“He is a thrall. Taken from the south, they say, though I know nothing about that. And as to how his numbers grow. That is simple. He does not slay everyone in the halls he burns.”

“Why?” asked Runolf, seizing on the possibility that some of his people might yet live; that his wife might not have been killed. “Why does he spare some?”

Audun dropped his gaze, once again staring into the fire’s coruscating embers.

“I know not the reasons for the things he does. By all accounts he believes he is some sort of god. I understand none of that. But what I do know is that he kills all the adults in the halls and steadings he puts to the flame.”

“Women too?” asked Runolf, his voice small and hollow.

Audun lifted his cup to his lips. Finding it empty, he let out a long breath, clearly seeing no way to delay imparting his tidings.

“Women too,” he said, not meeting Runolf’s eyes.

Runolf drew in a ragged breath. For so long he had awaited the moment when he could confront Estrid with her betrayal and now he found that, like his brother and so many others, she was dead. Audun’s words hung in the air. I felt as though a strong man had wrapped his arms about my chest and was crushing the breath from me. Aelfwyn must be dead too. We knew she had been bought by Estrid, and now, after surviving that blood-soaked morning at Lindisfarnae, and finding her way into the household of a woman who I had prayed might have treated her with some kindness, to learn she had been killed along with everyone else, was a harsh blow indeed. I could not breathe. The fire’s light blurred and swam before me, as my eyes filled with tears. The crackle of the wood and the wash of the waves on the beach receded, as if I had plunged my head underwater. The world became muted and dark. I feared I would swoon.

Then Runolf broke the silence.

“If he kills all the men and women,” he said, “is his host made up of children?”

“Ah, there are children with them, that is certain. They say Ljósberari believes he is purifying the darkness with the fires of light, that children have not had enough time to have the battle within themselves. They must be given time to allow their light to overcome the dark within them.” He spat into the fire. “Or some such madness.”

“And yet you speak as though this Ljósberari has destroyed halls all over Rygjafylki. How could he do this with a band of children?”

“No, you misunderstand me, dróttinn minn,” Audun said. His voice came to me as if from far away. “He kills all the free men and women. The thralls he allows to go free. They join him.”