Merciful || Ivar the Boneless

t h i r t y f o u r

The silence was almost unbearable as they were quietly sneaking through the forest. Here and there you could hear owls hoot or sticks break under their feet. With each step, they tried to be as quiet as possible and everytime someone would make a noise, everyone would almost stop breathing.

The whole time Eira was admiring the beauty of nature. The tall strong trees standing next to each other, shaking when the wind ran through their leaves. It wasn't as dark as it was when they were preparing. The sun was getting closer to showing up which meant they didn't have much time left. The plan was to strike before the sunrise. 

Without realizing it, she was playing with one of her small blades in her hand; flipping it between her fingers. Even though it was still kind of dark, Ivar noticed that and smiled. He was a few feet behind her, walking slowly with a crutch in his hand. How he wished he could just throw that ugly thing away and walk faster to keep up with her, to grab her by her hand and kiss her cheek. 

It was like Eira heard his thoughts and turn her head around to find Ivar watching her. She smiled at him lightly, slowing down so he could keep up with her and they could walk together. 

"Hello," she said as quiet as possible for him to hear. 

"Eira," he said in a different voice, almost a royal sound to it. 

"Keep that blade close to you," he advised her. Eira just nodded, holding the blade still in her hand, no more flipping. 

"We're almost there," she whispered, her eyes looking straight forward. Her jaw was tight, her whole posture changed. She was ready to fight and nobody could stop her.

The sky was lighter. The orange color was mixing the dark blue, making it look almost as if the sky was thirsty for blood too.

"Gods are with us," Ivar whispered as he looked up.

"Gods are with us," Eira repeated and smiled. It gave her the feeling of reassurance. There have been moments when she doubted herself and her intentions. After all, her name means merciful.

But it wasn't time to be merciful, it was time to be ruthless. 

Bjorn stopped walking, raising his hand to give others a sign. Everyone slowed down until they were all standing still except Eira and Ivar, who walked carefully straight forward towards Bjorn. All the people in their group kind of made a space for them, so they could walk just straight ahead. All those eyes were watching them but they didn't care. It was the opposite, they were walking with pride and confidence. 

"Look," Bjorn pointed out. 

There they were. Some of them were already up and outside, sitting by the places where they had bonfires, eating leftovers. The majority couldn't be seen because they were in their tents, probably preparing their tactics and strategies or sleeping. 

Eira's eyes were focused on something else. The big white raven on the biggest tent in the middle, probably the main area of their camp. It was just a simple symbol like that, that would make her blood boil. She didn't realize but she made a step forward, ready to go and cut out the symbol from the tent and then kill every single person located inside. Ivar's hand stopped her from that. It happened so quickly, she turned around and put her blade towards his neck. 

Ivar didn't move an inch, he knew what it feels like. To be so driven by something until it takes over. Eira blinked, realizing the situation. She immediately put her hand down. "Sorry," she whispered. Ivar nodded, turning around to look at his brother. 

"So it begins," he said. 

Bjorn waved with his hand to a man on his left. He was holding a horn, ready to use it. "Now," he told him. 

The silence was cut off with a strong sound of a horn, accompanied by screaming of the men and women ready to run out and fight. The whole picture was a perfect example of action and reaction. Jarl's people ran out of their tents, some of them weren't even in their armor. Pure panic could be seen on some faces. 

Eira raised her hand with the blade. "Fight!" she screamed right after she looked at Ivar, who had a smirk on his face. With that, she grabbed one shieldmaiden's shoulder and began to walk towards the main tent. Few arrows flew their way but the shieldmaiden covered Eira with her shield. 

First victims of the fight fell to the ground on both sides. Few moments after another loud sound of a horn filled the air. This time it was a sign for Ivar's second group of archers on the other side. Immediately a big cloud of arrows flew out of nowhere, landing between the tents. Some of them didn't hit anything but good amount hurt someone and even killed a few. 

Eira didn't kill anyone yet, she was surrounded by shieldmaidens who took care of it. She looked back on Ivar. He was now on the ground, his contraption put aside. Eira took a deep breath in and out. 

Few tents were torn down to the ground, making better overview and space to fight in. Then in the corner of her eye, Eira saw a little group of armed men with shields leaving the main tent. Her hand let go of the shieldmaiden's shoulder, taking out the blade Ivar gave her. 

"Show yourself," she whispered to herself, her voice sounded kind of different with an evil sound to it. 

Just as if he heard her, she spotted his face through a slot between two of his men's shoulders. He didn't see her because he was too focused on saving his own ass. Eira smiled, flipping the blade in her hand. "Jeg vil dræbe dig!" she screamed as loud as she could, causing Jarl Bjarke to see her. "Jeg vil dræbe dig," she said again, this time quietly only to the one man those words truly belonged to. 

/jeg vil dræbe dig - I will kill you/

a/n: thank you so much for reading this story, it has almost 35K reads which is insane!