Drustina offers terms to the Vikings and very cleverly uses Cold-blood's biggest issue to persuade the butcher to accept quarter.

The Angry Mermaid 127
Or
Y Morforwyn Dicllon 127.

The Vikings stood breathless and panting as they recovered from their exertions, there could be no doubt to every Norseman inside Cold-blood’s concentric shield-walls that this was truly a lioness approaching, and a very brave and beautiful one at that. Even Cold-blood’s lust-filled eyes widened with respect as he watched the young queen ride on with unbelievable courage.

As she approached the innermost ring of Cold-blood’s walls Drustina called out.

“I would speak with the Viking king alone! I have important private business with him.”

Harald frowned uncertainly but his curiosity overtook him for he wondered how on earth the sorceress could have private business with him. He called back.

“That is far enough Lioness! I will meet you alone where you stand!”

Drustina stopped and deliberately struck a proud posture as even Seripatese seemed to sense the occasion. The little mare raised her head high and stood with her tail cocked, as proud as any war-horse could. Drustina noticed the Viking King pause just fractionally, enough to reveal his uncertainty before urging his horse down the slope. They met in silence as the Viking king stared thoughtfully at the beautiful queen before him. Drustina just stared directly at him without flinching or casting her eyes down as other maids were want to do when confronted by Cold-blood and his reputation.

For once Cold-blood felt forced to break the silence, something about the Lioness unsettled him. Her face seemed familiar but he could not place the woman. Eventually he felt compelled to treat with her and determine what possible private business they might share, normally the Viking would have attacked the sorceress without hesitation but the brutal certainty of his own defeat and death had made him amenable. Additionally his curiosity about ‘private business’ overtook him.

“How can there be private business between us? This had better not be some sort of trick! The only possible issue we might share is the fate of my daughter Gisela! I have never met you before? ”

“This does not concern Gisela, and I must correct you on that second statement. We have met before.”

Her answer truly unsettled him as he wondered where and how she had met him. He asked further.

“Where did we meet? When did we meet? I’m sure I would have remembered meeting the Lioness of Carthage!”

“Do you not remember?”

Cold-blood replied uncertainly.

“No. No I don’t.”

Drustina smiled inwardly; ‘it was always good to have one’s adversary on the back foot.’ She replied.

“Viking, I can read the lust in your eyes even now, just as it was when we first met. Yet still you do not remember me. Do you remember any of the women you have raped?”

Cold-blood’s eyes widened with uncertainty.

“Raped?”

“Oh yes, you took me once when I was but a humble carter.”

The faintest inkling of memory tantalised Harald’s mind as he vaguely recalled the training field in France.

“Was that in Gaul, in the city of The Havre?”

“It was,” Drustina confirmed as she continued. “Do you remember the ragged blond girl driving the cartload of supplies to feed your cavalry as they were training on the field? I saw the greed in your eyes then as I see it now. You simply took that girl for your pleasure, just as a greedy beast tears a piece of meat off its prey, or a hungry man breaks a crust from the loaf.”

Cold-blood sat stupefied.

“You!! You were her?”

“The very same. I was gathering intelligence. Do you remember? I asked you a question and you answered even as your lust drove your loins. You were more preoccupied with your dick than your kingly duties. It’s amazing how so many men think only with their cocks! You answered my questions even as you took your pleasure.”

Cold-blood cursed softly.

“By the Gods I should have killed you there and then; now I survey the consequences of your so-called intelligence gathering.”

Drustina smiled inwardly as she replied.

“If you killed me now there would be other consequences. You would die immediately of course but then your only son would be orphaned.”

The mention of a son touched the rawest nerve in Cold-blood’s being and his eyes blazed.

“Damn you Lioness, you know I have no sons! Nor nephews it seems if I recognise that haulm you wear!”

“Never mind the haulm; it was an honest trophy of a well fought battle. If it belonged to your nephew then I can only tell you he fought well and bravely. Now, as I said Viking, there were other consequences of that rape, your act of gratuitous abuse that day on the training field.”

Suddenly the light switched on in the Viking King’s brain and he gaped in stunned realisation. The words ‘consequence of that rape’ suddenly acquired immense portent in his battle weary mind.

“Are you saying the consequence of that, that – (he struggled to find a more suitable word and ended up conceding the original word) - that rape as you call it?” He paused still uncertain.

Drustina’s jaw stiffened as she fixed his suspicious gaze.

“It certainly was a rape Viking. You neither asked for nor were given my consent.”

“But you did not object or struggle, all you did was talk, ask questions as though casual carnality was an everyday event in the life of some common whore!”

“That was my purpose you idiot! And that whore’s price was information. The other consequence was an unintended by-product.

“Oh yes, you mentioned the other the consequences?” He asked again expectantly as he recalled the Lioness’s words. “These consequences, are they what comes naturally from what was done that day?”

“Yes! The consequences are toddling about in Ethelred’s Palace in Winchester. My twin son and daughter play with their older half-siblings blissfully unaware that their father is deemed the arch enemy of all Saxons and Mercians, all Celts and Hibernians.”

Cold-blood’s jaw could not have sagged any lower as he stared in stunned silence.

“Are you telling me the truth? Are you saying I am a father, to a son – by you ... the Lioness of Carthage!!?”

Drustina shrugged and feigned indifference but in truth she was relishing Cold-blood’s shock for she knew, all importantly, it was changing the man’s attitude even as they talked.

“Yes! You are!”

Cold-blood stared at her as his mind fumbled with the enormity. ‘A son! A bloody son! And by the finest dam a man of weapons could ever hope for. This was a son that any Viking king would desperately hope to father!’ Then the doubts betook him.

“How do I know you are telling the truth? Any man could be the father!”

“If you accept quarter and choose life, you can meet with the boy and his sister. I can have them brought to Chester but it will take some time. Both the boy and his sister have your stamp and both children have the same birthmark as you, the same brown mark on your belly. Who but your wives or the women you raped would know of that mark? There can be no doubt Cold-blood; he is your son – and mine!”

“No other man has forced himself upon you then?” Cold-blood pressed.

Drustina snorted derisively.

“No man could ever force himself upon me Viking. This sword and these daggers would ensure that. Many have tried –and some have died ... none have succeeded.”

“But I did,” he replied with a mixture of pride and suspicion coupled with a growing remorse.

Drustina mocked him with condescension.

“You did not force yourself upon me Viking, I let you have me. It suited my purpose to prostitute myself for my own political ends. Today I gained those ends though I did not foresee my being put with child. More importantly to me, you were so pre-occupied that day with your gratification you let slip vital information as your brain emptied itself of all sense – through its other mouth.”

Cold-blood frowned as the realisation hit him hard. He had been played for a fool on the training fields of The Havre.

“You bloody used me!” He cursed.

Drustina let out an almost maniacal cackle of laughter.

“Ha ha! And you’re saying you didn’t use me! You raped me! You didn’t seek consent.”

The Viking fell into a contemplative silence then asked almost graciously.

“Alright; I concede it was rape, it happens in war. But you seemed unhurt by it and no violence ensued. Now I realise why. Will I ever I see the boy?”

“For that you must agree to accept quarter. My allied kings and princes and even a certain Viking princess would kill you joyfully.”

Cold-blood frowned.

“But only you have the right to offer quarter, it’s obvious you command the field here.”

“You’re right, I do! I note that even you recognise that your men stopped when I called. So I offer you quarter now, privately.” Drustina re-confirmed then added. “I can broadcast it publicly as well if you accept. Do you?”

After several contemplative seconds, the Viking nodded and slowly drew his sword to present it lying flat across his arm. It was a very public act of submission. Drustina remembered her words to Gisela about magnanimity in war and she refused it as she explained.

“You can keep your sword but I will hold it just a moment to show everybody the battle is over. When I return your sword you will also receive my pratique. Will you accept that and honour it?”

“Yes.” He replied. “I accept your pratique.”

Having gained his agreement, she reached down and tore a strip of saddle cloth from Seripatese’s back and wrapped it around her hand. Thus protected from the blade's keen edge, she grasped his sword by the tip, held it high for all to see then promptly handed it back with the handle clearly returned to Cold-blood’s grip. If he wanted he could have easily plunged it into her neck. He didn’t and thus demonstrated that quarter had been given and accepted honourably.
With that act finished he asked about other questions that were now burning in his head; the questions that had persuaded him to accept quarter.

“Is the boy safe, is he free. Do they know about the boy? Does Gisela know she has a brother?”

“Of course the boy is safe ... and free. He is my son not my prisoner!! Credit me with some motherliness. Nobody knows about your twins but me and one other – and now you. That makes only three.”

“So the boy is safe from their vengeance?”

Drustina snorted dismissively and changed the whole tone by addressing him by his familiar name.

“They are my children Harald! Nobody would dare to harm a child of the Lioness of Carthage! Every Saxon, Mercian, Celtic and Hibernian sword in this army would know the reason why! ... Plus a certain Viking princess!”

“My daughter?”

“Who else? She lives freely as my ward and she absolutely loves the little boy and his twin sister; even though she has no idea they are her half siblings. So don’t worry, Gisela is safe, you will get to meet her soon, if she chooses to let you and if you apologise for the wrongs she has suffered.”

The Viking’s face split into a wide grin, partly with relief and partly out of recognising just how skilful the Lioness was at persuasion.

“Those are several damned good reasons for my agreeing to accept quarter. My spies were right; you are a very clever woman Lioness ... and a brave one. Might I; dare I, also say a beautiful one?”

Drustina couldn’t help feeling a little tingle of pleasure at his observation. Every woman savoured a sincere compliment. However her aforementioned cleverness quickly suppressed any vulnerability to flattery and she replied.

“Why thank you Viking, but don’t let my husband hear you say that!”

Cold-blood got the message. The stunningly beautiful queen was not available! He asked himself.

‘If she was the Lioness, then what nature of Lion had won her; what sort of superlative warrior must he be to have impressed this unbelievable woman? – And then won her hand.’

Drustina also could not help but wonder to herself.

‘This Viking king was a strange piece of work. The man had only just escaped from the threat of certain death but his lower brain was still driving his thoughts. What normal man would still be trying to flatter a girl when she had just held his balls in her hand and his life by a thread?’

She concluded to herself that ‘the poor bugger couldn’t help it’, like many men who lusted for power, they usually lusted for power over women as well. Cold-blood fitted that image exactly but it was now immaterial. She wanted to move things along so she nodded towards her companions and declared.

“If we are to Parley, you had better call your allies down from the hill and we can meet my companions.”

Cold-blood waved his hand to invite the other Viking leaders then he continued talking to the Lioness as the Irish King and Scottish Prince descended the hill to meet with her Allies.

~o000o~

On the slope where the fighting had paused, Edrinor rode up to meet with Ethelred and Gisela as they sat watching the Lioness and the Viking king in earnest conversation.

“Hail Saxon, what are those two talking about?” He asked.

“Welcome Mercian, frankly we none of us have any idea but they’ve been talking for some time and, all importantly, he has accepted quarter. How she managed that I would truly love to know and I hope she has not conceded too much. Ah! We have action as I speak; look the other Viking leaders are joining them.”

Edrinor and Ethelred sat side by side watching the Lioness and the Viking as they waited for the other Viking leaders to join them.
Edrinor stared fixatedly before remarking.

“She seems to have him eating out of her hand. I do believe that might have been a smile on the butcher’s countenance.”

“He has been smiling. The Lioness has that effect on men,” Gisela observed.

“Aye she does that Princess,” Ethelred agreed. “Just look at the man; you’re right Edrinor! He’s actually smiling!”

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out in due course.” Edrinor’s son added as he wagged his head in mild disbelief. “My God, that woman has beauty and charm!”

“And wit.” Edrinor added as his older, wiser head soon brought the preening victors down to earth. ”So gentlemen ... and lady, what is to be the first order of discussion with this Viking?”

Gisela replied as she glared across the bloody field towards her approaching father and the Lioness.

“Perhaps we’d best leave that to the Lioness. She already seems to have the beast eating out of her hand.”

~o0o~

The two sides met in an awkward silence that pressed on all sides as each individual privately debated how to go forward. The scale and portent of the victory now left them uncertain and overawed at their own success.

Only Drustina and Carl had experienced such large battles before. Battles where so many were wounded, so many killed and there was so much destruction; battles where the outcome left so much to gain and so much to lose.

Carl had not yet returned from his success on the salient, nor had Udris and Dorvan secured their ships to join the parley so uncertainty prevailed on several accounts.

Drustina deliberately let the silence hang while the soft sighing and moaning of the wounded started to invade everybody’s thoughts.
Drustina had been in this place many times before; the cruel realisation that often overwhelmed survivors as they came to recognise the damage that had been done. Very few survivors could remain unaffected, especially if they had been in the thick of it and knowingly survived only because some companion had prevented their injury by striking an unobserved attacker. And now that companion might be lying possibly dead or wounded. A debt forever owed and never to be paid. The silence endured and Drustina let it ... a priceless lesson for the survivors where words could never settle the accounts.

~o000o~

Eventually, it was Harald Cold-blood who broke the impasse as uncertainty chipped at his nerve.

“Are we to Parley here or is there a better place?”

Drustina was tempted to reply that "Here was as good as any." for there were living witnesses aplenty and yet more dead to illustrate the cost.” Instead she let the silence endure; 'let it be for one of the others to reply,’ she mused.

Finally Edrinor’s wisdom built the essential bridge that got the talks moving.

“Firstly gentlemen and ladies, I would offer that we have a right to know if what the Lioness and the Viking were discussing is material to our deliberations.”

He turned with eyebrows arched questioningly towards Drustina. She wagged her head.

“Not yet. There are more important things to sort like what of the future of these Islands and is there to be a lasting agreement? My business with the Viking depends upon what is hammered out here.”

Edrinor then took the bull by the horns.

“Very well then; firstly Viking there must be a price for our offering you quarter. Lands and titles to those lands. Your promise to relinquish all claims to the lands north of the Mersea and the Umbre and an agreed border between The Saxon kingdoms and Scotia.”

“Am I to have nothing? Am I to go home a pauper king?” Harald asked.

“You keep your realm of Norway and you do have something else Viking,” Drustina replied, “but for now only you and I here know of its priceless value to you.”

Cold-blood harrumphed then grinned, much to everybody’s surprise.

“Very well Lioness, I suppose a man can wish for nothing better than that! I do hereby relinquish all claims to the realm known as Britannia.”

Ethelred and Edrinor gasped with disbelief as the wise old Mercian felt forced to confirm the Viking’s declaration.

“What! Just like that, you relinquish all that you fought for!”

“I do,” Cold-blood affirmed. “You won your battle so to the victor, the spoils.

Gisela turned to Drustina.

“By all the gods Lioness, what magic have you woven are you really a sorceress?”

Drustina grinned and glanced at the Viking who grinned back as Drustina addressed Gisela.

“Oh it was certainly magic little princess, magic that you may some-day weave also.”

Gisela cringed in mistaken fear.

“I don’t understand. I am not a sorceress!” She replied uncertainly as she wondered if the Lioness was alluding to her Sapphism.

Drustina immediately picked up on Gisela’s fear and quickly killed the idea before it could take root.

“Oh no, not that sort of magic Gisela. No, we speak of the magic only a woman can weave. You will learn of it one day.”

Even these kind words went over Gisela's head for she was too preoccupied with her Sapphic situation and risks associated with it.

~oo000oo~

Having agreed the main deal, the deal that would one day lay the foundations of the realms that would come to be known as England
, Wales, Ireland and Scotland; the rest of the negotiations were to be little more than the accounting. Who got what, and who lost what. For this a proper venue was arranged in the city of Chester. As the combatants concluded the first primary agreement about Cold-blood ceding his lands, all parties set aside the accounting for they all knew they would be protracted affairs.

The next immediate task turned to clearing up the battlefield and accounting for the dead. Identifying any dead nobles who had land holdings in the north would necessitate the transference of estates from dead Norse jarls to surviving Saxon and Mercian nobles who had served with distinction and deemed worthy of enrichment by their respective kings.

One unexpected outcome was the death of the Saxon Jarl who held the County Palatine of Chester. Edrinor and Ethelred mutually to give that and the Viking Palatine of Lancaster to the Saxon, Carl. These were two of the richest counties in Ethelred’s extended realm for the counties comprised vast swathes of flat rich land from New Sarum in the south to Preston in the north and from the Celtic Sea in the west to the Pennine hills in the east. Carl became an extremely rich overlord.

Drustina rightly claimed and took her title of suzerainty over all the princes of Cambria in addition to title of Lleyn and the mountains of Wyddfa east as far as Carl’s new Palatine of Chester. Because the borders of their lands met at the Dyfrdwy, the couple naturally chose to rule jointly from the city of Chester. Naturally, it was in Chester that victors and losers gathered to finalise the negotiations.

~o00o~

Those negotiations took weeks to complete as interested parties arrived from all quarters of the realm. Some came with legitimate grievances, some chancing their arm and some who had been summoned by Ethelred or Edrinor to explain their actions or inactions.

Throughout these weeks Gisela continually tried to pump the Lioness for an explanation as to how she had bewitched her father but until Drustina's children were at her side and sure of her actual physical protection, Drustina kept her counsel. There was no knowing what angry people might be abroad who had issues with Cold-blood and not yet found requital. If they knew that Cold-blood’s only son was travelling from Winchester to Chester, there was no knowing what wild and irresponsible actions they might take.

Finally, the day arrived when all Drustina’s children save the ones of the Nile, arrived at the Chester Bridgegate with little pomp and no ceremony. Drustina had been advised in secret of their imminent arrival and she had ridden south to New Sarum (Shrewsbury) to meet them and accompany them to her new home.

Early on that auspicious morning, Drustina and her party had emerged out of the early-morning mist to meet with Carl at the city Bridgegate. The city was woken by the crash of hooves on cobbles as the procession made its way to the Castle that had become Drustina’s home. As they were dismounting in the courtyard Ethelred and Edrinor emerged to meet them.

“So you got back safely Dru?”

Drustina grinned.

“Why is your realm not safe Eth? My sister Tara came with the children all the way from Winchester without any trouble she tells me.”

He grinned and helped Drustina’s daughters off their horses while her older son refused assistance as he slid down to earth with aplomb. The youngest son, being just three, needed help and Drustina herself helped him down as she kissed him affectionately.

As she was lifting him, Harald Cold-blood emerged from the great hall; his heart filled up as he saw the mother of his only son holding him in her arms. Careful to hide his emotions he stepped towards the pair and grinned as he saw the child wipe his cheek with embarrassment from his mother’s kiss.

Drustina caught Harald’s eye cautioning him ‘not yet’, and he turned aside showing little sign of his emotions. Gisela however noticed the silent interplay and she turned to stare hard at Drustina as she stepped close enough to whisper.

“What’s going on between you and my father?”

“Inside girl; you’ll learn soon enough. Here hold the boy while I carry his sister.”

Drustina led the way into the hall with her youngest daughter in her arms while Gisela carried the boy. Tara herded the older children whilst chatting to Ethelred to give him news of Winchester about his newborn son. This was important news also to the Mercians because the baby was Edrinor’s grandson and nephew to the Mercian prince.

Finally, Carl followed up the procession whilst talking to Harald because only Carl knew of the twin’s parentage. A secret he had held for the whole of the twin’s lifetimes and an act that endeared him to Harald. The Viking had utter respect for a man who was a proven general, excellent combatant and yet had the wit and skills to win the Lioness’s heart. Most men would have been frightened by the Lioness’s reputation let alone her reputed duality. If they sniggered about Carl marrying a woman with a dick they certainly didn’t do it within his presence. Besides, the Lioness had certainly born children and whatever else she was, she was certainly a woman because she was a mother.

When they had entered the hall Drustina indicated the negotiating table and declared.

“Now gentlemen and ladies, I asked you to come here because there is very important news I have to tell you.”

A rustle of anticipation rippled around the table as silence fell and Drustina continued.

“I know that many of you still wonder how I managed to somehow tame the beast that you faced that day in Brunbah now you will know.”

The silence continued expectantly as Drustina smiled at the Viking King before she took a slow deep breath.

“Many of you have wondered why I never named my two younger twins. Well today I explain. It is a Norse custom that the father names his sons whilst the mother names her daughters; at least it is in Harald’s realm. Am I right Viking?”

Harald nodded as he anticipated the coming pleasure of naming his own son while the mother of his daughter would join him in the same honour by naming the twin daughter. The rest of the negotiators sat around in various degrees of incomprehension as some got an inkling of what was about to be revealed while others remained clueless. Drustina ploughed on.

“I must therefore now finally reveal the father of my youngest twins. It is Harald Cold-blood; the king of Norvegia. However I can tell you now since learning of his being a father he has certainly belied his title. His blood no longer runs cold.”

The surprised silence lasted but a couple of seconds before Gisela squealed with excitement for she now realised that the very toddler she was hugging on her knee was indeed her own and only brother. Drustina expanded.

“You will need proof of this and I will have my revenge now on the many men who used to demand of me my identity by ordering me to bare my arse to show the famous scar that Blue-face gave me. This time I will order the Viking to bare his belly to display a birthmark.”

She flicked her sword impudently towards the Viking king.

“Come on Viking, lift your jerkin and lower your belt.”

“Bitch!” Harald grinned as he unbuckled his belt and tugged the waistband of his britches almost to the point of immodesty.

The rest of those present, gathered around the table perplexed at the activity but Gisela let out a squawk of recognition as she fumbled feverishly with the little boy’s topshirt. (The child had not yet been breeched.(Put into britches.))

“Look! Look! She squealed as she tugged the toddler’s pants down to reveal all – and there it was! A large brown birthmark stretched from navel almost to the little boy’s penis. On seeing it Harald released an oath of fatherly delight and inadvertently stretched his own britches a fraction too far.

“Dammit! He is my son. Look all of you, we share the mark!”

Others gaped but Drustina chuckled censoriously.

“Put the bloody thing away man! You’re disgusting! Have you no shame?”

Harald recovered his senses and realised where he was. He yanked his waistband up again and muttered an apology as Drustina further reinforced her twin’s parentage.

“Please note also that my beautiful daughter also bears a smaller version of her father's mark. Not so large and prominent but evidence enough. Both children are sired by this man. This mark is in Harald's blood, not mine.”

The silence endured for half a minute before Gisela confirmed another feature. She held her brother up to the window space and added.

“Look he even has his father’s ears and his father’s jaw. There is no doubt this little fellow is my brother. I can prove that if I have to. I also have the mar....!”

“Gisela!!" Drustina scolded the princess. There's no need to emulate your father!! Pull your bloody dress down girl. You can prove that later in the lady's chambers. There’s no need to expose your beauty to these lustful toads!”

A rumble of laughter rippled around the table as Ethelred chuckled.

“Toads indeed! Is that what you think of us men Lioness?”

Drustina grinned as she riposted.

“Not all men Eth, I married my Saxon. He's the exception.”

The Viking king nodded enviously.

“Aye. He’s a lucky bugger!” The Viking king conceded. "To have such a beautiful queen for a wife."

Carl was both pleased and embarrassed at the lioness's description of her partner and he blushed with embarrassment

The meeting broke up for the midday meal and after eating Drustina accompanied Harald and Gisela as they strolled in the garden with the twins scampering around their feet.

~oo000oo~

Copyright to Beverly Taff.