Una knocked on the door to Frey's chambers. She put him in her mother's old room so he would be close to Una. The hand servant that Una appointed to him came out earlier and grumbled that he has been very uncooperative. Last night, he refused to take a bath, even with the milk and honey added. He thought the boy had put diseased and parasitic water in the bath. Frey this morning has refused to eat anything for fear that it had been poisoned. He refused to drink his wine or water, thinking that Una had laced it. There was an air of distrust between the two, and Una feared that this would make him retaliate.

"Open this damned door this instant!" Una said, beating on it for the tenth time.

She heard what sounded like scampering feet to the door. She looked over at the bread, cheese, and wine sitting on the ground as she waited. She picked it up and smelt the wine. It was fine. The cheese and the bread were not moldy. In fact, they were freshly made from the town today. Una couldn't understand what had come over Frey. After all, they talked about, he still saw her as a threat.

Suddenly the latch to the door was unbolted, and the door slowly creaked open. She heard scampering again, and she swung the door. As she entered, she looked at the lump in the bed next to Frey under the sheets. Una quietly shut the door and placed his breakfast on a nearby dresser.

"So, this is why you refused to eat. You were indulging in other feasts!" Una walked up to the side of the bed and pulled off the bedsheet.

There laying naked, hunched up close to Frey, was a young tavern whore. One of Frey's hands was groping the girl's backside, and the other held an almost empty bottle of liquor.

"You caught me!" Frey laughed, flinging his arms up and laughing, the drink spilling down his arms.

He unclenched the girl's rear and reached out and grabbed Una's hand.

"My, my! I love what you've done with your hair! You're definitely a daughter of Sif herself! Why don't you stay awhile and join us?" He laughed.

"You degenerate!" Una seethed, ripping her hand out of his grasp.

She was quite angry with him, not that he was bedding down a diseased whore, but that he still distrusted Una. How could she journey with someone who didn't trust her? He would surely kill her once arriving in York and then to his town in Jorvik. He might even kill Yvar, but more likely, he would try to dispose of Una first.

"Quite the peppery one, aren't you?' He scoffed.

"Your services are no longer needed, now leave my castle, please." Una looked at the curly black-haired prostitute with scorn.

She sighed and patted Frey on the stomach. She stood up and bowed with a smile.

"You are most kind, my liege." She uttered as she put on her short dress that was slung on the floor.

Una dug into her cloak pockets and pulled out a gold coin.

"Will this suffice?" Una said, tossing the girl the coin.

She caught it as she slipped on her thin linen garment over her head, and her eyes widened.

"My queen, this is much too generous of you. This would buy my services for an entire month." She smiled in joy.

"Oh, that will definitely suffice!" Frey blurted as he sat up, accidentally dropping the bottle on the ground.

"Oh, my apologies." He said meekly.

Una huffed and looked back at the thin girl as she put on her dress. She looked ill, having barely any color in her cheeks. Her skin looked thin and sagged on her breasts and stomach. She wonders if Frey grabbed the first woman he saw on the streets and brought her back up here.

"Consider it a gift. Please leave now, and perhaps have more sense than to sleep with one of my men." Una said, folding her hands in front of her.

"It won't happen again, my queen. Because of you, I can finally stay home with my children for the next few weeks! Bless you!" She bowed again and left the room quickly without so much as glancing at Frey.

"God's," Una said, unfolding her arms and watching her leave.

Then Una turned around and peered at Frey. She felt insulted that he would bring someone who probably had fleas and lice into her castle and to lay in her mother's old bed. Frey was still naked, sprawled out across the bed. He seemed unbothered by Una's unhappy demeanor.

"What?" Frey laughed, looking up at Una.

Una finally dropped her frown of malice and sat at the end of the bed. She stared at Frey and said nothing. She could only sit and think about him slicing her up behind her back. Frey took a deep breath and sighed.

"Well... I'm still in the mood if you would like to get to know each other...a little better?" He said, patting the empty side of the bed.

"Do you really think we have the time to sit on our arses and drink our fill of spirits all day!?" Una asked, disregarding his comment.

"Well, my love, to be frank, I think it would do you good to loosen up a bit. We have plenty of time!" He laughed.

"We are leaving in the morning, and I mean before the sun rises, Frey," Una said.

Frey bit his lip and rolled over on his stomach, revealing his backside to Una.

"I do suppose that is a problem. I can sleep off the spirits, and in a few hours, I will be new again!" He insisted on talking on his arm, which muffled his voice.

"You have nothing ready but your choice of a horse. You haven't packed nor sharpened your blades. And you haven't even eaten a thing! You look like a bag of bones! You'll die in the cold out there, and animals will pick you off if you are out alone." Una said, standing up and walking over to the wardrobe in the corner.

"You look like one of those animals yourself. I would have eaten, but..." He hesitated.

"I haven't poisoned it if that is what you are insisting. I can go drink and eat that in front of you if you'd like me to prove it." Una insisted as she was rummaging through her mother's clothes, looking for extra cloak pins.

"I wanted to get drunk fast. I mean, it will be my last time for a while. Besides, that wine tastes of horse piss, and the food was stale." He laughed.

"That's because it's been sitting on the floor collecting dust for more than half the day! I gave you some of our best foods, and that wine was a gift from Emperor Otto himself for my parent's marriage ceremony!" Una said.

She turned around and slammed the wardrobe doors shut.

"Well, they must use goats to tramp on the grapes before processing." He laughed.

He sighed in his pillow and laughed again, mockingly.

"I must say, though, I haven't really had the time to think properly till now." He added.

"That's because you were too busy fucking some diseased whore, stone drunk, might I add, and in my own mother's bed, then planning this out as I have instructed you!" Una hissed.

Frey turned his head around and looked at Una. His happy smiled sunk into an emotionless glare.

"You have instructed me of no such task. You only informed me of the logistics on how this will pan out.

"Ugg!" Una screeched in aggravation.

"I have done you a service by not freeing your head from your shoulders and sending your eyes in a box, back to your father, and this is how you repay that kindness? I asked one simple task, to get ready!" Una clenched her jaw.

"I could say the same to you, but instead of sending your eyes, I would chop out your tongue so you wouldn't have the chance to come back even in death to pester me." He snapped back.

"Why are such a purveyor of insolence!" Una huffed as she stuffed the two cloak pins she found in her cloak pockets.

"On that note, you act as though you are experiencing your scarlet moon cycle?" He jeered.

Una's cheeks flushed, and she walked over to the side of the bed with her fists clenched.

"One more word and I'll have my guards personally take you to the river and bathe you themselves, and it won't be warm like our baths in the castle. Now get up, get ready, and get your day going, because when the cock crows tomorrow morning, we had better be twenty miles inland or might actually find a contagion or poison in your gullet!" Una hissed.

Frey rolled his eyes, knowing what buttons to push.

"Is that a threat?" He meekly laughed.

I have been trained by the greatest swordsman, archer, apothecary, healer, and priestess in the land. I can get you like a pig, fill your wound with shit, sew it up and give you medicine that won't let you feel a thing. Do not test me anymore, Frey Lothbrok." Una said steadily.

"Why didn't you say that the first time around?" He laughed, turning over and sitting up.

"I'll be ready by tonight, with a map, a sharp blade, and a sharp mind." He said, standing up, putting his hands at his hips.

Una wanted to walk over and hit him. She wasn't naturally an easily upsetting and violent individual, but Frey knew precisely how to work Una's weak spots. Una hated to feel out of control and ignored. It angered her, something that was hard to do. Most people would get upset and want to get verbal and violent, Una would shrug her shoulders and say that it wasn't her place. Now it was different. They hadn't even left the castle yet, and Una already wanted to abandon him. She thinks that this might be his plan, to push her to the brink where she would have to kick him to the wayside. But how will Una make it to Jorvik or York? She could follow people's word or find a map, but that won't stop Una and Yvar from being intercepted by Vikings or Danes. Yvar could speak the language, but how could he get Una through the castle walls?

"I sure hope you are a man of your word," Una said.

"All nobles must have a noble heart. There can't be secrets, lying, betrayal, all the things peasants like to partake in. My word is my word, and it is final and true. You can trust it because you, being royal-like me, both know that we are rulers and leaders. You can't be a leader and rule justly if you lie for even the pettiest of matters. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed by me. That is a guarantee." He laughed, picking up the liquor bottle he spilled earlier on the floor.

"Catch!" He said, tossing the bottle in Una's hands.

"If you'll dispose of that bottle, I will clean this mess up." He smiled.

Una wanted to throw the bottle at his head and see how long it would take for him to blackout.

"That's rich of you to say."

"Indeed, my dearest. I may have been coddled and sucked the teat of a golden cow, but that doesn't mean I am not independent."

"Can you sew?" Una asked, crossing her arms, swirling the bottle with the tips of her fingers.

"No, I cannot. But I can hunt, wash clothes well, and I'm a pretty good farrier. You have to be traveling on your own."

A small smile crooked in the corner of Una's mouth. Una couldn't tell if he was bluffing after he just spoke about not lying, though already Una has caught him many times.

"Look, you're quite impressed, are you not? I know, even I was shocked, a prince, hunting for his own food and trimming his own horse's hooves. I will be of use definitely on this trip. Don't think for a moment that I am completely helpless." He laughed.

He flipped his long pale hair behind his shoulder and crossed his arms like Una.

"It would be embarrassing to my father anyways that a woman had upstaged his own son. Keep that in mind." He laughed.

"You're strange..." Una laughed as she walked over to the door.

She looked down at the food and wine.

"Now eat this before it goes to waste." She pointed as she opened the door.

He looked at it and hesitated. Una sighed and took a bit of cheese, bread, and she cut a slice of apple and stuffed it in her mouth all at the same time. He watched her swallow, and then she took a sip of wine.

"Good Gods, it is horse piss!" She laughed as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Are you sure it wasn't the man's piss, and they added a few grapes for color?" He jested.

"That's a disgusting thought. I'll fetch you some good mead if you impress me with your duties later." She smirked as she walked out.

Frey laughed and did a small nod and bow.

"Don't disappoint me," Una said as she pulled the door shut.

Una stood there in the hall and looked around. Everyone was staring at her with curiosity. They probably wonder who is in this room and why Una was so inclined to visit him so often. Surely something must be happing, but they never knew that their queen would soon disappear out of sight for what seems like indefinitely. Their hearts would break if they knew now and if they knew what was coming.