“Come with me and we will speak of this matter to Eadmund himself.  Then will the business be settled at once.”

That was all I would wish, and being willing to speak yet more with Raud, I said I would follow.  He turned again, and looked no more at me.

Then I asked Raud of his brother, and of Thoralf, my other companion of flight.  They were both slain, one at Gainsborough and one at Medehamstede.  Thormod was with Halfden in Wessex, where they had made a landing to keep Ethelred, our Wessex overlord, from sending to our help.  But as to Halfden, men said that he would not come to East Anglia, for the Lady Osritha had over persuaded him.

Then, though I would not ask in any downright way, I found that Osritha was well, but grieving, as they thought, for the danger of her brothers—­and of that I had my own thoughts.

So with talk of the days that seemed so long past, we went on into Hoxne woods, through which Raud said that he had learnt we must go to meet the host in its onward march from Thetford.

“Jarl Ingvar lets not the grass grow under his feet,” I said.

We came to a place where the woodland track broadened out into a clearing, and there waited the other Danes, and with them, sitting alone now on the horse, was Eadmund the King.

Pale he was, and all soiled with the stains of war, and with the moss and greenery of his strange hiding place; but his eye was bright and fearless, and he sat upright and stately though he was yet with his hands bound behind him.

I rode past Ingvar and to Eadmund’s side, and throwing myself from my horse stood by him, while the Dane glared at us both without speaking.

“Why run thus into danger, Wulfric my son?” said the king, speaking gently; “better have let me be the only victim.”

“That you shall not be, my king,” I answered; “for if you must die, I will be with you.  But I have come to try to ransom you.”

“There are two words concerning that,” said Ingvar in his cold voice.  “Maybe I will take no gold for Eadmund.”

“What shall we give you then?” I asked, looking earnestly at him.

“You heard what I said this morning before the battle.  I have no other terms but those.  And I think they are light—­as from the son of Lodbrok whom this king’s servant slew.”

Now Eadmund spoke, saying to Ingvar: 

“Let me hear what are your terms for my freedom.  In the slaying of Lodbrok my friend I had no part.”

“That is easily said,” Ingvar answered, frowning.  “I have my own thoughts on that—­else had I not been here.  But this land is in my power, therefore I will let you go if you will hold it for me, and own me as overlord, doing my will.”

“My answer is the same as it was this morning.  It is not for me to give over this land into the hands of heathen men to save myself.”

That was Eadmund’s calm answer, and looking on Ingvar I saw the same bode written in his face as had been when I would not honour his gods.  Then he spoke slowly, and his words fell like ice from his lips.