𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑

11

( 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑 ! )
CHAPTER ELEVEN
START OF A SIEGE
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Solvi had decided to visit Stiorra, since Brida was busy with desecrating the graves of the dead Saxons. The two hugged as soon as they were reunited. When they parted, Stiorra asked, "Are you alright?"

Solvi nodded, smiling up at the girl. "I am. Are you? Did Sigtryggr hurt you?"

"No," Stiorra shook her head, a little perplexed herself by this admission, "He just... talked to me. Asked me questions, listened to my answers."

"What is he like?" Solvi asked curiously.

"Quiet, calm." Stiorra answers, starring off as if trying to remember him and his mannerisms. "He's confident and I can believe that he is a leader. But he's smart, observant. He's not rash or quick to anger or other impulses like the others."

Solvi nods. "Mother says he's cunning."

Stiorra nods, "Yeah, I can see that."

They sat together at the table, talking in hushed whispers, Stiorra even showing Solvi the map and having her read out the words of the regions- the ones she couldn't figure out or mispronounced, she would correctly recite it to her- until suddenly, the door opened. The two girls paused, looking up at him, unsurely.

Stiorra looked back at Solvi, tense, while Solvi watched the drunk Eardwulf warily. He was not to be trusted. He was a turncoat, a thief, a liar, and a murderer. He had apparently sold his sister out to the Aethelred turd just for his standing, and he'd probably done even more and worse for power. She wasn't quite sure how he aligned himself with the Danes, but it didn't matter now.

He leaned down on the table and whispered closely to Stiorra, "I've been drinking ale."

"I know." Stiorra says lowly. "What do you want?"

He drops his sword onto the table in front of Stiorra. "To kill someone, I think. Someone or myself, one of the two."

"I think you should kill yourself." Solvi declares, the little girl glaring at him. "So that you could leave us alone."

"Sigtryggr wants me as a hostage, I am of use to him alive. And Solvi is the daughter of Brida, she will kill you if you even touch her."

"Oh, don't be fooled." He says, sitting himself on the table and leaning on it. "He's playing with you. Unlike myself he's a man bereft of conscience."

"Then don't anger him by killing me," Stiorra says, stepping up and away from the table, pulling Solvi up and behind her. Stiorra was a young adult, but Solvi was a child. Even if he had a so-called conscience, she did not put it past him to hurt Solvi (even with all of her protection as a child of Brida). Not when he had tried to get himself married to Aelfwynn who was barely older than Solvi herself. "If you want favor amongst the Danes-"

"I don't want favor amongst the Danes!" He shouted, getting up and stalking towards her. So she touched on a nerve, shit. "Making a bargain with them was madness. I see that now. I will suffer whatever I choose." He cornered them back against the wall. He had Stiorra and Solvi up against the wall, his arm holding him up against the bricks.

Stiorra maintained her protective position in front of Solvi, though. He would not touch her little sister- yes she had begun to see the girl as a little sister (Solvi was cool and badass like her father, completely free and strange with her magic and strong. She was everything Stiorra wanted to be, and yet she was younger than her by so many years.).