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“By all the gods,” Laren said, staring at Ragnor of York. “You are perfectly right, my lord.”
Ragnor preened like a jackdaw. “Let me also tell you that the sister wasn’t blamed for the murder. All believed the king had killed his son and placed him in the burial chamber. Since he loved him, they would be together for eternity.”
“That’s right, Lord Ragnor.”
“I can’t stand this,” Rorik said, got up, and left the longhouse.
Ragnor laughed and drank more mead. “I am a prince. Of course I would know the answer. Don’t raise your fists at me, remember who I am, remember who my father is.”
Ragnor said, looking as if he would soon be patting Laren on her head like a puppy that has just performed well, “Perhaps I am wrong. She told a fine tale. I liked the question at the end. It holds interest for a smart man. Aye, you did well, Laren. Perhaps a female isn’t such a bad skald after all.” And he pulled off his silver armlet and handed it to her.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, stunned.
Cleve said to Chessa, “I will go join Rorik. This is too much to bear. By all the gods, I want to kill him.”
Kerek left Ragnor bragging and braying to any of his men who would listen and came to Chessa, who was watching Kiri playing with a leather ball. “You see, he isn’t always stupid, though he did brag a bit too much about his superiority.”
“You’re right, that was well done of him,” she said, not looking up at him.
“Don’t you believe that if a man is clever, as Ragnor just proved to be, that he can be taught other things?”
“You mean like kindness, good judgment, generosity, common sense? Ah, and humility? That quality surely crowns all others. Shall I continue, Kerek?”
Kerek ground his teeth. “A man can’t be everything that is to your liking. You cannot demand a god. A man must have some flaws.”
“Leave it be, Kerek,” she said, patting his arm. “Leave it be. I won’t wed him and there’s the end to it.”
He said nothing. Chessa sighed and took herself to the fire pit to help Mirana and Entti clear away the remaining food from the evening meal.
10
CHESSA WAS SLEEPING deeply, dreaming of Egypt, that land very far to the south, that land of endless sand and heat that seared the flesh off the bones. She remembered the feel of the heat. She remembered the trees and the delicious dates as she picked them and stuffed them into her mouth. She remembered the soft white linen she wore, the open sandals. But above all she remembered the heat.
She also remembered a woman, her voice, her softness, and she knew in her dream that it was her mother, Naphta. She moaned softly, and the sound from deep in her own throat brought her awake.
She stared up into a man’s face. In the next instant, his fist landed on her jaw and she fell into blackness where there was no more sand, no more heat, just emptiness and peace.
When she awoke, she wasn’t in Mirana’s box bed. She was alone and her hands were bound. She shook her head. A pain seared through her jaw where the man had struck her.
She was sitting up against a bale of hay in a small hut. Light came through the cracks in the wood plank walls. Her ankles were also bound. She was still in her white linen nightshift that came to her knees.
When the small door creaked open some minutes later, she immediately stopped trying to pull her hands loose of the rope. Kerek bent over and came into the hut. He was carrying a bowl and a hunk of bread.
“Good morning, Princess,” he said. “I hope you feel all right. By the gods, your jaw is bruised. I told that fool to go easy with you, not to hit you. He’s large, he could have merely held his hand over your mouth.”
“Who was that man?”
“One of Ragnor’s men. I couldn’t come for you because I’m being watched too closely. I will make Ottar pay for this, the clumsy bastard. Does your jaw hurt?”
“Of course it hurts. Why did you have me taken?”
“Come, you know why.”
She sighed. “Untie me, Kerek, and take me back to the longhouse.”
“Nay, after you’ve eaten I will take you to the warship. Even now Ragnor is gathering the men together.”
“Oh? Are there enough men who want to return to York with him? It isn’t just you?”
