The Prophetess *COMPLETED*

Chapter 2

A few days before Beltane and the twins' birthday, Baron Ainsley had a cruel idea. He passed the great hall long into the night, thinking and speaking aloud go himself. He coveted riches and power, and the Vikings supposedly had both. Should he secretly align himself with them then he would be rewarded! Rich! Richer than the king himself, who traveled in tents and whose stone castle smelled of human sweat and dog waste.

The next night he sent a lowly peasant before dawn with a message to Yngvarr Bodmodrson, inviting him to our keep. I watched him from the shadows and divined his thoughts by the light of greed in his eyes. My sire hoped to tempt the Viking with a trade post, something small his neighbours wouldn't mind too much, for he was afraid of being attacked. 

A trading post meant a neutral area but that could be a front to his wickedness. If anyone displeased him he could threaten to set the Vikings on them. He wouldn't have the power, of course, but the threat worked just as well.

A week later the norseman arrived. Albert brought him to the highboard,  offering him food and wine. Our hall was not big like one of the big lords closer to the king's seat of power, but it was comfortable. The walls were a dark grey, and they were covered with tapestries from my late mother and my stepmother. The hall had 4 long tables for the men to eat, and the highboard, where my lord father and stepmother usually sat. 

My stepmother was not present this day, for she was in confinement. She was to have her fourth child, to add to the two sons and a daughter she'd already borne. If this babe was a girl, my father planned to send her to the convent to be a nun, and if it was a son, to the church to be a priest. He already had an heir, a spare, a warrior, and now he wished for one for the church, as clergy in high places could always help one get away with actions less favoured men couldn't. As for daughters, he had me and another girl to barter. Another would be useless to everything except the church because there was no one to barter her to.

Behind the highboard was a tapestry made by my mother before she had me. It was of our home, and our family crest, a lion and a snake, oddly fitting, I know. I was hidden in the stairs, observing the strange guests' entrance. Yngvarr Bodmordrson's men took up all four tables, and the man himself was very tall, 2 meters at least, with shining blond hair intricately braided and a long beard of the same colour just as groomed. His skin was tanned from the sea and his eyes were a moss green. He looked handsome and virile, but his eyes were cold, evil. They looked around everywhere, taking in the wealth Baron Ainsley was too stupid to hide in his quest to impress the Viking. Father's men were insterspected between the foreigners, but the Viking leader dined next to father, carefully not saying anything and letting father do the talking. I had no doubts he was doing it purposefully, letting father boast all he wanted to learn whatever he could.

When they had eaten their fill, Yngvarr Bodmordrson waited no longer.

"What do I gain by treating with you that I wouldn't by storming your lands and enslaving you all?" he demanded.

"You have few guards, and mine are better trained anyway." He looked around and spotted me by the stairs. His laser gaze pierced mine, seeing through me, yet when father made to look my way he cleared his throat to demand attention and an answer.

"Ah, but if you enslave us you won't get what I can provide. I have access to buy slaves all over Anglia, and thr means to feed and transport them to you. After all, Yngvarr Bodmordrson, you can only enslave and plunder us once, but you can gain every summer from what I provide with little work."

"What do you gain?" Yngvarr narrowed his eyes craftily.

"Gold and your fine jewellery." Baron Ainsley laughed effusively.