Burn Your Village || The Last Kingdom

|| CHAPTER 5 - An Oath Leads to Loss ||

|| CHAPTER 5 – An Oath Leads to Loss ||

(Series 1- Episode 3)

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(A/N - So...I know I went ages without updating. Again. But, I've been very stressed and just haven't had the room in my head for this. But I love this story, and I think I want to focus on it for a little while, so expect another chapter relatively soon.)

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While Uhtred and Signe had been conferring with Alfred, Brida had been in the woods, sick and reeling from communing with the gods. And what she had seen in her vision, had only hardened her resolve for them to flee.

Wind Viper.

Young Ragnar's ship.

Her heart had swelled at the thought of being reunited with her dear friend. But, the three spinners that dwelt within the earth had spun Uhtred's fate and intertwined it with Alfred's'. With Wessex. And as she followed him, so in turn, was Signe's.

Hearing that Uhtred had promised to attend the negotiations with Guthrum, had devastated Brida, and Signe had watched her eyes darken like a gathering storm. There was a regard with which her friend had always held Uhtred, that had lit up her face, but it had dimmed so much in that moment, that she now struggled to see it.

Brida had also been barred from the negotiations, and Signe had been sure that she would be spurned too. But to her surprise, she found herself attending upon Alfred's request.

They were in a place called Wilton, still in the kingdom of Wessex, and they watched from beneath a constructed canopy as Guthrum approached with his men, travelling on horseback through a gulley in the forest.

There was a great rustling as the blanket of fallen leaves was disturbed, browns and oranges tumbling around the hooves of their mounts.

Signe felt sickness coil around her insides like a snake, constricting her as if she were its prey.

She remembered all too well how Guthrum had looked at her in that church, blood from the cut she had inflicted upon him, soaking into a makeshift bandage.

What she felt was not fear, nor regret—defending herself was never something she would be remorseful about—but apprehension at how the man would respond to the sight of her. If it affected the negotiations, it could also harm Uhtred's standing with Alfred and his efforts to become an Aelderman. To reclaim Bebbanburg.

Brida on the other hand, was suspicious of Alfred. She was convinced that he only wanted the two of them at the meeting, so that he could betray them and hand them over to Guthrum.

For reasons unknown even to herself, Signe could not believe it.

She was yet to discern the true nature of the king, and he frustrated her beyond measure, but on this, she felt he could be trusted. Perhaps that was foolish, but trust was not a choice, it was something you felt. And as he had garnered some good will with her by forcing young Odda to apologise to them, she would not fight it the feeling until he gave her cause to.

As they watched the approaching Danes, Signe stood beside Beocca, who had Uhtred on his other side. Leofric loomed large behind them, while Odda and his son stood further back.

The priest straightened at the sound of approaching footsteps and then Alfred appeared by her side.

He was wearing chainmail, and to Signe he seemed not different, but elevated. He carried himself in a way that was not the same as when he was in his royal garb and behind his castle walls.