‘You should be gentler. Do not hold it so tightly.’
‘I have given you a compliment but do not presume that you can tell me how to ride.’ He laughed. ‘Now let us see what happens when I have the head start.’
He turned but I could see the whites of the gelding’s eyes. Sigurd had not noticed the seal carcass that lay deflated and half-eaten. The gelding tossed its head, nostrils flared andjumped sideways. It snorted and arched its neck backing away towards the cliff edge.
I did not speak. It was though the world had slowed. Sigurd tried to regain control pulling tighter on the reins, but it did no good. It was always a skittish beast, and Sigurd was not the type of man who would yield to it and let it calm.
Its muscles rippled as though it were about to erupt. It reared; Sigurd tried to hang on but as they landed, he became unseated. It spun quickly throwing him sideways. He tried to push his feet further into the stirrups, but it was no good. With a second twist, he was thrown and tumbled to the ground like a stone.
The foolish beast took one look at Sigurd, snorted and bolted into the distance.
‘Sigurd?’ I shouted getting down from my mare. She danced and jogged but I held her tight. ‘Sigurd are you injured?’
He answered with a groan and began to sit up, propping himself against a boulder.
‘Sigurd?’ I tried again, placing my hand on his shoulder.
‘Stop shouting, woman. I am fine.’ He touched a roving finger to the bloodied gash on his forehead. ‘My head feels as though I have drunk a cask of Estrid’s best honied mead.’
He was as grey as ash.
‘Let me help you.’
He pushed me away, but his left arm hung limply. ‘Let me sit here a while. The world is spinning.’ He groaned again and laid back against the earth and closed his eyes.
Once, Elpin and I had been out hunting, we were perched higher up the embankment, waiting motionlessly for game to appear and hoping that the dense foliage would mask our scent. A doe ambled slowly into the clearing below. Ears flickering. Listening. Elpin cocked his bow and levelled it at the creature. The forest held its breath. The arrow whistled through the treesbut before it could hit its target, a boar burst forth sending the doe bounding into the distance.
My anger bubbled furiously. Without that doe, Elpin’s family would go hungry. Before our eyes, a score of men followed beating the undergrowth and trying to trap the beast. It was a full-grown boar twice the weight of any man there. They tried to surround it, dogs howling and teeth gnashing. It is a dangerous thing to kill a boar. It must be taken down before it can split you in two and spill your guts to the floor. We watched as a man stepped forward to take the first strike. He missed. Hiding behind those trees we watched on in silence as that boar slit a man from navel to throat.
I have seen death and although at the time my stomach lurched, it was what happened next that was the most shocking. The rest carried on. They fought that beast, reining spear after spear into its thick wiry hide until its carcass lay still. Then they left. With their kill and without their kinsmen. Leaving him to be devoured as carrion.
I would not leave Sigurd.
‘We must try and walk back; it is no good sitting here and waiting for the crows to peck at you.’ I shook him vigorously. ‘Sigurd.’ He blinked at me and gave a half-cocked smile in recognition. ‘Are you awake?’ The sea roared with a vengeance as it beat furiously against the rocks. ‘You must try and stand.’
This was not a day that the skalds would celebrate. There is not an Icelandic Saga that begins with Jarl Sigurd the mighty being thrown from a horse and having his wife tend his wounds while he wobbled all the way home like a drunkard. He got unsteadily to his feet but tumbled to the floor again.
‘Let me help you.’
He slung an arm around my neck to brace himself and got to his feet. The arm that had hung limply, moved a little but it wasof no use. He stopped and steadied himself on the boulder before emptying the warm contents of his stomach onto the floor.
We needed to be home. Home. It was a strange thought and hit me, but I did not have time to think on it. I needed Estrid or Halldora. Someone that knew more about herbs and salves than I did. I stared into the distance. Eyes straining trying to see our settlement. It was not like my father’s fortress that marked the horizon from miles around. Smoke trails spiralled skyward. That would be the direction we would head but it was much too far for him to walk.
‘Ride my mare. I will lead her.’
‘Ride your own mare,’ he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘I will walk.’
‘You will no,’ I said more forcefully than I had intended. ‘You can barely stand.’
He swayed gently as though the sea breeze might knock him from his feet. ‘I can walk.
I was furious but I would not be beaten. ‘As you wish, my Lord.’ I turned, leading my mare and began to walk. I did not look back. I listened to the unsteady gait. The stumbling. He always was as stubborn as a mule and would not be told what to do. It was better to let him think that he had made the decision himself, as it is with most men.
‘Steady the mare,’ he said, yielding. ‘I will ride.’
I finally let out the breath I had been holding and pulled her up. He hoisted himself unsteadily into the saddle. I handed him the reins. ‘You will ride with me.’ It was not a question. He seemed too exhausted for me to refuse.
He moved back and allowed me to sit between his legs. I took the reins and felt his weight sag against me for support. I could always read him like the seeress reads the bones. I kept the mare’s pace steady and trained her west, back towards the direction we had come.
