“And this is Finan,” I said, “an Irishman who has lost count of the widows he has made among the úlfhéðnar.”

“You will both die at my hands,” Sköll said calmly, which only made Snorri howl a second time. “Snorri has seen your deaths,” Sköll added.

“And I have seen yours,” I answered. He was younger than I remembered. His face was deeply lined and there was gray in his fair beard, but even so I reckoned he was not yet forty. He was a man in his prime, and a formidable man at that. “The last time we met,” I said, “you ran from me. My men call you Sköll the Frightened.”

“And yet I come to meet you without a sword,” he said, “and you carry one. Who is frightened now?”

“You’re wasting my time. Say what you have to say, then run away again.”

Sköll fingered the empty throat of Grayfang’s scabbard. “When I came to Northumbria,” he said, “I asked men who ruled in this land. They did not say Sigtryggr, they named you.”

“They were wrong,” I said.

“Uhtred of Bebbanburg,” Sköll said grandly, “whom everyone fears. They told me of you! They told me of a man who wins battles, who soaks the land with his enemy’s blood, who is the warlord of Britain! Even I began to fear you!”

“You should,” Finan said.

“I took counsel,” Sköll ignored Finan. “I, Sköll of Northumbria, took counsel of my fears! Suppose the great Uhtred was in Jorvik when I attacked the city? How could I win? Would my wolf banner hang as a trophy in Uhtred’s great hall? If I am to be king in Northumbria then I must rule on both sides of the hills, and Uhtred rules on the eastern side! And my friend Arnborg persuaded me you could be tricked, that you could be sent to,” he paused, “what was the name of the place?”

“Ceaster,” I said.

“To Ceaster, yes! I planned to trap you on the way, overwhelm you, but you took a different road. You escaped me.”

“The gods love me,” I said, and touched the hammer to fend off any offense I might give the gods with that bald claim, then thought it was not true. The gods had cursed me.

“I would have begun my conquest of Northumbria with your death,” Sköll said. “I would have drunk my victory from your skull, but it was your daughter I killed instead.”

I felt a pulse of fury and managed to suppress it. “And her forces drove you from Jorvik,” I retorted. “What a conqueror you are, to be defeated by a woman!”

“I took much plunder, many cattle, slaves.” He shrugged. “A kingdom is not conquered easily, if it were easy it would not be worth conquering. But conquer it I will. Snorri has seen it. He has seen that I will be king in Northumbria!”

“The only part of Northumbria you will rule is called your grave,” I said.