“Ambition will be your downfall.”
At the time, Gisla had rolled her big brown eyes at the father for his scolding,
for she knew men were told no such thing. Not her father, not her grandfather,
not her great grandfather who had founded Francia - and when the time came,
she had planned on being just as great as Charlemagne, no matter what sex
God had created her to be.
When the pagans arrived outside the walls of Paris and a battle unlike anything
since the time of her famed relative was planned, she prepared herself. All the
years of bending her father’s ear and twisting his thoughts to her will, all the time
she had spent stringing Count Odo along with the tantalizing temptation of marriage
to the clever daughter of the emperor.
It all fell into place so perfectly -
and then, in the moment when she had though that it had
all been sure, when she had been declaring the sovereignty
of their God and His faith in His beloved, chosen soldiers -
She f e l l .
A soldier who had been tangling with one of the pagans (’vikings’ she had heard
someone refer to them as) reached for a hold when an arrow pierced his heart
only for his hand to find the thick silks and rich wool of her gown, pulling Gisla
over the ramparts with him. Her fall, praise be to God, was broken by the water,
and she only just managed to extract herself from the cold, murky brown tainted
with red when she had been grabbed and hauled away.
No longer was she princess Gisla of Francia and Normandy, no longer
was she to be known as the stone maiden who had inspired their soldiers
with her faith, reminiscient of the holy Virgin herself with her piety and
bearing the passion of St. Peter -
She was a prisoner.
Her eyes were cold and angry, like that of a small animal caught in a trap as she
regarded her captors. It was clear that the battle had not gone in their favour -
something that still brought Gisla a small amount of pleasure and pride - and so
far they had seemed far too concerned with licking their wounds to consider
raping or harming her. However, it seemed none of them were able to speak her
own language and she did not speak theirs, and so the furious woman sat in
silence, watching and waiting and praying for the courage to handle whatever
was to happen next.