Day 130: The Skull Reader Part 4

Dust glittered in the warm sunlight that streamed through the window.  All morning, she cleaned for the arrival of the king’s servant.  The last eleven skulls lined up with the rest.  During the readings, she gleaned nothing new about the battle.  The history recorded simply stated the birth, death, cause of death, marriage, children, parents, and function in the army.  The country cared little for any of the personal history.  When the skulls returned to the library, a family member could request a reading, but the expense was too high for most citizens.

Hille finished sweeping the floor when a knock sounded on the door.  The dog ran to greet whoever came to visit, his butt wiggling in the excitement of company.  She hadn’t heard a wagon pull up, so she suspected Ole stood on the other side.  For two days, she practiced what she would say to him.  Ushering him into the living space, while keeping Thor inside, she explained the reading revealed nothing about his ancestor.

"I don't understand," Ole slammed the palm of his hand down on the table.  "We had fifty of our villagers at that battle and not one skull that I have unearthed has been read from them."

Hille stared into his eyes without flinching.  "You will remain calm in my home or you will no longer be welcome."

Glaring at her, he wiped his face with his hand.  "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I am so tired of seeing me and mine being treated so horribly.  We don't deserve the contempt.  I know my grandfather was a courageous man, not the coward they claim him as.  But you have to admit how none of this makes sense.  How many skulls have you read for me?"

"Fifteen, which really isn't that much.”  She reached down to scratch behind Thor’s ears to distract him from bothering Ole.  “One hundred were read originally and I have been through the histories, and they are consistent with the story."

"One hundred skulls from the royals, the city garrison, and the northern section of the country.  None of those skulls came from our village.”  He shook his head no, not accepting what she told him.  “How can a history be complete without the stories of all who perished?"

"Ole, I understand your frustration.  But what of the eyewitness account of old man Gullingsrud?"

"You know as well as I that he came back rattled in the head with battle sickness.  In your report after he died, you said his memories were too confusing to make a valid judgment."

Relenting this point, she nodded her head in agreement.  The hardest reading came from those who lost their wits in the middle of the battle.  She never told Ole about the one reading she found in the library of an alternative history.  At the time, she reasoned that at the end of the soldier's life he saw a two headed monster tear a chunk of his stomach out as he lay on the battleground dying.  He was obviously hallucinating.  Those histories are still written, but with no supporting histories from other skulls, the stories are deemed inconsistent.

In the silence, she broached her thought.  "Have you considered ending your search?  You spend too much money on these readings."

"I can't have you give up on the family, Hille.  I know the answers are on that field."  The anger in his eyes faded to be replaced with a deep sadness.  "My poor Anna is mucking out pig stalls of the Olsen's because no one will buy her sewing.  Work that is so fine she should be in the city.  You have said as much.  I worry about her so because that man himself is a pig and has tried a number of times to have his way with her.  I think it is just a matter of time before he violates her."

Touching the lace on the collar of her dress, her plan to tell him no more skulls unraveled in front of his despair.  She grew up poor with no prospects.  For three years, she worked for a family with eight small children.  The husband made advances towards her daily.  The wife caught him on top of her in the barn and threw her out.  Running in fear of being punished, for adultery was a crime punished by branding, she found a skull washed up in an ancient battlefield.  As her fingertips touched the bone, the visions leapt into her sight.  This saved her.  Anna had no such way to save herself.  Anna’s only hope was in the readings if any came to reveal what really happened at the battle.  Hille sighed.  "Have you considered a wider search?  Maybe some of the enemy soldiers from the west."

Ole's words spoke true.  None of their village men had been found on the field.  No enemies had been found either.  The puzzle intrigued her just enough that she let herself be drawn into the mystery, again.

"But you know the histories of the beaten are never used as evidence to clear a family's name."

"True, but they may point us in a different direction to look."  She shrugged her shoulders, hating to see Ole in despair.

"Hille, even I know the law that a reader is forbidden from reading the enemy's skulls.  If the king found out, you could be hung for treason.  I can't let that happen to you."

She smiled.  "I can always say the skull was missed in the great sorting.  The crime is not in the reading, it is in the telling.  No one would have to know but you and me.  Bring two and we can see what we discover."

Standing up, she could see him wrestling with the idea.  Truly this man did not deserve the shunning of the village.  Even her Torger didn't work as hard as Ole.  Granted, the stigma didn't taint Torger’s family.   They could afford to relax without proving their family strength.  She watched as Ole walked to the door.  Without turning around, he rested his head against the edge after he pulled it open.

"I will never put you and Torger in danger.  The two of you are the only ones to give all of us the benefit of the doubt.  But I do ask you to read the next skull from the field."

"I would be honored to continue in the quest."  She wondered how many more skulls would have to be read before he finally gave up.  "Please give Malvina my best.  And tell her the tea is always warm."

He turned.  "You are a fine lady.  I thank you."  He slipped out the door.

Torger would be spitting angry when she told him that she would read more skulls for Ole.  The story of Anna would soften his resolve as well.  After the death of their own girl, he held a soft spot in his heart for her.  In fact, he insisted Hille buy all her lace from Anna.  Besides, he would just have to realize that sometimes friendship trumped the rest of the world.