Blood Moon| The Last Kingdom| Sihtric Kjartansson

SIXTEEN

☾

"How much further?" I gasped out, my back burning painfully, no doubt my fresh burns reopened. I rested my hands on my knees, the bandages removed to reveal the burnt flesh as the heat made it too unbearable to keep them wrapped. 

"Sh," Saga shushed me, crouching to touch the soil with her hand, ruffling the leaves below us. She opened her eyes slowly, like a wolf who had spotted its prey, and she rose as if she were about to pounce. "The fighting has begun."

My heart stuttered in my chest, and I sent up another silent prayer to Freyja, rushing after Saga, who darted off again. "How far?"

"Two hundred steps," Saga called back, "the soil shakes. They can not be further than that."

We both started running, Saga pulling out her axe as we approached the not so distant roar of men battling each other.

"Stay behind me!" Saga demanded.

I pulled out my own sword, twirling it in my hand despite the pain in my palm, "I will fight beside you, not behind you."

A ghost of a smile coated Saga's face before she sped up, rushing up a small ditch and jumping out into a road littered with Danes and Saxons alike.

The line had been broken, and it was hard to tell who was who; I could see the Saxon men paint the road red, but Danes fell too, less of them, but they still fell.

I ducked between men, turning and bumping my back into Saga's, both of us turning together, avoiding any strikes and blows.

"Can you see your father?" Saga yelled. She moved forward as a Saxon soldier approached her, turning sharply and burying her axe into the side of his head, pulling it out just as easily.

"I do not!" I shouted back. My blade met a Saxon one, clashing loudly, and I pushed him back with a kick of my foot. He fell, and another Dane finished him.

"Find him!" Saga roared, diving between two men, "This is not our battle!"

I nodded curtly, running quickly past warriors, using my slighter build to manoeuvre between them before they could attack me. I was advantaged in that sense, I had agility and speed while most of these warriors only had strength.

"Kill every shit-eating Saxon bastard!"

I dropped to the ground, rolling over the ditch back into the forest as Cnut's voice echoed through the forest. I was good, but I was not stupid. Cnut would kill me if it came to battle, so I had to wait him out.

Lucky for me, Cnut was too preoccupied killing Saxons to even consider looking around.

I scrambled to my feet, running on the underside of the ditch. I was desperate to reach my father in time, not just prevent the deaths of my people but also to prevent the deaths of Uhtred and his men. I wanted to save the people who had shown me kindness.

"They are holding firm!" Haesten's shout had me pausing again, "Aethelwold! When will your man attack?"

My breath came out in short, sharp pants, and I hitched my foot into the side of the ditch, lifting myself slightly to observe the scene.

"Soon! When they are tired! Very soon!" Aethelwold the one-eyed, as I had coined him, shouted back, his face petrified as he backed himself into a tree.

The sound of cracking behind me made me turn, my stomach turning as horsemen appeared on the nearby hill. Saxon men.

I shook my head, shudders rolling over my skin, "No." I had to get to my father, and I had to get to him now. We could not lose our men, not for a battle that was not ours to begin with.