Chapter Sixty-eight

Enid sat up, gasping for breath, her hand clutching at her heart and Erik whipped around, a knife gripped in his hand as he stared around the room.

"Who's there?" he snapped, but Enid pulled back the furs, searching in the dim light for her boots as she gritted her teeth and tried to hurry.

Frigga was screaming. Enid could hear her all the way from the longhouse, she could hear her cries and could feel her hot tears drip down her neck almost like she was holding her already, but then Erik sighed, grabbing her arm and trying to stop Enid from leaving.

"Let go," Enid snapped, pulling her arm from him and standing on the cold floorboards.

"Gods, Enid… Is that what woke you? You can't go to her, not tonight."

"I have to, Erik."

"What if someone sees you? You'll just undo everything we did. She's not Ivar's first child, he knows what he's doing. Go back to sleep."

"I can't, Erik, I-,"

"Get back into bed… or don't, Enid. It's up to you, but whatever you do don't leave."

She stared at the door, her hands gripping her underdress, her teeth banging together from so much more than just the cold, but still she couldn't move. She could still hear her, each one of Frigga's cries breaking Enid's heart, each time she grew louder Enid felt her eyes grow heavier and felt her shoulders dropping, and then Erik sighed, sitting up in bed, his fingers rubbing at his eyes and his forehead.

"Enid…" he said, his voice soft and low. "He wouldn't want you to come. Think about that if you won't listen to me."

"What's wrong with her, Erik?" she whispered, but Erik sighed again, staring at her a moment before he pulled the furs back and jerked his head towards the bed. So slowly she climbed back in, her eyes fixed on his, her hand clutching at her heart.

"I don't know yet," he said. "I have an idea, but I don't want to say until I'm sure. She's not sick, Enid, and she's not going to die. There's still a chance this will all be over by tomorrow or the day after that. Just give it some time."

"You have to tell me, Erik. Even if you're not sure, you have to tell me. I can't stand this."

Erik shook his head, laying back down on the bed and sighing. "It's not my secret, Enid," he whispered, but somehow to hear that made everything worse, somehow it made Frigga's screams louder and had Enid burying her head under the furs to hide her tears.

So long she heard Frigga crying, so long she felt that hand on the top of her head as he brushed back her hair. How desperately she wanted to run, to race to Frigga and hold her in her arms, to help Ivar and take away their pain. How useless she felt, lying there in the warmth, in her guilty comfort and shame.

"One day, the two young sons of a king sailed out to go fishing," Erik said. "The sea was calm that day, the fish were plenty and easy to catch, but suddenly a cold wind came from the north and blew the boys out to sea. All day they stayed there and when night came they still couldn't find their way back and their boat was wrecked on the shore of a distant land.

"The boys were so young. They thought that they wouldn't survive the night, but that was when they were saved by Odin and his wife Frigg."

"Frigg?" Enid asked, resting on her elbows to look up at him. "Like Frigga?"

"Yes, like Frigga," he said. "The gods saved the boys, each of them taking one and raising him as their own and when the boys were grown, Odin gave them a ship and said goodbye to his foster son, holding him to his chest one last time. And when they made it back to their father's kingdom, Odin's son jumped, stopping the ship from docking and telling his brother to go wherever he would find an evil spirit.

"Frigg's son didn't argue. He left his brother standing on the shore and the boat took him to a distant cave and that was where he found a giantess and he married her and together they had many children.

"This made Frigg very happy. Her son was a good father and was never lonely, but Odin's son had become a king and Odin would boast about his son's success and shame Frigg for her son's wife and their strange children.

"One day, Frigg couldn't take any more of Odin's pride and she told him that his son was rude, that he tortured and tormented his guests to make sure that he would never have too many that he would be forced to feed. This made Odin angry and he argued that it was a lie and Frigg couldn't prove otherwise.

"So Frigg sent one of her handmaidens to visit Odin's son. They warned him that an evil wizard would come to harm him and that he would know this wizard because every dog would bark and growl and bare their teeth at the sight of him, but when that wizard came, he wasn't evil, but Odin's son couldn't forget Frigg's warning and he captured the wizard. He kept him between two great fires for nine days and nights and wouldn't feed him or even give him something to drink.

"See, Frigg said to Odin, Your son tortures his guests. He will not feed them and he roasts them at his own fires. And Odin couldn't argue. He could only shake his head and save that poor wizard from the fires himself."

"So Frigg was right?"

"Yes," Erik nodded. "And after that no one questioned Frigg's judgement and the other gods listened to her prophecies sometimes even more than they did to Odin's... We name our children after the gods, Enid, or after people we hope they'll be like to protect them. And I think Frigga is strong and wise, just like Frigg and she'll be right about a great many things in her lifetime… Many more things than the rest of us."