Nena by Ann Boelter (red white royal blue txt) 📗

pointed to one of the maps. “Or I would hear other thoughts.” He looked to the men.

“Can’t we deal with someone else?” one of them asked.

“No one but the Worick can handle the volume we offer,” Tryggr rejected the option.

“Then why not split it up and deal with several? It would be more time-consuming, but we have the time; Jarl said we are ahead of schedule. Even if we made deals at three-quarters of expected value, it would be half again more than what we will get from the Worick. Surely, at that price we could find someone who would take them. I request permission to take several men and proceed to port to try to secure other buyers.”

“I feel no obligation to stick to the deal offered by the Worick,” Jarl considered out loud. “What say the rest of you?”

The tent was filled with murmurs of agreement from the other men.

“And you, Tryggr?” Jarl asked him specifically. “You have the most effort into this last deal.”

“I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t think we should count on it. The Worick wields a lot of power in this area, which is another reason we’ve been forced to deal with him in the past. If he gets wind of what we are up to, I think considerable pressure will be brought to bear on any who would barter with us—and we might not find them nearly so accommodating.”

“That’s a good point.” Jarl turned back to the man who had made the request. “Permission granted to take some men ahead to port and seek replacements for the Worick’s purse, but do it under the guise of checking on the ships. Keep your true purpose concealed. The Worick thinks we have a deal, so he should not be looking to intercept our negotiating with others. Let’s keep it that way.

“In the meantime, the rest of us will take the last villages as planned. Depending on what the men are able to come up with at the port, and our final tally, we will make a decision then on whether or not to make additional raids.”

That afternoon, Nena sat in the baths while the two women lathered her hair and scrubbed her skin. She tried to relax, but the excitement and drama of the past few days had left her knotted with tension. She longed for a horseback ride, but Jarl had been too busy to take her. One of the women who was in the water with her, chatted away while the other said not a word. It would not have been unusual except their roles were reversed. The normally talkative one was silent.

“Sven has told me I will not be sold,” Gineesh reported excitedly. “He will use part of his share of the bounty to buy me, and we shall settle on the northeast coast of the Great Sea together. There are quite a few Northmen who are taking wives and will remain behind there.”

Nena understood her excitement. Gineesh had long feared and expected her Northman to dispose of her with the other slaves in the end. He had never treated her badly, but was not prone to any displays of affection, and had never made any suggestion toward keeping her. Unlike the other woman, Lenta, who was always sharing glowing reports of her Northman’s generosity and kindness. Today she remained quiet. Nena turned to her, but her downcast eyes remained fixed on her duty.

“And what of you, Lenta?” Nena asked. “Do you have news from your Northman?”

The woman looked up and nodded. “Yes. Though I have shared the furs with Ralgon for months now, he has made no such offer toward my purchase.” She tried to hide it, but Nena could see the fear and disappointment in her eyes.

Realizing the talk of her own good news had caused the other woman sorrow, Gineesh tried to comfort her friend. “Perhaps he has just not yet done so. Perhaps he waits to tell you until after the deal is secure. Ralgon has always been so good to you.”

“Gratitude for your kind words, Gineesh, but it is not so. Ralgon already has a wife in the North. I will be traded with the others to the slaver and then sold.”

Nena seared Lenta’s expression to memory. She had fallen for a Northman, had shared his furs and expected an impossible future. Nena thought back over Lenta’s previous conversations in the baths. How happy she was with Ralgon. How well he treated her. All had assumed she would definitely be one who was taken as a wife, if any were. Yet here she was, to be cast aside with no more consideration than a trinket.

The Northmen could not be trusted. Even if they had not planned it all along, as Ralgon clearly had with a wife at home, Jarl, with Altene was no better. His affections had simply faded and moved to another. The end result for Altene was the same. Nena had to keep the plights of these two women fresh in her mind. When Jarl plied her with kind gestures and things she enjoyed—like riding, she had to remember it would only last until another woman caught his eye.

Nena had just stepped from the water when Altene arrived, returning to her duties as if nothing had happened. Nena’s acutely trained eyes searched the other woman’s body for marks of what she had endured, but found none, only a subtle stiffness in her movements that Altene tried to hide. Nena had assumed by the slaver’s comments that he had been cruel and Altene would be covered with the evidence. But only in Altene’s eyes did she occasionally see a fleeting pain—though whether it was physical or emotional, Nena could not be sure.

Do not pity her. Altene is as heartless as these men, and would have been ecstatic to hear you’d been sent to the slaver to satisfy his…unusual appetites. Do not become soft. You must push her again. Now while she