THE KING IN THE NORTH

9

 

Erik is having a discussion with his brother Janssen about the battle at hand, and Carl walks in looking awful.

"What is the issue, Carl?" Erik asked

"Can I see you for some minutes, Lars?" Carl calls on Lars.

Lars excuses himself from the small meeting he is having with his father and his uncle; he follows Carl out to some distance.

"What is that?" Lars asked

"I need you to lead the archer during the battle," Carl said.

"What, how can I lead the archers? Where will you go?" Lars asked back.

He doesn't understand why Carl will tell him to lead the archers, and Lars is also not too confident in his ability to lead. Lars is very good at archery; he is second best after Carl.

"Just go lead the men; I will join you later in the war." Carl was trying to convince Lars without revealing what they had discussed with Ina.

Lars nodded his head in a bit of dissatisfaction.

"Go on, Lars, you can do it. I give you my word, "Carl said.

Carl tapped Lars to encourage him to take up his task. Carl left him to arrange for some warriors to join him in the special mission sent to him by Ina.

Martin is making his arrangements on how he will split his warriors; he got his commander to take the swordmen on the battle while he worked on his special mission.

Kristen is assigning his men and preparing to leave for the land of Zeus, according to the war leader.

Erik, on hearing the warriors would leave for the land of Zeus late in the night, didn't like the idea.

"What are you saying? You can't leave this night, leaving the land open." Erik Sparks 

"My king, we have a plan for that, "Ina said.

Martin was standing beside her, and Jansen was sitting next to the king.

"I assure you, my king, the land won't be left open; we have everything under control; we have a plan of attack and defence," Ina added.

"What is your plan? Can you let us know? We want to hear it," Janssen asked.

"The formation of the defence and attack is with us; we leave for the land of Zeus with a small, certain number of warriors; our major warriors stay back here at the land; and dad, you have to trust the war leader; Ina here has all the plans," Martin assured.

The king is not afraid; he agrees with Ina and wants to have a personal conversation with her. He orders everyone to leave him and Ina all alone. Janssen and Martin leave the room for Ina and Erik to do their discussion.

"I know of your relationship with Martin," Erik said.

"I don't." Ina tries interrupting Erik.

"You wait till I finish," Erik shunned Ina.

Ina kept quiet and looked at Erik as he continued speaking.

"This is a very crucial battle; you won't just risk it out of love; you make your plan and let it work perfectly. I will definitely be with you if the battle is lost." Erik gave a string warning to Ina.

Ina was stunned; she nodded in silence.

"I owe the Vikings my dignity. Odin, we fight for it, and the war will be won," Ina assures.

Ina leaves the king. She walks past Martin and ghosts him. Martin wonders what his father has told her.

"What have I told her?" Martin shouts at his father.

Erik kept quiet as he continued to drink from the cup he had in his hand.

"That's not how you talk to your dad; if you want to talk to me, bring your voice down," Erik said to Martin.

"What are you doing? You said something to her." Martin is still worried about Ina.

"I warned her about the war; she needs to be very careful, I think." Erik said as he made a funny face at Martin.

Martin had heard enough, so he angrily left his dad.

The Easterners had marched to the land of Zeus; they had more than four thousand men; they were fully armed; and with the arches with them, they reached the land of Zeus at night, built a small camp where they would pass the night, and waited for the battle the following day. The generals had a brief meeting within themselves, and as they didn't get any feedback from Berg, they assumed he was being caught or killed by the Vikings. They generals discuss an unaware attack on the Vikings, but the Vikings are the last people you attack unaware; they are always ready; if you attack their territory, they will slaughter everyone. It's going to be a bad idea for the Easterners. They thought of splitting the group; some will attack the territory while the battle is going on at the land of Zeus, then assume they (the Vikings) are all on the battle field, then they can conquer the territory and maybe surround the Vikings in such a way. The general argued and brought up so many points about how they could attack the Vikings. The group debated until they agreed on a final decision on splitting the group to attack the territory while the battle was on.

The Vikings had also marched to the land of Zeus, camped, and waited till morning. Martin had followed Ina to the land of Zeus, trying to know what made her keep ghosting him.

"We are in the middle of a battle; all you do care about is me, Martin. You are more than this; your heart is soft, Mart." Ina finally responded to Martin after a long day of ghosting him.

"I think I have to disobey your command if you continue ghosting me," Martin said.

"This is not the Martin I know; you have been a strong man; don't let your emotions down raid you; we have to focus on our mission; you have to carry out your task perfectly; we have to fight to save Vikings," Ina said, kissing Martin passionately.

Ina was forcing herself to ghost Martin; she loves Martin as well but has to keep it within her. Martin, after getting a kiss from Ina, went back to his warriors and back to the territories of the Vikings.

In the early morning of the following day, the Easterners marched on to the battle field, and the Vikings marched on as well. They faced themselves, giving themselves a five hundred-metre gap. They stayed there for some time; King Erik had come along with his brother. Two of the Easterners, one of the generals and one of the captains, ride in a horse to the centre, then Ina and Kristen ride to meet them.

"You have brought a war to us; we humbly accept it. Do you wish to return to your homes to meet your wife's and children?" Kristen says.

The general laughed out loud.

"Your people killed our people, took our gold, and destroyed our settlement. You talk about bringing war; you first stated this," the general said back.

"This happened years ago, many decades ago; why come now to fight it?" Ina asked.

"Injuries get healed, but the scars still remain; we didn't forget; we were waiting for the right time, were the general answers.

"And you think the right time is now. Good luck on that then," Kristen said angrily.

"We have a proposal that will end this without sharing blood," the general said.

"What night will that be?" Ina asked.

"You go tell your king to give us ten thousand tonnes of gold and five thousand pieces of silver and give us a settlement in your land where our people can farm and live," the general said.

The negotiation was taking enough talk; Erik wasn't comfortable with that. He sent Lars to go their tell Ina to return and let the battle begin. As the general made the proposal, Ina laughed at it, then Lars rode to her and delivered what the king said.

"Okay, the king has his own proposal. The king said you should leave now or else no one will be left alive, "Ina said.

The general got angry over what Ina said as she turned down the offer without thinking about it or maybe consulting the king.

"You have one hour to discuss with your king or else we attack, "the general said.

"We have thirty minutes; if you don't retreat, we shall attack, "Ina warns.

Both parties return to their groups, and Erik awaits Ina to come tell him what she had discussed with the Easterners.

"What happened over there? "Erik asked.

"The Easterners want ten thousand tonnes of gold and five thousand pieces of silver and a settlement in our territory for them to back off, "Ina said.

Lars, Erik, and Jansen laughed at the proposal.

"What was your proposal, Ina? "Janssen asked.

"They have thirty minutes to retreat or they all die. "The whole Vikings cheered on hearing the whole Easterners would be murdered.

The Easterners general had returned with a failed proposal; they only had to fight the battle; they always wanted to destroy the Vikings.