"Shield up, Jedi!" Bonnie bellowed when Guthrum allowed his defense to dip once again. "Stay on guard and remain vigilant for the moment to turn the fight to your advantage!"

For almost two months she and Sigurd had trained Guthrum within an inch of his life. Neither held back. For the stakes towered above them all. If he were to survive the next couple of battles he'd have to be battle ready. She'd help Hvitserk train each of Ivar's warriors and she knew every one of them were capable of blood drenched devastation. Ivar hadn't become sole king of England from simply wishing it so.

"I wouldn't worry overmuch for your young inquisitor," Ayanna said as she came to stand next to her in the clearing in front of her keep. "Once you offer him favor, he'll become as formidable a warrior as Sigurd."

"Inquisitor, favo—what?" She tore her stare from Sigurd and Guthrum to glare at Ayanna. "Guthrum isn't going to be my inquisitor and there's no way in a Christian hell I'll be showing him favor. He's just a child!" She hissed shouted. "A child I've come to love like my own."

Ayanna cocked a brow. "Then all of this is for naught and you intend to allow him to meet his fate on the battlefield."

"Of course not." She rolled her eyes back to the sparring twosome. "All if this is for the very purpose of properly preparing him for battle. To prevent him from meeting his end."

"Then why are you resistant to binding his fate to yours?" Ayanna glared at her from under a pair of crumpled brows. "You and I know well this is the only means in which you may thwart fate without consequences."

"We'll see about that." She raised her hand to call an end to training. "Enough! Let's head back to Kattegat so we can get cleaned up before second meal."

"There will never be another more faithful than he! Do not squander a greater fate for him because sentiment forces you to attempt to hold something as fleeting as yester rising." Ayanna gave her a pointed look before heading back into her keep.

Bonnie pushed Ayanna's warning to the back of her mind. She loved her foremother, seriously she did, but she needed to keep her opinions about Guthrum to herself. Especially, since she knew nothing of their dynamic. Guthrum was like a son to her. Inviting him to be one with her was a perversion she refused to contemplate or tolerate. She would save Guthrum and she would do it on her own terms.

By the time they made it back to Kattegat Bjorn was bringing about an end to his training session with the warriors and shieldmaidens. He approached them with his too intense stare locked upon her. Without breaking his stride he grabbed her arm and tugged her along with him. When they reached an enclosure near one of the outpost by the gate, he huddled her in and snatched her close to his chest. A fraction of a second later his mouth descended upon hers.

"Bjorn," she mumbled between a series of hot pecks. He lifted her so the bulge in his pants anchored her to the planked wall. "We've talked about this. Your married and this is not...ooh, right there, right there!"

He rolled his hips and bucked into her deprived center twice. "There?" He growled.

"Yes, my protector," she purred in his ear.

"Arg!" He groaned as he fisted her breast in a tight grip. "Invite me to your bed furs. Plead with me to rip you free of these," he yanked on her leather pants, "so I may plunge my prick deep within your depths. Give yourself to me, Mystical One. For there is only you and me."

"And your wife, Bjorn!" She thumped him on the shoulder to be put down.

Placing her on the ground, he frowned down at her. As if she'd been the one to run off and jump the broom on him. "Why must you always wedge her between you and I?"

"You mean your wife?" Her face scrunched while her mind searched for some sort of understanding to explain his ridiculous line of questioning.

"Ack!" He batted her words away with a flapping hand.

He attempted to turn away from her, but she grabbed his arm. "No! No, no! You asked a question Ironside. Do you not wish for an answer now?"

"Cast Guthrum from your keep this eve." He spun on her and crowded her back into the corner of the enclosure. "Allow me to come to you after second meal."

His hands slipped under her shirt to fondle her breasts. He hunched down to bite and suck at the crook of her neck. "I w-will not...it's Guthrum's home as much as it's mine. I can't just force him to leave because you wanna have an affair on your wife."

He released an exhale which sounded to be born of sheer annoyance. "It's not apt for you to live alone with him."

"Why not? Guthrum and Hali used to spend more time at my keep than you and Torvi's," she said beyond confused at exactly what the hell he was attempting to imply. "In fact, Hali and Asa has been slumbering there for the past four eves."

"Can you not sight the boy is besotted with you? He's no longer the child you once doted on, he's a man with urges that are likened to one!"

"You're crazy! Guthrum has long since moved pass the innocent crush he had on me." She poked him in the chest to drive home her outrage. "You're the only one who's besotted with me despite your poor wife."

He once again waved off the subject of his wife. "Misremember her and speak to me of this, if he holds no affections for you then why does he follow you about? Why does he refuse to be trained properly by me in favor of being trained by you, hmm?"

Her eyes flared as offense snatched her mouth wide. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Ironside?!"

"It's clear to me you understand my meaning," he said, folding his arms across his chest to regard her with the smugness that always made her want to beat him senseless.

"Guthrum chooses to train with me because he wants to learn from the star starting player and not the second string nobody." She placed her hand on her hip, saw his smug expression and raised him a smirk.

The smugness faded from his features as malice simmered in his eyes. "What did you say to me?"

"Oh, get the wax out of your ears!" She yelled stalking forth to stand toe to toe with him. "And Hear me, and I mean hear me well. While you were in the Mediterranean sunbathing, I was putting in work and knocking Saxon armies on their backs. So when I say he wants the best, I know you know well exactly what I'm saying!"

His eyes stretched as his head bobbed. "Is this so?"

"Kattegat's training grounds offers not only space, but opportunity as well." Her head bobbed and weaved as she gave him the business John D. Rockefeller style. "Anytime you wanna take advantage of that amenity then it's on go because I'm so not worried about you I won't even need notice."

"Ah!" A smile rippled across his face as his eyes glittered with a sheen one would've likened to hunger. "Since your certain of your teaching skills why not place a wager?"

She blinked. "A wager?"

"You say Guthrum chooses to train with you because your teaching skills are superior to my own, then why not place him in a sparring contest with my best warrior."

"What are the stakes?" She lifted her chin to stare down the length of her nose at him.

"If my warrior is victorious then you'll bathe and groom me until I'm too weakened to stand," he said reaching out to palm her breast.

She slapped his outstretched hand away. "And if I win?"

He lifted and dropped a shoulder. "Then I shall bathe and groom you."

"No!" She grabbed the front of his tunic and yanked him down until they were face to face. "If I win, you'll put in genuine time with Guthrum and not just deal with him in passing. You'll take him under your wing as you will Hali when he reaches his older brother's age."

He scoffed. "I don't-,"

"You'll treat him as a son you honor, for that is who Guthrum should be to you, Ironside!" She yelled into his face. "An honored son! You are the only father he's ever known and I'll not have Guthrum around here with daddy issues because you chose to impersonate a deadbeat and drop the ball. I've seen firsthand what those type of problems can do to an extremely talented and intelligent mind." She pushed him away and exhaled. "I refuse to allow that to happen to him."

"Yes, yes, yes, but if my warrior is triumphant then-,"

"If by the oft chance your warrior bests Guthrum in the contest," her eyes rolled as she stalked around him, "not only will I bathe and groom you, but I'll give you an eve that will remain engraved upon the walls of your mind long after you've swaggered through the golden gates of Valhalla."

****

"How's she fared since last I was here?" Ivar questioned Thomas as he peered through a slit in the cloth barrier. Freydis lay upon the mattress staring at a vision unseen by gazes other than her own.

"She's remained unchanged, King Ivar," Thomas said in a tone overran with indifference. "She refuses to eat, rarely sleeps, and she relieves herself where she lies. Sheila's taken to washing her twice a rising."

Ivar nodded, and then entered the small dwelling. Her gaze didn't even shift to him upon his arrival. She made no show she knew he was about. This had been her way since the still birth of their daughter. Upon first sight one would've assumed the babe to be fat with health. Much to full-bodied for a child born nigh four new moons early. Yet, when the seer placed the still babe within his arms he knew the right of it. One only had to behold the glow of blue cast upon his daughter's skin. The babe appeared as if life had been sucked from her tiny body. How could he not know? His guilt convicted him every rising when he awoke and every eve when slumber refused to take him. The gods had cursed he and Freydis for the mistreatment of their most high.

Without saying a word, Ivar joined Freydis on the bed. He pulled her stiff body into his arms and held her to his chest. The grief she suffered was not foreign to him. In verity, it weighed upon him every moment of the rising. Mocking him in every child's laughter or every babe's wail which met his ears. There was no relief for him. So, he could only imagined the torment she bore after carrying their daughter. Feeling her move every instance of a rising only to have such an experience torn away. He indeed understood the fracturing of her mind.

"You shall be off to claim your home land soon," Freydis' brittle voice disturbed the chaotic silence of the room.

He exhaled. "This is true."

"Will you make me a vow, Ivar?" A wealth of emotion lowered her tone to nigh a whisper.

"A vow?"

"Will you vow to smite down the witch who killed our babe?" A sob tore from the depths of her small frame as fat drops of tears dripped from her eyes. "C-Cut out her heart as many times as it may take until she lives no more!"

He snatched her from him to glare down into her drenched face. "What are you saying? To whom do you refer, hmm?!"

"You know well who! Your heathen whore! That filthy disgusting dark witch!" She screamed as she began to pummel his face and chest with her fists. "She killed my baby! She killed my baby!"

He shoved her away from him. His personal warriors stormed the dwelling. When she moved to attack him once again, his guards seized her. She fought against their hold for several long moments until she grew tired.

Once she did and he knew his words would reach her he spoke. "Freydis, I know we've suffered a grievous loss, but you must remember yourself and censor your words. I'll not tolerate such irreverence spoken against my love's name!" He lifted his legs from the bed and rose. "Have you misremembered it was you who dared to trespass on what belonged to her? What we bear now are the consequences of our sordid actions."

"How can you say such things?" She wailed through fractured sobs. "How can your heart still turn to her after what she did to our babe?"

"My Bonnie would never harm a babe! Especially, a babe born of me," he said as his head dropped to consider his booted toes. "Children are blessings to her no matter their origins. No this is the will of the gods. For they know she'll never level judgement against me. So they do so in her stead."

She lifted her unnaturally murky blue glare to drill holes through him by visual means. "I shall celebrate the day when my Goddess devours all of your gods. Including the one you all claim as Most High."

"Freydis, our fate is no longer bound together by the life of our child." He lifted his gaze to regard her. "It is now pass time for you and I to part ways. Fear not, for I shall weight your purse before your departure. Yet, depart you must."

He moved passed her to exit the tent. She grabbed his arm, while fear snatched her eyes wide and round. "You mustn't cast me adrift, my king! I shall surely perish from grief alone!"

"I fare you well, Freydis." He studied her a moment longer, attempting to dredge up some sort of affection for the woman who'd birthed his only child into Midgard.

Yet, he felt nothing for her. Not the kinship a man would think to have with the mother of his babe. Not even an emotion as fleeting as infatuation. Only vacuous indifference dwelled within him when he looked upon her. With nothing further spoken, he turned from her and sought his leave of the small keep.

"IVAR!"

****

Ubbe slipped from Torvi's keep a couple of turns of the hour glass before first rising's light. He was minded to return to his dwelling, but nostalgia guided him towards the cove where he'd misplaced his heart. He'd only just approached manhood then. Yet, he knew Bonnie would own him until his time on Midgard lingered no more. If only his foolish mind would've known then what he now knew, she'd be his wife and her belly more likely than not would be filled with his fourth babe.

As he moved towards the water he noticed a figure lay by the shore. The stranger stared into the fading colors of the northern lights. His heart missed a beat...then two. For his heart recognized his love long before his eyes could. Without uttering a word he advanced, and then lay beside her. For several long moments they lay there in peaceable silence. Him content to listen to each of her breaths and drown in her intoxicating flowered scent. The wild and magical lilt of her fragrance always calmed and incited him all at once.

"My heart mourns," she uttered without tearing her gaze from the heavens. "It has been so since I sought my leave of Vestfold. Nothing relieves the ache at the center of my breasts. It's something I'm learning to live with." A long sigh crept from her beautiful mouth, lengthy in its exhale as a tear rolled from the corner of her eye. "Yet, there are times like this eve when the cries from within my heart are too loud for me to stand. These are the moments when I venture here and stare into the heavens for fleeting moments when I can see his face." She tore her gaze from the northern lights to consider him. "Only here, am I offered refuge and solace from the pain in irreplaceable memories of times gone by."

Then and there he understood who held her incomparable heart and who always would. The one whom they'd always pitied and thought to be lesser than them, she somehow believed to be the greater of them all.

"It was always going to be Ivar."

A smile bothered the corners of her lips. "And Hvitserk, and Bjorn, and Sigurd, and even you Ubbe. Despite the many times I cursed fire upon your crotch." Her admission narrowed his gaze and her blossoming smile took a wistful turn. "You and your brothers are fate's consolation to me."

"I..." He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Long ago fate took something from me. Something which, though she's want to try, cannot be replaced." Bonnie's gaze returned to the heavens. "So she offers me pieces of my one great love in the five impressive foot prints he left behind. Yet, instead of helping me she has cursed me. For now my heart is divided and splinters more with each passing rising. This is the plight I bear Ubbe, second eldest son of Ragnar."

Though she claimed to love them all, the ever present sorrow in her eyes bespoke a truth her mouth wouldn't willingly admit. "It confounds me of there ever being a time when you could've loved my father." He laughed to himself. "Yet, I've long since learned you and logic aren't often amicable bed fellows. So I refuse to squander time attempting to make sense of the senseless. However, there is one verity I'll acknowledge." This pilfered her attention from the heavens and settled it upon him. "You declare to love us all, but the affection you have for Ivar somehow differs. It's more significant in its potency. We've all sensed it. Helheim, we've all resented and despised him such a fortune." She snatched her gaze away. "Do you deny it?"

Her verdant gaze reluctantly collided with his. She shook her head. "He's the sole keeper of my heart, and the one my sorcery has chosen above all. As much as I would like to repossess the battered organ from his careless hands, the mystical energy which flows through me will never allow it."

"He mistreated you," he whispered as he reached out and cupped her cheek.

"Oh, My Beautiful Dreamer," Her responding fragile laugh nigh devastated him, "he gutted me and still there remains a part of me that wishes for nothing more than to crawl back to him. How pathetic am I...your Most High?"

"You're not pathetic. You just deserve more than you've been offered. I saw it when you gave me favor and I see it now." He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers. She tasted just as he remembered or perhaps even sweeter.

She broke the caress of their tongues. Her breaths came in short gasps. "You smell of Torvi and taste of her too."

His brows creased as his face scrunched. "What would you know of the way Torvi tastes?"

She offered him a smirk bred from secrets and mystery, before climbing to her feet. "I've gotta go. Guthrum is facing off with one of Bjorn's best warriors this rising. Before he does I have to be certain he's ready to make his father a believer."

****

"Alright, Jedi. What are the three most important things to remember?" Bonnie asked Guthrum as she slathered Vaseline all over him.

"When to take a hit, why to take a hit, and how to take a hit," he parroted back to her with his gaze fixed across the training grounds on his father who stood with a group of his warriors gawking at them.

She grabbed the sides of his face and returned his gaze to her. "Why is this important?"

He exhaled, and then nodded. "Because fifty percent of the battle is defense, and the only way to ensure a seamless defense is to learn the attack so that you may anticipate it."

"Absolutely." Pride swelled in her chest and burst her rib cage wide. She pushed his freshly braided hair from his shoulders to hang down his back. "Your father is Mike Tyson. He fights toe to toe when hand to hand combat ensues. So, it's more than likely he's taught his warriors to be baby Tyson's as well, but you mustn't follow suit." She gave her head a firm shake. "No you mustn't! If your opponent becomes Mike then you better make like the greatest. Float like a butterfly and sting like a steroid juiced up bee!" She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and glared into his midnight blue stare. "You better fuck him up!"

"Valkyrie?" Ubbe thought to scold.

"Bonnie, perhaps you could be a little gentler in-," Torvi began.