That’s how he explained it to me, anyway.
The smith was busy too: the sound of steel on steel rang out from dawn till night as blades were sharpened and dents in helmets hammered out and new links added to Skalpi’s mail shirt to repair holes and because he was a little wider around the stomach than he had been the last time he’d donned it. Provisions were set aside from the storehouses to last the men for a couple of weeks, since we had no idea how well supplied the army would be when they joined it. While all that was happening, Tova and I worked to repair Skalpi’s faded banner, helped by some of the younger slave girls, whose fingers were nimble and whose sight was good enough. It was a task for more pairs of hands than we had, but the other women were all busy mending cloaks and tunics and caps and shoes and everything else their husbands and sons and brothers might need.
The banner had been stored in the same strongbox as his silver, beneath the floor of Skalpi’s chamber. In brown and blue thread, it showed an owl in flight with wings outstretched, but over the years the damp had got to it and caused one corner to rot away, while colours that once had been bright were now muted.
‘An owl,’ Skalpi said when he came to see how we were doing, ‘because it is ever watchful, because it chooses to hunt while other creatures sleep, and because it is wiser than all the other birds.’
By the time he was ready to leave, it looked more or less as it was meant to. We had no brown thread and no time to buy more at market, so we used black instead, but Skalpi was pleased, and that was all that mattered.
That was a sad day. I couldn’t bear even to watch as the band mustered in the yard. Instead I stayed at my stitching while outside Skalpi barked instructions to the men he was taking, fifteen in all. Horses whickered, men called to one another, and their wives and daughters were crying. I could hear Father Thorvald’s dull voice as he said Mass in the open and prayed that the Lord kept his warriors safe from harm.
I didn’t want to see them. Most of all I didn’t want to face Skalpi. Eventually he came looking for me, as I knew he would. He held me tightly against his chest, and I wrapped my arms around him. Neither of us spoke, and the only sound was that of my sobs. He kissed me on the forehead and then on the cheek and lastly and longest on the lips. Then all too soon he broke off our embrace and I knew it was time. I thought about trying to sway him once more, but I didn’t. I knew it wouldn’t make any difference. All I could do was wish him well and pray that he returned safely.
I followed him out into the yard, where he told ?lfric to take care of me and of the manor in his absence, and then he mounted Hengest, his gelding. I saw men young and old, some of whom I knew had seen battle before because they had the scars to show it, although most hadn’t. Almost all carried around their necks some rune charm or trinket given to them by their loved ones; each had a spear and a knife or seax, most had a shield and a handful had helmets. A couple had padded jerkins of cloth, a couple more had leather shirts. None possessed mail – save Skalpi, of course, and Orm, who was in as bad a temper as I’d ever seen him. His eyes were dark as if he hadn’t slept, and he had a look about him of such fury. He snapped at everyone who approached him as if they’d personally slighted him, and kept his distance from his father. I didn’t know if someone had said or done something to upset him. I had supposed he would be happy because he was finally getting his wish. He was riding to war, being given the chance to prove himself, but evidently even that wasn’t enough to please him. A part of me was glad he was taking his anger elsewhere and putting it to good use, but that wasn’t much consolation.
All of Heldeby had gathered to watch them go. I stood with Tova and a few of the alewives and the miller’s daughter. Children stood beside their mothers, the younger ones clutching their legs, some of them wailing. They didn’t understand what was happening, what everyone was doing in one place, why they were all hugging and crying, why their fathers and brothers were leaving or where they were going. And how could they? I didn’t understand it, not entirely, and if it didn’t make sense to me then how could it make sense to them?