‘Hverir eruth er?’ he barked. ‘Hvat gerith er?’
I glanced at Magnus, who was the only one among us who spoke their tongue, but it seemed he had no reply to whatever it was the Dane had said. That was when the round-bellied one noticed the door to the other chamber lying open. Whether he quite realised we were foemen or not, he saw that we meant trouble. Suddenly alert, he reached for the sword belted to his waist. He took a deep breath as if about to call out, and I knew that if he did our plans would be dashed like a ship against a cliff-face, and we would all be dead men. I started forward, reaching for my hilt, hoping to run him through—
I never had the chance. Before I had even got within five paces of him, he stopped mid-movement. His eyes glazed over abruptly and rolled back in his head. The faintest of gasps escaped his lips as his sword-hilt slipped from his limp fingers and tumbled with a dull clang to the hard floor, and then he too collapsed forwards, landing in a crumpled, bloodied heap, revealing the knife in the back of his neck.
In the doorway stood the one who had killed him. Godric. As if it could possibly have been anyone else.
‘You seem to be making a habit of this,’ I said drily.
‘Of what, lord?’ Godric asked.
I bent down to drag the Dane’s corpse away from the doorway, lest anyone walking by should see it, although of course we could do nothing about the blood pooling amidst the woodchips.
‘Help me move him,’ I said to ?lfhelm, who was closest to me. ‘If you take his legs, I’ll take his shoulders,’ I added, before answering the boy’s question: ‘Of striking down your opponents from behind. You know that sooner or later you’re going to have to learn how to kill them from the front as well, don’t you?’
‘At least I did kill him, lord,’ he replied. ‘Now you owe me again.’
I glanced up. ‘For what?’
‘For saving our lives.’
I supposed that was only fair. ‘I’m sure I’ll have the chance to repay the favour before long. Now, close that door,’ I said, and tossed him the ring of keys that I’d removed from the foeman’s belt. ‘Lock it, too. I don’t want his friends stumbling upon us.’
Godric didn’t need telling twice, but did as instructed, while the huscarl and I hauled the Dane’s corpulent frame through to the second chamber. No sooner had the women set eyes upon the dead guard, than they began shrieking, loud enough to wake the dead. It was a good thing that the door was indeed closed. As it was, I could only hope that no one heard.
‘Keep them quiet,’ I told Godric and Magnus as we laid the potbellied one down on one of the benches and then covered him over with some of the coarse blankets.
The women quickly shut up as the others approached, but I didn’t want them to fear us. We needed their help, just as we had needed the help of the water-carriers. ?lfhelm fetched the lantern, and brought it in so that we might have some light.
‘Tell them we don’t mean them any harm,’ I said to Magnus. ‘Tell them we’re looking for someone.’
‘Who are you?’ the middle one of the three women asked after I’d finished speaking. Dark-haired and generously endowed both in chest and in the hips, which I supposed must be how Haakon liked them, she regarded us uneasily. ‘What do you want with us?’
I stared dumbly at her. For some reason I’d assumed that, Oswynn excepted, we would find only Danish and Irish girls, since they were the most often captured and traded in these parts. She had spoken, though, as I had, in English.
‘We’re here to kill Haakon,’ Magnus said. ‘We want nothing from you, we swear upon our lives.’
Her eyes held an expression I couldn’t read, although it was somewhere between shock and joy, and closer to shock. ‘You’re going to kill him?’ she asked. She had a voice like a summer’s breeze, I thought: warm and soft and light.
‘If we can,’ I answered.
‘The four of you, alone?’
‘We have friends on their way,’ I said. ‘There’s no time to explain everything. What do they call you?’
‘Eanfl?d,’ she replied.
A pretty name, I thought, for a girl who, even though I was in the middle of searching for another, I admitted was attractive.
‘Tell me, Eanfl?d, do you know of an English girl by the name of Oswynn? Do you know where I can find her?’
‘Oswynn?’ she repeated, and my heart stood still. ‘Y-yes, I know her.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Haakon took her, last night.’
‘Took her where?’