For The Sake of Revenge

Chapter 14: SKØLL

A/N: A lot of the stuff that is mentioned that 'happens' to our heroine that you didn't read about in the fanfic is behind the scenes. Use an open mind. Thanks. Enjoy.

It had taken the entire five thousand men in the great heathen army (give or take a few) an entire day to claim Aella's fortress, slaughter the people who have not been wise enough to escape, and then another three days to recover and regather their bearings. Even though they were appallingly victorious in the battle against Aella, the siege of his fortress, and the slaughter of the people in it, it was all still very taxing. With five thousand men, resources were rapidly dwindling. So much that even food became heavily rationed.

The fortress was well structured and something worth the envy. It would have been well defended had it not been for all the soldiers meeting the heathen army in battle and all of them dying, leaving the fortress poorly protected. King Aella was stupid, in many ways. He listened to a wack of a commander, who was more interested in tormenting his servants than actually planning battle. He should have fought from behind the walls of his fortress. I wasn't a war strategist and I wasn't well-versed in The Art of War (I never read the book either), but anyone could have avoided such a brutal mistake. He still would have lost against the heathen army, but his defeat wouldn't have been so...anti-climatic. Ivar had expressed his disappointment at how unsatisfying such a meeting was.

There had been a great argument among the warlords of the heathen army. Ivar and Ubbe had argued strongly against letting the bodies of the fallen to rot on the battlefield so close the fortress. King Harald and his brother, Prince Halfdan, were not so keen on burning the dead of the enemy. Burning bodies was a sacred funeral rite to the Vikings. But practicality won when Ivar had told them that it was the risk of plague due to the rot was high. The council lasted three hours.

"Why aren't you burning the bodies?" I had asked when I saw no one moving to stack the bodies up and burn them. Ivar and I were in the middle of the battlefield with a handful of men with us. Most of them were stabbing at dead bodies and making sure no one from the opposing side was alive to make a run for it.

After the council had called for a break when it got too heated, Ivar had yanked me away from the healing tents and on to his chariot, riding away to where he fought. It was morbid to be looking at the dead soldiers without getting affected. Blood never made me queasy, dead bodies did. But I soon learned to accept it. I saw it every day or every other week ever since that damned mysterious force dumped me here and forgot about me. I learned not to gag or cry. Maybe I would throw in prayer here and there, but I was largely unaffected.

It still confused me, always when Ivar raided, they burned the bodies. Why not this time?

"Now that King Harald is here, his word stands against mine. He does not believe in burning the dead of people who are not his, especially the enemy. It is our funeral rites to burn the body. But on a boat, he doesn't seem to understand that. The pig-headed--" Ivar stopped himself when a scary-looking Viking with huge arms stabbed his way past us. "His beliefs often overrule his logic and it is dangerous," this was said spitefully. It had recently come to my attention that Ivar hated it when people didn't listen to him. Despite the fact that he is usually always right.

It was just because he was so arrogant about it. I wouldn't put it past Ivar.

"Well you should tell him that the plague is dangerous for your army, it will stall you guys and it will kill a lot of you," I said, feeling smart. Ivar looked down at me, looking thoughtful.

"The whole point of that meeting was to tell him that—were you not listening?" Ivar sneered and I glared at him.

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes. He really did bring me down from a good mood.