Viking's Love (47 page)

Robert Fitzhugh screamed in agony as he hung
suspended to the wall of his keep and kicked frantically as the
Berserker grabbed his feet and did the same to them. His horrific
screams turned to pitiful sobs as Joran held up the last nail
before his eyes.

Robert jerked against the wall but couldn’t
free his hands or feet. Joran placed the nail over his genitals and
drove the nail through it as Lord Ulsted screamed in agony. He
stepped back and surveyed the man grimly as he went back into the
keep, watching as Ulsted’s men were felled one after the other by
his men.

Collin took down one of Ulsted’s men as he
ran to the front door of the hall, encountering Ulsted’s household
servants, who all knelt with their heads bowed as he entered.

“
Where is Lady Ulsted?” Collin demanded
and bore down upon them threateningly. The woman known as Gerda
rose and met his look unflinchingly as she approached, quailing
away when the Berserker entered the hall again. All the people
began to cry as the fearsome warrior bore down on them.

“
She is at the last room at the end of
the hall on the top floor!” Gerda fell to her knees. “Thank you for
delivering us from evil!” She wept as she sought Joran’s feet and
sobbed piteously. He stepped over the woman and took the stone
stairs two at a time, his sword raised as he came to the
hallway.

Joran saw the door and approached it slowly,
listening for any sound of life along the passage. He tried the
door and found it locked. He drew back and gave it a kick and it
splintered and flew open and hung haphazardly on the hinges.

The sight of Allisande dangling naked and
beaten from the chains covered in blood and bruises was his
undoing. Joran’s low cries of rage and pain filled the room. He
tried to clear the mist from his eyes, but the reddened haze
blinded him. He let out a horrific howl as his sword swung upward
and severed the chains that bound her to the ceiling.

Allisande collapsed into his arms. He dropped
the sword and held her tightly and sobbed raggedly as he determined
if she lived. He was shaking in sorrow and looked around the room
in anguish. He spied the whips and torture tools that had been used
on her. He wept in grief, and shook as the horror of what had been
done to her hit home.

He undid the shackles at her wrists,
determining she was merely unconscious, not dead, as he had first
thought. He went to the door and shouted for the serfs to come at
once. He allowed the women to dress her limp body, and tried not to
notice her horribly bruised thighs and legs as Gerda hastily
dressed her and scurried away.

“
Get the child!” Joran shouted
furiously, and when she fidgeted nervously, he reached for his
sword. She hastened to do his bidding. She returned with his son.
Joran was breathing raggedly as he noted the infant was sleeping
and unharmed. Gerda eyed him tentatively and gestured to the young
maid who held the baby.

“
You must take the nurse with you. Lady
Ulsted will not feed the baby any longer.” Gerda flinched from the
look of rage in the Norsemen’s eyes. “She cannot bear to. I am so
sorry.” She sobbed as he hefted the girl into his arms and carried
her out of the room. He passed Collin, who stepped into the room,
wide-eyed, and horrified as he viewed Ulsted’s pleasure room for
the first time, remembering Robert boasting of it at
court.

He was gasping as he saw all the things
hanging from the walls, and was so sickened by it, he vomited upon
the floor. He heard Meghera at the end of the hall. He swung
himself up and heaved himself out of the room, roaring at her to go
back. He would not have her see such evil.

His violet eyes darkened until they were
black, and he returned to the hall where Ulsted’s serfs huddled and
sobbed as the Vikings stood over them. Collin sent them chilling
stares as he walked out of the keep to the outer wall where
Fitzhugh was nailed spread-eagle and longed to kill the man as he
met his pain-tortured gaze.

“
How does it feel, you disgusting
scum?” Collin drew back his sword, but refused to end the man’s
agony so soon. “You have not even begun to feel pain until Ivarsson
deals with you!”

Meghera stared at the things in the room. Her
innocent mind was unable to conjure what they were used for until
she saw the bloodied whips on the floor, and paled and quaked as
her stomach heaved.

She ran out of the room blinded with tears
and returned to the hall as Collin entered. One look at her
horrified face told him she went into the room. He flinched from
the look of terror on her young face. His rage over what had been
done to his sister had him blinded to her feelings at the
moment.

The Vikings dragged the servants out into the
outer bailey and flung them down, waiting for Joran to decide their
fate. He was busily making a bed for Allisande and the baby in the
back of a wagon.

He returned grimly and stared at their faces,
seeing their bowed heads and seeing them mumble their prayers. In
his tortured gaze, he saw them all victims of Ulsted, and spared
them.

They cried and held each other and praised
the Vikings for saving them. Joran picked up his sword and went out
to the outer wall where Ulsted hung bleeding. Before he could
decide which part of Ulsted to sever first, a spray of fire flew
through the air and lit Ulsted on fire.

He watched grimly as Meghera pointed her tiny
hand at Robert and engulfed him in flames. He screamed in agony.
She closed her eyes and chanted and opened her eyes and flung her
hand at him again. The torrent of water doused the flames that
licked hungrily at his flesh.

Joran stepped to her to stop her. Her other
hand went up from her side and he was hanging suspended in the air
as she once again flung her fiery ribbon upon Ulsted, who screamed
and begged as she let the fire eat at him for a moment, before
turning the water on him again. He was still alive when she lowered
Joran to the ground, and shivered as she saw the charred man
writhing against the wall moaning and begging to die. His hair was
gone, and his handsome, perverse features were so grossly
distorted, he looked like the monster he was.

“
He is evil, Joran!” Meghera snarled in
a tiny voice filled with fury and her iridescent blue eyes glowed
brightly as they met his. “Do not make it too fast. Make him suffer
as he has made everyone here suffer! Send him to Hell!”

Joran approached the wall and smiled evilly
as he drew back his sword. The screams outside the keep went on
forever. Soon the noises didn’t even sound human anymore. Suddenly
there was eerie quiet as Joran entered the keep.

He ordered it sacked and stared at the serfs.
He demanded them find a wagon, and load everything they had of
value upon it. He ordered his men to search the upper rooms for
anymore servants or guards, and stood shaking and trembling as he
watched them scurry to do his bidding. Blood covered him, and he
threw back his head and a loud howl rent the air. He entered the
hall and swung blindly at the walls and furniture, breaking and
destroying everything he came in contact with.

The fury of his state was such that Collin
shoved Meghera out of his way to the wagons and pleaded with her to
stay with his sister, looking grim as he watched the Berserker
destroy the hall.

When he stopped and went up the stairs,
Collin knew what room he would wreck next and listened to the
sounds of the room being hacked apart with satisfaction. The
howling made the hair stand up on his neck.

The serfs ran and secured everything of value
within the keep and loaded the wagons. Collin ordered them to get
their personal things as well and declared they were all going to
Lockwraithe.

Terek drove the wagons to the outside of the
fortress. When Joran returned below, looking drained and dazed, the
other Vikings declared the keep emptied of all the living.

They released the horses and livestock to
wander away from the keep. Joran gestured to Meghera with the crook
of his finger and she smiled brightly. They all walked out of the
keep a safe distance. Meghera ran back and stood before the
drawbridge as she pointed her hand at the fortress.

Joran put his hand upon Collin’s arm and drew
him back as he would have stopped her. She used both hands to fling
a shower of fire into the keep until it was engulfed in flames. She
stood back and her chanting became louder as she walked
backward.

She was standing nearly with the large group
when the sound that came from her throat made them all cover their
ears. She pointed at the burning fortress and it crumpled in a heap
of fire and stone.

Meghera turned and Collin flinched from the
dazed look on her face, and her glowing, iridescent, blue eyes. He
ran to her as she crumpled to the ground. The serfs all muttered as
they watched the smoking fortress leveled to the ground in awe.
They could only gape as the angel they witnessed that destroyed it
was placed in the back of the wagon. The caravan moved away from
Ulsted.

****

Allisande awoke and couldn’t bear to have
anyone touch her. She cringed even from her brother as he leaned
down and touched her hair, and sobbed piteously as Joran tried to
reach out to soothe her.

She seemed to not recognize any of them,
still in shock after Robert’s attack. He watched in tortured pain
as she pushed herself as far into the corner of the wagon as she
could get, and curled into a ball, sobbing and huddling, and
trembling so violently that Gerda insisted upon them getting into
the other wagon.

Joran met the woman’s ravaged countenance
grimly as she whispered of the horrors done at Ulsted over the
years, and shook her head as she refused the men into the back of
the wagon.

His heart clenched when he saw Gerda take
Allisande into her arms, and watched her clutch the woman for dear
life as she cried. Gerda rocked her back and forth and stayed thus
until Allisande went back to sleep, and eased her down on the floor
of the wagon. She covered her with furs and got out of the wagon as
she looked at the Viking.

“
It will take time for her to come back
to you,” Gerda whispered and shook her head sadly. “Lord Ulsted was
evil. The horrors he visited upon her mind have done damage. You
must be patient.” She watched the Vikings all get into the other
wagons, and only the women remained in the same wagon with
Allisande as they continued on down the road.

The Ulsted serfs showed their gratitude to
the Vikings during the trek to Lockwraithe and treated the warriors
like saviors much to their disgust, and everyone silently applauded
Ulsted’s demise.

Collin stared down at Meghera worriedly and
the Vikings all agreed the force of her power drained her into a
deep unnatural sleep, and he needn’t be concerned. He was, after
seeing her level Ulsted.

He was more than determined to see her leave
with the Vikings when Allisande was recovered enough to travel.
Joran refused to leave Allisande behind. They argued heatedly out
of earshot of everyone about the matter. Collin wanted her to stay
at Lockwraithe, and Joran refused.

“
She doesn’t need to be coddled into
getting over what happened,” Joran spat harshly as he gazed at her
brother. “She will feel the shame of it forever, and it will
destroy her if we allow it! You must let her get on with her life
as it was before this happened. She will be well!”

Collin bit back an angry retort even though
he knew Joran was right. He stared at the man, not able to imagine
how he would feel if the woman he loved had been so brutalized.
Joran would live with the image of her hanging from the ceiling
chains in Ulsted’s depraved room of sin for the rest of his
days.

Collin was unsure how to proceed with his
next words. “Will you be well, Joran?” The Viking swung to him in
surprise that he would concern himself with his feelings in light
of what had been done to his sister.

“
I will try and remind her of what we
once had, and I will be patient,” Joran said and sighed and looked
away. “I will try to forget this day, for if I don’t, I will be of
no use to us both and our son.”

The journey to Lockwraithe was a quiet
affair, and none seemed to want to speak as they rode in silence.
Joran heard Storm sobbing and went to him as they stopped to take
rest. Joran saw Allisande was up and holding the boy. Her eyes met
his. He never looked away as he reached for the baby.

“
I will take him, if you like?” He held
out his arms. She handed him the baby and her lips quivered
slightly, but she did not break his gaze again. He held the boy
gently and eyed him closely and grinned. “Our son seems to be able
to sleep through anything, but getting him there takes
much.”

“
You don’t have to pretend, Joran. I
know I disgust you now. You do not have to love me anymore for the
boy. He is better off with you.”

“
I have never pretended anything to
spare your feelings,” Joran said with an angry snort and noticed
her eyes narrowed at his words. “The only disgust I feel is for
myself for not getting there sooner to save you both. I live with
that! The boy needs you, as I do. When you are ready to love me
again, I am here.” He took the baby to Meghera, who cooed over him
anxiously. Allisande stared after him, and felt the anger brewing
like a molten river in her middle. She quailed with it and
swallowed tears of frustration as she got out of the wagon and
found Gerda by the cook fires they hastily assembled.

Gerda eyed her mistress nervously, and noted
she looked more emotional than usual and bid her walk with her.
They spoke quietly. Gerda held her as she wept and told her of her
fears. Gerda grabbed her shoulders and looked down at her
sternly.