In which Ylva Sigefridsdottir, also known as Ylva the Dread, had been an earl since she was a young girl, despite having two brothers, following the death of her mad father and power-hungry stepmother.
Hearing of the girl's feared reputation and...
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In the woods, Freya was holding Rorik in her arms while she held the hand of Gyda. It was snowing out and it was clear that both of the younger children were freezing.
Just then, hearing nearby screams alongside the laughs of men, Freya sighed in frustration since she knew the men were close. They must have been searching for them.
She stopped walking and looked down at Gyda, who was beginning to cry. "It's going to be alright. The men are coming and I can't let them follow us because we won't be able to outrun them. I must lure them here and kill them myself and you're going to help me."
Not quite understanding what she was saying, Gyda began to cry even more and Freya sighed in annoyance. She placed Rorik in a seated position on the snow and guided Gyda into standing beside him.
"This is what you're going to do," Freya informed her in a calm tone, "You're going to keep crying like you are, but louder. When they come over to you, cry even more. I'll kill them before they can hurt you."
Gyda simply nodded and Freya walked to stand behind a tree. Gyda and Rorik both began to cry louder, not because Freya told them to, but because they were frightened and had no idea what was happening.
It wasn't long before three men walked over, grins on their faces. "What do we have here?" One of the men spoke up, clapping his hands together, "It would seem we found them. That wasn't so hard, was it?"
The man began to stalk toward Gyda and Rorik, who whimpered and cried loudly in fear. He knelt in front of Rorik, on the verge of picking him up.
Gyda turned, watching as Freya appeared behind both of the other men. She had placed her hand over their mouths and sliced their throats with her knife without the man in front of them even noticing it.
However, the man soon noticed Gyda looking at something and turned, only to suddenly be slashed across the throat with a knife. He began to choke on his blood, clutching his throat before he finally dropped to the ground, dead.
Freya sighed dramatically and tossed the knife to the side. She bent down, stealing the man's weapons before placing them on her belt.
She stared down at Gyda, who was staring up at her in fear. "What? Don't look at me like that. I saved you," Freya argued with an attitude, "I am taking you and Rorik to Kattegat now and then I will be returning to Ashton to kill Henrik myself."
Freya groaned, finding Gyda to still be crying as she picked Rorik up. "Stop crying already, would you?" She asked her younger sister with an attitude, "I saw far worse at your age."
_____
Back in Ashton, nighttime had arrived. Numerous men were standing in the Great Hall, none of them loyal to Ylva. One of Horik's men was gripping onto Ylva's hair, continuing to dunk her face into a tub of water.
