I could only shrug in answer. In truth I was in no mood to think about such things, although of course I would have to decide before long. A man cannot spend his life forever dwelling on the past, wondering about what might have come to pass that didn’t, and wishing things were different. Sooner or later he must turn his mind to what lies ahead.
Wyvern’s crew, directed by Aubert, were loading supplies for the voyage back to England. The island folk had bestowed food and fleeces and other gifts upon us, which at the time I’d taken for tokens of their gratitude for ridding them of the Danes. Later, though, I’d wondered whether in fact they meant it as tribute, fearing that if they did not placate us, we would soon turn our attentions to their steadings and their homes, and raid them just as we had raided Haakon’s hall. However those offerings were meant, we’d accepted them with gratitude, adding them to what we had managed to recover of the jarl’s treasure hoard. For rather than immediately killing those who had surrendered to us, we had given them the chance first to show us where their lord had buried the chests containing all the silver and the gold that he had reaped on his expeditions. Only after they’d done so did we condemn them to the ends they deserved. Afterwards we shared the booty out as fairly as we could, so that both crews were rewarded and every man in our party, whether English or French, received a portion. Once divided out between so many coin-purses, it looked like a paltry amount for a warlord of Haakon’s repute to have amassed, and I suspected he had other hoards that his men hadn’t known about or else, if they had, simply hadn’t told us of, both here on this island and elsewhere. Nonetheless, it was hard-earned recompense for the men who had toiled so tirelessly in our cause with oar and sail, spear and sword, risking everything. But naturally there were many whom we could not reward: those who had lost their lives to Danish steel, far from any port they could call home. All we could do was honour them, as we had honoured Oswynn, and give Aubert money that he could pass on to their families.
‘Robert won’t be best pleased when he learns you took his ship without his permission,’ I said to Wace and Eudo. Nor that Wyvern would be returning with fifteen fewer men than it had set out with, and a number of the rest still recovering from various small wounds taken in the battle.
‘It’ll be some weeks before we arrive back at Heia,’ Eudo said. ‘We still have to visit Robert’s barons in Normandy and bring them the tidings of his father’s death, assuming that they haven’t yet heard. The Christmas feast might have already passed by the time we see home again. Between now and then, we’ll have plenty of time to think how we’re going to explain it all.’
‘He can have our share of the plunder, if that’ll help soothe his temper,’ Wace added. ‘There’s always more silver to be made. Besides, we didn’t come here for riches, but for something greater than that, and we found it. That’s all that matters.’
As usual he spoke good sense. Still, I didn’t envy them facing Robert, for he would surely hear the tale of their exploits before long. Even if they were able to swear Wyvern’s crew to silence, someone was bound to let slip at some point. What Robert would do then, I could only guess. The two of them had taken a great risk on my behalf, and I lacked the words to thank them as they deserved. Better, more loyal friends than they I’d never known.
‘Wherever you end up going, take care,’ Eudo said as we embraced, to which Wace, when it was his turn, added:
‘God be with you, Tancred.’
‘And with you,’ I said solemnly. ‘Both of you.’
As sword-brothers, we three had grown up together in our lord’s household, had fought alongside one another on occasions without number, and it was a strange feeling to part company without knowing exactly when I would next see them. That fate would bring us together again, and that our paths would cross sometime, I had no doubt. When that happened, I would make sure to repay the debt I owed them. But even so it seemed a turning point not just in my life, but in all of our lives.
Thus it was with heavy heart that, later that day, I took one of Haakon’s horses and rode to the cliff-top at the island’s southernmost point. There, with the wind gusting in my face, I watched Wyvern as she put out to sea. Her long, narrow hull rode the swell as her oarsmen bent their backs to the waves, her proud dragon-prow cutting through the blue-grey waters. Not once did I take my eyes off her, but kept waving in the hope that Eudo and Wace would see me, and it seemed that they did, for after a while I spotted two figures waving back. Smaller and smaller and smaller the ship grew, until she was no more than a faint speck on the horizon and then not even that. The wide sea beyond the fjord glittered beneath the afternoon sunshine, and amidst all those shards of sunlight I soon lost sight of her.
I was alone.