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Hrolf did not hesitate ‘This is for everyone you murdered.’
He drove his sword home. The cheers of his remaining men rang out. Lavrans’s men hastily signalled their surrender.
‘Is it over?’ Sayrid asked.
‘Yes, it is over.’ He wiped the sweat which half-blinded him from his eyes. ‘You are safe. I will not allow you to be hurt.’
‘And Regin?’
Hrolf’s heart squeezed. It gave him no joy to say, ‘Your brother betrayed us all.’
Sayrid gave an unhappy nod. ‘He is a traitor. If I had any lingering doubts, seeing Lavrans’s ship convinced me. I have no idea when or how he turned. He deserves a traitor’s death. Just do not ask me to watch.’
‘I wish it were otherwise.’ His face creased with concern. ‘I’d have preferred to meet him in battle.’
‘We need to find him.’ Sayrid concentrated on the barn. She could barely bring herself to voice her unspoken fear that, having lost his usefulness, Regin was already dead. And she had to know why he had behaved in such a fashion. What could she have done to prevent it? Had it truly been because she had surrendered to Hrolf? ‘I must find him.’
‘You can stay here in the yard if you wish.’
Sayrid closed her eyes. Hrolf was attempting to be kind. They both knew what could be in that barn. But she was also reluctant to confess that she was afraid of losing him, or of him going in and not coming out again. ‘We go together. I will not have it said that I shirked my duty.’
His face closed to hard planes. ‘It is your choice.’
The barn held an unnatural stillness. All the animals had gone. Sayrid walked next to Hrolf, not speaking. Hrolf put an arm about her. ‘You don’t need to see this.’
A single tear ran down her cheek. ‘I do.’
‘Very well.’ He stepped aside and revealed the bloodied body, stretched spreadeagle in the stall where Regin’s favourite horse had been stabled. The horse, she saw with a pang, had been slaughtered. It was impossible to tell which was the blood from the horse and which was her brother’s blood.
‘Regin?’ she whispered through cracked lips. ‘Are you alive?’
Hrolf placed his weapons down and went over to the body. His face became creased with concern. ‘Whatever he hoped to gain, it wasn’t this.’
Sayrid forced her feet to move and she knelt beside the body. ‘Why, Regin? Why did you try to destroy us like this?’
No answer. She went to shut his eyes, but his hand grabbed her wrist.
‘Say?’ Regin said in a barely recognisable croak. ‘Say, I made a mistake. I’m sorry.’
Tears flowed down her face unchecked. ‘I know.’
‘I’m no traitor. I thought you’d just go off adventuring to the East and there’d be no need for this.’
‘Who are you protecting?’ Hrolf asked in a hard voice. ‘Your sister could have died today because of you. Brave men died today because of you. Is that what you wanted?’
‘Blodvin.’ His hand plucked at the blood-soaked straw. ‘Not my baby. Do not trust her. Wicked.’
Sayrid’s heart contracted. Not his baby? Blodvin had betrayed them all? Thinking back, she wondered why she hadn’t thought of it before. She’d never fully trusted Bloodaxe and she certainly should not have trusted his daughter. Regin had sworn that it had been only the one time. Her brother had been deceived in the worst possible way. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘We both are,’ Hrolf said.
‘Thought I was doing it for my child and the child wasn’t even mine,’ her brother said, gasping between each word. ‘Lavrans…’
‘Dead.’
Her brother gave a small semblance of a smile. ‘Good.’
‘Sayrid…’ Hrolf hauled her back against him. ‘I will ask Magda to make him comfortable. It is in the Norns’ spindles if he lives or dies. His injuries…I have seldom seen a man survive for long with that sort.’
Sayrid rose. She understood what Hrolf was offering. ‘I should stay. I have been on a battlefield before.’
Her brother’s head thrashed about on the straw. ‘Say…go. You need to find Blodvin. She took the little girl. I objected because I don’t make war against children and they beat me. Find the girl. Save her. You are good at that.’
The true horror of what Regin was saying hit Sayrid like a hammer blow. She hadn’t given Inga a second thought after Magda explained that Blodvin had her. She had assumed all would be well. Blodvin was known to be good with children and that was before she had heard of Blodvin’s treachery.
