Tales of Infamy (Viking)

9 - Thyra

I stepped up. Literally.

I stepped onto one of the benches so that I was higher than anyone else. I could look into the eyes of the men and women before me. They could see who I was.

"I will not listen to the words of a drunk who is eager to get to Walhalla." I said. "My family was amongst the first few settlers in this town, and I do not intend to hand it over easily."

Kolþerna started shouting curse words at me but did not get very far. She had reached out and tried to yank me off the bench, but before she even got a good hold of me my sisters were on her. Sefa kicked the crutch out from under her and she fell to the floor. She tried to get back up, but Unna had joined us too, and yanked away her crutch.

"Vif, open the door." I said to my sister, who happily obliged. The thralls still looked scared that we would punish them, and I could hardly blame them for it. 

"If you fight with us, you have earned your place as a free man or woman. If you wish to be free your request will be granted." I told them. Most of them nodded, all except for the man at the front.

"How do we know your promise will stand?" He asked me.

"I cannot say anything to you that will make you trust me." I told him truthfully. "What I can say to you is that with us you have a chance of freedom. When those men take this town, they will rape and enslave all of us. You do not know how they treat their thralls, you do know this with us."

This was all they needed to hear. We did not treat our thralls horribly, only if they misbehaved. Our fighters had doubled in a matter of seconds. Next, it just came down to logistics. Anyone who could hunt became archers, for they were the only ones with bows in their homes. The rest were armed with skinning knives, daggers, axes, anything our Vikings had left behind.

I came up with a plan, a plan that was risky. Kolþerna had told us to just go to the beach and fight, as was the way for our people. But even with our reinforcements, our numbers were dodgy. Yes we now had equal amounts, but theirs were Vikings, ours were Norsemen and women. I could not tell who knew how to fight and who didn't.

My plan was well received. Even my older sisters treated me as the leader when I started assigning tasks. Before I had any time to second guess myself, we were all in position.

My heart was pounding. We had to make it look real, that was the key. If they sensed the trickery they would not fall into our trap. I rested my hands against the wooden door of my sister's house and took three deep breaths.

One for the wisdom of Odin,

One for the power of Thor,

One for the love of Freya.

A loud scream ripped through the air. The signal I had been waiting for. I held my sister's life work underneath my arm, a small chest filled with silver jewellery, and opened the door. The ships were close. Only a few more seconds before the men would jump into the water. I did not need to pretend to be terrified.

I held the chest under my arm as I ran towards the jarl's house. I had not closed the lock on it, so as I ran the occasional silver fell out. When I looked back I saw that they had started jumping out. Including the berserkers.

Looking back had been a mistake. I stumbled over my feet and fell to the ground, the chest painfully poking into my ribs. I left it there, though I had promised my sister I would keep it safe, and sprinted to the house.

The Vikings left their ships in different groups, that was why we needed to bait them. From the different directions of the town, we all ran towards the centre, the jarl's house. They knew that only the weak and the women were left behind, so they laughed as they chased us.

I made it inside safely, but the doors did not close behind me. There were seven people inside, but they were all gathered at the front door, to make it look like we had a crowd.

I exited the house through one of the windows in the back. My heart was pounding, I felt as though I had taken the berserker's powers and claimed it as my own. There were several weapons lying there, waiting for me. I still had my dagger but I had given up my bow to someone else. It wasn't like I had a lucky streak with it either way.