Being in the wrong place at the wrong time was all it took for Adelasia's whole life to turn upside down. After being captured by the heathens raiding her city and taken all the way to the cold North, the youngest Ragnarsson takes an interest in her...
"Carry my sister to that fisher boat," Alasia said to the nearest warrior, her voice surprisingly calm and authoritative. She pointed her hand in the direction of one of the old men who was busily cutting the nets with fish to lose weight and looked around for Antonio, only to notice the little boy had already returned to her side at the first shout of danger. Grabbing onto his hand tightly, she looked over her shoulder as the warriors lazily made their way onto the docks, increasing her pace.
"Get the children in," the old man said as soon as they were in shouting distance, waving them over urgently.
The warrior whose name she did not know placed her sister in the stinking boat with a roughness that would probably result in a bruise, but which did not matter for the moment, and still running in that direction, Alasia already hoisted Antonio up under his arms. As soon as she waded into the water it instantly soaked the hem of her skirt and her shoes, but Alasia barely registered the biting cold as she made sure Antonio was safely seated next to her sister.
Looking over her shoulder, she scanned the area. "Liv, Svent!" she yelled from the top of her lungs, hoping the twins would find her. The men who still had the power to lift a weapon and who did not have a boat were fighting the advancing group and all small fisher boats were being filled in an orderly manner with children and women first. Blindly, Alasia accepted the children that were thrust in her arms and sat them in the boat, surprised at the lack of crying and panic, her eyes still searching in the crowd. "Liv, Svent!" she cried again.
"Lady, the boat is full, you must get in now," the old fisherman said, placing a wrinkly hand on her arm.
That touch snapped her back to the present and wildly, she looked at the man with his grey eyes. "I'm missing two children," she said, shaking her head. "I will push you further out of the fjord."
"They might be in other boats already," the man countered, but he did grab a hold of the oars.
Alasia shook her head, ignored the cry of her sister to jump in the damned boat already and pushed the boat further into the water. An arrow whoozed right past them, shooting straight into the water and after the boat was far enough, she waded out again, lifting her heavy skirts as she did. Rushing for the first small shop, she hid behind the walls and peered around the edge while clenching the water from her skirts. The docks had been cleared of most people, with the warriors effectively buying the time for the rest of the women and children to be rowed into deeper water and out of reach for arrows from the shore. One of the few men left standing was just cut down when she saw them, two flashes of blonde hair running in the direction of the enemy.
