Sword of Kings

‘We’re going south,’ I confirmed.

‘Where the worst of the trouble comes from. But don’t travel through Lindcolne,’ he sounded unhappy.

‘No?’

‘There’s a report of the plague there.’

Finan, standing beside me, crossed himself. ‘I’ll avoid Lindcolne,’ I said, raising my voice slightly. There were a dozen servants and household warriors within earshot and I wanted them to hear what I said. ‘We’ll take the western road through Mameceaster.’

‘Then come back soon,’ Sigtryggr said, ‘and come back alive.’

He meant that, he just didn’t sound as if he meant it. We left next day.

I had no intention of going south by any road, but I had wanted any listeners in Sigtryggr’s court to repeat my words. Æthelhelm had his spies in Sigtryggr’s court, and I wanted him watching the Roman roads that led south from Northumbria to Wessex.

I had ridden to Eoferwic, knowing it was my duty to speak with Sigtryggr, but while we rode, Berg had taken Spearhafoc down the coast to a small harbour on the Humbre’s northern bank where he would be waiting for us.

Early on the morning after my meeting with Sigtryggr, and feeling sour with the ale and wine of the night before, I led my five men out of the city. We rode south, but once out of sight of Eoferwic’s ramparts we turned eastwards and that evening we found Spearhafoc, manned by a crew of forty, riding at anchor on a falling tide. Next morning I sent six men to take our horses back to Bebbanburg while the rest of us took Spearhafoc to sea.

Æthelhelm would hear that we had been in Eoferwic and would be told that we had left the city by the southern gate. He would probably assume I was heading for Mercia to join Æthelstan, but he would be puzzled that I travelled with only five companions. I wanted him to be nervous and to be watching all the wrong places.

In the meantime I had told no one, not Eadith, not my son, not even Finan, what we were doing. Eadith and Finan had expected me to travel south on the news of Edward’s death, but, though the king still lived, I had left in a hurry. ‘What did that priest tell you?’ Finan asked as Spearhafoc coasted south under the summer wind.

‘He told me that I needed to go south.’

‘And what,’ Finan asked, ‘are we doing when we get there?’

‘I wish I knew.’

He laughed at that. ‘Forty of us,’ he said, nodding at Spearhafoc’s crowded belly, ‘invading Wessex?’

‘More than forty,’ I said, then fell silent. I stared at the sun-glossed sea as it slid past Spearhafoc’s sleek hull. We could not have wished for a better day. We had a wind to drive us and a sea to carry us, and that sea was rippled by dazzling light, broken only by small frills of foam curling at the wave crests. That weather should have been a good omen, but I was assailed by unease. I had launched this voyage impulsively, seizing what I thought was an opportunity, but now the doubts were nagging me. I touched Thor’s hammer hanging at my neck. ‘The priest,’ I said to Finan, ‘brought me a message from Eadgifu.’

For a moment he looked puzzled, then recognised the name. ‘Lavender tits!’

I half smiled, remembering that I had once told Finan that Eadgifu’s breasts smelled of lavender. Eadith had told me that many women infused lavender into lanolin and smeared it on their cleavage. ‘Eadgifu has tits that smell like lavender,’ I confirmed to Finan, ‘and she asks for our help.’

Finan stared at me. ‘Christ on his cross!’ he finally said. ‘What in God’s name are we doing?’

‘Going to find Eadgifu, of course,’ I said.

He still stared at me. ‘Why us?’

‘Who else can she ask?’

‘Anyone!’

I shook my head. ‘She’ll have a few friends in Wessex, none in Mercia or East Anglia. She’s desperate.’

But why ask for your help?’

‘Because she knows I’m the enemy of her enemy.’

‘Æthelhelm.’

‘Who hates her,’ I said.

That hatred was easy to understand. Edward had met Eadgifu while he was still married to Æfflaed, Æthelhelm’s sister and Ælfweard’s mother. The new, younger and prettier woman had won that rivalry, usurping Æfflaed’s place in the king’s bed and even persuading Edward to name her as Queen of Mercia. To make Æthelhelm’s hatred even more intense she had given Edward two more sons, Edmund and Eadred. Both boys were infants, yet the eldest, Edmund, had a claim on the throne if, so some believed, Æthelstan was illegitimate, and, as many realised, Ælfweard was simply too stupid, cruel and unreliable to be the next king. Æthelhelm understood that danger to his nephew’s future, which was why Eadgifu, in her desperation, had sent the priest to Bebbanburg.

‘She knows what Æthelhelm is planning for her,’ I told Finan.

‘She knows?’

‘She has spies, just as he does, and she was told that as soon as Edward dies Æthelhelm plans to carry her off to Wiltunscir. She’s to be placed in a nunnery and her two boys are to be raised in Æthelhelm’s household.’

Finan gazed across the summer sea. ‘Meaning,’ he said slowly, ‘that both boys will have their throats slit.’

‘Or else die of a convenient illness, yes.’

‘So what are we going to do? Rescue her?’

‘Rescue her,’ I agreed.

‘But, Christ! She’s protected by the king’s household troops! And Æthelhelm will be watching her like a hawk.’

‘She’s already rescued herself,’ I said. ‘She and her children went to Cent. She told her husband she was going to pray for him at the shrine of Saint Bertha, but in truth she wants to raise troops who’ll protect her and the boys.’

‘Dear God,’ Finan looked appalled. ‘And men will follow her?’

‘Why not? Remember that her father was Sigehelm.’ Sigehelm had been the ealdorman of Cent until he was killed fighting the Danes in East Anglia. He had been wealthy, though nothing like as rich as Æthelhelm, and Sigehelm’s son, Sigulf, had inherited that wealth along with his father’s household warriors. ‘Sigulf probably has three hundred men,’ I said.

‘And Æthelhelm has double that, at least! And he’ll have the king’s warriors too!’

‘And those warriors will be watching Æthelstan in Mercia,’ I said. ‘Besides, if Eadgifu and her brother march against Æthelhelm then others will follow them.’ That, I thought, was a slender hope, but not an impossible one.

Finan frowned at me. ‘I thought your oath was to Æthelstan. Now it’s to Lavender Tits?’

‘My oath is to Æthelstan,’ I said.

‘But Eadgifu will expect you to make her son the next king!’

‘Edmund is too young,’ I said firmly. ‘He’s an infant. The Witan will never appoint him king, not till he’s of age.’

‘By which time,’ Finan pointed out, ‘Æthelstan will be on the throne with sons of his own!’

‘I’ll be dead by then,’ I said, and touched the hammer again.

Finan gave a mirthless laugh. ‘So we’re sailing to join a Centish rebellion?’