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Silently we crossed the heath between us and the yelling Danes, and I rode beside Eadmund in my old place, and my heart was light, and sword Foe's Bane rattled in the scabbard as if longing to be let loose. And all the while I kept my eyes on Streone, who was riding among his Mercians twenty yards away to our right, and presently behind him I saw Thrand and Guthorm.
Then Thrand said, seeming very wroth: "I will not lose a good captive and ransom for any Mercian turncoat. I will go and find the king and make complaint." "Tell him that you are Egil at the same time," a Dane sneered. "You will not hoodwink him as you have this Saxon." "Is not this man Egil?" I asked, looking at Thrand with a hope that he would guess whom I needed.
At that I knew that I had fallen into his hands, and that my life was not worth much. I could see that Thrand knew this also. "That is all very well," I said; "but I am Egil Thorarinsson's captive." Whereat one of the men laughed. "You may not choose your captor, man. Egil has not been ashore all day. He is with the ships yonder."
When the news of it reached Grim the Hersir he proceeded against Ondott Crow and claimed Bjorn's estate. Ondott held Thrand to be the rightful heir of his father, but Grim contended that Thrand was away in the West. Bjorn, he said, came from Gautland, and the succession to the estate of all foreigners passed to the king.
But he was far beyond my reach, nor could I tell where he might be. He had gone across the gray rim of the sea, and no track was there for me to follow. The evening fell, and still I sat there, and Thrand of Colchester came to seek me I know not what he feared for me if I grew lonely on Ashingdon hill now that all seemed lost. "Master, come back to the ships," he said.
Now Thrand, the son of Thorarin of Acres, was healed; a stout man he was, and had to wife Steinun, daughter of Rut of Combeness; Thorleif of Lavadale, the father of Steinulf, was a very mighty man, and from him are come the men of Lavadale.
And now it came to pass that Biorn, the father of Thrand, died; and when Grim the hersir hears thereof he went to meet Ondott Crow, and claimed the goods left by Biorn; but Ondott said that Thrand had the heritage after his father; Grim said that Thrand was west over seas, and that Biorn was a Gothlander of kin, and that the king took the heritage of all outland men.
Then I saw an armed man coming towards us, and Thrand, who walked at my shoulder, closed up to me, for the warrior had a drawn sword in his hand. And when we came face to face I knew that I looked once more on Ulfkytel our earl, and a great fear fell on me, for he lay with his men in the mound where he fell, and Egil and I had raised it over him. Then I must speak.
The sword stood by my chair as I ate my supper at the head of the long tables where my men sat. The goldsmith ended his work soon after the men had gone out to the stables to tend their horses for the night, and only he and I and my headman Thrand were left in the hall. He had put a flat band of chased gold round the scabbard, and the silver penny showed through a round setting that was in it.
Thereafter Egil took me down to the ships, and he sent Thrand for sword Foe's Bane when the night had fallen. Most kindly did the Dane treat me, but I cared for little. I could not move for stiffness and bruising after I had slept for twelve hours on end, but that was nought compared with the sorrow for what had befallen us.
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