A messenger arrived at the berserker settlement with an important message: King Orm the Terrible is summoning all his children — the eldest son of Lundvar, who should succeed his title, the middle daughter Frida, the governor of the king, and the youngest son of Ulvar, who was preparing for initiation into berserkers in order to lead his father's army in the future — to a general meeting.

The reasons for such urgency were not indicated in the letter, which is why the current situation led to disturbing speculation. But I still didn't really want to go: the atmosphere in the house was always heavy, almost mourning. The konung is a strict man — he grew up under such a hand — and therefore kept his children strictly, only allowing dear Frida a little more than his sons.

Ulvar involuntarily remembered how, as a little boy, laughing heartily at his older brother's joke, he got a sick slap on the head from his father.

"Let's never laugh again," wiping the tears from his cheeks, he muttered.

"Okay..." Lundvar replied dejectedly.

Having received Foring's permission to leave for an indefinite period, Ulvar left the village on horseback that same day — the way to Odal lay a long way and it was not longing for his family and native land, or even sly curiosity about haste, that led him, but she.

All his paths inevitably led to her alone.

Arriving at early dusk, met by huskarl, the young warrior refused a late dinner — or rather, breakfast — and a bath and, citing fatigue, retreated, hiding from prying eyes in the opposite wing of the odal. Moving in the dark, able to find her room even with his eyes closed, he quietly entered without knocking, finding ambatt standing in front of the window with her back to the door.

Approaching her in two wide strides, Ulvar wrapped his two arms around the girl's waist, burying his cold nose in the curve of her neck.

"How I missed you," the konung's son whispered, curtaining the window with his free hand, hiding them from the possibility of being discovered.