you don't own me - the last kingdom

eoferwic

...

uhtred and i rejoined hild and halig in the alehouse with the company of father beocca and brother trew. i was grateful to eat a proper meal for once, a simple stew but still, it was better than the scraps id survived off at the hands of the danes. i tried to keep myself from eating too quickly and instead tried to savour every morsel.

'we are travelling north, with alfred's blessing, and silver.' beocca began.

'there is a ransom to be paid to free a slave.

but he is no ordinary slave, this man is marked to become a king, of cumbraland. his name is guthred'

'a dane?' uhtred asked, confused just as i was.

'but a good man, a man of god.' beocca confirmed. i almost rolled my eyes but composed myself. beocca seemed to be a good man. but i'd met many priests who were not, priests would come and go from our village making sure people were keeping faith. some of them were lovely and others were slimy creatures who would leer at women and girls. i didn't like those priests.

'the spirit of saint cuthbert has decreed that guthred shall be king' brother trew stated and gestured the sign of the cross along with father beocca.
'a prophecy'

i did roll my eyes at that, and i saw that uhtred did as well.

'he appeared in a dream to the abbot eadred of cumbraland. he named guthred as king of both saxons and danes'. saxon and dane? that was unheard of.

uhtred paused for a minute then asked 'how many men is that?'

'hundreds, thousands perhaps' brother trew confirmed.

'warriors?' he asked.

'some yes, ofcourse'

'alfred would not be content with this man being soley king of cumbraland'

'well yes, alfred would wish for guthred's influence to spread across the whole of northumbria'. beocca confirmed.

'including here in eoferwic'. uhtred added.

a pause.

'come with us. help us to free guthred. protect the ransom until it is delivered and i am sure it will be rewarded.' father beocca proposed to uhtred.

'your bargain is with whom?'

'a slave master.'

'the village in which we are meeting sits on land that belongs to someone from your past.

kjartan.' beocca added.

the atmosphere in the room seemed to change. i didn't know who kjartan was or what he had done, but i was going to find out.

'kjartans land will be full of men. warriors' hild said.

'father, whos protected you so far? do you have no guard?' halig asked.

'we have gathered a group of sickly men who suffer from the white riff.

leprosy is a terrible curse.