Five years after the events that ended in Sophie stuck with the Vikings for almost a year in Kattegat, the clash between her father's Kingdom and the Barbarians was ignited once more. And in a kingdom set on fire, Sophie has to survive what the Paga...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
UBBE HAD CALLED for a meeting with his family, updating them on the events that transpired while he was in the king's chambers. "King Aethelwulf is in trouble," he told them. "There are those here who want to overthrow him. They think he is weak. They don't like the fact that he allows us to live here."
Bjorn, from where he was lying on one of the beds, chimed in. "But Bishop Heahmund said he'd protect us."
"He is imprisoned for murder and incapable of protecting anyone," Lagertha, who had paid her lover a visit, said.
"Perhaps we should never have come here," Torvi thought out loud.
"If we stayed in Norway, Torvi, we would all be dead by now," Lagertha told her daughter-in-law.
"It seems we are all at the mercy of circumstances beyond our control," Bjorn stood up, circling around the table Ubbe was leaning against.
"We have to pray to the gods that the King overcomes his enemies," Lagertha told her son.
"Pray?" Bjorn asked with a scoff. "Is that all we can do? Pray?"
"No," Ubbe interjected. "There is something else that we can do."
Ubbe felt a twinge of nervousness as he prepared to break the news to them, the request that the king had made of him. He anticipated what Bjorn's reaction would be to that.
"The King has asked us to be baptized in the Christian faith," he said. "That way, he can appease his enemies. He will no longer be supporting and harbouring pagans, but we will be fellow Christians."
"He asked you this personally?" Bjorn, now glaring at his brother, inquired.
"Yes."
"And did you tell him that there was no way that you would renounce our gods?" Bjorn asked but received only silence from Ubbe, who was debating whether to disclose the other offer or not. "Did you?"
With a scoff, Bjorn continued, taking advantage of Ubbe's silence. "Our father is in Valhalla. He's sitting beside the All-Father. He is sitting across from Thor. They are drinking together, and they are happy together. Are you telling me that you don't believe it?"
