BooksBarbecue
Back A Night of Flames Save as PDF
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

Gullbringa had already been emptied of our provisions. Anything we had left inside was now piled on the earth beside the river. The two men who had lit the fire took branches and, using them like tongs, flicked the burning brands into the belly of the boat. A couple of the logs fizzled out, hissing with steam as they fell into the puddles in the bilge of the sexæringr. I prayed that the fire would not catch, but it was pointless. If Chlotar wanted to destroy the boat, there was nothing that would stop him.

“Put him inside the boat,” said Runolf, surprising us all by speaking.

“What?” asked Chlotar, frowning.

“Ingvar,” said Runolf, indicating the bloody corpse that was sprawled beside Ulf. “His dog too. You have killed them, now at least send them on their way to the afterlife together.”

Chlotar stared down at the bodies. The young men had finished their discussion and, having plucked the arrows from Ingvar’s back, they now looked with excitement at the boat that had begun to smoke where some of the coals had caught.

“You are a fool,” Chlotar said, shaking his head. “Cut the boat free,” he snapped. “We don’t want the forest to burn around our ears.”

Gullbringa was ablaze now and we watched in silence as the last vestige of Ingvar’s life was untied and pushed into the river. It drifted slowly, the heat from the flames hot on our backs, as we headed into the forest prodded on by the sharp points of spears. Ingvar and Ulf remained where they had died, blood-streaked and unmoving in the trembling shadows of the boat’s pyre.

The birds once again began their chorus to the dawn and soon the crackling and hissing of the burning boat was lost in the distance. The scent of its smoke was heavy in the air long after we lost sight or sound of its burning.

When we walked out from beneath the shadows of the trees, the sky was already light with the sun that had risen behind the mountains in the east. My mouth was stuffed with the strip of cloth cut from my cloak and I longed to be rid of it. I wanted to be able to offer comfort to Runolf, though what I would have said, I have no idea. But more than that, I remember feeling the utter despair of one who has let down those who trusted him. We were captives of our enemy because I had fallen asleep, and I yearned for a glance from Leofstan or Gwawrddur, or one of the others. Perhaps a word of consolation that would allow me to assuage my guilt. But none of my friends spoke or even looked at me, and we trudged on in dejected silence, as the sun rose over Ljósberari’s domain.

Forty-Nine