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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

Ramedios laughed without mirth. ‘I have three men to replace. That costs more than some pretty necklace.’ All the same, he seized the golden torc around Erlan’s throat and jerked it free. The movement lifted the blade clear of Erlan’s jugular just for an instant. Erlan dropped to his knee and rammed his fist into the sailor’s groin. The man doubled over, his blade skittered away. Erlan leaped for it but only knocked it further and then a storm of blows fell on him, pummelling his spine and ribs and kidneys to putty. There was a bark, he heard snarls and slavering jaws, men cursing, but they were too many, with kicks and punches landing everywhere, and finally a cudgel blow broke across his back. He fell flat, stunned. The club rose a second time. There was a yelp. . . and then nothing.

‘Slit its throat and be done with it,’ growled one.

‘No!’ Ramedios snapped. ‘Tie it up.’ Then he added with a chuckle, ‘Everything has its price. Even that walking carpet.’

‘I killed for you, Greek,’ groaned Erlan, his head spinning.

‘So you did, Northman. Too many.’

‘What shall we do with him?’

‘Sling him in the hold. His days as a free man are over.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

Illustration

Rain, thick as fog. Rain to blot out the sun, to soak through wool and flesh and marrow. Rain to drown all hope. . .

The season was on the turn. An unpleasant time for seafaring. Lilla didn’t know which was worse – the biting frost of her homeland or this dreary coastline, where warmth and dryness seemed as remote as the stars.

Their skipper, a shiftless man named Harding, stood leaning on his steer-board, doing his best to catch a weak breeze blowing from the west. Einar sat on their sea-chest gnawing on his fingers. He’d hardly moved off it in three days. The chest contained no clothes, no food, no tools. Only gold – and it was his charge to keep it safe. Gerutha was huddled against the gunwale, trying in vain to keep the rain off with her cloak, which was already soaked through.

Einar shuffled on his chest. ‘I tell you, after three days of skinning and salting, my arse is about ready for the smokehouse.’

‘Sure, there’s enough meat on it to make good eating,’ chuckled Gerutha, the rain dripping off her long, straight nose.

Dusk was close, but the river traffic was still busy. No one paid them much heed as they drew alongside a rain-slick jetty – an unobtrusive end to their voyage. Harding’s boat had carried them all the way from Sigtuna, across the East Sea and then the Gulf of Estland. Every league of it in foul weather. Lilla was glad it was over. For now at least, she felt safe from the reach of Thrand’s long arm. ‘It doesn’t look like much.’