Two Ravens Read Online Free PDF Page A

up before them. In the quiet water six or eight ships rocked at their anchors; two others were drawn up on the beach.
    Sigurd bade them anchor in the cove. The men on Swan gawked at the island and the other ships, shouting and pointing their fingers. Bjarni and his brothers rowed the little boat in to the shore.
    A hall dominated the slope over the cove. To one side of it was a big Christian temple with a cross on the gable, and many other smaller buildings were scattered around on the green grass. Boardwalks, lifted up above the ground on piles, connected the doors.
    Sigurd met the Hoskuldssons on the shore, three or four other men waiting at his beck nearby. When Bjarni came up the beach toward him, Sigurd squared his shoulders and put his hands on his belt.
    “Yes, you are Hoskuld’s son, you are the image of him.”
    They shook hands. Sigurd led him to the high side of the beach, where the boardwalk began, and they climbed the rattling wooden planks toward the hall. Bjarni walked beside Sigurd, with his brothers following after. Sigurd pointed to the other buildings scattered around the meadow on either side of the boardwalk.
    “I have my own forge, you see. My own mill. My own church. I am no pirate; here, my men have wives and children, some even farm. It is the Bishop who is the pirate—him I mean to fight.”
    Ahead of them two dark-haired women waited on the threshold of the hall. Sigurd nodded to them. “These are my wives.”
    Besides two wives he had children ranging from grown sons to babies. Bjarni saw that Ulf’s eyes fell on one of the older daughters.
    “So you wish to enter my service,” Sigurd said. He took Bjarni into the hall and up to the High Seat before the hearth. “Can you fight ? You don’t carry any weapons. I suppose you want me to arm you as well.”
    “I am not asking to serve you.” Bjarni sat down on the bench on Sigurd’s right. He looked around him at the hall, which was twice as large as Hrafnfell’s, and so wide there were three rows of wooden pillars to hold up the roofbeams. The broad benches down the sides of the room were covered with hides and blankets; men slept there. He turned to Sigurd again.
    “I don’t want to serve anybody, now that I am free of my father. I will help you, if we can come to an agreement. I’m a good sailor, and I can fight.”
    “You didn’t listen to me, outside. I am no pirate. I rule here. We have order here. You serve me, or you don’t stay here.”
    Bjarni raised his shoulders in a shrug. Rather than lift up his eyes to Sigurd in the High Seat, he studied the hall, and the people going in and out; Ulf had already sat down with Sigurd’s blond daughter on the far side of the hearth.
    “I don’t serve anybody,” Bjarni said. “I will go on, if you want it so. How long has it been since you saw Iceland?”
    “I am no Icelander.”
    “I am.”
    Sigurd grunted in his throat. A serving man brought each of them a cup. Bjarni’s was of wood but Sigurd’s cup was of red gold.
    “I also have my own brewhouse,” he said.
    Bjarni tasted the beer. “This is very good.” He drank it all, and the servant brought him more.
    “Hoskuld the Walker,” Sigurd said. “I recall something else about Hoskuld, which is that he ate of the horse. Are you a Christian?”
    “Everyone is Christian in Iceland. We are all baptized.”
    “By the law, yes. In the heart is another matter. Everyone knows that. Do you sacrifice to Christ?”
    “No, I am Thor’s man.”
    Sigurd canted forward over the table, so that Bjarni had to look at him. He said, “You shall have to be a Christian to serve me. I will not let the Bishop claim I am harboring pagans.”
    “I can see that we don’t agree on anything,” Bjarni said. “I keep the law, but I have no interest in Christ, or any hanged god, for that matter.”
    “Yes, you are Hoskuld’s son. He might have been one of my chief men, but instead he went back to drying fish and milking goats and a straw