Winter Solstice Winter - Book I in the Viking Blood Saga

Needing to calm herself from the maredream, Lucia rose out of bed, went to the window, and looked out across the country of which she would soon be the queen. The Northern Star had begun to shine more brightly over the land, as it did each year on winter solstice eve, but it did not bring her joy like it had in years passed. Now it only reminded her that her mother was not there to share in its scintillating beauty.

  She had to find the person of which her mother spoke, even if it was near impossible. She had no clue who the person could be or even where to start searching. However, she trusted her mother when she had said it was vital she locate this being if she were to defeat Eiess.

  That name sent a cold chill through her spine, and a feeling of ill-omen speared through her heart and shot from her chest straight to her core. She could not describe in words what was happening, but she could sense Midgard swing toward a perilous and dark season.

  “Are you all right, my princess?” Nora asked, storming into the room, her voice filled with fear.

  She startled at her handmaiden’s voice and turned around.

  Without waiting for an answer, Nora dashed into Lucia’s wardrobe and started rifling through the clothes.

  “What is wrong?” Lucia asked, stepping into the closet.

  Nora threw a white rabbit fur coat around Lucia’s shoulders. “Quickly, quietly come with me,” she whispered, pulling on Lucia’s arm. “Your father has asked me to take you to a sleigh that awaits outside.” Lifting a torch off the wall, she said, “You must leave the castle immediately.”

  “What? Why?” Lucia asked.

  “There is no time to talk. The castle will soon be under attack,” Nora said as they started down the hallway. The torch lit up the blackened corridor so they could see a few feet in front of them. Finally, they reached the northeastern stairwell and started running down the steps.

  “Your father told me that Eiess is on her way here to capture you and possibly kill you,” Nora said with a look of horror on her face. “She believes you are the Great Sentinor.”

  “What?” Lucia’s insides churned in terror.

  “Dear, there is no time to discuss or think about these things now. If we do not act immediately and get you out of here, Eiess will be here and we will all be killed.”

  Lucia’s blood rushed to her face. She could not breathe. She could not talk. All she could think was that she would be dead by morning.

  Soon, the women reached the bottom of the stairwell. Nora stopped and grabbed Lucia by the arms, looking her frankly in the eyes. “I cannot come with you, but Vilda is waiting outside by the king’s sleigh. She will take you to a safe place where Eiess cannot harm you.”

  “You must come with me!” Lucia objected. “I refuse to go without you!”

  “No time to debate.” Nora grabbed Lucia’s hand and started pulling her down the hallway. They entered the pantry room and scurried through it, maneuvering around crates, baskets, and boxes. It was tricky since it was stocked to the ceiling with food, drinks and items they had received just days before in preparation for the winter solstice celebration and Lucia’s coronation.

  Now it appears all the preparations have been for naught, Lucia thought fleetingly.

  Nora pushed the door open and the icy northern wind hit Lucia’s face. She shuddered as the unforgiving wind blew millions of fluttering snowflakes in hundreds of different directions, grateful to Nora for choosing her warmest fur. Through the open courtyard door, Lucia saw a sea of troops standing in front of the castle. Eiess really was coming for her tonight. Her heart felt as if it had stopped, but there was not time to stop when she was running for her life.

  As expected, Vilda was waiting by the sleigh. “Oh good, there you are. I was beginning to get worried something had happened to you.” She sighed briefly before opening her arms to greet Lucia with an embrace.

  With her heart in her throat, Lucia ran over and hugged her.

  Nora curtsied to Vilda and opened the sleigh door. “Do not you worry, Lucia, my dear. I will be meeting you soon enough,” she said.

  “No, I refuse to leave without you!”

  Nora turned Lucia toward her and looked her straight in the eyes again. “You will go and you will go now!” she shouted.

  Lucia had never seen Nora this obstinate and was startled by her sternness.

  “Now get in that sleigh, young lady, immediately. Everything will be fine in the end, you will see,” Nora said.

  Lucia wrapped her arms around Nora again, squeezing her tight. She knew Nora was hiding something, something like fear or pain, or the knowledge that everything would not be all right, but there was no time to ask. Nora pried Lucia’s arms open and guided her into the sleigh.

  “But what about my father? Where is he?” Lucia asked.

  “He will meet you after all is settled,” Nora said, her voice competing with the howling wind. “Take good care of her, Your Majesty,” Nora begged Vilda.

  “Why of course,” Vilda replied. “She is safe in my keeping; you can count on that.”

  Nora burst into tears when Lucia sat down. “I will see you in a few days, my dear. Farewell,” she said, stepping back and holding the door open for Vilda.

  “Thank you,” Vilda said civilly as she stepped into the white sleigh. “But in reality, you know I do not need your help.”

  Nora curtsied and closed the door behind Vilda. She signaled to the coachman who was at the helm of six strong dun fjord horses and the sleigh started moving, slowly at first and then faster and faster until Lucia could no longer see her beloved handmaiden.

  The night was bitterly cold, and Lucia pulled her coat closer to her body, trying to keep the heat inside. What was happening? Eiess was on her way. Her father was still at the castle. Would she ever see him again? It was true she was not particularly fond of him, but what he had done tonight, he had done protect her. To save her life.

  “Your father is a fool,” Vilda said suddenly. “He thinks he can get rid of me by sending me away to Hammersten.”

  Lucia was shocked. She knew her father and Vilda had some disagreements, but it shocked her that Vilda would ever call him a fool, especially in her presence. “I think he could really use you there,” she said.

  “Yes, that is all I have ever been to him—someone he can use,” Vilda said.

  Lucia shifted in her seat. “That is not what I meant.”

  “It is the truth. Driver!” Vilda yelled. “Stop the sleigh. I need to get out.”

  “No! Eiess is after me!”

  The sleigh slowed and then finally came to a halt. Vilda got up next to the coachman and pushed him off with one forceful shove, sending him into the snow.

  “Have you completely lost your mind?” Lucia asked, ready to jump out of the sleigh.

  “We need the Aesira Jewel, so you can keep shifting the seasons. Your father is a fool to not have thought about that,” Vilda said.

  Vilda was right, although had her father already taken care of the matter? He was not the kind of man to let something as important as this slip between the cracks. They rode back as quickly as possible and both got out of the sleigh.

  “Do you know where the Aesira Jewel is kept?” Vilda asked.

  Then it dawned on her: How does she know about the jewel? And now that she started thinking about it further, she became convinced that her father already had a plan for the jewel.

  “There is no time to waste. Eiess will be here any moment,” Vilda said.

  “I will go get it. Wait here,” Lucia said, thinking she would try to find her father and tell him.

  “No!” Vilda yelled. “I must come with you.”

  “No, I will go get it,” Lucia insisted. “My father told me that I should tell no one where it is kept hidden, not even you.”

  “Your mother told me everything about the Aesira Jewel and the scrolls. You do not have to hide anything from me. I am only trying to help you. You can trust me, Lucia,” Vilda said.

  Scrolls? Lucia thought. “Let us go
see my father first.”

  Vilda grabbed Lucia’s arm and shook it. “No! There is no time!”

  “I would think, if you do not know where the Aesira Jewel is, you should not have access to it,” Lucia said, starting toward the castle entrance.

  Vilda grabbed Lucia’s arm and pulled her back. Hitting her across the face, she sent Lucia face-down into the snow.

  How dare she? Lucia thought as she pushed up into a sitting position. Looking around, her surroundings were spinning, and as she glanced at the ground to try and stop the dizziness, she saw blood dripping from her face and into the snow.

  “I command you to stop!” Lucia yelled. But when she lifted her gaze, she saw Vilda approaching her with a chain.

  Vilda slammed her fist into Lucia’s face again, and before Lucia knew what had happened, Vilda had chained her wrists and was pulling her toward the castle. Screaming at the top of he lungs, kicking and raging, Lucia was still powerless to her aunt’s brute strength. Vilda hauled her up the stairs and into the throne room.

  Lucia's mouth and nose were bleeding heavily onto her stark-white fur coat, but her focus was not on that. When my father sees me, he will set me free. “Father!” she yelled, as she saw him with his counselors, their heads down over a table, looking like they were planning their attack.

  Vilda tugged at the chain around Lucia’s wrists and Lucia fell hard to the floor, slamming her head against the cold stone surface. She let out a cry, but this did not stop Vilda. Pulling on the chain, she dragged Lucia backwards along the floor toward her until Lucia lay lifeless at her feet.

  “What in Valhalla’s name are you doing here?” King Olav asked, his face paling immediately. “And what are you doing to Lucia?”

  “Brother, dear brother,” Vilda said. “Hear me out. I have a superior solution to your—to our—problems. It will be better for your people, for your household, for you and especially for Lucia, your only heir to the throne.”

  “Vilda, this is no time for discussion; we need to prepare, so we have a chance to save the Northlandic Kingdom. What are you doing? I asked you to take Lucia far away from here, so she would be protected and safe.” Olav started toward Vilda, and he glanced at one of the hundreds of guards standing against the wall.

  “Stop, or I will kill her,” Vilda said, pulling out a dagger.

  Olav stopped dead in is tracks.

  “Do you really think you can stand up to Eiess?” Vilda asked. “You will be dead by morning if you resist her. There is a way we can peaceably resolve matters with her.”

  “There is no way to peaceably resolve matters with Eiess. She demands utter submission and servitude from everyone. I will not discuss it here. Now, release Lucia instantly!” His voice thundered through the throne room.

  “And if I do not?” Vilda challenged.

  “You will be thrown in the dungeon until we are through fighting this battle and you will be tried for treason,” Olav threatened.

  “Ha!” Vilda yelled. “Ha, ha, ha! I have been living under your pathetic rule for years. I have supported you and I have cared for you and Lucia since Maud’s passing and this is how you repay me? I can help you find a way to live in peace and what do you do? You throw it in my face! You king of scum!” she fumed.

  Olav gestured to his grand marshal and he sent the two closest guards to restrain her.

  Vilda pressed the dagger in front of Lucia’s heart so hard that it pierced her dress.

  Feeling the tip of the blade against her chest, Lucia let out a whimper.

  “My Brother, do you think I would come in here empty-handed and without a decent plan? I am not an idiot like you.” She then pulled Lucia in even closer and spoke directly into her ear. “Lucia, your father is not a king to be admired. He hardly even deserves the title. He is a coward and a feeble-minded man. He was never even faithful to your poor mother and spent his time seducing and whoring with another woman named Ava. Did you know your mother was heartbroken over this? She would come to me crying almost every day. She deserved a much better man than him.”

  Lucia looked at her father to see if this was true, not wanting to believe Vilda’s words.

  “Enough!” Olav spewed. “Leave her out of this!”

  It is true, Lucia thought. Her heart shattered for her poor mother.

  Vilda stood up tall, an air of satisfaction and accomplishment resting on her face. “The seed of doubt has been planted in Lucia’s mind. Now, she is starting to see who you truly are, like I do.”

  “What do you want?” Olav asked hostilely.

  “I want to be heard!” Vilda snapped back. “I want to feel that what I have to say is important to you!”

  “Do not think of yourself only. Eiess will be here soon and we will surely be defeated unless we act now,” Olav said, meekly now.

  “Ah, but she is part of the solution—my solution,” Vilda retorted.

  “Very well. If you let Lucia go, you may speak your plan and I will listen.”

  “I will not let her go, but hear me now. Eiess will spare your lives and continue the seasons as usual if you give her all power over the Northlandic Kingdom and generously bestow her with the Aesira Jewel,” Vilda said.

  “Have you been speaking with her?” Olav asked, his face grimacing in horror.

  “She is my ally,” Vilda revealed, looking proud. “An unexpected friend indeed.”

  “How could you betray your own blood?” Lucia asked. I will never do that.

  “At first, I was afraid of the powerful empress and resisted her advances,” Vilda said. “I could never betray my brother, my own blood, I believed. But then I thought, what is blood? One cannot choose one’s family; one is merely randomly born into one and must remain with them until death. Life in Midgard is too short and difficult to suffer through bad families. So, when I accepted an audience with Eiess, she told me that she is here as the peace giver, the one who brings rest, tranquility and stillness to the weary, worried heart. She is here to—”

  “Do you comprehend the destruction she will bring on this land if she gets her hands on the Aesira Jewel?” King Olav interrupted. “She will usurp everyone’s power, making all men, women and children thralls, with no freedom, no choice and no reason to live. We will all suffer and starve to death sooner or later. Have you given any thought to that?”

  “No, Olav, she has promised to spare the people and to ring in the new season every solstice. She will even allow Lucia to do it. She is no liar, Brother. She is the Sentinor of rest and peace,” Vilda said.

  Olav paused. “She is a liar. She is the ultimate liar! And she will devastate every living soul in Midgard with her finite ideas of rest.” Olav thought for a moment. “Vilda, I concede; I will listen to her when she gets here,” he stated. “Now, release Lucia immediately.”

  “As soon as you give me the Aesira Jewel,” Vilda answered slyly.

  Without warning, the castle started shaking violently. Vilda lost her footing and her grasp on Lucia and fell to the floor, and taking advantage of the situation, Lucia quickly made her way to her father.

  “Are you hurt?” Olav asked, taking her into his embrace.

  Lucia shook her head. Only afraid.

  Then, as quickly as it had begun, the shaking ceased. In an instant, the torches were stripped of their flames, leaving the throne room in a void of light where only a hollow silence remained. Whistling wind sang through the corridors and as the wind approached, it sounded like a woman’s breath exhaling deeply. Sounds of ice crystallizing the walls trickled down in the darkness and with one last breath, the fireplace was also extinguished.

  It seemed as if everyone in the room held their breaths as they waited for some evil to beset them. It was alarmingly quiet outside. No men spoke. And not even the wind howled anymore. If Eiess had arrived, there should surely have been a battle, with all the troop outside, but there was only the resonating sound of sinister silence. Dawn started to illuminate the cloudy sky and light penetrated the stained-glass win
dows. The guards’ armor picked up the subtle luminosity, reflecting it onto the walls.

  Lucia could see her breath in front of her in the now-freezing room. She gathered her fur coat closely around her neck and tried to make eye contact with her father. She was afraid to speak, thinking her voice would attract more danger.

  Then, almost unnoticed, Eiess entered the room.

  * * *