‘Do as I say,’ I roared. ‘Now!’
Beneath the platforms at either end of the ship there were compartments where supplies were usually stored so as to keep them dry, each of them large enough for a person, or several people, to hide in. She scowled, but thankfully didn’t need telling again, which was as well, since I had no more time for her then.
‘What are you standing there for?’ I asked the others, who still hadn’t moved.
‘You want us to fight them, lord?’ Serlo asked, and his misgivings were clear in his tone. ‘Our own countrymen?’
‘Do you have something else in mind?’
‘We can’t win,’ Pons shouted as spray crashed over the prow. ‘There are too many of them.’
‘We’ve faced worse odds than these, haven’t we?’ I shot back. ‘We can hold them off, I know it.’
‘They’ve caught us, lord,’ Serlo said. ‘It’s over. There’s no shame in yielding.’
‘We don’t have any choice, lord,’ Pons added.
My blood boiled. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My own knights, oath-sworn to my service, were turning against me.
‘Lord—’ Godric started, but I was in no mood to listen to their protests any longer, least of all from him, the runt on whose behalf I had fought and killed Guibert. He, ultimately, was the reason why we were here, and yet, in spite of everything I’d done for him and the protection I’d given him, he still had the nerve to question me.
‘No,’ I said, interrupting him. ‘I haven’t come this far to give up now. So tell me, are you with me, or against me?’
It must have seemed to them as if a kind of madness had taken hold of me, that I’d taken leave of my senses, although it did not feel that way at the time. Rather, it seemed to me that everything had suddenly become clear. I could not let Robert and his men take me. I had come too far now to be steered from this course, to let this undertaking come to naught.
‘Lord!’
‘What?’ I demanded, as I turned to Godric, who was pointing eagerly out across the wide blue-grey expanse, his eyes bright, his voice filled not with alarm but with joy. For while we had been arguing, I realised, he had been watching Wyvern, and now I saw what he had spotted.
For she wasn’t closing as if to attack us, as I’d expected. Her oarsmen had slackened their rhythm, and rather than drawing directly alongside us, as they would have done if they’d wanted to grapple and board us, they seemed to be keeping their distance. Instead of presenting a wall of painted leather and a forest of steel, the men aboard her were waving towards us, hailing us, although their cries were all but drowned out by Magnus and his men. They were still beating out the battle-thunder upon their shields, roaring insults and taunts at our pursuers, swearing death upon them. I could barely hear my own thoughts, let alone make out what those on the other ship were trying to say.
But then, through the din of steel and limewood and jeers and curses, I heard what sounded like my name. The sun was behind the other ship, casting her crew in shadow, and the sea all around was flashing bright, so that for an instant I was blinded. With my free hand I shielded my eyes from the glare, and that was when I saw two figures standing at Wyvern’s prow. They were both waving, trying to catch our attention, one a little taller than the other, both with scabbards hanging from their waists.
The taller of the two cupped his hands around his lips. ‘Tancred!’ he yelled, and this time he was close enough that I recognised his voice.
‘Eudo!’ I said, and no sooner had I done so than I realised who the second figure must be. ‘Wace!’
The other ship drew closer still. The sun disappeared for a moment behind a wisp of cloud, and suddenly I was able to see them clearly.
At first I thought my eyes had to be deceiving me. How long was it since I’d last seen them? Not since that night at Heia, more than a month ago, I reckoned, although I’d lost count of the days. All at once the battle-anger that until then had been coursing through my veins vanished. But surprised as I was to see them both here, to say I was overjoyed would be false. They were still sworn to Robert, after all. Wasn’t that why they had followed me?
‘Do you know these people?’ Magnus asked me as he made a sign to his huscarls, who ceased clattering their weapons against their shield-rims, although they continued to regard Wyvern and those aboard her warily.
‘I know them,’ I answered, but he didn’t look much reassured, and understandably so, as the other ship, easily within range of a javelin’s throw now, moved alongside us and it became clear just how much larger she was than Nihtegesa, and how many more men she carried. But still none of them were rushing to arms, as I might have expected.
‘God’s teeth, but you’re persistent, aren’t you?’ Eudo shouted across the water, laughing. ‘We were beginning to think we’d never catch up with you.’