...but betrayal with treachery
oneiriad
Disclaimer: Vikings does not belong to me.
"You wished to see me, Sire?"
King Ecbert doesn't immediately raise his eyes from the parchment he's perusing, allowing Athelstan a moment to look around the man's private study. He hasn't been there before. Usually, when he is summoned, it is to appear in the hall, usually when King Ecbert holds court and hands out judgments, allowing everyone to see the pagan. Most other times, King Ecbert will seek him out, in the chamber with the Roman treasures.
Or in the small room next to it where Athelstan now sleeps.
"Ah, yes," and King Ecbert finally looks at him and gestures at a stool. "Please, Athelstan, sit. I have a new task for you."
"Sire?"
"It appears the Northmen have returned to our shores."
"Oh," Athelstan offers, unsure how the king expects him to react to the news, even as his heart soars.
"Indeed. My scouts assure me, that the one they call Ragnar Lothbrok is among them - and so I find myself in need of you, even though I am loath to take you away from your work."
"How may I serve you, my King?" he asks, though his mouth has gone dry.
"You mentioned once, that the Northmen can write - runes, was that what you called it?"
"Yes, Sire."
"And they can be used to write a message?"
"Sometimes, yes - I have seen messages be carved onto sticks cleared of bark."
"And you - can carve these runes?"
"No," he lies, as smoothly as possibly. "The pagans think runes are magic. Only their nobles are allowed to learn them."
"Ah." King Ecbert sounds disappointed. "I had hoped it would not be necessary - but still. Needs must. Brother Athelstan, I know it is much to ask from a man who has already been through great ordeals, but will you agree to carry a message for me to Ragnar Lothbrok."
"Of course, Sire," and somehow he manages to stop himself from sounding too eager. At least, he hopes he does.
"Good," and King Ecbert open a carved wooden box that's been standing on the table. "I suppose you will be needing this, then," and turns it around, allowing Athelstan to see its contents.
On a piece of velvet lies his arm ring.
He remembers how they had tried to take it from him, the soldiers, as they stripped him bare. He remembers fighting like a madman until they stopped trying, remembers biting someone until the taste of blood filled his mouth. But afterwards, when he had awoken, his wounds cleaned and tended by kindly nuns, it had been gone, and he had known better than to ask for it.
Just another piece of pagan treasure, he thinks, and it is a bitter thought.
King Ecbert's soldiers escort him to within a couple of hours walk of the Northmen's camp. He watches as they ride away, leaving him alone and unarmed. Then he turns and stars to walk.
He's unsure how long he's been walking when he hears the sound of dry leaves rustling behind him. He whirls around to find himself face to face with Northmen, weapons drawn and far too close for comfort.
He does not know them.
He raises his arms, to show that he is no threat, to display the silver band around his wrist, and starts backing away as a tall, young Northman comes toward him. He opens his mouth - and is enveloped in an embrace as strong as a bear's, an embrace that has him gasping for air.
"Priest!" and that voice, almost and yet not quite familiar, as the young man grasps his arms, piercing blue eyes searching his face. "Athelstan? Don't you recognize me?"
"Bjorn?" and the young man's smile transforms his face, only Athelstan has barely a moment to see it before getting pulled into a second hug.
"We thought you dead! King Horik said that you had gone to negotiate with the English king and he betrayed you!"
"Wait? King Horik said what?" and Athelstan pushes out of Bjorn's embrace.
"That the negotiations with King Ecbert turned sour and the English attacked the camp."
"What negotiations? After Ragnar left, King Horik refused to even entertain the possibility. He raided a couple of farms and then I was - I was with a foraging party that got ambushed by Saxon soldiers. But from what I heard later, King Horik and his people left in good order a short while later."
"Do you mean to tell me that King Horik lied? That he…" and Bjorn looks an awful lot like his uncle when he's angry. "Father must hear of this. Come."
In the end, one of Bjorn's young warriors lends him a heavy hooded cloak and thus he is smuggled into the camp. The guard at the gate looks at his face, but the guard is Torstein and it's only Bjorn's hissed "be quiet" that keeps the man from attracting the attention of the entire camp. As it is, even Bjorn can't keep him from hugging Athelstan, whispering "welcome home" in his ear.
Ragnar rises as they enter his tent.
"And who is this?" and perhaps he meant to say more, but then Athelstan pushes back the hood and Ragnar stares at him, open-mouthed.
"My Earl?" and Athelstan takes a step forward, unsure of his welcome. As they walked back to camp, Bjorn has been telling him of Horik, of how the Danish king has declared Athelstan a traitor - and here he is, alive and dressed as a Saxon once more. What must Ragnar be thinking of him?
Athelstan opens his mouth to speak again and for the second time that day his breath is stolen by a fierce embrace, Ragnar's arms wrapping around him and dragging him in, and he comes willingly, giving as good as he gets.
"I thought I'd lost you," and Ragnar's pulling back, devouring him with his eyes, hands patting at his clothes, fingers curling around his arm ring and then around the back of his head, holding him still while Ragnar's lips come to rest against his forehead.
Eventually, once Ragnar has satisfied himself that Athelstan is indeed alive, they settle down.
"How are you here?" he demands.
"I bring a message," and Athelstan ducks his head, refusing to meet Ragnar's gaze. "From King Ecbert."
"And what is this message from King Ecbert?"
"He wants to meet with you again - to continue your negotiations. I was told a time and a place."
"Ah."
"It's a trap," and he looks up. Ragnar's eyes are bluer than the sky.
"The meeting? You know this?"
"Perhaps the meeting, I'm not sure. I think he plans to use you - the Northmen - for some purpose of his own," but Ragnar's nodding as if he expected that.
"Father, how can you…?", but a single glance from Ragnar and Bjorn falls silent. Then he turns back to Athelstan.
"Athelstan - what happened after I left for Kattegat?"
"King Horik, he - I tried to talk with him about continuing the negotiations you had started, but he would not listen. He raided some farms and then - I was captured by the Saxons. By some soldiers. They were going to kill me, but King Ecbert decided I was worth more alive."
It's not until Ragnar takes his hand and slides a thumb across the vividly red scar on the palm that he realizes he's been rubbing at it again.
"And then?" Ragnar prompts.
"I - he is fascinated with pagans. With the Romans of old, who once came from the far south and conquered every land they found. He - I think he thought me yet another pagan treasure for his hoard."
"Did you tell him of us? Teach him our language?"
"I told him a few things, yes - but not as much as I could have. He rarely asked. He - is not a man who asks," and once again Athelstan finds himself unable to look Ragnar in the eye.
"Athelstan? Did he hurt you?" and there is something dangerous in Ragnar's voice, a growl just barely not there.
"No. No, that's not. I - he's not at all like you, that's all."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that he is King."
"And I am Earl."
"Yes," Athelstan nods. "But before that, you were a farmer - a man among others. Even now, as Earl, you are bound to listen to the thing. But Ecbert - he is a king. He has no equal and only God above him. He doesn't ask." Not like you, he wants to say, but doesn't. You always asked - even after the answer became yes, you never once did not ask.
"He just takes," and now the growl is audible.
"No. No, he - he is king. Everything is already his. He doesn't have to take."
Thankfully, Ragnar doesn't ask again, just tugs Athelstan close to him and allows him to rest his head on Ragnar's broad shoulder, lulled by the feel of Ragnar's fingers sliding through his hear.
"It seems I shall have to go visit the king."
"Ragnar?"
"Father, you cannot. After what he's done to one of our family - and besides, you heard Athelstan. This king only means to use you."
"Oh, I've been listening. Did you, boy? Tell me, what do you think of what Horik did?"
"King Horik? He lied to you. He didn't continue the negotiations and he did not tell you the truth of how Athelstan was lost - and we will make him pay for his lies."
"Oh, we will make him pay for far more than his lies. Tell me, if he did not intend to continue the negotiations, why did he desire Athelstan to stay in England in the first place? Why not simply let him sail back to Kattegat with me? Unless - he swore to me, swore on his arm ring that he'd keep Athelstan safe, and yet - and yet, if he had not fallen into the hands of King Ecbert, I suspect he would never have made it back to us alive."
And with that, Ragnar stands and turns to face them.
"So, yes, I shall go visit King Ecbert and hear what he has to say - and in the meantime, we'll make certain King Horik does not find out that Athelstan is back among us."
Ragnar's smile is a beautiful thing to behold, beautiful as a forest fire.
"And then these kings shall learn the price of hurting a member of my family."
The title is part of a quote from Havamal. The full quote is:
Be your friend's
true friend.
Return gift for gift.
Repay laughter
with laughter again
but betrayal with treachery.
A/N: This story was mostly born from - well, apart from me wanting everybody to hug Athelstan, it was mostly born from me wondering how Ragnar would react the moment he realized that Horik didn't just not take good care of Athelstan, oh no. Since apparently Horik never intended to continue the negotiations with Ecbert, him asking Athelstan to stay in the first place takes on an entirely different meaning. Whether he might have intended simply to sabotage the negotiations or remove the (perceived) Christian influence on Ragnar or to weaken Ragnar by removing one of his most loyal men, the simple fact is that Horik intended Athelstan to die all along. Being captured the actual Saxons might actually have saved his life.