The young girl looked into the mirror at herself. For countless, she was like a goddess. A warrior; fierce, ruthless, yet beautiful all at once. It was hard to resist her charms, and she liked to use that to her advantage.
Her long brown hair was perfectly braided, something that she had taught herself as the years went by. Her eyes were surrounded by dark charcoal, an indication of the fire that was inside of her. She glanced at her reflection once more and nodded. Satisfied with her appearance, she headed towards the door.
Outside, there seemed to be no less than a couple hundred people filling the hall. None of the men seemed to take notice of her, all drinking, laughing and enjoying themselves. Iona calmly walked around the crowds of people. The gathering in the hall was organized by her father in order to celebrate their journey to The Mediterranean Sea. It was going to be her first journey outside of Norway and although she was excited about going the unknown land, she never showed it.
"Iona!" She heard from behind her, unsure of who the voice's owner was due to the many conversations filling the hall. Turning around she realized it was her uncle, Halfdan, and gave him a smile.
"How are you, my dear niece?" He laughed, handing her an ale-filled horn.
"I am well. Thank you, Uncle." She half-heartedly took it, taking a sip and wincing at the bitter taste that she still wasn't quite used to. "Where is my father? I have not seen him all day."
Her uncle drunkenly nodded towards the front of the hall, where her father was speaking quite seriously to another man. She gave her uncle a smile before heading towards her father, King Harald.
King Harald was speaking to the stranger with a sense of seriousness that she only ever saw when hearing him speak about his dream to rule all of Norway. Her eyes traveled to stranger, taking notice of the large scar on his left eye. They were plotting something.
"My daughter," her father gave a proud smile as she approached, "we have a few matters to speak about."
She nodded, sitting down in the empty seat next to Harald. She glanced at the stranger, but he seemed to ignore her, only paying attention to the King.
"What is going on?" She questioned.
Harald took a sip of his ale, no sign of emotion was on his heavily tattooed face. "I have decided that you are not going to be joining me on this journey to the Mediterranean."
She stood up, about ready to argue but was cut off before she could say anything.
"I need you for more important matters." He nodded at the chair, which she reluctantly sat back down in. "This is Egil, I have hired him to help me take Kattegat."
"What does that have to do with me going?" She said angrily, disappointed in herself for believing that her father would actually let her join on the raid. She gave Egil a dirty look, before once again focusing her attention on her father.
He smiled at Egil. "I need someone to learn of the weaknesses in Kattegat. They won't expect you to cross them, so I need you to stay there. Get close to the the sons of Ragnar and Queen Aslaug."
"But-" she started, before once again being cut off by her father. This was something she had been looking forward to for years. Preparing herself for this journey was not easy, she had trained and fought, she put so much work to make herself a proper shield-maiden.
"This is your chance to prove yourself, Iona." He warned, "I want you to show that I can trust you as both my daughter and my third-in-command. And if anything were to happen to me during this journey, I need to be sure that there is someone to care for our people."
She let out of heavy breath, realizing that there really wasn't much of a choice for her. As much as she wanted to go and explore the world, it wasn't happening.
"Fine. I'll do it." She chugged the rest of her ale, before slamming the horn on the table and walking away from the two men.