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Then the king grew pale, but he set his lips close, still gazing at Ingvar. Hard was this for him who loved his people so well. The Dane's dagger flashed, and he hurled it at Eadmund, but so skilfully that it did but graze his head, sticking firmly into the tree trunk. And he cried in a voice that shook with rage: "Answer me!"
"So Halfden bides in England. What meant he by his message?" "Why, Wulfric, if you cannot see I will not tell you." "What of Ingvar?" "Now, Wulfric," said Thormod, "if I did not know that you at least were not afraid of him, I should say that he was best left alone. But as neither you nor I fear him, let us go and see what may be done."
There we found those two other good friends of mine waiting, and they told me that all was well prepared to save them from the wrath of Ingvar, for they had been bidden to carry messages, and other men of the crew who lived far off would do this for them, for I feared for their lives also when the flight was known.
Yet the other ship will stay while I send messengers inland, if Ingvar will not. But I shall return no more." "Then," said I, "I will speak to the Lady Osritha." "Go at once," he said, smiling; "bid her come with us to the better home we have found." I had not seen Osritha since I left her yesterday, and now I feared a little, not knowing how she would look on things.
Yet if I had not bound you at first, maybe they would have had to slay you." "That is true enough," I said; "surely I should have stood between you and the king. But what came to Ingvar to make him speak thus to me?" "Why, after the hot fit comes the cold, ever, though Ingvar the King's cold rage is worse at times than his fury. But since that day there has been somewhat strange about the king."
And Egfrid, being very brave, although he must have seen well enough what this meant, kept his face well, and answered that Jarl Ingvar was welcome, coming in peace. "Aye in peace just now," answered Ingvar, looking at him. "Now, I will say this, that Wulfric's sister has found a brave husband."
But Hubba cried out in wonder, and the men and Ingvar came out to see what his call meant. Then they, too, were amazed, for they knew the bird and her ways well. I had spoken of the falcon once or twice, telling the jarls how she had taken to me, and I think they had doubted it a little.
"Ho, brother!" he cried; "I thought you had harboured the greatest bear in all Jutland in Raud's hut. And it is naught but two strangers. What is the trouble with them?" "Look at yon man's hand," said Ingvar. I held out my hand, and Hubba looked at the rings, whereupon his face lit up as Halfden's had lighted, and he said: "News of our father and brother!
The walls and floor were damp and slimy; and when I looked closer, the dim light showed me bones in one corner, and also that over the floor crawled reptiles, countless. "An adder is a small thing to sting a man," said Ingvar in his grim voice. "Nor will it always hurt him much.
"Why, so we will, if they make it worth our while," said Guthrum, nodding to me. "What ransom will you take from us?" I asked them. "The keeping of Eadmund, your king," answered Ingvar; "nothing more nor less." "It seems to me that you will have to fight before you take him," I said plainly; for no man in all the Anglian ranks would have listened to that. "That is too much," said Guthrum.
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