The Pale Horseman Read Online Free PDF

leaned down,
    I kicked it a few inches further away. 'Pick it up,' I ordered him again.
    He still held the stub of ash and, as he took a further step, straining against the rope, he

suddenly whipped around and tried to ram the broken end into my belly. He was fast, but I

had half expected the move and caught his wrist in my left hand. I squeezed hard, hurting

him.
    'Pick it up,' I said a third time.
    This time he obeyed, stooping to the stave, and to reach it he stretched his tether tight

and I slashed Serpent-Breath onto the taut rope, severing it. Haesten, who had been

straining forward, fell onto his face as the hide rope was cut. I put my left foot onto his

back and let the tip of Serpent-Breath rest on his spine.
    'Alfred,' I said to the Frisians, 'has ordered that all Danish prisoners are to be taken

to him.'
    The three looked at me, said nothing.
    'So why have you not taken this man to the king?' I demanded.
    'We didn't know, lord,' one of them said, 'no one told us,' which was not surprising

because Alfred had given no such order.
    'We'll take him to the king now, lord,' another reassured me.
    'I'll save you the trouble,' I said. I took my foot off Haesten. 'Get up,' I told him in

Danish. I threw a coin to the boy holding my horse and hauled myself into the saddle where I

offered Haesten a hand.
    'Get up behind me,' I ordered him.
    The Frisians protested, coming at me with their swords drawn, so I pulled Wasp-Sting from

her scabbard and gave it to Haesten who had still not mounted. Then I turned the horse towards

the Frisians and smiled at them.
    'These people,' I waved Serpent-Breath at the crowd, 'already think I am a murderer. I'm

also the man who met Ubba Lothbrokson beside the sea and killed him there. I tell you this

so you may boast that you killed Uhtred of Bebbanburg.'
    I lowered the sword so it pointed at the nearest man and he backed away. The others, no

more eager to fight than the first, went with him. Haesten then pulled himself up behind me

and I spurred the horse into the crowd, which parted reluctantly.
    Once free of them I made Haesten dismount and give me back Wasp-Sting. 'How did you get

captured?' I asked him.
    He told me he had been on one of Guthrum's ships caught. In the storm, and his ship had sunk,

but he had clung to some wreckage and been washed ashore where the Frisians had found him.

'There were two of us, lord,' he said, 'but the other died.'
    'You're a free man now,' I told him.
    'Free?'
    'You're my man,' I said, 'and you'll give me an oath, and I'll give you a sword.'
    'Why?' he wanted to know.
    'Because a Dane saved me once, I said, 'and I like the Danes.'
    I also wanted Haesten because I needed men. I did not trust Odda the Younger, and I

feared Steapa Snotor, Odda's warrior, and so I would have swords at Oxton. Mildrith, of

course, did not want Sword Danes at her house. She wanted ploughmen and peasants, milkmaids

and servants, but I told her I was a lord, and a lord has swords.
    I am indeed a lord, a lord of Northumbria. I am Uhtred of Bebbanburg. My ancestors, who

can trace their lineage back to the god Woden, the Danish Odin, were once kings in northern

England, and if my uncle had not stolen Bebbanburg from me when I was just ten years old I

would have lived there still as a Northumbrian lord safe in his sea-washed fastness. The

Danes had captured Northumbria, and their puppet king, Ricsig, ruled in Eoferwic, but

Bebbanburg was too strong for any Dane and my uncle Ælfric ruled there, calling himself

Ealdorman Ælfric, and the Danes left him in peace so long as he did not trouble them, and I

often dreamed of going back to Northumbria to claim my birthright. But how? To capture

Bebbanburg I would need an army, and all I had was one young Dane, Haesten. And I had other

enemies in Northumbria. There was Earl Kjartan and his son Sven, who had lost an eye because

of me, and they would kill me gladly, and my uncle would