Stephen Baxter
Conqueror
Place names:
Ad-Gefrin, Yeavering
Aescesdun, Ashdown
Aethelingaig, Athelney
Armorica, Brittany
Banna, Birdoswald
Bebbanburh, Bamburgh
Brycgstow, Bristol
Caldbec Hill, Hastings
Cippanhamm, Chippenham
Eoforwic, Eburacum, Jorvik, York
Escanceaster, Exeter
Ethandune, Edington
Foul Ford, Fulford
Haestingaceaster, Hastings
Hagustaldasea, Hexham
Hamptonscir, Hampshire
Lindisfarena, Lindisfarne
Lunden, Lundenwic, Lundenburh, Londinium, London
Maeldubesburg, Malmesbury
Pefensae, Anderida, Pevensey
Reptacaestir, Rutupiae, Richborough
Sandlacu, Senlac Ridge
Snotingaham, Nottingham
Stamfordbrycg, Stamford Bridge
Sumorsaete, Somerset
Wealingaford, Wallingford
Westmynster, Westminster
Wiltunscir, Wiltshire
R Sabrina, Severn
R Tamesis, Thames
(Free translation from Old English, with acrostic preserved.)
Timeline
PROLOGUE
AD 1066
After a year of total war, Lunden was an angry city. Under an iron-grey December sky, no man walked alone in the alleys. The King even had to have Westmynster ringed by troops.
The mood within the cold, cavernous abbey church was febrile too. Men walked in huddles with their retainers, their weapons visible, their glances furtive and suspicious.
It was Christmas Day, 1066. The day the King of England was to show his crown to those who had fought for him, and to those who still called him a bloodstained usurper.
It was in this atmosphere that Orm met Sihtric.
The priest, small, cunning, looked Orm in the eye. 'Orm the Viking.'
There was enough of his sister in Sihtric's blank blue eyes to remind Orm of Godgifu – and of how he had cut her down on Sandlacu Ridge, at the climax of the battle men called Haestingaceaster. Orm's heart twisted. 'I was not expecting to see you here,' he said evasively.
'But I thought I would meet you,' Sihtric said. 'You did well in the battle, Orm, and in the campaign of revenge since. Your paymasters must be pleased with you.'
Orm stood straight. 'I won't justify myself to you, priest. In a year like this a man must survive as best he can.'
'Oh, I'm not judging you,' Sihtric murmured. 'I am compromising with the victors too. If I work with the bishops perhaps I can mitigate the harm done to the people, who are after all my flock. But I am not proud of it,' he said. 'We meet in shame, you and I.'
Orm smiled thinly. 'Despite your endless nagging over your prophecy.'
'The Menologium of Isolde. A four-hundred-year programme of historical design that came to a climax on Sandlacu Ridge – all for the birth of an Aryan domain.'
'I never understood who your 'Aryans' were.'
'Well, you always were a fool. Us, Orm! English and Northmen together. An empire for ten thousand years – or so the Weaver of time's tapestry intended…'
There was a commotion, a rumble of anticipation. Men separated, making way.
The King marched down the aisle of the abbey church. Archbishop Ealdred walked ahead of him, magnificent in his embroidered silk and purple-dyed godweb, bearing the new crown of England, a circlet of gold embedded with jewels. From the heaviness of his gait Orm suspected that the King was wearing a coat of chain mail under his golden cloak. He feared assassins, even here.
Leaden-footed, stiff, the King looked exhausted after his year of war. But as he walked he glared left and right. None of the nobles dared meet his eye.
'I think I wish your future had come about,' Orm said impulsively. 'I wish I were readying a longship to sail to Vinland in the spring, with Godgifu at my side, and my child in her belly.'
'Yes,' Sihtric muttered. 'Better that than this. This is wrong. We are in the wrong future, my friend. And we are stuck with it.'
'But could it have been different?'
Sihtric snorted. 'You were there, Viking. You know how close it came…'
I
MERCENARY AD 607
I
Wuffa liked to smash windows in the dead city.
He walked north through the empty streets, sling and stone in hand, knives at his belt. He whistled a sad fireside song of the brevity of life. It was late afternoon, and the low southern sun cast long shadows from the heaps of rubble. It was a long time until night, but already the hairy star was visible, its streaming tail a banner sprawled across the pale spring sky. He disturbed rabbits and rats and mice, and a few birds pecking for food in the
