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"Aye," answered Lodbrok, seeming to wonder at the grave face of our king; "they went to Northumbria with the host that is yet there. And it was by Ingvar's plan that the place was taken, and that was well done. But they left the host with their men after that, saying that there were over many leaders already."
Now the bird had got free in some way, and finding neither of her masters, had fled home, even as Lodbrok said she would. "Now is your story proved to be true," said Hubba, smiling gravely at me, but speaking for Ingvar's ear. "Aye, over true," answered his brother; "serve this man well, Raud and Rolf, for he has been a close friend of Jarl Lodbrok."
We marched up the well-known street four abreast, and as we left the waterside the fog was thinner, so that we could see the houses on either side of the way well enough. And as we went we were joined by many of Ingvar's people, old men and boys mostly, who had been left at home when the fleet sailed. And they told us that the Jomsburg men were round the great house itself.
Now I heard the music play from across the water, and I heard the shouts of the people and all the while the hoofs of Ingvar's horses thundered nearer and nearer. Then they came over the little rise in the road and were on me with levelled spears. I got my horse between them and me, across the narrow roadway, and hove up my axe and waited.
He had left the fleet, and was taking his own way with those who would follow him. Yet if he had eight ships, what would Ingvar's host be like? Greater perhaps than any that had yet come to our land, and the most cruel. For he would come, not for plunder only, but hating the name of England, hating the name of Christian, and above all hating the land where his father had been slain.
Naught said Osritha to me as we went, for there were too many near, and she knew not what I might have to tell; yet her hand sought mine, and hand in hand we came to Ingvar's house, and to the lesser door. There I left her, and went to seek Thormod.
But those wise words of Osritha's had made things easier for me, for now Halfden knew that into the story of the jarl's death, I and my doings must come, so Ingvar's words meant little to him. "You went not to Reedham?" I said, for now the men were at work again, and all was noise and bustle round us. "I have come here first by Orkneys from Waterford, where we wintered," he answered.
But Raud was close on me, and he dropped from his saddle on my shoulders as I passed him, so that I fell, half stunned under him, and one of the other men ran up, and ere they had stripped and bound the king to a tree, I was bound hand and foot, and rolled by Raud into a thicket where I might escape Ingvar's eye. And, indeed, he paid no heed to me, but watched the king.
"Moody and silent beyond his wont has he been since we have heard all about our father's death, and I fear that he plans some terrible revenge for it, even as he took revenge on the Northumbrian coasts for the long-ago slaying of Ragnar." Then I remembered the story of the burnt town, Streoneshalch, and knew what Ingvar's revenge was like.
Then you have turned Christian?" "Aye," answered Cyneward, flushing, though not with shame, for it was the first time he had owned his faith to one of his former comrades. "Now I thought this likely to happen to some of us," said Thormod, not showing much surprise, "if maybe it is sooner than one might have looked for. However, that is your concern, not mine. Keep out of Ingvar's way, though."
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