“Call Eadric,” I said, and Finan gave a short, sharp whistle. Eadric’s men had followed us, and now they spread around the whole steading, their task to make certain no one left by a gate we had not seen or by climbing as Berg and Kettil had done. Eadric himself, with two men, joined us as Berg and Kettil pushed the great gate fully open. “Easy work, lord,” Kettil said.

“So far.”

The dogs woke at that moment. There were two of them that began barking somewhere to my left, but they had to be tethered because neither came close. The sheep began bleating, which only made the dogs even noisier. Finan and I had gone to the hall door and I heard movement on the far side, then a woman’s voice shouted at the dogs to stop their noise. I drew Serpent-Breath as Finan slid Soul-Stealer from her long scabbard. I had expected to break the hall door down, but it seemed the folk inside would open it for us because I heard the bar being lifted and a wooden bolt shot.

The door was pushed open, immediately throwing light into the yard. Inside the hall a servant was feeding the hearth, and flames leaped up, and in that brighter light I saw two men, both bare-headed and neither wearing mail, standing with long spears a couple of paces beyond the door. A woman, swathed in a blanket, stood between them.

And what did they see?

They saw a nightmare. They saw warriors with drawn swords, warriors in mail, warriors with decorated helmets and closed cheek-pieces, cloaked warriors, night warriors, shadow-walkers with naked blades. One of the two men raised his spear and I smacked it aside with Serpent-Breath. The man’s move had been tentative, he was too scared to attack with any force, maybe he had hardly meant to threaten me, but had just raised his blade without thinking. He gasped as my heavier blade drove the spear out of his hand. It clattered to the floor as Finan and I stalked into the hall. Eadric and his men followed us closely. “Drop that spear!” I snarled at the second man, and, when he did not obey, Finan just took the weapon from him.

“Who are you?” the woman asked. She showed more defiance than the two men, who backed away from us. Her gray hair was tied in a knot at the nape of her neck beneath a white woolen cap. She was tall, stoutly built, with a commanding face and indignant eyes. She clutched the heavy blanket around her shoulders and stared at me belligerently. “Who are you?” she demanded again.

“Your guests,” I said, and walked past her to the hearth where the servant who had been reviving the fire now cowered. “Eadric!”

“Lord?” Eadric ran to me, grateful for what small warmth the hearth gave.

“Saxons!” the woman spat at me.

I ignored her. “Search the steading,” I told Eadric, “then light a fire in the yard and try not to burn down the palisade.”