Finally, we're getting to the story I wanted to tell. This is where is starts to go down. This will be told in Lilith's perspective, since we already know what happens from Athelstan's (for the most part).
A good portion of this will be familiar, and though I don't own any of it, I did try to punch it up a little to fit with the story I'm telling. I hope I do a good job.
You'll also notice, I hope, that familiar characters go unnamed until their names are actually said. It only felt fair.
More notes at the bottom!
Protector
Lilith could hear the bells in every corner of the monastery as she hurried from the main hall to her room just as Athelstan had told her. She avoided the other monks who scurried around like chickens, and she covered her head when two monks almost knocked her into the wall after falling through a heavy door. She didn't know what was happening, but whatever it was, it was coming fast.
"I will come and get you as soon as I've helped secure the monastery," Athelstan said as they finished in the scriptorium. "Please do not go outside."
And so she hadn't. Of course, there were crawlspaces that allowed her to stay inside, and she made it to her room within just a few minutes of leaving Athelstan in the chapel. She gathered up her cloak in case they had to hide in the cellar, and she tucked her journal into her waist so it wouldn't get damaged. That left the smaller things her for to decide if she wanted to take them with her. Her leather band was still around her arm, and when she saw the cross on the table beside her bed, she had to choose between it and her amber necklace, which was already on her.
She was about to reach for it when Athelstan burst through her door alone.
"Lili, we have to go," he ordered, grabbing her hand and pulling her from the room before she could take her cross.
"What's happening?" she cried as they ran outside through the main courtyard where everyone was still scurrying around like rats. "Are we going somewhere safe?"
"We're being invaded by savages. I don't think anywhere is safe right now," he admitted as they ran to the altar room. "But I know none of the others will keep you out of harm. I at least have to try. Come on. Behind the main altar. Perhaps they won't hear us."
She didn't argue, tucking her legs as close to her chest as she could as Athelstan wrapped his own body around hers, covering her head.
The sound of a hammer clanging against the gate echoed through the air, pinging inside Lilith's head and bringing her hands up to her ears to stop her head from hurting. Athelstan held her closer, jumping as the gate was broken and pressing his mouth to the back of her head to keep from making noise.
The chickens clucked, and the geese called for almost a minute, and it seemed like nothing was happening. Then the other monks started screaming. Some of them were praying loudly. The most awful sound filled the airs as pained cries followed the screaming.
Lilith did not have to guess what was happening. She did not know these sounds, but she understood them. Those monks who were screaming and praying and crying out were all dying.
Slowly, the doors to the altar room opened, allowing in three heavy footfalls to enter the room. One of them spoke and then another. It took Lilith's ear just a few phrases to understand them.
"Perhaps they think their god protects them," a third said.
It was Northern.
The second man scoffed, and the sound echoed around the room. "If this is their god, then he is dead. He is nailed to a cross."
"He cannot protect anyone!" the first man shouted, almost laughing. "He is not alive like Odin, Thor or Freyr!"
Lilith didn't mean to move, but the wood beneath her feet creaked as she did, and the voices stopped.
Before half a minute could pass, big hands grabbed Athelstan from behind the altar, and Lilith with him as they were both dragged out into the open. She screamed helplessly even with Athelstan covering her still and shouting for mercy in the Northen language.
"Vinsamlegast ekki drepa okkur!"
The one in front, a tall man with large blue eyes and a curious look about him, stared down at them.
"You speak our language," he said, surprised. "How do you speak our language?"
Athelstan hesitated, still covered her from them, glancing at the others. The one in front of him drew a knife and aimed it at him.
"How?" he demanded.
"I've traveled," Athelstan stammered, holding Lilith closer. "We are told to travel to take the Word of God. Please. Do not kill us."
The tall man turned his eyes to Lilith as she lifted her eyes to his. "And who is this? Your daughter?"
Athelstan shook his head, holding her tighter. "No. But — I am responsible for her. I am the only one here who cares for her."
The severity in his blue eyes slowly faded to curiosity. He glanced at the other two and then around the room before he looked at Athelstan again. "All the treasures I see in this room, and you have chosen to protect a single child. Why?"
"Because she is innocent," Athelstan declared. "And protecting the innocent is the sole purpose for me being in this place. The world is full of darkness, and by protecting her, there is a little more light within it."
Athelstan's words struck a chord with this man, and he backed away, allowing him to stand with Lilith behind him. Just as he was about to speak, another taller man came into the altar room, burly and built like no man Lilith had ever seen.
"This is a strange place indeed," he announced, the smile on his face anything but good. "We have looked everywhere, and so far, we have found no women. Only these strange men."
The one with the blue eyes responded, still partially blocking the burly man's view of Athelstan and Lilith. "I believe these are the priests of their God."
More men filtered in behind him, and Athelstan's grip on Lilith tightened.
"Take what you will," the burly man ordered. "This is why we came here!"
Without hesitation, the men began carrying away the gold and silver caskets on the offering tables. The burly one stopped in front of the man with the blue eyes, finally having seen Athelstan.
"So they do have a woman," the burly man noted.
"She is a little girl," the man with the blue eyes corrected. "Not a woman. No older than my own daughter."
"And why have you not killed him?" he pointed at Athelstan.
The man with the blue eyes glanced back at them, grinning curiously before he spoke again. "I believe he is more valuable alive. To sell as a slave."
The burly man moved forward a little. "I say he dies. We have no more room on the boat for extra bodies."
Before he could grab Athelstan, the man with the blue eyes stopped him, pushing him away. "I forbid it," he exhaled.
"How can you forbid it, little brother? We are all equals. And I say he dies."
The burly man tried again, but his brother stopped him a second time, lowering his voice to a warning. "Does it really mean that much to you, brother?" They stared at one another before the blue-eyed man spoke again. "If it matters to you so much, Rollo, I will take responsibility of them off your hands. Hmm?"
Rollo smirked and laughed, raising the ax in his hands before he smashed the cross on the wall in such a manner that Athelstan jumped, startled as he held Lilith tighter against him. Rollo shoved the ax against Athelstan's chest, taunting him.
"This is what I care for your God!" he growled.
The confrontation ended abruptly as Rollo backed away and stormed out, leaving his brother and one of the other men still in the altar room.
"Go on, Leif," the blue-eyed man said.
He left, and then it was just Athelstan and Lilith with the one who had turned out to be their savior.
"Sir," Athelstan said, and he looked at them. "I will resign myself to whatever fate awaits me, but I beg you. Please do not let anyone hurt this child. She deserves to be protected."
The curious grin returned as he spoke. "And why is that?" he asked.
Athelstan glanced at Lilith as she looked at him. "Because she is an orphan. She has no one else outside this monastery, and she has nowhere else to go."
The blue-eyed man finally looked at Lilith, leaning over to look at her face and then in her eyes. He didn't look scary, and his voice didn't sound scary. Maybe he wasn't as bad as the other monks would say.
He didn't respond to Athelstan, taking twined rope from the pouch behind him and roughly tying Athelstan's wrists together. Then, still without speaking, he reached for Lilith's little hand, questioning her. She understood instantly, lifting her eyes to Athelstan and waiting for him to nod before she put her hand in the older man's.
"What is your name, little one?" he asked.
"Lilith," she answered, not meaning to sound small and failing.
He nodded, holding her hand gently. "I am Ragnar," he said softly.
In two movements, he scooped her up in one arm and grabbed the rope with the other, pulling Athelstan out of the empty altar room as he carried Lilith like she weighed nothing.
Outside the altar room was a scene Lilith had only ever had described to her by Athelstan, after he'd read parts of Revelations to her from the Bible. Bodies of monks lay on the ground, some bleeding, some with their heads detached from their bodies. All dead. A small group of men dressed like the one holding Lilith huddled around an even smaller group of monks being tied up. Lilith knew she wasn't supposed to look, but she couldn't stop, wanting to be in Athelstan's arms but somehow feeling safe in the ones currently carrying her.
From the courtyard, the monks were all filed out of the monastery, and the one called Leif stopped beside Ragnar.
"Leif," he called and gently handed her over. "Take her to the boat. Watch the others."
Lilith tried to resist, but Leif cradled her against him. "Come, little one. You are safe now."
She glanced back at Athelstan as she was carried off, wanting to believe everything would be all right but now afraid their troubles were only getting worse.
The beach was silent but for the waves, and Leif carried Lilith to a bigger boat as it set anchored just off the shore. The monastery shrank slowly, a short line of blacks and tans mixed in as the small group of monks that included Athelstan wound its way toward the sea. Gently, Leif sat Lilith inside the hull of the boat, looking at her curiously as he also watched for his companions.
She reached out without meaning to, almost touching his face as he looked at her. He backed away just a little, but at the last second, allowed her to touch his cheek. "You are Leif," she said.
He grinned, his green eyes twinkling. "Yes, little one. I am Leif. And what is your name?"
"Lilith," she said, straightening her back reflexively.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl."
"Stop your flirting, boy!" an older man with hair as long as Lilith's called, chuckling as he came closer with a gold casket. "She is only a child."
Leif shrugged as he stood over Lilith, almost guarding her.
Slowly, the captured monks, along with Athelstan, filed down the beach. Lilith watched Brother Cenwulf, the coward he was, attempt to escape by running into the sea. Rollo stopped him and dragged him along the beach as his companions brought the gold and silver from the altar room and piled it into the boat.
Athelstan spotted Lilith, lifting his eyebrows in his own question, and she nodded before he bowed his head. She saw the Ragnar come up with the end of the group, along with a spirally man with thinning hair and black paint on his face. Then behind them, she saw the monastery on fire, the black smoke filling the sky like she had never seen.
Lilith realized she wasn't sad. She wasn't angry or even a little upset. For the first time in her life, she was relieved. Since Athelstan had come back from Paris, she had known a time like this would come. And when he'd found her marks, a part of her wanted something like this to happen. Maybe she hadn't wanted anyone to die. Except maybe Brother Cenwar. But this was more impossible than anything she had ever imagined.
Ragnar took over Leif's guard of her once he climbed into the boat. The other men with him said nothing as he took her to the bow of the boat and set her over the ropes covering the hull. The monks were put against the two masts, and Athelstan was deposited in front of her by chance, as was Brother Cenwulf. Rollo and the hairy man who had teased Leif were the last two in the boat as it shoved off into the water.
"Have you ever been in a boat?" Ragnar asked her, holding her in his hands as they pushed further and further into the sea.
She looked up at him to see a grin on his face. "No," she shook her head
He chuckled softly. "Well, then, I hope you don't get sea sick."
That was the last thing he said before pulling her onto his lap while he watched Athelstan watch the two of them.
While it had been cool on the beach, once they were on the open water, it became cold. Lilith was only covered by her cloak, and when she began to shiver, Ragnar found something heavier to drape over her shoulders. He turned her from Athelstan to face the sea, and the waves carried them further out until the only thing they could see was water. She had lived on an island her whole life, and though it was surrounded by water, it had at least been stationary. Now the earth beneath her moved, and she didn't know what to do.
"You're doing well," Ragnar said to her. "How old are you, little one?"
"I am twelve," she replied.
He smiled and touched her cheek. "I have a daughter who is almost twelve. Her name is Gyda."
Lilith smiled too. "That is a pretty name."
He acknowledged her words with a nod and gestured for her to sit next to him as the other men rowed them further and further from the island. With her uneasiness slowly fading, Lilith finally exhaled, clutching her new cloak as she watched Athelstan.
One translation courtesy of my nifty translator:
Vinsamlegast ekki drepa okkur! - Please do not kill us! (Icelandic)
Which I have read is what the show uses since it sounds most like Old Norse. It felt right.
It will be at least a week until my next update, and that chapter will be in Athelstan's perspective. Thank you to everyone who's read and followed and put this in your favorites.
Until next time!
