Dawn reached the sky and Earl Ragnars lands and longhouse lay in lightly smoking ruins. Aelfric left the clean up, search for valuables and possible survivors to his left hand Scallion and Kjartan's son Sven.
Uhtred watched those remaining pillage the place he once called home, quietly seething. Eyes watching Scallion, a plump man who was twice as shady as a rat in a palace. Uhtred did not care for the man when he was young and now?
Uhtred stepped forward carefully, only to be drawn back by Brida "what are you doing?" She asked. His eyes were stuck on Scallion, a man his late father had foolishly trusted.
Khaana snuck around to were Sven was talking with his men. Lazily waiting around while others searched for Earl Ragnar's silver.
Her eyes burned with a cold fire bred from a deeply smoldering rage. She lingered in the shadows until Sven slipped away from his men. He ducked behind the stables and unfastened his trousers before relieving himself on the wooden walls.
"They are searching for Ragnar's wealth" Brida breathed holding Uhtred at bay as they looked on. "They'll never find it." She added.
Though Uhtred was hardly listening.
With a soft gust of wind, and talon like nails clamped around his neck Sven whimpered. A scream muffled by the strong hand pressed across his mouth.
"Don't piss upon yourself rat..." Khaana said in a deep hiss. She tilted her head, and gave a iron smirk. "I am not going to kill you...not here, not today." She spoke in soft whisper.
Khaana pressed the sharp tips of her nails into Sven's tough flesh, "though, it is tempting." She warned, eying the streams of blood tricking from small puncture wounds.
"I have a message for he who spawned you, rat." She growled, Khaana feared for her self control as he trembled in fear. Sven, had no shame in how his body quaked, for her eyes held a starved malice and he was only thankful the lust for death had not decided to make a meal of him then and there.
"The line of Ravnson, they will come for him. And every ansestor and kinsmen that rest in Valhalla and Niflhein will ride down from their feast and claw forth from the mists. Their souls will ride with the last of his line, fight within thier sword, hold a wal with thier shield and there will be no stopping the death that is coming to him."
Khaana's words made Sven shake "you pray that Thor grants you mercy, but we both know he is likely to have none." Khaana added, she removed her hand from Sven's mouth.
"Scream and I end you here..." She whispered, Sven nodded his head repeatedly and chomped down on his tongue as Khaana tore her nails from his neck.
"Keep a good grasp on your sword. Would be a pity to wake up in the cold mists." Khaana spoke in a our like chuckle that seemed to echo around him while she vanished in a black miasma.
Khaana used her mind tricks so safely fall back into the woods, she swiped at the tree leave small yet deep lines within its trunk, over and over again.
Her nails and fingertips bled, her rage numbing the slight pain. Her eyes focused on the burns that were fading slowly
Meanwhile, Sven angry with hurt pride strode within one of the ruined huts, Thyra sat upon the ground covered in soot with her hands bound by ropes.
Hatred would be to soft a word for the look she bore in her wild eyes as she watched him kneel before her.
"Hurry it up we're leaving soon!" Scallion's voice ordered in the distance.
Sven looked down upon Thyra with glazed eyes and a hollow expression. "You'd thought I let you marry another?" He asked looking down at his hands. Sven released a shaky breath, "but, do you know what I will do with this body?" He spoke with words void of emotion.
Thyra looked up at him with a stone gaze, as he trailed his fingers across he lips, "with this mouth?" He asked. Thyra puckered her lips against his fingers and for a moment Sven seemed hopeful.
Yet that glint in his eye died fast, as Thyra spat at him. Sven sighed, and locked the liquid from his finger, ignoring that which had splattered on his vest.
"I will do all I have dreamt of..." he said, looking over Thyra he took her in as if to imprint the way she looked into his memory. The fight in her eyes only fueling in fantasies. "..and more." He whispered.
It was enough to make Thyra want to gag. He had grown to be an attractive young man, but what he had done to her family and the sickness of his mind would make a toad look more appealing. His heart was his hideosity.
"And who would call a halt?" He questioned, he reached out and took Thyra's chin in his hand and forced her head to turn. She gasped at the dull pain as he eyes fell upon her father's charred remains which were being poked and picked at by men he once trusted.
"Earl Ragnar the fearless is gone." Sven snatched her face around to look at him, he pinched her cheeks together in his hand "and with him? Uhtred, his Saxon pet...and pile of ashes." He added.
Thyra's eyes filled with tears and the fight left her. He trailed his hand down her neck and groped her chest roughly. She hated the look of victory in his eyes "anything" he mused proud of himself.
Thyra watch Sven get to his feet and stride away. Her eyes wandered to the trees, her family may have been gone but she knew Khaana was still out there somewhere, she could only hope that somehow she would find her.
Khaana would come, she always did.
Uhtred spotted Scallion finally heading somewhere secluded. His heart begin to pound loudly in his chest. His eyes lingering upon the man like a wolf. "What are you looking at?" Brida called in a whisper.
Uhtred shook her from him and went to take a few careful steps forward. Yet Brida's hand found his sleeve yet again. "Get down they'll see." She warned.
"That man there, look at him, the Saxon. That is Scallion." Uhtred said words soft and distracted as he watched his every move.
From the smokey shade of one of the ruined building stepped out another familiar face, which made Uhtred's heart race more. He had the gall to return?
"He works for my uncle, he will tell him that I am dead." Uhtred said, his eyes scanned around for Khaana, she must have been around. She had to know he was here.
"Good, let him." Brida said.
Uhtred shook his head "I see him, with Kjartan." He whispered.
Kjartan glanced around he kept his body calm but anyone could tell he was afraid of something. His eyes scanning his nearby surroundings requently.
"He and your uncle, maybe they are in this together?" Brida asked quickly.
"And if so? What makes them believe that can just do all of this without punishment? " Uhtred raged quietly, Brida tried her best to keep him still, it nearly took her whole body to hold him there.
"Shh, shhh. They will be punished, but not by you." She said, her voice urgent but lulling as she tried her best to calm her newfound love as he watched Scallion intently.
"Listen to me, Uhtred. We serve Ragnar best alive, we tell the story." She said grasping his hand firmly.
Uhtred finally turned to look at her. He searched her eyes. "I need to kill someone." He said, Brida stood her ground "no." She said, but she could see the look in his eyes.
A wild fearsome look belonging only to a Dane. "And I choose him." Uhtred said turning his gaze back to Scallion who had left from Kjartan.
"Uhtred, no - they will see you" Brida's hand slid off of Uhtred as he walked away from her, and as quietly as he could with the sneakiness of a fox made his way to Scallion.
Brida watched over him from her hiding spot in the trees. She released a long annoyed sigh. "Khaana...to leave me with this rockhead..." She murmured.
Uhtred strolled through the pillage homestead slowly, head low as long as he avoided Kjartan most thought him to be just another one of Earl Ragnar's betrayers.
Thyra glanced up from where she sat captive, she gasped and hope filled her eyes as she spotted Uhtred heading for the old barn.
He lingered in the shadows watching Scallion's back as he looked out upon the ruined scene. He was so close.
At the forests edge, Khaana returned to Brida. She rested a hand on her shoulder gently "are you alright?" She asked Brida. Brida rested a hand over Khaana's and nodded. "Where is Osbert?" She asked.
Brida pointing to the old barn "we went after a Saxon named Scallion. Says he worked for his uncle." Brida said. Khaana's eyes scanned the barn. "Let him. The pup needs a taste of blood it is owed to him." She murmured.
Brida looked less than pleased but would not speak put against Khaana. "There is something else...Kjartan. .." Brida said carefully.
But she need not finish, Khaana's eyes fell on him from where he stood stalking with Sven. Kjartan looked pale in the face as Sven relayed Khaana's message.
Brida ducked behind the tree, Kjartan had looked right at them while letting his eyes scan the woods. "Don't fear... he cannot see you." Khaana spoke.
Brida looked up to see Khaana had taken her hound form, fur still patched, burned and melted. "You have hidden us? You have strength left? Should you be using it? You need to recover." Brida questioned.
"I've hidden you. I want that roach to see me." Khaana whispered dangerously. She kept her eyes locked on Kjartan as he watched her from the distance.
"Won't he send men this way?" Brida asked, she was afraid but Khaana's calm mentioned for now she was safe.
"No, he wouldn't risk more death. He has gotten my message. He knows he will need every man he has left...he just does not know when." said Khaana her voice holding a hint of amusement.
She let out a pleased hum when he turned to walk away and she herself left towards the barn. "Let me go retrieve him." She said.
"Come on, let's go!" Kjartan ordered.
Uhtred snatched Scallion into the shadows and held him to the wall, a dagger to his neck. "You know who I am, it is me you are looking for." He said quietly, pressing the blade to the man's neck.
As the steel sank into his flesh, Scallion's eyes grew wide, looking upon Uhtred's face as the young Saxon-Dane repeated "it's me you're looking for, you remember me? You remember me?" With the blade sinking ever deeper.
Uhtred made Scallion get a good look at his face before dragging the dagger across his jugular. With a groan and a gurgle Scallion dropped to the floor.
Uhtred stood there for a moment watching him take his last breath before stepping further into the shadows. Half of the pint in rage eased from his shoulders and he slipped down the wall.
On the ground in silence he found the tears started to spring forth again.
Through the dark a warm air covered him, it grew stronger like a soft blanket by the second. Uhtred turned to meet her his arms curling around her large neck as he hid his face in her fur.
"No, no." Khaana spoke bidding him to stop "no more tears, not yet." She said softly. Uhtred tried his best to contain himself, but at her side it was hard too. "Courage Osbert." She urged. Uhtred sucked in his tears as best he could and wiped his snot onto her fur causing Khaana to grimace.
"Lovely...thank you ever so much for the gift of mucus." She said in dry disgust. Uhtred chuckled a bit and sniffled as quietly as he could.
Thyra allowed herself to be lead by a crudely fashion leash around her neck. "You roam with dogs you will be treated like one." Kjartan whispered to her before leading his men away.
Her eyes looked around desperately for Uhtred, she knew he was close but where had he gone? When she did not see him her heart sank and with heavy feet she followed her captives as the left Earl Ragnar's lands in smoke and ash under a grey sky.
The land fell into a dismal silence. Khaana stood in her true form keeping watch as she gave Uhtred and Brida time to linger at Earl Ragnar's side. Neither said anything, Brida stood at a small distance from Uhtred who rested a hand upon the chard body of the man he'd cme to call father.
His heart ached as if incased in ice in his chest. Instead of feeling surreal it all felt nauseatingly real. It caused an sour knot in Uhtred's gut. A nightmare he could live and would have to face everyday. He know understood how deadly Khaana's illusions must have been....only his waking nightmare was no illusion.
While Uhtred and Brida salvaged what they could, Khaana built a pyre and started to cremation process for what was left of Earl Ragnar.
She swoon lightly as he body felt weak, using up precious energy to mask the rising smoke from any who might linger near or far. It was a large task with a wounded mind and body.
Across the sea, Ragnar the younger stubble a bit as he walked through the small hold he and his men had built. "Are you alright?" One of his men asked. Ragnar masked his troubled expression and gave his men a smile. "Never beter." He lied.
Going on on his own he ran a hand down his arm were the phantom boils had formed the night before. He flexed his back muscles and his neck as if to shake free the strained feeling.
"What are you doing..." he wondered to himself, in his mind he could clearly picture her face. This bind he shared with Khaana seemed to be a double edged sword. She could lend him her strength and also He could sap from her her weakness, he found himself unwillingly taking bits of her burdens from her.
"I will take all I can.." he thought to himself, clenching his fists " I am not with you, though I will return. Hold on." He thought, he turned to eyes to the sea in the distance. "I hope favor has found you all." He murmured a since of dread slowly creeping into his skin.
Brida and Uhtred finally dug up Earl Ragnar's chest of silver. Opening the small chest they carfully picked at the coins, jewelry and ornaments.
"By right, it all belongs to young Ragnar." Uhtred said, his eyes looking to Khaana whispered watched the pyre burn intently.
"Yes, but we spend what we need to stay alive." Brida cut in. "We tell the story and then?" Uhtred questioned words hollow. Brida offered a hopeful expression "find a new lord to serve." She said with a sniffle.
"We've her...no one would turn us away with promise of the power that she holds from the gods" Brida added.
Uhtred glanced at Khaana, her dark eyes met with his and he could feel what she'd told him, for all his life that he'd known her.
Turning to Brida he slowly shook his head. "I will not stand by and let everything that is mine be snatched from me." He said, his mind as settled "I'm going back." He said calmly rising to his feet, his eyes lingering on a singed black fur cloak.
"Back where, Uhtred?" Brida asked watching him walk to the fur and take it into his hands. "To the beginning." He muttered, looking to Khaana who held a small smile in her eyes.
Before him she took the form of a black steed, rain begin to fall and carefully douse the fire melting the ashes I to the earth. These lands would serve as a fine resting ground for the man who earn them at the side of his family.
For now, the ones left alive would ride to start what Earl Ragnar's enemies had left unfinished.