The Pagan Lord Read Online Free PDF

inside Mercia, not Wessex, and that it was Æthelred’s responsibility, but Æthelred hated me and would rather have the Danes in Ceaster than my reputation enhanced. Now, it seemed, Haesten had gained Cnut’s protection, which made capturing Ceaster a much more formidable task.
    ‘My Lord Uhtred doesn’t trust me,’ Haesten spoke to Cnut, ‘but I am a changed man, is that not so, lord?’
    ‘You’re changed,’ Cnut said, ‘because if you betray me I’ll extract the bones from your body and feed them to my dogs.’
    ‘Your poor dogs must go hungry then, lord,’ Haesten said.
    Cnut brushed past him, leading me to the high table on the dais. ‘He’s useful to me,’ he explained Haesten’s presence.
    ‘You trust him?’ I asked.
    ‘I trust no man, but I frighten him, so yes, I trust him to do my bidding.’
    ‘Why not hold Ceaster yourself?’
    ‘How many men does it take? A hundred and fifty? So let Haesten feed them and spare my treasury. He’s my dog now. I scratch his belly and he obeys my commands.’ He nevertheless gave Haesten a place at the high table, though far away from the two of us. The hall was large enough to hold all Cnut’s warriors and my men, while at the farther end, a long way from the fire and close to the main door, two tables had been provided for cripples and beggars. ‘They get what’s left over,’ Cnut explained.
    The cripples and beggars ate well because Cnut gave us a feast that night. There were haunches of roasted horse, platters of beans and onions, fat trout and perch, newly baked bread, and big helpings of the blood puddings I liked so much, all served with ale that was surprisingly good. He served the first horn to me himself, then stared morosely to where my men mixed with his. ‘I don’t use this hall much,’ he said, ‘it’s too close to you stinking Saxons.’
    ‘Maybe I should burn it for you?’ I suggested.
    ‘Because I burned your hall?’ That thought seemed to cheer him. ‘Burning your hall was a revenge for
Sea Slaughterer
,’ he said, grinning.
Sea Slaughterer
had been his prized ship, and I had turned her into a scorched wreck. ‘You bastard,’ he said, and touched his ale-horn to mine. ‘So what happened to your other son? Did he die?’
    ‘He became a Christian priest, so, as far as I’m concerned, yes he died.’
    He laughed at that, then pointed to Uhtred, ‘And that one?’
    ‘Is a warrior,’ I said.
    ‘He looks like you. Let’s hope he doesn’t fight like you. Who’s the other boy?’
    ‘Æthelstan,’ I said, ‘King Edward’s son.’
    Cnut frowned at me. ‘You bring him here? Why shouldn’t I hold the little bastard as a hostage?’
    ‘Because he is a bastard,’ I said.
    ‘Ah,’ he said, understanding, ‘so he won’t be King of Wessex?’
    ‘Edward has other sons.’
    ‘I hope my son holds onto my lands,’ Cnut said, ‘and perhaps he will. He’s a good boy. But the strongest should rule, Lord Uhtred, not the one who slides out from between a queen’s legs.’
    ‘The queen might think differently.’
    ‘Who cares what wives think?’ He spoke carelessly, but I suspected he lied. He did want his son to inherit his lands and fortune. We all do, and I felt a shiver of rage at the thought of Father Judas. But at least I had a second son, a good son, while Cnut had only one, and the boy was missing. Cnut cut into a haunch of horsemeat and held a generous portion towards me. ‘Why don’t your men eat horse?’ he asked. He had noticed how many had left the meat untouched.
    ‘Their god won’t allow it,’ I said.
    He looked at me as if judging whether I made a joke. ‘Truly?’
    ‘Truly. They have a supreme wizard in Rome,’ I explained, ‘a man called the pope, and he said Christians aren’t permitted to eat horse.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because we sacrifice horses to Odin and Thor and eat the meat. So they won’t.’
    ‘All the more for us,’ Cnut said. ‘A pity their god doesn’t teach them to leave