Season of the Sun (Viking Era 1)

“You found her,” Ingunn said, her voice flat.

“Aye, certainly. She is a woman and she was on foot. What would you have me do to punish her, Ingunn? A slave attempting to escape. It’s a severe crime.”

“Let her work until she falls over.”

“That is not enough,” Orm said. “Look at poor Kol. She brought him low, and his head will pound for days to come. Nay, her punishment must be something she will not soon forget.”

“Flog her, then, I care not.”

“Her flesh is so very white. I dislike the thought of marking her. Did you beat her, Ingunn?”

“Aye, I did.”

“Did you mark her?”

“I don’t know, for Magnus tended her.”

“There are other things I should prefer doing to her.”

Ingunn nodded toward the other woman. “Like the things you did to her?”

Zarabeth realized then that the other slave, that older woman who was thin and bent, her hair straggling down her back, had not been beaten. Orm had savaged her. He had raped her.

“Nay, Ingunn, I should do different things to Zarabeth. I shouldn’t want her to cry as much as that hag did.”

Kol spoke up then. “We must leave, Orm. There is no time to punish the woman now. Magnus Haraldsson will come for her, I know, for I know his reputation.”

Bein said, grinning, “I would like to punish her as well, Orm.”

“You shan’t take her, Orm! We will leave!” Ingunn was on her feet, shouting.

Suddenly Orm turned and backhanded her, sending her sprawling dangerously close to the fire. She cried out, scrambling away from the heat.

Orm merely rubbed his palms together. He was smiling, and again there was that glittering in his eyes, darkening them, but his expression was calm and his voice was even genial. “Do not tell me what I will or will not do again, Ingunn. Next time it will not go so easily with you. Now, I am hungry. Feed me and feed our poor slave here. After all her efforts, she must be in need of Bein’s pheasant.”

23

Zarabeth hated the dim half-light. It was nearing midnight, and yet that strange spongy light kept the night darkness at bay. She knew that regardless of darkness or light, Orm would come soon and he would rape her. He had watched her, saying nothing, merely sat cross-legged beside the fire, watching her. And Ingunn had watched him. As for Kol, he had vomited earlier, and now he slept. Bein had simply dragged the other woman to her feet and pulled her into the trees.

When they had come back, Bein shoved her to the ground and threw a blanket at her.

Zarabeth wondered if the woman was all right. She had never said a word, never acknowledged anyone else’s presence, merely done as she had been told, her head bowed, her shoulders bent. She had no front teeth and her upper lip had sagged in, making her look older than she probably was. Zarabeth had no idea where she had been captured. Her gown was ragged, her feet bare, her hair tangled and matted to her head. Zarabeth wanted to go to her, but to her astonishment, some minutes later the woman was sound asleep, snoring. Zarabeth sat with her back against a pine tree. She waited. Orm had fed her, but not enough, and he had known it wasn’t enough. He was toying with her. Her stomach rumbled and cramped with hunger. She needed to relieve herself, and finally, in desperation, she said softly, “Ingunn, I must go into the forest for a moment.”

Ingunn looked away from her. Orm said, “I will take you, Zarabeth.”

“Nay, leave her be! I will go with her!”

Orm grinned at Ingunn. “If she wishes it badly enough, she can kill you, then she will have to deal only with me. Do you want that, Ingunn?”

“I want us to leave this place. I want us to go to the Danelaw and buy slaves and land and build a longhouse that surpasses my father’s. I want us to be wedded, Orm.”

“All that? You must know that I have already been to the Danelaw and purchased land. Good farmland near the Thurlow River.”

Ingunn was obviously surprised. “You already sailed to the Danelaw?”

Bein said, “Aye, and we traded furs and hides and some sea ivory from walrus tusks. We even sold some slaves and—”

“Enough, Bein. Now, Ingunn, when we reach the Danelaw, we will buy more slaves. We already have two, and they are both fine, do you not agree?”