“I am only a carl,” he called out, “not a jarl. But I have three things to say to the Army:

“First, the sons of Ragnar fulfilled this bit of their Bragi boast because they had no heart to fulfill the rest.

“And second, whatever the Snakeeye says, when he sneaked into York by the back door with the priest holding it open for him, he was not thinking of the Army’s good, but of his own and of his brothers’. He had no mind to fight and no mind to share.”

Shouts of anger, the Gaddgedlar whirling, looking for the gate into the city and the steps up to where Shef stood. Others obstructing them, grabbing at their plaids. Shef raised his voice even more above the din.

“And third: to treat a man and a warrior the way they treated King Ella has no drengskapr. I call it nithingsverk.” The work of a nithing, a man beneath honor, a man with no legal rights, worse than an outlaw. To be proclaimed nithing before the Army was the worst shame a cart—or a jarl—could endure. If the Army agreed.

Some people were shouting agreement. Shef could see Brand down there, axe raised now and ready to strike, his men clustering behind him, thrusting off Ragnarsson followers with their shields. A stream of men coming from the other side of the circle to join him—Egil the Heimdall-worshipper at their head. Who was that moving out? Sigvarth, face flushed as he shouted reply to some insult. Skuli the Bald wavering by Ella’s corpse as Ubbi bellowed something at him.

The whole Army was moving. Dividing. After a hundred heartbeats there was space between the two groups and both were edging further away from each other. The Ragnarssons in front of the furthest group; in front of the nearer one, Brand, Thorvin, a handful of others.

“It is the Way against the rest,” muttered the Frey-worshipper behind Shef. “And some of your friends thrown in. Two to one against us, I reckon.”

“You have split the Army,” said a Hebridean, one of Magnus’s crew. “It is a great deed, but a rash one.”

“The machine was wound,” replied Shef. “All I had to do was shoot it.

Chapter Six

Chapter Six