Free Viking Sword: A Fall of Yellow Fire: The Stranded One (Viking Brothers Saga Book 1) by Màiri Norris

bodies of several of their companions, who must have died in the raid.
    Wat thought the burial of Lady Eadgida took place after the noontide, but how late, he could not say. It was likely the two Danes had interrupted that effort, for it had been left unfinished. Then they left, using the bolt-hole, and they took with them Lissa, one of Yriclea’s women, whom he loved and one day hoped to marry, though how she had evaded the slaughter Wat could not guess.
    Only four souls had known of the existence of the escape route—Thegn Wolnoth, Lady Eadgida, himself and Lissa. Only Lissa could have taken the Danes through it.
    His fist smacked into his open palm. If only he had paid more attention. So busy had he been, and so heavy his heart, that full dark had fallen before he realized the soldier he ordered to check the safe place had not returned. He went to find out why, and found him lying, bound and gagged, beside the great oak.
    The Danes must have waited there. They had disarmed his man and left, though why they had not killed him was a matter to discover when he caught up with them. It was likely they had been gone for some time. It was too dark to track them until morn.
    He wondered which group had taken that cursed gold, though Wat, who had to be told of the treasure, believed the Northmen had it. The tracker said something about the boot prints of one of the two Danes being easily recognizable because it was much larger than any others. He had found one such print, very clear, in the dust on the floor beside the hole where the treasure had been uncovered. It was not proof—the Danes may simply have paused at the spot to wonder what had been unearthed before entering the passage.
    “Leóf?” Dalmas stood beside him with a cup of ale.
    He accepted the quiet offering. “My thanks, and Dalmas? You are second marshal, now.”
    Dalmas came to attention and saluted. “I am honored. Have you further orders?”
    “Get some rest.”
    He heard the weary smile in the man’s voice. “Aye. May I suggest you do the same, my friend? The morrow will be long and difficult.”
    As Dalmas returned to the fire, he considered the spontaneous decision to choose him as second. It was the least difficult he had made all day. Dalmas was steady, loyal and knew how to follow orders. He needed such a man at his right hand.
    Two choices lay before him now. Pursue the war band and complete his original mission, or chase the Northmen and try to recover Lissa. His heart had no doubts as to which he should choose. For long he had thought of the gentle-hearted companion to the thegn’s wife as his, though he knew she did not love him with the same devotion he offered her.
    But there was also the gold. It was his responsibility to recover it. Thegn Wolnoth’s brother was an ealdorman who lived nigh Lundenwic. Returning the gold to the brother would earn him a good position within the man’s household, providing him with something of great value to offer Lissa.
    There also burned within him a raging need for vengeance against the unknown thegn who had heaped shame upon him, killing his lord and friends, and destroying his home. The víkingrs might have begun the attack, as Wat believed, but the northern warriors had finished it.
    How to know which group to follow?
    A sudden gust of wind played across the broken rubble in front of him, lighting orange glows among the ruins where embers still smoldered. He had until morning light to make his decision.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    “I am hungry, woman! Rise and prepare food.”
    The growling demand from Sindre was accompanied by a sharp slap to the general area of her bottom. Lissa yelped and sat straight, staring around in wild confusion before she remembered. As she struggled to free herself from the sleep sack that entangled her limbs, she wondered which one of the men had put her in the thing. A moment’s thought answered the question. Brandr, of course. Sindre would not have cared. She was grateful.