Free Raven: Sons of Thunder by Giles Kristian Page A

from Ealdred for his trouble. I guessed that his situation had made the man bold enough to ask the question, for surely his fear of his ealdorman was shadowed now by his fear of us.
    Sigurd shrugged. ‘If I win I will weave your wyrds myself. Perhaps you will die. Perhaps not.’
    The English warriors looked at each other then and their minds must have squirmed like snakes, for they had to balance the chance of Mauger winning against the certain but honourable death they would win by fighting us now rather than laying down their arms. A man’s fate, his wyrd, is a fog-veiled thing. These Wessexmen could not have known just hours before, as they sailed the sleeping sea, what that dawn would bring. Heathens had appeared as if from their piss-soaked childhood nightmares. Those same heathens whom they had thought destroyed had come for vengeance. We had taken the threads of these Wessexmen’s futures and we had severed them. But they were household men, proud warriors loyal even to the end, and at Ealdred’s word they bent and laid their swords on Fjord-Elk ’s deck.
    ‘It’ll be the hólmgang,’ Bjorn said, the glint of excitement in his eyes, ‘done in the old way.’
    ‘But I am thinking it will take more than the first spilt blood to settle this one, brother,’ Bjarni said with a grimace.
    We split into two groups with Olaf taking charge of Fjord-Elk , and I found myself back on Serpent with Jarl Sigurd and our English captives. There were just enough men to row both ships, though both would lack for speed and this wasa problem Sigurd would have to consider at some point. On the other hand, with smaller crews they were lighter, despite the packed holds, and under sail they would fly like winged dragons.
    ‘Tie them up,’ Sigurd commanded as we wriggled out of blood-slick mail and took off sweat-soaked helmets. They would stay filth-covered until the wind was enough to raise the sails and then we could clean them. It did not take long for the flies to come. They landed on mail, on our arms and on the deck, feeding on the congealing gore, and for a time we swiped at them but after a while we gave up. Men talk of the raven and the wolf as the eaters of the dead, the scavengers who come to every field of the slain. Rarely do they mention the damned flies.
    Jarl Sigurd nodded, spitting over the ship’s side. ‘Cast us off, Uncle,’ he called.
    ‘Aye,’ Olaf said, shaking his head and tutting as he yanked the grappling hooks out of Fjord-Elk ’s sheer strake. The scars would be shameful reminders of how we had let the ship fall into the hands of our enemies.
    ‘Ah, we can replace those sheer strakes easy enough, Uncle,’ Bram said, slapping Olaf on the shoulder before moving to another hook. The ships rocked gently, bumping together in the still dawn sea. In no time we were free and Ealdred’s men were bound and made to sit at Serpent ’s bow beneath Jörmungand. Sigurd did not tie the ealdorman’s wrists, which was an insult rather than a sign of respect for the man’s rank. It was Sigurd’s way of showing that he considered Ealdred no warrior and no more threat than a woman or a child.
    The rising tide had carried both ships nearer to the shore and so we rowed out to sea, giving the rocky promontory a wide berth before re-entering the bay where Cynethryth and Father Egfrith waited on the beach. I was anxious to be withCynethryth and so I suggested that Penda take my oar and get some rowing practice whilst it was just a matter of countering the current and holding Serpent in one place. He was not what I would call an eager apprentice. I could tell this because he called me a dog’s arse and told me to screw a mountain troll backwards.
    ‘You have to learn some time, Penda,’ I said, feeling the smile behind my eyes. ‘Better now than out there in the teeth of a storm. Just watch Arnvid and do the same. I have faith in you.’
    ‘You impudent whelp, how hard can it be?’ he said. It’s true my grin