Ivar glared down at the stewed onion. The malodorous vegetable floated in a sea of broth. He loathed onions. Yet the food stores had dwindled. All of the game in the larders had decayed. Now the fare which sat before him fed the long house for first and second meal. A bountiful meal had not crossed his platter in nigh a fortnight. The scarceness of resources forced him to close the doors to the great hall. For the last several risings he denied revelers entrance. The decision afforded him no favor among his people, but he sighted no other recourse. They barely had enough sustenance to sustain those who dwelled within the walls.
He looked down the table to Freydis. She drooped in her seat at the opposite end. She hadn't consumed even a sip of broth in three risings. A sacrifice she suffered by her own design. Everything anyone placed before her she refused. She complained of the fare being rotted with maggots and nightshade. She claimed Bonnie meant to poison her babe as retribution for what happened to her own. Which he knew to be foolish. Bonnie would never harm a child. It mattered not what grievances she held against the mother.
Freydis' handmaidens were able to coax her into taking swallows of water, every now and again. Yet not as often as he would've favored. If she persisted in her senselessness, he'd take the matter well in hand. For he'd have his warriors hold her down, while one of her handmaidens forced the broth and onion down her gullet.
Though he didn't believe Bonnie's aim was to harm Freydis' babe, he wasn't so naïve as to think her innocent of the dwindling of their food stores. It wasn't lost upon him the only vegetable which remained was one she knew he detested. Such a slight only confirmed his suspicions of where to place the blame. He knew she'd seek out vengeance. How could she not? A grave wrong was committed against her. No one deserved reprisal more than she. Yet he couldn't allow her hunger for retribution to starve them all.
Freydis slumped a bit more in her seat. His gaze narrowed as it crept over her. "Has the babe moved this rising?"
"No," she said, while eyeing the broth. Disdaining suspicion pinched her already gaunt face. "He's too weak, as am I! And the fault lies with you, My King!"
"Hmm," his head slanted as he tossed his eating ladle back in his bowl, "you believe me to be at fault for the state of the food stores, how so? Especially, when you were the one who chose to act without the consent of your king? To have your warriors murder my babe! So please speak to me how I'm at fault for your consequences we now suffer?"
She slapped her bowl from the table. The contents splattered the planked floors as the trough skittered across the splintered wood. "The fault lies with you, because you allow this wickedness to continue, dear husband! You have the means to bring a halt to this famine. All you need do is enforce judgement upon the guilty. Yet you refuse!" She shot from her seat. "Though you may not be responsible for the death of her spawn, the same will not hold true for our son if that dark bitch's means meet their desired end! For if this comes to pass his death will be on your hands, just as our daughter's blood drips from them now!"
Freydis teetered from side to side. She gripped the edge of the table to steady herself. Just when he thought her stable on sure footing, she collapsed face first onto the great table. Maddened by the senselessness of her reasoning and even more so her emotions, he waved a hand. His personal warriors and her handmaidens hurried to her side. He, however, remained in his seat wrestling with her words. Perhaps a show of force on his part would take Bonnie unawares. Lend pause to her next course of attack. Maybe even remind her she was indeed still beholden to him.
As one of his warriors carried Freydis to their personal quarters as her handmaidens fussed about after them, he waved over the other. When the soldier approached, Ivar leaned in, "Has there been any news since the former Supreme led her trusted into the forest a moon cycle ago?"
"Yes." The warrior's head dipped a bit as his gaze met the ground. He appeared almost reluctant to answer.
His face scrunched when the soldier refused to hasten his answer. "Well?"
"She's r-refashioned her lodgings," The man uttered, lifting his gaze to his. "Last eve her keep appeared as it always had, and this rising…" his head swung about in a slow shake.
"Refashioned her keep…" He muttered to himself as he forced the words to produce reasoning within his mind. After moments of struggling to piece together a plausible meaning, his glare rediscovered the warrior. "Refashioned her keep in what way?"
"Into the likes which rivals your castle in York." He continued to shake his head as bewilderment did strange things to his features. "I've never sighted the likes. The structure reaches for the heavens, while verdant and stone stretches all out about her land."
"What?" Surely the warrior thought him a fool.
The soldier's head bobbed. "One of the spies even spoke of a massive lake fashioned out of stone that resides behind her keep."
"A lake of stone?" Agitation crept into his heart and pumped unease throughout him.
"It's as if she's brought Asgard to Midgard. The All-Father, Loki, Thor, Frigg, Freyja…they all dwell there." Conflict presented itself in the warriors gaze, before submitting to determination. "I know you believe Queen Freydis to be the rightful Supreme, but-,"
His gaze slitted. Of course he knew who reigned as Supreme! Yet, the people could not…must not! He controlled Freydis and thereby controlled the people who believed her to be whom they claimed. Bonnie, he never controlled. She'd never allow such an imbalance in the scales between them. "You do not want to conclude such a thought, Birger. It would be a shame if your neck were to misplace your head."
"Her trusted feasts for first and second meal." The warrior's chin rose as defiance blazed a path across his face. "More times than not, they also partake twice in between! I believe the meals are referred to as brunch and lunch." Ivar took note of other warriors sharing glances among each other. Birger turned to speak to the hall on the whole. "I've heard it spoken that the fare consists of a great many delicacies. Delicacies which can be likened to ambrosia more fitting for the-,"
Ivar snatched his ax from his trousers and hurled the weapon at Birger. The blade met its aim mid center between the bones of his shoulders. Birger whirled about to settle him with an accusing stare, before his eyes rolled to greet the top of his head. His knees buckled. Death came for him without delay and his face met the wood planked floor before the rest of him.
Ivar's glare catapulted to another of his personal warriors. "Inform Bonnie Bennett of Mystic Falls, the reprieve I've offered to grieve our babe is done. She's to attend me here in the great hall in three risings time to hear her judgement."
"Please, Queen Freydis," Freydis' handmaiden Brenna pled. "If not for yourself, then have a care for your babe."
"This is true. If it is your mind to gift King Ivar with a robust son you must eat," the other handmaiden Ingrid agreed. Her tone soft and ever soothing. Freydis had come to know this gentleness as being the girl's way.
Freydis couldn't recall a moment when she'd ever heard the girl raise her voice. Goddess, she couldn't ever remember a time she sighted Ingrid go without the cloak and veil she always donned. Yet, she never questioned this oddity. For the girl performed her duties beyond reproach. She also held a slightly above middling intelligence for a handmaiden. So she allowed the girl such oddities. Asides, she didn't want to be repulsed by whatever the strange chit thought to secret away under her covering. Adequate handmaidens didn't just fall in one's lap. Especially in a land overran with pagan savages.
Freydis knew both women spoke the truth. She'd not only grown weaker over the last moon cycle, but she hadn't felt her babe move in half a fortnight. This frightened her. For she'd experienced a slowing of movement in her first babe around her birth time. Her sweet daughter had entered the world breathless. Such a memory provoked her to take the ladle and trough her handmaiden offered. Gingerly, she scooped up a bit of broth. When she lifted the silver to her mouth a great many larvae squirmed about upon the ladle, while even more writhed around in the bowl. She hurled the dish. The trough rammed Brenna's head, drenching the older woman from face to shoulders in the foul smelling onion broth.
"Queen Freydis!" Ingrid snapped, her tone inappropriately reprimanding in nature.
"Out!" Freydis roared. She no longer had the patience to tolerate their simple mindedness. "Leave me now!"
As the women hurried from the private quarters, Freydis struggled to stand. Once on her feet, she wobbled over to her personal chamber pot. She glanced about. When assured of her privacy, she then flipped over the muck pail. Underneath lay an athamae and ceremonial chalice. With haste she took possession of the items and retreated deeper into the personal quarters of the long house. She discovered privacy near the weaving loom. Crouching down in the shadowed corner behind the store table, she sliced open her palm. Blood gushed from the wound into the chalice. It had been nigh a solstice cycle since she'd communed with her goddess. She now needed her guidance more than ever.
"Oh Hollow God-,"
A searing burn blistered her gut and set flames to her throat. Freydis dropped to her knees. The athamae slipped from her hand as she nigh regurgitated a lung. Scorching heat set the blood within her veins to a rolling boil. Even the life essence she'd bled into the chalice sizzled and bubbled about. Fire blazed from the ceremonial vessel until the blood dissipated and nothing remained. At the bottom of the goblet an odd design engraved itself into the gold. Fear snatched hold of her even as the cup slipped from her grip.
Freydis sighted the signs for what they were. She'd been hexed. Her blood no longer held the key to her deliverance. Now she understood why Ivar had begun to turn from her. Why the drought she slipped in his ale no longer had any effects on him. His suspicions of her multiplied with each passing rising. The glances of love she'd come to covet had taken a calculating turn. She had a profound fore sense that once she gave birth her husband plotted her end. If she wanted to survive and force Ivar to once again take note of her she had to prove herself more powerful than the dark witch. She'd done it before, she could more than manage to best her again and show them all one final time she indeed was the true Supreme.
"Eluf!" Freydis bellowed not minding who may be about.
Moments later the warrior burst into the closeted room weapon drawn. His glare darted from wall to wall for any perceived threat. "Have you been harmed, Queen Freydis?"
"No, I'd like to have a feast in three risings time." She unfolded herself from her crouch and attempted to stand.
His face folded into a throng of creases and wrinkles as he eyed her as one would the senseless. "A feast?"
"Has my speech faltered are dipped below a pitch your ears can manage?" Freydis demanded, while flapping a hand at him to assist her up. She disliked gravely having to repeat herself. "Yes a feast!" She didn't miss the sigh which burst from Eluf's lips as he stomped over and snatched her upwards. The room spun, but moments later her footing became sure.
"And what will you feast upon?" He questioned, turning his head sideways and sizing her up from the cut of his eye. "There is no food!"
She carefully stalked forward towards him, while she attempted to remain steady on her feet. "You will lead a few of the household warriors on a hunt in the forest."
"Queen Freydis," The man's wits got away from him to be replaced by gall. For his eyes rolled without the benefit of guise as he released another breath rather long in its going. "There is no game in the forest. The only wildling about is the Sup—former Supreme's sacred pig."
"Well then, there you have it!" A sneer bold in its emergence slithered across the length of her lips. "Now, what are you waiting for?"
Harald paced about Ivar's throne room in York. His mind twisted over plots and strategies which would see his sister liberated. Yet every plan he fashioned met a perceived brutal defeat against Kattegat's defenses and Ivar's forces. For he'd lost half of his army to battle and another third to sickness. The able bodied warriors who still remained willing to lift a sword was minimal. Attempting to free Bonnie as is would usher him to his end, which he wouldn't mind if his efforts secured her freedom. Yet with the scant army under his command, he'd not even be able to penetrate Kattegat's front gates. By no means could he triumph over Ivar in such a state.
Still he contemplated sailing for Norway just the same. Bonnie would've given birth to her babe by now. As soon as they weaned the babe from her milk Ivar would hand down her judgement. He could not allow this to come to pass! For even if he had to sail for Kattegat with just his dwindling forces and the gods on his side then so he would.
"King Harald," One of the castle warriors entered the room. "Gunnhild, wife of Jarl Olavsson is here to attend you."
"Gunnhild?" His head slanted a bit. "I was told she fell in battle."
The warrior's shoulders rose and fell as he continued. "Bjorn Ironside also accompanies her."
"Bjorn Ironside!" The news snatched him about to face the warrior full on. "And you haven't placed him in chains or his head on a block?"
"Bjorn Ironside?" The warrior appeared beyond confused as if he'd never thought such things could occur. "The eldest son of Ragnar?"
"Agh!" Odin's eye! Bjorn Ironside had aligned himself with their Christian enemies, fought under their relic against their gods and yet they still worshiped him as if he were a god. Disgusted, Harald waved the warrior out. "Bring them in!"
The warrior hurried from the throne room only to return moments later followed by Gunnhild and Bjorn Ironside. Gunnhild dipped her head in greetings, while Ironside's flared stare darted about the room. His eyes lingered upon the large likeness of Bonnie hanging on the wall across from the throne. She wore the silken gilded dress she'd worn to the feast Ironside had held in he and Halfdan's honor. Their Most High appeared just as off-putting as she appeared that eve. In verity, Harald found the monstrosity distracting. Something so beguiling should never hang about in a room meant for deliberation and strategizing. The Shrew constantly mocked him with her wicked verdant glare.
"Why have you risked your neck to come here, Ironside?" He asked, pilfering Bjorn's attention from their Supreme.
Reluctantly, Ironside turned from Bonnie's likeness to face him. "I've come to ask you for aid in taking back Kattegat from Ivar."
"And why would I do that?" He folded his arms across his chest. "Seeing as I am one of the reasons you and yours are no longer in possession of Kattegat."
Bjorn's gaze darted to Gunnhild for an instance before hurtling back to him. Ironside stared at him, and then his eyes narrowed before he stepped closer. "When I was told you made plans with Jarl Olavsson to return to Norway and take Kattegat from Ivar I believed your motives to be selfish in nature. Yet looking upon you now, I know this not to be the case. You mean to return to Kattegat for Bonnie."
"What?" Harald croaked.
Ironside crept even closer. "You bear the mark of her trusted. How is this possible, she loathed you?"
"Why now?" He thundered, refusing to fritter away anything shared between he and his…Supreme. "Why not, when I had the army? Why not before we went to battle with Wessex?"
"What?" Ironside blanked.
Harald's back teeth clenched. So he forced his words through the slits. "During the parlay I spoke to Ubbe of my plans to take back Kattegat from Ivar. I even offered to forgo the battle with King Alfred if you all agreed to align yourselves with me against your brother. Now I fear it is too late. For Bonnie has already given birth to her babe and Ivar plans to pass judgement upon her for past offenses."
"Ubbe never spoke of this with me." Bjorn's face creased in upon itself. "Yet all is not loss. For the All-Father has vowed to protect Bonnie until you and I arrive with our army."
His brows leaped into his hairline. "Our army?"
The doors to the throne room burst open, and the warrior from before marched in followed by a man. The man appeared drenched and torn from his travels.
The castle's warrior spoke. "This is Bjarke, he claims to be one of the spies your men left behind in Kattegat."
"You have word of our Supreme?" he questioned, taking a step forward.
The spy's head bobbed as he cast a stricken stare to the ground.
"Well?" Bjorn demanded, stepping next to Harald.
The man forced his gaze to meet theirs. "Queen Freydis set warriors upon our Most High while she was heavy with child. Though the Supreme overcame the attack…the babe did not." The spy's eyes took on a shine as his bottom lip trembled a bit.
"No," Ironside uttered next to him.
Harald turned away unable to face his failure head on.
"Her daughter entered Midgard still."
Bonnie walked through the forest with Silas at her side. He held a pot of honey for Wilbur. She'd asked him to accompany her to the cove so they could speak. Since she'd reembraced her responsibilities as Supreme her moments no longer belonged to her. If she thought she was a beacon for the strange and unexplained before, now she was a fucking solar satellite. More and more of her children flooded the shores of Kattegat to offer their respects for Faith and grieve alongside her. This worried her. For things between she and Ivar would soon turn volatile. She'd already fired shots. Any rising now she expected him to return them.
"Bennett, have you thought about giving the pig an apple or perhaps a salad every now and again?" Silas questioned as he frowned down at the pot of honey.
"No." She offered him a distracted smile. "Why would I?"
He stared at her as if she'd asked him how to breathe. "Have you seen him lately? He's as wide as two horses put together. I'd be surprised if he didn't have diabetes." His head swung about as he raised a finger. "I bet you all the warriors in Valhalla that if you cut him he'd bleed one hundred percent honey."
"Stop," she waved him off and continued on the trek to the cove. "He loves honey so why shouldn't he have it. If he was pressed to have anything else, I'm sure Nature would provide it. She adores Wilbur as well."
"What the hell do you all see in that damn pig? It's mean as shit, often over indulges," he held up the pot of honey, "takes offense with everything by rule alone, and has a vengeful streak so ruthless you'd swear he's taken a class in, The Art of Exacting."
She cut an eye at him as a smile hitched the corner of her mouth. "I'm sure many would say the same about you. Klaus especially."
"Now you're just trying to make me jealous," his voice thickened and lowered as he slipped an arm around her waist.
Her mouth loss the smile it had only just gained. "Silas, I'm sorry for taking advantage of our…friendship."
"Friendship?" He arched a brow.
"You know what I mean," she said, casting her gaze out to the trail before them. "What I did was—disgusting. No matter what I was going through, there is no excuse for my actions. You said no and that should've been the end of it."
"Bennett, the only reason I said no is because I didn't want you to regret anything." He brought them to a stop and turned her to face him. "When we…experience each other for the first time I'd like it to be because you feel the same pull towards me as I feel for you. To have you any other way would actually be me taking advantage of you. For I always want you." He reached up to cup the side of her face in his palm. The pad of his thumb drifted across her bottom lip. "From the first moment I caught sight of you through that manipulative professor's eyes to even now as I stand before you." Sadness crept into his gaze. "I've done some horrible things to you, Bonnie."
"You have," she agreed.
"Things I'll never be able to take back, but things for which I still want to atone," he broke eye contact for a moment, and then recaptured her stare. "I wanted nothing more than to help you bring Faith into this world healthy and…" He snatched his gaze from hers once more. "The last thing I wanted was to be the reason you lost-,"
"Faith is not your fault." Bonnie grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. "You, Thomas, and me did everything we could to keep her safe, but—" Her head shook to clear itself of the memories of that night. "All of this we're feeling belongs to Freydis, Ivar, and Hvitserk." She blinked away the tears which threatened to overrun her lower lids, while allowing the heat of her rage to dry the rest. "And I mean to give it back to them times ten."
"Are you really going to respond to this foolish summons of his?"
"Of course, I am. Why wouldn't I?" She spun out of his hold to continue her trek down the hill to the cove.
"Have you forgotten along with the spineless one that you're divine?" He questioned as he moved to reclaim the spot at her side. "Why lower yourself to play his game when one move from you can clear the board?"
Pain, rage, and, the ever burning sting of betrayal swelled within her chest. Yet a dry mouth longing still lingered. Making it damn near impossible for her to breathe let alone talk. This longing pissed her beyond dry. It pissed her into desiccation. For it no longer belonged to her heart or her need as a woman. No it belonged to the mystical part of her.
After a moment of checking the hell out of her emotions, she halted in her steps to once again face Silas. "Because my sorcery needs to see Ivar for who he really is and not who it wants him to be."
"What?" He questioned.
Bonnie shook her head as her shoulders rose and fell. "My sorcery pines for him. It believes he's under the Hollow's influence and pleads with me to sever the connection."
Evil corrupts him! Her mystical energy insisted.
"I've bathed and groomed Ivar enough times to wrinkle his ass into senior citizenship. If evil corrupts him, it's because he allows it to do so. He chose Freydis and her babe over us and Faith. You saw the damn memory!" Her magic shaded her with the mental equivalent of an eyeroll. She recentered her focus on Silas who watched her as if she'd snatched off all her clothes and told him she was about to paint with all the colors of the wind in her butt naked glory. "Until he shows my energy exactly who he is, then it'll always reach for him."
"And you believe he'll go ass out during this so called judgement hearing," Silas interlaced his free hand with hers, "enough so that your magic will see him for the selfish, disloyal, and entitled dick everyone else always knew him to be?"
"Something like that," she said, as she cast her gaze around the forest. Normally by now Wilbur would've joined them on their walk down to the cove. Yet she didn't even feel his energy about the area. "Hmm."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't sense Wilbur? It's weird," she mumbled to herself as unease took subtle shots at her piece of mind. "He rarely ever leaves the forest now, not since Ivar went batshit."
"Well maybe he feels a little more secure since you're back at full power." He turned and began tugging her down towards the cove. "He probably wandered to the marketplace for some exercise. Goddess knows he needs it."
Hvitserk sat in the great hall alone during first meal. He'd force Thora to take her fare at Bonnie's looming keep with all the other trusted. The food within her hall presented a bountiful selection. Whereas the long house now only offered broth and a stewed onion. She'd attempted to convince him in joining her. He refused with more force than necessary. For he knew his former mate would not tolerate his presence within the walls of her keep. Yet in this he found her faultless. How could he not? He'd failed her and his daughter when they needed him most. So he deserved her hate, rage, and ire. Though she gave him none. Bonnie still declined to utter a word to him. She wouldn't even so much as cast her gaze upon him.
Just last rising he'd sensed Bonnie in the marketplace. The sheer force of her presence took him unawares. His blood thrummed in his veins. A potency stirred deep in his gut. A mighty pulsing rose within him and took note. It ordered his foot steps around the throngs of people in the market. The sensation guided him through the twists and turns of the pathways until his sight fell upon Bonnie. She appeared more undeniable than he remembered. For a better part of the rising he followed her about steadfast in his focus. On more than one occasion he'd misremembered to accept air into his body. There was something different about her. Something which drew him to her more than ever before. Yet how was such a deed even possible?
Unable to help himself, he drew closer. He overheard her asking a merchant something or other about her pig. Her exact words alluded him. For being so near to her inebriated him. Yet when she swung about to leave, she looked through him. Not one emotion trekked across her face which would claim him familiar to her. She departed without so much as a by your leave. Her disregard cut him deep. Even now he bled from the gouging wound her indifference left behind.
Hvitserk's glare hurtled to Freydis. She sat atop a mountain of cushions as her handmaidens doted upon her. Dark circles ringed her eyes, while her face appeared gaunt and her cheeks hallow. His fury thundered between his ears. He wanted nothing more than to plant his blade at the cradle of her breasts. Without much mindedness on his part, his palm sought the comforting hold of the handle on his ax.
"That was an emissary from King Olaf the Stout," Ivar said, as he took the seat across from him. "I've invited him to join our army."
Hvitserk ignored his brother and snatched his eating dagger from the table. He pointed the blade at Freydis and demanded, "How soon will that bitch give birth?"
"Soon," The word parted from Ivar's lips hesitant and cautious in its leaving. His brother's stare searched his face. "Once she does we'll sail for England sometime after the ice melts. You should know I plan to force Bonnie's agreement to join us by threat of judgement."
He snorted a chortle. "You're a fool, Ivar."
"Perhaps, but I've already sent word for her to attend me in the great hall before second meal. Which is just as well, Freydis has arranged a feast to represent the changing tides of our kingdoms fortunes due to the impending birth of our divine son." Smugness radiated from his brother as he lifted his chalice to him in skol. "And I expect you and your wife to stand with me on this Hvitserk. Their can be no divide among us."
"No, you're not foolish at all." Hvitserk's eyes slitted as he drove the blade of his dagger in the table to the hilt. "You're crazy, Ivar. Can you not sense the mystical energy that now flows about Kattegat. Bonnie is more powerful than ever and you think to provoke her? Were I you, brother, I'd tread with care. For I suspect this end will not be met with your satisfaction."
"We shall see, Brother." A smirk all too familiar with Ivar's ever laboring mouth pilfered possession of his lips. "We shall soon see."
As Bonnie approached Kattegat's long house her mind rested upon all of the moves she'd made over the previous moon cycle. She'd fired shots at will not giving the guilty the benefit of a warning spark. No, she wanted all responsible for the death of her daughter to know the beef wasn't only real it was choke worthy. For they'd traveled way beyond the borders of kicking ass and taking names. They now resided in a realm where she planned to wear her enemies blood as war paint while brandishing their severed heads as cautionary tales.
This is why she withdrew her magic from Kattegat's food stores and crops. In a matter of twenty eight days the once prosperous city had fallen by the barren hand of famine. Now those unfaithful who thought to forsake her. To deny her to earn favor from Ivar by accepting Freydis as their Most High would suffer. They'd all suffer the same hunger she did when she was too afraid to eat for fear of harming her daughter with poisoned fare.
Never one to be satisfied with a single shot, Bonnie tossed another grenade behind enemy lines. She'd utilized the knowledge nature provided her and neutralized Freydis' doppelganger blood. The life essence no longer held magical properties thereby making her useless to Inadu. Freydis no longer held the means to wield blood magic. This launched hit, pleased her most of all. For she'd only just begun turning the crowned queen of Kattegat inside out.
Not stopping to open the double doors to the great hall, she lifted her hands and blew the wooden barriers off their hinges. The torpedoing slabs plowed down two guards unfortunate enough to be standing in front of them. Once inside she noticed hordes of people filled the hall. It appeared she'd interrupted a feast. Hmm? She snatched a curved horn from the hands of a reveler she passed.
Her gaze swept over the frozen faces. High Priestesses, Priests, Jarls, Earls, and Kings attended the affair. Even Thora lingered among them. Bonnie tsked as she shook her head at the former priestess initiate, before allowing her gaze to move on to the rest of the betrayers. Some of which who'd even fought on her side against Ivar during the Civil war battles. She remembered how each of them clamored for her favor. How a few even offered marriage. Yet there they all stood rubbing elbows and uplifting the same evil which aided in killing her daughter. Her mystical energy flared.
Unfaithful! Her sorcery hissed.
"Yes, that is my judgement as well," she agreed as she moved towards the throne. The crowd parted, clearing a path for her. Many dipped their head in deference as they stepped aside. "I find them all unfaithful."
Ivar stood before his throne as if he'd been in the middle of one of his epic speeches. Although his mouth now hung wide, no words crossed his lips as he watched her with an unflinching stare that would put a stalker on notice. Once he'd hurtled over his initial shock, he resumed his speech. Her magic purred. It writhed about within her like an in heat succubus that had been strapped to a chair and forced to watch Creed 1 and 2 on repeat. Her mystical energy was no better than a dehydrated groupie when it came to Ivar's deranged ass.
To hell with you! Her sorcery hissed.
"I suggest you calm the hell down," she shot back as she aired out Ivar with visual hollow points. "Those dry mouth looks he's giving us doesn't mean a damn thing. When he thought us weak he moved on to a fraud who's sold more snake oil than Clark Stanley ever will." The inner lining of her vessels sizzled.
Then we shall have him. Expression presented a vision of Hvitserk standing with Thora to her mind's eye.
"Please, I'd rather take a needle and thread to my good-good before I ever go that route with him again." Her eyes rolled. "He's just as unworthy as the boneless one."
At the conclusion of his speech thunderous applauses filled the hall. Unimpressed she lifted her curved horn high in skol, while offering Ivar a smile brimming with mock. She then turned the chalice bottoms up, allowing the ale to spill onto the floor. Once empty she dropped the cup as one would a mic. The cheers tapered off as every eye and ear trained themselves on her.
"I'm curious, Lover," she said, glaring into his too blue stare. "What judgement does one such as you think to level against one such as me?"
The muscle in his jaw flexed as he twisted his head about. "You know very well to what judgement I refer. In verity, you stood upon the exact place you stand now when you gave your vow to submit to whatever judgement I saw fit."
"And yet I'm not bound by any vow." She arched a brow as she took a step closer to the thrones. Her stare drifted to the guards to dare them to hinder her advancement. "So I'll ask again, what judgement do you think to level against me, Boneless?!"
"You will enter into matrimony with Freydis and-,"
"What?!" Freydis bellowed.
Bonnie tossed her head back and laughed until tears rolled from the corners of her eyes, while her breasts nearly heaved from the cleavage of her dress.
His voice soared in volume. "Then we'll sail back to England and you'll aid Hvitserk and I in taking back England…"
As he spouted out more of his fantasies, something on one of the revelers dinner platters pilfered her attention. Succulent meat lay piled high on the man's plate. How was that possible? She cloaked the animals of the forest. Not one of Ivar's warriors would stumble upon them even if one stood before their sight with a sign hanging around its neck that read, Game. Though there was one animal she didn't cloak. Her heart slammed against her chest as her head swung slowly from side to side. No. Yet she hadn't seen him in two risings. Not Wilbur. They wouldn't. They wouldn't go…Faith.
Wouldn't they? Her sorcery whispered.
Bonnie closed the distance between she and the man. She took the plate from his all too willing hands. The premonition came as soon as her palms touched the dish. Visions of Wilbur being hunted through the forest by Kattegat's warriors filled her mind. His fear slammed brakes on her beating heart even as his confusion smashed it to pieces. He didn't understand. He didn't understand why warriors who'd once doted upon him now sought to do him harm. Tears burst from her eyes as she watched him scurry to her blessed cove for sanctuary from his attackers only to be speared to death on top of her daughter's grave.
Her sorcery tore from every orifice of her body. It snatched the hearts from the three warriors who brutally killed her sacred animal, while in turn desecrating her daughter's grave. The three soldiers died before their bodies met the ground. Revelers screamed as her sorcery forced those he partook in the eating of her pig to projectile vomit him back up. She then whirled around to square off with the bitch who'd been setting fires since they'd met in order to get at her smoke. Well now she was huffing like a backed up chimney. Freydis what's motherfucking good!
"Bonnie, no," Ivar said, attempting to block his wife from her sight by stepping in her way.
Running his ass no attention she spoke, because she knew that bitch was everything but hard of hearing. "You told your warriors to hunt down my pig…to slaughter him and serve him as your main course."
"You did what?" Stunned, Ivar spun about to spear his wife with a disbelieving glare.
Freydis' mouth flapped open and closed.
"Wilbur was sacred!" She thundered. Wind whipped through the hall tossing about chairs, tables, and platters. "And he was worth more than a hundred time periods filled with your redundant ass." For the first time since she arrived Bonnie noticed not only did Freydis babe not have a heartbeat, but she also didn't sense its life force.
"We were starving!" Freydis yelled, while struggling to rise from her throne.
"Yeah, so was I." Bonnie's mystical energy whipped about her ready to spark. "You know, when I was pregnant and you kept poisoning my food hoping you'd eventually kill my daughter."
"Freydis!" Ivar growled from the clench of his teeth as he glared at the ground.
"Do not Freydis me, husband! You were weak! So I made the decision you refused to," finally on her feet she wobbled forward. "As their queen, I did what I had to for the well-being of our people!"
"Well this is for Wilbur." Her sorcery left her body and rammed itself into Freydis' head. "As his silent attacker you shall suffer through everything he did in his final moments." Freydis' ass smack the edge of the step. "You will know his fear and his pain."
Freydis howled from the bases of her lungs. Black tears oozed from her stretched wide eyes. As Bonnie's energy carried out her sentence it also cleansed the queen of the taint the Hollow had placed upon her soul. Liberating her of the evil that once controlled her.
"Bonnie, please," Ivar pleaded as he hobbled down the steps that led up to his throne. "She's with child."
"So was I!"
"Ivar, leave her!" Hvitserk bellowed somewhere from among the throng of revelers.
Ivar, however, didn't heed his brother words. Bonnie ensnared his notice. He couldn't allow her to commit such an evil as taking the life of a babe. She'd never forgive herself.
"My Love, please!" He pleaded. "You mustn't do this."
When she cast her gaze upon him her normally verdant gaze appeared darker than the eve's sky. His mind hurtled back to the vision he had of her moon cycles before. The vision of when she plunged a dagger in his chest. Fear gripped him. Fear gripped him. Evil had already taken her! There was nothing left in her to save. Yet the evil spirit within her wished to harm his son.
Ivar refused to allow her to kill his babe. At a loss as to what else to do he spun on one of his warriors. He snatched the soldier's sword from his trousers. Without lending consideration to his actions, he plunged the blade into the back of the only woman he'd ever loved. A shrill screech tore through the hall and nigh bled his ears to silence. Then everything ceased. The wind swirling about stilled. Freydis' writhing calmed. The revelers screams muted. All halted, except Bonnie. She turned about to face him.
"Thank you," she wheezed through sprays of spittle. A genuine smile contorted her blood stained lips. "now I'm tr-truly-," she coughed and more blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, "f-free."
Gilded mist drifted from his legs and seeped into Bonnie's fingers. Her knees buckled. Odin stepped from air and caught her. In a single pull, he snatched the sword from her back and tossed it at his feet. With care, he lifted her into his arms and cradled her to his chest. The way he looked upon her one would believe he held the most sacred treasure in all of Midgard and Asgard in his arms. Ivar knew nothing he'd come to know would ever hold more truth to him than that belief.
After seeing to Bonnie the All-Father impaled him with a glowing glare. "You're not a god, Ivar. And because you've done this, you'll never be."
As soon as Odin and his love faded from existence, something occurred which hadn't since Bonnie assisted him so many summers ago. His legs fractured under the burden of his weight.