Heart of A Viking

Chapter 14 - Final Chapter

Lír walked away from the great hall towards the outside and abandonded houses of Kattegat. Desperately hoping she would find what she was looking for, she tried to hid her face from the citizens. Though they didn't care much as they were to focused on the upcoming battle. Lír reached her destination, a small hut not too deep into the forest. She turned around and took a good look to make sure no one saw her enter. She bent down slightly and entered and look up to find a woman reciting spells.
"He-hello?" Lír swallowed hard as her eyes widened. She played with he hands until the woman faced her.

"Who are you, what do you want?"
The woman was clearly angry at being interupted.

"My name is Lír" The woman stood up of the ground and quickly walk up to her and placed her boney hand on Lír's jaws.

"You are the queen of Kattegat!"
All Lír could do was nod.

"What could you possibly want from here?!" She let go of her jaw.

"Will you promise not to tell anyone?"
The woman huffed inpatiently.

"I will not promise you anything. What do you want?"

"I um, I need something. Something that could end a... a..."

"Pregnancy?" The woman was no stranger to these kinds of requests.

Lír's eyes widened at her guess. She nodded quickly and put her head down, ashamed of what she was doing.

"How did you know?"

"Women often come here with these types of requests." She turned away from Lír and walked over to a chest with bottles filled with liquids and herbs. She pulled one bottle out filled with flakes of an unfamiliar plant.
She handed the bottle to Lír, "This is pennyroyal. Be careful, too much could cause harm to you as well." The woman gave a judgemental stare and looked her up and down. "Next time, choose wisely who you sleep with."

Lír didn't have the energy to argue so she just thanked her and walked out. But deep down she new the woman was right, she loved Hvitserk but she should never have been with him. Their actions caused her nothing but pain.

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Björn, Harald, and Hvitserk sat around a fire after they had worked out the final kinks in their battle plan.
The ate, drank, and told stories of Ragnarok as the sun went down. Olaf was confedent in his words.
"Once more brother will fight against brother," continued to ring in Hvitserk's ears. He thought about every decision he had made in the past years. His biggest regret was leaving Ubbe and joining Ivar. But at the same time he was glad that he did because soon enough he would have Lír. Along with a son or daughter, he didn't care which. Just someone to love.

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Lír waited until the hall was empty, it was late at night and she was tired. She wanted to get it over with, she grabbed a cup of ale and sprinkled in some herbs that the woman gave her. She drank in one gulp and made her way to the bed. As she layed as far away from Ivar as she could, she started to feel a pain. Looking down she saw her legs covered in blood. She felt another wave of pain hit her. She pressed her hand against her stomach and slowly stood from the bed. She limped out of the room, trying not to wake Ivar, she walked down the hall and whispered "Katla!" She stopped walking, took a deep breath and whimpered in pain. Katla came running up to her.
"What happened? Where is Ivar?!" She tried to walked to their room before Lír grabbed her arm.
"No! Just find a healer quickly."
"But-"
"Now Katla, please!"
She reluctantly agreed and ran out of the hall. Lír made her way to a table to sit. It felt like forever before Katla returned with the same heals that delievered Leif. She hurried over to Lír and pulled her gown slightly up.
"My queen, I'm so sorry, you are having-"
"I know, just do what you have to do".
...