TLV - 02 - The Road of the Sea Horse Read Online Free PDF Page B

white horse being mounted anew. "After him!" He battered at the last few shields that barred his way.
    "Look yonder!" shouted Halldor. Harald saw Magnus swing back into the saddle and gallop in pursuit of Svein, his guardsmen strung out behind him as they unhobbled their own steeds. He grinned and threw himself back into the fray.
    Before long the last Danes were routed or reduced to submission. Across the reddened ground, the dead and wounded lay strewn as far as one could see. Halldor leaned gasping on his worn-out ax and said wearily: "All this for one flea-bitten crown!"
    "For naught, if Svein gets away," said Harald. "But let's set things in order here while we wait."
    Not till evening did word come. A hare had bolted across Magnus's path as he followed his enemy; the horse shied, and the king was thrown to the ground. He landed on a rock, blood poured from his mouth and nose, and he slumped senseless. His men drew up around him, and Svein Estridhsson escaped.
    Magnus Olafsson rested on his ship; the Norsemen camped ashore. They had won. Denmark lay open before them, but not a man smiled. They sat around their fires, now and then talking in low voices; ever their eyes went blindly toward the Wisent. There had he been borne, a long way while he lay as if dead. . . . Now it was told that he had wakened and received the last rites.
    Einar Thambaskelfir knelt by the king's pallet. It was a strangely altered face which looked up at him, cold and white as if already death's angel had sealed it. The guardsmen stood leaning on their weapons, and three priests muttered prayers. Above them arched the buffalo head; in the low sunlight it was a relentless blaze of gold.
    Blood bubbled on Magnus's lips, and they heard how the rib-pierced lungs rattled. "I have sinned," he whispered. "God have mercy on my soul. Pray for me, Einar."
    "I will, my lord. I'll buy many Masses for you."
    "This is . . . my will. There has been too much pride and too much . . . greed . . . yes." Magnus turned his head, feverishly. "I leave Denmark to Svein." He coughed, which twisted his face with pain.
    Einar's head bowed. "As you wish, my lord."
    "He has been brave and—God, how it hurts!" Magnus plucked at the blanket. "I had not thought . . . This is how wars end, then, and how many men have I left to die? Christ forgive me, deliver me from hell." He clamped his teeth on a shriek. Even with darkness closing over his eyes, he must remember he was a king.
    Einar covered his own face and wept with the sobs of a man who has never learned to cry. And when he looked again, Magnus the Good was dead.
    "Pax vobiscum" said the priest. "Dominus vobiscum."
    "I shall wash him and lay him out," said Magnus's footboy.
    "No," said Einar. "That is for me."
    After he had cared for his lord and closed the eyes and drawn a blanket over the body, he went ashore and heard Mass for the departed soul. Thereafter he spoke with Magnus's half brother by Alfhild, one Thori, whom the king had told to go to Svein bearing word that Denmark was now his. "Go as he commanded," said Einar, "and take your mother with you. An evil time is coming."
    In the morning, Harald arrived from the North where he had been seeing that no further resistance should be raised. When he learned that Magnus was dead, his visage did not move, but he said: "That is a great loss. God rest him well."
    Inwardly, he could not make himself feel much grief. Magnus had died in the noontime of youth, but so had many others; Harald was not glad at the news, but did not hide from himself that it could be lucky for him. What must be done now was not to mourn a rival, but to rally the men and secure this land. The army had been warring long past the term of service, and he could not lawfully compel them to remain here; they must be persuaded.
    He let the horns summon the men to a Thing.
    Looking down from the rock on which he stood, he was surprised at how much sorrow he saw. Had Magnus indeed been so beloved? After a few