“But what can he do about it?”
“That’s not for me to tell you,” I said, trying to imply that there was an answer. In truth, if seven or eight thousand Northmen appeared in Wessex then we would have no choice but to fight, and the battle, I thought, would be horrendous. It would be a bloodletting even greater than Ethandun, and at its end there would most likely be a new king in Wessex and a new name for the kingdom. Norseland, perhaps.
“Tell me about Guthred,” Erik asked abruptly.
“Guthred!” I turned back to him, surprised by the question. Guthred was Gisela’s brother and King of Northumbria, and what he had to do with Alfred, ?thelflaed, or Erik I could not imagine.
“He’s a Christian, isn’t he?” Erik asked.
“So he says.”
“Is he?”
“How would I know?” I asked. “He claims to be a Christian, but I doubt he’s given up his worship of the true gods.”
“You like him?” Erik asked anxiously.
“Everyone likes Guthred,” I said, and that was true, yet it constantly astonished me that a man so affable and indecisive had held on to his throne for so long. Mainly, I knew, that was because my brother-in-law had the support of Ragnar, my soul brother, and no man would want to fight Ragnar’s wild forces.
“I was thinking,” Erik said, and then fell silent, and in his silence I suddenly understood what he was dreaming.
“You were thinking,” I told him the brutal truth, “that you and ?thelflaed can take a ship, maybe your brother’s ship, and go to Northumbria and live under Guthred’s protection?”
Erik stared at me as though I were a magician. “She told you?” he asked.
“Your faces told me,” I said.
“Guthred would protect us,” Erik said.
“How?” I asked. “You think he’ll summon his army if your brother comes after you?”
“My brother?” Erik asked, as if Sigefrid would forgive him anything.
“Your brother,” I said harshly, “who is expecting a payment of three thousand pounds of silver and five hundred pounds of gold, and if you take ?thelflaed away, then he loses that money. You think he won’t want her back?”
“Your friend, Ragnar,” Erik suggested hesitantly.
“You want Ragnar to fight for you?” I asked. “Why should he?”
“Because you ask him to,” Erik said firmly. “?thelflaed says you love each other like brothers.”
“We do.”
“Then ask him,” he demanded.
I sighed and stared at those distant clouds and thought how love wrenches our lives and drives us to such sweet insanity. “And what will you do,” I asked, “against the murderers who come in the night? Against the vengeful men who will burn your hall?”
“Guard against them,” he said stubbornly.
I watched the clouds pile higher and thought that Thor would be sending his thunderbolts down to the fields of Cent before the summer evening was over. “?thelflaed is married,” I said gently.
“To a vicious bastard,” Erik said angrily.
“And her father,” I went on, “regards marriage as sacred.”
“Alfred won’t fetch her back from Northumbria,” Erik said confidently, “no West Saxon army could reach that far.”
“He will send priests to gnaw her conscience, though,” I said, “and how do you know he won’t send men to fetch her? It doesn’t have to be an army. One crew of determined men might be enough.”
“All I ask,” Erik said, “is a chance! A hall in some valley, fields to till, beasts to raise, a place to be at peace!”
I said nothing for a while. Erik, I thought, was building a ship in his dreams, a beautiful ship, a swift-hulled ship of elegance, but it was all a dream! I closed my eyes, trying to frame my words. “?thelflaed,” I finally said, “is a prize. She has value. She is a king’s daughter and her marriage portion was land. She’s rich, she’s beautiful, she’s valuable. Any man who wants to be rich will know where she is. Any scavenger wanting a fast ransom will know where to find her. You will never have peace.” I turned and looked at him. “Every night when you bar your door you will fear the enemies in the dark and every day you will look for enemies. There will be no peace for you, none.”
“Dunholm,” he said flatly.
I half smiled. “I know the place,” I said.
“Then you know that it is a fortress that cannot be captured,” Erik said stubbornly.
“I captured it,” I said.
“And no one else will do what you did,” Erik said, “not till the world falls. We can live in Dunholm.”
“Ragnar holds Dunholm.”
“Then I will swear oaths to him,” Erik said fervently, “I will become his man, I will swear my life to him.”
I thought about that for a moment, testing Erik’s wild dream against the harsh realities of this life. Dunholm, cradled in its loop of the river and poised on its high crag, was indeed almost unassailable. A man might think of dying in his bed if he held Dunholm, because even a handful of troops was sufficient to defend the steep rocky path that was its only approach. And Ragnar, I knew, would be amused by Erik and ?thelflaed, and so I felt myself being seduced by Erik’s passion. Maybe his dream was not as crazy as I thought? “But how,” I asked, “do you take ?thelflaed from here without your brother knowing?”
“With your help,” he said.
And with that answer I could hear the three Norns laughing. A horn blew in the camp, a summons, I supposed, to the feast that Sigefrid had promised. “I am sworn to Alfred,” I said flatly.
“I don’t ask you to break that oath,” Erik said.
“Yes, you do!” I said sharply. “Alfred gave me a mission. I have fulfilled half of it. The other half is to retrieve his daughter!”
Erik’s big fists curled and uncurled on the palisade’s top. “Three thousand pounds of silver,” he said, “and five hundred pounds of gold. Think how many men that will buy.”
“I have thought of it.”
“A crew of seasoned warriors can be purchased for a pound of gold,” Erik said.
“True.”
“And we have enough men now to challenge Wessex.”
“You can challenge Wessex, but not defeat it.”
“But we will, when we have the gold and the men.”
“True,” I allowed again.
“And the gold will bring more men,” Erik went on relentlessly, “and more ships, and either this autumn or next spring we will lead a horde into Wessex. We will make the army you defeated at Ethandun look small. We shall blacken the land. We shall bring spears and axes and swords to Wessex. We will burn your towns, enslave your children, use your women, take your land, and kill your men. Is that what serving Alfred means to you?”
“That is what your brother plans?”
“And to do it,” Erik said, ignoring my question for he knew I already knew its answer, “he must sell ?thelflaed back to her father.”
“Yes,” I acknowledged. If no ransom was paid then the men already encamped in and around Beamfleot would vanish like dew on a hot morning. No more ships would come and Wessex would not be threatened.
“Your oath, as I understand it,” Erik said respectfully, “is to serve Alfred of Wessex. Do you serve him, Lord Uhtred, by allowing my brother to become rich enough to destroy him?”
So love, I thought, had turned Erik against his brother. Love would make him slash a blade through every oath he had ever sworn. Love has power over power itself. The horn blew again, more urgently. Men were hurrying toward the great hall. “Your brother,” I said, “knows you love ?thelflaed?”
“He believes I love her for now, but will lose her for silver. He thinks I use her for my pleasure and he is
