I don't own Vikings or anything else. I make no money from this.
"I cannot believe your husband made to offer Thyri to me today." Rollo looked over at the woman spread naked on his firs.
"I know, I walked in at the very end of that conversation."
"Siggy, even I would not bed my own daughter."
"That you know of," Siggy replied.
"You have a sharp tongue, woman," said Rollo, rolling over onto his back.
"And yet you don't complain when it's wrapped around you," smirked Siggy.
Rollo sighed. Even in his mead enhanced post coital haze he was concerned. "Do you think he knows? Was he trying to provoke me?"
"Haraldson rarely takes me into his confidence anymore, not since you and your brother sailed west. But we've been very careful. We've never told anyone. Even Thyri thinks the Earl is her father."
Rollo reached over and tenderly, or what passed for tenderly as far as Rollo was concerned, ran his fingers through Siggy's hair. As Siggy leaned in to his ministrations, one of her long earrings caught on his arm ring.
Rollo disentangled himself with a curse. "Why do you insist on wearing those earrings?" he growled.
"I am the Earl's wife and I am expected to dress like one."
"Do you wear them when your lord beds you?"
"He has rarely come to my bed as a man to his wife since our boys were killed."
Suddenly, Siggy felt a cold feeling of dread. "I need to get back," she said, getting up, her hands shaking.
"Did I do something wrong again?" It seemed to Rollo that, as far as Siggy was concerned, he was forever doing something wrong; yet he had loved her for more years than he could count. And it occurred to him that both of the women he desired most belonged to other men.
"No, I just, I just remembered something I need to do," replied Siggy, pulling on her clothes. When she was dressed, she looked back at Rollo. He had fallen asleep and was snoring softly. Pulling up her hood, Siggy took the time to look outside in all directions before hastily leaving the hut.
Siggy intended to take Thyri aside and try to deflect any attraction the girl felt for Rollo, but the hall was even more crowded than usual. Knut's family was there, and his widow immediately attached herself to Siggy, crying piteously. You should be glad to be rid of him, thought Siggy. She knew what kind of man Knut had been and did not doubt for a minute that whatever Ragnar Lothbrok had done, his actions had been justified.
By the time the trial began, it seemed like all of Midgard had packed itself into the longhouse. When Ragnar was brought in in chains, the noisy crowd became almost silent. But rather than look like a frightened, shackled prisoner, Ragnar wore his fetters as if they were gold adornments and actually smiled the smallest of smiles at his family. By the end of trial, Ragnar's trademark grin was firmly back in place as he raised his arms and joked, "Now, who has the key?"
Haraldson stormed out of the hall, Siggy close behind. As she trailed behind her husband, Siggy could not resist glancing covertly at Rollo. She was proud that he had stood up for his brother, but she was also worried. She knew her husband did not take well to defeat.
That night, Siggy was not surprised when the Earl entered her bedchamber, looking for a way to work off his frustrations with the day's events. While Rollo was at times brutish, he never treated Siggy cruelly. Siggy never knew what to expect from her husband. On one occasion he even sent one of his men to her bed. But, hoping for the best, she pasted a smile on her face and welcomed him into her arms.
Sometime later, Siggy was woken by the sound of her husband standing at the window muttering. "I'll kill them," she heard him say. "Ragnar Lothbrok and his brother Rollo."
Upon hearing the Earl's plans for Rollo, Siggy bit on her fist to muffle her gasp, but Haraldson still heard her stir. "Are you awake, my dear?" he asked.
"The noise outside woke me," replied Siggy shakily.
"Ah yes. That Ragnar Lothbrok and his friends are celebrating. I'm sending Svein and some of my men to put a stop to it. They're mistaken if they think they can make merry at my expense."
The following day, the hall was filled with the Earl's men. There had been injuries the night before on both sides. Siggy heard that one of Ragnar's men had been killed, and was concerned that it might have been Rollo. She waited until everyone was otherwise occupied and sneaked out of the hall, hurrying to Rollo's hut. When she got there, she heard noises coming from inside. She melted back into the shadows and waited.
Before long, a woman left Rollo's hut. Siggy waited a few moments and entered, to see Rollo lacing up his breeches.
"I see you emerged from last night's melee unscathed," Siggy said pointedly.
"Do you expect me to be celibate like the priest?" Rollo's tongue curled around the unfamiliar word. "Do you expect me to wait for you to make an appearance? You know what kind of man I am."
"Yes, I do," replied Siggy ruefully. "You do three things: drink, fight, and fuck. I don't know why I put up with you."
"It's because I do them so well, at least one of them." Rollo reached out to caress Siggy's cheek. She slapped his hand away.
"You smell like your whore! And besides, I can't stay. I only came to make sure you were not dead."
"Well I'm obviously still alive. And if you stay a little while, I'll show you just how alive I am."
"Rollo, you could be so much more than you are. We could…"
"We could what?"
"Nothing. Just wishful thinking. But watch yourself, and tell your brother the same. My husband is not going to give up so easily. I need to get back before the Earl misses me.
Siggy hurried back to the hall unnoticed by any of the Earl's men. Most of them were still licking their wounds from the previous night. Even Haraldson himself seemed distracted, and remained that way, paying little attention to his wife.
After that night, Siggy took to spending more time with Rollo, which was fine with him until she started trying to straighten up his house. One day, he had had enough of her housekeeping efforts and sent her away. When she returned home, Siggy noticed the Earl and his men were saddling their horses. She had a good idea where they were going and thought to tell Rollo, but after their recent argument decided against it. When she heard later about the raid on Ragnar's homestead, she ran to Rollo's house in tears.
"I could have stopped it!" she cried. "It's all my fault. Your brother might not be dead if I had done something."
"They haven't found his body. He may still be alive. Anyway, you could not have stopped the Earl. This was his plan all along."
"Do you know something?" Siggy asked suspiciously. "Is Ragnar still alive?"
"He's always been one of Odin's favorites. I think we need to trust that the Alfather will protect him."
"I've never heard you talk that way before."
"The priest finds comfort in his faith in his pale god. Why should I be any different? But Siggy, you know your husband will not rest until he finds my brother, either dead or alive. And he will be keeping an eye on me hoping I lead him to Ragnar. We'll have to be more careful about meeting." Rollo took Siggy in his arms. "This may be the last time we can be together for a while," he whispered.
Rollo was correct. The Earl's men began to dog his every move. Between concern for his brother and his frustration over his inability to spend time with Siggy, he began to spend all his time drinking and carousing with the women of Kattegat who were so inclined. Siggy found him snoring on the floor of his hut the next time she was able to sneak away from the hall.
"Wake up," she hissed, kicking at his side.
Rollo blearily opened his eyes. When he saw Siggy, his face broke into a grin. "Have you come to save me from myself?" he slurred.
"No, I've come to tell you our daughter is to be married to a fat Swede."
Rollo sat up, holding his head.
"When did this happen?" he asked.
"You've been so busy feeling sorry for yourself that you haven't been paying attention to what goes on around you. I can't believe my husband would just give our daughter away like that unless he knows she is not his. And I'm sure he's the one who had our sons killed."
Rollo shook his head as if trying to make sense of Siggy's words. "Why do you think that?"
"He showed me their hair. He said he took it when he found their bodies, but I think he took it as a trophy. And another thing, he's using all his resources to search for your brother, but when our boys were killed, nothing. And all he says is if he ever catches the men who killed, them….if he ever catches the men who killed them….but he's not looking for their killers."
"You know he had that boy killed," Siggy continued in a whisper. "That neighbor boy of your brother's. He's not above killing a child. And he won't be above killing you, if it gets him what he wants."
Rollo finally managed to heave himself to his feet and took Siggy in his arms. "I will try not to get myself killed," he said.
A few months later, the "fat Swede", as Siggy called him, returned, laden with gifts and gold. The day of the wedding, Rollo, already swaying from ale, appeared at the great hall. Even though he did not acknowledge Thyri as his own daughter, Rollo felt compelled to attend her wedding. Haraldson was not really surprised to see him, but pretended to be, anyway. As the two men stood in quiet conversation, Rollo found he could not keep his eyes off Thyri and her groom.
"That could be you dancing with my daughter," the Earl said. Rollo looked at him, wondering if Haraldson was serious or if he knew that Rollo was actually Thyri's father.
Across the hall, Svein bent to whisper in Siggy's ear. "Even in all your finery," he said. "Your lover prefers to look upon younger flesh."
"All eyes should be on the bride," retorted Siggy haughtily, ignoring the inference that Rollo was her lover.
After the newlyweds left the hall, Rollo continued his conversation with Haraldson. Toward the end, in part fueled by the amount ale he had had to drink, Rollo began to believe that he had been paranoid, that the Earl did not know of his and Siggy's relationship and, in fact, meant him no harm.
Rollo was mistaken.
It was shortly after the wedding when Torstein stumbled, drenched, into Floki's hut. He bore a message from Siggy: Haraldson had imprisoned Rollo and was torturing him to try to get Rollo to disclose Ragnar's whereabouts.
Ragnar was still healing from the wounds he had sustained during the Earl's raid on his farm, but when he heard Torstein's words he drew himself up, a chilling smile on his face. And everyone else in the hut knew that Ragnar's smile would be the last thing Earl Haraldson ever saw.
After Floki left for Kattegat with Ragnar's challenge to the Earl for a holmgang, Athelstan finally asked the question that had been on his mind since the family had gone into hiding.
"Why can't the Earl find this place?" asked Athelstan. "Why does he need to torture Rollo to find out where we are?"
Silence.
"This hut is not far from the water. Why can't the Earl's men see the smoke from the hearth? Torstein does not seem to have trouble finding it." Athelstan looked at Torstein. "I'm not saying you're not smart enough to find us, but…."
Torstein chuckled. "It's alright, my little friend. Even the farmer pays no attention to what the big dumb ox is doing." Torstein winked at Athelstan.
"But I still don't understand," Athelstan persisted.
"You are like a hound worrying a piece of gristle," grumbled Lagertha. She looked around at the others, then nodded to herself. "This place is, how do you say it, protected."
"Protected? I don't understand," replied Athelstan.
"No one can find it who should not."
"But that's impossible!"
"Do you not believe your god can protect you? Well our gods protect their own." Lagertha shot an affectionate glance at her husband. "Ragnar has long been favored by the gods," she added softly.
Athelstan began to protest again, only to have his head cuffed by Ragnar. "You think too much, priest," said the Viking affectionately. "Stop thinking and help me get ready to go to Kattegat."
Ragnar's face suddenly darkened. "We need to save my brother," he added.
Athelstan looked around, certain that he was missing something, then followed Ragnar outside into the rain.
"Favored by the gods?" Torstein said in a low voice.
"It's close enough to the truth, and easier for Athelstan to believe," replied Lagertha.
When the splash of icy water brought Rollo back to consciousness, he vaguely noticed Siggy, off to the side, her face pale and her expression stricken. As the knife came down on him, Rollo wondered for a moment if Siggy would still desire him when he was disfigured, then he blessedly slipped back into unconsciousness.
As Siggy fled from the torture chamber, she wondered if Torstein had been able to find Ragnar. She knew that her husband would kill Rollo unless he was stopped, and she knew that Ragnar Lothbrok was the only person who could stop him. As she hurried away, Siggy said a prayer to the gods, to Thor, to Freya, and to Odin; especially to Odin, because she knew Ragnar claimed to be descended from him. When she closed her eyes, all she could see was Rollo's face, and she stumbled.
"Are you alright, my lady?" One of the servant girls caught Siggy's arm.
Siggy leaned gratefully against the girl for a moment, then shook herself. "I'm fine, Porunn," she answered. "There are some things women are not meant to see," she said with a thin smile, even though the bile was rising in her throat. "I think I should lie down for a bit." She allowed Porunn to help her to her chambers, but when the girl left, Siggy immediately began rummaging around for the objects she knew her husband had left there.
The night before the combat, Siggy presented her husband with the amulet she had made. She had taken the hair of her two dead sons and twisted it together to make a pendant. When she placed it around Haraldson's neck, whispering words of encouragement, the Earl felt as is a huge stone was hanging on him, making it almost impossible for him to move. As he turned away, Siggy smiled to herself.
The next morning, Siggy was elated to see Rollo standing in the crowd at the holmgang, but she made sure to keep her attention on the fight. She could tell the Earl was sluggish and knew it was in part due to the charm around his neck. She stood there smugly, watching the battle, but at the last moment, right as Ragnar dealt the killing cut, she ran out into the ring. No matter what Haraldson had done, he was still Siggy's husband, and at that last moment she remembered the affection that had existed between them and realized the finality of what was happening. Thinking about her husband's demise, even wishing for it, was different than watching it happen.
But then something came over Siggy, and she ran over to her daughter, grabbing the knife that Thyri held concealed in her hand. The crowd watched, wondering if Siggy would attack Ragnar. Instead, she stabbed Thyri's husband and, wild eyed, ran back to the center of the ring. She looked around, seeing all her former subjects, her now widowed daughter, and Rollo, a bloody axe in his hand.
"Hail, Earl Ragnar," she whispered. Then louder, "Hail, Earl Ragnar," she said again. And she saw, for the first time in a long time, possibilities.