Lady Luck| Finan The Agile| The Last Kingdom

FOURTEEN

A/N: It's my birthday, so here's a second chapter.

☼

"You should return to Aegelesburg," Uhtred quipped shortly, his face troubled as he sat in front of a quickly put together campfire.

We'd left Thaehcam right after I'd freed the men and made for Winchester, but we'd had to stop in the night for rest and recuperation. 

"I should like to see you try to find a way to send me back, Lord," I mused softly, tearing up small pieces of the fish Osferth and Finan had caught.

"It'll be dangerous," Finan, who sat beside me, his knee pressed into mine despite all the space available for him to rest comfortably. "Winchester'll be a dangerous place right now."

"I think I've proven I can protect myself well enough," I smiled thinly, "I saved you all, did I not?"

"She has you there," Father Pyrlig muttered softly, clicking his tongue softly as he cleared off a fish bone of its meat.

Finan scoffed playfully, "You beat off a man with a shit pot—"

"I did not see you complaining when it helped me get you out of that tree," I raised my brows pointedly, nudging his knee.

"You'll be holdin' that over us for a while, won't you?" Finan snorted, nudging my knee back, "I guess I have to admit you fought well."

"And in turn," Sihtric mumbled, "created a new weapon."

"Indeed," I grinned, "I shall take Lady Aelswith's shit pot into every battle I attend."

"You will be a feared warrior," Osferth snorted softly.

"And more so if you fill it before hand," Father Pyrlig added on gruffly, his smile present but weary and tense. He was thinking of Lady Aelswith and the other captives. 

"That being said," I set down my fish on a large leaf I'd found in the grass, "I will be coming with you to Winchester. I promised Aethelflaed I would accompany her mother, and I refuse to let her down."

Uhtred took in my words with a slight notion of bitterness that turned his face. He sat tense, his elbows resting on his knees and his eyes troubled. He was weighed down by all that was happening around him and so quickly. 

I had learned from Lady Aelswith on the road that Aethelflaed had sworn to be chaste so long as she remained the Lady of Mercia. That meant that I would no longer be seeing Uhtred's bare arse running away from one thing or another. Now, they were separated, their love burned away, and I pitied them. I pitied their suffering for, if Aethelred had taught me anything, it was that to be unloved was the worst fate one could suffer.

"If you come with us, you will have to listen to everythin' we tell you," Finan broke the silence, smiling widely, "no complaints."

"I fear, Irishman, if I have no complaints to give, then I am dead," I snorted before rolling my eyes, "but I will do as you instruct."

"Are you recovered enough to withstand a battle?" Sihtric mumbled quietly, cleaning off the dagger that he had gifted me.

My heart dropped slightly. The reality was that where my mind was strong, the sickness had taken much of my strength away; I had never been sick before and to be sick with something so violent the first time hurt my body. "I have recovered."

"Yes, but have you recovered enough?" Osferth jumped in as well, emphasising his point by throwing me a meaningful stare.

"I have recovered fine!" I huffed, blowing a strand of my hair out of my face, "I am going to Winchester either with you or alone."