CHAPTER ONE

 

When Nirvana House came into view the grotesque brute Vidar stopped and stared. His companion Mikel gently reined his horse to a stop, dismounted and stood next to Vidar.

“What is all this?” he asked.

Mikel smiled. “The queen was most determined to see that the champion who rescued her and cared for her during our Black Winter when she was just a village girl was to be comfortable. And, since you are soon to be titled lord over the newly created Nirvana Territory, she felt it was necessary that your house was befitting your title.”

Vidar was shaking his head in disbelief. “It is simply too much.”

“Wait until you get inside. The kitchen was modeled after the kitchen of the palace but on a much smaller scale and I have been told that Tove, former apprentice in the palace kitchen, is extremely pleased. We all have our own rooms and there are several more in case you have guests. There is a formal eating room and another common eating room. You also have a sitting room at your disposal.

“The stable was Huldran's idea. The design was enlarged after the captain of the palace guard spoke with Grimsen, the master of stables at the palace, who suggested that the stable of a lord in such a remote territory would need to house fowl, pigs, cows, and goats in addition to horses. The stable also has two small rooms with hearths in case you are visited by a lord or a noble who has with him servants that he desires to not share a roof of a house that does not have separate servant’s quarters.”

“Am I expected to run this house?” Vidar asked.

Mikel smiled. “The only expectation from you that I was made aware of was that you were to train me to one day replace Huldran as captain of the palace guard and, other than that, you are to be made comfortable.”

Rana, master of housekeeping, had arrived three days earlier so those at the house knew he was coming and there was always one of them watching for him. When Vidar arrived at the house Blomst, Tove, and Rana were standing outside to welcome him and the three of them were wearing the widest smiles he had ever seen grace their faces. The rest of it for him was like he was a snowflake whipped about during a Black Winter storm. Blomst, the woman who brought him breakfast the day of the battle of the throne room and again the day after,  hooked one of his arms, Tove, her daughter, hooked the other and Mikel and Rana fell in behind them to show him around his new residence, Nirvana House. All the while they were chattering but Vidar said nothing. They at last came to his sitting room and Blomst pointed out that when they were designing the house the young queen had insisted the window of your sitting room be made entirely of clear glass and that it faces the river and the spruce trees at the top on the bank on the other side.

“Am I required to sit in here alone?” he asked.

Blomst, the master of linens of his house,  replied, “You may sit here with anyone you choose. It is your sitting room.”

Vidar thought for a moment, then said, “I do not desire to sit in this room alone. I have spent a great deal of my life alone and I would prefer that all of you would come sit with me in this room. I also would prefer that it not be called my sitting room but instead be called the common room.”

Mikel spoke up. “This might not be appropriate if you have visitors who are nobles or lords.”

“Is this not my house?”

“It is very much your house but you are soon to be title lord and there are protocols that accompany such a title,” Blomst replied.

“What are protocols?”

“They are rules,” Tove explained.

“Is it necessary that we follow these rules when I am here just with my family?”

Vidar referring to them as his family momentarily stunned them all. In that instant they all felt the embrace of what his words implied but it was Blomst who was most moved by them. “When it is just your family you have the authority to make any rule you want. If it is your wish this room be called the common room then this is what it will be called. If it is your desire to not sit here alone but to share our company then we will eagerly comply. The only direction we were given by Queen Freya was that we were to see to your comfort.”

“You have been traveling and it will soon be time for dinner.” Tove said. “I have been preparing a very special meal for your first one here. I have been marinating potato, cabbage, turnip, carrot, and beets in diluted vinegar with spices that are nearly ready to be cooked. I also have a roast from the shoulder of a pig that has been slowly cooking for nearly a full turn of the sandglass.”

Before she could turn and walk to the kitchen to attend to her work he asked, “Do you need help?”

She smiled and bounced twice on the balls of her feet. “The kitchen is my responsibility and I promise you, even though I am young, I am most capable of fulfilling this responsibility.”

Vidar returned her smile. “Of this I am certain, but that was not what I asked. Your ma has just finished telling me that when it is just my family that I am permitted to make rules. One of these rules is that I am allowed to offer my assistance to any one of you and it should never be assumed that when I do I am questioning your ability.” Vidar looked at them all. “When I offer assistance I am simply offering the use of my hands and, if necessary, my back.”

Tove's smile widened. “I thank you but I am not in need of assistance from your hands. The work was mostly done before you arrived and there is little left to do.” With this she turned, bounced once, and headed for the kitchen.

Blomst nodded to Rana who smiled and promptly left the room. “How was your travel?” she asked.

“Uneventful,” Vidar replied.

Mikel laughed. “He has more stamina than my horse.”

Vidar smiled. “I would not if you were riding on my back.”

Mikel said, “I was once told by our queen that when he said they were to go to Oslav he had estimated that it would take nine days for them to travel from the nirvana by the river to the capital but they had completed the journey in less than five days.”

Vidar interrupted, “The village girl was but of fourteen summers and we had survived our Black Winter by the slimmest of margins. I was not certain how fast or how far her legs would carry her.”

Mikel continued as though he had not been interrupted. “She had further said that for most of the journey he carried her. She also said that it was in the curve of his left arm where he carried her. She further confessed this is where he carried during our Black Winter and this is where she had felt the most safe. So I am proud to boast that we made this journey in just three days and not once did he carry me in the curve of his arm.”

At that moment Rana knocked even though the door was open. “There is a bowl of warmed perfumed water in the washstand in your room. There are fresh coverings on your bed for you to change into when you are done washing the dirt of your travel from your body.”

Blomst said, “When you have washed and dressed in fresh clothes Tove should have nearly finished in the kitchen and will be ready to plate your meal and serve you.”

Vidar took a moment. “Blomst, I am not comfortable with this. I was told by the queen that the members of this house were given a parchment signed by her hand stating that all of you were free people. I took this to mean the people here were unindentured and were not in servitude. Is this not true?”

Blomst smiled and replied, “We all have a parchment of freedom and we are not in servitude.”

Vidar smiled. “To this end I do not want Rana running off to bring warm perfumed water to my room so I can wash myself. Tell me where I can find this bowl and this warm perfumed water and I will get it myself. I do not want Tove to plate my meal and nor do I desire her to serve it to me. It is my request that, when it is just our family, that we eat our meals in the common eating room like a real family. Tove is only to plate the food on serving trays. We will take what we need from the tray and pass it to the one sitting next to us.

“I am having the most difficult time reconciling the manner in which I am being approached. I am, as I have always been, a brute. I believe this will be especially troublesome after I am titled. But at this particular moment of my life I have been presented with a family and this excites me to the extent that I am at a loss to properly express it. I have never before been a member of a family so I do not know what to expect. I tell you most enthusiastically that I embrace all of you but I most desperately request that every day we work to the best of our ability and that, when it is just us, we all accept that we are all equal members of the same family.

“Do you find this acceptable?”

He looked first to Blomst and she simply nodded and smiled. Rana held his eyes for a moment and then whispered her agreement. Mikel nodded and tapped Vidar gently on his upper arm a couple of times. “I have to get my horse to the stable. I need to get the saddle off her back and she needs to be fed and given water.”

“I will come with you,” Vidar said.

“There is no need. I can attend to this on my own.”

“And what if I desire to see the inside of this stable?”

Mikel laughed. “In that case you are most welcome to join me.”

The two excused themselves and headed toward the stable. At first Vidar was speechless because of the enormity of it. There were already three horses in stalls, two cows at milking stations, a pen with several pigs, and another area that was cooped with chickens.

“Who has been caring for these animals?” he asked.

“Until a day or two ago there was a member of the palace stable staying here and a squad of the palace guard,” Mikel explained.

“How is it that we did not meet them on the path on our way here?”

Mikel began removing the saddle from his horse. “They are traveling south and west to another territory to the town of Armroc. There is a farm there that breeds warhorses and the man from the palace stable is making sure the animals are as young, strong and fit as they were described. If he judges they are then he will indicate to the palace guard they can turn over payment.”

Vidar nodded as watched Mikel. “Who has been caring for these animals since they left?”

Mikel placed the saddle on a bench with a rounded top next to two other saddles and took a coarse brush from a shelf above it. “Most likely Rana,” he said. He began brushing his horse with the brush. “She has taken quite an interest in how a stable is run since the young man Mirakel has been apprenticing at the palace stable. It is apparent she had demonstrated that she learned enough that the stableman was comfortable leaving their care to her for our stable for a couple of days.”

“Why do we have so many horses?”

Mikel stopped what he was doing and turned to Vidar. “Two of them, those in the stalls closest to us, are to pull the carriage sitting over there behind you.” He waited until Vidar turned to see the carriage and then turned back to him. “See how the hooves of the third one are larger than the others, he is for pulling a plow. He will have an easy life until he is put to work this spring. And this one, she is mine. I have been very careful with my coin and when I was approached by Huldran to come out here and to be your student I spent some of it and purchased her.” He reached up and scratched her behind the ear then went around the horse and began to brush her other side.

“Does she have a name?”

“She does indeed. Her name is Milden.”

Vidar smiled. “It means gentle one and that is a very good name for her. I have not spent much time around a horse but she does seem to possess a most calm nature.”

Mikel put the brush back on the shelf and began to remove Milden's bridle. “She belonged to a boy of fourteen summers. He and a few other lads were playing on the docks and he fell into the harbor and drowned. The boy's parents no longer had a need for her or wanted her and the master of stables was approached to see if the palace would purchase her. It so happened that earlier that same day I had also approached Grimsen to request he look for a horse for me.”

He slid the bridle from her head and opened the gate to the stall. She obediently entered the stall and turned around to watch Mikel as he placed the bridle on the saddle. She poked her head out to follow his movements and then stepped back as he entered her stall with a large jug and filled a tub with water. She again watched him as he left and returned with a bowl of grain. When he closed the gate to the stall she approached him and he gently scratched her cheek. She began to drink and eat as Vidar and Mikel turned to leave.

“I was most fortunate to purchase such a fine animal but it deeply saddens me that the price included the death of a young boy.”

“I understand. Your good fortune is tempered by the tragedy of the boy's death. I could tell you that you should not feel this way because you had no hand in what occurred. I can say these words over and over but it will not change how you feel. This is something that you must reconcile for yourself.”

Vidar stopped and then Mikel stopped and turned to face him. “I would like to point out that it was not just you that was fortunate. The gentle one back there, Milden, was also most fortunate. She was purchased by someone with a kind heart that will not mistreat or abuse her.

“She entered her stall without being instructed to do so and she watched you closely when you left to fetch her water and then her food. After you closed the gate it was important to her to approach you to receive a gesture of your affection. She needed to know that you were pleased with her. Milden had not taken in any water in several hours so she was probably most thirsty but your gentle hand on her cheek was more important to her than satisfying her thirst.

“When you look at Milden try to focus less on the tragedy of the boy and of those who gave birth to him and focus more on the animal. She has a name that is most befitting her so it should be evident during her life she has been treated well. Milden watches you and responds to you because she is still being treated well. Her care is now in your hands and know that she is relying on you to look after her in place of the boy who no longer can.”

Mikel smiled. “I never thought about it like that.”

Vidar slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “Come, let us get washed so we can eat some of this special meal Tove has made for us.”

CHAPTER TWO

 

Tove was both disturbed and pleased by the eating arrangements. She had been so looking forward to demonstrating her skills as the master of the kitchen of Nirvana House. Since it was just her assigned to the kitchen she had to learn all the roles: the preparing, the cooking, the plating and, finally, the serving. She had been practicing on the stableman and the palace guards when they were there and believed she was ready to prove herself to Vidar but because of his nature he changed it all. She decided for now it was acceptable, but when everyone was settled she would request that on the evenings of the new and full moons they were to allow her to perform all her duties.

Vidar insisted on setting out the plates and Blomst shocked Tove by sitting out the knives, eating knives, spoons and this thing with a handle and three tines called a fork. The fork was new for the eating of meals. It came from the south when the ships with supplies began arriving after the ice had broken up when their Black Winter had finally ended. Mikel filled cups with water and brought them to the table. Tove discretely directed him where they were to be placed, just behind and to the right of the plate. Rana assisted in bringing the trays of food to the table.

Blomst disappeared just before they were ready to sit and returned with a vessel of wine and six small earthen cups. The cups were about the diameter of a large Norgland copper coin and roughly three fingers in height. She poured wine into five of the cups and sat them a little further back and to the right of the water cups. The sixth unfilled cup she sat at an empty seat at the table. She noticed the rest of them watching her with a curious expression on their faces. She smiled. “For Mirakel. He is not yet here with us so it is to signify we are holding his place at this table.”

It was no secret to any of them that Tove was terribly fond of Mirakel and she was so moved by the gesture it appeared for a few moments she was both smiling and fighting back tears. She was happy when her ma began directing them to their seats and distracting their eyes away from her. Vidar was to sit at the head of the table. Blomst was to take the seat to his right and the significance of this particular part of the seating arrangement caused a few smiles on the faces of those who were paying attention. Blomst did not acknowledge the smiles. It was her way of letting them all know she expected to always sit at his right hand. Tove was instructed to sit across from her. Rana was to sit next to Tove and Mikel was to sit across from Rana, next to Blomst.

When they were all seated Blomst reached for her wine cup, stood and held it up. When they had all followed her lead she said, “A toast to Nirvana House, to Vidar who is shortly to be titled lord of the Nirvana Territory, and to us who are blessed to be here and share it with him.” With this they drank wine from their cups.

Blomst took her seat and reached for the tray holding the sliced pork shoulder roast. She attempted to pass it to Vidar but he indicated the tray was to be passed in the opposite direction. Mikel had already reached for the tray piled high with vegetables.

“Why are they all red?” he asked.

Tove laughed. “They are red because they were marinated in a bowl with beets, vinegar and some other spices. Before they were roasted high above a flame they were patted dry and then all coated with honey. The outside will be sweet and crisp and on the inside they will be slightly sour and spicy. If after eating them you are not pleased then I will move it to the back of my recipe box.”

Vidar spoke up. “You can read words?”

Tove cast her eyes down. “Yes, but I am not very skilled at this. I can read and understand the ingredients and directions of a recipe but not much more than that.”

“Most well done for you Tove. You continue to surprise and delight me,” he said.

Mikel, in doubt how the vegetables might taste, placed just a few of them upon his plate before passing the tray to Rana. Rana nearly filled her plate and passed the tray to Tove. She put a few vegetables on her plate and passed the tray to Vidar who loaded his plate. His intention was to indicate to her that he had faith in her as master of the kitchen. Blomst, who had been left to hold the tray of the sliced roasted shoulder of pig, was relieved when Mikel finally took it from her hands. This roasted shoulder roast of pig, he piled high on his plate before passing it to Rana.

It turned out that they all enjoyed the taste of vegetables and Tove was correct in her explanation of how they would taste. What enticed all their pallets the most was that Tove had collected the juice and the fat from the meat of the pig as it was roasting. She then strained it and then put it back on the heat to boil adding to it a very watery paste of fine ground grain and cold water which turned it into the most thick and tasty juice that she poured over the sliced roasted pork.

Sometime during the meal Vidar noticed that Mikel and Rana were smiling and holding each other’s eyes. He said nothing but was unable to reign in his pleasure but kept a smile from his face. He missed the lad but at this moment he was happy that Mirakel was not yet here because he was a scoundrel and would have said something that would have disrupted their unspoken communication. He also observed the pleasure on Tove's face that her meal was received so well.

“What of the rest of this delicious meal that is left?” he said, gesturing to the table. “What will happen to it?”

Tove smiled. “It will be saved for our breakfast in the morning. The vegetables will be crushed into a most coarse paste, an egg or two added to it, and then formed into small thin cakes to be fried. The meat will be pulled into bits and it and the remaining sauce will be heated in a pot then it will be served on slices of toasted coarse bread.”

This was met with moans of pleasure from those at the table who had eaten more than their fill and this made Tove laugh with delight.

Vidar stood and carried his empty plate to the kitchen. Those at the table followed his lead and before long the table was cleared and Rana was wiping it clean. Vidar and Mikel were sent off to the common room at Blomst's insistence. She said they had been traveling for three days and deserved to rest but mostly because they were men they would only get in the way in Tove's kitchen. Vidar agreed to comply only if they all promised to join them when their work in the kitchen was finished.

CHAPTER THREE

 

Vidar chose the chair facing the window. Mikel was about to sit in the chair to Vidar's right but decided otherwise. Blomst at dinner had made it perfectly clear that she expected to sit at his right hand.

Vidar noticed and smiled. “She has a big heart but always makes a great effort to hide it. I suspect there is something in her past that has made her behave this way and that is a terrible shame. Tove is a most sweet child but she did not become this way all on her own. She adores her ma so I am left to believe Blomst has been the most loving and kind mother to Tove.”

Mikel smiled and nodded his agreement.

After a few moments of silence Vidar asked when Mikel wanted to begin his training with a blade.

“As soon as possible. Perhaps in a day or two, after we have rested from our travel to Nirvana House,” he replied. “How will we do this? Will we use practice blades or real blades?”

Vidar thought for a moment. “I think it will be both. I will teach the lesson with practice blades and then we will use real blades to determine how well you have learned the lesson.”

“What if I should injure you or you me?”

Vidar laughed. “You will not injure me nor will I injure you. As your skill improves you will become more and more familiar with what you are capable. You will make a move and know that you could have made a different one but chose not to so as to not injure your teacher. I will know this as well.

“I tell you honestly the young queen was an exceptional student. She processes an unmatched ability to anticipate her opponent's next move. Had I not been so much more experienced with a blade there were times she might well have injured me.”

“How did you come to train her?” Mikel asked.

“She made a request of me. I believed at the time and I am still of the belief she made the request because she had a path of vengeance on her mind. The wound to her heart from the deaths of those who had given her birth, her brother, and all the rest of those from her village was very deep. I tried very hard to get her to admit revenge was her motivation but the closest I came was her asking me if I believed she was entitled or not entitled to revenge. Her training was most intense. I pushed her hard. I pushed her harder than I should have because I needed to be confident that if and when she decided it was time to claim her revenge she was properly prepared.”

“Do you still believe she feels the need for revenge?”

Vidar smiled a sad smile. “She has already exacted her revenge.”

“How was this possible?”

“It was not long after she became queen that the king of Sintland sent an emissary to tell her that the lord that had pillaged her village had been identified and the king wanted to know what was to be done with him. She chose mercy and sent word back that he was to receive lashings. She left the severity and number of lashings up to king of Sintland.

“I had explained to her on many occasions that to choose wisdom over a weapon was always the wiser choice. I tried to impress upon her that the moment you raise a weapon you have made a decision for you and your opponent and you have also made yourself a target. When you raise a blade only one will walk away. It is my belief Queen Freya chose mercy not because of this lesson I had endeavored to teach her but because she still had the stain of her grandfather's blood on her hand and the vision of the blood of those dead and injured from the battle of the throne room was fresh in her mind.”

“Vidar, I think you are being too modest,” Mikel said. “I have witnessed you dispense mercy several times since I have known you. The first time was when we met. You striped my blade from my hand and chose to inflict a minor injury and allowed me to keep my life. She witnessed this.”

“You were too quick to draw your blade and hold it at the ready. I am indeed a brute and I had in my company a young girl so I understand why you made this decision but it was the wrong one. You were too eager to believe what you suspected. I was not aggressive and the young girl was eagerly coming to my defense. If I were guilty of the dark things you suspected I had done to her she would not have behaved in this manner. One of the things I want you to learn from me in the time we spend together is this lesson of always choosing wisdom before a weapon.”

Mikel stared at his feet. “I look back at that engagement and I completely agree with your assessment. I had already made the judgment in my head and I agree it was a fool's judgment. The girl did not just come to your defense but she stepped out from behind you and aggressively challenged an entire squad of palace guards. A child who had suffered abuse at the hand of a brute would not have behaved in this manner.”

Vidar laughed. “I think you are beginning to understand. It is a lesson but do you know what it is?”

“Something other than wisdom before weapons?” Mikel asked.

This made Vidar laugh even harder. “Yes, but there is another branch to this tree as well. Things may not always be what they first appear to be. If you are to one day be captain of the palace guard you will need to understand that what you first see with your eyes does not always reflect what is real. Your opinion of what is real is only your opinion based on what you already know. Do you remember you, Mirakel, and I on the street in Oslav and I was trying to impress upon Mirakel that he needed to express his appreciation and gratitude to you for all that you had done for him and we were approached by the man with the feeble leg?”

Mikel looked at Vidar and smiled. “I remember this most vividly.”

Vidar met his smile. “The point I am making is what this man believed was for him real and my opinion of what I believed was real was different. What is real for one is not always the same for another. The future captain of the palace guard must understand that he is continually endeavoring to find what is the actual and factual truth. To do this he will need to realize he is observing the world through his own eyes and he must be willing to observe the world through a different pair of eyes. The truth he holds today might well change if he is willing to accept different evidence presented to him tomorrow.”

“What is all this talk of evidence?” Blomst asked as she entered the common room followed by Tove and Rana.

Blomst took the seat to Vidar's right and Rana and Tove sat on a seat made for three across from them.

Mikel looked at Vidar for permission to answer and Vidar nodded his agreement. “We were discussing how one might see an event and form an opinion and someone else witnessing the same event might form a different opinion. Which one of them is right?”

Rana replied, “They are both right.”

Vidar laughed, clapped and said, “Well done, Rana! Now tell us why this is so.”

She did not look comfortable but answered anyway. “It all depends on what has happened to them before.”

“Why? Why does that matter?” Vidar asked.

“It matters,” she said, “because life has so much influence on us and we have so little influence on life.”

Vidar looked at Blomst. “Do you agree?”

Blomst was unprepared to be drawn into the conversation and hesitated before answering, “Both yes and no.”

Tove was paying very close attention but said nothing and Rana wanted to object but was wary of being further drawn into the conversation. The silence that followed was awkward and becoming even more awkward the longer it went on.

“There is an obvious question that needs to be asked so why are you not asking it? Are you not curious?” Vidar asked.

Tove spoke up, first looking at Vidar and then to her ma, Blomst. “I am most curious but I was trying to divine the answer for myself but I cannot. Ma, you are either affected by your past or you are not so how can you say it is both?”

Blomst smiled at her daughter. “You are thinking in terms of all or nothing. It is not so different from saying it is either day or night and have forgotten there is a dawn and a dusk. I agree with Rana that we are presented on occasion with great trails and many of them leave their mark on us. But all of life is not like this and we live most of our lives unaffected by the events of any given day. After the sun sets and then rises a few times we can hardly remember it.”

Mikel was nodding in agreement. “I agree with Blomst, but I believe Rana and Blomst shared the same thought but Blomst expressed it better. I would like to add that I think the greater number of trials you endure the more you are affected.” He looked at Vidar. “I suspect you were subject to a most unreasonable number of trials during your life.”

“I have had my share,” he said with a smile.

“Why then are you not mean and angry?” Tove asked.

Vidar thought for a moment before answering. “I will answer this question but not today. Mirakel asked me this same question and I promised him an answer. I prefer to wait until he joins us. There are some parts of this explanation I find uncomfortable to speak about and I want to offer it but a single time. Is this acceptable?”

Those in the room nodded their agreement.

Rana asked, “Where were you born?”

“Was born in the town of Stirkum. It is east and slightly north of here.”

“Do you still have family there?” Tove asked.

“I have no family except for the people in this room and the boy apprenticing at the palace stable in Oslav.”

Blomst asked, “What happened to those who gave you birth?”

“I do not know.”

Tove spoke up again. “How do you not know what happened to your ma and pa?”

“Do you all agree that you will never revisit this topic again if I answer this most wonderful girl's question?”

All but Blomst nodded their agreement.

“Blomst?”

Reluctantly she nodded once.

“I do not know the names of those who gave birth to me or what became of them because as a babe I was as equally displeasing to the eye as I am now. They were so displeased and ashamed of what they had produced from their loins that I was sold for copper coins when I was just days old. Before you pass judgment on them please understand that they could have just as easily pressed a pillow over my face and held it there until my lungs ceased to breathe air and my young heart stopped beating. I was sold into the service as a babe to a blind wet nurse. When I was a little older I was her eyes. When I was ten summers she took pity on me and went to the town elder and had him write me a letter of freedom from endure. I accepted my freedom and fled to the forest where I lived free and happy.”

Mikel said, “How is it that you can ask us to not pass judgment on those who gave birth to you?'

Vidar smiled. “The answer to this question goes back to the very beginning of our discussion. We are indeed changed by the events that we experience. It is my manner that I embrace the good because I have long since embraced the concept of hope. During our Black Winter the village girl became frustrated with me. She said she believed that I was editing the truth because I had so endeared this concept of hope and that I was only telling her the good and none of the bad. She insisted that I not edit the truth and we made an agreement that neither of us would do this and to this day this agreement between us stands. It is a very fine agreement.

“It is my request that this same agreement exists here at Nirvana House between all of us. Truth is most important and we must ardently stand by truth. I make this a most important rule, the people of Nirvana House must always speak the truth and they are not permitted to edit it. Is this agreed?”

All those there in the common room smiled and nodded.

Vidar looked at Blomst. “What about you Blomst? Do you embrace this concept of Hope?”

She first looked at Vidar and then looked at her daughter. “I do indeed. When Tove's pa died we were entirely without means. The cost of his burial service and his placement in his final bed left me with just a single large silver and two large copper coins in my hand. I had to but just look into the eyes of the babe on my knee and I knew the road that before us was to be a difficult one but we would survive the journey.” Blomst laughed and turned again to face Vidar. “I always had hope but I never expected the road would lead to Nirvana House.”

Vidar looked first at Mikel and then at Rana. He wanted them to tell the story of Mirakel's birth and his early life. This was the most wonderful story of hope he had ever known but he was in the queen's private quarters when it was agreed, at Mirakel's most ardent request, that the five of them who were there would never tell it to anyone else.

Rana spoke up. “There was a time I did not embrace hope. I suffered a great loss and this loss continued for several years. It made me angry and it drove me from the person I cared about the most. I now look back at that time and I realize the passage time has tempered my anger. As we sit here and speak I also realize that if I had I more embraced this concept of hope I would have more tightly held onto trust. If I had held more tightly onto trust I would have not pushed this man I so much cared for away from me.”

“I feel so outside,” said Tove. “All of you speak of trials, hope, loss and trust and I have never been forced to experience any of these things as you have.”

All of them looked to Vidar but it was Blomst who responded. “This makes my heart beat with joy because this is the intent of every person who is responsible for the birth of a child. Every ma and pa does so embracing the concept of hope that the child will live free of pain, trials, and loss.”

“Except for Vidar's ma and pa,” said Mikel.”

“Blomst's words are true words.” Vidar responded. 

He looked at Mikel and the expression on his face conveyed that if the topic of this discussion continued it would be done just between them.

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Vidar was the last to wake in the morning. He had so much enjoyed their discussion in the common room the night before that he was unable to find sleep. His mind was racing because of it and also the joy he felt because he finally had a family. Never in his wretched existence on this terra had Vidar ever imagined he would have even a small circle of two or three friends let alone a family. It was all a blessing and he was quick to realize it was because he chose to protect and provide for a helpless village girl through their Black Winter.

Blomst had to knock on his door twice before he stirred, stood and opened the door.

“You look as though you have not slept,” she said.

Vidar laughed. "There is some truth to those words."

“Was your bed not comfortable?” asked Blomst.

“My bed was most comfortable. Everything is most comfortable. My mind refused to accept sleep because I was not able to contain my delight.”

Blomst smiled. "Tove has begun to make our breakfast and it will be ready soon. She has a large pot of perfumed water ready so you can fill the bowl of your washstand and you will find clean coverings in the trunk over there.”

“I am dressed just in my nightshirt. Will it offend the rest of my family if I walk to the kitchen with my washbowl dressed in this manner?”

“It will not,” she said with a laugh. “Besides, at the moment it is just you, me and Tove. Mikel and Rana are out in the stable seeing to the care of the animals.”

Vidar retrieved the bowl from his washstand and the two of them walked toward the kitchen.

“I have detected that Rana is a little apprehensive of you.”

Blomst smiled. “I know. At the palace she was under my charge and life at the palace when Aksel was king life was most strained and especially so when he was in residence. If something was not to his liking, or sometimes even if it was, he struck out with violence. None of the ladies under my charge wanted to go anywhere near him because they never knew what might happen to them.”

They stopped walking and faced each other.

“On one occasion it was Rana's duty to change the linens on his bed and in her haste to get out of his quarters she was a little careless remaking the bed. He came to me demanding to know who was responsible for leaving the king's bed in such a state. I knew it was Rana and I knew he intended to beat her but I could not let that happen. I told him that it was me who changed his linens and I took the beating for her. I did not know she had been watching until the beating was done and I was struggling to get to my feet. She came running to my assistance but I yanked my arm away from her and I told her that if she ever again failed to perform her duties as she had been instructed she would get a beating from me just like the one I had taken for her. She has been somewhat apprehensive of me ever since.”

Vidar stared at Blomst and realized he was suddenly angry and began taking deep breaths through his nose. It was beyond his understanding how a man could beat this woman, or any woman, just for sport. Finally he asked, “Was this the only time he put his hands on you?”

Blomst did not answer.

“Blomst?”

“He did far worse things to the younger and prettier ones. Things that not even a king has the right to do. The things he did to those young women he had taken from the street or from their homes was even worse. There are times, even now, during the night when I awake and I can hear their screams and their cries.”

Vidar shook his head. 

Blomst smiled and patted him on the arm. “Rana is a wonderful woman. She has a kind nature and she has a most wonderful wit. It will not take long here for her to let go of her apprehension of me.”

He followed her to the kitchen. Tove was slicing dark coarse bread and when she saw him she graced him with a wonderful smile. Blomst pointed to a large pot at the edge of the second hearth and then followed him there. She used a ladle to dip water from the pot to fill the bowl he held out in front of him. As he was walking back to his room. He heard Tove say that everything was ready to cook and she was going to go to the stable to see how much longer Mikel and Rana were going to be. 

Tove approached the stable quietly as was her manner but nearly squealed with delight as she stood in the open door. Mikel and Rana were in an embrace and passionately kissing each other. Tove bounced three or four times and returned to the kitchen unseen.

At the breakfast table Vidar and Mikel began discussing the need for a village and where this should be placed in relation to Nirvana House. The women said nothing but Tove was alive with excitement and unseen under the table her knees were bouncing.  She kept looking at Rana and smiling. Rana was a little unnerved by it and began to wonder if Tove somehow knew what had just taken place on the stable. She had no idea how she could possibly know but if she did were Vidar and Blomst also aware.

Towards the end of the meal Tove was no longer able to contain her excitement. “So, what is new?” she asked Rana.

Rana was momentarily stunned by the question but without missing a beat Mikel replied, “Rana has decided she has forgiven me of all my past transgressions and we are again courting.”

Rana was staring at Mikel and the expression on her face was easy to discern. They all knew he was going to hear some angry words when they were next alone together.

Vidar began clapping. “This makes my heart skip a beat and then skip again with joy and you have no notion of how pleased the queen will be when she hears this news. Why did you keep this a secret from us?”

Rana forced a smile. “It is a very recent development.”

“How recent?” Tove asked, smiling.

Mikel began to laugh. “Much less than one eight of a turn of a sandglass.”

This caused them all to laugh, even Rana.

Vidar asked, “What caused this change of heart?”

Rana looked at Vidar and smiled. “You are the cause of it. All that talk in the common last evening of trials and the concept of hope got me thinking about Mikel and me.”

Vidar jumped in and explained, “These two were once pledged to marry but something happened that put them at odds with each other. It kept them apart until now.”

“You are talking about the birth of Mirakel,” said Blomst.

All eyes turned to Blomst. “I am not a fool. Mikel you were there when they took that poor thing's head and then you were nowhere to be found. Rana you were lurking about and you were not supposed to be there at all. I was there at the end of it all because I was given the horrible task of sewing her into a felt shroud so her head would not be recognized on her way to an unmarked final bed. How was I not to see that her belly had been cut open and the child inside her had been taken? I did not know if the child cut from her belly survived or perished but I said nothing to anyone because to speak of it would cause whispers. The whispers, if they found their way into the wrong ears, surely meant the death of all those involved even if the child had not survived.

“Then after the battle of the throne room this scoundrel with the name Mirakel was receiving treatment from the palace's first physician and special treatment from you Rana. I have never been very good with the counting of numbers but it was not difficult to make it all add up.”

“I knew as well,” said Tove. “He told me, but not directly. Near the end of our Black Winter when he did not have enough coin to purchase ointments and medicines and bandages for the abused he confessed to me what he was doing and it was because he owed his very life to one of the abused. He said that if I could supply him with just one piece of linen he could forgo the bandages and spend the coin he had on just ointments and medicines.” She looked and found Blomst’s eyes. “Ma, it was a risk to you and those under your charge but knowing what it was to be used for I could not deny him.”

Vidar smiled and looked at them one at a time. “I want to point out that the keeping of a secret does not in any way count as editing the truth. I also want to commend you all for your ability to keep secrets. You kept secrets at your own peril to protect someone other than yourselves. I do not have the words to properly express how proud I am to be a member of your family.

“I do have a request. Mirakel mostly ardently made his feelings known that the knowledge he was the bastard son of King Aksel was never to be made known. I beg of you to continue to keep this secret. Mirakel might be a scoundrel but the lad has a most charitable heart and it is my desire that we keep this secret for him. Are we all in agreement?”

They, one and all, echoed a chorus of yes.

CHAPTER FIVE

 

After they had eaten their breakfast and the table was cleared the men were politely dismissed from the kitchen. Vidar and Mikel were not offended because they were eager to get outside and survey. The women in the kitchen were eager to talk as they worked.

Rana looked at Blomst. “Why have you not told him how you feel about him?”

Blomst smiled. “It is not the same as you and Mikel. He is a very private man and he is new to the expression of affections. It has been a very long time since I felt any affection for a man. I am now at an age where all I can offer him is my affection and I am willing to wait until he is ready.”

“He was most pleased to hear that you and Mikel are again courting,” said Tove.

“Yes, and that is all thanks to you, you little stinker.”

This made them all laugh.

“How did you know?” Rana asked.

“I had made all the preparations for our breakfast and I went to the stable to ask how much longer you would be so I would know if I could begin cooking and I witnessed a most passionate kiss.”

Rana blushed and smiled. “That was me, I did that. I am not sure that Mikel was prepared for it but I embraced him and he embraced me back as if he had been longing for it for sixteen summers. I must confess that once he embraced me back and our lips met and I too realized I had been longing for it. I have been such a fool for all these summers.”

“You are a fine pair,” Blomst said and smiled at Rana. “The risks you took that day should have bonded you together till the end of time and I do not understand why they pushed you apart.”

“I was so angry at him, Blomst. It was my hand that held the knife that cut her belly and removed the child. The surprise, delight and fear it caused in us when the babe cried is all but impossible to describe. The child survived but Mikel refused to tell me where he was and who was caring for him so that I could not go to see him with my own eyes. He kept telling me that if it ever became known the child survived the secret of where the child resided ended with him and no amount of torture would make him reveal where this child could be found. It was not until our words in the common room last evening that I fully realized the burden Mikel had shouldered.”

“Under Vidar's instruction he is to be prepared to assume the position of captain of the palace guard. If you someday become his wife you will be able to take a place at court,” said Tove.

Rana smiled. “I would much rather be here at Nirvana House. He has been here less than a day and already we are feeling his influence. Vidar, whose name means warrior of the forest, a man who is yet to be bested with a blade, dispenses kindness and compassion as if he was a child of one of the old Gods of the north. I would never experience this if I was to take a place at court in the palace.”

Tove said, “I recoiled at the first sight of him and this memory causes me a great deal of shame.”

Blomst smiled. “There is no need to feel shame, we all did.”

“I am eager to hear his explanation of why he is not angry and mean,” Rana said. 

“Yes, me too,” agreed Tove.

There was an extended moment of silence. “When they first entered the capital Mikel's squad of palace guards engaged him. He injured Mikel and Huldran had him placed in a cage in the dungeon,” said Rana.

Tove said, “The whispers say that after the holy one declared she was queen by blood she demanded to see him. When the door to his cage was opened she ran into his arms inside the cage and he carried her out still holding her in his arms.”

Blomst smiled. “There is truth to those whispers. Ivar, master steward at the palace, was charged with providing him with a bath and I was charged with having my seamstresses sew him new coverings. They were most disturbed they could not be given a proper size because one that large did not exist.”

The three of them laughed.

“The queen to this day runs into his arms,” said Blomst. “I have been told that when it is but the two of them she will even sit on his lap and bury her face into his chest. Imagine, a village girl at the beginning of our Black Winter sent out to die in the cold and she is rescued by this brute but by the end of it she is embracing him as if he was her pa. Can you even begin to fathom the patience and the kindness he must have shown her?”

Rana shook her head. “I admit I cannot. Although it does not take long in his presence, after the shock of the first sight of him has passed, you stop fearing him. His voice is most often just barely above a whisper but they are strong words and the words are carefully chosen so as to neither offend or alarm.”

“And,” Tove said, picking up where Rana ended, “they are always positive words.” Tove looked at her ma. “Even when he corrects you, you want to thank him.”

Blomst made a sour face. “What are you trying to say, daughter?”

Tove began to laugh and each time she looked at her ma's face she laughed even harder. When she had laughed herself out Blomst was standing with her hands on her hips and a most aggressive expression on her face.

“You ma, are a big pretender. You act like you are a most mean and a most stern woman but you and he share a most similar heart. I think here at Nirvana House you can finally assume your real nature.” Tove looked at Rana. “Would you welcome this?”

Rana smiled and nodded. “I would indeed,” she said. “But there is-”

Blomst interrupted her. “Rana, there is no need to go down that road.”

“What road?” Tove asked.

“It happened a long time ago and it no longer matters,” said Rana.

“I am not convinced,” said Tove.

“The life of the cruel beast, King Aksel, was taken and the village girl now sits on the throne so the tales and memories of those days before no longer matter. If we are to embrace Vidar then we are to let go of the past, we are to embrace tomorrow and we are to embrace the concept of hope. It is why I have again embraced Mikel.”

Tove smiled and nodded but she was not thoroughly convinced.