Guthrum was on the march and Svein of the White Horse came with him. They knew where Alfred was and so they came, five thousand strong, to give him battle in the hills of Wiltunscir.
'When will they get here?' Alfred wanted to know.
'They should reach these hills tomorrow, lord,' ?thelwold said.
So ?thelwold was seated beside the king and given water to drink, which was hardly a fit welcome for a prodigal prince and caused him to throw me a wry glance, and it was then that I saw Harald, shire-reeve of Defnascir, among the king's companions.
'You're here?' I asked surprised.
'With five hundred men,' he said proudly.
We had expected no men from either Defnascir or Thornsaeta, but Harald, the shire-reeve, had brought four hundred of his own fyrd and a hundred more from Thornsaeta.
'There's enough men left to protect the coast against the pagan fleet,' he said, 'and Odda insisted we help defeat Guthrum.'
'How is Mildrith?'
'She prays for her son,' Harald said, 'and for all of us.'
There were prayers after the meal. There were always prayers when Alfred was around, and I tried to escape them, but Pyrlig made me stay.
'The king wants to talk with you,' he said.
So I waited while Bishop Alewold droned, and afterwards Alfred wanted to know whether ?thelwold had truly run away from the Danes.
'That's what he told me lord,' I said, 'and I can only say we found him.'
'He didn't run from us,' Pyrlig offered, 'and he could have done.'
'So there's good in the boy,' Alfred said.
'God be praised for that,' Pyrlig said.
Alfred paused, gazing down into the glowing embers of a campfire.
'I spoke to the army tonight,' he told us.
'I heard you did, lord,' I said.
He looked up at me sharply. 'What did you hear?'
'That you preached to them, lord.'
He flinched at that, then seemed to accept the criticism. 'What do they want to hear?' he asked.
'They want to hear,' Pyrlig answered, 'that you are ready to die for them.'
'Die?
‘They follow, kings lead,' Pyrlig said. Alfred waited. 'They don't care about Saint Augustine,' Pyrlig went on, 'they only care that their women and children are safe, that their lands are safe, and that they'll have a future of their own. They want to know that they'll win. They want to know the Danes are going to die. They want to hear that they'll be rich on plunder.'
'Greed, revenge and selfishness?' Alfred asked.
'If you had an army of angels, lord,' Pyrlig went on, 'then a rousing speech about God and Saint Augustine would doubtless fire their ardour, but you have to fight with mere men, and there's nothing quite like greed, revenge and selfishness to inspire mortals.'
Alfred frowned at that advice, but did not argue with it.
'So I can trust my nephew?' he asked me.
'I don't know that you can trust him,' I said, 'but nor can Guthrum. And ?thelwold did seek you out, lord, so be content with that.'
'I shall, I shall.' He bade us goodnight, going to his hard bed.
The fires in the valley were dying.
'Why didn't you tell Alfred the truth about ?thelwold?' I asked Pyrlig.
'I thought I would trust your judgement,' he answered.
'You're a good man.'
'And that constantly astonishes me.'
I went to find Iseult, then slept.
Next day the whole of the northern sky was dark with cloud, while over our army, and above the hills, was sunlight.
The West Saxon army, now almost three and a half thousand strong, marched up the Wilig, then followed the smaller river that Pyrlig and I had explored the previous evening. We could see the Danish scouts on the hills, and knew they would be sending messengers back to Guthrum.
I led fifty men to one of the hilltops. We were all mounted, all armed, all with shields and helmets, and we rode ready to fight, but the Danish scouts yielded the ground. There were only a dozen of them and they rode off the hill long before we reached the summit where a host of blue butterflies flickered above the springy turf. I gazed
