“They are beasts. They killed everyone who showed fight. Then they gathered the rest of us together outside the church. It was beginning to rain by then. First they picked out the young girls and the pretty girls, and some of the boys. For the slave markets. And then … then they brought out their prisoners from the battle and then …”

Her voice began to quake and she pulled her stained apron up to her eyes.

“And then they made us watch …”

Her voice was drowned in tears. After a few moments she seemed to remember something and moved suddenly. She gripped Shef’s hand and for the first time looked directly at him.

“But Shef. It was him. It was the same one as last time.”

“Sigvarth Jarl?” asked Shef, his mouth thick.

“Yes. Your … your …”

“What did he look like? Was he a big man, dark hair, white teeth?”

“Yes. With gold bracelets all up his arm.” Shef thought back to the moments of conflict, felt again the snap of the sword breaking and the moment of delight with which he had stepped forward to stab. Could it be that God had saved him from a terrible sin? But if that were the case—what had God been doing afterward?

“Couldn’t he protect you, mother?”

“No. He didn’t even try.” Thryth’s voice had gone hard and controlled again. “When they broke ranks after … after the show, he told them to loot and enjoy themselves till the warhorns blew. They kept their slaves, tied them together; but the rest of us, Truda and the ones they weren’t keeping … We were just handed over.

“He recognized me, Shef! And he remembered me. But when I begged him just to keep me for himself he laughed. He said … he said I was a hen now, not a chicken, and hens must look after themselves. Especially hens who flew away. So they used me like Truda. They used me more because I was the lady, and some of them thought that this was something very funny.” Her face twisted with anger and hatred, her pain forgotten for the moment.

“But I told him, Shef! I told him that he had a son. And that his son would one day seek him out and kill him!”

“I did my best, mother.” Shef hesitated, another question forming on his lips. But Edrich, behind him, spoke first.

“What did they make you watch, lady?”

Again Thryth’s eyes filled with tears. Unable to speak, she waved vaguely at the outside of the shelter.

“Come,” said Truda. “I will show you the Vikings’ mercy.”