Vikings: Nordic women

Chapter 67: It won’t turn into fish poop, will it?

Margaret's body was extremely weak due to blood loss, and she estimated that it would take at least half a year for her to recover. At this critical moment, she was held tightly by the maid beside her and ran all the way.

Occasionally they looked back and saw that Ragnar's territory was ablaze with flames. The fire was raging, and the flames made their shadows flicker, which looked particularly strange.

"Are all your houses made of wood?" Margaret asked, with a hint of doubt in her voice. She looked at the maid she had successfully persuaded to rebel. Her face was full of panic, and the hand holding her was shaking uncontrollably.

Margaret gently patted the maid's hand, trying to calm her down. However, the maid seemed to misunderstand her meaning, thinking that she wanted to break free, and immediately let go of her hand.

They finally hurried to the port, where people had been waiting for a long time. Judging from the maid's behavior, these people should be warriors who came to meet them.

However, Margaret was confused by the situation. If these people were the planners, then what about the battle that just happened in Ragnar's territory? Who was the mastermind behind all this? She felt confused, as if she was involved in a mystery.

"Hurry up, get on board quickly. Once they find out something is wrong, they will come this way!" At the port, a man who was suspected to be the leader was eagerly urging about a dozen warriors who were busy raising the anchor and carrying the supplies needed for the voyage.

Margaret immediately understood the intentions of these people. They planned to take the 3,000 pounds of gold she promised them, and take advantage of those who were stirring up rebellion to fish in troubled waters. She couldn't help but sigh that this was the main reason why she didn't trust human nature. Therefore, she had always given Huscarz the best treatment so that they could not be turned against by interests.

As for Ragnar, she guessed that he was either dead or very angry. Unfortunately, she couldn't see it with her own eyes.

Margaret boarded the ship and sat at the bow with the maid who had rebelled. She asked her name. However, before the maid could answer, she was shocked by the scene in front of her. After raising the anchor and leaving the port and hoisting the sail, the six warriors, together with the leader, killed the other five warriors and threw their bodies into the sea. The whole process was only accompanied by screams, and these people acted decisively.

"It's getting more and more interesting!" Margaret sneered. This matter was not her business, but theirs. After all, even if she took them back, she would not trust a group of traitors who had no loyalty and would betray their companions. However, distrust did not mean that she hated them, nor did it mean that she could not tame them, as long as she was always in a strong position.

After killing those warriors, their eyes all turned to the maid who was instigated by Margaret to rebel.

"What are you going to do? Don't forget that it was me who informed you of the news and brought her out! You can't betray me!" The rebellious maid looked at them in horror, holding Margaret's arms tightly with both hands.

"If we kill you, we will have one less person to share the three thousand pounds of gold." The leading warrior laughed, but his laughter stopped abruptly as a sword pierced his body.

"What?"

Margaret saw him looking down at the tip of the sword sticking out of his body, his face full of reluctance. He seemed to want to resist, but he lost the ability to move because of the severe pain caused by the tip of the sword being pulled out of his body.

The long sword stabbed into his body again, and he kept screaming until he fell down after being stabbed several times in a row. At the same time, two other warriors were also killed.

"You're right. It's better to share it among six people than between me and my two sons!" The warrior who spoke was a middle-aged man of about forty years old. He wiped the corpse with his sword, and then continued to look at the maid who had been turned against Margaret.

His two sons threw the body into the sea, holding axes, and staring at the maid who had been turned against Margaret.

"You don't have to kill her. I will give you three thousand pounds of gold and three territories!" Margaret stared at them firmly and patted the trembling maid's shoulder. She was worried that the maid would hold her hostage, so in order to avoid any accidents, she had to take care of the matter.

The three of them looked at each other, then looked at Margaret. The leading warrior said, "Yes!"

Then the three of them lay down on the side of the ship, opened the ale barrel and drank the ale in large gulps while laughing.

Margaret patted the maid's hand, stood up and walked forward. The maid grabbed her hand in fear and shook her head.

"I just went to get some wine because I'm thirsty. What about you? Do you remember what I said? I value credibility. If you don't trust me, who else can you trust?" She began to brainwash the other party.

The maid nodded and released her hand.

Margaret walked forward, snatched the wine glass from one of the three people in front of their surprised eyes, and gulped down the wine. The wine was cool and slightly sweet, and it was really refreshing to drink!

The purpose of her doing this was to take the initiative instead of being dominated by these three people. She just wanted to tell them that she was not afraid of them.

The three of them didn't say anything and continued drinking.

“What are your names, my future lords?” Margaret emphasized their identities and her own status. “Your Majesty, my name is Matt Erickson, and these are my two sons, Caspar and Frank!”

"I remember. Welcome to join the Kingdom of Gotland! After we arrive in Ross, we will hold a swearing-of-loyalty ceremony!"

"We are willing to serve you, Your Majesty!"

Margaret nodded, wiped her chin, scooped a glass of ale, and came to the maid.

"You haven't told me your name yet?"

"Rosaline, your majesty!"

"Would you like to be my retainer?" Margaret handed over the wine glass.

"I am willing to be loyal to you, Your Majesty!" The other party took the wine glass handed over by Margaret and drank it in small sips.

Margaret took the cup and returned it, then picked out two fur blankets from the sundries on the boat, walked up to the maid and threw one of them to her. She then wrapped herself in the blanket, leaned against the edge of the boat and closed her eyes.

Because it was night and they were afraid of losing their way, the ships could only sail along the coastline. They needed to go around the northern coast of Denmark and around the island of Copenhagen again, and then return to the coast of Eastern Europe in the direction of the sun after sailing out.

There was no need for Margaret to teach Matt and his two sons these things; as professional pirate raiders they had far more sailing experience than she did.

One night a few days later, Margaret was suddenly awakened by the huge noise of the ship running aground. There was a big hole in the bottom of the ship and sea water was pouring out from the bottom of the ship.

"We've hit a reef, we've hit a reef, damn it! This ship is rotten! We're on a rotten ship!" Matt cursed.

"Quick, block the gap, let as much water as possible flow in, and scoop the water out! Caspar, Frank, you go into the water and push the boat away from the reef, I'll deal with the hole, and if you two don't want to go in the water and swim, use a blanket to scoop out the water!"

Margaret took action, covering the seawater at the bottom of the boat with furs, and worked with Rosalin to shovel out the leaking seawater. Matt used nails and wooden boards to seal the hole, and the seawater pouring into the bottom of the boat seemed to slow down.

Caspar and Frank swam to the reef and tried desperately to move the boat. Margaret found that the waves seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

"It's too heavy to move. The tide is rising. We can wait for a while!"

Everyone found it awkward that now they seemed to have no choice but to wait. But as the waves hit the hull, Matt stared at the hole with more and more horror.

There was a crisp "click" sound, and a bigger hole appeared in the bottom of the boat.

"..."

"Storm, it's a storm! Pour out all the wine and water in the barrels. It looks like we have no choice but to abandon the ship! This must be the gods punishing us for breaking our oath!"

Everyone was busy making buoyant escape tools. Before the sea water completely submerged the boat, they discarded all their belongings and jumped into the sea.

The people held onto the simple buoyancy raft and let the cold sea water hit their heads as most of their bodies were soaked in the sea water. If there were no buoyancy raft, they would immediately be suffocated by the continuous waves.

In this situation, you can't survive just by swimming.

"Hold on tight, don't let go no matter what happens! There are too many of us, it could be dangerous!" Matt instructed everyone, and he suddenly looked at Rosaline.

Only Rosalyn could be abandoned here.

"Your Majesty, save me, don't abandon me!" Rosalin hurriedly asked Margaret for help, only to see Matt grab her and try to push her away from the raft.

(End of this chapter)