Pawns and Queens--A 15th Century Gwynedd Story--Chapter Sixteen

[Shiral]

Something makes me suspect Hakon isn't the brightest torch at the ritual....

[Evie]

Something makes me suspect Hakon isn't the brightest torch at the ritual....

Quite true, though cut the boy some slack, he's only twelve. And what he lacks in savvy, he more than makes up for in enthusiasm. 😂

[DerynifanK]

Brilliantly written and ghastly.  I had a horrible feeling that something like this was what they had in mind. 

I had a feeling that any ritual called "The Blot" (magical or not,) wasn't going to end well for poor Cecile.

The blót was a ritual sacrifice offered up to the Norse gods in order to get something back in return. In Ingrid's case, she has a special devotion to Odin, but a blót could be offered up to other Norse gods as well. Historically it always involved some form of blood sacrifice, though not necessarily human, and a case can be made that "blót" and "blood" have similar etymological roots. It was also generally practiced at the solstices and equinoxes, so assuming the war doesn't end before Midsummer, our heroes will have something to look forward to. (Not!)

And Monday is such a looong way off.

I'm stuck in a meeting all day Monday.  Anticipation of chapter 17 to keep me going.

I thought I had a spin-off story that might work for this Saturday, but while it would fit in fairly well here, unfortunately it's not a simple short story, but more of a five chapter novelette. So that's a bit much to post all in one go, plus it wouldn't all fit in a single post anyway, so I would still have to post it one piece at a time. It would also work better if posted after a different short story I have queued up, but that one would be best saved until a later chapter in this one. But you'll see both of those spin-offs eventually, if not in time to relieve the long wait this weekend.

I also had a feeling of foreboding as Sebastian and Saorise were spying, concerned for them. I didn't expect wholesale murder of captives but it reminded me of Wencit's murder of his prisoners. A very  black event. Nicholas definitely needs to know the kind of people he is facing.

Fortunately Sebastian is getting right on that, as you will see in the following chapter. As far as the wholesale murder of captives goes, Ingrid prefers to think of the blót as a proper act of devotion to Odin, and as there's a war coming up, it's not like those enemies weren't going to die sooner or later anyway, right? So they might as well do so for a worthy cause. 

At least there is a set traditional number of only 99 captives to be sacrificed. So most enemy combatants can count on being dispatched immediately and swiftly. Unless they are Deryni, at least. There might be a special fate in store for Deryni combatants....  (What, exchange noble hostages for ransom like other kingdoms do?! Surely you jest! 

It is not kind to tease your readers with mentions of spin off stories that might have fit here but then you decided it was too long and will appear after some future chapter. It doesn't make the waiting easier.

[revanne]

But just think of the future treats in store.

[DerynifanK]

I'm pretty sure she will not be pleased. Will it really sidetrack her plan? I hope so

[Evie]

I'm pretty sure she will not be pleased. Will it really sidetrack her plan? I hope so

Well, let's look at this from Ingrid's POV. She lost the love of her life to a battle in Kheldour, so she wants to avenge his death. She also has a beloved son who ended up with the burden of kingship far before reaching the age of having the necessary strength and maturity to pull it off successfully (though being a boundary-testing preteen, he thinks he does and is often overconfident), thus forcing her to act as Regent while trying to keep Haakon's willfulness in check. But thankfully she has lots of resources--thousands of soldiers and sailors at her beck and call, a huge fleet of ships, and the natural resources to build even more. She also knows a form of magic the enemy has little to no idea how to counteract, since they've not had to fight against it in centuries. She has allies joined in common cause, and while she can't entirely trust them, she understands their motivations enough to feel certain she can work with them for the moment.

She attempts to work a ritual that she believes will make the strength and interdependence of her army and allies 100% certain. But her kid does something dumb that may or may not have messed up the ritual, and the timing was important, so she can't just try for a re-do.

However, she still has every single resource listed above, plus one extremely strong ally she is married to with a fighting force close to the size of hers (Nördmarcke) and another ally with fewer troops to bring to the table, but an equal determination to get the job done because they need Ingrid and Torval to support their own war efforts in the Forcinn in future. So while they might not be the perfect allies, at the moment they need each other, and at the moment they already have everything she thinks they will need to sweep into Gwynedd, take Kheldour (and whatever else Torval and Rémy want, but Kheldour is her main target). She only has, say, an 85% trust in her allies rather than the 100% she would like to have, but then again, she's got magic powers she can rely on to tip that balance if she must, and while they do too, they are merely Deryni and she understands their limitations more than they understand hers.

So should she say "Nah, we're outta here" and take all her ships and troops home just because her kid messed up, now that they are on the verge of what she thinks is almost certain to be a victorious conquest despite that? If you were Ingrid and had gotten this close to being in a position to avenge your beloved Sigmund?

Yeah, Ingrid ain't going nowhere unless it involves heading straight into enemy territory. And for the moment at least, that means Gwynedd, not Nördmarcke or Joux.