Leofric nodded. 'Because it says so in Father Willibald's book.'
'In the gospel book?'
'That's what Father Willibald tells us,' Leofric said with a straight face, then saw my expression and shrugged. 'Honest! And Alfred approves.'
'Of course he does.'
'And if you do what the gospel book tells you.' Leofric said, still with a straight face, 'then nothing can go wrong, can it?'
'Nothing,' I said. 'So you're here to rebuild Heahengel?'
'New mast,' Leofric said, 'new sail, new rigging, patch up those timbers, caulk her, then tow her back to Hamtun. It could take a month!'
'At least.'
'And I never was much good at making things. Good at fighting, I am, and I can drink ale as well as any man, but I was never much good with a mallet and, wedge or with adzes. They are.' He nodded at a group of a dozen men who were strangers to me.
'Who are they?'
'Shipwrights.’
'So they do the work?'
'Can't expect me to do it!' Leofric protested. 'I'm in command of the Eftwyrd!'
'So,' I said, 'you're planning to drink my ale and eat my food for a month while those dozen men do the work?'
'You have any better ideas?'
I gazed at the Eftwyrd. She was a well-made ship, longer than most Danish boats and with high sides that made her a good fighting platform. 'What did Burgweard tell you to do?' I asked.
'Pray,' Leofric said sourly, 'and help repair Heahengel.'
'I hear there's a new Danish leader in the Saefern Sea,' I said, 'and I'd like to know if it's true. A man called Svein. And I hear more ships are joining him from Ireland.'
'He's in Wales, this Svein?'
'That's what I hear.'
'He'll be coming to Wessex then,' Leofric said.
'If it's true.'
'So you're thinking ...' Leofric said, then stopped when he realised just what I was thinking.
'I'm thinking that it doesn't do a ship or crew any good to sit around for a month,' I said, 'and I'm thinking that there might be plunder to be had in the Saefern Sea.'
'And if Alfred hears we've been fighting up there,' Leofric said, 'he'll gut us.'
I nodded up river towards Exanceaster. 'They burned a hundred Danish ships up there,' I said, 'and their wreckage is still on the riverbank. We should be able to find at least one dragon's head to put on her prow.'
Leofric stared at the Eftwyrd. 'Disguise her?'
'Disguise her,' I said, because if I put a dragon head on Eftwyrd no one would know she was a Saxon ship. She would be taken for a Danish boat, a sea raider, part of England's nightmare.
Leofric smiled. 'I don't need orders to go on a patrol, do I?'
'Of course not.'
'And we haven't fought since Cynuit,' he said wistfully, 'and no fighting means no plunder.'
'What about the crew?' I asked.
He turned and looked at them. 'Most of them are evil bastards,' he said, 'they won't mind. And they all need plunder.'
'And between us and the Saefern Sea,' I said, 'there are the Britons.'
‘And they're all thieving bastards, the lot of them,' Leofric said. He looked at me and grinned. 'So if Alfred won't go to war, we will?'
'You have any better ideas?' I asked.
Leofric did not answer for along time. Instead, idly, as if he was just thinking, he tossed pebbles towards a puddle. I said nothing, just watched the small splashes, watched the pattern the fallen pebbles made, and knew he was seeking guidance from fate. The Danes cast rune sticks, we all watched for the flight of birds, we tried to hear the whispers of the gods, and Leofric was watching the pebbles fall to find his fate. The last one clicked on another and skidded off into the mud and the trail it left pointed south towards the sea. 'No,' he said, 'I don't have any better ideas.'
And I was bored no longer, because we were going to be Vikings.
We found a score of carved beasts' heads beside the river beneath Eanceaster's walls, all of them part of the sodden, tangled wreckage that showed where Guthrum's fleet had been burned and we chose two of the least scorched carvings and carried them aboard Eftwyrd. Her prow and stem culminated in simple posts and we had to cut the posts down until the sockets of the two carved heads fitted. The creature at the stern, the smaller of the
