Read Online Blind Allegiance by Violetta Rand - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Violetta Rand
Ads: Link
enemies. I know these ancient practices violate the tenets of your religion, but we were mandated by our gods to use our skills to help shape the future. Your church unfairly condemns pagans, levies false charges, and executes them.”
The disir hadrevealed his fate. They referred to him as half a man, and those prolific words beset him the most . A woman, spirit or otherwise, could say nothing more degrading. Randvior had interpreted them correctly, in his opinion, therefore safeguarding his virility from further scrutiny. The gods wanted him to take a wife. A woman can fill the empty spaces in a man’s soul like mortar between stones. He went where Odin commanded and found the girl. With his blood heating exquisitely, while she squirmed innocently in his lap, he nudged her off to keep himself from losing control.
He stood. She was too beautiful for her own good.
And his. The only way to win her affection would be to woo her.
“That’s it?” she complained. “Your silly story ends there? You fill my head with ridiculous notions of gods and spirits—prophetic visions, fire, and mayhem and end it without resolution?”
Keeping a straight face, he let her rant continue.
“My senses tell me you’re full of—”
Randvior laughed warningly. “Sometimes a story ends where it must. This isn’t girlish make-believe, but an honest recounting of what carried me here.”
Most women would have swooned upon hearing how the gods favored him. Not this one. Noelle Sinclair simply rejected him.
Days passed and Randvior spent his afternoons walking and talking with Noelle on deck.
Today, he formally introduced her to Odin and a myriad of deities he worshipped. He also prepared her for the reaction his people might have once they found out she was English. It seemed hatred thrived on both sides of the sea. Men most fear what they do not understand.
“Decades of derision lay between our countries. The first Norse ships landed in Lindisfarne over two hundred years ago. My ancestors swept the region, pillaging, and enslaving with such unprecedented success that no one seemed capable of stopping them. Their bloodthirstiness struck fear in the hearts of men. Norsemen have been demonized ever since.”
The only thing Noelle surmised his people feared was the expansion of what they considered an illegitimate faith, which had already cost thousands of people their lives across the continent.
“Last year,” Randvior continued, “a Christian convert named Olaf Haraldsson, returned to my country to claim the crown. He publicly professed his new faith and proclaimed the indisputable right to unite the country under the Pope’s banner. Most jarlsrejected his idea.”
“Why?”
“My kinsmen are fiercely devoted to Odin. We would never abandon centuries of tradition because belief in a new god was carried across the sea by a zealot long absent from his homeland,” he said. “There is always increased risk when a man’s ambition is driven by religious fervor.”
Noelle didn’t know what to say. People should freely choose what god they want to worship, and if Christ’s blood united nations, well, she would secretly celebrate it.
“Your religion will sweep the world and your god’s holy soldiers will kill anyone who gets in the way. Tension is building across Western Europe as I speak, and I believe your Pope will eventually set his eyes on the Holy Land,” he said.
“Do you forbid me to practice my faith?”
“No,” he answered curtly.“But any open display of your vulgar traditions might draw unwanted attention, and may even prevent you from being accepted by the women. Women you will need on your side one day.”
“What traditions do you speak of?”
“Cannibalism,” he said plainly. “Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of your White Christ.”
Noelle looked at him incredulously. Had she heard him correctly? “You are greatly mistaken. We do not actually eat his flesh or drink his blood. Holy
The disir hadrevealed his fate. They referred to him as half a man, and those prolific words beset him the most . A woman, spirit or otherwise, could say nothing more degrading. Randvior had interpreted them correctly, in his opinion, therefore safeguarding his virility from further scrutiny. The gods wanted him to take a wife. A woman can fill the empty spaces in a man’s soul like mortar between stones. He went where Odin commanded and found the girl. With his blood heating exquisitely, while she squirmed innocently in his lap, he nudged her off to keep himself from losing control.
He stood. She was too beautiful for her own good.
And his. The only way to win her affection would be to woo her.
“That’s it?” she complained. “Your silly story ends there? You fill my head with ridiculous notions of gods and spirits—prophetic visions, fire, and mayhem and end it without resolution?”
Keeping a straight face, he let her rant continue.
“My senses tell me you’re full of—”
Randvior laughed warningly. “Sometimes a story ends where it must. This isn’t girlish make-believe, but an honest recounting of what carried me here.”
Most women would have swooned upon hearing how the gods favored him. Not this one. Noelle Sinclair simply rejected him.
Days passed and Randvior spent his afternoons walking and talking with Noelle on deck.
Today, he formally introduced her to Odin and a myriad of deities he worshipped. He also prepared her for the reaction his people might have once they found out she was English. It seemed hatred thrived on both sides of the sea. Men most fear what they do not understand.
“Decades of derision lay between our countries. The first Norse ships landed in Lindisfarne over two hundred years ago. My ancestors swept the region, pillaging, and enslaving with such unprecedented success that no one seemed capable of stopping them. Their bloodthirstiness struck fear in the hearts of men. Norsemen have been demonized ever since.”
The only thing Noelle surmised his people feared was the expansion of what they considered an illegitimate faith, which had already cost thousands of people their lives across the continent.
“Last year,” Randvior continued, “a Christian convert named Olaf Haraldsson, returned to my country to claim the crown. He publicly professed his new faith and proclaimed the indisputable right to unite the country under the Pope’s banner. Most jarlsrejected his idea.”
“Why?”
“My kinsmen are fiercely devoted to Odin. We would never abandon centuries of tradition because belief in a new god was carried across the sea by a zealot long absent from his homeland,” he said. “There is always increased risk when a man’s ambition is driven by religious fervor.”
Noelle didn’t know what to say. People should freely choose what god they want to worship, and if Christ’s blood united nations, well, she would secretly celebrate it.
“Your religion will sweep the world and your god’s holy soldiers will kill anyone who gets in the way. Tension is building across Western Europe as I speak, and I believe your Pope will eventually set his eyes on the Holy Land,” he said.
“Do you forbid me to practice my faith?”
“No,” he answered curtly.“But any open display of your vulgar traditions might draw unwanted attention, and may even prevent you from being accepted by the women. Women you will need on your side one day.”
“What traditions do you speak of?”
“Cannibalism,” he said plainly. “Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of your White Christ.”
Noelle looked at him incredulously. Had she heard him correctly? “You are greatly mistaken. We do not actually eat his flesh or drink his blood. Holy
Similar Books
