Runa stood up from the shadows of her chair. Others lifted their heads, squinting into frame of light cast from the door. Now Ulfrik caught the scent of blood mixed with the pungent smoke of the smoldering hearth. He surged into the room, scanning for Hakon.
"By all the gods, what has happened here?" He met tired and uncertain eyes, none willing to hold his for long. Halla stood, then her children beside her. Her face and hair were starkly pale in the darkness, and her expression panicked. One hand hovered at her chest, and when she did not see her husband she covered her mouth.
"Where is Gunnar?" Runa swept down from the high table, her voice taut with control that threatened to break. As if to accent the disastrous news, Snorri had appeared and fully opened the smoke hole cover to blast the room with white light.
Ulfrik shook his head, and held Runa's eyes. It stopped her dead, and both hands went to her mouth.
"And Toki?" Halla rushed forward to grab Ulfrik's arm. He gave her the same solemn shake of his head.
"Both have been captured. Most of the others are dead."
Runa collapsed and a commotion of servants and hirdmen gathered to her. Halla began to sob, asking how it happened even as Ulfrik pulled free of her to tend his wife. Bera was beside her, fanning her face with her hand as Runa stared ahead with unfocused eyes. Others crowded her, a servant offering a cup of water that she did not acknowledge. The feeling of helplessness was so overwhelming, and the confusion of what had occurred while he was gone so complete, Ulfrik stood like a man made of stone.
"What is happening?" he mumbled to himself. "Where is Hakon?"
Then he saw the familiar faces of Konal's men, and then Konal himself. He was laid out on a table, and his eyes were empty as he stared at him. Ulfrik's guts turned to watery ice, for if Konal was dead, then so was Hakon.
Then the lifeless eyes blinked, and Konal began to stir.
He left Runa, surrounded by her servants and friends. Halla chased after him, demanding to know what had happened to Toki. He ignored her and came to Konal's side. Snorri met him and placed a trembling hand on his shoulder. His voice was low and hoarse. "He only returned last night. Ornolf did what he could for the wound, but it's butcher's work."
Konal tried to raise himself, but Snorri pressed him down. A wool blanket covered him, and as he struggled it fell away to reveal his naked torso. Ulfrik peeled it back and saw the ragged gash in Konal's side. It was angry red and thick cord held it shut, Ornolf's handiwork. Ulfrik knew the agony of those stitches. Each stitch required a hole to be poked through the flesh with an awl before feeding the thread through it. Men went blind from such pain, usually passing out before it was done.
"My burns were worse than this." He tried to smile and rub his face, but instead he grimaced and dropped his hand to the table. "But I'll be pissing blood for while."
"I am glad you survived, but what happened?"
"We have the same question for you, lad?" Snorri's tired eyes fixed on him. He sighed and turned to check Runa. She was standing now with Bera and Einar's aid. Halla's children had come to her side and begun crying. This was going to be horrible to tell, and more horrible to hear. At last he searched for Aren, and not seeing him with Runa thought him asleep in their room. Only when he turned back to Konal did he see Aren's eyes barely reaching over the table to stare at him. He held Konal's hand.
"Give me your tale while Runa recovers," Ulfrik said. "And we will set everything in the clear."
Konal struggled with his story, and his men filled in where he stumbled. Ulfrik winced at how Konal had been beaten and Hakon carried off. "He was still in good spirits, and treated better than I would have thought," Konal said. By now Runa had stabilized and came to Ulfrik's side to hear the tale a second time. "Throst will take him to Clovis, that is my guess. He is destroyed now, only one or two men left to him. He shelters his mother and sister, but we hardly saw them. He feared what his men might do to them, I think. I am sorry I failed you, Lord Ulfrik."
"Never say it." Konal reached out for him and Ulfrik grabbed his arm, clasping both hands to it. "I know only too well how it is to meet with the unexpected. We could not have guessed Astra knew our plans."
Though he smiled and smoothed over the words, he had to suppress a shiver of dread. No one but Konal and he had known of their ploy, and only a few had been told of it after Astra had left. She had either guessed herself, or someone informed her. "Astra fled with Throst, I assume?"
"She returned to kill Aren and failed." Runa's voice was powerful yet emotionless, but Ulfrik still jumped with surprise.
"And she was killed in the attempt, I trust?" Runa shook her head and told him the remainder of the tale. By the end, Ulfrik was seated upon a bench and rubbing his face.
"This is like grabbing an adder by its tail," he said. "But at least you had the wisdom to let her live. I need answers from her."
"She's not talking," Halla offered, still standing while everyone else sat. "I don't think you will learn much from her."
"Do you think I will be merciful because she is a woman? Not for her crimes. I'll have her fingers cut off one by one until she tells me all I want to know, and there's plenty more of her to work on if she lasts through that."
"And then you will hang her?" Halla asked.
"Until her body rots off the tree." Ulfrik frowned at her, confused, and she waved away his confusion.
"She deserves death, especially if she led my husband into a trap. That is why I asked. What happened to Toki? Please, I cannot wait any longer."
Ulfrik stared at the floor, unwilling to meet anyone's gaze. He felt Runa staring at him and at last he met her eyes. Anger, sadness, confusion, and a raft of other emotions clouded her. It was as if she were another woman, so haggard and contorted was her expression. He drew a deep breath and related what they had discovered, leaving no detail out. "At last we followed their trail to Clovis's castle, and my worst fears had been confirmed. Along with Gunnar and Toki, they must have captured a dozen or so of Toki's men. I did not dare open contact with the Franks. We were tired and disheartened, and not prepared for battle with such a large force. We would be destroyed in open battle. So I returned."
"And left my husband a prisoner of your enemy?" Halla's voice was shrill as she glared at Ulfrik. Yet hard eyes turned on her unseemly outburst, and she schooled her tone. "How will you get him released? How soon?"
Ulfrik sighed again, looking instead to Runa who continued to watch him as if he were a stranger. "Clovis will demand a tremendous ransom, and I will pay all he asks. My one fear …" He hesitated, wondering if sharing his concerns would only worsen matters, but he had already started and expectant faces awaited him. "My one fear is he will demand my land, which I cannot give, not without leave from Jarl Hrolf the Strider. I don't foresee him ceding any land to the Franks without a battle."
"That is nonsense," Halla said, forgetting herself once more. "Are you not the jarl here? You can do what you wish with your land, leave it if you will."
"I've sworn an oath," Ulfrik said, putting as much finality to it as he could muster in his weary condition. "Hrolf has awarded me the land and all in it, but I pay tribute to him. I've sworn to hold this land against his enemies. No matter the cost."
The bitter words sunk the room into gloomy silence. No one doubted Clovis and the Franks would demand land over gold. For his part, Ulfrik could already hear Hrolf's saddened but stern refusal to step back from the border. He imagined the request to Hrolf, could see his predatory eyes flash first with anger, then sympathy, and then the coldness of a king's decision. I am sorry for your son, he imagined him saying, but a hundred men do not trade their honor and their homes for one man, no matter who he is.