Querencia \\ Hvitserk Ragnarsson

Chapter 23: Children and dying Saxons

Hvitserk turned out to be right. Ivar did have the baby killed during the night. But he didn't find out until Bjarke did.

"No... No!" he heard as he woke up.

"Bjarke?" Hvitserk sleepily asked.

"The baby! He's gone!"

Hvitserk tried to calm Bjarke down, but it was of no use.

Bjarke angrily made her way towards Ivar, only to be stopped by his new bodyguard.

"Let me through!" she shouted.

"No."

"If you do not let me through I will cut off the part of you which makes you a man and I'll do it slowly."

She reached Ivar withing seconds.

"IVAR!"

"Ah, Bjarke. I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Where is the baby?"

"Probably inside the stomach of a wolf by now," Ivar smiled.

Bjarke walked up to him and punched him in the face.

"I will never forgive you for that. He was just a baby."

"He was a Christian."

"Very well then," Bjarke angrily said as she walked away.

---

Ubbe, Hvitserk and Bjarke were taking a walk around York when they heard Ivar moaning in pain. At first, it made Bjarke smile, but then she got curious.

"Ivar?" Ubbe said.

"Ah, what are you doing?" Hvitserk asked.

"Wait and I'll show you," was Ivar's answer.

"Well, if I get to watch him be in pain, then yes, I'll wait."

"Ready," the other man said as he got up, letting them know that Ivar was finished.

Ivar took a few deep breaths. Sat up, moved his legs around so he was now facing the other way and then took a crutch in his left hand. Ubbe, Hvitserk and Bjarke carefully watched him as he got up and slowly took some steps towards them. He stopped right in front of the three others and proudly exchanged a slight smile with his brothers.

Bjarke did not smile. Ivar the Boneless was learning how to walk. It was not really a comforting thought. She was worried and so she turned around and walked away.

"What? Are you jealous? Is it because I'll finally be an equal in your eyes?" Ivar shouted.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that, Ivar," Hvitserk said as he ran after Bjarke.

---

"Bjarke, are you okay?" Hvitserk asked.

"Am I okay? AM I OKAY?!" she shouted.

"Bjarke, I'm not going to fight with you," Hvitserk calmly said.

"Well, maybe you should!"

Hvitserk grabbed her hands in order to try calming her down a bit,

"Why are you angry?"

"Well, maybe because your stupid ass decided to murder my child."

"Bjarke, he was not your child."

"WELL, HE COULD HAVE BEEN!"

There was a moment of silence.

"Is that what you want? A child?"

"Yes, that's what I want, Hvitserk."

"Well, I can give you that. Right now we're waiting for the Saxons to attack but after that, I can make sure that your wish will be fulfilled."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

And then they kissed.

---

It didn't take very long for the Saxons to arrive. They thought they were smart, but the Vikings were smarter.  They'd created a lot of different kinds of traps and were taking the Saxons down one by one.

"Come out and fight, you cowards!" Æthelwulf shouted.

Bjarke immediately recognized the man and ran at him, her sword in one hand, shield in the other.  However, before she could reach him he was already tied up with his son, so Bjarke couldn't fight him.

Instead, she decided to kill some random people who came at her. She was still angry and decided this would be the perfect way to deal with some of that anger.

She then heard someone shouting. At first, the couldn't make out what they were saying, but then she heard: "Ivar the Boneless. I am Ivar the Boneless. You can't kill me."

"Here we go," she sighed as she ran over to her beloved boyfriend.

With her and Hvitserk on one side and Ubbe with his army on the other, the battle continued.

The Saxons were losing great numbers. Bjarke didn't really hold back either. She killed one man after another. However, she was soon distracted by the feud between Ivar and a bishop in armour. The Saxon army retreated. The bishop didn't seem very happy about it, but neither was Bjarke. They hadn't finished fighting just yet. The Saxons would be back sooner or later.