And don't tell me if I'm dying
'Cause I don't wanna know
If I can't see the sun, ah, maybe I should go
Don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming
Of angels on the moon
Where everyone you know never leaves too soon
Finan and Jaehaera raced through the streets and they began to hear shouts of "Fire!" sound around them. Jaehaera's heart sank a thousand feet, and she stopped in her tracks, afraid to go any further. Men rushed in the direction of her aunt's home, and she closed her eyes. Finan's arms found her and held her up. "Jaehaera, quickly, we have to go," He told her calmly.
At the sound of his voice, she opened her eyes once more and once again ran to find her aunt. When they found the house it had begun to be engulfed in flames. She saw Sihtric and Rickon try with others around to put out the fire with water buckets, but it was no use. "No," Jaehaera gasped out when she heard Thyra's weak shouts for Beocca. "NO!" Jaehaera shouted once more. Sihtric and Rickon turned their heads at the sound of the girl's pained shouting. Jaehaera ran for the house, "Thyra!" she shouted for her aunt. Finan tried to grab her, but he barely missed her. "Thyra!" she shouted painfully once more through her sobs. She reached for the handle but recoiled in pain when the hot metal burned her skin.
"Jaehaera, get away from there!" Rickon shouted for her as he watched the roof above her go up in flames. Jaehaera ignored him and tried to beat down the door to no avail. "Jaehaera! Move now or you will go up with it!" She continued to sob as she kicked the door, ignoring shouts for her.
Sihtric couldn't watch anymore, he shoved his bucket into Finan's hands and raced for the girl before the roof came down on her. Jaeheara felt his arms wrap around her and pull her away. "No! No!" She shouted at him as she fought. "Sihtric let go! She's still in there! Thyra's still in there!" she cried out as she continued to fight him as he lifted her in the air and carried her away.
Men ran around them. Finan, Rickon, and Osferth as well tried desperately to dose the flames that threatened to bring the house down. "Fetch Father Beocca!" Finan shouted at Osferth, pushing him in the direction of the palace. "Fetch him, now! GO!"
Once Sihtric put her down safely away from the fire next to Finan, she went running from him to her aunt once more. "Jaehaera! No!" Sihtric yelled at her as he caught her around her waist.
"She's inside," She yelled at him once more through her sobs and shoved him away from her as people gathered. They watched as there was nothing they could do anymore. "Sihtric, please I have to help her!"
"Jaehaera, look!" he told her sternly. "There's nothing you can do!"
Jaehaera watched the flames rise higher and higher into the air and the roof that Jaehaera had stood under not moments before come crashing down. People around shouted in fear. She let out a painful wail and fought once more to free herself from Sihtric. Beocca had found them now and he ran through the crowd. "No! No, this is not happening!" he shouted as he ran. "Thyra!" he shouted as he pushed through the crowd. Distracted, Jaehaera pushed from Sihtric's arms as Finan and Rickon stopped Beocca from running into the house as well.
"Jaehaera! NO!" Beocca and the others yelled as Sihtric grabbed her once more. "I am here!" Beocca shouted for his wife. "I am here!" Rickon and Finan cried for the man as they held him while he shouted in vain for his wife.
Jaehaera stumbled and fell to the ground when Sihtric got to her, and he fell with her. Now on their knees in front of the burning house, Jaehaera did not fight him as he held her. Hearing Beocca's pained shouts for his wife brought her back to the day they thought that they had first lost her along with Aethelflaed. "Breathe, Jaehaera breathe," Sihtric instructed her when she started to hyperventilate in his arms.
She shook her head, barely hearing him as the world crashed down like the burning house in front of her. The world became silent as she felt Sihtric place a gentle kiss on her head. He knelt holding her and crying with her. She began to match his breathing but continued to cry in his arms. "It's how my family died," she whimpered out, "in a fire like this." Sihtric cradled her head with one head and held her to his chest like she was the most delicate and fragile thing in the world to him. As he held her before, when her mother died, this felt the same.
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Until morning light Jaehaera sat with Beocca in front of where his house used to be. The two did not speak, she just held his had. Finan and the others found them in the same spot they had left them not a few hours before. Sihtric began to walk to Jaehaera, but Finan stopped him by his arm and shook his head. Hild sat down next to Beocca next. "Father," She began gently, "she is with God now. You know that." Jaehaera didn't say anything just wiped her eyes with her free hand and sniffled. "And he will welcome her, I'm sure."
Beocca sniffled before speaking. "It's how her family died," he told Hild. "in a fire. You think that would be a comfort? Or would it terrify her further?"
"Father all we know is that she's at peace now," Hild answered him confidently. Jaehaera sighed shakily and looked up at the blue sky above them. "She's at peace," she repeated. Jaehaera closed her eyes while continuing to look up, she could feel it, the peace Hild spoke about. She could feel her aunt around them in the breeze and hear her in the birds singing.
"They two of you need to walk away now," Finan told them gently and Jaehaera opened her eyes to turn and look at him. "A drink of ale, maybe?" then he crouched down to be between them both. "Once the heat has gone," Finan began, "I shall recover her. Rickon and I will wrap her for you to bury."
Father Beocca looked at him with glassy eyes and thankfulness for his offer. "I..No..I will find her," he told Finan. "She is my wife."
Jaehaera placed her other hand on top of the one that held hers. "She is," she told him gently with the same glassy eyes he had. "We'll help you then." Finan rested a hand on Father Beocca's shoulder. As she sat next to Beocca her sadness turned to anger. She thought about the events leading up to her aunt's death, and she knew the man responsible.
"This fire did not just happen," Beocca told them, agreeing with Jaeahera unknowingly. "It did not." Finan nodded at him and looked at Jaehaera who wore a face they had not seen since their last battle. They all shared a look of understanding for what needed to be done.
They once again found the house that they knew to hold Aethelwold and his men. Jaehaera kicked down the door that hadn't been barred, and Beocca rushed in with Finan and Rickon behind him. They found Aethelwold and his merry men around the table. Jaehaera pushed past Rickon and Finan and swung her ax down on the table between the men that had been frozen in fright from her and the other's entry.
Aldhelm held Beocca and Sihtric held Jaehaera back. "There will be no need for swords!" Aldhelm told Aethelred who pointed his sword between Beocca and Jaehaera.
"I am merely introducing Beocca," Jaehaera hissed at the men. "Let him go!" She shouted at Aldhelm.
"Not until there is calm!" Aldhelm answered her.
"There is madness," Aethelwold's voice added. Now Sihtric and Rickon fought to keep Jaehaera from rushing him. "Father Beocca, Jaehaera, you are suffering."
"I do not wish to hear your voice," Beocca scolded the man with anger. "It was you who killed her. Not some stray ember on a bed of straw."
"I am not to blame for your-"
"It was you!" Jaehaera interrupted angrily while Sihtric and Rickon held her still. "If not directly, then by the words you whisper! By the lies you tell, the bile you spew!" She continued to shout at him.
"I think we should find another table," Aethelwold spoke as if dismissing her and Beocca.
"In the eyes of some," Beocca spoke more calmly than Jaehaera, "a gentlewoman became an enemy and nothing more. You should turn a deaf ear to this man."
"Father Beocca," Aethelred began, and Jaehaera turned her head to glare at him. One that would send Steapa, the big man, into a corner in fear. "I will forgive this display just once. Another word from you, or her," he turned to look a Jaehaera with disgust. She would have leapt on him if Sihtric and Rickon hadn't been holding her. "And you will pay."
Beocca said nothing, just nodded at Jaehaera and the others to tell them to leave. Sihtric and Rickon cautiously let go of Jaehaera. She did not attack the men, just sent the fear of the gods into them before walking away with the others. She continued on without the others. She did not know where to go, but she would walk until she found it.
It seemed her feet always wandered back to Beocca's, even when it stood. She stood in front as the anger continued to burn inside her. Jaehaera's foot connected with something on the ground, one of the buckets. What use they were, she thought before she groaned angrily and kicked it away from her. Angry tears flowed and she crouched down, holding her chest.
Sihtric stopped when he found her, and he sighed sadly for her when he heard her angry sobs. His eyes began to water as he got close to her. He placed a gentle hand on her back as he crouched, and he felt her flinch at the sudden contact and turn.
Jaehaera's blue eyes found his brown and green ones and turned to look away from him again. He nudged her head with his, and she leaned into him. Jaehaera connected their foreheads. It's like he had a beacon that shone for him whenever she needed him, a feeling deep within him. They were bonded forever, she knew that now. No matter what they faced, no matter what they would go through...the two would always have each other.
He gently stood her up and held her in his arms. She rested her forehead against his once more and found peace in his arms. The peace she had felt before when she felt Thyra in the breeze. "She is here," she whispered to him. "All around us."
Sihtric held her tighter in his arms and nodded. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to. "Gisela and her family will welcome her with open arms," he comforted when he found the right words. They stood there for a few moments before Sihtric told her they were to find the others.
*********************************************************************
The next morning while she was walking with Sihtric and the others they found her father walking with Steapa from the place. He wasn't in chains, but he did not look like he wanted to be with him. "Lord?" Finan called toward Steapa and her father. "What is this, a hunting party?"
"I am an outlaw once again," Uhtred answered while they walked to meet each other. The Queen and Edward appeared walking from the palace as well. "To be banished or executed."
"Shall we follow you, Lord?" Sihtric asked. "Leave Wintanceaster for the danes?" Jaehaera looked up at him from next to him. Her father had stopped by the well in the center of the square. Edward, the Queen, and Aethelflaed watched from the steps. Soon more and more people gathered.
"Lord," Steapa began, "walk." her father did not. He just stood still and looked around at the people gathered. He made eye contact with her daughter and she nodded at him. "Uhtred, you will walk," Steapa commanded once more. "You will get up onto your horse."
Uhtred raised his arms up, in his hands was the letter of pardon. "I am a free man," her father spoke loudly for the crowd around to hear. "I have a letter of pardon. It bears the king's seal. It is written in the king's hand. Does the word of Alfred count for nothing in Wintanceaster, now that he is gone?"
Now one said a thing around them. They just watched. Edward didn't voice to stop him, even as his mother whispered to him. "And you are a man who once held a knife to the king's throat!" the Queen yelled at her father. Jaehaera rolled her eyes at the ground.
"Show us one witness who can say this letter was written willingly," Erkenwald spoke, and Jaehaera glared at him. "One witness."
"There is no witness," Uhtred answered as Beocca found Jaehaera and the others.
"We are gifting you your life," the queen pointed out. "You shall be grateful. And you shall leave this land in peace."
Jaehaera rolled her eyes at the woman. Does she actually think there will be peace? She thought. She is as delusional as her nephew. "There will be no peace, Lady," her father spoke part of Jaehaera's thoughts. "War is coming." The crowd around murmured. "There is a dane army marching this very moment. And I will not abandon the people of Wessex-"
"Who do you think you are?" The Queen shouted. Who are you? Jaehaera thought my father helped build the very throne you and your husband, and now your son sit at you fool. "Steapa!"
The big man drew his sword, and men held her father. "Lady Aelswith!" Beocca's voice called from the crowd. "I cannot let this injustice go unchallenged. If Uhtred of Bebbanburg claims to have been made a free man by King Alfred himself..." Father Beocca trailed off as he looked at Uhtred, and then the crowd around them. "We cannot dismiss it so lightly. Only a king can deny a king."
"Wessex has no king," Aethelwold spoke. The Queen and Edward watched and Jaehaera moved to silence the man, but Sihtric held her back. Edward and Aethelflaed shared a smirk at the girl.
"We have Edward Rex," Jaehaera called from the crowd and Beocca nodded in agreement. Edward and his family looked at the girl with mild shock.
"It is for the witan to decide who is king, stupid girl," Aethelwold reminded her harshly, and once more Jaehaera moved toward him, fighting Sihtric for just a second before she stopped.
"Edward is the aetheling," Her father spoke.
"He has no authority," Aethelwold replied. "He is Alfred's son, and nothing more! I'm sure the monasteries are full of Alfred's sons. Do all bastards have a claim to the crown?"
"King or not, if Edward believes the letter of pardon to be untrue," her father began once more, "then I will leave Wessex."
"Steapa," Bishop Erkenwald called to the big man. "You will return the prisoner to the palace. This is not the place for such decisions."
"This is precisely the place!" Father Beocca told him passionately. "Justice must be seen to be done!"
"Steapa!" Edward spoke over the crowd quickly before anyone could stop him. "Unhand the prisoner. Though he remains a prisoner, I will allow Lord Uhtred to speak. He has earned that right."
Jaehera and the others with her father looked at Edward in thanks. "Though you have not," Aethelwold spoke. "Lord, not yet. You have no authority."
"Who are you to tell him what he does not have, Cyclops?" Jaehaera insulted angrily. Sihtric placed a hand on her shoulder as many scattered laughs rang out in the crowd.
Edward held up a hand to her but nodded thankfully at her. One she returned. The Queen and Aethelflaed did not think Jaehaera of all people would defend Edward like this. The boy she beat in the name of 'training'. After the battle, when he came to her father's aid, Edward would always have her thanks and respect. "Do you object to the people bearing witness to justice, Lord Aethelwold?"
"I do not," Aethelwold answered.
"Uhtred," Edward began towards her father. "The king swore that you were to die. Why the change in his heart?"
"Because he believed that I deserved his forgiveness," her father answered.
"Is that a boast?" the Queen asked angrily.
Jaehaera rolled her eyes with Finan and the other three once more. "Look to his chronicle," her father gestured to the palace. "I am there on every page."
"That is a lie!" the Queen shouted, voice breaking as if she were beginning to cry. She looked like it, and Jaehaera's heart softened a bit, but not much. "You are not named, even once!" And there goes the rest of the sadness felt for you Jaehaera thought.
"But I am there!" her father answered. "Unwritten, Lady, but I am there!" Her father turned around and pointed to the warriors he once fought with who now walked him as a prisoner. "The warriors of Wessex know it. The danes know it. And it is what the king has told me himself. I am with him from the Somerset Marshes to Ethandun and all of the battles that have followed. We were bonded, him and I." her father lowered his head and she could read the sadness on his face. "He was the man that I could never be, nor did I wish to be."
Not one person spoke in the crowd. They could have here a feather fall to the ground as her father spoke. "He was a man that I loved and despised...but it was never less than an honor to serve him." her father's voice threatened to break, but he stopped it. "He was my king. And he did not wish to go to his God without granting me what I have earned many times over!" Jaehaera breathed in shakily, and she looked down. Her eyes threatened to become glassy, but she blinked. Goosebumps appeared on her body at her fathers words. When Uhtred of Bebbanburg spoke, people would always listen. He had that power. "My freedom."
The crowd around murmured around them. "But the question remains," Edward began, "why did he choose not to announce it?"
She looked at her father. He didn't seem to expect this question. But then he looked around the crowd of people. He paused and smiled like he had received the answer. "You will remember my great friend Leofric," her father spoke. Jaehaera looked at Osferth and took his hand in hers. Sihtric's as well. They both smiled softly at her. "A warrior, and a Saxon to the bone! He told me once that I could never better Alfred. 'Because the bastard thinks,' he said." Jaehaera and the others smiled. There were a few scattered chuckles around from the warriors that knew Leofric. "Perhaps your father chose not to announce my freedom for this very reason. So that the people could witness their new king, Edward, dispensing justice. Fairly, I hope."
"Will you accept the decision of Edward Rex?" Beocca asked her father.
"I will," her father answered. "I give you my word."
"Lord-" Beocca began to speak to Edward.
"Again, I say," Aethelwold interrupted. "And with respect," he glanced at Jaehaera warily. "The boy does not have the power to make such a statement. He is an aetheling and nothing more. He is no more an heir to the crown than myself." the crowd made noises of disapproval at Aethelwold's voice.
"Lord," Beocca spoke with annoyance. "The decision is yours to make."
"My father, King Alfred," Edward began, "demanded loyalty, unity." Jaehaera looked at her family around her, not sure where this would go. "He believed in his God and doubted those who did not. A heathen would not be trusted completely until he had embraced Alfred's God as his own." Jaehaera glanced once more at Beocca and the others with concern. "And yet.." Edward trailed off as he walked down the steps to her father. Jaehaera turned her head back to him with a smile threatening to appear on her face. "It was a heathen he did trust most. It was the word of Uhtred that he respected most. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, I find the letter written by my father to be true."
Jaehaera exhaled quietly and squeezed both Osferth's and Sihtric's hands. "Alfred's pardon does stand," Edward told her father. "You are a free man, able to choose your own path." the crowd of people around, along with the warriors cheered. She even saw Steapa smile. Jaehaera hugged Osferth around his neck tightly and they laughed together, not expecting this outcome.
Finan placed his hands on both Sihtric's and Rickon's shoulders as they laughed as well. Jaehaera turned to hug Sihtric as well. "May I ask, Lord Uhtred," Beocca's voice yelled over the crowd. "May I ask, now that you are a free man once more, where will your path lead? I would like to know."
"Steapa, my sword," Uhtred called for the big man, and he handed it over at once. "One day, Father, I hope my path will eventually lead north to Bebbanburg," he answered. "But now, I believe I am needed here. I will follow Edward Rex!" the crowd around cheered while the two embraced like friends.
*********************************************************************
The next morning Jaehaera sat with her father and the others on their horses as they prepared to ride for battle. "A letter has been sent," her father told the crowd and the warriors. "It speaks out to every man in the kingdom, demanding that he answers the call and joins us on the road to battle. It says that this will be a battle that will be spoken of for lifetimes to come." Jaeheara rolled her eyes at her father's drama. Sihtric caught her and he smirked. "It is a battle that no man can ignore, no man can stand by and watch." The warriors around nodded in agreement. "Every man must find a weapon, and every man must fight! Wessex will always be the light." Edward sat next to her father, nodding in agreement. "And no matter how heavy our swords become, we must fight. Fight! Fight, and keep on fighting until the victory is ours!" the men around cheered and Jaehera smirked.
"We march!" Edward commanded over the cheers that only grew. Her father and Edward rode side by side, leading the warriors from Wintanceaster. Jaehaera rode next to Sihtric, and she looked at him with a smirk.
They placed their camp at Wicumb, and Jaehaera sat with her father, Finan, Beocca, Sihtric, and the others while they ate. "I've noticed Aethelwold is not with us," Sihtric told them all.
"I had wondered where the stench had gone," Beocca commented. Jaehaera looked at him with a smirk. "No doubt he's making his way to the danes."
Osferth handed Pyrlig some food when he came over as well. "He may know of Bedanford," he added. "He will tell them."
"Which is why we're heading towards the woods," Finan informed the baby monk. "Beyond Bedanford."
"We are?" Osferth asked.
"We assemble at Bedanford as requested in the letter," her father began to explain further, "but then we march on to attack the danes in the woodlands." He took food from Osferth that he had handed him. "A small advantage for our smaller numbers." Jaehaera and Sihtric made eye contact from across the circle and they shared a smirk. Her father began to explain to Beocca why he needed Thyra's blood when he had asked. Her father must kill the man who killed Ragnar with Ragnar's sword marked with Ragnar's blood.
Later that night, Jaehaera walked to her tent that she had once shared with Hild when the nun had fought with them. Now she used it alone. She normally did not mind, but recently she had not been able to sleep well. Jaehaera continued to be awakened in the night from nightmares. Visions she could not piece together to make sense. It tormented her. "Jaehaera," she heard a voice call to her, and she turned in the direction she thought it was coming from, but saw no one. "Jaehaera," she heard it say again and soon recognized the voice of Sihtric. She found him in the shadow's not far from her tent.
"What?" she whispered back to him playfully.
"Can I show you something?" he asked her.
She smiled, "no, you should be resting," she answered. She heard him scoff.
"I need to talk to you," he told her.
Jaehaera thought for a second and looked around. "Fine, but if you die from exhaustion tomorrow, it will be your own fault," she teased as she walked to him. When she reached Sihtric he smiled down at her. "Now what is it?" she asked.
Sihtric took her hand and lead her away from the camp and into a small meadow surrounded by the trees of their camp. She smiled as she looked around it, and up at the starlit night sky. "How did you find this?" she whispered to him.
"I couldn't sleep," he answered. "Went for a walk."
"It's perfect," she told him, and he smiled. "Now what is it you want to say?"
She watched him take a breath. "Jaehaera, I told you that I would continue to rebuild the trust I broke," he reminded her and she nodded. "And these past few days I have noticed a change, you are, dare I say, warming up to me again, and I wish to continue that."
Jaehaera smiled once more and nodded. "Can I tell you something I don't think I ever have before, Sihtric?" she asked him. Remembering advice given to her by Thyra every time they had spoken about Sihtric. He nodded and she took his hands in hers before sitting them down in the flowers of the meadow. "A part of me knew the second I saw you that we were destined for one another. That my heart would belong to you one day," she confessed to him. Jaehaera smiled. "It seems silly to tell you to know when we are to go to battle tomorrow, but if I don't get the chance to tell you now when it could be the last time then..." she trailed off. "I remember the day I saw you," she told him, looking at him for the first time since they had sat down. "So wild and angry. You had all my attention since then, but I was afraid of you. Afraid because I didn't want to break my, I don't know, connection with Bjorn when I didn't think you would even feel the same. You were like nothing I had ever seen before, and I," she shook her head with a smile, "deep down I was in love with you since I met you. When I pulled my arrow from your arm, the whole night I was afraid I might have killed you by accident." the two shared a small laugh. "With you, I learned the language of my people, and understanding of them that I couldn't get from just my father, or Bjorn. He was the same as me, raised away from our people. I knew then when my father put you in his service that you would become my home. And like always, I was right," she teased. "Yes I ignored you for years," she teased and he rolled his eyes.
"That wasn't kind, you know," he told her, nudging her forehead with his, and she giggled.
"No, but I enjoyed teasing you," She told him honestly, "I liked having you chase me, still do. Bjorn never did that, he had me since we were children, he never had to earn my love, it had been handed to him." she paused and looked at their hands. "My father asked me once if I had ever loved Bjorn, or if I had just gone along with what he and Ragnar wanted. At the time I told him I did, and it's true. I did love Bjorn, but not in the way I love you, Sihtric." she told him honestly. "I thought love was supposed to be black and white. He said everything that I needed to hear, did everything my father asked of him, and never questioned anything. He was by the book. The picture of a perfect first love." She paused and shook her head. "You drive me mad Sihtric," she informed him and he smirked. "You never do what I ask you, you don't tell me what you think I need to hear, and your love burns bright like daylight." she connected their heads once more. "Not that I am tired of you confessing your love for me every day, but I figured it's time I did as well."
Sihtric laughed quietly, "does this mean I am forgiven?" he asked her with a smirk.
"Yes," she told him with a smile. "Yes, you are forgiven. But deep down inside I knew you never could have meant anything you said. I can read you like the back of my hand, Sihtric, and you can do the same to me. You are my heart and my anchor. My sun and stars." Sihtric said nothing but captured her lips with his in a kiss. One of passion as they had not shared a kiss in quite some time. Their lips moved in sync as though they had never parted from one another. She pulled away for a moment, "in your arms I am home, Sihtric, do not leave me again. If you do you will burn," she informed him before he kissed her once more. She pulled away. "Where you go, I go," she told him.
"To Valhalla or Hel," Sihtric spoke against her lips. "I will never leave you, and if I do, make sure I never reach Valhalla. I will not deserve paradise. An eternity of misery in Corpse Hall where my limbs will be pulled from my body and eaten would be nothing compared to a lifetime without you, my moon." Sihtric kissed her once more and she leaned back to lay in the meadow with Sihtric above her. "Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, and Corpse Hall are words to me. No funeral pyre or saxon grave could hold me down. I would crawl home to you." He moved his lips from her lips to her neck and kissed it gently. The action made Jaehara gasp softly. "I would face a million Saxon and dane swords if you were on the other side." Jaehaera placed her hands gently on either side of Sihtric's face and lifted his head to place her lips once more on his; holding him to her.
"I would follow you to eternity," Jaehaera mumbled against his lips. "My love for you knows no end. It will not falter, and it will not end. I would follow you down any trail. I would follow you to Hel if it meant I would be with you."
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Jaehaera and Sihtric both awoke in her tent and got dressed together before Finan found them. He greeted them with a knowing smirk before bringing them with him on watch. They smiled together before following him and Rickon to the wood once more. They saw riders, spies, from the danes trying to find their camp. Finan motioned for the archers he brought to shoot them down. "There is nothing more useless, than a dead spy," he informed everyone while Sihtric and Jaehaera dragged a dead dane on the forest floor.
Sihtric looked up and drew his sword once more before standing up, Jaehaera saw first and copied her love. "Finan," Sihtric called as they looked at Jackdaw riding toward them. He had a branch with him, signaling he came in peace. They brought him back to their camp, even though Jaehaera suggested she bring Uhtred to him.
Her father saw them walking into camp with Jackdaw, and came to them quickly. "Jackdaw," he greeted.
"He says he has a message, Lord," Finan answered.
Jackdaw nodded, "I do, Lord," he told her father. Sihtric wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Uhtred gave them a glance for a second before focusing on Jackdaw. "It's from Brida."
"Say it," her father told him, looking interested. They both knew it could be her saying she had figured out who had killed Ragnar.
"Am I to be spared?" Jackdaw asked her father before giving the message. Jaehaera rolled her eyes and held Sihtric's arm in place.
"Yes, you will be spared, but you will not be returning to the danes," her father answered. Jaehaera frowned slightly. "Say your message."
"She says 'Aethelwold', Lord," Jackdaw informed. Jaehaera stood up straight and tightened her grip on Sihtric's hand. "She says do not fail." she clenched her jaw.
Uhtred and her father shared a look. "How long before they come?" he asked.
Jackdaw looked around, "they are near," he answered. "You are facing death, for certain."
"You are wrong, Jackdaw," Her father told the man. "I will not die." He nodded to Finan and he moved to walk Jackdaw out of their camp with Sihtric. "Jaehaera, Osferth," her father called. They both stopped and turned. "The blood?" he asked the monk, and Osferth pulled it from his cloak and handed it over to her father before walking away. Uhtred looked at her next. "You and Sihtric have made up," Uhtred commented to his daughter trying to hide a knowing smile. Jaehaera could never stay mad at the dane for long.
"It seems that way, yes," Jaehaera answered, looking away from her father to hide her smile.
"Good," Uhtred told her. "He makes you happy, keeps you safe. That's all I will ever want for you."
Jaehaera nodded, "I know," she told him. "Though for a while I wasn't sure I could forgive him," she paused, "or you."
Uhtred nodded this time, "I know," he told his daughter. "I could see it in your eyes every day after he left. I did not mean for that to happen between the two of you." he shook his head. "Though I admit, I hadn't thought the idea the whole way through. I underestimated your feelings for him, and for that, I apologize."
Jaehaera hugged her father, "it's been forgiven already," she told him. When she pulled away, she looked at the ground for a second, not sure how to ask her question. "If Sihtric were to ask to marry me..." she trailed off and squinted at the water reflecting the sunlight, "what would you say to him?"
Uhtred smirked, "I would say that there is no man alive good enough for my daughter," he told her honestly, and Jaehaera smiled and shook her head. "I would also say that he is the closest one nonetheless. I would approve the request."
"You would say yes?" Jaehaera asked with a bright smile.
Uhtred chuckled at his daughter and nodded at her excitement, "yes, I would say yes if he asked to marry you. If it would bring you happiness I would bring you the moon. You are my firstborn daughter and I love you more than the breath in my lungs."
Jaehaera kept her smile as she hugged her father around his neck. Uhtred chuckled once more and held onto his daughter tightly, a part of him dreaded the day the dark-haired dane asked once more to marry her. He couldn't let her go, not yet, even if she was twenty now and plenty old enough to marry. He would always see her as a mess of jet-black, curly hair asking him to tell her the stories of Old Ragnar over and over. "Thank you," she whispered to him over his shoulder before pulling away. Uhtred placed his forehead on his daughter's and they shared a smile before she ran off to catch up with Osferth.
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"Today," Edward began, "I ask you not to fight for Alfred." he stood in front of Sihtric, Jaehaera, Finan, Osferth, and Rickon with the rest of the warriors. He stood with Steapa at one hand and Uhtred at the other. "I ask you not to fight for Edward, nor the crown. But to fight for yourselves. And your forefathers! They are buried in the soil of Wessex and Mercia, and they have become the soil. They are the land. And even as I speak it is for them we are fighting!" He lifted his sword and shouts of men around her rang out. Jaehaera loved the shouts of battle, she couldn't help but smile. He had Uhtred's flare for the dramatic, but each word rang true nonetheless.
They watched from the trees as the danes caught sight of Finan's project. He strung the spies up in the trees on the road. It certainly distracted them long enough for the archers to fire at them. While they were trying to find the archers. Finan, Jaehaera, Sihtric, and Rickon followed by warriors on one side. Her father, Edward, Steapa, and more warriors on the other side raced towards the danes that had found themselves in the middle of two rushing parties from the trees. The two armies collided and the fighting began.
Jaehera sent a kick into the shield of a man with all the momentum she had gained from running, and the warrior fell on his back. Jaehaera wasted no time in stabbing the man through the throat before he could recover his shield to protect himself. Sihtric and Jaehaera fought together, watching for each other, protecting each other like always. Sihtric had been back against a tree, no weapon in hand when she tossed him an ax from a dane she had killed.
Sihtric caught it and swung it into the skull of the attacking dane. It gave him time to retrieve his sword from the ground before more sword-danes appeared from the front of the line. "Uhtred!" Finan called, "there are too many of the bastards!"
"Keep your ground!" Uhtred called to his men around in encouragement.
"Sihtric!" Jaehaera called when she saw a spear threatening to pierce through him. She swung her sword through it, cutting the tip off.
"Where are the Mercians?" Sihtric asked loudly.
Jaehaera blocked blow after blow from danes as they were beginning to be pushed backward. "Uhtred!" Finan yelled, "the line is breaking!"
"Push back!" her father encouraged the men. "Where is Sigebriht!"
Sihtric caught sight of horses coming toward them, "Lord! Horses!" he shouted to Uhtred. Jaehaera and her father could recognize the horse and its rider anywhere.
"It is Aethelflaed!" Uhtred shouted. "It is Mercia!" Jaehaera watched as her once timid friend rode past a man and slice his head clean from his shoulders. She laughed loudly before swinging her ax into the head of a dane and crushing it. She yanked it from the man's skull roughly. Another dane in front of her stumbled back from her in fright. Jaehaera yanked his shield from him and threw it back at him. He fell to the ground, and she kicked away his sword before stabbing the man through the throat.
Jaehaera, Rickon, and Sihtric found each other in battle Jaehaera had the sword in hand from a dane she had killed and tossed it to Rickon. Sihtric had both his axes and his sword in its sheath. Jaehaera slashed through a man one way, and then another as he fell to the ground. Sihtric sent a volley of blows into the dane in front of him, and the dane Rickon fought never stood a chance. "Push!" her father shouted from a few feet away from her. "With me!" her father's men and the warriors moved to his command at once.
"Fight!" Cnut shouted to his men. "Stand your ground and fight!"
Jaehaera saw Finan fall when he had been kicked to the ground and she rushed for him. She pushed the man away from Finan with all her strength, and while he was dazed, swung her ax down into the man's skull with a terrifying yell. She helped him up to his feet, and he looked at her with thanks before picking up his sword quickly. The two shared a nod before beginning to fight once more.
At the same time, they each killed another dane, Jaehaera, and her father caught sight of Aethelwold. Jaehaera let the rage burn through her as she stormed for the man. She cut down each dane that stood in her way as she moved with her father toward Aethelwold. Brida and Bjorn saw him too. Jaehera turned her head to her other aunt and ex-lover, then smiled a terrifying smile at Aethelwold that made him turn and run.
The world around her went silent as she focused on the retreating blue cloak of Aethelwold. Her father and she mowed through danes like they were merely blades of grass as they followed after Aethelwold. Her tunnel vision almost prevented her from seeing her father take a blow that knocked him to the ground. As she moved to kill the man who had done it an ax landed in the man's back. Jaehaera quickly made sure to finish the job and slice her sword into the man as he fell.
The two looked in the direction of the ax and come and found that Bjorn had been the one to throw the ax. His mother soon joined his side as Jaehaera helped her father up. Jaehaera quickly found a horse for her father and killed the man who rode it. Bjorn and Jaehaera had done the same thing for their parents as they watched them ride away after Aethelwold. Bjorn looked at the blood-soaked face of the girl he had loved as a boy and knew he would never love another as he loved her. Jaehaera looked at her Bjorn and smiled inwardly, he was safe. She only wished for him to be happy. They shared a look before nodding at each other and returning to their sides.
"They are possessed by devils," Haesten spoke to himself as he watched his men fall to the furious saxons around him. "It is lost."
Jaehaera found Sihtric and Rickon quickly. She threw an ax at a dane rushing for Beocca that the priest did not see. Beocca turned to her with a nod of thanks before taking it from out of the dane and using it to kill another of his friends. Jaehaera wished for quite some time now to see the death of Aethelwold, but she knew deep down it was her father's and her aunt's business. They need it more than she did, and they did not need her or Bjorn's help. Her place was next to Sihtric in battle.
Jaehaera didn't know why but she looked up at the sky, and sun the sunlight shining through the trees. She closed her eyes for only a second, and she knew Ragnar had crossed over to Valhalla. She felt a peace wash over her. "Sihtric, Sihtric look," she told him, and he followed her gaze.
"A bridge," Sihtric told her, out of breath. "He has crossed over?"
"Yes," Jaehaera breathed out with relief. "Ragnar is free of Hel." Jaehaera let Sihtric pull him to her and place his forehead on hers. The battle had been stopped around them, and her side had won. Cheers of victory rang out, and Jaeheara laughed as she held onto Sihtric. Bloody face and all, he had never looked more beautiful to her. Her family had been reunited in Valhalla, and the battle around her had been won, she could not hope for anything more at the moment. She rested her head on the chest of Sihtric and closed her eyes once more. Letting peace flood her after feeling so much anger.