The Prophetess *COMPLETED*

Chapter 3

Elvia awoke me the next morning and looked at me with pity. "How are you my lady?" She looked at my bare body and at the sheets looking for smudges of blood. My wounds bled some during the night, staining the sheets. She blanched when she saw the smudges, shaking her head sadly.

"The wounds are yet smarting but otherwise I am good Elvia." She rolled her eyes like I was being deliberately naive.

"Are you not sore, my lady?" She asked looking at my naked back grumpily, paying attention to her office. She washed my back slowly with wet rags. 

"Sore? What for, Elvia? The Viking did not touch me." I was not yet completely awake and my mind was a foggy land. There was something in her voice.

"The Norse slept in your bedchamber lady." She reminded me sharply. I looked at her in surprise and annoyance. I woke up at last.

"I am yet untouched, if that's what you mean, crone. He does not force himself on wounded women." I replied, a tad annoyed the old woman would disbelieve me and still think Yngvarr Bodmordrson used me wounded. She blinked, clearly surprised, and I surprised myself in this vehement denial of a character of a man I had just met. Maybe it was because he was the first who showed me some kindness, though kindness was too strong a word.

"Forgive me, my lady. I could not help but remember your dear mother, God assoil her good soul. I was fearing the Norse would be no better than our Lord. It gladdens my heart it is not so." She told me kindly with naked relief showing in her face. The thought I would never see her again brought me to tears.

"My dear Elvia, I wish I could take you with me. Your company is so precious to my heart." I told her gently.

"Why do you not take Mary, my lady?" She referred the girl who used to be lady's maid before I was sold.

"I am to be a slave, I cannot have servants to pamper me, sweet Elvia. Treat me and leave me be for a while, I need to think." She did as she was bid, spreading a healing salve in my wounds and dressing them now they had had time to breathe. She left a short while later, giving me orders not to move or the scabs would break and bleed again.

I stayed in bed, not changing positions and thinking. I was not unhappy with the prospect of leaving this house. It had never been my home. My sire was a controlling man,  and I lost count of how many undeserved beatings he had given me, though this was the first time that left marks. He delighted in making women suffer, especially his own wives and daughters. I had more than half a dozen half siblings born from freedwomen and slaves. He loved watching them scrub the halls and even encouraged his soldiers to use them as reward. They were not acknowledged though everybody knew who sired them, and had to work even more than the others. Albert himself was my half uncle, son of my grandfather and a servant woman. He had not been acknowledged either. However, I would miss Aiken and Aldar, my brothers who were like sons to me. They were growing so fast and every day found a different way to amuse me and making me laugh... I closed my eyes, remembering their pretty faces.

"Ait, ait want play.... puese ait." They were two years old and could not say Ailith.

"What do you want to play, my darling?" I asked Aiken.

"Chase. Want chase... Avar tuo." Aiken was more bold than his brother, and Alvar let him talk for both of them, preferring to watch and observe. Aiken was also growing faster than Alvar and it was clear to see he would be a mighty warrior when he grew up. No matter what my father declared, I was sure that from all his sons, Alvar was the one with the true devotion to church.

"Oh? Alvar wants too?" I asked in mock danger. I walked very slowly towards Alvar, and before he knew it was tickling him, his toddler giggles making my heart sing. I felt a small tug on my sleeve and looked down to see Aiken looking at me with puppy eyes. I raised him to my lap and tickled both of them until they had tears seeping from their eyes, from laughter. They got up talking their secret language and tried to hide behind a curtain so I would chase them.