what,’ Finan asked, ‘are we doing when we get there?’
‘I wish I knew.’
He laughed at that. ‘Forty of us,’ he said, nodding at Spearhafoc’s crowded belly, ‘invading Wessex?’
‘More than forty,’ I said, then fell silent. I stared at the sun-glossed sea as it slid past Spearhafoc’s sleek hull. We could not have wished for a better day. We had a wind to drive us and a sea to carry us, and that sea was rippled by dazzling light, broken only by small frills of foam curling at the wave crests. That weather should have been a good omen, but I was assailed by unease. I had launched this voyage impulsively, seizing what I thought was an opportunity, but now the doubts were nagging me. I touched Thor’s hammer hanging at my neck. ‘The priest,’ I said to Finan, ‘brought me a message from Eadgifu.’
For a moment he looked puzzled, then recognised the name. ‘Lavender Tits!’
I half smiled, remembering that I had once told Finan that Eadgifu’s breasts smelled of lavender. Eadith had told me that many women infused lavender into lanolin and smeared it on their cleavage. ‘Eadgifu has tits that smell like lavender,’ I confirmed to Finan, ‘and she asks for our help.’
Finan stared at me. ‘Christ on his cross!’ he finally said. ‘What in God’s name are we doing?’
‘Going to find Eadgifu, of course,’ I said.
He still stared at me. ‘Why us?’
‘Who else can she ask?’
‘Anyone!’
I shook my head. ‘She’ll have a few friends in Wessex, none in Mercia or East Anglia. She’s desperate.’
‘But why ask for your help?’
‘Because she knows I’m the enemy of her enemy.’
‘Æthelhelm.’
‘Who hates her,’ I said.
That hatred was easy to understand. Edward had met Eadgifu while he was still married to Æfflaed, Æthelhelm’s sister and Ælfweard’s mother. The new, younger and prettier woman had won that rivalry, usurping Æfflaed’s place in the king’s bed and even persuading Edward to name her as Queen of Mercia. To make Æthelhelm’s hatred even more intense she had given Edward two more sons, Edmund and Eadred. Both boys were infants, yet the eldest, Edmund, had a claim on the throne if, so some believed, Æthelstan was illegitimate, and, as many realised, Ælfweard was simply too stupid, cruel and unreliable to be the next king. Æthelhelm understood that danger to his nephew’s future, which was why Eadgifu, in her desperation, had sent the priest to Bebbanburg.
‘She knows what Æthelhelm is planning for her,’ I told Finan.
‘She knows?’
‘She has spies, just as he does, and she was told that as soon as Edward dies Æthelhelm plans to carry her off to Wiltunscir. She’s to be placed in a nunnery and her two boys are to be raised in Æthelhelm’s household.’
Finan gazed across the summer sea. ‘Meaning,’ he said slowly, ‘that both boys will have their throats slit.’
‘Or else die of a convenient illness, yes.’
‘So what are we going to do? Rescue her?’
‘Rescue her,’ I agreed.
‘But, Christ! She’s protected by the king’s household troops! And Æthelhelm will be watching her like a hawk.’
‘She’s already rescued herself,’ I said. ‘She and her children went to Cent. She told her husband she was going to pray for him at the shrine of Saint Bertha, but in truth she wants to raise troops who’ll protect her and the boys.’
‘Dear God,’ Finan looked appalled. ‘And men will follow her?’
‘Why not? Remember that her father was Sigehelm.’ Sigehelm had been the ealdorman of Cent until he was killed fighting the Danes in East Anglia. He had been wealthy, though nothing like as rich as Æthelhelm, and Sigehelm’s son, Sigulf, had inherited that wealth along with his father’s household warriors. ‘Sigulf probably has three hundred men,’ I said.
‘And Æthelhelm has double that, at least! And he’ll have the king’s warriors too!’
‘And those warriors will be watching Æthelstan in Mercia,’ I said. ‘Besides, if Eadgifu and her brother march against Æthelhelm then others will follow them.’ That, I thought, was a slender hope, but not an impossible one.
Finan frowned at me. ‘I thought your oath was to Æthelstan. Now it’s to Lavender Tits?’
‘My oath is to Æthelstan,’ I said.
‘But Eadgifu will expect you to make her son the next king!’
‘Edmund is too young,’ I said firmly. ‘He’s an infant. The Witan will never appoint him king, not till he’s of age.’
‘By which time,’ Finan pointed out, ‘Æthelstan will be on the throne with sons of his own!’
‘I’ll be dead by then,’ I said, and touched the hammer again.
Finan gave a mirthless laugh. ‘So we’re sailing to join a Centish rebellion?’
‘To lead it. It’s my best chance to kill Æthelhelm.’
‘Why not join Æthelstan in Mercia?’
‘Because if the West Saxons hear that Æthelstan is using Northumbrian troops they’ll regard that as a declaration of war by Sigtryggr.’
‘That won’t matter if Æthelstan wins!’
‘But he has fewer men than Æthelhelm, he has less money than Æthelhelm. The best way to help him win is to kill Æthelhelm.’ Far to the east a speck of sail showed. I had been watching it for some time, but saw now that the distant ship was travelling northwards and would come nowhere near us.
‘Damn your oaths,’ Finan said mildly.
‘I agree. But remember, Æthelhelm has tried to kill me. So oath or no oath I owe him a death.’
Finan nodded because that explanation made sense to him even if he did believe we were on a voyage to madness. ‘And his nephew? What of him?’
‘We’ll kill Ælfweard too.’
‘You swore an oath to kill him too?’ Finan asked.
‘No,’ I admitted, but then touched my hammer once more. ‘But I swear one now. I’ll kill that little earsling along with his uncle.’
Finan grinned. ‘One ship’s crew, eh? Forty of us! Forty men to kill the King of Wessex and his most powerful ealdorman?’
‘Forty men,’ I said, ‘and the troops of Cent.’
Finan laughed.
