Word Total: 90,098
Year to Date: 270,107
Summary of Events:
Hallbjörn took Nótt outside of the stone barn for a ride and was impressed by how well Nótt behaved — although Hallbjörn knew that Nótt still hadn't seen a storm or the ocean since the shipwreck, meaning that work remained. Bergljót watched and participated in the demonstration, which had hardly finished when news that the ræningjar had come and were exhuming the dead from the shipwreck reached them. Hallbjörn went to the coast with the man who'd brought the news and presented himself to the General overseeing the exhumation, who was disinclined to believe that Hallbjörn was who he claimed to be . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
A third rowboat pulled up to the shore. It had a pile of canvas bags in it that the men who’d rowed it ashore carried with them and helped to manoeuvre the exhumed bodies into.
One of the men who arrived in the third rowboat hesitated upon seeing Hallbjörn, and Hallbjörn recognised him as well. It was his immediately older sister Dagrún’s husband Hilmar.
“To work sailor!” the General ordered.
“But your Generalship, I know him,” Hilmar said, pointing at Hallbjörn.
“You do?” the General asked. “And who is he?”
“He is Hallbjörn Óðinnson, my wife’s younger brother,” Hilmar replied. “He was on the Ágæti. I was dreading to unearth his remains.”
“And he is no impostor?” the General asked.
“Not at all sir,” Hilmar replied. “Don’t you see it yourself? The noble jaw, the straight shoulders, the good posture? No slovenly outlying islander would have his carriage. He is a man of noble blood, and I promise you on my oath of service he is my wife’s brother, the son of Óðinn Ásgeirson.”
The General looked Hallbjörn over again and nodded. “He does look out of place here, but yet he is the only one, he says, who lived.”
“He is an honest man of Óðinnborg sir,” Hilmar said. “Why would he lie to you? He knows what grave punishments should befall a liar.”
Again the General nodded. “So it appears I shan’t have to carry you to Óðinnborg to verify your identity. You are fortunate Master Óðinnson.”
Hallbjörn gave the General a small nod. He’d forgotten Hilmar was in the Navy, and he never would’ve guessed that his brother-in-law would’ve been assigned to see what came of the Ágæti. He was grateful though.
“And none of the horses lived?” Hilmar asked Hallbjörn.
“They were kept in the hold,” Hallbjörn replied.
“They would’ve been trapped then,” Hilmar said. He shook his head sadly.
“Sailor,” the General said. “Take Master Óðinnson to the ship. Once we have exhumed the remaining bodies we will head back to Óðinnborg.”
“Shouldn’t we search to make sure they didn’t steal any valuables off of the corpses?” a soldier asked.
“I can tell you they didn’t,” Hallbjörn replied.
“And he is the son of the King’s Own Horse-Breeder, a man of influence these people wouldn’t dare cross,” the General said. “We take the bodies and we leave.”
Hallbjörn was relieved they wouldn’t press in for more, but he couldn’t deny that he was loathe to get into the rowboat and onto the ship, to be carried back to Óðinnborg. He wanted to get away from the ocean and back to Haldabænum to stay with Nótt; but if this was what it took to keep the people of Virki from being raided, then it was what he would do, fear of troubled waters or not.
Pronunciations:
Dagrún: dahgroon
Ágæti: ahg'eyetee
Ásgeirson: ahzgearsohn
Next Post: March 30.
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