She looked at me as if I were stupid, and I suppose I was, but only because love had made me that way. ‘Where do you think?’ she asked. ‘To his chamber. After the feast was over, he called for her—’
I held up a hand to stop her from going on. How we were going to get inside Haakon’s hall, when there were two of his household warriors posted at the entrance and undoubtedly countless more inside, I didn’t know. Soon, of course, they would spot Wyvern and Nihtegesa approaching, and I was counting on exploiting the resulting confusion to allow us to do what we had come here for. But what if something went wrong, or the waters were too rough or the wind gusting too strongly? What if Haakon didn’t react in the way that we hoped to the threat to his ships? How then would we be able to find Oswynn, let alone get out of Jarnborg?
All these thoughts were running through my mind when the knocking began. At once I stopped still. There were men outside, shouting in words I didn’t understand, pounding on the oak door.
A shiver ran through me. Some of the dead man’s friends must have heard the women’s screams, and had come to find out what was happening.
‘Quiet,’ I hissed, pointing at Eanfl?d. ‘Not a sound.’
She nodded and then whispered in the ears of the other two, in whatever language it was they spoke. There was no other way out of this place. I swore violently, under my breath.
‘I could talk to them,’ Magnus offered.
‘And say what?’ I countered. Would the Danes be so dim-witted as to mistake his voice for that of their potbellied friend? Even if they did, how was he to explain why the door was locked, or the reason for the screaming?
Outside, the pounding grew more insistent, the shouts louder and angrier. They couldn’t yet know there were four of us, or guess who we were, or why we were here. All of those things they would soon work out, however, as soon as they came through that door, saw our barricade, realised that they didn’t recognise our faces and that we didn’t speak their tongue. When that happened, we could abandon all hope of leaving this place alive.
Every man’s luck ran out eventually. There were few truths greater than that. We had done well to make it this far, but I ought to have known this could only end badly. Now we would pay the price for our recklessness.
Yet I would not give up easily. Not without a fight.
‘Barricade the door,’ I said. ‘Bring that cooking-pot across, and anything else we can use.’
The inner of the two doorways could only be locked from the outside, which meant we had no choice but to make our stand in the small guard-chamber. While Magnus and ?lfhelm together manoeuvred the iron cauldron across the floor, Godric and I set the heavy bar in place across the door, so that even if they did manage to unlock it, they would still have to break it down.
‘What can we do?’ Eanfl?d called from the other room.
‘Nothing,’ I said, ‘except pray for our sakes that they don’t get in.’
I helped Magnus and Aelfhelm overturn the cauldron on to its rim so that it would be more difficult for our foes to tip over, and then we set about piling whatever other obstacles we could find against the door. Some of the benches were fixed to the walls, but some were not, and we dragged those that we could in front of the doorway so that anyone coming through would with any luck trip and make it easier for us to kill them.
There was a jangle of metal as the enemy tried the lock. I heard it click, and heard, too, their cries of success, short-lived as they were as the foemen found the door barred against them. The oak rattled against the stout bar, and through the gap between the door and its frame I heard them shouting. How many were out there, it was impossible to say, but from the noise I reckoned there had to be at least half a dozen already, and such a commotion would only attract more. What they thought was happening in here, I could only guess. Maybe they thought that their friend the wood-whittler had allowed his lusts to get the better of him and had decided to have his way with his lord’s most prized bed-slaves.
In the other room, one of the women began shrieking again, and I cursed.
‘Keep her quiet,’ I called through to Eanfl?d, although by then it was already too late.
Sooner or later the enemy would break through and slaughter us. They had to, for they were many and we were few. Nonetheless, if this was my day to die, then I was determined to take as many as I could with me to my grave.
Swords drawn, we stood facing the door, watching it shudder. I imagined a horde of flaxen-haired Danes lining up outside, each waiting for his turn to test his shoulder against the timbers. Then, without warning, the pounding ceased. I glanced at the others, raising a hand so that they knew not to speak. But the respite was only brief. The silence was broken by the unmistakable sound of an axe-blade biting into wood. Again the door shook. It wouldn’t be long.