TLV - 03 - The Sign of the Raven Read Online Free PDF Page A

mouth in a short time and steered into the bay on the evening. By then there was a flat calm.
    Harald frowned when he saw the water empty of Danish ships. A little smoke rose from the nearby thorp, but no one was in sight, the people must have fled. Foreboding stabbed through him. Did Svein once more mean to avoid battle?
    "They may also have been held up by the storm," said Eystein Gorcock when he met the king on shore.
    "The wind would have favored them," replied Harald. "Even if they waited out the gale, they should be here now. Take some men and go find news. There must be someone about who knows."
    Eystein nodded. His sister asked anxiously: "What if Svein does refuse to meet us?"
    "Then we must seek him out ... or burn his country down around his ears," said Harald.
    "The yeomen will not like a long campaign at this time of year," said Haakon Ivarsson. "Bad enough to call them out just when their hay was getting ready. If their grain rots in the field, we may look for rebellion."
    Harald gave him a cold stare. "So now you too will go home with your belly dragging the ground?"
    Haakon flushed red. "I'll stay, my lord," he responded angrily. "It's not my fault if you won't listen to sensible redes."
    "There's no luck in this voyage," muttered Ulf. "It's what comes of taking a woman along."
    Thora stamped her foot. "And you'd liefer be lounging at home?"
    "Be still, all of you!" said Harald.
    A jag of pain ran over Ulf's ugly face; he turned and walked with faltering steps toward his tent. Harald had half a mind to run after him. It must be lonely to feel death gnawing in your breast. But the bitterness of Svein's betrayal was too thick in his mouth.
    He would scarcely say a word throughout that evening.
    On the morrow he called a Thing of his men and related his challenge to them, bidding Svein be all men's nidhing did he not accept. Thereafter it was a dreary waiting, while Eystein and Gunnar and others were out after word. The thorp saw much carousing, ball games, fights between such horses as had been carried along; but the host was as sullen as its leader.
    Eystein's band came back in three days. The sheriff rode up to the king's tent, and Harald sprang out and almost dragged him from his steed. "Well?" barked the king. "What have you learned?"
    "We stole up on a steading which seemed rich, and took the folk prisoner." Eystein tugged his mustache unhappily. "They said Svein has his fleet out indeed, but far to the south, near Fyen. They know because two of their sons had gone to join him—"
    Harald whirled and grabbed a tent stay. The whole thing came down under that, and he took the ridge pole and broke it across his knee. "God curse that craven," he choked. "Hell take his worthless soul and fry it. That whelp of a mangy dog, that dead and rotting fish, that eater of maggots—"
    Thora listened in awe till he fell silent. Then she said briskly: "Well, put the torch to Denmark."
    "Seek him out," said Magnus. "Hunt him down and spit him."
    Haakon Jarl had come up with the other chiefs and now shook his curly head. "My lord, the yeomen will not stand for such a chase. What boots victory if they starve this winter?"
    "Aye . . . aye ..." Harald's knuckles were white on his fists, he stared before him like a blind man, but his tone came soft: "Yes, I suppose you have right. We'll call the Thing together, offer rich reward to those who'll remain true, and then sail on."
    "Svein will have a larger fleet if our yeomen go home," said Thora. "Is it not so?"
    "Yes," nodded Ulf. "The Danes care less for their crops than for revenge—or for safety. They know we'll fire their fields if we can."
    H arald sighed. "I've a greater foe than Svein Estridhsson," he said. "It is the old woman who wrestled Thor to a fall, the hag who eats years. I'll not waste what's left in this sour corner of the earth. St. Olaf witness, we'll end the war this time, one way or another."
    Thora's nostrils flared. "There speaks Harald Hardrede!" she