Disclaimer: I do not own 13th Warrior (book or movie). I own Eyldis, Rowan and Saldís.

Eyldis swept her hair off her shoulder and surveyed her domain. The room was as clean as it could get. There wasn’t much more that she could do for it or to it for that matter short of rearranging the furniture which she had already done twice. She was terrified, but she could not allow it to show. He was coming. He was actually coming. She had never thought it possible. Why was he coming?! Had Weath and Herger kidnapped him? Had they bribed him? Did they know some terrible secret that they were using against him. Surely he had not come of his own free will. If that was true, then she could hate him. She didn’t know what she would do if she couldn’t hate him.

Eyldis paced the room wringing her hands and waiting for the party to be announced. What did he look like? Would he want to take the girls back to his homeland? What would he say of her? She had been dreading this day for the past year. Now it was here. She hated that thought. That this one man could make her fret so desperately. Saldís stole into the room and touched her aunt as the woman paced the room furiously.

Eyldis stopped abruptly when she felt the little hand brush her skirt. She looked down at her blonde niece and swept the girl up in her arms. “What is wrong Mama Eyldis? Did Rowan and I do something wrong?” The girl’s big dark brown eyes looked up at her imploringly.

Eyldis stroked the girl’s blonde curls. “No my darling, you and your sister have been very good. I’ve just been thinking too much.”

Eyldis hugged Saldís close and kissed the girl’s mop of hair. “Where did your sister run off to little sun?”

“She went to play with Alf and Idonea near the wall,” Saldís replied leaning her head against Eyldis’s shoulder.

Eyldis nodded absently. “Yes, that’s well.”

The call announcing the arrival of a large group made Eyldis jump and her heart slam against her chest. “Freya protect us…he’s here…”

“Who Mama Eyldis?” Saldís whispered desperately. “Who’s here?”

“Your father…”

“You’ve done well by this place,” Ibn said with a nod. “It looks much better than when we had time for even the temporary fortifications.”

“Yes well, for some reason people live here,” Herger said with a laugh. “Come now little brother, we’re almost to Eyldis’s home now.”

“You old women are back?” The speaker was a small girl with vibrant red hair, smears of dirt on her face and hair and her hands on her hips.

“Hello to you too little one,” Weath said brightly. “Why aren’t you with your sister and your aunt?”

“I’ve no need to tell you dog,” the girl growled.

“Aye, but you’d tell your father,” Herger pointed out.

The girl’s eyes were dark and dead. “I have no father.”

“Then what do you call our little brother?” Herger asked. “Ibn, meet your fiery daughter Rowan. Rowan, this is your father.”

Rowan glared at Ibn with all the hate a six-year-old could muster which was apparently quite a bit from the look on her face. “You’re no father of mine,” she told him flatly. “A father does not abandon his family. You’re nothing but a maggot, a woman, and a bastard.”

“Watch your tongue!” Herger and Weath both snapped at the girl angrily.

“I’ll not,” the girl snapped before turning on her heel and walking away.

“That…that child is mine?” Ibn asked his two friends in disbelief.

Herger sighed. “Aye, that she is little brother. Rowan is fierce for one so young isn’t she? Saldís is much sweeter. Gods know how she came by that.”

“I shall have to set Rowan right. Have none of the men offered for Eyldis? Did none offer for Olga for that matter?”

“Of course they do!” Herger exclaimed drawing little attention. “Eyldis turns them down just as Olga did. These women are impossible I tell you.”

Weath shrugged. “They are not impossible, merely trying to lead us all on a merry chase. I think you should have more faith in our little brother Herger.”

“We shall see if you say the same after they’ve met.” Herger muttered darkly.

“I think I would like to decide for myself,” Ibn interjected softly. “She is, after all, my responsibility now is she not.”

Weath and Herger laughed. “If you can handle her,” Weath told him.

The hut that Weath and Herger led Ibn to made annoyance rise inside of him. Thinking back on the luxury that he had lived in in his own city, Ibn became sickened with not only the condition that his children lived in, but what he had lived in. How could he have knowingly lived in such decadence all these years. “This is where they have been made to live,” Ibn hissed angrily.

“You overestimate our ability when it comes to dealing with Eyldis. She doesn’t even believe that you will come. We told you that already. Do you honestly think she would allow anyone to help her raising your daughters? That girl doesn’t have the sense the gods gave a dog I tell you.”

“Then I am a less than a dog now Herger?” The young woman who growled at the warrior for the door was beautiful. Her hair was long and full of curls and waves as her sisters had been, but her hair was not the gold her sisters had been. No, this woman-child‘s hair was the color of fire. Her eyes were intense and cold. “If you must insist on insulting me, I’ll have you leave.”

“You know I would never say such a thing Eyldis. Do not exaggerate.” Herger replied rolling his eyes.

“And yet you did you old woman,” Eyldis snapped. Her eyes turned to Ibn and she stared at him coldly. “Are you the Arab my sister and the other warriors have spoken so highly of?”

“He is,” Weath assured her. “And we did not kidnap, bribe, or trick the man into coming here Eyldis.”

“We shall see,” was all Eyldis would say as she turned back to the interior of the hut. “You may come in.”

Ibn looked to the two other warriors for support. They merely shrugged. “That’s her way,” Herger said casually. “Are you going to go in little brother, or are you afraid of a little woman?”

“He’d be wise to fear that little woman,” Weath said with a laugh.

“I do not fear a woman,” Ibn stated the fact as if he were certain, but inside he wasn’t. In truth, he was terrified of the woman and of the twins that were his own. He could never tell his warrior brothers that though. He would never live it down.