This is looking like a contest
Of who can act like they care less
But I liked it better when you were on my side
The battle's in your hands now
But I would lay my armor down
If you'd say you'd rather love than fight
Jaehaera and the others sat in the boat as her father's men rowed them down the river still. Osferth and Jaehaera sat together and talked while Finan and the other two did the same closer to her father. He lay resting underneath the tent. "How long do you plan on staying mad at Sihtric?" Osferth asked her cautiously. Jaehara picked at the skin around her nails.
"I don't know," she answered when he covered her hands with his to get her to stop. "I'm always mad at him," she lied. Jaehaera lifted her head to see Skade talking with her father, she rolled her eyes and then looked away. "I didn't think I would ever say this, monk, but I miss Beocca," Jaehaera told him. "Mainly Thyra, but still Beocca as well."
Osferth nodded, "they are your family," he told her. "It makes sense you miss them. We will return to them soon."
"You are kind," Jaehaera told him. "Something I appreciate most about you. So many Christians aren't and you are one of few I'm afraid."
Osferth smiled, "you are as well, lady," he told her. The two shared a look. "When you want to be that is." Soon they docked the boat at the Coccham docks, though, she questioned as to why they were there. Her father couldn't possibly still have Coccham for his land, she thought as they walked from the dock to the gates.
"Is the idea we simply walk into Coccham like we've never been away?" Finan asked, seemingly thinking the same as Jaehaera. Jaehaera followed after the pair with Osferth by her side.
"Yes," Her father answered.
"Straight to the hall?" Finan asked.
"Yes," her father answered cheerfully.
"And if another lord resides there?" the Irishman questioned one more time.
"We ask him to leave, my friend," Uhtred replied.
"I can do that," Finan answered. Jaehaera watched as Finan looked behind them at Skade, and then spoke with her father in hushed tones. She wanted to know what they were saying but figured Finan would tell her later. They walked through the gates with little to no refusal. Then a man called Edwin, she remembered, walked up to them.
"Lord, you will not remember me," He told her father.
Uhtred smiled, "I remember you," he corrected. "You're married to Mildwynn." She looked around at men piling carts with what looked to be their preparations for winter. Two carts were full and now they were filling a third.
"Lord," Edwin began once more. "They have taken more than half our winter's store. Animals and grain." Jaehaera and the others watched and waited for Uhtred to tell them what to do. "They say it is to feed Alfred's army, but we will certainly starve."
A child almost ran into Jaehaera's legs, but she stopped him gently, holding his arm so he didn't fall to the ground. She smiled down at the little boy, he had a dirty face that reminded her of her brother. She handed him an apple from her pack before sending him back to his mother. He smiled up at her thankfully before running off again. "Who did this?" Jaehaera asked Edwin angrily. Her father nodded in agreement, she beat him to the question.
"They are in the hall, Lord," Edwin answered. "King Alfred would not have ordered this lord."
"Stand aside," Her father commanded the guards in front of the hall. "I want no bloodshed, no man killed." Uhtred looked at his small family with disappointment when not one of the guards moved. Jaehaera's jaw clenched as she stepped forward, but Sihtric's came from behind her as she opened her mouth.
"He said stand aside!" He commanded sharply and loudly, coming to stand next to Jaehaera. "Now!" The men looked between her and Sihtric for a few seconds before they stepped aside. "Thank you," he told the guards. "I should not need to raise my voice."
Jaehaera rolled her eyes to keep from smirking as she followed him inside the hall that used to be her father's before he became an outlaw. Sihtric pulled open the doors and inside sat three men at her father's table. They were priests. One priest she recognized from Wintanceaster, one that did not particularly like her father.
"Uhtred?" he asked as if he couldn't see the man right in front of him. "Uh, what is the meaning of this invasion?" Invasion? Jaehaera repeated incredulously inside her head while she raised her eyebrows at the man.
"This is my home," her father answered. Her father's men gathered in the hall behind them as well.
"We are here by right," the priest told him. Who's right? She questioned. "On the king's business."
"You are stealing food from the mouths of the poor," Jaehaera corrected as she came to stand behind the man, glaring at him as he turned quickly to her with a frightened look on his face. He didn't expect her to appear suddenly behind him. She moved like a ghost, he thought.
"An army needs to be fed," the priest answered.
"As do priests, it seems," Jaehaera pointed out. She stabbed her knife down into the plate of one of the priests. He looked up with her in fright as well, she quirked an eyebrow at him, daring him to move.
"You are lucky it's not your hand," Rickon commented to the frightened priest.
"We want no disharmony here today," the priest told Uhtred calmly. Before Uhtred answered, something above the entry of the hall caught his attention. They all followed his gaze and looked up. There above the door hung a giant cross with the Christain Christ on it. Jaehaera's jaw clenched and she narrowed her eyes.
"What is that?" Her father asked.
"You know what it is," the priest answered cautiously.
"Take it down," her father commanded. "Take it down, or I will make a gift of you to Skade." The priest looked at the other dane woman with fear, eyeing her as we walked to stand behind Uhtred.
"I will not do as you ask," the priest answered. "I cannot."
"Lord," Finan spoke, "see it as a piece of wood, nothing more."
"It is more than just a piece of wood," the priest corrected the Irishman. "It is holy."
"Bishop Erkenwald," Finan began and also reminded Jaehaera of the man's name. She thought priests and bishops were the same. Though she couldn't care less about the difference, she didn't like being confused. "I suggest you shut your holy mouth."
"And take it down," Uhtred added.
"Or, I," Osferth began gently, "I could just take it down, Lord."
"You will do nothing," Uhtred told Osferth with none of the anger he had toward Erkenwald.
"I realize you are looking to find a reason to kill me," Erkenwald spoke to her father. "I would prefer to do as you ask. I'm not a fool, but I cannot deny my faith. The king would hear of it. God would know of-"
Sihtric had sat down at the table in his normal spot to drink from a cup of ale, and she rolled her eyes. "The king has told me many times that this is a pagan hall," her father interrupted. Jaehaera's eyes were pulled from Sihtric to her father at his words. "You will take it down."
"It is my cross, Lord," Hild's voice entered the hall. A breath left Jaehaera's lungs when the woman spoke. "My doing," Hild added. "I put it there. And I would like it to remain there. Unless of course, your plan is to once again be the Lord of Coccham. I meant no insult." That Jaehaera and everyone in the hall knew already. Jaehaera found the Abbess standing at the threshold of the hall. Jaehaera flashed a great smile before she rushed to the woman and threw her arms around the woman.
A grunt from Skade and a crash sounding from above-brought everyone's attention to the cross falling quickly to the floor. Jaehaera barely had time to move both herself and Hild out of the way before they were crushed underneath it. Shouts for the two of them to move filled the hall as it came clattering on the floor. Erkenwald did the sign of the cross as he looked at the thing on the floor in front of them. Jaehaera found Skade in the rafters and shot her a glare. There weren't any more curses and threats she could yell at the woman that she hadn't already yelled.
"Now perhaps we can eat," Skade spoke snarkily from above them. Finan picked up the cross from the floor and handed it to Erkenwald.
"You may take it," her father told him. "When you leave, you will take only half the grain and livestock you have gathered. I understand an army must be fed, but my village will not starve."
"The king will not approve," Erkenwald told her father. To the devil with the King, She thought.
"The king is a ghost," her father pointed out. "Nothing more than that." Jaehaera kept her arms protectively around Hild while her father walked to them. Hild patted her arms gently and smiled thankfully up at her before Jaehaera let her go.
"Lord, may we speak further?" Hild asked her father, glancing up at Skade. "Privately?" Jaehaera and the others watched as the two left the hall. She sat down the Rickon across from Sihtric, who she did not acknowledge, instead she glared at the woman coming down from the rafters. She yanked the knife from the plate as the two women watched each other.
"Jaehaera," Sihtric spoke, drawing her attention from the witch that walked out after her father. "Could we talk in private as well?" Rickon and the other two looked at Jaehaera.
"There is nothing else to say," she answered. Before Sihtric could reply she took her plate and went upstairs where she remembered her room to be. She heard him sigh with the others before she had gotten too far.
*********************************************************************
"From early on Hadingus was thrust into a violent life and circumstance," Jaehaera spoke to the warriors and Sihtric, Osferth, Rickon, her father, and Skade as well. Uhtred smiled at his daughter's skald abilities. How she could weave a wonderful web. The danes around knew the story well, but the Saxons did not. "His father, King Gram of Denmark arrived at the wedding of princess Signe, and her intended husband Henry. He was a saxon. Apparently, driven by 'love at first sight' Gram killed Henry as soon as he arrived and took the princess back with him, where she eventually would give birth to their son, Hadingus. Not long after, Gram was killed by the enemies he had made, but Hadingus had been taken out and sent away to another land where the giant, Wagnofthus, and his daughter Harthgrepa, fostered the boy." she stared into the fire and watched it dance. "All his life, all Hadingus wanted to be was a warrior," she told them. "His one wish. Harthgrepa had other plans for him, despite raising the boy as her own, she soon seduced Hadingus in his adolescence and became her lover."
"Is all you know unpleasant stories, Jae?" Osferth asked.
Jaehaera smirked at him, "only the interesting ones," she teased. "Once Hadingus had become of age he returned to Denmark with the giantess, Harthgrepa. On the way, they came upon a house. The villagers that knew the family who had owned the house informed them that the family had just died. Harthgrepa, being a seer, cast a spell that caused one of the dead family members to speak. The corpse, not appreciating being brought back from Valhalla, cursed them for eternity. Telling them how the two would die. Not even a night later, while they slept, under the veil of twilight-"
"Midnight," Sihtric corrected. "I have always heard it to be midnight."
Jaehaera clenched her jaw and looked at him through the flames. "Would you like to tell the story then?" she asked him sharply while the others around smirked.
"What?" Sihtric asked dumbly. "No, no. twilight is good, better even. It makes more sense that way."
"I can stop and we can trade places," Jaehaera continued. "I don't mind, you know how I hate speaking longer than I have to. You on the other hand always talk longer than you have to."
A few scattered chuckles rang around them, and her father smirked. "No, absolutely not," Sihtric shook his head quickly while Rickon shoved him playfully. "Continue, please, Jaehaera. I apologize."
She glared at him once last time before continuing. "Under the veil of twilight, the corpse's warning of Harthgrepa's death rang true. That night Hadingus had a dream of a hand reaching into the house where they slept. It pulled Harthgrepa into pieces, limb from limb, one by one." She paused for a second, "and that's what happened to her. Harthgrepa was ripped apart by her fellow giants in a bloodthirsty rage. Hadingus went on to live a rather remarkable life after taking on a blessing from Odin, he told Odin how he would die and no one else. Hadingus became a great and powerful king, then, after bringing his subjects into a wood, he proclaimed to everyone that only Odin knew how he would die...then he hung himself for everyone to see." Jaehaera drank the rest of her ale, then looked at the people around her. "The end," she spoke snarkily, "sweet dreams." Jaehaera shoved her cup into the hand of Rickon before she walked away from the people.
*********************************************************************
The next morning her father woke her to inform her that she would be going with Finan and the others to Wintanceaster. She would stay with Hild or Thyra. That was the only reason she happily got up to gather her things. The thought of the journey with Sihtric was nowhere in her mind.
When she found them outside they already had her horse waiting for her. Rickon held the reigns. He held them as she placed her things on her saddle like she always did. Then he handed the reigns over to her as Sihtric watched another man do as he once did. Jaehaera nodded at him thankfully before getting onto her horse.
"My men are free men still," Uhtred told Erkenwald. "They will travel with you to Wintanceaster, and guarantee your safe return."
"I have a guard," Erkenwald answered her father. "And Wessex is not a land of banditry." Jaehaera rolled her eyes. Fine, hopefully, you won't die on the road then, Jaehaera thought.
"Priests and ealdormen aside," Finan spoke, "you should never refuse the offer of a sword, Bishop Erkenwald."
Bishop looked like after that point made by Finan, he wouldn't argue. "Is it your intention to remain in Coccham?" Erkenwald asked her father.
"It's not," Skade answered and Jaehaera made a face of disgust at her voice and looked away in disappointment that her father had not killed her in her sleep. "My lord intends to rule at Wintanceaster."
She looked up at the gods to grant her patience. "Is that right, Lord?" Finan asked, looking at her father. The others looked as well.
"My business is my own," Uhtred answered.
"And your children?" Erkenwald asked.
"Are Christain now," Her father answered the bishop once more.
"I will ensure they're cared for," Hild informed her father as she got atop her horse with the others.
"If it pleases you," Uhtred answered and Jaehaera tilted her head at her father.
"We will meet you in Mercia, Lord," Sihtric told her father. Rickon and Jaehara waited for the others to get on their horses.
"What is happening?" Osferth asked. "Why is she not dead?"
Jaehaera wished to know the same thing. "She has beauty and power, Osferth," Finan answered as he began to get on his horse as Erkenwald and his people went to leave Coccham. Her father and Skade returned to the hall. "Power over men who believe in their own reputation."
"She is evil," Osferth reminded everyone. "He has promised her death."
"Pray for him," Rickon answered. "He will need it." Finan motioned for them to follow him out of the gates after Erkenwald. Rickon, Sihtric, and Jaehaera all followed after him, leaving Osferth behind. Jaehaera was saddened at leaving the baby monk behind, the two had gotten even closer now. The two were even more like siblings than before. He had gathered up some of the broken pieces after Sihtric and gently put them back together.
*********************************************************************
The four rode in scattered silence. Jaehaera only spoke a few times and when she did, she only spoke to Finan or Rickon. She ignored the dark-haired boy for most of their journey. "Finan, look," Sihtric spoke, and he gestured to a group of people gathered not far from the road with a few tents.
"Should you investigate?" Erkenwald asked the men, peeking his head out from his cart.
They watched as a man rushed to them as they continued to ride on. "Any spare coins, Lord?" the man asked Sihtric. "Any spare food? God would bless you, I'm sure."
"Are you traveling to Wintanceaster?" Finan asked the man.
"We are, lord," the man answered. "For the wedding."
Wedding? Jaehaera thought, making a confused face at Rickon, who wore the same look. "We shall see you there then," Finan answered with a smile.
"And a good day to you lord," the man answered. Jaehaera looked at him cautiously as they passed him.
"Wedding?" Jaeheara asked.
"I can only assume they have finally found a poor girl to marry Edward," Rickon answered her. Jaehaera chuckled a bit.
"Could be worse though," Rickon continued, "she could be marrying Finan instead." Jaehaera and Sihtric both laughed.
"I will have you know that she could do a lot worse than me," Finan defeated. "She could have married Athelred and not Aethelflaed, then we would all feel sorry for her."
Jaehaera chuckled once more and nodded her head in agreement. "They wouldn't have married her off to you anyway Finan," Jaehaera teased. "No one would be able to understand you even if you did agree. The poor girl would be confused for the rest of her life."
Finan feigned a laugh at her while the others truly did laugh. "Real funny Jaehaera," Finan answered. "Make fun of the Irishman. But without him, you all would be dead."
*********************************************************************
Jaehaera, Hild, and the others stopped at the closed gates of Wintanceaster. Erkenwald and the others had assumed the Steapa would recognize them and open the gates, but he hadn't. Not even for Hild. "Steapa," Erkenwald called for the big man. "Steapa!" he called again when the man did not appear.
A few moments later Steapa appeared with a drink in hand. "Ah," Erkenwald voiced when Steapa appeared above them. "Do you not recognize me, Steapa? Why have the gates not been opened?"
"Bishop Erkenwald," Steapa greeted. "You have guests."
"They did ride with us from Coccham," Erkenwald spoke while glancing back at Jaehaera, Finan, Rickon, and Sihtric. Jaehaera squinted up at him in the afternoon light.
"Where Uhtred remains," Finan told Steapa. "He'll be going directly to Mercia."
"Steapa, he had hoped to visit his children there," Hild informed the man. Steapa tilted his head down at them, "is this true, Lord?" he asked the bishop Erkenwald.
"You do not believe me?" Hild asked Steapa incredulously.
"It is true," Erkenwald informed Steapa, "that Uhtred Ragnarsson remains at Coccham." Jaehaera and Rickon shared a sigh. "That is all I know to be true."
"It is Uhtred's intention to go to Mercia," Hild continued, "He asked me to petition the King to have his children follow. Now open the gates, and let us rest," she commanded Steapa. He bit into an apple he had with him, not answering her.
"Oi! Big man!" Finan yelled up at him. "We're guilty of being hungry and tired, my friend. That is all." Steapa just drank from his cup. Then he nodded after a few seconds, and Jaehaera smirked over at him. A few moments later, the gates began to open and Steapa disappeared above them. Rickon and Jaehaera followed Finan and Sihtric inside Wintanceaster. Jaehaera couldn't wait to see her aunt and Beocca, she missed them terribly.
Before she did visit her aunt, she joined Sihtric, Rickon, and Finan at an alehouse for food and drink. Out of the corner of her eyes, she found the man she knew to be Aethelwold, or so she thought. This man didn't have an eye, but it looked like Aethelwold. Maybe the ale had finally begun to go to her head. "Is that Aethelwold the sword-dane I see?" Finan called to him. He must have thought the same thing she did. "Looks like you've mislaid an eye."
Jaehaera chuckled into her cup to hide it, but it was no use. "I see you perfectly, Finan," Aethelwold answered. "Though I do not see your master, Jaehaera's father." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Uhtred, where is he?"
"Why would we tell you, pigman?" Jaehaera asked.
The men she was with smirked. "Standing at your blind side, perhaps," Rickon suggested, leaning against the post next to him.
"Jaehaera, I see you still speak harshly," Aethelwold addressed her, and she gave him a disgusted look before glaring at him. "Has Sihtric here not trained you to only speak when spoken to like a good danish wife? Or should I say, whore?"
Jaehaera put down her cup and began towards him, but Finan stepped in front of her. "Aethelwold," Rickon called, "if you wish to keep your tongue, and not lose yet another body part, I suggest you apologize to the lady. I would hate to make you even more useless," Rickon defended.
"Lady?" Aethelwold asked, seemingly confused. "I don't see a lady."
Sihtric clenched his jaw before he stood up. Athelwold and his men stood to retreat from the wild dane man rushing them. Sihtric caught the half-blind man before either Rickon or Finan could stop him. He lifted Aethelwold by his shirt, "you don't?" Sihtric asked angrily.
"Sihtric," Finan warned.
"Should I let Rickon take your tongue?" Sihtric asked menacingly. "He would be kinder than me. I would rip it out with my hands while you scream for mercy. Address my love again as harshly as now, and I will not only take your tongue but your other eye as well. Death would be too kind for you, rat." He released the man and then straightened out his shirt for him with a smile. "You have been warned," he told him calmly. "Have a lovely day."
Jaehaera had stood when Sihtric had grabbed Aethelwold. Sihtric turned to her after Aethelwold and his men walked away. Jaehaera didn't know what to say, everything got caught in her throat like how it did before they had come together. When she didn't know how she felt. Finan elbowed her. "Thank you, Sihtric," she mumbled. "You did not have to do that." Finan nodded to Rickon, signaling for the two of them to leave Sihtric and Jaehaera.
"I did," Sihtric answered. "I know," he sighed. "I know I am not in your favor right now, lady, but I wish to do everything I can to get it back. And if takes me taking Aethelwold's tongue to do so, well, he would be better off without it." Sihtric chuckled lightly and so did Jaehaera.
"Sihtric," she began. "I still love you, and that will never change," she told him honestly. "But, a part of me doesn't trust you..." she trailed off. "I know you were only doing what my father wished, and we both said things we didn't mean...but I don't know...it looked so easy for you to leave."
Sihtric moved closer to her cautiously like he would a frightened animal to not scare it away, and when she did not move, he gently took her hands in his. His heart filled with hope when she did not pull them away. "I know," he told her. "I wouldn't trust me either, and for all my life I will regret it. I promised you it would be the two of us together until the end, and I seemed to have broken that promise."
"You should have told me," She thought out loud, "both of you, I could have helped, I do not know, make it more believable? Maybe the fight would have still happened, but at least we could have both known and come up with a phrase for each of us to say so we knew we meant nothing in the argument." she sighed and shook her head, "no, that would have been too drastic, Uhtred's own daughter abandoning him? Cnut and the others would have never believed that."
Sihtric smiled lightly down at her, "I only want to rebuild the trust I broke," he told her again. "Please let me do that."
Jaehaera looked at him. Sihtric, her dark-haired sword-dane. He had promised her that he would be her last love all those years ago, and then she rolled her eyes. Now, the girl believed him. "Sihtric," she began, to tell him this but then fear crept in and ruined everything for her. "Sihtric, I used to think of you as someone who would never hurt me. When you said what you did, it was like myself, the darkest part of myself was speaking to me. The part that forms my nightmares," she looked away from him. "Watching you walk away is something I only thought I would see in a nightmare. My own self-destructing thoughts now had your voice. The person I loved not only spoke the very thing I feared would ruin everything we had, but used it as a reason to leave me."
"Jaehaera," Sihtric whispered painfully as he rested his forehead against hers softly, and she grimaced. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"I have said I would always love you, Sihtric," she repeated weakly, "but it will take time for me to forgive you and trust you again."
Sihtric pulled away and nodded. He cleared his throat as people passed by them. "That's all I ask for," he told her again. "Time."
Jaehaera nodded and looked away from him while dropping his hands and wiping her eye with her hand. "I am going to find my aunt," she told him awkwardly. Normally he would have gone with her.
"Right," Sihtric answered just as awkwardly. "Let her know I say hello."
Jaehaera nodded and began to walk away, "of course," she answered shortly before she turned and left him. She exhaled when her back had turned. Pitching herself off the ramparts of Wintanceaster would have been more enjoyable for her than what had just occurred.
Sihtric later found Finan just as he had finished talking to Erkenwald with Rickon next to him. "Finan," Sihtric called rather encouragingly after he spoke with Jaehaera. She had given him hope despite everything, and that's all he need. Finan's eyes when he turned drifted to the flowers in Sihtric's hands and so did Rickon's. Rickon just smirked and shook his head. Finan tilted his head at the boy, they were wildflowers. Two kinds, each one they knew to be the kind Jaehaera liked the best. Wild carrot and scorpion grass. Finan rolled his eyes playfully at the boy. "I will give these to her soon, before the wedding or when I see her again."
"Sihtric, she will throw them back in your face and you will be sneezing for ages," Finan teased. The three knew Jaehaera would never do such a thing to him.
"I still love her," Sihtric informed the two men as he began to walk away, "and she still loves me, said so herself."
"We have truly lost him, Finan," Rickon teased, "our trio is down to two. Good luck, Sihtric my dear friend, I will be praying for your safe return."
Sihtric just rolled his eyes and went to find Jaehaera. Finan laughed at his friends, only stopping with a call of his name coming from behind him, and an arm wrapped around him, pulling him closer to the alehouse. "What the?" Finan questioned, ready to fight, then he recognized the baby monk pulling him. "Osferth? You're here?" he questioned in shock.
"So we are inside the walls of Wintanceaster," Osferth began. "Where will he go? To Father Beocca?" Osferther removed his hood.
"Yes," Finan answered the monk. "He'll find us. Be sure of it."
"And he is free of his curse," Osferth informed Finan with a small smile.
Finan looked at the monk, searching his face for any sign of a lie. "She's dead?" he asked when he didn't find one.
"Very," Osferth informed the Irishman.
Finan exhaled in relief. "Then we're all free of the curse, baby monk," Fina explained.
"She was of the devil, wasn't she?" Osferth asked Finan to gain more clarity.
Finan shook his head, "no," he answered, "more than that. She was the devil in disguise."
"It is what he would do," Osferth spoke.
Finan hummed in agreement. Then he lightly tapped the monk on his chest with the back of his hand. "Ale and women?" Finan asked.
"And prayer," Osferth added.
Finan nodded in agreement, "oh of course," he agreed, "but in that order." Finan laughed with the baby monk while wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
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"I just don't know Thyra," Jaehaera repeated to her aunt, "I just don't know if I can trust him again. Do you think I can?"
Thyra took a woven basket from the table to place in front of the fire. She turned to answer her niece but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Jaehaera narrowed her eyes at the door when she noticed how wary her aunt turned. She looked at Thrya in surprise when she took a knife in her hand and went cautiously to answer the door. Jaehaera stood at once, ready to help her aunt should anything happen. Thyra opened the door, and Jaehaera looked around her shoulder. The two women found no one there. "If you object to me being here, then say it," her aunt spoke gently.
Jaehaera felt eyes behind her and moved her hand back that held her own dagger to hopefully slice into the person behind her. She felt the person take her arm and when she looked, it was her father behind her. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry father," She breathed out.
"It is alright, glad to know I taught you well enough to always be prepared," He chuckled out. "Thyra," he greeted happily when the woman shut the door and turned to her brother.
"Uhtred," she answered his greeting happily and came to give him a warm embrace. "Uhtred, it is so good to see you, to know that you are alive still," she spoke over his shoulder as they held one another.
He pulled away to look at her smiling face. "I am," he answered her, "alive and well, at last."
"But why are you here?" She asked him. "They will kill you."
"I came to see my children, and you," he told her, as he rested his sword and sheath against the wall near her door.
"They will kill you," Thyra repeated to her brother. "You should have remained in Merica, and we would have traveled to you."
"And I came to help Ragnar, to save Ragnar," he informed his sister.
"He is dead," Thyra spoke as if finally believing the words, "Beocca has told me-"
"Yes, yes," Uhtred told her, shushing her as her eyes began to water. "I am sorry," he told her as the two connected foreheads. "I'm sorry. But he is trapped in Niflheim." Thyra broke away and lifted her head to her brother at the shocking words he spoke. Jaehaera looked at the ground the same time Thyra did. "He did not die a warrior's death. The privilege was stolen from him. Thrya, I am trying to find out who killed him. Brida is as well. She gathered blood from Ragnar's son, Bjorn." Thyra looked at Uhtred in fright and shock. "A cupful, not all of it," he reassured the two women in the room that looked at him the same way. "But I bet your blood would also help if you are willing. You don't have to of course since we have Bjorn's."
"Of course," Thyra agreed, "I will do what I must."
All three sat at Father Beocca's and Thyra's dining table as her father sliced carefully into Thyra's palm. She winced, and Jaehaera took her aunt's free hand in her's comfortingly. Thyra let it drip into a bowl her father got. "Why did you go to the door armed with a knife?" her father questioned, sounding rather put out about the fact. "Who is it that objects to you being here?"
Jaehaera tilted her head at her aunt, also wishing to know the answer. "There are people who feel I do not belong," Thyra told them sadly. "They see only a dane."
Jaehaera's eyebrows furrowed at her aunt's statement. "But you are Beocca's wife," her father pointed out.
"It is because they are afraid," Thyra continued. "You are gone, Alfred is sickly, and warriors are gathering."
"Does Beocca know?" Jaehaera asked kindly. "Of the knife?"
She looked at Jaehaera, and she knew the answer as she took a few seconds to answer. "Beocca, he has work to do," Thyra answered. They were interrupted once more by the rattling of the door handle, and a knock.
"Thyra?" Beocca's voice called. He knocked at the door and rattled the handle once more. "Thyra, it's me Beocca."
"One moment," she called to him. Her father walked to unbar the door, and Beocca opened it to find his wife bleeding into a bowl. Jaehaera sat at his table across from her.
Jaehaera turned her head to him with a bright smile. "Beocca!" she greeted happily. "I was beginning to wonder if you were avoiding me," she teased.
"If I had been, you would surely find me anyway, Jaehaera," Beocca greeted warmly, still looking at his wife with concern. "It is wonderful to see you safe Jaehaera." He embraced the girl as she stood to greet him. "You are bleeding," he pointed out when he got closer to the two women. "Oh, good heavens, what have you done?"
"No, I'm," Thyra began, "I'm fine," she reassured her husband.
"You are bleeding," He repeated, "that should be wrapped, Jaehaera would you find something?" Jaehaera to keep up appearances nodded and began to look for something to bind her aunt's hand.
When he turned, he found her father closing the door. "Beocca, do not say a word," Thyra told him. "Please. Uhtred is here for good reason."
Beocca turned back to his wife and Jaehaera who just looked at him awkwardly before going to sit on their counter. "For good reason?" Beocca repeated watching Jaehaera repeat habits she did as a child. "What reason? What is happening here?" he asked as her father barred the door again. "What are you doing here?" Beocca asked her father, turning back to him.
"Beocca," Thyra spoke.
"I'm talking to him," Beocca answered.
"I am giving Uhtred my blood to save Ragnar," Thyra told her husband honestly. She watched the three other people in the house.
"It is true," Jaehaera answered when she and Beocca made eye contact.
"It is paganism, is what it is," Beocca spoke. "It is heathen, pagan, unchristian nonsense."
"Father, we are pagans," Jaehaera reminded him lightly to not upset him further. "You do not understand."
"I will not have it," Beocca told everyone in the room while going for the bowl. Jaehaera pushed off the counter quickly as her father held Beocca back and away from the bowl. Thyra moved it from him.
"No," Thyra told Beocca. "No."
"Thyra, please," Beocca spoke to her.
"No," Thyra repeated once more. "You will not interfere."
"It is wrong," Beocca told her, but not angrily.
"If there is a chance for Ragnar to find Valhalla," Thyra began, "then I must offer that chance. I do not dismiss your God," she reminded him.
"Because my god is God!" Beocca spoke passionately, and Jaehaera stepped toward her aunt cautiously just in case. She did not think Beocca would do anything, but she knew of his temper.
"Ragnar is my blood," Thyra spoke calmly. "You will not dismiss what my people believe."
"Am I not your people?" Beocca asked. Not really, Jaehaera thought honestly.
"You are my husband," Thyra reminded him. "Which is why you must understand."
"Beocca, we are almost done," her father spoke quietly, and Jaehaera groaned inwardly, knowing her father saying anything right now would not help them.
"You will say nothing," Beocca spoke to her father harshly while pointing at him.
"We are almost done," Thyra told him one more. Jaehaera gathered some food for her aunt to eat once they finished to replenish her strength. Good sugar in fruit, and some water.
"Very well," He answered. "Continue bleeding into a bowl. I will wait outside. I do not care to witness this." Beocca unbarred the door and walked out.
Jaehaera looked at the door and then turned to her father and aunt. "Well that went about as well as I warned you both," She teased. "I said I could have distracted him, but no, you did not listen to me."
Her father looked at her with a feigned look that told her he wasn't amused. "Jaehaera, please," he began as she lifted her hands slightly in surrender. "Gather your aunt some food, and say no more."
"Absolutely, Lord," she answered smartly, "right away, Lord."
"Jaehaera, stop teasing your father," Thyra told the girl with a smirk. Uhtred looked at her and pointed at Thyra, agreeing with what she had said.
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Sihtric found Aethelwold and his men walking quickly in the direction of Beocca's house. He knew Jaehaera had to be there, and the weapons and torches sent a wave of worry and dread through his body. He wasted no time rushing to find the others at the inn where he had last seen them. He repeated what he saw to them and together the four rushed to Beocca's house.
Jaehaera sat across from her aunt at the table once more while wrapping her hand gently and carefully like she had done for her father and the others many times before. Beocca had joined them after Jaehaera fetched for him once they had finished. He watched as Uhtred poured his wife's blood into a bouget, a leather drinking vessel no one would be drinking out of for quite some time after this. "As I am allowing you to practice your misguided pagan rituals in my home," Beocca trailed off, "I would ask a favor in return."
"Ask," her father answered while focusing on pouring the blood to not spill a single drop. Jaehaera cut up another apple and placed it on her aunt's plate.
"I would like you to speak with Alfred," Beocca told him. Jaehaera glared at Beocca and before she could look away, he caught her. "Do not look at me like that Jaehaera, please." Jaehaera corrected her face begrudgingly. "If I can arrange it safely."
"What makes you think he'd speak with me?" Uhtred asked.
"Because death is near," Beocca reminded the three other people in the room, "and there are things unsaid."
Outside, father Pyrlig found Aethelwold and his men. "If it is not the disgraced, yet forgiven Lord Aethelwold, sword drawn," He pointed out to all that listened close by. "You have stopped I see outside this house."
"You should show a little respect," Aethelwold told Pyrlig.
"When you have earned it," Pyrlig answered with a nod.
"There is an outlaw walking free," Sigebriht told the priest. Sihtric and the others listened close by.
"An outlaw?" Pyrlig repeated, seeming scared, but you could tell in his voice he wasn't. "Who?"
"It is not your place to ask," Aethelwold answered.
"You are no one to tell me of my place," Pyrlig informed Aethelwold. "Father Beocca!" he called for the man inside. Jaehaera turned her head from inside the house at the man's voice. Pyrlig was a friend, but there had to be a reason for him calling from outside and not just simply knocking on the door. "Father Beocca!" Pyrlig called once more. Thyra and Jaehaera moved quickly to hide her father as Beocca left them.
Beocca walked outside at once to not keep them waiting. "What is this?" he asked the group of men outside his home. Jaehaera listened from beneath the window.
"I believe you have angry visitors," Pyrlig informed the man.
"Surround the house, do it now," she heard Aethelwold say. Her temper rose to her throat quickly, heat rushing through her body. Thyra noticed, and shook her head at the girl. Jaehaera's jaw clenched, but she returned her aunt's nod.
"Surround the house? Whatever for?" Beocca asked.
"They are looking for an outlaw," Pyrlig informed in a voice that her father would use for story villains.
"I would like to look inside, Father," Aethelwold told Beocca. "I mean you no harm." Jaehaera found that hard to believe as she rolled her eyes. "It is for the protection of Alfred and Edward."
Once again Jaehaera rolled her eyes. They all knew Aethelwold cared nothing for either one of the two men he just named. "What do you expect to find, besides my wife?" Beocca asked.
"Step aside, Father," Aethelwold instructed the priest.
"I will not," Beocca answered sternly.
"We will not," Pyrlig corrected.
"You are clearly hiding something," Aethelwold spoke. Jaehaera rolled her eyes. How can you be so sure with only one eye, pigman? She thought harshly.
"With which eye are you looking, boy?" Father Beocca asked coldly, almost speaking her thoughts. Jaehaera looked down to hide her smirk, though she did not know why, they could not see her anyway.
"Father, I swear, we mean no harm," Sigebriht reassured. Once again she rolled her eyes. Sigebriht was just as delusional as Aethelwold.
"This is my home," Beocca reminded them. "My home! And no man shall enter without my permission.
Sihtric, Finan, Rickon, and Osferth now stepped from the shadows to help the two priests. "Is there a problem we can help resolve here, Father?" Finan asked as they walked towards the four men. Rickon and the others drew their weapons as Aethelwold and Sigebriht had done. She recognized the Irishman's voice and she smiled. She knew her father's men had to be with him.
"It is a minor disagreement, that is all," Pyrlig answered. "Involving a minor ealdorman."
"Sigebriht send for Steapa and the king's guard," Aethelwold commanded. "Tell him we have all but captured Uhtred Ragnarsson, and his dane of a daughter no doubt." Sihtric glared, and started for him, Jaehaera peeked through the window to see Finan holding him back.
"You believe Uhtred is inside my house?" Beocca asked. "Jaehaera certainly is, but she is not an outlaw." Beocca corrected Aethelwold sharply.
"No but she would do anything for her father, everyone knows that," Aethelwold reminded.
"You are ever the fool," Beocca insulted Aethelwold.
Jaehaera heard Thyra get up, and tried to stop her from walking out the door, but only touched her dress as the woman walked out, closing the door behind her. Fuck it all to hell, Jaehaera thought as she stood as well to follow her aunt out of the house. "Beocca," Thyra called.
Beocca paused before turning and then looking at Jaehaera and she returned a look to Beocca as if saying 'sorry, I tried'. "Stay inside, my dears," He told them.
"Beocca, we have been listening," Thyra informed. "If these men wish to look inside our home, then we should allow it." Jaehaera looked slightly down at her aunt. "We have nothing to hide, nothing at all. Please, come inside, Aethelwold." Jaehaera glared at him from beside Thyra, not sharing the same sentiment.
Jaehaera blocked Aethelwold's way for a moment, sending daggers into his skull, and didn't move. Aethelwold stutter-stepped around her and continued to the house, kicking open the door. He could have just opened it, it wasn't barred. Jaehaera and the others followed him. Beocca also seemed confused when he stepped inside his home.
"Are you satisfied?" Jaehaera asked Aethelwold sharply. She did not care for him frightening her aunt as he did. "I asked.." she trailed off when he did not answer her. She stood looking down at him as Rickon went to pull her back. "Are. You. Satisfied?"
"You have my sincere apologies, father," Sigebriht answered. And then nodded to Jaehaera and Thyra, "ladies."
"He was here," Aethelwold assured his men. Jaehaera huffed and shook her head. "I can smell him."
"Oh, please," Jaehaera voiced angrily. "You have grown even more delusional since the last time we spoke Aethelwold. You have outdone yourself."
"Jaehaera do you ever grow tired of speaking?" Aethelwold shot back.
She started toward him, and he backed frightenedly into the wall as Rickon caught her once more. "That's quite rich coming from you," Jaehaera answered, shooting venom at him.
Finan stepped between the two with a smile. "Will we see you at the wedding, Lords?" Finan asked, ignoring Jaeahera's unblinking, intimidating stare she looked at Aethelwold which often sent shivers down every grown man's body who saw it. The Irishman was no different. He gestured for Sigebriht and Aethelwold to leave, after they were safely out of the house he smiled at Jaehaera and Thyra before leaving as well.
As Sihtric and Rickon followed, Sihtric caught Jaehaera's eye and he smiled at her, which she returned before Thyra shut the door behind them. "Where in God's name is he?" Beocca asked.
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The next morning, Jaehaera was awoken by Thyra to get dressed for Edward's wedding. Together they picked out a raisin-colored dress for her to wear. The sleeves started at her shoulders and were flowy like the other dresses she wore. She kept her hair down, but her curls were still untamable. It didn't look bad, they had corralled it a bit. It fit her personality, and the dress well. When the two walked out together she half expected Sihtric to be standing there waiting for her, but he wasn't. Her heart dropped a bit, but then she figured she would see him at the wedding. Her hands began to sweat at the thought. When they reached the hall, she was welcomed with Thyra by Aethelflaed. Jaehaera returned the smile for the sake of manners, and nothing more. The only true smile she gave, was the one she gave to Edward while they watched his bride walk to him.
After the wedding she and Thyra found the others outside the palace with the rest of Alfred's people, celebrating. Jaehaera walked to them, she no longer knew where to sit if not beside Sihtric. She quickly found a seat next to Finan, and Thyra sat down next to her. Music flooded their ears, and fresh food filled their nostrils as it had for Aethelflaed's wedding. Finan elbowed her playfully to get her to smile and relax, and she did when he handed her a plate of food and a cup full of ale. She passed it over to Thyra, and then took another plate.
The group laughed at shared stories while they ate, and once more the song Sihtric and Jaehaera had danced to for the first time filled the spring air around them. Jaehaera's smile fell slightly as she drank her ale, and pushed the bitter-sweet memory from her mind. She poked at her food, resting her head on her hand when once again Finan elbowed her. She looked up at him and followed his gaze to Sihtric. He now stood with his hand reaching to her with a smirk on his face, asking her silently to dance with him.
Jaehaera looked at Thyra, and her aunt's face brightened with a smile and she nodded encouragingly. Thyra took the girl's hand and placed it in Sihtric's for her niece as the people around laughed. Jaehaera looked down shyly as she nodded and got up to dance with him.
Sihtric smiled at her while he gently placed an arm on her waist and the two began the steps as they had before. "I didn't get to tell you before now," Sihtric spoke to her over the music, "you look beautiful," he complimented.
Jaehaera blushed at the ground before looking back up at him once he took her hand back in his as they continued the dance. She could feel the stares of her friends as they clapped to the beat of the song. "Thank you, Sihtric," she answered. As the song finished and she spun back into his arms, he caught her and smiled brightly at her. Osferth quickly rushed to them and handed Sihtric something behind his back. "What was that?" she asked him, trying to see but Sihtric turned.
"Ah, ah," He tutted her as he turned. She tilted her head and her smile dropped a bit before he pulled out flowers for her.
She looked at him with an amused, and surprised smile, "Sihtric," she began.
"I am beginning to agree with Aethelwold, do you ever grow tired of speaking," Sihtric teased, and she hit his shoulder playfully as he laughed his laugh at her, one she hadn't heard in a very long time, at least not from her doing. "I'm teasing," he reassured and handed her the flowers. "I saw these yesterday and thought of you," he told her. "I know you aren't big on flowers and everything, blah blah blah," he motioned with his hand a mouth opening and closing and she shoved him once more as he chuckled. "I just thought it would be something different. I don't know maybe it's the wedding in the air."
She took them from him with a smile and carefully, "they are perfect," she answered him honestly. "Thank you, this is very sweet of you Sihtric."
Sihtric shrugged, "I have been told before," he teased. Jaehaera almost hit him with the flowers she had just received but refrained. Sihtric laughed and pointed at her, "you can't hit me, or you will ruin your gift," he informed her as he backed away.
"I have two hands, Sihtric Kjartansson," She reminded him as she followed him as he walked away from her backward. Rickon held his hand up for her to hand him the flowers to hold.
"You are a rat," Sihtric informed Rickon as he looked at his friend with betrayal written on his face.
"Complain later," Rickon told Sihtric with a laugh as Jaehaera began to pick up her pace toward him, and Sihtric turned and ran away from her withJaehaera hot on his heels. The others left behind watched the two with amusement. Everything slowly began to get back to normal it seemed.
"They will be married in no time," Osferth wagered.
"I give it another year," Rickon agreed.
"A year and a half," Finan placed his bet. Thyra shook her head at the men as she laughed at her niece and the boy she loved. They were all a family once more.