A Whisper to the North

Chapter XX ✠ The Dividing

"Why?" He said softly.

"Frey and I can ride on Gwen. You take Roosa." Una suggested.

Yvar bit his lip. Not only did Una not want him on the throne, but she also didn't want to be near him, even after his beloved Balder had fallen.

"Roosa!" Una called out.

Yvar balled his fists up, took a deep breath, and sighed. He had been misguided by Frey all along. It wasn't like he loved Una anyway. He just saw her as his first love, nothing more. Now he felt nothing for her, not after she just showed she did not care for him at all. As he suspected all along, she wanted to reimburse him for leaving him so many years ago without telling him why. Now he understands that he was a Dane and always be a Dane in Una's eyes.

As Roosa came over, he hesitated to go near the balder. He knelt his long neck down to sniff the poor fallen animal and backed away. Yvar knelt his head down. He didn't question Una any longer. He didn't really want to call her Una now. He was just an acquaintance, not a companion. Without saying a word, he mounted Roosa and stared down at Una with disappointment.

"Yvar, what's wrong?" Una asked, concerned by his demeanor.

"Nothing, I will meet you at the dyke. I don't want to see him burn. I want to remember Balder as a living being, not another sacrifice to the Gods." Yvar said, rearing Roosa and cantering off.

"Yvar!" Una called out behind him.

"What's wrong with him!?" Una asked as she watched him disappear behind the forest line.

Una suddenly saw Frey on Gwen, steadily walking along the shore. She started to smell the grotesque odor of burning skin and hair. She knew the giant stack of wood over Balder was beginning to burn. Una didn't want to turn around and see the flesh of the animal. Like Yvar, she wanted to see him alive in her mind, she more than anything envisioned wiping the tears and frown away from Yvar.

Una began to run in Frey's direction, frantically trying to outrun the smoke and smell. When she approached Frey, the look on his face said all. Una walked up to the saddle without saying anything, pulled Frey's foot out of the stirrup, and mounted Gwen with Frey behind her. Una was expecting Frey to say something crude or snide, but he said nothing. As Una grabbed the reins and turned Gwen around, she could see the plume of smoke towering high above. She knew Balder was burning, like the way Marged and Darren were. Frey wrapped his arms around Una tight as they began to walk faster. Frey leaned in behind Una's ear and whispered.

"What did you do to him?" Frey asked softly.

Una sighed and loosened her reins. Gwen was right about going straight forward without being urged to.

"I don't know. He asked about why Aaron and he weren't switched."

"What did you say!?" Frey asked in a severe tone.

"I came off a bit too harsh and said that he couldn't rule our kingdom because he was a Dane," Una replied.

"Ouch," Frey said.

Una bit her lip. What a terrible friend she was if Yvar still considered her one at this point. They rode for a little while longer until they reached the dyke. It was a large expanse of wall built of large stones, and it towered higher than Una remembered. As she scanned the area, she looked along the wall for Yvar.

"Where is he?" Una asked as she put Gwen into a fast trot along the wall.

"Umm, he was just right here!" Frey sounded frightened.

"Do you think he went north by accident?" Una asked as she traveled up the hill to get a good vantage point.

Sitting atop the hill, they looked around. Roosa and Yvar were nowhere to be seen. Una walked Gwen down the other side of the mountain to see if he was going north by accident.

"Yvar!" Frey called out as Una spun Gwen around.

"Why would he pull a stunt like this now? He would never, even in his plight. He's never run off like this. I said something I didn't mean, but I didn't think he would take it to heart!"

"He's probably abandoned us." Frey insisted as Una turned Gwen around and traveled back up the hill.

"He would never!" Una shouted as they came back over the hill.

Una didn't see coming up the blind hill that a small squadron of warriors from Mercia was waiting for them. These men weren't from Wessex, allies of Wales. These were Anglo-Saxons from north Mercia.

"Aye, but he did abandon ye." Una heard a voice that was not Frey as she looked over the wall.

Una turned around and realized she was walking right into the arms of the men on horseback.

"Gods!" Una cried, trying to pull back old Gwen, but her joints weren't as good as they were with Una's father on her.

"Where are you lasses of to?" A man with a red forked beard grabbed Gwen's bit.

Una and Frey were going nowhere.