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Now we had good hunting in the forests, and on the borders of the great mosses of Ingvar's lands. But there were many more folk in this land than in ours, and I thought that they were ill off in many ways.
"Four rode after the bishop with the great man on the black horse who was the leader. The rest went with the king up the track through Hoxne woods, but slowly." Had I but one or two more with me surely now I should have followed up the king and tried to rescue him. But I think it would have been vain, for Ingvar's men would have slain him rather than lose him.
The host was quiet in winter quarters in Mercia, and the Danes in our country grew friendly with us, harming no man. These men, I could see, would fain bide in peace, settling down, being tired of war, and liking the new country, where there was room and to spare for all. In early spring Guthrum went to the host on the Wessex borders, taking command in Ingvar's place.
Now it was plain that this ship came from that place; either beaten off, or knowing that Ingvar's haven lay open to attack while his men were away thus. And a greater fear than any came over me. "Where is the Lady Osritha?" I said. "She was here in the town this morning." "So, Wulfric," said Thormod quickly, "she will have fled. The steward will have seen to that.
In an hour I knew that there were eight ships and no more, and that they were heading south steadily, not as if intending to land in the Wash, but as though they would pass on to other shores than ours. And they were not Ingvar's fleet, for he alone had ten ships in his ship garth.
Swiftly we bore down on the ship, and now from her decks came the hoarse call of uncouth war horns, and her crew came swarming back from the streets with shouts and yells, crossing Ingvar's ship to reach their own, for she lay alongside, stem to stern of the Dane, and next to the open water.
"Because when he made Beorn speak, Beorn said that Eadmund the King had set him on to slay Lodbrok. I heard the man confess it." "But he left that story, telling the truth about himself," I said. "Aye, so he did. But the tale has stuck in Ingvar's mind, and naught will he hear but that he will have revenge on him." "What will he do?"
She was like Halfden and Hubba, though with Ingvar's hair, and if those three were handsome men among a thousand, this sister of theirs was more than worthy of them. She stood in the door, doubting, when she saw me.
"Nor shall we see Jutland again," he said, pointing to the ship, which lay now in the same place where the pirate had been, alongside Ingvar's. And the other ship had come in during the night, and was at anchor in the haven. "Shall we sail home at once?" I asked him. "Aye; no use in waiting. We are wanted at Guthrum's side, and can take no men, but a few boys back.
"Aye, to England I shall surely come not to seek you, but at Ingvar's bidding. Yet to East Anglia for your sake I will not come." Then he grasped my hand again in farewell, and he went inside the gates and closed them, and Raud and I went quickly to his place.
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