Kingdom Come

XXI. 'Till I Collapse

"Hmm," her father answered once more.

The man looked at them all. "Well, you keep trouble out of my alehouse, agreed?" the man told them.

"Hey, we're just hungry for some food," Finan told the man. "Nothing more."

"And you have women?" her father asked. "He needs a woman," he gestured to Osferth and they all smirked.

"We're not that sort of alehouse," the man informed her father.

"Finan," Uhtred began. The Irishman held up a few pieces of silver for the man but pulled them away quickly when the man reached for them.

"Hey, why do I always have to pretend to be the virgin?" Osferth asked her father as they all walked after Uhtred and Finan. Jaehaera chuckled as Sihtric wrapped his arm around Jaehaera's shoulders as they walked to keep her close to him.

"Because no one would believe any one of us except for you would be the virgin," Uhtred answered simply. They quickly found a few priests being whipped by the women they were humping. Well, by the woman humping them.

Osferth looked at a pair in slight amazement and concern. "I'm a virgin in that, Lord," he informed Uhtred.

"I'm sure you are, Osferth," Uhtred agreed. "We found our monks." Uhtred pulled Osferth by the back of his armor to leave the place.

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It was now nightfall and Sihtric, Rickon, and Jaehaera waited for Uhtred, Finan, and Osferth to return with the monks that they had found. They found the three and Beocca and young Uhtred walking towards each other and the three joined them. "Uhtred," Uhtred called to his son. He gestured to the two monks Jaehaera and the other two had just seen pass by them. "See these two monks? They're the ones we've been searching for," young Uhtred looked to where their father had pointed. "They're leaving for Bebbanburg. Follow them. It's our strongest chance of getting into the fortress."

Young Uhtred looked back at the two monks again, and then at his father. "I can't simply follow-"

"If there were, I would not ask," Uhtred interrupted his son. "My men have been there recently. They would be recognized."

"So, I am the sacrificial lamb-"

"You are our greatest hope," Jaehaera interrupted before her father could. "Can you not see that? Do not do this for father," she walked to her brother and stood in front of him. "Do it for our descendants. Whatever he takes will one day be yours."

Uhtred looked at his sister. "I'm not the warrior you both seem to mistake me for," he told her. "Why do you both have this faith in me?"

She placed a gentle hand on his cheek. "Because you won't need to be a warrior," she told him. "You won't have to use violence to get in because you share a common faith with the monks. You will do this in the best way you know how."

Uhtred looked at his son. "And because I know the spirit of our family is within you," he told him. "That will give you a strength that you do not know yet."

Young Uhtred looked between his sister and father. "I will try to do as you need," he told them, "but I will not kill a man."

"That is all I want," Uhtred told his son while patting his arm.

"Three pieces of silver says he runs home," Finan whispered to Osferth, and the two shook hands. Jaehaera took her brother's hand and lead him to a horse with her father.