Chapter 2
Freydis
We arrived at the house not long after and saw father and Mother there. My father was tall, with hair as bright as gold. He was dressed in woolen breeches and stood next to Mother.
He stared at Ragnar with a cold expression, as though he was trying to recall where he had seen him before. It had been a long time since we last saw Ragnar—long enough that he had changed so much.
Ragnar let out a familiar roar, the one he always made after a successful hunt, and Father pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
"Ah! Brother," Ragnar said, and father smiled. "It is good to see that cold face of yours."
Father looked him over from head to toe and laughed. "You have changed so much."
My father was five summers older than Ragnar. They shared only a mother. Twenty-one summers ago, before I was born, they had fought together, claiming many lands. While Ragnar ruled over the North, my father was King in Fellur.
Though my father was forty summers, he looked much older than Ragnar.
"Ragnar, Fellur is yours too. Feel at home."
Ragnar smiled and turned to my mother. But her expression was far different from my father's—a deep frown was lined on her face.
However, Ragnar stepped forward, took her hand, kissed the back of it, and then slowly bowed.
"My Queen."
She cast him a glare and pulled her hand away from his.
Father smiled and tugged on Ragnar's arm.
"Come, brother. Let me show you around," Father said, and both men wandered off.
I stared at Ragnar's back as he walked away with my father. Their laughter filled the air until they were out of sight. Then I turned to my mother, who was still standing there.
"Freya," Mother called.
"Mama."
"Where did you find him?" she asked.
"During my hunt with Siggy."
"I don't trust him," she said.
Mother was beautiful, with pale white skin. She had long, bright golden hair and dark kohl around her eyes, which highlighted her beauty even more.
"Why?"
"I saw him in a vision last night. He bore the face of a beast. He turned into a hound, Freydis."
Mother was a seer, and everyone believed her visions. But she was always seeing dark things about Ragnar. If it hadn't been for the hate she had for him, I might have considered what she said.
Considered? No. Ragnar was far from what she claimed.
He was a good man. I remembered when I was five summers old—he would always bring me breeches. He used to promise to take me to the North when I grew older, but Mother was always against his words.
She wanted me to have nothing to do with Ragnar.
Her hatred for him had started before I was born. Father said it was because Ragnar had killed her parents.
They had taken Mother as a hostage from her people during the war, and she had hated Ragnar ever since—because he killed her parents. However, she fell in love with my father along the way, and he made her his queen.
"Ragnar is no beast," I said.
"Do you say the gods showed me a false vision?" she asked, stepping forward.
"The gods are not always right. They—"
Before I could finish, I saw my mother's hand coming toward my face, and I quickly dodged it.
"Say another wrongful word about the gods and you will regret having me as a mother."
I frowned.
She stepped closer, her eyes turning dark.
"In all you do, stay away from Ragnar. I pray to the gods that one day he'll be exposed and everyone will see him for who he truly is. Now leave my sight."
I quickly turned and walked away. During my walk, I stumbled across Father and Ragnar standing near the grave of their sister, who had died during the war. She had been a powerful warrior like them.
"Fuck you, Harald. Why would you put her here?" Ragnar asked. "She deserved the mountains."
"She wanted to be brought home."
"Home?" Ragnar scoffed. "Fellur is not her home."
Sometimes I wondered what she'd have been like. Like spring?
Father and she were from the same mother and father. But Ragnar had a different father—his was from the North.
"I should have brought flowers for her," Ragnar said, shaking his head. "If I could, I would kill the man responsible for her death a thousand times."
Father didn't say anything to that.
After a moment, Ragnar spoke again. "We should return. I am hungry."
Hearing that, I quickly turned around and walked away before they could see me.