Chapter 9: A Sea-King’s Bridal Bower

“And here,” my son Thorstein said, and he was smiling as he lifted the great cup from which he now drank, and it was indeed the cup into which Horsa Önundarson’s skull had been made. “Here is the cup from which my father fashioned Horsa Önundarson’s skull following it’s gifting from my mother to my father, and let all see this cup, so as to vouch for the truthfulness of my mother’s tale.”

So saying, Thorstein tossed off the contents of that great gold-coated skull-cup, and placed it on the High Table before him.

“Let all who wish, now come forward, and with your own eyes examine this cup, but do not touch it, for my father valued this cup highly as his bridal gift from my mother, and on his deathbed, he passed this cup on to me, as many who are here now can witness, and he bade me drink from it on feast-days, for in Valhalla he will know, and his wish was that all remember the fate of Horsa Önundarson, and know that any who challenge the sons and grandsons of Harald Wolfs-Fang may expect to share this fate.”

And many did indeed wish to come forward and gaze upon the Cup made from Horsa Önundarson’s skull, and many were the jokes made at Horsa’s expense, and at his son, Hengist’s, and my mind wandered a little, recalling that bridal night so long ago, and so vivid in my memories.

And I, I smiled as I sat there, drinking a little of the fermented mare’s milk I made for myself, for no other here enjoyed the taste of the airag but I, and I remembered that night, that joyous wedding night filled with the pleasure of Harald Grims-son’s taking, for he had led me out from the Hall and across the clearing to the beach on which the three longships lay, and his guards at his command had eased one longship down and into the water, and my new husband had lifted me up and in, and clambered in after me.

“It is fitting that a sea-king’s wedding night be on his ship, and here is our wedding bower,” he had said, and there was a small platform at the stern, and beneath it a doorway, and inside that doorway a small shelter such as someone might sit up in.

“Our bed will be of animal fur, my bride,” Harald had said, and there were bales of such furs down the center of the ship, and he had cut one open and was throwing the furs through the small hatch.

“I would wash myself in the river first, my husband,” I said, and I was shedding my clothes as I spoke, for I wished not to go to my bridal bed covered and coated in other men’s blood, and indeed, the only blood I wished to see on my skin in the morn was my own, as evidence to my husband that he was my first man, and my sex danced with anticipation, for now I was to know a man, and he was my husband, and I gazed upon him with joy as he smiled.

“The river has ice on it,” he said. “And the water here is deep.”

“It is of no importance,” I said, naked now, and I slipped over the side of the ship, smiling, my feet kicking through that thin film of ice and I dropped in, and those days and weeks of training with Sergeant Wen had trained me not only to keep the cold face, they had accustomed me to bathing in icy water, and great was my pleasure as I floated there, washing the blood from my body and from my hair.

“The more I see and learn of you, Lady Fan, the more I am in love,” Harald said. “For I was born in a land where the winters are such as this and yet I would not leap into an ice-covered river to bathe, and if I did, I wouldst not be singing as thou art, and I will have a steam bath built on the morrow, for we will be here some days.”

I giggled now, washing, or at least rinsing, my hair, and my body glowed with warmth despite the ice around me. “Come and join me, husband, for the water is not overly cold,” I said, and indeed, compared to some of those rivers in which I had lain with Sergeant Wen, time after time, it was balmy, although not the hot baths I had been accustomed to at home in my father’s palace in Luoyang.

Harald laughed, and with that laugh, he leapt naked from the side of the longship into the river water, crashing through the ice, and when his head emerged, he was not laughing.

“Wōdan’s balls,” he screamed.

“Are you safe, Lord?” one of his guards called from the shore, and I could hear their voices, for we were only twenty feet from the beach.

“My bride wished to cleanse herself in the river,” Harald called out, and he was splashing for the side of the ship and pulling himself hastily out of the water. “And in washing myself, I have found the water a little chilly.”

Me, I floated in a pool amidst the ice, and it was not the cold face I wore, for I laughed. “It is merely a little refreshing,” I called out as Harald stood. “And when you are on the ship, I will join you, my husband.”

So saying, I swam to the ship and I reached up my hands to my husband, and he lifted me easily from the water, for his strength was enormous, and now I stood naked before him again. Naked, and this time I was clean, and so was he, and I took his hands in mine, and those large strong hands were gentle as they held mine, and they dwarfed mine, as everything of him dwarfed me, for the top of my head did not even reach his shoulder, and he smiled down upon me tenderly.

“Dry yourself,” he said, and his teeth shone white as he handed me a large fur and took one for himself. “For the water is freezing to ice in your hair and on your skin,” and he was drying himself with vigor, and my eyes widened, for indeed, I had seen many of my men naked over the last three years, but Harald dwarfed them all, and my heart beat the faster, and my sex moistened with my body’s sudden reaction to that sight.

In the darkness, there was no-one to see us, and indeed, my education had been thorough, for it was expected that upon my marriage, I would know how to please my husband, even if I was a virgin, as I must be in all honor to my husband, and smiling, I knelt before Harald, and I took his manhood into my mouth, sliding my lips down that long shaft, taking as much of him into my mouth as I could, and his hair there was golden too, and I sucked on him long and hard, swirling my tongue on him as he hardened in my mouth, moaning my own pleasure around him.

He threw his head back, groaning, his hands clutching at my head, holding me on his shaft as my tongue swirled, tasting him, exploring that now hard rigidity, savoring the taste and the feel of his thick length on my tongue, between my lips, filling my mouth, and I moaned softly as he eased back, my lips sealed to him as he eased outwards until only the tip of him remained.

He shuddered with his pleasure as he eased himself back into my mouth, the grip of his hands in my hair, the jerking movements of his hips as he edged himself inwards, deeper into my mouth, and I moaned with my own excitement now, looking up at him, and one of hands found his testicles, cupped him tenderly, caressed those delicate balls as my mouth moved on him and now I forced my lips down his shaft, enjoying his swollen hardness stretching my lips wide to encompass his girth, and enormous he was, so that my lips were indeed stretched around him, and I wished him to take me, and make of me a woman.

His hands took me, lifted me, and he laid me on the furs on the deck, and neither of us cared that the snow fell lightly, pure and white has he lay me on a white bear fur, and I surrendered myself to him, parting my thighs as he moved to kneel between them, looking down at me, and his manhood was enormous and rigid with his desire, and I looked up at him, drinking in the rugged handsomeness of his face, the love and the desire for me in those shining eyes of icy blue, the strangeness of his great mane of golden hair and the thick curls of his beard and that great moustache.

My hand found his rigid length, clasped his silky heated hardness, guided him to my entrance as I drew my knees back, opening myself to him, offering myself to him, and I was willingly and eager, yet I was also afraid, for I had never known a man, and his manhood was enormous, huge beyond all expectation, and I spoke now, words whispered in love.

Whispered as I offered myself to him. “I’ve never...”

“I know you haven’t, my beloved wife, my Lady Fan, my Princess.” His voice, it was tender, caring, gentle. As gentle as his fingers brushing my still wet hair back from my face. As gentle now as his lips brushing mine, his mouth on mine, kissing me as no man had ever kissed me before, his mouth gentle at first, then hungry.

My mouth opened to his, kissing him first as I’d been taught how to kiss a man, then forgetting that teaching as his mouth devoured mine, possessed mine, his tongue now deep inside my mouth, meeting mine, tasting him as I sucked him deep, as I gave him what he desired, and his weight was heavy on me, crushing me down into the fur, but I wanted to be crushed, I wanted his weight on me, his forcefulness. I wanted that surrender as my hand between us guided his hardness to me.

He was hard. Hard and solid, brushing the entrance to my sex so that I cried out at his touch, hard and thick where I was slippery with that heated excitement and that need within me grew, and the fear was still there, but also that helpless desire, that need to surrender myself to him.

“Yes ... yes...” My hand urged him to take what I desired to surrender to him, guided him to that which he wished to take and he held himself poised, the hardness of his erection there and ready to enter me.

“You are my wife,” his voice was low, a deep groan of desire and want

“Forever your wife, Harald Grims-son,” I moaned, my back arching with my need, my small firm breasts crushed against that solid chest, my tautly slender thighs forced wide, spread-eagled beneath his weight as he moved in my hand, and I guided him and this time there was no holding back, no hesitation.

The swollen head of his rigid shaft found me, my hand released him, both my hands clutching at his broadly muscled back, my body arching beneath him, and my feet were kicking against the furs that covered us as that thick cockhead stretched my delicate and hitherto untouched opening, and he began to open me.

“Ahh ... ahhh ... aahhhh...” My voice sobbed out into the cold night air as he pushed himself inside me, stretching me around his thickness, tearing my virgin membrane with one hard thrust that drew a cry of sudden pain, working his thickened shaft deeper inside me, stretching me around his massive manhood, and I welcomed that pain, welcomed that stretching, welcomed the swollen head of his manhood ravaging my sex, opening me, forcing my surrender as a husband should on his wedding night.

“Ohhhhh ... ohhhhhh ... Ohhhhhhh.” My cries echoed in the night as he took me, and I was aware of nothing but his body on mine, his manhood possessing me, and he was taking me indeed, taking me and making me his.

His manhood was hard inside me, forcing itself deeper, forcing me to give, taking that which he desired, and he was deep now, deep within my body, spearing inwards, my sex clasping his thickness as he moved, as he thrust, and everything I had been taught fled my mind in that desire to be taken by him.

“Aaaaahhhhh ... ohhhhhh ... aaaaaahhhhhhh.” All of him was inside me, he was pressed up against me and I groaned with that fullness, impaled, and he was all of him inside me, and I was a virgin no more, my virginity surrendered, sacrificed to my husband, and he had taken that which I could gift but once.

“My wife.” His deep groan was one of satisfaction, and I knew not what strange barbarian thoughts ran through his mind, but he was man, and he had taken me as all men desire to take a woman, and he did not pause now. There was only that steady rhythmic thrusting of his manhood deep inside my body that drove me half out of my mind as he had me, almost drawing himself out, surging up inside me.

Again and again.

I gazed blindly up into his eyes as he thrust, thrust deeply, thrust hard, burying himself to the hilt within my sex, stretching my channel around his rigidly swollen length with every thrust, and now my virginity was forgotten, for in his desire, he was taking me as a man takes his woman.

Hard and fast, and I was his, and he had found his rhythm, his thrusts deep and hard, his shaft spearing into me again and again, lancing deep inside my body so that I cried out with every plunging thrust, and his hands roamed over my naked body now as he took me, exploring, caressing, holding me as he had me, forcing himself deep inside me so that it was as if his shaft within my body sought to reach my heart.

Large and thick and hard within my body, a spear of hard flesh that held me transfixed, that demanded my surrender, that took from my body what it desired even as I gave everything, and my excitement grew, so that I was sobbing, and moaning, and crying out helplessly, my hands clutching at his back, at his shoulders, feet tenting the furs over us as he pounded his manhood into my sex, stretching, thrusting, penetrating, impaling again and again, hammering my slender body into the wooden deck on which we lay, and he was close, his movements becoming uncontrolled, and I knew he was near, as a woman knows.

“I have to,” he groaned, all too soon, for I wanted this helpless surrender to him to go on forever, or at least all night, but his need was upon him, the demands of his thrusts becoming more urgent.

“Yes,” I moaned, wanting nothing more than to satisfy him. “Yes ... yes...”

He shuddered against me, crushing me between his body and the wooden deck beneath the white furs, his shaft hammering into me, thrusting deeply where he joined me, the cradle of my thighs accepting him, meeting him, and my pleasure peaked in a soaring wave of desire and love and there was nothing else but him and that golden wave that swept through me, filling me, and my sex spasmed around that thickened shaft that possessed me, and I knew his culmination was upon him as he thrust one last time, deep, so deep and hard and solid, and his manhood spurted, filling me with his seed, throbbing, pumping, spurting hotly as he found his satisfaction.

My eyes widened as he throbbed inside me, as my body took his seed within me, and I welcomed his culmination, my body now his, everything of me his in that long eternity of pleasure as my body arched beneath him, as my sex danced and sang on his pulsing shaft, as his seed flooded my sex and now I had found that which I had heard women speak of.

Ecstasy in his love.

Afterwards, beneath him still, my thighs cradling his weight, my hands resting on those thick muscles, I reveled in the awareness of my possession, his manhood huge and thick inside me, and if this was what being a wife was, I was happy as I had never known happiness, and he was smiling down at me.