Infinite 01 - Infinite Sacrifice

this world, this life—all insignificant now.
    Let the warriors come.
    ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
    Two powerful arms pull me away from her body. I glance up to see Gunhilda, masked in dried blood, hair blown back from the wet, whipping wind. As I get to my feet, Rolf walks toward her, his arm wrapped in a bloodied bandage. He looks down at Thora and clenches his jaw to hold back the tears.
    Rolf turns to the men. “Take the women’s bodies up for burial. Dalla will be buried with her Chieftain.”
    Rolf swings his axe, lops off the steel-eyed man’s head, and spits on him. He then bends down, rips the necklace from his severed neck, and comes over to me.
    “Liam.” He never called me that before. “This is yours.”
    He places the pendant in my hand, but I care so little of war trophies now. I nod and follow them up the hillside without even opening my hand.
    I walk in a far-off state, my legs moving but feeling nothing. Even as I step over the dead and dying, I am numb. We walk right past a small cottage halfway up the hill, and I see my mother and me looking out that same blue-shuttered window. I leave the group and go into the house, and all my young memories come back to me. I see the ground where I traced my last picture, the nail my mother’s keys hung from, and the place the chest sat. Suddenly the object in my hand has weight, and I open my palm to see the wonderful wooden triangle with the blue stone I held so many times in her embrace. I run my thumb over it, and the tragedy of it all hits me fast. I fall to the floor, sobbing.
    We could not even recognize each other, life had separated us so!
    The room is filling with smoke; the thatched roof is in flames. I draw a boy, a mother, and father with my finger in the dirt in front of the fireplace. I stand up and let it burn along with the rest of the village. I walk up the hill that my Ma and I never made it to the top of that day and find Rolf laying the bodies out in front of the church we never reached.
    Gunhilda lays down Chief Toke beside Dalla and Thora, as other warriors are brought to lie too.
    Rolf calls out, “We have no Angel of Death with us, and we can’t bring these bodies back to Hedeby in this heat. They will not last. All of us must prepare them as best we can. I order all riches and plunder gathered to be brought here to bury with the chieftain!”
    They all nod and go down the hill to bring up what they killed for. Rolf and I start our hole for Thora as Gunhilda and other warriors begin digging the large grave for Toke. No one even stops to rest after the battle.
    No one can rest when the dead are waiting.

Chapter 11
    Rolf makes sure there are two chambers in Thora’s tomb. We fill the bottom with her finest linens, tapestries, jewels, weaving loom, and bowls. A female thrall washes the blood away and dresses her in the goatskin dress she was married in. We lower her down onto her green cushions and sit her up as if she is awake, supporting her with some of her things. She looks so alive sitting there that it’s going to be hard to fill it in. We help Gunhilda lower the chieftain and surround him with all the riches. The other thralls bring up beer, bread, and dried meat they stored for our journey.
    Rolf stands at Toke’s grave and says, “Bring the chief his thrall! The faithful companion that will follow him in death as she had pleased him in life.”
    We place her in the chamber next to his, and Rolf chants a prayer to Odin. All the warriors who can still stand give a cheer, and the thralls fill in the tomb.
    Rolf then walks over to Thora’s grave; he looks toward the men and asks, “Is there a rune carver among us?”
    One of the thralls raises his hand, not surprising given that most of the thralls that were brought along are skilled workers.
    Rolf nods to his master. “I’ll pay your master well to have this large stone at her head to be carved to mark her passing.”
    The thrall bows to Rolf and goes to get his tools from the ship. Rolf turns to face me, but calls out to all of the thralls. “My wife demands a formal burial with all the things she will need in death.” He looks directly in my eyes. “Who will die with her? Who will serve by her side in the afterlife?”
    That’s what her second chamber is for .
    I look up to the sky while he’s waiting for an answer. I don’t want to die, but what do I have now alive? All I have is Una and a goose, and now neither one of them is safe with Thora