Page 2 of Dalla's Royal Guards
“When… How will I die? Can you tell me?” she forced out past the lump in her throat. At ten and nine years old, she was not yet ready to die.
Aesa smiled and shook her head. “I did not see your death. I saw you… in a strange place, a place far from here.”
“I will travel with Thorsten to a distant land?” she mused, staring out at the sea.
“Nei. I did not see Thorsten. I saw two men. Strange men. They will be your guards.”
Dalla snorted and waved her hand in dismissal. “Let them try! No man, not even Thorsten, can keep me prisoner.”
Aesa shook her head again, her expression thoughtful and fond. “I do not know if that was exactly what.... Well, what I do know is that these are no ordinary men, Dalla. They live in a world where magical things exist.”
“So, I do die,” Dalla replied.
Aesa frowned. “I don’t know.”
Dalla huffed and kicked at the sand in frustration. “You need to work on clarifying your vision if you are going to have one. They are as murky as the waters after a storm!”
Aesa laughed. “I will ask Njorun to work on them.”
Dalla bent down and splashed her sister with a handful of freezing water. Aesa squealed and danced away. Dalla chased her sister, delighted because Aesa was still with them. They fell to the sand in a tangle of sandy skirts.
“Mother is going to make us wash tonight before she allows us inside,” Aesa groaned.
“It is worth it to laugh with you,” Dalla confessed, rolling onto her back and staring up at the brilliant blue sky with its soft, fluffy white clouds. “Tell me about this magical realm and the two mysterious guards who will try to capture me.”
Aesa turned her head to look at her with a worried expression. “Are you sure you wish to know?”
Dalla cupped a handful of sand and let it flow through her fingers, thinking about Aesa’s question for a moment before she gave a sharp nod.
“Ja. Father says the more knowledge you have of your enemies, the more control you have over your destiny.”
Aesa smiled and stared up at the sky. Her expression turned dreamy. Dalla wished she could see the images in her sister’s mind. They were probably much nicer than the ones she had.
“The wind is hot, but the landscape is beautiful. There are horseless wagons and magical birds that fly people across the great ocean. Your guards are part of this world. They know how to control such magical beasts—and they have powerful weapons.”
Dalla listened, trying to visualize the wondrous beasts that lived in this strange world and the weapons that she would clearly have to steal from her guards as soon as possible. The only part she scoffed at was when Aesa teased her about how handsome her guards would be and how she would fall in love with them. Dalla chuckled and shook her head.
My hand has already been given to Thorsten. I will miss this when he returns from his travels,she silently mused.
“I love you, Aesa,” she murmured, reaching out to hold her sister’s hand.
Aesa smiled. “I know.”
Present day: 832 A.D.
“Dalla! It’s father!” Runa frantically called.
Dalla straightened up from where she’d been clearing the weeds in the garden, and the hoe dropped from her hand at the sight of her father, Sven, bloody and bent over the neck of his horse.Asta, Runa, and Aesa were already helping him off his horse while Olaf held the reins. Four other men, each with wounds of their own, slid from their horses with the help of several women.
Dalla ran down the long row, cursing her long skirt when it caught around her legs. She bunched the material between her dirty fingers. Her mother and siblings were already inside the longhouse.
“Dalla, fetch water and heat it. Runa, gather some clean cloth. Olaf, take care of your father’s horse. Aesa, you will assist me and the other women in tending to the wounded,” her mother ordered in a terse, steady voice.
Dalla’s eyes flashed to the broken shafts of the arrows protruding from her father’s thigh and shoulder. Sven groaned when Asta gently leaned him back.
“Dalla.”
She paused mid-turn and looked over her shoulder. Her mother’s face was tight with suppressed emotion.
