BooksBarbecue
Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘That’s bold of you,’ Katāros said. ‘And what makes you think the emperor would see you? Aside from your more obvious qualities.’

Lilla ignored the limp compliment. ‘My name is Lilla Sviggarsdottír,’ she said, standing a little taller. ‘I am Queen of the Twin Kingdoms – of Danmark and Sveäland.’

Katāros’s marble forehead creased a fraction. ‘A queen, no less. Yet your retinue is a little underwhelming,’ he said, with a disparaging glance at Gerutha.

‘It serves me well enough.’

‘Hmm.’ Katāros considered her a little longer. ‘You know I heard of a king named Sviggar in my boyhood.’

‘Truly?’ blurted Lilla, unable to conceal her delight at this unexpected piece of luck. ‘Why, he was my father.’

‘Indeed. . . The Bastard King, they called him. So I recall.’

Her delight burst. ‘There never was a nobler king in all the north,’ she returned stiffly. ‘He did much for his people. I would do even more.’

‘And you’ve come all this way to prove it.’ The painted mouth pursed. ‘Well, either you’re mad,’ he sighed, ‘or else you had better follow me.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Illustration

The tavern reeked like the breath from a diseased lung. A gloomy room, half-sunk into the ground, stinking of sour wine and stale sweat. Inside, sawdust was spread about the floor and behind a tiled counter stood the proprietor, glowering at his next customer.

Yet for all its dinginess, the drinkers made it a merry place. Einar rubbed his hands and went inside. His tongue was itching for a drink and by Odin’s beard he’d earned it. He’d spent the last day and a night peering into every hole festering on the underbelly of this town. Cities were, by and large, filthy places, he had concluded. Sure, there were plenty of impressive things, halls worthy of plunder, enough silver and gold to keep a dwarf happy till Ragnarök, but that wasn’t all of it. Not by a long yard.

He’d found his way down to the naval harbours on the south side of the Horn, wending along narrow streets clogged with drunks and whores. He felt quite at home, truth be told – but he struggled to imagine Erlan lingering in those spots. In the poorer streets, the shit ran in open gutters and the air was thick with a sickly miasma of these and the clouds of cheap perfume wafting from the brothels.

Eventually he had struck upon the Strategion which – as he’d understood from his halting enquiries – was where he would find any warrior worth his salt. Or soldier, as the Byzantines called them. Sure enough, he noticed more of them. Men, he guessed, serving on the dozens of war-ships at anchor on the Golden Horn.