In which Freya Ylvasdottir has been prophecied by the Seer to be destined to betray her mother, Queen Ylva the Dread and Bjorn Ironside, her mother's husband, and no matter what she does to try to avoid her fate, all roads lead back to the betrayal...
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Later that day, it was finally time for battle. Freya stood beside Hvitserk near Ivar's chariot, watching as Harald, Astrid, and Bishop Heahmund arrived. Ivar began to speak to Heahmund in Old Saxon, but Freya was in no mood to try to understand it. All she could think about was the battle ahead.
"What do you think?" Harald suddenly spoke up as he turned to look at Ivar with a questioning look on his face.
"I have a feeling that Bjorn and Ylva are playing a game," Ivar replied, exchanging a look with Freya.
"What kind of game?" Harald asked the younger man curiously.
"Well, what if he is keeping a lot of his army in reserve?" Ivar stated in a hypothetical tone, "What if this battle is just a feint? What if his real plan is to outflank us and drive on and try to destroy our boats?"
"What should we do?" Freya suddenly spoke up and Ivar turned to look at her.
"We'll pull back a third of our army to protect our ships," He informed her and Freya nodded in agreement. He turned, noticing the look on Harald's face, "It is a risk. But it would be far worse to lose our entire fleet. So, I think we should send Freya and Hvitserk with some men into the woods over there, and try and outflank them, diving Bjorn's forces."
"I agree," Harald replied, nodding his head at Ivar, "If you take Astrid back with you. I don't want her to die."
Hearing Harald's words, Astrid turned to her husband with wide eyes. "No," She argued in a stern tone.
"Yes," Harald retorted as he nodded his head at her.
The duo continued to argue, causing Freya to roll her eyes as she watched Harald's men force Astrid onto Ivar's chariot.
With that, Ivar rode off in one direction while Hvitserk and Freya led countless others in the direction of the woods.
Once reaching the woods, Ivar remained in place while Freya and Hvitserk continued to make their way through the woods with their men.
Just then, one of the men grunted as a dart glided through the air and stabbed into his neck. The same ended up happening to countless others, much to Freya's alarm.
Since she didn't have a shield of her arm, she picked one of the shields that had belonged to a man that died.
"Shield wall!" She shouted as she unsheathed her sword. She and Hvitserk exchanged an uneasy look, both of them crouching down beside each other.
"The Sami," She informed Hvitserk in a hushed tone, earning a puzzled look from the young man, "It's the Sami. My mother spoke of them to me as a girl. This is their way of fighting. Lagertha must have made an alliance with them. This was all a trap."
