“Father! Go with Lord Uhtred. Bring me news of their deaths.”

“I shall, lord.” Father Oda bowed.

“You’re also coming, girl,” I told Wynflæd.

“Lord—” she began to protest.

“You’re coming!”

Bettic the steward found me a half-dozen ropes made of twisted leather, we borrowed a dozen horses, then took the prisoners to their death. The six men already had their hands bound, and we just had to walk them out of the southern gate and through the shallow ford of the Mædlak. On the far bank there were some small houses, a barn, and a cattle shed, and beyond that were oak trees. I had put Wynflæd on a docile mare, which scared her anyway, and I led her by the bridle. “There are two ways,” I told her, “to hang a man. A quick way and a slow way.” She looked at me with wide eyes and was too scared to say anything.

“The quick way,” I went on, “is the merciful way. They’re dead before they know it.” She was clutching the saddle’s pommel with both hands. “Have you ever ridden a horse before?” I asked her.

“Only when we traveled with you,” she said in a voice so frightened I could hardly hear her.

“This mare won’t throw you,” I said. “Relax, push your feet down. Now, as I was saying, there’s a quick way and a slow way. To kill a man the quick way you have to find a long branch that’s about two spears’ length above the ground. Are you listening?”

“I am, lord.”

“It has to be a long branch because you need to pull the end of the branch down. You loop a rope over the end and you haul it down till it’s only a spear’s length above the ground. What did I just say?”

“Haul the branch down until it’s only a spear’s length away, lord.”

“Good girl. Now, once you’ve hauled it down you hold it down, then you tie another rope around the same branch and you tie the other end of that new rope around the prisoner’s neck. It seems to work best if you have the knot under one of his ears. Do you understand me?”

“I do, lord.” She was trying to push her feet down to reach the stirrups. Father Oda, riding behind us, was leaning forward to listen.

“So you have the branch bent down close to the ground,” I went on, “and the man is tied by the neck to the same branch, and all you do is let go of the first rope. What do you think happens?”

She frowned at me, thinking. “The branch goes up, lord?”

“It flies up!” I said. “It springs up! Like the horn of a bow when you loose the string. And it breaks the bastard’s neck, just like that!” I snapped the fingers of my right hand, causing my horse to flick his ears back. “Sometimes,” I went on, “it rips the man’s head clean off!”