COLONY WARS

CHAPTER 110-RIGHTFUL

LEIF POV

"News have spread like wildfire, of the return of Bjorn's rightful daughter. The people are confident in ye, since ye were the only one to return from Ellios." Ragnar spoke, watching me as I took a bath.

Rightful, why did the word disgust me so much?

"Lilith hopes to kill me before the rise of a new day." I said,

"She will not get near you, not while I am here."

"She will send assassins."

"I will kill them all," he said, "I used to protect yer father when we were younger. I was his shadow."

"His shadow?"

"Aye."

"Tell me something then, how come ye don't know about Rhea?"

His face changed at the word.

"Ragnar, did ye know of her?"

"I have heard of the name."

"Ye lied to me. Ye have been for a while," I stared at him blankly.

If I was born in Celtic, it made no sense that no one knew that an Amdelonian woman was within Celtic, for as long as she was here.

"Tell me the truth, I beg of ye."

"Yanus. We were in Yanus when ye father met her. She was a soldier and our war prisoner."

My eyes widened at the revelation, at the realization that Ragnar had also lied to my face when I first asked him who I was. He and Bjorn had collectively lied to me.

"She was a part of a few soldiers that tried to topple Yanus and take it from us. Rhea, a green eyed Amdelonian with long raven hair that fell in swirls. Bjorn...he took interest in her there and could not bring himself to kill her, so instead he kept her...as a prisoner."

"What happened then?"

"I married Josephine and returned to Celtic, leaving Bjorn and his fellow trusted men. I...he did not return to Celtic, leaving behind his wife Idina and the two little girls Tove and Inga. They asked for him, and I had to lie, I lied for three years and when he returned to Celtic...he was not alone. He was with a child, ye."

"What happened to her? Rhea?"

"Bjorn never uttered a word, but I know that it had something to do with Za'afiel."

Za'afiel, her name was tattooed to my memory.

A single tear ran down my cheek and I felt it slide down my face.

"I never thought that ye were Rhea's child, if I did, I swear that I would have let ye know Leif. That is the reason I regretted letting ye go to Bjorn that winter. It all made sense once ye were gone, once I stopped denying yer existence. Forgive me."

"Yer are forgiven." The words came out, "But ye have to give me names of these trusted men that ye left Bjorn with."

"Three of them lived, but we lost two last winter."

"And the remaining one?"

"Erwin, his name is Erwin, and he owns a bar,"

~~~

Erwin. He owned a bar.

As I sat amongst the men and women within the room, their voices were muted. I watched them while they tried to reason peacefully with the screaming Lilith who threatened the kingdom.

"I will not live under the rules of a girl! Bjorn would have never..."

"Bjorn is dead!" the old man told her, "Get that through yer skull woman!"

"Woman? Queen! I am queen!"

"The people have decided that they want Leif. If ye wish to challenge that, then ye can go down to the arena and fight her."

"This is absurd!" she shook her head, "All of ye are crazy! This child left Celtic with Aaron's men."

"And ye know this how? Where is proof?" asked Ragnar.

"Barbara confessed before she was killed."

"We cannot take the word of a dead woman Lilith, surely ye understand."

"All of ye will die a painful death for letting a fool like Leif take the throne. I swear to the gods that ye will die!"

"The royal council does not take threats lightly woman," they warned her.

That seemed to put her place because she stormed out, weeping like a little girl. It was satisfying, watching her cry away like the girl that she was. She was barely a woman anyways.

"Well, I'm glad her reign is over." Debrah, one of the members said, "Such a nuisance."

"Now, with her gone let us discuss the future."

"Aye,"

"No man with Bjorn's blood exists. Leif is the last of his blood and unfortunately, she is a woman. As sad as this is, a new bloodline needs to be established. Yer children need to have great blood, great Celtic blood."

Where was he going with this?

"The children of Solveig, the only men to ride white dragons to war. Leif will need to wed from the Brotherhood."

Brotherhood?! My jaw dropped at the proposal.

"Ye understand nothing. The brotherhood as the largest territory, the only men to have ridden white dragons to war. They have power, influence and they own this port and the next."

Magnus's words resurfaced in my head. They were the blonde men, Freya's brothers, the savages that killed Magnus.