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I cradled his head in my lap, stroking his hair gently, quiet whispers leaving my mouth, "Dreamed me a dream last night, about silk and honest stake..."
The fight raged on around me still, but to my ears, it was silent.
Saga had come down from the tree, and she cut down men with wild precision, her axe glistening with red.
Finan and Osferth now protected each other, but the baby monk wept as he cut people down, a line of tears disappearing down his collar. Finan did not look any happier.
Uhtred roared with every kill, wetting the soil with enough to keep it moist until the next winter.
Sihtric danced around me. His blade cutting through men who tried to target me as I kept my back to them.
For me, the fight was over.
I sniffed, the line of tears down my face burning my cheeks, "Wore a suit so light and smooth, in the rayback of sunfall..."
Arya bit down on the head of Dane that went to attack Sihtric, and the echo of his skull being crushed between her teeth ricocheted off the trees.
Sihtric took that moment to crouch beside me, his hand cupping my cheek and forcing my eyes to look in his. "Gyda, he is gone."
I was looking at him, but I could not see him at all, and my lips moved against my will, "Now the clear morning awakes..."
Sihtric sighed heavily, pulling my face towards his, resting his forehead against mine, "I am sorry."
His chest stopped rising in my lap, the strangled gasps and whimpers falling quiet.
I shut my eyes tightly, the rest of the lullaby strangled in my throat.
"Come on," Sihtric coaxed softly, leaning me against his shoulder so he could slide his arm under my legs.
"No," I blurted, pushing his shoulders as he went to lift me, "no, leave me with him."
"Gyda—"
"No!" I shoved him again as his head rolled out of my lap, hitting the forest floor.
"We have to fall back!" Saga yelled, her voice strained as though someone was gripping her neck.
"Gyda..." Sihtric tried again, "he would not want this for you. He did not die for you to die with him."
"We can not hold off any longer," Uhtred yelled, "Fall back!"
"Gyda," Sihtric murmured, turning my face to his again. His green eye shone brighter than his hazel one, and I focused all my attention on it, the green reminding me of the beginning of spring.
I ran my hand over his hair again with my hand, trying to memorise what he looked like alive before I shut my eyes and nodded.
"Okay," Sihtric lifted me easily, shuffling back quickly.
I let myself be taken from someone I had loved nearly my entire life. I let myself be taken away from someone I trusted unconditionally. I let myself be taken away from someone I had laughed and cried with and made more memories with than I could hold.
I left the boy, who'd held me in the snow while my mother was killed, in the grass, his eyes staring up at the sky, the exact same colour of blue. An arrow now pierced through his chest.
"Head for the place!" Uhtred ordered.
I opened my eyes, looking over Sihtric's shoulder.
Derya had grabbed Olav's shirt, and he dragged him along with him, refusing to leave his saviour behind for the enemy to maul.
Arya protected him as he moved the man, her jaws lashing out at any of the remaining Danes that dared to get too close.
"Okay," Sihtric set me down carefully beside the pit, "do not move from this spot." He rushed off to join the others swiftly, his sword in his hand.
Derya crept towards me, his big body moving slowly until he bumped into me. Then, he stepped over me, setting Olav's body back into my lap.
Olav was not quite cold yet, and his cheeks were still red. Even his lips were still tilted up into a smile.
I begged for his heart to beat in my ears, but it would not. There was only silence.
"You are surrounded," my father's traitor, Sigurd, announced, approaching us on his horse. He only had ten men left. "Surrender the bitch to us and we will let you live."
Saga's heart stuttered and she stepped out from around Uhtred. "I fought with you! My father fought with you! Traitor!"
"I am loyal to the Jarl of Dunholm," Sigurd hissed, "the true Jarl. Not some girl, but Brynjar's son."
"Do not speak his name with your filthy tongue!" Saga launched one of her blades forward and it struck his shoulder.
He yelped, ordering his men forward with a curt shout and the fighting commenced again.
They were too far away from the pit to ride into it or perhaps, they had realised that it was strange that I sat so far away from my own warriors.
"Gyda!" Sigurd roared, "Do you wish for more of your people to die?! Is this who you truly are?!"
Saga attacked him, her axe catching the side of his waist and she did not stop there, striking him wherever she could reach him.
I stared down at Olav's face before I trailed my eyes down his body. The arrow stuck out, bloody and cruel.
Olav clutched his sword in his hand still; he would be in Valhalla by now.
I reached out, my hand shaking, taking a hold of the arrow in his chest and pulling on it. It did not come out easily but it still exited and once it lay in my palm, Derya whimpered loudly, resting his head on Olav's chest.
Olav did not deserve to die.
Olav's father did not deserve to lose his wife and his son, not when they only had each other.
"Gyda!" Finan's yell drew my attention to him, "Look out!"
I sensed the heartbeat behind me, my ears unlocking as my senses sharpened again. I slipped my hand down to Olav's, taking his sword from his hand, letting the weight of it fuel my anger.
I turned swiftly, rising up in one smooth movement that the warrior of Daga's could not follow, and then, I buried Olav's sword into his chest.
The warrior faltered in shock as the blade sliced through his heart before blood began to pool out of his mouth, and he coughed, spraying my face with it. He stumbled forwards, and I wrenched Olav's blade from his chest. The man took another step forward, and then, he fell... straight into the pit.
I gripped Olav's sword so tight my nails reached my palm around the handle. I crept forward hesitantly, staring down into the pit at the dead man, killed by Olav's sword, spilling blood in a sacred pit.
I had never sacrificed a human being before. I had never wanted to. It was a heinous thing to do, and overly cruel... but right now, I wanted to be so cruel that the world would never dare to hurt me again.
"Gyda..." Saga's whisper echoed around me.
I felt my eyes darken at the sides, and the skies above us turned grey as ravens circled above us. "Derya,"
The grey wolf growled lowly, his eyes flashing bright yellow as he looked at me.
"Take Olav into the pit."
"Gyda!" Saga cried out again.
"Hey!" Finan yelped, and I heard his sword clash with someone else's, "Finish the enemies and then worry about your friend."
"Ah!"
"Sihtric!" Osferth's yelp sounded, and more sounds of battle circled me. "Lord! He is injured!"
"Where?!" Uhtred yelled back, "Can he fight!?"
"Yes!" Sihtric replied, "It is just a graze!"
Anger bubbled inside me further, and I felt the ground shake slightly as liquid dripped from my eyes and nose. "Gods above, hear me, help me, give me your strength and power."
"A sacrifice..." Whispers flooded through the trees, "a sacrifice has been offered..."
I stepped slowly and cautiously, my hands raising to pull two talismans off my belt, and I held them outstretched as I stepped down into the pit as well. "A life has been taken unfairly, Yggdrasil. Return it to him."
"A life..." the whispers echoed, "for a life..."
"Heed me!" I yelled, looking up to the skies as ravens flooded it, all of them flying in a circle above our heeds. "Great Yggdrasil! I give you a life for life! Return Olav Hansson, son of Torben Hansson, grandson of Hans Thornsson, to the realm of the living! Open the gates of Valhalla so he may walk back to the land!"
"By the Gods..." Saga's voice was strained again.
"Freyja, who I am blood tied to!" I called out again, dropping my two talismans, one on Olav and one on the dead warrior of Daga. "I call upon your power!" I took my own dagger from my hip, pressing the white blade into my ring finger and dragging it all the way up to the top of my inner arm.
"A life for a life has been given..." The Gods spoke, and I could hear Yggdrasil amongst them.
The roots surrounding the pit grew suddenly, and they surrounded the dead warrior. They avoided Olav as my blood dripped over him, declaring to tree of life that he was the one that needed to be saved.
It was a cruel thing to do, to take a life for another life. But for the people I loved, I would sacrifice the world, only so they could have another moment.
"Yggdrasil!" I roared, my eyes burning painfully as I stared at the ravens above us, "Odin! Freyja! Take this soul and return another! Valhalla does not call him yet! Return his heart to me!"
Derya and Arya, who now both stood at the edge of the pit, both tilted their heads back in unison. They released a howl, long and loud that vibrated the earth and awoke the spirits that hid in the land.
Words sounded that were no longer just spoken by the Gods but now, also by the many who had died near us, whose souls were trapped on the earth. They wished to witness life.
I dropped my head back to the pit.
Daga's warrior was gone, or mostly so. His body was sunken into the soil, face down, weeds and roots tearing his body into pieces that the Gods could each hold. The price had been paid.
I had paid too many prices; I was done paying. I would not give another person to the Gods. I would not let another person die because of me.
I could not save my father because I did not have a pit, and I was too naïve. I thought cursing Brida would fix my pain. I would not make that mistake again. A life for a life would be the price, and for once, it would not be my life that is made to suffer and sacrifice.
"Yggdrasil," I mumbled so only Gods and I could listen, "you have taken your sacrifice. I have given my blood. Return the life of Olav Hansson."
The whispers above me were in Old Norse as the Gods debated and decided. Their words were not for me.
The ravens landed one by one, surrounded the pit, their caws silencing.
"Gyda," Freyja spoke gently at last, "the Gods have decided."
I took in a deep breath, holding it, "What have they decided?"
"Yggdrasil has accepted your sacrifice. A life for a life,"
I released my breath, closing my eyes as a smile ghosted over my lips.
"Olav Hansson has been given another life."
"Gyda!"
I startled, opening my eyes and looking around.
The ravens were gone. The sky was clear.
Uhtred was crouched beside the pit, reaching for me, his face concerned. "You are bleeding! Come here!"
I took a step back from Olav's body. He would not be waking yet. The tree would need time to wake him. Instead, I crept over to Uhtred, accepting his hand and letting him pull me from the pit.
"Here," Sihtric gasped out, tearing off the end of his cloak, "wrap her arm with this."
Uhtred accepted it, bundling my arm up, "I have no idea what you just did but—"
"I sacrificed a life," I muttered blankly, "to bring back Olav. The Gods accepted."
"Why would you do that?" Saga forced out, her eyes wide and almost afraid. Finan was holding her back as though she'd been trying to jump into the pit.
"They sacrificed a crow," I swallowed harshly, meeting her eyes coolly, "They needed a raven."
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