Finan the Agile Fanfic: Shadowkin LAST KINGDOM Fanfiction COMPLETE

Chapter 33: The Wall

Spring, 918, Dunnottar

"There is to a be a meeting," Domnall told Osthryth, repeating his first casual, off-hand statement, a hint of caution behind it now. Osthryth had stopped walking and was now looking south, over the Forth and beyond, to a spot she could not see.

"By the Wall," Domnall clarified, then added, because it was too early in the morning for the argument he felt was coming, "Just speak to Constantine: he spoke of it at the feast last night."

"The feast I did not attend," Osthryth said, smarting at the potential snub. "What else am I to miss out on, Domnall, when I was asked to stay away?"

"Osrit, you were not asked to stay away," Domnall told her, beginning their slow patrol along the northern bank of the river. "Little Finan was calling for you, and Aedre - who you must admit does a lot of the looking after as far as he is concerned, asked you to be with him."

Osthryth turned, and gave Domnall a long look. He was right, and they both knew it. But she did not like it that he had pointed it out.

"You say I am not spending enough time with my son?" Osthryth asked, defensively. He was her best friend, but Domnall could be too truthful with her sometimes. "I spent the night beside him, and the night before last." Then she felt herself stiffen. "Is this why Constantine has excluded me from the meeting?" she asked, suddenly.

But before Domnall could answer, Osthryth was already striding away. Domnall, after a second of urgent thought, hurried after her.

"Osrit!" he called, and when he put a hand on her shoulder, she moved her head, nudging the back of her hand over her face. He softened, and stroked his hand lightly over her shoulder.

"No, Domnall!" Osthryth protested. "I am...fine. I just - uhhhhh!" she raged through her teeth. "I did not choose to be a warrior!" Osthryth went on. "I did not wake up at Bebbanburg looking at swords and Norse ships and think, "One day, I want to be a warrior for my uncle Aelfric!"

"I know, I know," Domnall tried to soothe. But Osthryth turned and looked at her friend, anger, disappointment, injustice written on her face. "I did not say you were a bad mother; I did not say you did not give young Finan enough of your time."

"And I go when he calls - I go even when he does not..." Osthryth went on. "I organise for his lessons, his sword training...Aedre lets him follow her around because it does her well with the mormaers' sons...!"

"Osrit - " Domnall tried to calm her down, but her rage was getting more intense.

"No-one tells a man who is a warrior he needs to be spending more time with his children," Osthryth went on. "No-one excludes a warrior from a significant event because he hasn't spent enough hours bringing up his child." She looked at her friend. "I mean, you spend years away from your son!"

Domnall inhaled and looked across the Forth before looking back to Osthryth. "Edward of Wessex is going to be there," Domnall told her, gravely. "You know how he feels about that king, because of you." It was true, and again, Domnall was the only one who knew how Constantine had treated her that night, when she was preparing to take Aedre to see Beocca.

Black hair, now grey, eyes as blue-bright as she remebered when he had raced back to the Ailech the night she had taken Aedre to Winchester, Domnall was every inch the king his father was. And there he was, taking the time to talk to her now.

And she him: Domnall had, on patrol, when they were far from Dunnottar, confided to Osthryth how much he missed his mother Mael Muire, who had died not long after Flann Sinna, and how much he wished she could see Niall again, a thoroughly upstanding Ui Neill - "Which is rare!" Domnall had laughed through his sadness that day, who had married poor Gormlaith and were now living at Donnchada's generosity, no inch of a challenge to him for the northern throne.