WRATH OF THE NORTH [BJÖRN IRONSIDE]

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Vál walked inside the great hall seeing Björn and Ragnar sitting by the table. She notices the tone in their voices, agitated and low. Ragnar is seated by the short side, his chair by the table as Björn stands on the other side with his hands placed on the table. They keep arguing before they notice Vál has entered and is within reach. Ragnar stares at the table and so are Björn before he looks up at Vál who raised her brow.

"Can you excuse us?" Björn asked, biting the inside of his cheeks when he notices the harshness in his voice. However Vál only answers with a nod before leaving father and son alone in the large room. When she returns outside she spots Signhild and some other shield maidens by a tent, Harald and Halfdan's tent. She looks over to the open ground, Ubbe and his brothers are gone and so are Harald. A sigh leaves her mouth before she walks to her cabin to get her swords. Before leaving her cabin she rebrands her hair quickly to get the hair out of her face.

A pleased sigh slips past her lips when she sees that Signhild and the shield maidens are still outside the cabin. Suddenly a woman leaves the tent of Harald and Halfdan, her clothes is messily placed on her body and hair messy. Vál notices the look the woman gets from Signhild as she hurries away from the tent.

"Hey!" Vál shouts from afar and Signhild as well as the other women look at her. Signhild lets out an annoyed sigh before sucking on her teeth when Vál walked closer. "Does anyone of you care to fight?" Vál asks as she reaches the women. The word of Vál's tremendous skills in fighting had spread like a wild fire, causing the women accept Signhild only look at each other as they remained silent.

"Why'd you ask us?" Signhild asks and it was the first time Vál noticed the slight accent change in the woman. It was barely audible but listening closely there was few things that gave away that she wasn't from Kattegat or not even Norway. Vál shrugged her shoulder and looked at all the women.

"You don't seem to be doing a lot with you time here." Vál said and Signhild only glared at her. She hadn't appreciated Vál's humiliation of her infront of her King. She was indeed the best shield maiden in Harald's army.

"Amanda you can go, I need the rest of you. Harald's orders." Signhild commanded, lying. Amanda, one of the youngest women and newest shield maidens gulped but tried to cover it up with nodding. Vál gave the young woman a smile before motioning for her to walk ahead.

"What orders? I thought Harald gave us the rest of the day off." Gunhild asked with a frown, her brown brows furrowed. Gunhild was one of Signhild's closest friends, she was slightly older than Signhild and ink was covering most parts of her body, including had her face. Signhild barely heard the question as she saw Vál and Amanda getting ready to fight on the other end of the village. She clenched her jaw when she saw her attacking Amanda.

"Follow me, we can't talk about it out here." Signhild said and soon they were walking towards her tent. As the women entered she took the opportunity to glare once more at Vál who kept defeating Amanda. Even if she despised Vál she couldn't help but to smirk at the clumsy Amanda who had just been lucky to survive for as long as she had. Signhild clenched her jaw when she knew why Harald had brought her along even if Amanda was only a beginner. Harald and Halfdan had been sleeping with the maiden to be for a while. Signhild could only wait until Amanda either got pregnant and Harald would kill her or when she got slaughtered in battle. Both seeming to take some time.