Blood Moon| The Last Kingdom| Sihtric Kjartansson

TWENTY-SEVEN

☾

I cradled his head in my lap, stroking his hair gently, quiet whispers leaving my mouth, "Dreamed me a dream last night, about silk and honest stake..."

The fight raged on around me still, but to my ears, it was silent. 

Saga had come down from the tree, and she cut down men with wild precision, her axe glistening with red.

Finan and Osferth now protected each other, but the baby monk wept as he cut people down, a line of tears disappearing down his collar. Finan did not look any happier.

Uhtred roared with every kill, wetting the soil with enough to keep it moist until the next winter.

Sihtric danced around me. His blade cutting through men who tried to target me as I kept my back to them.

For me, the fight was over.

I sniffed, the line of tears down my face burning my cheeks, "Wore a suit so light and smooth, in the rayback of sunfall..."

Arya bit down on the head of Dane that went to attack Sihtric, and the echo of his skull being crushed between her teeth ricocheted off the trees.

Sihtric took that moment to crouch beside me, his hand cupping my cheek and forcing my eyes to look in his. "Gyda, he is gone."

I was looking at him, but I could not see him at all, and my lips moved against my will, "Now the clear morning awakes..."

Sihtric sighed heavily, pulling my face towards his, resting his forehead against mine, "I am sorry."

His chest stopped rising in my lap, the strangled gasps and whimpers falling quiet.

I shut my eyes tightly, the rest of the lullaby strangled in my throat.

"Come on," Sihtric coaxed softly, leaning me against his shoulder so he could slide his arm under my legs.

"No," I blurted, pushing his shoulders as he went to lift me, "no, leave me with him."

"Gyda—"

"No!" I shoved him again as his head rolled out of my lap, hitting the forest floor.

"We have to fall back!" Saga yelled, her voice strained as though someone was gripping her neck.

"Gyda..." Sihtric tried again, "he would not want this for you. He did not die for you to die with him."

"We can not hold off any longer," Uhtred yelled, "Fall back!"

"Gyda," Sihtric murmured, turning my face to his again. His green eye shone brighter than his hazel one, and I focused all my attention on it, the green reminding me of the beginning of spring.

I ran my hand over his hair again with my hand, trying to memorise what he looked like alive before I shut my eyes and nodded.

"Okay," Sihtric lifted me easily, shuffling back quickly.

I let myself be taken from someone I had loved nearly my entire life. I let myself be taken away from someone I trusted unconditionally. I let myself be taken away from someone I had laughed and cried with and made more memories with than I could hold. 

I left the boy, who'd held me in the snow while my mother was killed, in the grass, his eyes staring up at the sky, the exact same colour of blue.  An arrow now pierced through his chest.

"Head for the place!" Uhtred ordered.

I opened my eyes, looking over Sihtric's shoulder.

Derya had grabbed Olav's shirt, and he dragged him along with him, refusing to leave his saviour behind for the enemy to maul.