Heart's Conquest; A Viking Romance

by Andromeda -

  Table of Contents

  Part One

  Chapter One: The Priestess and Prince

  Chapter Two: A Vision Fulfilled

  Chapter Three: Friends that Come and Go

  Chapter Four: A New Flash of Fate

  Chapter Five: A Path is Already Carved for Us

  Chapter Six: Skips of Time

  Chapter Seven: Revelations

  Chapter Eight: A New Place

  Chapter Nine: The Meaning of Home

  Chapter Ten: Revisiting the Past

  Part Two

  Chapter Eleven: Freedom of Body, not of Heart

  Chapter Twelve: Freedom of Choices

  Chapter Thirteen: Questions of Kingship

  Chapter Fourteen: An Invitation from the King

  Chapter Fifteen: The Kingmaker

  Chapter Sixteen: Seizing Fates

  Chapter Seventeen: The Raiding Itch

  Chapter Eighteen: The Launching of Souls

  Chapter Nineteen: Raiding Lessons

  Chapter Twenty: A Meeting with the Saxons

  Chapter Twenty-One: Forced Tribute

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Beloved by the gods

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A New Future Comes

  Part Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four: The New Dynasty

  Chapter Twenty-Five: The Trials of Kingship

  Chapter Twenty-Six: To formulate a strategy

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Secret Plot

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Trojan Horse

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Walls come Tumbling Down

  Chapter Thirty: Firmly in my Place

  Epilogue – Rashida POV

  HEART’S CONQUEST

  A Novel By,

  ANDROMEDA

  Copyright ©2017 After Hours Publications by . All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and instances are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Part One

  Slave

  Chapter One: The Priestess and Prince

  The sounds of the bells filled Rashida’s ears as she slowly awoke. Early morning light shone into her eyes, making her smile as she rose from her bed and walked to look out her windows. Boats moved slowly on the Nile, their white sails flickered in the wind as they glided back and forth among the crystal blue waters. Grinning, Rashida walked to the other side of the room where her younger brother, Nour, and younger sister, Auset, slept. Bending down, she kissed their cheeks before she went to the kitchen in order to make their morning meal.

  Their home was a simple one: a single large sleeping chamber, a kitchen that doubled as a dining room, followed by a bathing chamber. It was nothing special. The simplest of simples, yet it was home. Young Rashida was only 13 years of age, but she was very mature for her age. She had to be. After the loss of her parents when she was only a little girl, she swore to herself that she would take care of her younger siblings. There was no one else for them to be with.

  Life for a single, 13-year-old girl was hard. Most people might try to take advantage of her, yet none dared touch her family, else they invoke the wrath of the goddess Bastet. The protector goddess, Bastet, was worshiped in this village primarily because of their strategic spot on the Nile Delta. Most of the wealth comes here from farming papyrus for paper and rice for food. However, farming wasn’t the job of Rashida. Her job was to be a priestess.

  She talked to the small idol of the cat goddess and knelt before it. Clasping her hands together, she closed her eyes and whispered her morning prayers before standing up and getting to work.

  The morning meal would be simple: toasted bread with cheese, grapes and milk. When it was done, she awoke her siblings and smiled as they yawned and stretched out like newborn kittens.

  “Good morning, my little loves,” Rashida said with a grin. “The morning meal is ready.”

  Nour and Auset sat up, though Auset lifted her arms for Rashida to pick her up. The older girl happily obliged and picked her younger sister up, carrying her to the dining chamber for their morning meal. There wasn’t a lot of food, though Rashida gave most of it to her younger siblings. She was fed mainly at the temple, and normally brought home what was left over.

  When they were fed, Rashida took them to the bathing chamber to clean them up, in order to get them ready for school. She always believed that everyone should have some type of education, and as a priestess in training, she was given one. After making sure they were presentable, Rashida then went to clean herself up.

  For a moment, she looked at herself in the polished bronze mirror she had in the bathing chamber. It was a gift from the temple, and every now and then she would find herself looking into it. She was an unusual girl. Most people were shocked by her appearance, and truthfully, it added to her aura of her gift.

  Tall and slim, she had skin the color of the rich mud that the Delta was known for, hair the color of burning coals, and eyes the color of the Nile waters. Egypt was known for its large population. To most, it was considered the most powerful country in the world. Yet, Rashida had a feeling there was more out there than what she was being taught in the temple. To her, she felt as if the Great Sea where the Nile empties must touch another land. It couldn’t just be endless.

  Her looks were another reason she became a priestess in training. No one would dare force her against her will and her heart and body would belong to the goddess. She doubted she would ever wish to marry, as she saw no point in it, other than to bring more children into this world. But she had heard of what a man’s manhood could do to a woman. It could bring the ultimate pleasure, but also unhealable pain. She didn’t want that to happen to her.

  Pulling on the black robes that were associated with Bastet’s followers, she braided her hair simply before going to her siblings. She took them to the main building in the center of the village where they were to begin their lessons for the day. The teacher was a retired Vizier who had come from the capital of the lower kingdom, in order to teach the children here.

  Rashida dipped her head in respect before she reached into her robes and took out a single silver coin. This would be payment for Nour and Auset’s lessons for the next lunar cycle. The teacher bowed and took the coin before he nodded for the two young ones to hurry and take their places on the floor in the main classroom with the other students. She watched them a moment before she left the building, walking to the Temple of Bastet.

  ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

  The temple was a magnificent structure, though it might be considered simple to the temples of Isis or Hathor. Bastet was the goddess of many important aspects of Egyptian life. The goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, family, and most of all, love, she was one of the most beloved goddesses in the religion. To be chosen as one of her priestesses was a sacred duty. The job was not easy. However, Rashida was chosen at a young age when her gift was revealed.

  When she was a baby, her parents knew that she was special, that she was different than other children her age. When children would be playing outdoors, wrestling and being as joyful as children were, Rashida was solemn and quiet, lost in her own thoughts. She would stare at the clouds, look at the fish in the rivers, and at night, would fall into a fitful sleep that would produce dreams that
frightened her.

  The dreams would be different with strange people whispering to her in strange tongues. In the end, she would wake up in a cold sweat. She was seven when the visions came, flashes of the future or past. In her mind’s eyes, she would be transported into strange worlds that she had no names for. She looked at people who she had never before seen. And yet, her first true vision of the future frightened her terribly. It was of her parents’ death.

  In her vision, they had gotten ran over by an ox cart when the poor animals had gotten frightened by a crocodile. When she told her parents, her father laughed it off as childish nonsense, but her mother was different. She had a feeling that these visions and dreams were not just childish thoughts, and thus enrolled her into the temple as fast as she could, knowing her daughter would need protection.

  Less than a day after Rashida was accepted, the terrible day came. A team of oxen were walking along the riverside when a crocodile sprang forth, its jaws snapping for a meal. The poor animals were frightened and took off running. Rashida, who had been following a black kitten, was in their path and frozen in fright. Both of her parents sprang forward to push her out of the way and in the end, they both lost their lives.

  It left Rashida alone in the world. A 10-year-old little girl with babies for siblings and no way to care for them. They had a home, but no way to put food on the table. They were alone in this world, and Rashida, already a beautiful child, had already caught the eye of several young men, even though she was only 10 years of age. To them, she was a plum ripe for the picking, and she would have been plucked if it weren’t for the priestesses of Bastet.

  The older women knew of her gift. They had made a promise to her mother to keep her safe and they did just that. They proclaimed to all that Rashida was a miracle child. A girl blessed by the goddess herself was to not be touched. Working within the temple, Rashida began as a simple priestess servant and quickly moved up among the ranks.

  Her gift blessed her with the ability of quick learning and she absorbed all that she was taught like a sponge in water. Languages came quickly to her, she could remember a location by seeing it only once, and she could tell when someone was lying. All this and more was at her disposal. The elder priestesses believed that she had greater power, but they didn’t know how to bring it out.

  Rashida walked up the marble steps and the second she reached the top, she gasped. Her eyes glazed over as her body crumbled to the ground. In her mind’s eye, she was flying over the waters of the great sea, and found herself on a boat with strange men. They had hair the color of gold and spoke in a language that was rough and sounded strange in her ears. They wore strange armor with metal buckets on their heads. They were tall and heavily muscled. The leader of which was the tallest one and when a man spoke to him she heard his name: Gerik.

  The name didn’t sound Egyptian, and he didn’t look Egyptian either. Then the man, Gerik, turned and looked at her. Suddenly, she was transported back to her village, but it wasn’t the way she remembered it.

  Arrows of fire rained from the sky, the screams of children filled her ears, the bodies of violated women and murdered men littered the ground, and the smell of smoke filled her nostrils. This was a nightmare and Gerik was in the center of it. He stood in the center of town, a sword in his hand as he pointed and barked commands to his men.

  This was the future, Rashida realized with terrible fear. This is to come to my home.

  Before she could react, she was suddenly being shaken and when her eyes opened, she found one of the eldest priestesses looking down at her. Rashida sat up and looked around. Her eyes saw that she was in the temple, laying in bed, instead of being outside like she was before.

  “Child, are you alright?” the priestess asked. “You look as if you have seen a shade.”

  “No, I’m not,” Rashida said, her voice breaking. “My lady, I am most not alright. I have seen the future, and I do not believe we can stop it.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

  Across the great sea, well, almost on the top of the world lived a civilization of people. Known and feared throughout their region, they had many names by their enemies, none of which they truly identity. To them, they were single people, their ideals guided by gods and nature, both which seem to be as one. Divided into several villages, some small and some quite large, they were ruled by Jarls, who in turn answered to their great king. Life was simple for these people: only the strong survive.

  It was a bright, clear morning the day that Alrik awoke, of course, to hear the sounds of his parents arguing. Slowly, the 15-year-old boy rose from his bed and crept to the door of his room, pressing his ear against it to listen to their words. They were talking quite fast, but he recognized a couple of keywords. More importantly, he recognized the name of Gala. He knew her. Who didn’t know of her?

  Gala was his father’s whore. There was no kind word to avoid it as that was all she ever would be. Not long ago, when Alrik was 13 years old, he and his mother left for an important diplomatic mission for allies of his father, who was a Jarl. While they were gone, a woman named Gala slipped into his mother’s bed and seduced his father. In the end, Gala became with child.

  When Alrik and his mother, Ingrid, returned, they were both shocked and angry to find out what had happened in their absences. Ingrid was not a normal woman. She was a powerful and highly skilled shieldmaiden, a person trained like a man in the art of war. Everyone respected her, everyone loved her. No one loved or respected Gala. To them, she was just a whore.

  “And you are telling me that you want to marry her?” Ingrid was yelling at her children.

  “Why can’t I?” Alrik’s father was yelling back. “I do not see the point of this argument.”

  Ingrid roared in anger and stormed from the house. Alrik slowly pushed open the door and saw his father in the main room, his head covered with his hands. When he heard the door open, he looked up and saw his son looking back at him.

  He was the great Henrik Ironside, the most feared warrior in their region, and yet he had been brought low by a woman. He didn’t know what had come over him that night, but he couldn’t resist Gala. He surrendered to his passions and in the process seemed to have lost his family.

  “Did you hear all that?” Henrik asked.

  Alrik didn’t know whether to lie or be truthful, but in the end, he just nodded.

  Henrik sighed. “Go get dressed, and then come down for the morning meal. Hopefully, your mother will join us.”

  Alrik nodded and turned to go back to his chambers. He cleaned himself up before he walked down the stairs to the dining room. This was going to be an interesting day.

  Chapter Two: A Vision Fulfilled

  “INVADERS!” a woman screamed.

  Rashida’s eyes flew open at the sound of her voice. Leaping to her feet, she ran to the window and flung open the curtains. The sight before her was terrifying. Flaming arrows rained down from the sky, striking the innocent below. Men flooded from the delta like a pack of wolves among sheep, their swords and wooden shields at the ready. A man with flowing dark-brown hair stood in the middle of the, shouting orders in a rough tongue, but Rashida didn’t need a translation. She knew what he was saying. Kill them all.

  “Rashida?” Auset whimpered softly behind her. “What is wrong?”

  “Get dressed!” Rashida said firmly. “We have to go! Now!”

  They dressed in a rush. Rashida grabbed the dagger that she always kept near her bed and picked up Auset. Emerging from her home with Nour at her side, she tried to look around in order to plot an escape.

  Women and children were screaming, men tried to fight, but they were nothing but toys to the invaders. This was a farming and fishing village; they weren’t trained in the art of battle.

  “Stay close,” Rashida commanded Nour as she handed him the knife.

  Nour nodded and followed her lead. Rashida tried to follow the crowds of people who were rushing to the temple, into the forests, anywhere to escape t
he slaughter. But Rashida could tell that this wasn’t going to save them.

  The men marched unafraid into the temples and began to drag women and children out by their hair and necks. They gutted the older men, but any males that looked to be eight years of age or younger were saved.

  Rashida was frozen in shock as she saw her people being dragged onto the large ships in the harbor. This was her vision, this was her nightmare, and she couldn’t have done anything to stop it.

  “Rashida, look out!” Nour shouted.

  Rashida turned around and left out of the way, barely missing getting cut into two by a heavy sword.

  The man holding it grunted and lifted it again, shouting to her in his strange language. The emotion called began to bubble within Rashida. Rage that her village, that her sacred temple had been violated by these invaders. Rage at her family being threatened. Rage that this man had dared try to kill her.

  Her blue eyes locked with his brown, and he gasped as he was frozen. Slowly, Rashida raised her hand and his body began to lift off the ground. With a scream, she ‘threw’ him. His body flew like a ragdoll as it crashed into a house. Power coursed through her veins. A power she had never felt before, and when more men came running to avenge their fallen comrade, she did the same to them.

  “Rashida, stop!” Nour cried out. “Please!”

  The power was too great. She could feel it trying to overtake her mind and overtake her soul.

  Don’t stop, a dark voice whispered into her mind. They attacked your village, they might try to kill you. Let us out…show them how powerful you really are…

  “N…N…” Rashida whispered softly to herself. “I…I can’t…”

  She pulled her brother and sister close as she heard more men running to them and grabbed the dagger, holding it out in defense. She was going to defend her family until her last breath, but she wasn’t going to do it with the dark power that was threatening to bubble to the surface of her soul.