Only then did the reality of the action hit me. There had been no time to think before, but now I swallowed down the acid taste of bile. I looked away from the dead man’s face, and the other corpses, and stared off through the trees. Drosten’s black plait bobbed against his sweat-stained kirtle as he ran. Os was a few steps behind him. They were both already slowing their pace.

Gwawrddur wiped his blade on the clothes of the last man he had slain. Sheathing his sword, he took my weapon from my trembling hands and cleaned that too. Handing it back to me, he clapped me on the back, turning me around towards Gullbringa.

“You did well, Killer,” he said.

I spat, trying to clean the taste from my mouth. I hated the name he had given me. But what other name would be better? I was a killer. And the worst of it was, I knew the truth of it. I enjoyed the killing.

It took me several attempts to slide my sword back into its scabbard.

Leofstan was kneeling beside Gersine. He looked up at me, his expression grave.

“Will he live?” I asked, my stomach churning at the thought of losing my friend.

“If we can get this arrow out soon, and if no evil has entered the wound, he will live. With God’s grace.”

Letting out a long, steadying breath, I nodded, glad of that news.

Drosten and Os returned shortly after. They were soaked in sweat, and their cheeks and foreheads were streaked with lichen, where they had pulled themselves through the trees and later rubbed the sweat from their eyes.

“Well?” snapped Hereward.

Drosten shook his head.

“He was too fast,” he said, breathing hard. “We followed him to the top of the hill, but he’d already got into a log boat and was paddling fast upriver. There is another boat at the top of the falls. They must have been the boats we saw on the lake, north of Gudrun’s island.”

Hereward looked up through the canopy of the trees to the bright sky above, as if he was searching for an answer to a question there. Perhaps he was praying, I thought, with a pang of guilt at my own lack of prayer for those I had killed.

“Drosten, Os,” Hereward said, his mind clearly made up. “Help Leofstan get Gersine into Gullbringa. It will make the boat a bit heavier, but he’ll be safe there. We cannot stay here. Hunlaf, you have keen eyes. Go to the top of the falls and keep watch. We cannot afford to be attacked again. If you see anyone, come running.”

Drosten moved to do Hereward’s bidding, but I pulled him back. There was something that nagged at my mind.

“How did you hear me when I called over the noise of the waterfall?” I asked, raising my voice and speaking close into his ear.