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Back A Night of Flames
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 did as he asked. I could barely make out anything in the gloom inside and I cursed as I knocked into what might have been a stool. I pulled the man in by his feet, dropping them down on the packed earth when his head and shoulders had cleared the doorway. The hut smelt of stale breath, sweat, ash and the sharp, battlefield tang of voided bowels. There was a woman somewhere in the dark, but I did not look into the far corners of the room where the bed must surely have been. I did not wish to see what Runolf had done to her.

I pushed the door shut behind me and let out a long breath.

“You cannot hesitate, Hunlaf,” Runolf growled, leaning down so that he could speak into my ear. “If we are discovered, we will die and all this will be for nothing. You want to avenge Leofstan, no? You would see Ljósberari slain for what he has done and to prevent further killings?”

I nodded.

“Then when the moment comes, act. To hesitate is death.”

He did not wait for me to respond, but turned back towards the great hall. After the black of the hut’s interior and the gloom of the night, the warm light creeping beneath the door made me blink.

Runolf was about to make his way across the open ground, when my keen, youthful eyes saw something amiss. Catching hold of Runolf’s kirtle, I yanked him back. I crouched in the shadow of the hut, pulling him down beside me. Without speaking, I pointed towards the hall doors.

A long moment passed and then, just when I had begun to doubt myself and I could sense Runolf was preparing to shrug me off, I saw the smallest of movements. To the right of the doors, hidden in the shadow of the carved door jamb, there stood a man.

Runolf grew very still, and I knew he too had seen him. There was only one way into the hall, but we could not hope to approach the doors without being seen by the guard who loitered there. If the hut where the man had stepped into our path had been positioned differently, the door ward would surely have already seen us, but thankfully that building’s door, like the hall’s, also pointed towards the river, meaning the hut had obscured us from sight.

Pulling again on Runolf’s sleeve, not daring to speak, I led him away southward. He followed and when we had gone some distance, he lowered his head to speak to me.

“We must get through those doors. Day will be upon us soon.”

“If we approach directly, he will raise the alarm. If we come in from the south side of the hall, and then slip around the corner to the west, we might take him by surprise.”