If death is what you want, it can be arranged quickly and silently.’ With a black-toothed grin, Harald Redteeth shook his axe a finger’s width from Alric’s defiant face. The younger man slumped on the cold stone steps of the church tower where he had fallen.‘Archbishop Ealdred would never condone...
“HAVE YOUR wits deserted you?” He jabbed the tip of his sword toward his former companion’s heaving chest. “I saved your life. And now you put it at risk again? Is this a game to you?” Swallowing, Alric interposed himself between the warrior and the sprawling rabble-rouser...
Beside the heavy oak door to King William’s hall, he stood like a rod of iron. His face was as cold and hard as his long mail shirt and his helm and his double-edged sword. He was dressed for war, as was every Norman that strode through Wincestre these days. As usual, Balthar the Fox watched from...
Through the heat haze, the creamy walls of an ancient city wavered in a baking landscape of brown rock and ochre sand. Trails of smoke drifted upwards from the flat roofs into a sky the colour of old skulls. Though it seemed close enough to touch, Sabta was still a day or two away. The men breaki...
Beckoning wildly, he yelled, ‘I will carry you.’ In the moment that Hereward took to glance from the young Roman to the Normans bearing down on him, he reached a decision. His enemies’ armour flashed in the blazing sun. Their double-edged swords glowed in their hands. And yet his devil called to ...
Through the blaze of his rage, Hereward heard the insistent tone rise above the furious clash of battle and was pleased. Now his plan had been set in motion, he could give himself to vengeance. He threw himself up the hill. A Norman warrior rounded on him, growling. Without even slowing his step,...