(Bebbenburg)

(Three Days Later)

Bebbenburg was bustling with many servants who were rushing to organise everything for an upcoming feast. The reason they rushed was because an unexpected development had come up, King Aelle was coming to Bebbenburg. Lindisfarne was in Lord Uhtreds domain and so it was his duty to make sure no harm came to it; the raiding and burning of Lindisfarne remained a mystery to most as no one had survived, but while everyone in the monastery was dead, the amount of bodies did not match how many bodies were actually present, while one could assume they were burned in the flames it was more likely they had been taken. 

Lindisfarne was an incredibly holy place and it truly shook the people of Northumbria and even beyond when it was desecrated in such a manner. Many cried out in borrow when they found that Saint Cuthbert's coffin had been desecrated; whoever raided the isle had taken everything of value off the coffin and left Cuthbert's body to burn in the flames. Many believed that only the forces of hell could do such a thing to such a holy place, while Uhtred believed it must be the work of the Pagan Picts who had not attacked for a while and so must've been planning something like this. 

Uhtred was distraught about it as well, not only as a Christian but as an Ealdormen as well. It was his responsibility to protect the isle as while it was independent land, it was still afforded protection from him. That was the reason King Aelle was coming, because he had failed in his duty and they had lost one of their most holy places because of it. The King would want to know how he allowed this to happen and what he was doing to find the perpetrators, both questions he would not like the answers to. The only witness to the event was an old half-crazed man who had been fishing on the mainland at the time, he said a dragon came from the sea and burnt the priory to the ground. He obviously wouldn't be telling the king that. 

Uhtred breathed heavily as he sat down on his bed having dealt with far too much today. He had not been worried about the monastery as of late, but last-minute news that the King was coming, put a lot on his shoulders. He hoped that a grand feast might calm the King's anger as he was certainly well known for his temper. "Such a mess," he said with a sigh as he rubbed his temples. 

"We will be fine Uhtred, there was nothing you could've done, the King will understand that," his wife Lady Mildred said to him as she took his hand in her own. Uhtred smiled and squeezed her hand before laying a kiss on it. 

"You are right my love, I hope the king sees it that way as well," he said before letting go. 

"Perhaps he brings good news, if it were only about Lindisfarne would he have brought his daughters?" Mildred said questioningly. 

Uhtred stood up giving her words some thought "Perhaps you are right, this could be a good opportunity to secure a wife for Uhtred, he is in his seventeenth year now, and he would do well with one of the king's daughters," Uhtred commented. 

"What about that girl on the farm west of here? Wilfred's girl," Mildred asked. 

Uhtred cursed, he had been so caught off guard when he received the letter that the King was on his way that he had forgotten about Wilfred. Offa and his men had still not returned, which caused a deep pit to form in Uhtreds stomach; Offa was his most loyal man, he would not run away or disobey him, the fact he had not returned did not bode well and most likely meant he was dead, and if that was the case then Wilfred had met a grim end as well. 

"Wilfred is most likely dead, and so is his family, the fact Offa did not return makes me believe he has also perished," Uhtred said with a grim expression on his face making his wife gasp. 

"I will have to send a larger patrol to the area, and double the guards around the castle, there must be a group of bandits or perhaps the Picts have come down south again," Uhtred suggested, but it didn't matter. The most important thing would be there were people in the area causing harm and it was right around the time when the King was coming, while he didn't think they'd be stupid enough to attack Bebbenburg, the surrounding village could be raided in the night before they had time to organise a defence. 

Uhtred walked forward and kissed his wife on the cheek "I'll have to deal with this now," he said before striding out of his room and getting back to work. He'd have to double the lookouts and organise a shift of guards to patrol the village. He had earned much by being in the good graces of Aelle, if he fucked it up by letting his family come to harm then his family would suffer the King's wrath, not directly of course, but being out of favour with the King —especially when so close to the border of Alban— was not wise. 

With Offa gone Uhtred promoted the next in line to be the leader of his guards. A small and slim man called Edgar, while he wasn't as intimidating as Offa, would have to do. He sat in the Great Hall and waited for one of his servants to fetch Edgar, ten minutes later the guard came and bowed towards his lord. 

"You wan'ed ta see me, Lord," he said in his rough common accent. It was one of the things Uhtred couldn't stand about him, his voice was harsh and rough, when he first joined the guard he could barely speak properly; only after many years did he improve his speech among his betters, but even now it was hard to hear. However, he was an accomplished warrior and Offa had even said he would have trouble beating him if they were to fight to the death. 

"Yes... as of this moment, you are the head of my guard, Offa has not returned from his task so I can only assume he's dead," Uhtred stated as he leaned back in his seat.  

"Thank ya Lord, I won' le' ya down," Edgar said gratefully. 

"Make sure you don't, I need you to organise patrols through the village and double the lookouts and guards around the castle, send scouts into the forest and look for any encampments we have a group of people raiding our land and I want them found!" He said sternly. 

"Course milord," Edgar said Boeing once again before walking out of the hall and back towards the barracks. When he found that he was alone he turned into an empty corridor and slammed his fist against the wall. 

"Damn that cunt to hell!" He shouted as he bashed his fists against the wall, his voice now a lot different than the one he used with Uhtred. Edgar cursed the lord of Bebbenburg, he had no interest in this higher office, he was perfectly content with being in his position, and he had the benefits of having men under his command but not being held responsible should something happen. He had also had access to the pay of many of the guards and had been skimming silver for years. 

Now that he was head of the damn guard he would be under close scrutiny by the Lord of Bebbenburg. Before Edgar had joined the Bebbenburg guard he lived in Mercia, however, he had a most unsavoury profession. He started off as a common thief, but during this time he met a man who had offered him a good amount of silver to get him certain things, body parts. At first, Edgar got them easily enough from the recently deceased but soon ran out of easily accessible dead people. That's when he started switching to the living. 

Edgar did not care, when he saw a body the only thing he saw was silver and the man he met even paid more for fresh parts. Edgar was on his way to becoming wealthy and setting himself up for life, but one day when he ambushed a carriage with several other criminals, he ended up carving up the daughter of an Ealdorman. One of the damn guards got away too and soon everyone was looking for Edgar. He had to flee Mercia without his precious silver, he shaved his head and gave himself a scar on his cheek. 

He hated every second he was a guard here and there wasn't a moment he didn't want to carve up 'Lord Uhtred' and then fuck his wife bloody. Now he'd have to bend his knee and milord him... no he couldn't do that. He'd follow orders for now, but soon he'd have to start looking for alternatives, the Lord had a lot of Silver stored, and he could do well with that. 

With a smile on his face, Edgar pushed himself back from the wall, leaving bloody handprints as he did and walked back to the barracks. The bright side of all this was that he was in command, and he could start changing things as he liked. 'I'm sure there will be a few who love silver more than they do their lord,' he thought to himself with a grin, and when he finally escaped this place maybe Lady Mildred could accompany them, he'd always wanted to drain his balls in that bitch. 

———————————————————-

(One day later)

Thorfinn crouched down as he circled Arwyn. They were in the Cinder forest just outside of Bebbenburg, Thorfinn had decided to take their time travelling to the castle as he was in no rush and he thought it would be beneficial to help Arwyn discover what she could do with her strength. She seemed completely obedient to him and so he would be foolish if he did not take advantage of that. Eowyn watched from the campfire with sorry as they both circled each other, however, Arwyn did not seem concerned and instead had a smile on her face; she very much enjoyed the sparring she was doing with Thorfinn. 

Arywn charged at Thorfinn who tensed his muscles and got ready, when she slammed into him his feet skidded through the earth as she pushed him back. It stung his pride a little that a girl smaller than him was stronger than he was, but she had been unable to beat him in wrestling yet so that made him feel a bit better. As she tried to get him to the floor, Thorfinn pivoted on his feet and threw her over his hip to the ground. It wouldn't be long before she popped back up and tried to tackle him again, she seemed to have boundless energy that she couldn't burn off. 

She threw a punch at him that he avoided, it instead collided with a tree where she cracked the bark "I'm sorry Lord," she said apologetically as she got ahead of herself. Thorfinn shook his head "A fight is a fight, do not apologise for it," he said before he sent a quick jab to her face followed by a kick that sent her back. With a feral smile on her face, Arywn charged back and tried to hit him once again, but she was wild and inexperienced, she had no firm so Thorfinn was able to move out of the way easily. 

He grabbed her hand as it passed by his face and slipped by her before grabbing the back of her head and smashing it against a tree. She yelled out in pain before falling to the floor, Eowyn stood up immediately worried for her sister "Lord perhaps she's had enough," Eowyn said desperately trying to make him stop. 

Thorfinn hummed before he knelt and looked at Arywn who had grabbed her face. "Let me see," he told her and she moved her hands away. Thorfinn saw that her nose was broken, blood was pouring out of it and it was bent to the side; Thorfinn prepared to snap it back to its original position but was surprised when her nose seemingly did that by itself. The cut on the bridge of her nose disappeared too and the only remnants of the injury were the blood on her face. 

Thorfinn looked at her in awe, to have the strength and speed of a wolf, and the ability to heal from injuries. It couldn't be anything other than a blessing, but it did make him wonder why the Wolfman he faced did not heal like this from the injuries he inflicted with his sword. 'The Draugr was weak to my sword, perhaps the sword is blessed,' he thought to himself as he helped Arwyn up. 

"You have a gift, you will be very useful to me," Thorfinn said to her which made her happy beyond words. Thorfinn began to consider the other abilities she may have, 'she would make a fine shield-maiden if she were trained,' he thought, but he dismissed this idea as he did not have the time nor patience to train someone, plus he was not a veteran of combat yet, he needed more experience and more knowledge before he could offer his tutelage. 

"I can still fight lord," Arwyn said as she wiped the blood from her face. 

Thorfinn held up his hand and shook his head. "We are done for today, I want us to get ready for Bebbenburg," he said as he walked back to the camp —Arwyn on his heels. 

Thorfinn had learned an important lesson when the Bebbenburg guards came to the hamlet. He learned that his main advantage which was his speed would not be enough for him to survive, those who have trained for a long time or have a great degree of skill with a weapon can overcome his speed —like Ragnar and Elijah. He was good with a weapon but he was still new to fighting, he had much more to learn, but the most important thing he learnt was that he was not invincible. 

Had Arywn not intervened in the fight he would've died, he had not expected them to work together in such a way, but in hindsight, he should expected it as they were not the same as him. He was glad he had this realisation this quickly, his fights thus far had made him overconfident; his original plan for Bebbenburg was to fight his way in through a back gate or something similar and steal the silver. 'Very foolish,' he thought to himself with a shake of his head. 

"Did you both bathe like I asked you to?" He asked both girls and they nodded. 

Thorfinn nodded before going through a large nap sack and throwing both the girls' dresses that belonged to Aelfrida. "Your skills have once again proven useful Arwyn," Thorfinn said as he pulled out his own outfit. The clothes he had taken were from Wilfred and they were meant for when he went to the feasts at Bebbenburg. Arywn as a talented tailor had resized his clothing so that it would fit Thorfinn, she did the same with Aelfrida's dress for herself, luckily Eowyn was around the same size so she didn't need to resize her dress. 

"Lord, why are we doing this?" Eowyn asked. 

Thorfinn threw his own clothes into the sack before he started dressing in his others "I wish to learn more about this land, I want to learn more about the rulers, I want to learn how big it is, your warriors showed me how ignorant I am, I will change that," he explained. 

"You two have told me what you know but it is not enough," he continued. 

After getting changed Thorfinn used a thin strip of leather to tie his hair back into a small ponytail. Both girls looked at him in slight awe, having cleaned the muck and dirt from his body and dressing up in fine clothes he looked like a prince or the son of an Ealdorman. "You look very handsome Lord," Arwyn said excitedly as she started to dress up. 

Eowyn did so as well, though a lot slower than her sister. She preferred this plan a lot more than what she imagined the previous one was. While they were in the castle there would be numerous opportunities for her to slip away with her sister. Once they were she could tell the Lord about Thorfinn, he wouldn't be able to handle so many guards and they would likely kill him, or at least injure him and drive him away. It was risky, but if she accompanied Thorfinn after what he planned to do then she would likely be seen as a traitor and would no longer be welcome in Northumbria 'Not that she has anything left here,' she thought to herself. 

"You both look beautiful, so much so that I'd take you both were we not busy," Thorfinn said as he eyed both the girls in their dresses. Arwyn wore a green gown and her sister a blue one; both of the dresses fit them nicely, but Eowyn was slightly bigger than Aelfrida so the gown looked especially tight around her bust. He sat down on a log in front of the fire which prompted the girls to do the same. 

“I think it best I go with your idea Arwyn and say I am a bard,” He said while rubbing his chin. 

“Will they not question why you have not lute?” Eowyn asked. 

“I will say we were ambushed and it was stolen as we ran,” he replied with a shrug. Eowyn didn’t think this excuse would work well, but she wouldn’t complain, it would make her life easier if he were to be captured before they even went inside. 

Thorfinn drew his dagger out from his belt and started fingering it in his hands. “Inside the castle would be a good opportunity to betray me don’t you think?” Thorfinn asked as he looked up at Eowyn. 

Eowyn felt sweat start to form on her head but otherwise remained emotionless “I wouldn’t do that Lord,” she replied tonelessly. 

Thorfinn hummed “You wouldn’t… but you can never be too careful, that’s what my mentor always told me,” he replied. 

“Arwyn take this dagger,” he instructed as he flipped it around in his hand and held the handle towards her, she immediately jumped up and took it. Eowyn looked at him with a mixture of fear and confusion as she wasn’t sure what he was doing. 

“Hold it to your throat.” she did so immediately. 

Eowyns eyes widened “Stop! Please don’t! I promise I wasn’t!”

“Take it away.” She did so. 

“Kill your sister,” he said and she immediately drew her hand up with the dagger, aiming to plunge it into her skull. 

“Stop, I changed my mind,” he said and the dagger froze before Arywn drew it back. Arywn looked at her sister apologetically as she breathed heavily and was covered in sweat; her heart was pounding out of her chest, she had only just processed that she had nearly been killed by her own sister. 

“If your sister betrays me then I want you to kill her and then yourself,” Thorfinn instructed making Eowyns eyes widen in fear again.

“Yes lord,” Arywn replied. 

Eowyn didn’t understand why she was so obedient, she had to be in his thrall or he had to have cursed her. She knew her sister would never act this way with the killer of their parents. ‘I have to free her somehow,’ she thought to herself as she calmed down. 

“As you can see Eowyn, it would not be wise to betray me at the moment, serve me until I don’t have a use for you anymore and I’ll let you go free, It's a good deal,” Thorfinn stated, Eowyn had no choice but to nod in agreement. She had lost before she even had the chance to play, she knew Thorfinn was intelligent, but in truth, she did not think him above herself. It seems she has much to learn in this regard. 

Thorfinn then stood up “Come, it’s time for us to leave, I am very much looking forward to seeing the castle,” he said with a smile. 

…

Thorfinn looked on in amazement as he walked through the village outside of Bebbenburg castle the structure was enormous. It’s what he expected to see when he passed through the portals of Valhalla, ‘How could such structures be built in Midgard,’ he thought to himself. Despite not wanting to draw attention to himself, it was hard not to; Thorfinn was attractive and his fine clothes only made him more so, he drew the eye of many women. Eowyn and Arwyn drew the eye of many men as well making their group rather visible. 

Thorfinn hoped that there wouldn’t be any issues for them going in and luckily it seemed they would have a chance to sneak in as a large party of people were passing through the village and were just about to enter the castle. While the guards were occupied with some beggars who tried to ask for silver; Thorfinn and the girls snuck into the line and continued forward. He was glad he decided to wear a cloak as he knew his hair would make him stand out. The guards at the castle gates did not even take a second look at him and just waved him through. 

Thorfinn looked at the courtyard with excitement as he saw more of the marvellous buildings ‘To build such structures, they must have the secret knowledge of stone,’ he thought as they abruptly stopped. He couldn’t hear what was being said but a large man stepped out of a carriage and embraced a smaller man, following the large man out were three beautiful women, one older and two younger. Thorfinn was interested immediately and he would definitely be putting them on his list. 

“Milord, if you’ll follow us we will take you and your companions to your quarters,” A young woman said with her body slightly hunched. 

Thorfinn looked at her and she blushed “This is my wife, and this is my servant, we only need one room if that is agreeable,” he stated. 

“Of course milord,” she said before leading them into the castle proper. Thorfinn looked around and saw that other members of the party were similarly being led away by servants while the man who had embraced the king led him off. Inside the castle was just as magnificent as outside, it had barely taken Thorfinn a few minutes before he decided he wanted one for himself. The knowledge of how to build these structures must exist somewhere and he would go and find it. Not now, but someday. 

“These are your quarters milord, please let me know if I can do anything for you,” the girl said with a quick bow. Thorfinn shot her a smile which almost made her rub her thighs together. Arwyn decided she didn’t like this woman and felt like bloodying her nose. 

“Thank you, that will be all,” he said before opening the door and once again looking around in awe. 

“Can you believe such places exist in this world,” He said to both the girls as he walked in. 

Eowyn and her sister were impressed with the room but they had been to the village outside Bebbenburg a few times already, they could guess how fine the inside must be. Thorfinn walked over to the bed that was large and had colourful sheets on them. He sat down and almost laughed at how soft it was compared to everything else he had slept on. 

“I will enjoy this place I think.”

(AN: So Thorfinn is in Bebbenburg, some of you may be wondering why he got in so easily. Well, it’s simple, he looked like a Noble, a guard wouldn’t risk his position by arguing or trying to arrest a noble. The fact he was able to join the kings party just made things easier. Thorfinn is going to be learning a lot during his time there, he is as hungry for knowledge as Ragnar is. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.)

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