Blood Eye(57)

I was done now. Empty. Bram must have sensed it for he let go and stepped away. I stood on trembling legs and wiped the spittle from my lips. 'Let me cut him down, lord,' I pleaded, staring at Ealhstan hanging there. The old man's leg was still now. He was gone.





Sigurd frowned and shook his head. 'The body must remain where it is. The sacrifice has been made and it would dishonour the All-Father to take it back.'





'No, lord,' I spat angrily.





'It stays, Raven,' Sigurd said, his eyes cold as steel. Then he turned to Asgot, who had Ealhstan's blood smeared across his cheeks and in his grey beard. 'Finish the rites, godi,' he commanded. Asgot nodded obediently as Mauger stepped into the clearing, a spitting torch in his hand. Father Egfrith was with him and when the monk saw what had been done to Ealhstan he gave a low moan and fell to his knees, making the sign of the cross with one hand and holding his stomach with the other. Even Mauger spat in distaste and crossed himself.





'You are devils! You are the turds of Satan himself!' Egfrith shrieked, accusing the Norsemen gathered there. 'Satan's turds! Ministers of evil!' Even I could not tell much of what he ranted, for he seemed maddened by the scene, and perhaps the ale had made him brave. I was living my own nightmare. I thought the Norsemen would kill him just to shut him up, but instead they ignored the monk and gathered beneath Ealhstan's body, muttering prayers to their gods and clutching their pendants and their swords. They were awed by Glum's sacrifice to Óðin and now sought to play their part in it to be assured of the god's favour. Even Sigurd paid his respects to the ancient oak's grisly fruit, muttering words I could not hear, and when he had finished he turned to Glum who stood apart from the others, bent over with one foot on a fallen ash. He was picking bits of Einar's brains from his brynja and examining them.





'Come here, Glum,' Sigurd said, the three words heavy with violence. The jarl's golden hair hung loose, giving him a wild aspect amidst the moon-bathed clearing. A number of the Norsemen held torches now, orange light tempering white, and by the combined light I saw defiance in the face of Fjord-Elk's shipmaster. He strode across the clearing and squared up to Sigurd, clutching his silver Thór's hammer pendant over his broad chest. Aggression came off the man, and Svein the Red stepped up to his jarl, loosening his huge shoulders.





'Óðin All-Father demanded a blood sacrifice,' Glum said, insolence curling his lip to reveal his teeth like a vicious dog. He turned his head and spat. 'Asgot has warned you many times, but you have been deaf to it.'





Sigurd's glittering eyes betrayed no emotion as he fixed them on his friend's. 'You have always served me well, Glum,' he said simply, 'and for this I will not kill you. But now you have dishonoured me. The sacrifice was not for you to make.'





'I did it for the Fellowship.' Glum threw the words away, knowing they were useless now. Then he looked at me and spat again. 'You favour the red-eyed boy when you should slit his throat. He has turned the Norns against us. You cannot bring back your son from the dead, Sigurd.' Sigurd's hand went to his sword's grip and the muscle in his cheek bounced beneath the golden beard. Svein growled, stepping forward, but Sigurd raised a hand to stop him.





'If you ever say another word about my son I will kill you, Glum,' Sigurd said. Glum nodded submissively. 'Would your father have betrayed his jarl?' He needed no answer. 'It is not for you to decide Óðin's will. What do you know of the All- Father? You have always honoured Thór. Honest and brutish suits you, Glum, but Óðin is a jarl's god and you do not have the wits for him.' Glum hawked and spat at Sigurd's feet, but Sigurd ignored the insult. Instead he turned to Asgot. 'As for you, old man, if you were not in your winter years, I would leave you here in this land of Christ worshippers.' He glanced at Father Egfrith, who knelt quietly in prayer now, his eyes closed. 'I would leave you to their mercy. You would die here and I doubt Óðin's dark maidens would be able to find you. You would never see his great hall.'





Asgot screwed up his wizened face, terrified by Sigurd's words.





Sigurd nodded solemnly. 'But you served my father before me and he valued your wisdom, such as it is, so I will not take from you your place at Serpent's oars.' Then he turned back to face Glum, and Bram stepped forward as though he knew what was to come. 'Hold out your arm,' Sigurd commanded in a low voice. All the Norsemen except those on watch were now gathered in the clearing, their fists clenched and their jaws set. Light and shadow played across their faces, and they looked somehow otherworldly. I knew the ancient shades of the forest were watching too.