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Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise forMATTHEW HARFFY
  3. BY MATTHEW HARFFY
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Maps
  8. Epigraph
  9. Contents
  10. Place Names
  11. One
  12. Two
  13. Three
  14. Four
  15. Five
  16. Six
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Ten
  21. Eleven
  22. Twelve
  23. Thirteen
  24. Fourteen
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. Thirty-Eight
  49. Thirty-Nine
  50. Forty
  51. Forty-One
  52. Forty-Two
  53. Forty-Three
  54. Forty-Four
  55. Forty-Five
  56. Forty-Six
  57. Forty-Seven
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Forty-Nine
  60. Fifty
  61. Fifty-One
  62. Fifty-Two
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Sixty-Two
  73. Author’s Note
  74. Acknowledgements
  75. About the Author
  76. An Invitation from the Publisher

“I heard Ljósberari’s people wailing from all the way up on the pasture,” he said. “I don’t scare easily, as Runolf will tell you.” The big man grunted. “But that sound filled me with dread. There has been no bear or wolf on this island for many a year, but the cries of Ljósberari’s people sounded more like those of forest creatures than coming from the mouths of men. And the things they did to the folk…”

He fell silent for a time, and nobody pressed him to continue now. We could all sense that he needed the time to rally his strength before going on to describe what he had seen. I felt a fleeting relief on hearing there were no wild beasts to trouble us on the island, but in the darkness, it was easy to imagine worse things than bears and wolves. And Audun had seen them. He drank from his cup and sighed. Outside of the firelight’s glow, I could hear Os doing his best to translate the goatherd’s words for the other listeners.

“I am not proud to say it,” the old man went on at last, “but when the fires began, I hid in the trees. Up by the cairn. I was too scared to creep any closer, may Óðinn curse me for a coward.” He stared into the fire and shook his head, lost in the visions of that night, with its flames and screams. “There were perhaps a dozen of them. Not many really, but enough that I knew there was nothing I could do. Perhaps when I was a young man… I might have…” He fell silent again, his haggard face betraying that he was remembering his youth, perhaps thinking that even when he had been hale and young, he would have remained in the shadows of the elms on the hill.

“There were so few?” asked Runolf.

Audun’s focus snapped back to the present. He met Runolf’s burning gaze. The warrior’s eyes shimmered in the fire-heat.

“Aye, dróttinn minn.” Audun bobbed his head obsequiously. Runolf frowned at being referred to as the old man’s lord. “There were no fighting men here, you see,” Audun said. “Not after Skorri took his ships a-viking. They never returned…” He chewed at the skin around his thumbnail, unable now to look into Runolf’s eyes. “But you knew that, didn’t you, dróttinn minn?”

“I knew that.”

“They say there are many more in Ljósberari’s band now,” Audun said, moving away from the part Runolf had played in Skorri’s disappearance. “A veritable host. But back then, in the spring, it was just him and a handful of whoresons. And that evil Frankish bastard, Chlotar.”

“Who is this Ljósberari?” I asked. “And how do his numbers swell, if he slays all those he attacks?”