The Home Stone

It was close to summer’s end when Katrina returned home. The news was not all bad. Two of the clans, the Wolf and the Walrus, both pledged their support if the North Lands were ever attacked. Only the Fox clan, the second most powerful in the north, refused to acknowledge Oestrin as their supreme leader. The only pledge they made was to help protect the northern borders from any invaders. They have a good relationship with the southlands and trade openly with them.

This angered the king and he pledged to bring the leader, Killian and his clan under his control. So once again the princess was sent out to try and convince the Fox Clan to join the rest.

Oestrin knew that he needed Killian on his side if his plan was to succeed. Without him the other clans might not be so easy to control. So he sent out an assassination party after his daughter, just in case she was unsuccessful.

Armed with promises, Katrina made her way east staying close to the Great Divide. Here she would not lose her bearings if a storm suddenly moved in, which was not uncommon here in the snow lands. During one of the rest periods, the Captain of her guard approached the princess.

“Something just doesn’t feel right, with your father,” he whispered as not to attract any attention. “Ever since he returned from his hunting trip, he seems like a changed man.”

“If you had gone through what he did,” answered Katrina, “then you also would have changed, but you are right. That doesn’t seem like my father. There’s more to this than just having the clans under one rule, but I can’t put my finger on what is wrong. Keep your eyes and ears open. At least until I can figure out what has happened to him.

Luther, head of the assassins made his way east, staying about half a day behind Katrina. Oestrin had only allowed her a few hundred men, stating that a larger army would look like a threat. So she agreed on taking only her personal guard, leaving the rest of her army home at the castle.

The king and Luther had planned to kill Killian and make it look like a South Lander killed him. This would give him the excuse to attack his most hated enemy, the king of Rogalandt. The one who sent him into exile so long ago. Oestrin remembered how his house and his honor had been taken from him and a price put on his head. How he had to hide his daughter by sending her to live with his only remaining friend, Redbeard. Then taking his wife, the two made their escape into the Great Northern Divide, where they hid out for years, until the Rogalandt army began to close in. Making a quick decision, Oestrin left the mountains and trekked further north until they came upon Winsome. In this tiny village Oestrin and his wife slowly rose up in the ranks of society, until he had enough gold saved to buy a small business, trading in gems that were mined in what the northerners called the ice caves.

Growing more powerful with each passing year, Oestrin was asked to become the mayor, but while he grew stronger, his wife fell sick and grew weaker with each passing year. That last winter proved to be her worst, as she succumbed to a fever and died before Katrina arrived. The young girl now in her late teens arrived, escorted by her friend and protector, Shamus Redbeard.

Now in true northern style, Oestrin prepared his beloved wife for her final send off. A large funeral boat was built with a pyre in its center. There he placed Lysandra. Smearing the inside of the boat with tar and oil it was towed out to sea. When they were far enough from shore it was set afloat. Oestrin and a handful of men began rowing back. An arrow was set aflame and the grief stricken man fired it at the funeral boat. Hitting the center of the fuel laced pyre the flames irrupted immediately. Oestrin continued to watch as the tiny ship slowly burn and sank beneath the calm waters of the Western Sea. His anger was strong and he blamed the Southlanders for his grief. Now he was going to get his revenge.

As Katrina neared High Gate, the village in which Killian lived, she ordered most of her men to make camp outside the village. She would enter only with a few men. This way she thought, Killian would not think she was here with an ultimatum. She did not see, nor did any of her officers see Luther enter the village dressed as a Rogalander.

One year later