Viking battleaxe

Medieval 6: K and Y 19 To Abraxas, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Kirstie

The room was similar to the one they came from. Kirstie went straight to the end opposite the fireplace, and she sat down at the table where she pulled up a screen of some sort, and a keyboard. She went to work, mumbling something about how it would be much easier if she could get Alice to do it, but somehow her access to her other lives was shut down.

Erik wandered to the windows without glass. He looked out on the garden, but it appeared planted in the clouds. “Is there dirt under that? It doesn’t look like there is any dirt under that. It looks like if you step out there you will fall straight through the clouds to the earth.”

“The castle in the clouds,” Casandra called it, as Inga, Brant, and Wilam came to take in the view. Casandra continued. “As I understand it, there are four castles, but they are all one castle, and a person can transition…” she shook her head, like she was not sure if that was the right word. “A person can change from one castle to another if they know how. The castle of the Lady Danna is in a great cavern underground. It is where the dark elves and fire sprites live and work their great metal forges, and where the dwarfs work in gold and precious stones. That was the first place we changed to. The castle of the Lady Amphitrite is under the ocean, and the water sprites and mere people and others live there and guard the ways of the sea. That was the second place. The castle of the Nameless one is on the land such as people know, and the elves of light, the dwarfs and fairies keep it. That was where we started. Then the castle of Amun Junior is in the clouds where the sprites of the air and mostly the fairies keep watch over the earth. That is where we are now, in the clouds.

“And… Enter,” Kirstie said and hit the button. Everyone heard a prolonged wail not far away. The glass appeared on the windows and the ground looked solid outside. “I gave him an electrical shock and locked him out of the system, hopefully permanently. He can’t pull any more surprises unless he wants to be electrocuted.

“Would that kill him? Electrocuted, whatever that means,” Inga asked.

“No, but it certainly would not feel good. This way,” Kirstie said, and she opened the same door they just came in, but it led to a completely different hall. She felt this time that she finally had to explain something. “Space, I mean area or areas in the Second Heavens are naturally unstable. Areas fold in and back on themselves in ever changing ways, something like a kaleidoscope.” she waved her hands to prevent questions as they walked. “You don’t know what a kaleidoscope is. Anyway, you can walk down one hall, blink, and find yourself in a completely different part of the castle altogether.”

“Someone could get lost in here and never find the way out,” Brant said.

“It is a bit like a labyrinth,” Inga agreed with him. “Maybe a maze.”

Kirstie responded. “Normally, there are people here and there, working, playing, or going on about some errand or other. You would not wander aimlessly and alone for very long before running into someone.” She shook her head as they turned into a different hall. “I am a little concerned to know where they people have all gone.”

“By people, you mean little ones mostly,” Wilam guessed. Kirstie nodded and took his hand.

“Aah!” Erik shouted, and everyone stopped moving and asked, “What?”

“That picture,” Erik pointed to a hallway off to the right. It looked dark, like no one lit the torches in that hall. Erik breathed and clarified. “I was looking at a picture of the sea. It looked real. I thought the waves were moving, and suddenly it vanished.”

“The picture?” Cassandra asked. She had been keeping one eye on the boy since he almost went out the window and the others seemed preoccupied with their men.

“No,” Erik said. “The whole wall. It turned swirly, all different colors, and some colors like I never saw before. I felt dizzy, but then it stopped moving around and a hall appeared where the wall had been.”

“The natural chaos of the Second Heavens,” Kirstie said softly.

Inga understood something. “If everything is becoming unstable, might he make us walk in circles and never find him?”

Kirstie shook her head to say no. “Usually, Alice and the Captain keep the structures stable, but Alice is ill, and the sicker she becomes, the more things slip out of her control and begin to break down. Avalon and the seven isles and the innumerable islands beyond are in danger of breaking apart and collapsing into the natural chaos that is the Second Heavens. But I believe I have stabilized this section of the castle for the time being… Mostly… Hurry.”

It did not take long to reach a dead end where the hall went left and right but they could no longer go forward. Kirstie stopped and stared at the big, blank wall directly ahead of them. She waved her hand. Nothing happened. She looked angry and stomped her foot, but after a moment, she deliberately calmed herself, took a deep breath, and waved her hand again. Slowly, great wooden double doors appeared in that place, and she talked, perhaps some to herself.

“He tried to keep the entrance closed and covered, but Avalon is my place, and I have the final say here.” She waved to Brant and Wilam who each took a door handle. They planned to swing the doors wide open at once when Kirstie was ready.

When Kirstie indicated she was ready, they yanked on the doors. They were locked tight. Wilam gave an extra tug, but it was no good. The doors did not even jiggle.

Kirstie made them stand back, and she tried the hand wave again, several times, but the doors would not budge. She felt frustrated, but clearly Abraxas used some exercise of his own godly power to seal the doors shut so he would not be disturbed. Again, she spoke mostly to herself, though this time she looked at Inga.

“The gods can do almost anything they want, and some of it is as easy as breathing. But much of it has to be learned and practiced, like learning to read or learning to sail. Some of it is beyond the ability of some or many of the gods to learn, like most people would not be good at navigation, or making compound medicines, or higher mathematics, or control programming.” She gave the doors a mean stare. “Abraxas was very young when the gods went over to the other side. He did not have the time or the chance to learn much. He is mostly self-taught on the few things he can do. But one thing he knows less about, and it was sort of a weakness of all the ancient gods, is the kind of brute force humans sometimes have to revert to. The gods have no need for crowbars.”

With that, she raised both of her hands and shouted, “Get back and close your eyes. Tight.” She let the fire given to her by Fryer, god of the sun, shoot forward furiously. The wooden doors turned to ash and the metal braces and hinges all melted. Kirstie grabbed her battleaxe and shield from her back. Following her lead, Wilam and Brant both pulled their swords and Cassandra put an arrow on the string of her bow. Inga grabbed a vial of something she had in her purse. Erik looked around and grabbed a decoration off the wall. He did not know what it was, but it had a wooden handle and a ball on the end covered in spikes, and it looked deadly.

They hurried into the room and found a man, alone, standing in the middle of the room. Behind him, one whole wall looked like glass, but it had moving pictures all around. To the sides there were desks and chairs with their own glass with moving pictures and flat boxes on the desk with letters and symbols on them. The man laughed at his intruders and shook his finger at Kirstie. Cassandra and Inga came up alongside Kirstie. Erik stayed behind her. William and Brant split and moved to get behind the man as the man spoke.

************************

MONDAY

They reach the control room where Abraxas is hold up… Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Medieval 5: K and Y 6 Getting Ready, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Kirstie

First, Kirstie grew through some more ordinary and strange things. She had her house rebuilt, and the men were glad to do it because of her help in driving off the Vanlil invasion. One old man, Bjorn the Bear even volunteered to teach her how to use those weapons she carried. He was not much of a teacher. He mostly knew the long handled single blade battleaxe, and she got good with hers. Also, the old man drank too much. He said it was because he spent all those years at sea fighting the Angles, Saxons, Franks, Frisians, and so many people he could not name them all. One afternoon, in a moment of honesty, he said it was because he killed so many men. In his old age he imagined there were better ways for people to settle their differences without all that fighting and killing. So he drank. But Kirstie learned and became something of an expert with her battleaxe. In the end, since Bjorn the Bear had neither a wife nor children, Kirstie let him move into her rebuilt barn where he proceeded to drink himself to death. She wept when she buried the old man.

Meanwhile, she learned mostly from the elves who built a small enclave in the woods by the house. It was a place where Yrsa could live and be close. Buttercup had no interest in learning to fight. She attached herself to Inga, and the two of them learned from Mother Vrya, in particular how to heal the survivors after the men got done fighting. Yrsa, on the other hand, felt reluctant to learn about the weapons at first, but after the first month, she seemed to get into the whole idea. She even admitted that it felt like her life calling.

“It’s the endorphins,” Kirstie said.

“I am sure you would know,” Yrsa answered, and shot her arrow perfectly into the bullseye. “What are endorphins?”

“I’m not sure,” Kirstie answered honestly and shot her arrow a little off center. “But you got them.”

Kirstie started learning with Defender, her long knife. She found she had a second shorter but wider knife she called Cutter and learned with two knives for a while. Kirstie found the spear a bit awkward, and she did not have the upper body strength to throw a good javelin, but she told herself she needed to know these things in case the opportunity presented itself.

Kirstie turned twelve before her elf teacher allowed her to pick up her sword. She had to use two hands at first, but she worked out and got stronger. She tried just her right hand and eventually picked up her shield with her left hand. It was not too hard since she had been using her shield already in her axe lessons and gripping her axe with only her right hand. Just when Kirstie thought she was getting good with her sword, her teacher made her switch hands. Putting the shield in her right hand was not hard, though she needed to not use it like a club, but the sword in her left hand felt awkward.

“Your left hand used Cutter just fine,” her teacher said. “Salvation is simply a longer version of Cutter.”

“My head knows that.” Kirstie responded. “But my hand wants to act stupid.”

She eventually made an acceptable swordswoman with her left hand, and thank goodness, they went back to her right.

Yasmina

Yasmina wore a dress to ride. When she stood on the ground, it looked like an ordinary enough dress, but it had a slit front and back so when she sat on her horse, the dress would fall to the sides down to her stirrups. The dress had a hood and mask attached that covered her nose and mouth so only her eyes could be seen. She also had good solid boots on her feet. Al-Rahim said in the real world they did not always ride on smooth cobblestone courts.

Ahmed, al-Rahim’s sergeant in the harem guards taught her to ride. Her horse was a gentle beast that would never be used as a war horse. When it was younger, it helped train recruits, but now that it was old, it could not even do that. It could walk and trot with encouragement, but it could not really gallop, even with only a skinny little girl on its back.

Aisha, in a similar outfit, rode beside her. Aisha knew full well how to ride, and honestly, she spent most of their time on horseback making sure Yasmina did not fall out of her seat, at least at first. Yasmina got tired of going around and around the courtyard soon enough and complained about that almost from the beginning. Eventually, they got to go out the palace gate to a small field where they could at least trot along at some speed. That lasted for a while, but by the time Yasmina got ready to turn twelve, she began a new complaint.

“When can I have a real horse? I want to ride and feel the wind in my face. I want to ride like the Pony Express, like the cavalry coming to the rescue.” No one knew what she was talking about, but they got the general idea.

When they got down, Yasmina went straight for her bow. Aisha had a beautiful bow in her slip, her invisible, personal piece of the second heavens that followed her around and only she could access. She also knew how to use the bow. Yasmina got an acceptable bow with an easy draw. She aimed and exhaled before she fired. Aisha fired two arrows in the same time. The princess hit the second circle on the target. It hit low and to the left. Aisha’s arrows both struck dead center, or near enough.

“Endorphins,” Yasmina said with an accusatory look in Aisha’s direction.

“What are endorphins?”

“I have no idea, but you have them,” Yasmina answered. While she stared at Aisha with her deadpan face, she called the way Kirstie called. She became instantly clothed in her armor, and al-Rahim, who came from the side door yelled.

“Princess!”

Yasmina looked at herself. Her legs were partly exposed beneath the short skirt of her armor and her arms were completely exposed from her short sleeves. She had boots to just below her knees and fingerless gloves up to her elbows, but they were form fitting, so they showed her shape.

“Oops,” Yasmina said and since her armor had fairy weave properties, she could tell it to lengthen to cover her knees and give herself long sleeves. Then she called to the cloak of Athena and made it come together in front, leaving only slits front and back to be able to sit her horse. She raised her hood and caused the material to cover her mouth and nose. She went one step further when she made the outside of her cloak imitate the color of her riding dress.

“Let me see those weapons,” al-Rahim insisted.

Yasmina detached the front of her cloak with a thought, though the hood stayed up and her face remained veiled. She pulled a shield from her back. It was round but smaller than Kirstie’s being something like an old Roman cavalry shield. She pulled Defender, her long straight knife from her back, one perfectly weighted to throw. She left the scimitar at her side. It looked thin, but strong, like a saber, except it curved at the tip so it could slice anything, but it would not work as a stabbing weapon.

He rubbed his chin as he spoke. “We can begin by learning something about the knife when I get back with your mother from Jeddah.”

Yasmina opened her mouth. She was excited about learning to use her long knife but had to complain. “You are taking mother to the beach without me?”

“Princess. You better let me hold on to the sword for now,” he said, completely ignoring her complaint.

Yasmina looked at her scimitar. “Sword, go home,” she said, and the sword vanished.

Al-Rahim did not even blink. Aisha smiled and said, “She is learning many things.”

Kirstie

Captain Stenson and Frode came to see Kirstie when she turned twelve. “I’m not ready,” she yelled to them before they could come close. “Go back to sea for another practice run. I’ll be ready for the next trip.”

Once again, neither Rune nor Frode said anything. They simply turned and went back into the village.

In the village, Captain Kerga got elected chief. He limped a little for years and could not reasonably go back to sea. He arranged for Jarl to take his ship, young as the man was, but his men made no objection. Jarl the Younger had proved himself worthy on several occasions, and Kerga certainly put his trust in the man, so that was settled amicably.

Then Captain Harrold came home. He missed the Vanlil invasion, the death of Chief Birger, and everything. Tension filled the village as many feared Harrold might have wanted to take Chief Birger’s place. Mother Vrya spent two days in the big house with Kerga, Harrold, Jarl and several others who came and went. They brought in food. In the end, when the crowd was gathered outside the door, Harrold came out and said, “Kerga is Chief.” Then he turned from the crowd and went to his home by the sea. He stayed there, minding his own business, until the call of the sea got him to gather his crew and sail off into the sunset.

Medieval 5: K and Y 3 Little Ones, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Kirstie

Kirstie spent the week climbing the nearby hills and walking through the edge of the forest. Inga stayed with her most of the time and would not let her go too far into the woods, but sometimes Kirstie escaped so she could spend some time alone. She had a great deal of grief to work through and could only imagine that once again men were going to get killed on her insistence.

Kirstie also spent some of that week beginning to familiarize herself with the various weapons that came with her armor. She did not think good thoughts about the Vanlil or the exiles leading them. She decided that having weapons was a good thing because she would not have to beg someone to make her weapons. All she would have to do is beg someone to teach her how to properly use those weapons.

The sword Salvation was a bit heavy, but she liked the long knife, Defender. She found she also had a spear, a shield, a helmet, a beautiful bow with plenty of arrows, some of which were silver tipped, and some other odd weapons of every sort. She also had a small knife that fit down alongside her boot, and a hatchet she called her tomahawk. Best of all, she had a genuine Viking battleaxe she could take into battle. It was a one-handed axe. She needed to be able hold her shield with her other hand, but honestly, at her young age, it took both of her hands to hold the axe steady. She also needed to learn how to swing it less wildly. Inga made her walk down the road to practice, far away from the house and the old women in case it slipped out of her hands, which it did a couple of times.

On the morning of the fifth day, Kirstie escaped her watcher and headed for the woods. Men from Varnes came the night before. Men from Oglo and Frosta were on the road and expected in by nightfall. There was much excitement in the village, and Inga with the Witcher Women and plenty of volunteers had to work hard to see all those men housed and fed. The report was men from Olvishaugr, and even further north were coming by boatload. Clearly, all the villages along the east side of the fjord had been raided, and Strindlos was not the only place where women and children had been killed.

Mother Vrya, Chief Birger, and Captain Kerga, with the future Captain Rune Stenson were all needed to see all those men were properly taken care of, so Kirstie was able to sneak out. She felt nervous, knowing the men were all there because of her, well, because of Elgar. It was his plan, and the spies sent to the river Nid were not due back until morning. If the exiles and Vanlil were not gathered there, she would be in big, big trouble.

Kirstie came to a small clearing near the edge of the woods and only realized when she sat down that it was the place Father Fryer met her. The ash that had been trees had all blown away on the wind. The ground was hard since it had not rained all week, but here and there it showed signs of grass and weeds growing. Kirstie began to cry. She cried for her own father, buried in some distant land where she would never see him again. She cried for her mother, and her baby sister who would never grow up. She cried for Dorothy, and her farmhands who were such kind and hard-working men, and always good to her. She cried for her puppy.

“Why are you crying?” Kirstie heard and looked, half expecting to see Edelweiss. Instead, she saw a young woman about Inga’s age of eighteen standing in the shadow of the trees. The woman had small tears in her own eyes. Kirstie looked closely and realized this was one of the little ones Father Fryer mentioned. Then she knew the girl’s name, though she could not say how or why she knew.

“Yrsa,” she said. “You can sit with me and cry with me if you want.”

Yrsa looked startled that this human should know her name, but quickly she decided, “I will.” She sat next to Kirstie and they both cried while Kirstie tried to explain the reason for her tears.

“My father and mother are dead. My baby sister who barely knew three years of life is gone. My friends, the thralls who worked so hard on the farm got killed, and my house burned down, and the barn. I don’t know where the livestock has gone. I have nothing left.”

Yrsa hugged her and said, “I can be your friend, so you won’t be alone.”

Kirstie nodded and wiped her eyes. “Come on,” she said. “We will go to my home to see what has become of it.”

“Oh, but I am not supposed to leave the woods. Father said so.”

“Your father Lord Amber?” Kirstie knew. “I’ll explain it to him. I am sure it will be all right.” She took Yrsa’s hand and brought her to her farm wondering the whole way how she knew their names. Greta spoke to Kirstie in her heart that she was the Kairos, and they all belonged to her.

“What do you mean, belong?” Kirstie wondered out loud. “People belong to themselves, don’t they?”

“You are responsible for the elves light and dark, and the dwarfs in between. The sprites in the sky, in the sea, and in the fires under the earth.” Greta answered. That did not really explain it.

Kirstie could only think, I’m too young. At my age I’m not even allowed to be responsible for myself.

They arrived. It was not that far away since Kirstie had been thinking of going there when she found Fryer instead. She saw three men poking around the ruins, and thought to hide behind the bushes, but Yrsa shrieked on the sight of the men, and they noticed.

“You there. Come out from the bushes.”

Kirstie came slowly, still holding the older girl Yrsa’s hand. Kirstie knew these were men from Trondelag, not Vanlil, because she understood their words. She imagined they were from Varnes or further north.

“What are you doing here?”

Kirstie squeezed Yrsa’s hand and felt bold. “This is my farm. What are you doing here?”

The man smirked. “We left some prime livestock here when we came before. We came to fetch it to feed the men. We figured no one would be here after a week. I though we killed all the people here.” The man pulled a big knife and the other two joined him.

“Father!” Yrsa called to the wind. The call would have traveled for miles, but Lord Amber was closer than she knew. He came from one direction with several undisguised elves. A true mountain dwarf came from the other direction with a good dozen dwarfs, all hefting weapons, hammers, and axes, that looked too big for them.

The men’s eyes grew wide as they looked in one direction than the other. They started to run in the only direction not covered. They did not get far. The dwarfs roared and attacked, but the elves were quicker with their bows. The men all fell with several arrows in each.

“Damn it, Amber.” The chief dwarf, Booturn yelled. “They were ours.” One dwarf chopped a head off a dead man just on general principle.

“Just protecting my daughter,” Lord Amber said, and pointed at Yrsa.

Booturn tipped his hat. “And a human friend, I see. Surprised you let her be friends with a mudder.”

Lord Amber gave Yrsa a hard but curious look and Yrsa got ready to explain in good daughter to father fashion when Kirstie interrupted the father-daughter game. “Yrsa has said she will be my friend and I have taken her up on that offer. We are going to learn our weapons and in particular the bow and arrows. We may even go hunting. I will undoubtedly go hunting in a few years, but that will be aboard a ship, so she can come home then, for a while, if she wants. Meanwhile, what are you doing here?”

Lord Amber raised one eyebrow while the dwarfs stared, a couple with their mouths hanging open. “And who are you to be asking?” Booturn spouted.

“This is my farm, or it will be when I fix it up. I will rebuild the house and the barn, get some new livestock, and harvest the field which is already planted.” She paused to look at Yrsa and scrutinized Lord Amber’s face. “Yrsa and I can put a target on that tree there for target practice. I’m sorry, but it is the duty of certain elf maids to become good with a bow and arrows. Now, be good and maybe someday you will have a son to go with your daughter.”

Lord Amber looked surprised, then shocked, and finally resigned. He went to one knee and the elves with him followed his example. He said, “Lady Kairos.” Booturn and a couple of dwarfs who were more with it whipped off their hats, and Booturn spoke right up.

“So, you are gathering fighters in the village. I’m guessing you are going after the Jamts and escaped men that came over the mountains and have been attacking places, like your own farm.”

Kirstie nodded but kept her mouth closed.

“Er… So, any chance you might have a place for a few dwarfs in your battle. We could stay hidden and maybe back you up some if you wouldn’t mind. We would not mingle with your men. No need to even be seen. We would be careful.”

“Dwarfs, careful?” Kirstie, young as she was knew that was a fib. Lord Amber had to cover his smile and one elf let out a small laugh.

“Well, we would not get in the way, and you can count on us. No tellin’ that maybe the humans might run away once the fighting starts, no offence.”

“I’ll think about it,” Kirstie said, and felt she had to acknowledge the elves. “Please get up. I’m just a young girl and much too young for all this responsibility.” Kirstie could not keep the worry from coming to her face.

Lord Amber stood, but being empathic as elves are he asked, “What is troubling you?”

“I wish I knew what was happening in Hladir and Nidarosss. I guess it isn’t called Nidarosss yet, but I don’t suppose you know.”

Lord Amber shook his head. “Bjork might know,” he said.

Kirstie nodded. She suddenly knew who Bjork was, along with Missus Bellflower and their daughter Buttercup. She knew Buttercup and Yrsa knew each other and might be friends if given a chance. She called all three at once, and the three fairies vanished from wherever they were and appeared on the farm. Kirstie felt shocked by that. The elves and dwarfs less so.