Freya Ironside, Gifted by the Gods

A death, a wedding and goodbyes

Now it was King Hecbert to be killed. They marched to the heart of their kingdom, ready for their last attack. As they saw the figure of the royal villa from afar, they began to run and stopped only at a fair distance from the gates.

"CHARGE!" yelled Bjorn with all the air in his lungs and they all followed him.

Hvitserk would stand right beside her, not wanting to let go of his very own Valkyrie.

They managed to push down open the wooden doors. It seemed like the Saxons had left, everyone was gone in the main square. They all stopped there, Bjorn moved Freya behind him worried there might be surprises or archers hidden away. "Be careful, it could be a trap" he said and Halfdan was the first to bravely move with his brother and some other men. They didn't have to wait for them long, they returned soon enough and Halfdan exclaimed cheerful, "It's empty. They're gone!" and everyone rejoiced, all but Bjorn and although she wanted to go with Hvitserk, she stayed back with him. She knew how mannerless he could be when ill-tempered.

Their men and women began to destroy everything and split what was left between them.

Her father sat down onto a platform while she went to stand next to it, staring at her father's pensive look, but he wouldn't say anything, not why he was upset; he would just stare around. After a while, Bjorn went to Ivar and Ubbe who had returned from scouting the inside of the villa; she remained next to the platform, looking at the people around, eyeing Halfdan and his brother, they reminded her of happy children when they fought, when they destroyed things.

She was leaning onto the edge of the platform when a short man started walking their way, an old and beaten man with long greyish hair; clearly not one of them. Someone tried to shoot him down but Bjorn put a stop to it and walked towards the old man being blocked by King Harald and Halfdan's swords. "This is King Ecbert. I order you to spare him" said Bjorn looking at him with contempt, towering over him and immediately some men walked to him to tie his hands.

Bjorn walked over to Ubbe and Ivar and gestured her to come as well, "Find Hvitserk and Sigurd, tell them we have Ecbert" said Bjorn to her and Ubbe, the two looked at each other for a brief moment, then they walked inside the royal villa and began to search the rooms.

Many were still causing mayhem inside and once she saw Floki and Hvitserk putting up fires in rooms giving on a small corridor, she walked to them, "Hvitserk! Floki!" she called for them and they turned around at once, the son of Ragnar had a grin all over his face for being able to destroy everything and yet, as soon as he turned to her he gave his torch to another warrior and walked to her immediately, "What is it?" he asked, "Ecbert is here, he surrendered, Bjorn had him tied up in the courtyard" she told them and their faces lit up, "What if there still are some of their men here? Protecting the King?" asked Hvitserk with a smirk and Floki smiled and the two sprinted down the corridor searching for more remote places inside the villa.

She thought Hvitserk would have wanted to see Ecbert at once but seemingly, the prospect of killing some other Saxon soldiers was more appealing; she did not believe they would have gone to look for soldiers just the two of them, alone, probably with more people to wait for them ... but they did. She followed them without a second thought. They wandered around for a moment while she tried to make them come back with her, when finally they found some corridors that had not yet been explored.

Hvitserk kept her beside him while Floki took a peek behind a partition and they both immediately sprinted. There were three lone soldiers behind it, Hvitserk put his axe through the chest of one of them and went on to the next while Floki cracked the other's head open as he hit it on the stone wall. They were protecting an open door, possibly the one where Hecbert had come crawling out of.