Valkyries Calling

Chapter 197: Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

The summer sun lay broad across Hedeby’s harbor, where merchants came and went with the tide.Among them were men claiming to bear the Reich’s seal, their wagons stacked with bolts of cloth, casks of wine, and chests stamped with the eagle.

To all eyes, they were imperial envoys sent by Conrad to "bind Denmark in friendship."

At night, though, in the smoky corners of taverns and halls, they whispered different words.

To Jarl Skarde, broad-bellied and hungry for land:his! He invades our lands, mocks our King, and now kills the queen regent? Their silver, their wine, it carried his will!"

He flung the flask to the ground, the Reich’s seal plain upon the wax.

Eyes turned to it with horror, then to the merchants’ wagons outside the hall, heavy with coin stamped with eagles.

It was proof enough.

Fury rose like a storm.

Jarls cursed Conrad’s name, some tearing their cloaks in rage, others swearing blood-oaths on their swords.

Leofric shouted loudest of all: "The Reich has murdered our queen! Will you sit idle while the eagle spits on Denmark?"

By dawn, the court seethed with grief and fury.

Harthacnut’s eyes were red from weeping, but the boy was no longer a boy.

He swore vengeance before the gathered jarls, his voice hoarse but fierce.

"Conrad has slain my mother. He shall reap war for it. Denmark will march!"

Riders sped across Jutland, summoning ships and spears.

Horns sounded in the villages, and longships were dragged to the shore.

Spears were raised, swords were forged. And the smiths worked overtime to produce the amount of iron needed for the Danes and their vengeance.

And far to the north, when the merchants’ knarrs slipped quietly back into Ullrsfjörðr, their holds empty of silver, Vetrulfr listened in silence.

When the tale was told, he only nodded once.

"The boy will march," he said. "The Reich will bleed from two wounds. Let Conrad choke on his own empire."

The wolves of Ullrsfjörðr howled in the night, their cries mingling with the surf, while the fire in Vetrulfr’s pale eyes burned with patient, merciless light.

Conrad had tried to save the burning eastern flank of his Empire by abandoning his invasion of Denmark.

A wise move, but one made without realizing just who his true enemy was.

Now... Now he was being blamed for the death of Denmark’s Queen Regent, and the Danes would march south.

And in doing so, reigniting the second front he tried so desperately to avoid.