Chapter 434 Things Aren't As They Seem...
Tyr was about to commit a slaughter and Ragnar didn't see himself fighting his son but the soldiers there couldn't move.
They could tell by Tyr's body language that their King would be killed if they moved and this meant that they had no choice but to stand and watch.
Tyr walked up to a child, he was frozen in fear with his mother behind him, sobbing.
Tyr looked at her before returning his gaze to the kid.
"A child thinks he has the right to dishonour my father?" Tyr couldn't believe the audacity.
He chuckled the moment he saw this and it slowly evolved into a maniacal laugh.
But what followed was blood splatter, the child felt blood dripping on his head but it wasn't his before a body dropped beside him.
The child looked over only to see his mother, her throat had been slit and the blood kept gushing.
He watched her struggle for air, clawing at her severed throat which only made it worse.
This only made her enlarge the hole in her throat and quicken her death but death was the best thing that she could hope for right now but she was trying to say something to her child but unfortunately, these words never made it out of her mouth.
It was a sight no kid should see but Tyr was a person that would do anything for his family.
The citizens saw that they were about to be killed and ran helter-skelter.
"Father, do you see them?" Tyr mocked them.
"They are only powerful when you're in chains.." Tyr said before turning around but the look on Ragnar's face was one he didn't recognize.
".... Father? What's wrong?" Tyr asked because he recognized the stance that Ragnar took.
It was a defensive one and the look in his eyes showed that he might have felt threatened.
Tyr then realized what he had done and dropped his axe in disbelief.
"Huh? What did I just do?" Tyr thought to himself, looking back to see that he had not only killed the mother of the boy but the boy as well.
This act not only confirmed what the Christians were accusing them of but it also showed that these 'barbarians' had no problem killing kids.
The soldiers around saw this as an opportunity to try and put Tyr down even though their King was a hostage.
Tyr had gone too far but they mistook this momentarily realization of Tyr as him being vulnerable to attacks.
Tyr raised his head high and a grin encompassed his face the moment the soldiers were within range.
Tyr ducked down and took a 360 spin with the axe in his other hand, severing all their legs with this attack.
There was no remorse in his action, this was an act to bait the enemies into attacking him.
Tyr would do anything for his family and this wouldn't be the first time that Ragnar would doubt the integrity of his son.
Tyr, after all, stood against his father against Erik The Berserker but he was turning out a lot worse than that man could ever be.
The soldiers screamed in agony and Tyr closed his eyes to take in their screams.
It sounded like a symphony, the cries of Christians that dared try to humiliate his father were divine, to say the least.
Tyr walked up to his father, he knew that Ragnar was wary of him but there was no way he would do anything to him.
"Tyr.." Ragnar muttered under his breath but felt a firm hand on his shoulder.
"This is the way of the Viking, is it not, father?" Tyr was rhetoric and Ragnar couldn't utter another word because his son was right.
The King of Northumbria was petrified and backed away from Tyr, Ragnar held his son's arm.
"What is the matter father?" Tyr asked.
"You have done enough, leave the rest to me," Raganr reassured his son.
"Aren't we going to kill him either way?" Tyr asked and Ragnar was concerned by Tyr's extreme approach.
Tyr hated the Viking way so why was he suddenly embracing it and making it his code?
"No, not yet.. We need to know more about this land, we need to know how the other Kingdoms would respond too," Ragnar said, letting go of his son's arm.
Tyr respected his father's decision, this told Ragnar he hadn't lost control entirely but he couldn't overlook the fact that his son had just taken the life of a mother and child.
But what next that they had the King? That was to be seen.
-
Alf and Thorgard managed to reach the camp with the guidance of the others.
Thorgard was quickly thinking on his feet to get Alf on his side because this could have easily resulted in his death.
The fact that Alf didn't slit his throat in his sleep meant that he wasn't Alf's target.
There was no point fighting for the sake of pride when there was an alternate route to be taken.
They arrived at the location where Ecgberht was kept and he wasn't even being treated like a hostage.
Ecgberht had full freedom to wander around and the soldiers were drinking and looked happy to have him back.
"What the fuck is going on?" Thorgard thought to himself but come to think of it, if they wanted Ecgberht dead, shouldn't they have killed him the moment they got their hands on him?
Something wasn't right and Thorgard could feel it.
Ecgberth's eyes lit up the moment they saw Thorgard and Thorgard knew that this wasn't the face of someone whose life was in danger.
"What is going on Alf?" Thorgard asked/
"Thorgard, the mind will believe anything it wants to believe.." This was all Alf said but Thorgard knew that if Ecgberht didn't want to come with him.
There was no way in Asgard that he was going to break him out of here.
He didn't want to admit it but he had failed his mission of keeping Ecgberht away from the enemy.historical
The single bargaining chip that they had had slipped right through his fingers.