Scholar
“There, in the middle of the woods, was a large, crude tent. Large hemp cloths formed the walls and the ceiling, encircling a few trees. I took out my sword and walked to the tent. I listened for a moment and heard no sound, so I lifted the flap and stepped inside.
“A high birch rose inside the tent, and tied to it with heavy iron chains was a young man. Stripped of his clothes, his abdomen covered in deep scars, he looked barely able to stand. The man looked familiar, and as I took a closer look, I remembered where I had seen him. He was a priest we had imprisoned on one of the raids. My companions and I had planned to feed on him and others like him.
“He looked up at me, his blue eyes wide, wild, and feverish.
“‘Save me,’ he cried in West Saxon. ‘Save my soul. He turned me into a demon, an abomination.’
“I dropped my sword to the ground. ‘Who is he?’ I asked in the same language.
“‘The devil with a face of an angel,’ he said. ‘He will take me to hell with him, and we will burn together forever.’
“I knew only one devil, and indeed he had an angel’s face. I walked to the man, grabbed his brown hair and yanked his head backwards. He screamed, his open mouth revealing sharp fangs. The tent wasn’t there to hide him from prying eyes. It was there to protect him from the sun.
“‘Lucien made you a vampire,’ I said. ‘Why?’ I pressed against his scars, and he pulled away. ‘Did he do this to you?’
“The man shivered. ‘He bit me. He made me drink his unholy blood. I died and woke again, as a demon of the night.’ Tears surfaced in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. ‘He cut me. He pulled out my kidneys. My liver. He said he wanted to find out if I would recover completely.’ He started to shake violently. ‘How could I recover? He destroyed me. He killed my soul.’
“‘Then let me save you,’ I said and sank my teeth deep into his exposed neck. I drank him to the last drop, until he was completely limp and supported only by the chains. I broke off a branch from the birch and ran it through his heart.
“I left the tent and walked to the shelter where my companions awaited me. When I told Lucien what I had done, he rolled his eyes.
“‘Vladimir, you are a barbarian with no appreciation for knowledge,’ he said. ‘You have wasted a week’s worth of experiments.’
“‘The moment you turned this man into a vampire, he became one of our own,’ I said. ‘You cannot torment our people.’
“‘And why not?’ Lucien asked. ‘How else would we learn? So many questions are burning inside my mind, and I need to know the answers. What are our strengths and weaknesses? What is the source of our abilities? What are the limits of our immortality? And, most important, why?’
“I grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him close. ‘And you think you will learn these answers by cutting vampires open?’
“He gave me a lazy grin and made no move to free himself from my grip. ‘Of course. Aristotle says we can use induction to discover universal truths through individual observations. I stake a vampire’s heart, and he dies. Therefore, vampires die when staked. I remove a vampire’s liver, and he lives. Therefore, vampires can live without a liver. And while most of the time, Aristotle simply observed the world around him without changing it, he was not above cutting things open. Such as the time when he found a fertilized hen’s egg and opened it to see the heart.’
“‘A hen’s egg?’ I released his tunic and took a step back. ‘You can’t compare a vampire to an egg.’
“‘The principle is exactly the same.’ Lucien dusted his tunic, his green eyes never leaving mine. ‘But while the inductive method helps us find these universal truths, it is not enough to fully understand their meaning. Why is a vampire’s life locked in the heart? Can we strip out all else and still live forever? Why does blood feed our strength? Aristotle proposes deductive reasoning to deepen our knowledge, and this is where the philosophers come in.’
“‘So, you are a philosopher now?’ I said.
“‘I am everything.’ Lucien raised his hands towards the sky and started rotating in a circle as he spoke. ‘A philosopher. A scholar. A student. A discoverer—’
“‘A madman,’ I added.
“‘Stop bickering like children,’ Callisto said. She was sitting on a rock in front of our shelter, braiding her hair and not sparing a single look at us. ‘I have some news to share.’
“That got our attention, and she continued, ‘I have spoken with Björn. The festival at the Temple at Uppsala is next year. It is an enormous event taking place every nine years. Vikings from all parts of Svealand, Götaland, Norway, and Denmark travel there for the festivities. Björn doesn’t want to go in shame. He needs to avenge his father before the festival and go as a victor.’
“Excitement surged through my chest. All the small raids had been wondrous, but I had been waiting for something bigger. ‘The battle with King Ælla is coming?’ I asked.
“Callisto nodded. ‘Preparations are already underway. Björn has sent messengers to his mother, to his father’s former wife, and to all his brothers and sisters. His father was a legend. Vikings from far away will sail here to join the fight to avenge him. And we will join too, as we promised. My love, we are about to witness history.’
“I smiled though my heart twisted painfully. I would never again be satisfied to witness history. Would I ever be allowed to make it?
“A few weeks passed, and the big night approached. Fires burned all along the Danish shore, and I stood there with Hilde by my side, watching as the longships arrived. Vikings from every part of Scandinavia walked up the shore, and Hilde whispered in my ear everyone’s name and story. I was seeing living legends, but I was never allowed to be one.
“A ship set anchor, and the first Viking to set foot ashore was a middle-aged woman. Silver mixed with the gold in her long, loose hair, but she walked with a straight back and her gait was firm. A scar ran along her cheek, and two fingers of her left hand had been cut off. When Björn’s Vikings saw her, they moved to make a path for her and bowed.
“Close to her legs walked nine large cats. One was pitch black and had striking bright orange eyes. Two were snow-white, one blue-eyed, and the other had one vivid blue eye and one pale yellow. The other six cats were light grey.
“Hilde moved closer to me. ‘This is the shieldmaiden Lagertha,’ she said, her voice a mere whisper in the wind. ‘She was a legendary warrior princess in Norway. The Swedish hero Ragnar Lodbrok, Björn’s father, was impressed and proposed a marriage. Lagertha pretended to consider it, but when Ragnar went to her home, she set a bear and a hound upon him. He killed the bear with a spear and choked the hound with his bare hands. Only then did Lagertha agree to marry him, and they had two daughters and a son before they divorced.’
“I listened, amazed. ‘Why would such a legendary couple part ways?’
“‘Ragnar wanted to marry the noblewoman Thora Borgarhjört, and he slew a serpent to win her hand. When she died of illness, he married Björn’s mother, Queen Aslaug, who impressed him with her wit. Yet, although he knew of her wisdom, he still made the grave mistake of not listening to her.’
“‘How so?’
“‘Aslaug is a sorceress,’ Hilde whispered in my ear. ‘She foretold that they had to wait three days before consummating their marriage. But Ragnar was too impatient and refused to wait, and so the gods cursed them.’
“I shuddered. ‘Cursed them? How?’
“Hilde tilted her head to the side, her cold blue eye staring at me. ‘More Vikings are still arriving from distant lands. Perhaps you will see it with your own eyes soon.’
“I had to wait only two nights before I learned what Hilde had been talking about. Another longship arrived, and, as every other night, we stood on the shore, watching. A few men came ashore, but none seemed to be a leader. And then appeared a device I had never seen before.”