Highlander's Need: Winter Solestice (Against All Odds Series 4) Page 2

  “You feeling any better?”

  “Some,” he said. “I’m not ready to dance a jig yet, but compared to how I felt a few hours ago, I’d say I feel remarkable.”

  “You don’t look so great,” Aila laughed.

  “Like me for my looks? You shallow woman.”

  Putting an arm around his waist, Aila helped Dagmar stand, steadying him before he took his first step. Pain etched itself on his face when he stumbled, but with each step he grew stronger and more confident in his ability to walk. A couple trips around Ragnic’s cabin and Dagmar was almost back to normal. “I need to see Aislin if I can.”

  “Tonight?” Aila asked, obviously concerned.

  “It’s rather important love.”

  “Alright,” Aila sighed. She walked him gingerly toward Aisleen’s home and stopped just short of the door. Aislin was one of the first to have a structure put up for her. Built into the mountainside, her home stayed relatively warm during the increasingly cold nights as winter really got a grip on Hail. With its thick mossy covering, Aila sure hoped her friend liked her new home.

  “I’d ask that you stay here for just a moment,” Dagmar said, looking awfully pale to Aila’s untrained eye.

  “Hurry up then” Aila sighed. Aila waited and paced while Dagmar was inside. She noticed almost immediately that she couldn’t hear what was being said, except for the occasional roaring of laughter. It was unusual to be standing outside someone’s home and not hear them plain as day. Not that she was an eavesdropper or anything, but still, she noticed. Perhaps it’d make relations between married couples a little more private, especially for those who liked to get loud during such activities. Aila herself could scarcely bring herself to softly moan, let alone scream. No matter how great Dagmar was under the blankets, she was a severely private person, unless she was punching him in the face for making time with Asgurda. Sighing she knocked on the door to Aislin’s home.

  “Well Aila,” little Edgar said. Aislin’s youngest, Edgar was the spitting image of his father, right down to Dufguss’ pretty green eyes. “Nice of you to drop in on us tonight as well. Dagmar’s already here.”

  “I know young, Edgar,” Aila smiled, roughing up the boy’s cap. “I brought him by and was wondering if he’d fallen flat on his face yet. Seeing as just this morning the mule had three arrows sticking out of him, I’m surprised he hasn’t just collapsed at your feet by now.”

  “Nah,” the little boy went on. “Dagmar’s made of sterner stuff. He showed those damn Dunkerie bastards how things are done by the Pict people of Hail. See if they try any of their bullshit again. We’ll show them exactly where they can stick it.”

  Aila choked back a laugh and was warmed to find everyone else seemed to be doing the same. “Dagmar,” she sighed, coming to see him in the small nook where he sat leaning against the wall. “I need to get you home before you can no longer walk.”

  “Aye lass,” Dagmar smiled. He grabbed a package off the small table and turned to Aislin. “Thank you darling. I’ll be sure to get some more skins to you soon.”

  “See that you do,” she smiled. “After you can walk straight and shoot straighter.”

  “She likes me,” Dagmar joked as he walked to his tent with Aila.

  “You think everyone likes you,” Aila pointed out.

  “You like me,” he chuckled.

  “Much to my peril I’m sure.” Helping him into his tent Aila made him as comfortable as she could before she got him to release the package.

  “You need to open it love,” Dagmar instructed as Aila sat down to undo his boots.

  “I’ll get to it in due course.”

  “Now,” he demanded softly. “If you don’t mind of course.”

  “I don’t mind,” Aila said. She grabbed the package and set in it her lap, carefully removing the patchwork paper covering.

  “Aislin said her youngest and his friends helped decorate the package.”

  “I can see that,” she smiled. She opened the package fully and just stared at the ermine covered boots that now sat in her lap. “You had these made for me?”

  “I know your fondness for ermine skins so I used the last ones I caught to have Aislin make you a pair of boots to match your tunic and leggings.”

  “Dagmar…” Aila sighed. Putting the boots aside, she crawled over to sit with him. “I would have waited until tonight to give them to you so you could wear them to the festival, but give my condition I thought it prudent to do it now as I may be sleeping later.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Aila grinned, giving Dagmar a wink.

  “Oh love,” he sighed. “I can’t do that, despite wanting you.”

  “I’m not asking you to make love to me,” Aila laughed. “There are other related activities we can do to pleasure each other, aren’t there? Certainly straight up sex isn’t all you know how to do.”

  “No,” Dagmar argued. “However, given that I was shot three times this morning it may not be a good idea to get my heart rate up.”

  “I already discussed it with Ragnic. He says as long as you’re comfortable with it, its fine.”

  “Of course he’d say that. He’s a man.”

  “He’s also a healer with plenty of experience. I say if it won’t kill you, we should try. Even if just as payback for my boots.”

  “I had them made for a reason, Aila,” Dagmar said, taking her hands. “I know that we’ve certainly had our differences and that some of them were nasty and unsolvable. Over the last three weeks though, I’ve come to see that you are a remarkable woman and I’m so very blessed to have you in my life. I know that we both want to rule the people of Hail, we have our own strategies and ideas. Lately though we’ve been able to bring those things together to benefit our people.”

  “Yes we have,” Aila smiled “It’s been nice to work together and see our people thrive because of it.”

  “Would you be willing, Aila, to rule by my side, not just as my best friend, but as my wife as well?”

  “What?” Aila asked, her eyes going wide.

  “I’m asking you Aila Dagny Forsberg, if you’d consider spending your life with me. Will you marry me?”

  ***

  Dagmar didn’t know if the look on her face was a sign that she was happy, sad, or ticked off. Her stormy gray eyes were filled with an emotion he couldn’t read and he was deathly afraid she might burst into tears. The tears came, but thankfully it wasn’t the deluge that Dagmar had feared.

  “I’ve dreamed of this day, like most women, I suppose. When I was eight I hoped one day we’d love each other. The more I tried though, the harder you fought me until I was convinced we weren’t right for each other after all. Then things changed. I can’t even tell you what it was that shifted between us, but whatever it was, I’m so thankful it did. Four weeks ago if you’d asked me to marry you I probably would have fallen down laughing. Now I know that I’m saying yes to my best friend. I’m saying yes to a man that I can count on to not only protect and provide for me, but a man with whom I want to share my life. A man I can rule alongside knowing that neither of us is less because we rule together. You smooth out my hard, choppy edges Dagmar and I am eternally grateful for you.”

  “So is that a yes?”

  He could admit he deserved the punch in the arm. The fact that she punched the arm that had taken an arrow earlier in the day, however, made his eyes smart with tears of his own. Her apologies rolled off her tongue as quickly as her acceptance speech, but Dagmar took it all in stride.

  “I need to see, Dragna about putting the herbs we collected in cold storage.”

  “Alright,” Dagmar said. “I’m going to rest while you’re gone. Then we’ll see about truly celebrating this Solstice and announcing our engagement and our plan to rule Hail together.”

  “Sounds good Your Highness,” Aila chuckled. Dagmar did exactly as he’d said he would and slept for the entire two hours Aila was gone checking on things. When he woke the sense of calm was a little too
convincing.

  “Aila?” Dagmar called. He sat up, nursing his very sore side and shoulder. By the time he gained his footing, he was sweating up a storm and had to fight not to pass out. He grit his teeth and took his first step toward the door of his tent. Pulling it back, he stepped out into a gloomy day. Wasn’t it just like the winter solstice to be overcast and cloudy without a drop of rain? Looking around he could see anyone walking around, or any sort of celebrations going on. Where the hell was everyone? And why hadn’t Aila come back to check on him? Surely it couldn’t take that long to check with Dragna about the cold storage.

  “Aila?” Dagmar called again, raising his voice so she could hear him.

  “Dagmar!” came the panicked scream. Dagmar felt that first surge of adrenaline and took off at the best run he could manage without falling over. “Aila!”

  “Dag-“

  Dagmar rounded the corner near the food tent and stopped in his tracks, nearly falling over as his body adjusted to the speed. There sat Aila and nearly everyone from the village their hands bound. They had gags in their mouth and fury pumped through him like liquid fire.

  “Thank you for joining us Dagmar,” a brute of a man said as he stood behind Aila, her dark hair wrapped around his hand. “Your woman here was nice enough to introduce herself. Dagmar watched as the man ran a knife close to Aila’s throat. “We seem to have a misunderstanding between our two peoples. You see, when I settled across the river, I did so knowing that one day I’d need to expand as my people keep multiplying. We simply need more space. You, my friend, have prime space here. It was a space I wanted badly so I had my warriors attack you. You defended yourselves well and then reciprocated that attack. Today however, on the Solstice, we bested your people and would kindly ask that you leave this area behind. You can move wherever you’d like as long as it’s away from here.”

  “Are you delusional? We can’t move on the Solstice, in the middle of winter.”

  “Oh on the contrary, I think you can. You see, from where I’m standing it is far better to move, even on the Solstice and have your people alive; than it is to refuse and watch them be slaughtered. I can guarantee that the first choice is best. Take your chances resettling somewhere else and take most of your people with you, or my people will simply execute them.”

  “Most of my people?” Dagmar asked, his mind blurring with the pain as it lanced through his body, concentrating in his side and shoulder.

  “Oh, I forgot to mention that I want this beauty right here for myself. Something tells me she’s quite a feast to behold.”

  “Don’t you touch her!” Dagmar growled, but when he stepped forward his knees buckled under the fatigue and pain.

  “Oh,” the man laughed. “Forgive me. I forget sometimes that just this morning you were shot three times. Shame really, one more and you’d be dead. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Tell you what. Given that it’s the solstice and I’m feeling rather generous, I’ll give you an hour to collect yourself and decide what you’d choose to do.”

  “Let them go,” Dagmar said, his teeth gritted to control the pain. “Please.”

  “So you’ve decided, excellent,” the man sneered. “Fast action for someone who’s about to pass out. Perhaps you should lie down.”

  Dagmar pulled himself against the side of the food tent and watched as one by one, his people were released. His eyes never left Aila’s worried gray ones and Dagmar grinned at the fiery determination under that worry. She was one heck of a woman that Dagmar knew for sure. Inching closer to her, he whispered. “Can you fight?”

  Dagmar watched her eyes turn ghostly white as thunder and lightning rippled angrily across the sky. He’d seen her powers at work before, had felt them in his own body, but nothing he’d seen or touched looked like Aila did now. Her hair began to sizzle, as if placed over a high heat and electricity ran over her skin like water.

  When she reached out with her hands and grabbed the man who stood behind her, Dagmar watched the man instantly release her hair and drop to the ground, writhing in pain. Still bound, Aila called lightning from the sky to strike at those who’d hold her people captive. The longboats that sat near their dock splintered and sank to the bottom of the canal.

  Dagmar smiled wide as their captors began to back up. With their fearless leader incapacitated, they weren’t as strongly bonded as he’d thought. Looking back at Aila, Dagmar saw he skin glow red like a branding iron and her ropes fell away, burned through where they had touched her wrists.

  When she stood up, Dagmar knew that there was no need to worry now as the wind began to howl in its intensity. Dust from the ground created a wall of separation that blinded their captors and pushed them back outside the walls of Hail. Walking up to her, Dagmar didn’t touch her, but spoke loud enough for her to hear him.

  “We need to surround them and finish this.” She gave a regal nod of her head and Dagmar quickly grabbed as many men as he could to encircle the now dust covered enemy.

  “I was hoping we’d get in on this,” Breslin grinned as Dagmar handed him a sword.

  “You and Bregnan both, it seems.”

  “I can’t have my brother taking all the glory now can I? What would my wife think?”

  “She’s not your wife yet brother,” Breslin grinned. “Maybe she’ll see she picked the wrong brother and I’ll have me two beauties.”

  “Ha. Over my dead body,” Bregnan laughed. “She wouldn’t have you, as we all know I’m the prettier one of us.”

  “Enough,” Dagmar said, cutting between the twins. “You can bitch at each other later.”

  “Let’s do this,” Breslin grinned, hefting his sword.

  “Right,” Bregnan said, picking up his battleax.

  When Dagmar shouted, as quickly as it had come, the dust disappeared. Dagmar and his men made quick work of killing the men who were left, as they couldn’t seem to figure out who was who among them. It took a few hours, but Dagmar, Bregnan, Breslin, Svenbreck and Duffgus worked to send the bodies to the shore of Dunkerie with a message to their widows, for surely it would be a hard winter for them.

  Chapter Three: Warfare

  Aila was running before she knew it and found Dagmar’s embrace all the sweeter. He caught her at a run and groaned when her body pressed hard against him. Her mouth fused to his as if her very life depended on it.

  “Aila,” Dagmar chuckled. “We need to round up the others and send them off before we can get on with everything here.”

  “Right,” she smiled. “I’ll make sure the women and children are safe.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Dagmar.”

  Aila headed toward the food tent and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw all the women and children of her village safe and sound. “Aila!” a sweet faced girl cried out as she ran to her. “Are we going to die?”

  “No, darling.” Aila hugged the girl tight and returned her to her mother. “Thanks to Dagmar and his quick thinking, we will sleep safely tonight.”

  A cheer went up as Aila headed over to see Dragna. “My child,” the older woman sighed. “It does my heart good to see you safe and happy.”

  “The feeling’s mutual,” Aila said, her voice roughened by tears.

  “When will you tell the village about you and Dagmar?”

  “When he, Breslin, Svenbreck, and Dufguss get the others rounded up and shipped off. I want none of them here when we tell everyone our happy news.”

  “You’ll need a place to lay your heads once the marriage is done.”

  “I’d marry him today, no matter where we sleep,” Aila smiled. “And you know, as the rulers of Hail it wouldn’t serve to have our home done before those of our people.”

  “You are a good leader, Aila. You and Dagmar will make right, what those Dunkerie fools have messed up.”

  “I hope so,” Aila agreed. “Will you help me by getting Aislin and Asgurda together? We need to decorate, especially if we’re to have a wedding here t
onight.”

  “Sure I will darling,” Dragna smiled. “But I believe we have three weddings to celebrate as Breslin and Bregnan need to wed their beloveds as well.” Aila watched the old woman, the woman who’d been like a mother to her since her parents died, walk off to find the two women she now considered friends.

  ***

  It was another hour before Dagmar made his way to the food tent. Unlike the somber faces and scared little ones he’d expected to see, every woman and girl in the place seemed to be busy doing something. The tent where most of his people ate their meals was being transformed into a place to have a party.

  “Aila?”

  “She’s getting ready, which is exactly what you should be doing,” Aislin smiled. “Take these and go to the spring bath. You need to clean up.”

  “But…”

  “No buts,” she smiled. “Tonight you’ll take your wife home. There’s never a better time for a wedding than the Solstice.”

  Clearly outnumbered, and thinking his sore body could use a nice bath, Dagmar headed for the spring without another argument. Wife, damn if women couldn’t move like the wind when given a reason they agreed with.

  Ten feet from the spring, Dagmar noticed a neatly folded white tunic and the new white ermine boots he’d had made for Aila. “We need to stop meeting like this.”

  “Dagmar,” Aila gasped, turning around. She came up out of the water, her lithe body screaming sex at him. “Come. We need to get ready.”

  “So I’ve been told,” he grinned. “Does getting ready include taking my soon-to-be wife to bed?”

  Her laughter bubbled out so that Dagmar’s libido woke with a hunger he wasn’t sure he could satisfy in his current state. “Tonight you get a pass. You were shot just this morning you know.”

  “Doesn’t mean I don’t have a trick or two up my sleeve.”

  “You’re not wearing sleeves,” Aila teased. “You need to not be wearing anything right now.”

  “Getting naked has never sounded so good.”

  Dagmar gladly accepted Aila’s help as she stripped him from his clothes. Instead of tossing them on the bank, however, she stuck them right in the water to wash out the dirt and stains. “I’m not sure the shirt can be saved.”