Infinite 01 - Infinite Sacrifice

done all her years as a thrall.
    “Well then, tell me what happens when you pee in an elf circle again?”
    His brother nudges him with his elbow. “Why did you go an’ piss in a circle for?”
    He brings his hands up. “Didn’t notice until I was half through, and you know how you can’t stop once your start, so…”
    Hela clears her old throat and speaks so quietly everyone has to lean in slightly. “It will burn.”
    Orm says with his nose scrunched, “What will burn?”
    Ragnar jumps in happily, “Your piss will burn like you’ve laid with a sick whore.”
    “You probably got it from that wife of yours with the beard,” Konr jokes.
    “She’s from the north! They all have beards up there,” Orm says.
    Hela begins to gather her things like she’s trying to get away, but Orm puts his dirty hand up and stays her to ask, “Hold on there, then, what gives you whip worms?”
    Hela turns around steadily with her long, white hair cascading and replies, “Eating shite.”
    The circle erupts in laughter as she walks away, and another warrior starts itching his underarm, saying, “I’ve been hit with an elfin blow. Rash all the way from my arm to my waist.”
    We say our good-nights, and Una and I agree we’ll follow some of the wagons leaving, since wolves come out in large packs under this moon. As we’re nearing the towers, something flashes by us, hooting like a loon. I recognize the strange shape immediately as Gunhilda. She’s sprinting twice as fast as any man could run but only half as fast as Toke’s horses. We stop and watch as she zigzags in the road with nine warriors in pursuit. She is enjoying every minute, darting and stopping and starting again.
    All who are on their way out on the road stops and watches the game as the warriors keep trying to get off their horses at a run and catch her once they come upon her. She runs off the road and leaps over the high fence of a farm. She runs like a wild stag, bounding over the dried winter grasses. More and more warriors are sent out after her as she brings two unfortunate ones down in the grass and keeps running. Halfway out in the pasture, two warriors spread a net between them while riding their horses. They bear down on her as she ducks once, avoiding the net completely, but when she gets back up, another net is thrown on her.
    We wait to watch how they drag her back, and she keeps shaking her legs like she’s still dancing, kicking them up in the tangled net, humming the tunes of the night.
    Una and I continue walking home, replaying the whole crazy night, until we reach our fences, where we can still hear Borga honking.

Chapter 7
    Months pass and Rolf leaves again with the warm weather. Saturday comes and I’m asked to bring Thora and Erna into the village again. We pass by the immense church Ansgar received permission to build, right between the two sacred temples. They’ve recently finished constructing the bell tower, and I stop the wagon to listen. Boys pull on ropes that send them leaping up into the air, and the massive bells chime so loudly Toke comes bursting out of his hall.
    “What is that noise?” he yells as he covers his ears.
    Ansgar announces over the cacophony, “Those are the blessed bells that sing Christ’s praises!”
    Toke looks up, eyes squinted in pain. “Can they praise less excruciatingly?”
    Baffled, Ansgar shakes his head, and Toke stomps away across to the bathhouse as he’s brought in first. By the time we leave the bathhouse, there’s a mob forming. Many are yelling; some go and seek Toke out.
    “What is this all about now?” he asks.
    Konr raises his fist and shouts, “He murdered my brother this very morning! Ragnar! Struck Orm down before he could even draw his sword!”
    Some of the villagers have Ragnar’s hands behind his back and push him toward the chieftain.
    Toke asks, “Is this true?”
    Ragnar nods. “The squab provoked me. Accused me of stealing their hoard for the second time.”
    Konr shouts as two others hold him back, “He did take our hoard! We found it dug up on our shared property line, and there’s no one else on our farm. Orm only went to ask him to show him his trunk to prove he didn’t have our property. And he”—his voice breaks—” he pulled out his sword and sliced his neck half through!”
    Ragnar fights those who hold him and yells, “No one can demand to check another man’s locked chests!”
    Toke nods. “True. What lies in a man’s locked chest is