Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

T hat night, too worried they hadn’t put enough distance between them and Farmon’s men, neither Eyja nor Moon dared to sleep. So as to be able to spot any intruders approaching from a distance, they chose to set up camp up a nearby hill, one with a commanding view of their surroundings. The moon obliged them by shedding enough light for them to see the landscape all around.

They were as safe as they could be. No one would ambush them this night.

“Máni is obviously pleased with us bathing in the moonlight the other day and has decided to help us see our enemies as a reward for our respect,” Moon observed wryly. Indeed in this light, any moving shadow would be immediately spotted and, thanks to the high position, any sound betraying the approach of a company of men would rise to their ears. Not that he expected any attacks. The Saxons would most likely not give chase now, but you never knew.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

“Yes,” Eyja agreed. “’Tis good.”

She did not quite join in the jest about the god of the moon but at least she answered, the brave little imp. He gave her hand a squeeze. She’d been badly shaken by their narrow escape. “Come. Let us sit.”

Thanks to the warm temperature they didn’t need to light a fire that would give them away. After eating the dried meat and bread they’d bought during their last halt, they sat back to back, each looking out in a different direction and providing the other one support. All night they saw and heard nothing, not even a deer or a boar. It seemed they had made it.

Once a timid sun pierced through the trees, Moon stood up to stretch and decreed that Eyja should try and get some sleep.

“I can keep guard on my own now. It will be much easier in the daylight, as I will be able to spot any traveler from miles around,” he argued, taking in the purple shadows under her eyes. “’Tis safe for you to rest a moment. You need it.” He almost added that it was an order before remembering that this was the surest way to make her bristle. Gentle persuasion was the way to go with her. “You’ll feel better afterward.”

Without a word, Eyja sat back down. That she didn’t even argue showed him how right he’d been to insist. The poor woman was exhausted.

“All right, I will rest a moment. Then it will be your turn,” she mumbled, curling to her side on the soft grass. He smiled to himself, remembering how he’d told her she slept like a woman. It had been no lie, and it was the most adorable sight.

“We’ll see about me when you wake up. Just close your eyes.”

He watched as she fell into a deep sleep, her curled fist by her head. Yes. Most definitely adorable. After a while, he decided he had better see what food he could find instead of ogling her and spotted a tangle of thorns some distance to his right. Blackberries. That was a start. They could find more food at the next farm they passed.

Eyja only woke up when the sun was at its zenith. Immediately, she let out a gasp and threw him an accusing glare. Although he’d fully expected that reaction, Moon couldn’t help a smile. How wonderful to know someone so well you could predict what they would do or say.

“Half the day is gone! Why did you let me sleep for so long?”

He shrugged. “You needed it and we’re in no hurry after all. The king is no longer here to force us to march like Roman legionaries.”

“No, I suppose not...” she conceded slowly. “Did you get any sleep?”

He had not. Too intent on making sure no one was coming, he had not even thought of closing his eyes, instead scanning the horizon and gathering as many blackberries as he could in large leaves. He nodded toward the one he had placed next to her. “Don’t worry about me,” he grumbled, feeling suddenly weary.

“So you did not.” She popped a few berries into her mouth and chewed. “Well, get some sleep now. I’ll keep watch.”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” she said, standing up

“Eyja...” The imp was sorely trying his patience, and this when his temper was already short. “I just want to go, and we need to find more food. Sleep can wait.”

“Very well.”

To his surprise, she didn’t argue but picked up the leaf full of berries and followed him. For once, though, he would actually have liked her to be her usual contrary self. If she had insisted, he might have allowed himself to be persuaded, for, in truth, after a night of constant vigil, he was exhausted and, as he’d just said, they were in no hurry. A nap would have been welcome.

In any case, they were off now. Surely he would be fine once he had eaten.

Just as they reached the bottom of the hill, Eyja came to a halt.

“Wait, I have a stone in my shoe.” She sat on the ground to remove the soft leather boot and shook her head in consternation. “So many blisters... My poor feet. They are swollen and throbbing something fierce.”

“No surprise there,” Moon grumbled. They had been walking nonstop for days. By the time they made it back to the village, their shoes would be damaged beyond repair.

“There’s a river just behind the trees. Do you mind if I go dip my feet in the water a moment? The cold might help to ease the worst of the pain.”

“Of course not.” How could he refuse?

“Thank you. Just wait for me here, I won’t be long.”

As soon as he sat on the soft grass, Moon knew he would fall asleep. He would not be able to resist the torpor invading his body while he waited. The only solution would have been to set off again, but he could not ask Eyja to put her boots back on when her feet were hurting. What harm could it do if he closed his eyes a moment? It had now been more than a day since they had parted company with Farmon and his men. If they were to find them, they would have already. Besides, Eyja would be on the lookout for anything suspicious and she was well within calling distance. The sun was warm on his skin, his eyelids were so heavy.

He lay on his back. Maybe he could just...

When he opened his eyes again, a reddish sun was hanging low over the horizon.

He sat bolt upright. Damn it all, the day was almost gone!

He got up and went in search for Eyja. She was sitting with her feet dangling in the water, her head tilted up to the sky. Moon took a moment to admire the sight. The dying sun set her hair ablaze and made her skin glow. Right now it was impossible to imagine that woman had ever been in danger or in pain. She seemed so at peace, so at one with the nature around her.

So beautiful.

He cleared his throat. What was he doing, admiring her thus? At the noise he made, she turned to him. “Ah. Moon. Feeling better?”

The way she asked the question made his eyes narrow in suspicion. She sounded too satisfied by far and the hint of a smile was floating on her lips.

“There was no pebble in your shoe, was there?” he asked, suddenly certain she had only feigned compliance when he’d decided to set off, and then tricked him into getting the rest he needed by pretending to be hurt. She’d known a tired man would not be able to resist the lure of the soft grass.

“Not this time.” She reddened, as if knowing he would not like to hear she’d lied. He did not, even if he wasn’t as irate as he’d expected. Getting some sleep had done wonders for his mood, it seemed, and he was more grateful than anything else.

“I bet your foot isn’t even blistered.”

“Not yet,” she admitted. “But there is a hole in my sole so it might be very soon. And the dip in the water did do me a lot of good. I also found some mushrooms and nuts, so we will be able to eat something before we set off.”

He grunted and planted himself in front of her, helping her back to her feet. “Imp. I believe you are trying to take care of me.”

“I believe I am.” She gave a tentative smile and lifted her head to him. “And after all you’ve done for me I think it’s the least I can do, don’t you?”

Perhaps. But it did warm him nonetheless. Now he would have to add caring and considerate to the list of qualities the woman already possessed. If it carried on that way he might think her the most well-endowed woman of his acquaintance. Used to his mother’s loving, supportive behavior at home growing up, Moon had long since decided that he would only ever settle with someone who could be such a mother to his children. But it was surprisingly hard to find someone whose idea of family life coincided with his amongst younger women. That was one of the reasons why he was in no hurry to start looking for a wife.

And now, Eyja was revealing herself to be more mature than he had given her credit for. Underneath the wild, untamed exterior was a protector. The thought made him smile. Some protector she made, being so small compared to him... And yet he never felt better than with her by his side. He knew he could rely on her, whatever the challenge facing them. Hadn’t she been the one thinking to climb a tree to escape the Saxons? Hadn’t she just ensured he got the rest he needed? What she lacked in strength she made up for in cunning and determination. In that way, as in so many others, they complimented one another perfectly.

“Come then, let’s eat those mushrooms you prepared. Then we’ll try to find a farm while there is still some daylight left and persuade the people to give us some bread and cheese.”

Eyja giggled. “I will leave the persuading to you, if you don’t mind. That way we’ll both eat like royalty.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how you seem to charm everyone, especially women?” She looked incredulous. But, yes, he had noticed. He just didn’t think she had. So what did that mean? Had she been watching him interact with women? He didn’t know what to make of the idea.

They sat down to eat the food Eyja had prepared while he slept. The mushrooms cooked over the fire were delicious, and there was a fair amount of shelled nuts to accompany them, but after his meager meal in the morning, Moon was ravenous. Fortunately they did find a farm just around the riverbend, and the farmer’s wife was only too happy to swap one of their cumbersome axes for a whole loaf of bread and a generous serving of cheese. Winking, she added a couple of honey tarts for good measure, then looked at the purple horizon.

“’Tis dark already. I’m thinking you might prefer to bed in the stable at the back of the hut than in the forest.”

Moon thanked her, doing his best to pretend not to see the blatant invitation in her eyes. If she had her way, he would not lie down in a bed of straw next to Eyja tonight, but atop her, and there would not be much sleeping.

“Thank you, mistress, but we’ll be on our way now.” He bowed. “Your concern honors you, but we are used to traveling at night.”

“What’s the matter?” Eyja asked as they hastened away with their food. “The farmer’s wife was not to your tastes?”

“No one’s wife is to my taste,” he replied, biting off a piece of cheese. As a matter of principle, he had never bedded a married woman—that he knew of. Besides, how could she think he would leave her unprotected while he rutted away with a stranger? He was staying with her, and that was that. “Let’s stop here,” he decided, stopping at the foot of a mighty oak.

They ate the rest of the food in companionable silence and settled for a good night’s sleep on the soft moss. High above in the sky, the stars were twinkling through the tree branches. Fortunately, for he didn’t feel like getting a fire going, it was warm again. Despite his earlier nap, he could already feel his eyes closing.

“Tomorrow we’ll avoid getting too close to the town,” he said, whispering in the silence.

Eyja did not answer, but he knew she would have understood his way of thinking. Farmon and his cronies had made no secret of their intentions. They were headed for the nearest stew house, which would most probably be in town. It would not do for them to run into the disgruntled Saxons when they were itching for a tumble and vexed by their sudden disappearance.

“Yes,” she said eventually. “We need not hurry, but I would like to reach home before the week is out.”

Three days later, they came into view of their local town.

Nestled at the bottom of the hill, a familiar, comforting sight with its squat church planted in the middle of the low wooden houses, it was perhaps half a day’s walk away. Tomorrow at the latest they would be home. The village lay just on the other side of the forest. Eyja had the impression she’d been gone for months, when in reality it had been a little over two weeks. In that short length of time she’d accumulated enough experiences to last her a lifetime and she could not wait to get back to less dangerous surroundings, even if she was not sure things would ever be the same. She felt changed beyond all recognition by what she had gone through. There had been the battle with Hardrada’s men, of course. The horrors she had witnessed that day had transformed her into a different person, but that was not all.

More importantly, what Moon had done to her on the forest floor had made her a different woman.

“Here we are,” he said, coming to a halt. “Home. How do you feel?”

“Relieved.”

“Mm. I bet.” Moon pursed his lips as he surveyed the familiar view. “It looks... different somehow.”

She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. “Yes. As if we’d left for years rather than days.”

“Exactly.”

Of a common accord, they stopped in the woods for the night, instead of hurrying to try to reach the town gates before sunset. Eyja was grateful for the delay, as she didn’t feel ready to be parted from Moon just yet. As soon as they entered the village, they would be assaulted by friends and family demanding to hear their story, showering them with questions. There would be few opportunities to see him. After two weeks spent by his side night and day, she wasn’t sure how she would handle it, even if, admittedly, they already spent more time together than the average friends.

Once they’d eaten the now customary roasted rabbit, Moon stretched his long body next to her and cradled the back of his head in his entwined fingers.

“I don’t know if I’m looking forward to going back to the village, you know,” he mused, his gaze on the sky up above. The stars had started to come out, piercing the night with their flickering light. So fragile, yet so beautiful.

“Oh?” Eyja’s heart started to beat a fierce rhythm. Surely he didn’t mean he wanted to accompany her home and then set off again on a new adventure? She would hate that. She needed him in her life. “Why not?”

A sigh. “What do you think? Your father is going to skin me alive for allowing you to march with the army. And that’s before he finds out about what we?—”

“He’s never going to find out about that because I’m not going to tell him!” she cut in fiercely. Did he really imagine that she would want to tell her father, of all people, that a man had buried his face between her thighs? She would die of mortification before she even finished the sentence. “It’s got nothing to do with him. What do you take me for?”

He pierced her with a stare. In the firelight his eyes glowed like gems.

“I’m not sure I can answer that question. I don’t know what to take you for anymore, Imp. I’m not sure either of us are the same people we were when we set off for war.”

Ah, so he didn’t have the intention to travel the land, he only felt the same as she did, unsettled and unsure about how to handle a return to normality. It reassured her. She would have hated to know she was the only one feeling altered by what had happened between them. But one thing was for sure, whatever life she was to have now, she still wanted Moon to be a part of it.

“What we are for one another is something we will have to decide, no one else.”

He grunted, which could have meant that he agreed with her or that he had no idea how they were to manage to do such a thing. In truth, she had no idea either.

“I think it’s time for a change,” she mused, lying down herself.

Moon turned to face her, curious. “You mean you would leave the village?”

“No.” It made her smile that he thought the same thing she had thought a moment ago about him. But she was not going anywhere. The village had never appeared dearer to her now that she had spent time away from it. “Only that I should perhaps leave my parents’ hut.”

All her brothers had left a while ago, even if only Steinar was married. At one and twenty, wasn’t it time she did the same? But where would she go? She could not think of a single empty hut that could become hers. Could she ask her father to build one for her? Would he agree to have her leave if it was not to start a family with a husband? That was the usual reason women left the family home.

Yes, it was, but everyone knew she was not the usual woman. Her cropped hair as well as her presence in the woods here tonight attested to that.

“Well, if you really mean it, I could help.” Moon cut through her musings.

Her heart skipped a beat. Was he offering to have her come live with him? Surely not? True, he lived in his own, so no one would object to her moving in if he decided to have her, but...

“What do you mean? How could you could help?”

“With the building of a new hut, of course.”

He winked at her and she groaned. How wrong could one be? He had not meant to welcome her under his roof at all. Of course not, how stupid was she for even entertaining the notion? Not only did friends not live together, but what would he do with her when he brought a conquest home if she was in the hut? She grimaced at the thought. Now that she knew just how skilled and generous he was in bed, she could not help a pang of jealousy at the idea of the next lucky woman who would enjoy his attentions.

He mistook her reaction for offence. “Ah, don’t tell me. You actually wanted to build the hut yourself, is that what it is? I wouldn’t put it past you, you know.”

Eyja shrugged. Was it such a bad idea?

“I’m sure I could build a hut, if I really put my mind to it. After all, I have a head to work out what is to be done and two arms to chop and carry wood, just like any man. I’m no expert, but I don’t think the part that I don’t have,” she added, staring pointedly at his groin, “has any role to play in the building of a house?”

Moon gave a throaty laugh that sent goosebumps all the way to her toes and shook his head. “No. None whatsoever.”