Querencia \\ Hvitserk Ragnarsson

Chapter 4: Bleeding out

Later that day Ragnar decided to go back to Hedeby. Show Lagertha what had become of the young Bjarke.

Once Lagertha walked into the room she flung her arms around Bjarke.

"Oh, Bjarke. I am so happy to see you as a strong woman now."

Bjarke did not know how to respond, so she decided to remain silent and smile.

Lagertha then turned to Ragnar. They spoke for a little while. About the settlement, going back to Wessex and about them.

After that, Lagertha asked for some time alone with Bjarke, so Ragnar left.

"I feel like I should not just thank you for what you did for me, Lagertha. I feel like I should do something else for you," Bjarke told the older woman.

Lagertha smiled at her. "Oh Bjarke, there is no reason to."

"But there is. For seven years, you took care of me. For seven years you had to live with me as a burden. Seven years is a long time. I feel like I should somehow make up for that," Bjarke told her.

"If you really feel that way, then I might have something."

"Tell me, Lagertha. Whatever it is, I'll do it."

Lagertha told Bjarke about her dreams of becoming queen. She would have been queen if she had never divorced Ragnar, but she did and she was still craving power.

If Ragnar was really going to die, then taking the throne wouldn't be hard for Lagertha. Bjarke knew that Lagertha would make a better queen than the current one, Ragnar's wife Aslaug.

Lagertha told Bjarke what she had to do. Bjarke could only describe what she had told her in one word. Spy.

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The promises Bjarke had made to Lagertha and Ragnar would go together perfectly. She could easily spy in Kattegat for Lagertha and look after Ragnar's sons at the same time.

Bjarke had decided to take a walk, so she went into the woods. She only carried a knife with her. Bjarke knew she was never to be unarmed.

She'd been walking and walking and eventually got tired, so she stopped. She took a branch from a tree and started to cut parts of the bark away with her knife. For a second she had let her guard down and that was the first mistake she made that day.

She had not heard the man coming up to her. She had not even noticed him until he covered her mouth with his hand. Bjarke's first instinct was to stab him with the knife, but he had seen this coming and blocked the knife with the axe he was holding in his other hand, forcing her to drop the knife. The move did give her the time to escape from his grip. She was able to get up and turn around.

The man who was attacking her was Sigurd. Sigurd was one of Ragnar's sons and even though Bjarke didn't know his sons, she felt betrayed.

Sigurd was stronger than she had expected him to be. He pulled her down and made her trip. Bjarke moaned in pain when she hit the ground. She had fallen onto her own knife. The knife had made a deep cut into her back, but she had to fight on. She was trained by Ragnar Lothbrok, she couldn't be this weak.

She was somehow able to grab Sigurd's axe and rip it out of his hands. Now she was the armed one. She might not be very strong, but she was both smart and fast. She tried to put as much distance between the two of them by running away from Sigurd.

"Remember, you have to remember something!" Bjarke said to herself. Why couldn't she remember the lessons from Ragnar about protecting herself?

Sigurd was right behind her. Bjarke didn't know why Sigurd had chosen to bother her, but it definitely worried her.

Suddenly, there was another person. Another man came running towards them and at first, Bjarke thought he was coming for her, but then he ran into Sigurd, who had not yet noticed the other person.

Bjarke recognized him as Hvitserk. Great, another son of Ragnar. Bjarke didn't really mind not being a nobody anymore, but she thought she would have been able to keep the act up longer than this.

Hvitserk kept Sigurd down on the ground and shouted his name. Bjarke had stopped running by now and turned to watch the scene.

Sigurd seemed to be angry. "Trust me, brother, Ubbe and I do not like it any more than you do that Ivar thinks he's got Margrethe now. However, there is no reason to run around and hurt innocent people. This girl has done nothing wrong, especially not to you. You should leave her alone," Hvitserk said.

Sigurd pushed Hvitserk off him and got up. For a second it seemed like he was going to make a run for Bjarke anyway, but he did not. He turned around and walked away.

Hvitserk did not walk away. He started to walk towards Bjarke, but Bjarke ran away from him. Hvitserk did not give up. He ran after her and shouted: "I'm not going to hurt you!"

Bjarke wanted to continue running, but the wound from the knife was killing her. She stopped, breathing heavily and dropped to the ground.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Hvitserk repeated.

He then put pressure on the wound on her back. Bjarke moaned in pain. "It seems like you're hurting me anyway, Hvitserk Ragnarsson."

"You're bleeding out, you need help."

"No, I'll be fine. Just go! Just leave me alone!" Bjarke tried, but Hvitserk wouldn't leave her alone.

"If I leave you now you'll die. I'm not going to let that happen," he said.

He helped her get up and let her lean on him. Bjarke felt herself get weaker and weaker as she lost a lot of blood. Eventually, she lost consciousness. Hvitserk cursed and lifted her up. It was hard to lift her and keep pressure on the wound at the same time, but he managed to do it.

Hvitserk could not take her to his place because that was most likely where Sigurd was. So he decided to go to Björn's.

"Björn!" he shouted as he walked into Björn and his wife Torvi's place. They were eating together with their children. Björn got up quickly when he saw the unconscious Bjarke in Hvitserk's arms.

"Put her down!" Björn said while taking out his knife and laying it down into the fire that was burning in the middle of the room.

Torvi got up as well and sent the children outside to go play. "I'll get some water," she said.

"It's a good thing she's already out," Björn said. "Just hold her down in case she wakes up."

Torvi came back inside with a bucket of water. She grabbed a cloth from a chair and put it down next to Bjarke.

"Torvi, can you hold down her arms?" Hvitserk asked.

Torvi moved over to the front and grabbed Bjarke's wrists to hold them down while Hvitserk held down her legs.

Björn lifted Bjarke's shirt a little so he could see the skin around the wound. He then pulled the knife out of the fire and pressed it down on top of the wound in order to seal it shut.

The burn would either turn into scar tissue or eventually fade away, but at least it saved her life.

Björn, who knew Bjarke had been staying at Floki and Helga's place for the past few days took her back there. He knew Helga would be able to take care of the young girl until she woke up.

Hvitserk had been told to go home, but after he saw Sigurd again he couldn't help but think about the girl and visit Floki and Helga just to see her. Björn was there as well and told Hvitserk that he saved her life. Bjarke would be dead by now if it wasn't for him.

When asked whether or not he knew what happened, Hvitserk lied and said he did not. Telling other people would only cause more problems for Ragnar's family and they couldn't use those right now.