And just as I reached her the drum sounded.
One beat, loud and sudden, and the newcomers, those who had followed us into the hall and knew what was expected of them, dropped to their knees.
And the drum sounded again. One slow beat after another. Ominous, regular and remorseless, a heartbeat of doom.
We knelt.
Twelve
Only the guards remained standing.
The drumbeat went on. The drum itself was in a room beyond the hall, but from its sound I knew it to be one of the great goatskin-covered tubs that were so massive that they needed to be carried to war on carts, which was why they were so rarely heard on a battlefield, though if they were present then their deep, heart-pounding sound could strike fear into an enemy. The beat was slow, each ominous blow fading to silence before another sounded, and the beat became slower so that I continually thought the drummer had stopped altogether, then there would be another pounding and we all watched the dais, waiting for Brida to appear.
Then the drumbeat did stop and the silence that followed was even more ominous. No one spoke. We were kneeling, and I sensed the terror in the room. No one even moved, but just waited.
Then there was a suppressed gasp as an ungreased hinge squealed. The door that led onto the dais was pushed open and I watched, expecting to see Brida, but instead two small children came into the hall, both girls and both in black dresses with long skirts that brushed the floor. They were perhaps five or six years old, each with black hair that fell to their waists. They could have been twins, maybe they were, and their appearance made Stiorra gasp.
Because both girls had been blinded.
It took me a moment to see that their eyes were nothing but scarred, gouged pits; wrinkled holes of dark horror in faces that had once been lovely. The two girls walked onto the dais and then hesitated, unsure which way to turn, but the thin man hurried behind them and used his black staff to guide them. He placed one on each side of the throne, then stood behind it, his dark eyes watching us, despising us.
Then Brida entered.
She shuffled in, muttering under her breath and hurrying as though she were late. She wore a great swathing black cloak pinned at her neck with a golden brooch. She stopped beside the black-draped throne and darted glances into the hall where we knelt. She looked indignant, as if our presence was a nuisance.
I stared at her under the rim of my helmet and I could not see the girl I had loved in the crone who had entered the hall. She had saved my life once, she had conspired with me and laughed with me and she had watched Ragnar die with me, and I had thought her beautiful, fascinating and so full of life, but her beauty had soured into rancor, and her love into hatred. Now she gazed at us and I sensed a shiver of apprehension in the hall. The guards stood straighter and avoided looking at her. I ducked down, fearing she would recognise me even with the helmet’s cheek-pieces closed.
She sat on the throne, which dwarfed her. Her face was malignant, her eyes bright, and her sparse hair white. The thin man moved a footstool, the scrape of its wooden legs unexpectedly loud in the hall. She rested her feet on the stool and placed a black bag on her lap. The two blind girls did not move. The thin man bent to the throne and whispered in Brida’s ear and she nodded impatiently. ‘Onarr Gormson,’ she called in a husky voice, ‘is Onarr Gormson here?’
‘My lady,’ a man answered from the body of the hall.
‘Approach, Onarr Gormson,’ she said.
The man stood and walked to the dais. He climbed the steps and knelt in front of Brida. He was a big man with a brutally scarred face on which ravens had been inked. He looked like a warrior who had carved his way through shield walls, yet his nervousness was apparent as he bowed his head in front of Brida.
The thin man had been whispering again and Brida nodded. ‘Onarr Gormson brought us twenty-nine Christians yesterday,’ she announced, ‘twenty-nine! Where did you find them, Onarr?’
‘A convent, my lady, in the hills to the north.’
‘They were hiding?’ Her voice was a croak, harsh as a raven’s call.
‘They were hiding, my lady.’
‘You have done well, Onarr Gormson,’ she said. ‘You have served the gods and they will reward you. As will I.’ She fumbled in the bag and brought out a pouch clinking with coins that she handed to the kneeling man. ‘We will cleanse this country,’ she said, ‘cleanse it of the false god!’ She waved Onarr away, then suddenly stopped him by holding up a claw-like hand. ‘A convent?’
‘Yes, my lady.’
‘Are they all women?’
‘All of them, my lady,’ he said. I saw he had not raised his face once to meet Brida’s gaze, but had kept his eyes on her small feet.
‘If your men want the young ones,’ she said, ‘they are yours. The rest will die.’ She waved him away again. ‘Is Skopti Alsvartson here?’
‘My lady!’ another man answered, and he too had found Christians, three priests who he had brought to Eoferwic. He too received a purse and he too did not raise his eyes as he knelt at Brida’s feet. It seemed that this gathering in the hall was a daily occurrence, a chance for Brida to reward the men who were doing her bidding and to encourage the ones who were laggards.
One of the two blind girls suddenly gasped, then made a pathetic mewing noise. I thought Brida would be angry with the child’s interruption, but instead she leaned down and the girl whispered into Brida’s ear. Brida, straightening, offered us a grimace that was intended to be a smile. ‘The gods have spoken!’ she announced, ‘and tell us that the Jarl Ragnall has burned three more towns in Mercia!’ The second child now whispered, and again Brida listened. ‘He has taken captives by the score,’ she seemed to be repeating what the child had told her, ‘and he is sending the treasure of ten churches north to our keeping.’ A murmur of appreciation sounded in the hall, but I was puzzled. What towns? Any town of size in Mercia was a burh and it defied the imagination to believe that Ragnall had captured three. ‘The foul Æthelflaed still cowers in Ceaster,’ Brida went on, ‘protected by the traitor Uhtred! They will not last long.’ I almost smiled when she mentioned my name. So she was inventing the stories and pretending they came from the two blinded children. ‘The man who calls himself king in Wessex has retreated to Lundene,’ Brida declared, ‘and soon Jarl Ragnall will scour him from that city. Soon all Britain will be ours!’
The thin man welcomed that claim by thumping his staff on the wooden dais, and the men in the hall, those who were accustomed to this ritual, responded by slapping the floor. Brida smiled, or at least she bared her yellow teeth in another grimace. ‘And I am told that Orvar Freyrson has returned from Ireland!’
‘I have!’ Orvar said. He sounded nervous.
‘Come here, Orvar Freyrson,’ Brida ordered.
Orvar stood and went to the dais. The two men who had received purses had gone back to the crowd, and Orvar knelt alone in front of the black-draped throne with its malevolent occupant.
‘You bring the girl from Ireland?’ Brida asked, knowing the answer because she was staring at Stiorra.
‘Yes, lady,’ Orvar spoke in a whisper.
‘And her husband?’
‘Is dead, lady.’
‘Dead?’
‘Cut down by our swords, lady.’
‘Did you bring me his head?’ Brida asked.
‘I didn’t think, lady. No.’
‘A pity,’ she said, still gazing at Stiorra. ‘But you have done well, Orvar Freyrson. You have brought us Stiorra Uhtredsdottir and her spawn. You have fulfilled the Jarl’s bidding, your name will be told in Asgard, you will be beloved of the gods! You are blessed!’ She gave him a purse, much heavier than the two she had already presented, then peered into the body of the hall again. For a moment I thought her old eyes looked straight into mine and I felt a shiver of fear, but her gaze moved on. ‘You bring men, Orvar!’ she said. ‘Many men!’
‘Five crews,’ he muttered. He, like the men who had knelt to her before, stared
down at her footstool.
‘You will take them to Jarl Ragnall,’ Brida ordered. ‘You will leave tomorrow and march to help his conquest. Go now,’ she waved him away, ‘back to your place.’ Orvar seemed relieved to be off the dais. He came back to the stone floor and knelt beside Stiorra.
Brida turned in the throne. ‘Fritjof!’ The thin man hurried to offer his mistress an arm to help her out of the throne. ‘Take me to the girl,’ she ordered.
There was not a sound in the Great Hall as she shuffled down from the dais and across the rush-covered stones. Fritjof, smiling, held her arm until she shook him off when she was five paces from Stiorra. ‘Stand, girl,’ she ordered.
Stiorra stood.
‘And your whelp,’ Brida snarled, and Stiorra tugged Gisela to her feet. ‘You will go south with Orvar,’ Brida told Stiorra, ‘to your new life as a wife to Jarl Ragnall. You are fortunate, girl, that he chose you. If your fate was mine?’ She paused and shuddered. ‘Fritjof!’
‘My lady,’ the thin man murmured.
‘She must go arrayed as a bride. That grubby smock won’t do. You will find suitable clothes.’
‘Something beautiful, my lady,’ Fritjof said. He looked Stiorra up and down. ‘As beautiful as the lady herself.’
‘How would you know?’ Brida asked nastily. ‘But find her something fit for a queen of all Britain,’ Brida almost spat the last four words. ‘Something fit for the Jarl. But if you disappoint the Jarl,’ she was talking to Stiorra again, ‘you will be mine, girl, do you understand?’
‘No,’ Stiorra said, not because that was true, but because she wanted to annoy Brida.
She succeeded. ‘You’re not queen yet!’ Brida screeched. ‘Not yet, girl! And if Jarl Ragnall tires of you then you’ll wish you were a slave girl in the lowest brothel of Britain.’ She shuddered. ‘And that will happen, girl, it will happen! You are your father’s daughter and his rotten blood will show in you.’ She cackled suddenly. ‘Go to your queendom, girl, but know you will end as my slave and then you will wish your mother had never opened her thighs. Now give me your daughter.’
Stiorra did not move. She just clutched Gisela’s hand tighter. There was not a sound in the Great Hall. It seemed to me that every man there held his breath.
‘Give me your daughter!’ Brida hissed each word separately, distinctly.
‘No,’ Stiorra said.
I was slowly, carefully, moving Wasp-Sting’s scabbard so my right hand could reach her hilt. I grasped it and went still again.
‘Your daughter is fortunate,’ Brida said, crooning now as if she wanted to seduce Stiorra into obedience. ‘Your new husband doesn’t want your spawn! And you can’t keep her! But I will give her a new life of great wisdom, I will make her an enchantress! She will be given the power of the gods!’ She held out her hand, but Stiorra stubbornly held onto her daughter. ‘Odin,’ Brida said, ‘sacrificed an eye so he could learn wisdom. Your child will have the same wisdom! She will see the future!’
‘You’d blind her?’ Stiorra asked, horrified.
I slowly, so slowly, eased the short blade from its scabbard. Stiorra’s dark cloak hid me from Brida.
‘I won’t blind her, fool,’ Brida snarled, ‘but open her eyes to the gods. Give her to me!’
‘No!’ Stiorra said. I held Wasp-Sting by the blade.
‘Fritjof,’ Brida said, ‘take the child.’
‘Blind her now?’ Fritjof asked.
‘Blind her now,’ Brida said.
Fritjof laid down his staff and took an awl from a pouch at his belt. The awl had a bulbous wooden handle that held a short and stout metal spike, the kind used by leather-workers to punch holes. ‘Come child,’ he said, and stepped forward, reaching, and Stiorra took a pace backwards. She thrust Gisela behind her and I took the child’s hand and, at the same moment, pushed Wasp-Sting’s hilt into Stiorra’s grasp. Fritjof, not yet understanding what was happening, leaned forward to snatch the child from behind Stiorra’s back, and she stabbed Wasp-Sting up and forward.
The first Brida knew of any trouble was when Fritjof gave a shriek. He recoiled, the awl clattering on the stones, and then he clutched at his groin and moaned as blood spilled down his legs. I thrust Gisela back into the crowd and stood myself. All around me men were producing seaxes or knives, Sigtryggr was pushing through the throng, and Sihtric came with him, carrying Serpent-Breath. ‘We killed the two outside, lord,’ he said, giving me the sword.
Fritjof collapsed. Stiorra’s thrust had glanced off his ribs, scored down his belly and cut him to the groin, and he was now mewing pathetically, his legs kicking beneath his long robe. My men were all standing now, swords or seaxes in hand. One guard was foolish enough to level his spear and he went down under a welter of sword-blows. I thrust Sigtryggr forward. ‘Get to the dais,’ I told him, ‘the throne is yours!’
‘No!’ the shriek was Brida’s. It had taken her a shocked moment to understand what was happening, to understand that her Great Hall had been invaded by an outnumbering enemy. She stared at Fritjof for a heartbeat then launched herself at Stiorra, only to be caught by Sigtryggr, who thrust her backwards so violently that she tripped on the stones and sprawled on her back.
‘The dais!’ I called to Sigtryggr. ‘Leave her!’
My men, I counted Orvar’s crews among my men now, far outnumbered the rest. I saw my son striding down one side of the hall, using his sword to knock the guards’ spears to the floor. Sihtric had his sword at Brida’s throat, keeping her down. He looked at me quizzically, but I shook my head. It would not be his privilege to kill her. Sigtryggr had reached the dais where the two blind girls were crying hysterically, and the guards, still with spears in their hands, stared in shock at the chaos beneath them. Sigtryggr stood beside the throne and looked at the guards one by one, and one by one their spears were lowered. He plucked the black cloth from the throne, tossed it aside, then kicked the footstool away and sat. He reached out and gathered the two girls, holding them close to his knees and soothing them. ‘Keep the bitch there,’ I told Sihtric, then joined Sigtryggr on the dais. ‘You,’ I snarled at the eight spearmen who had guarded the throne, ‘leave your spears here and join the others,’ I pointed to the body of the hall, then waited as they obeyed me. Only one of Brida’s men had put up any kind of fight and even he, I reckoned, had raised his weapon from panic rather than out of loyalty. Brida, like Ragnall, ruled by terror, and her support had vanished like mist under a burning sun.
‘My name,’ I stood at the front of the dais, ‘is Uhtred of Bebbanburg.’
‘No!’ Brida screeched.
‘Keep her quiet,’ I told Sihtric. I waited as he shifted the tip of his sword, and Brida went utterly still. I looked at the men in the hall, those I did not know, and I saw no defiance among them. ‘I present to you,’ I said, ‘your new king, Sigtryggr Ivarson.’
There was silence. I sensed that many of Brida’s supporters were relieved, but naming Sigtryggr as king did not make him the ruler, not while his brother lived. Every one of Brida’s followers was thinking the same thing, wondering which brother they should support.
‘I present to you,’ I said again, making my voice threatening, ‘your new king, Sigtryggr Ivarson.’
My men cheered, and, slowly, hesitantly, the others joined the clamour. Sigtryggr had taken off his helmet and was smiling. He listened to the acclaim for a moment, then held up his hand for silence. When the hall was quiet he said something to one of the blind girls, but spoke too low for me to catch his words. He stooped to hear the child’s answer and I looked back to the nervous hall. ‘Oaths will be sworn,’ I said.
‘But first!’ Sigtryggr stood. ‘That thing,’ he pointed to the wounded Fritjof, ‘blinded these girls and would have blinded my daughter.’ He strode to the edge of the dais and drew his long-sword. He still smiled. He was tall, striking, confident, a man who looked as if he should be king. ‘A man who blinds children,’ he said as he descended the stone steps, ‘is not a man.’ He walke
d to Fritjof, who gazed up in terror. ‘Did the girls scream?’ Sigtryggr asked him. Fritjof, who was in pain rather than grievously wounded, did not answer. ‘I asked you a question,’ Sigtryggr said, ‘did the girls scream when you blinded them?’
‘Yes,’ Fritjof’s answer was a whisper.
‘Then listen, girls!’ Sigtryggr called. ‘Listen well! Because this is your revenge.’ He placed the tip of his sword on Fritjof’s face, and the man did scream in pure terror.
Sigtryggr paused, letting the scream echo in the hall, then his sword struck three times. One piercing stab for each eye, a third for the throat, and Fritjof’s blood pooled on the floor to be diluted by his piss. Sigtryggr watched the man die. ‘Quicker than he deserved,’ he said bitterly. He stooped and cleaned the tip of his sword on Fritjof’s cloak, then sheathed the long blade. He drew his seax instead and nodded to Sihtric who still guarded Brida. ‘Let her stand.’
Sihtric stepped away. Brida hesitated, then suddenly scrambled to her feet and lunged at Sigtryggr as if trying to snatch the seax from his hand, but he held her at arm’s length with contemptuous ease. ‘You would have blinded my daughter,’ he said bitterly.
‘I would have given her wisdom!’
Sigtryggr held her with his left hand and raised the seax with his right, but Stiorra intervened. She touched his right arm. ‘She’s mine,’ she said.
Sigtryggr hesitated, then nodded. ‘She’s yours,’ he agreed.
‘Give her the sword,’ Stiorra said. She still held Wasp-Sting.
‘Give her the sword?’ Sigtryggr asked, frowning.
‘Give it to her,’ Stiorra commanded. ‘Let’s discover who the gods love. Uhtredsdottir or her.’
Sigtryggr held the seax hilt first to Brida. ‘Let’s see who the gods love,’ he agreed.
Brida was darting her eyes around the hall, looking for support that was not there. For a heartbeat she ignored the proffered seax, then suddenly snatched it from Sigtryggr’s hand and immediately lunged it at his belly, but he just knocked it contemptuously aside with his right hand. A seax rarely has a sharpened edge, it is a weapon made to pierce, not to slash, and the blade left no mark on Sigtryggr’s wrist. ‘She’s yours,’ he said to Stiorra again.
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