's what she said." "Who is she, anyway, to put such a high price on her nakedness?" "We didn't ask." " I'm intrigued." " What's so intriguing?" "Sometimes the gods put things like this in front of us as some kind of test." "She has set me a challenge and I am up to task." "See, I'm less interested in what you say is her beauty, than what I suspect is her wit." "So tell her," "I invite her here to join us." "Neither dressed nor undressed." " What else?" " Neither hungry nor full, neither in company nor alone." "Can you remember all of that, one eye?" "What did the Seer tell you?" "He said that it's true, that Ragnar is in danger." " From whom?" " I don't know." "Who do you think?" "I think he is in danger from himself." " Have you ever been to Yggdrasil before?" " No." "So, Earl Ragnar," "I come to you as you desired." "Neither dressed nor undressed, neither hungry nor full, neither alone nor yet in company." "Do I pass your test?" " I owe you an apology." " I accept." "Could I offer you some horrible salted fish?" "I'm very tempted." "You can get tired of fresh fish." "Come." "Sit, please." "May I ask your name?" "My name is Aslaug." "We're on our way to see the great ash tree." "Of course." "You are welcome to join us." "Will you come along, Aslaug?" " Siggy, what is it?" " No, it's nothing." "I visited my cousin a few days ago." "She had just buried her young son." "Why did he die?" "One day he was fine, and the next, he caught a fever that made him sweat and cry out in the night, and the next day," "she put him in the ground." "But if this is Yggdrasil, then it must be the same tree that Lord Odin once hanged himself from." "Why not?" "All things are possible." ""I hung from a windy tree for nine long nights, wounded by a spear, dedicated to Odin, from that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run."" "No, please." "Look after my daughter first." "It's all right." " What's wrong, boy?" " What do you think?" "My father is making a fool of himself." "He's enjoying himself in the company of a beautiful woman." "What's foolish about that?" "Some day you'll do the same thing." "If Lagertha were here, she'd cut his balls off." "Then it's a good thing she's not." "Listen to me, my friend." "Your father and mother are a famous couple." "They love each other." "Everybody knows that." "So don't begrudge your old man a little harmless fun, huh?" "I trust all is to your satisfaction." " You feed me very well." " You're an important guest." "We would like to keep you entertained until your brother returns." "You always talk about my brother." "What choice do I have?" "He is your earl." "Which one would you like tonight?" "Why don't you take both of them?" "I don't need to be bribed with women." "What is it you want, Rollo?" "What is it you really want?" "**" "Fenrir, the giant wolf, could not be constrained by any means known to man," "so the dwarves forged a chain, but not from metal." "Nothing made by man could constrain Fenrir, so they forged it from the things we cannot see" "and the things we cannot hear." "Like the breath of a fish, the sound a moving cat makes." " The roots of a mountain." " You know?" "Of course I know!" "These things interest me!" "Like the terrible tricks of the god Loki." "How he turns into a flea to divest the goddess Freyja of her precious necklace." "He's only a distant ancestor." "I came to ask about Jarl Borg." "He won't sell." " He wants to make a deal." " I'm not interested in deals." "That would make it hard for Ragnar." "Ragnar will come to the right conclusion and make the right decision." "In any case, there is someone else in Götland who looks after my affairs." "Don't you care if the negotiations fail?" "Look!" "I am going to die." "No, you are not going to die." "The Seer might think that he is the only one in Kattegat with the gift of prophecy," "but he's wrong, and I know you are not going to die." "I should tell you the truth about who I really am." "I am Princess Aslaug." "My mother was the shield-maiden Brunhilde." "Everyone knows the renown of your mother." "But I am not her." "I am myself." "Both my parents are dead now, and I did not know them anyway." " Why did you come along with me?" " Because I had no choice." " Why did you do that?" " Because I had no choice." "I hate you." "It's disgusting." "I could not help myself." "Shall I tell that to Lagertha, your wife?" "If you want to." "You cannot love her that much after all, no matter what you say, no matter what people think." "I don't care what people think." "Of course I love your mother." "Swear to me that it will not happen again." "I swear to you it won't happen again." "I love you." "Now, go play." "No!" "No!" "No!" "Athelstan?" "He is so weak he cannot eat." "Pray to the gods, please, for him." "Wait, no." "I said no." "No." "Lord of lords, we make this offering to you, hoping you will find it pleasing." "Can you try a little more?" "Gyda." "Enjoy!" "What's wrong with you?" "I'm carrying your child." "Did the Seer not promise you more sons?" "We welcome our guests to this feast." "Now tell us what you learned from King Horik." "What compromises is he willing to make?" "Can I not eat first?" "Well, he said..." "What did he say?" "What did he say?" "He will make no compromises, no deals." "He say you must name your price for the land." "Or?" "He didn't say "or."" "It seems your mission has been entirely wasted," "Ragnar Lothbrok." "You and your men must leave here in the morning." "Unless you want to repudiate King Horik, renounce your allegiance to him?" "I see." "Very well." "Good." "War." "Odin." "So, my friend, the die is cast." "King Horik has left me no choice." "I must attack him and claim what is rightfully mine." "Your brother will clearly not support me, but the question is, will you?" "Will you fight alongside me?" "Together, you and I can carve out the new kingdom." "Isn't that what you really want?" "The death of your brother and the start of your own fame?" "Well, what do you say?" "I say yes." "I will fight with you." "I will fight with you against my brother."