Kingdom Come

XXII. Medicine Man

Life has gotten so damn hard

that it's hard to stay sane

Death is comin' for me,

the wolves are barkin' at my door

Give me something

so I don't have to feel anymore

Jaehaera stood with the others as they waited to fight. Thunder rumbled once more around them. "My father's weakness drew you here as it drew me," Whitgar spoke to her father. "He could not hold his lands, so I have put him out of his misery." Aidan now stood with Whitgar above them. "Your men, to the wall."

Jaehaera looked at her cousin with disgust. "Go," her father growled to Finan, "be ready." Jaehaera did as her father instructed begrudgingly.

"Move," Finan commanded as the others around moved. Jaehaera pulled her brother along. She pointed her sword with Finan at men who stood in their way. It seemed to her that they were more so afraid of her than the Irishman, and that's the way she liked it.

"Have faith," Beocca told her brother when the priest saw his scared face. "Your father has escaped worse than this." Young Uhtred nodded weakly. Jaehaera stood with him next to Sihtric and held his hand with her free one to provide him comfort while she remained fearsome.

"Your father stole these lands from me when I was a boy!" Her father shouted up at Whitgar. "And he allowed the Scots to ravage them! If you want men to call you the true Lord of Bebbanburg...earn it!" Jaehaera smirked, this turd could never earn a place like this. There he stood safely above them while the others below prepared to die for him. Whitgar and her made eye contact, and she waited for him to look away first like all the others did. Jaehaera kept her smirk when he blinked and looked away from her. She looked like death to him. "Come down and fight me like a man!"

"I hold the fortress!" Whitgar shouted down at her father. "I have no need to fight you."

"Whitgar!" Beocca shouted and Jaehaera's head snapped to the priest beside her with sudden worry. What is he doing? She thought. "Lord! You do not know me. I was your father's priest." Jaehaera's heart raced. "I knew his strength," Whitgar kept his eyes on Uhtred as Beocca spoke, "and his flaws. This enmity was of his making! You have settled that! Now let us make peace!" Jaehaera watched between the priest and Whitgar. "You are cousins! Let this be a new beginning. Unite against your common foe." Beocca slowly moved not only in front of her, but her brother as well. He slowly made his way to her father. "Together, you can defeat the Scots, and secure your land, for the sake of your children. For all Saxons." She watched her brother look up at Whitgar with fear, and she never wanted to kill a man more. That wasn't true, other than Kjartan and Aethelwold, she never wanted to kill a man more than now. Young Uhtred looked over at his father, and then at his sister.

"You have spent too long in Wintanceaster, priest," Whitgar informed Beocca with a tone she found too disrespectful. "And you have forgotten the north. We do not seek peace. You are a stranger here, Uhtred Ragnarsson. But I am wiser than my father." Jaehaera once more rolled her eyes. Oh please, she thought. "I will not leave a rival alive to challenge my birthright...or my bloodline." Jaehaera and her father both looked at young Uhtred. "I will kill you Uhtred. But first, you will watch the death of your boy and girl. And all the fools who followed you to your doom."

"Don't!" her father pleaded in a shout. "Finan, drop your swords! Now!"

"This is the end Uhtred," Whitgar told him. Anger boiled in Jaehaera's mind, heart, and soul. "Your name will be forgotten.