“When ?lfred fought off the Danes at ?thelney, he would-”
“Your precious ?lfred is dead!” Ealdstan spat. “I buried him myself! So you will have to continue along as best you can with who he has left behind!”
Ecgbryt smoldered under this reprimand. Ealdstan was now incensed. He bent forward in his chair, breathing quickly, eyes flashing in their deep sockets. He calmed, gradually, and leaned back again, pinching out a long sigh.
“Compared to the battle that is to come,” Ealdstan grumbled, his voice suddenly as sharp as the sound of stone scraping against stone, “this is not even a scuffle. Armies greater and more frightsome than we can comprehend are gathering in the dark corners of this rock-armies that may crush us into powder. That is the conflict we must cast our minds to-not this insignificant tussle. The grand cataclysm is approaching.”
“Very well,” said Swi?gar. “Then what must we do to prepare?”
Ealdstan cleared his throat and suddenly his voice was weak again and faltering. “I have been reading . . . studying the manuscripts.” His hands started to move and he shifted some of the papers around the table uncertainly. “It is hard to know where . . . current events fall . . . the prophecies seem . . . shuffled now . . . accuracy is not-accuracy has been . . . lost.”
“To hell with the prophecies,” said Swi?gar. “You know of the coming conflict-the cataclysm. What is to be done?”
“This age,” moaned Ealdstan. “This age is so cold . . . hearts are bitter and guts are bilious. There are no more heroes. There are none to help us from this era-none with strength in their soul to do what needs be done.
“What is to be done?” Ealdstan repeated, turning his grey eyes to Swi?gar. “Only this: pray that we have done enough in the past to be ready for the future. There is nothing further to prepare. The people of this time have forsaken us.”
“Are you certain that it is not you who have forsaken them?”
Swi?gar replied.
Ealdstan’s lips clenched together tightly as he ground his teeth.
Daniel’s and Freya’s pale faces looked around the room. Ecgbryt glowered at the centre of the table, fuming. Swi?gar sat with his chin stuck out and his fists clenched in front of him. Modwyn’s eyes met theirs, and for the first time, they saw living emotion in them-emotions of sorrow and dismay.
It was Ecgbryt who spoke next. “Ni?ergeard under siege is not a scuffle. When was the beacon extinguished? I’ve seen men fight without an arm, but never without a head. In the war we wage, all battles are vital, and action must be taken. If the yfelgop opposition is truly inconsequential, then let us rid ourselves of them and press our advantage. I propose we make a foray to test their strength and numbers. Information may be gleaned that could shed more light on events.”
“If! May! Could!” Ealdstan spat testily. “You have no conception of Gad’s powers! He’d swat you away like a child fanning a fly.” He leaned forward and made brusque sweeping motions with his hand, then settled back peevishly. “Very well. Make your attack. In the event that something is found of which I have no current knowledge, please . . . feel free to share.”
“We have your permission, then?”
“Permission? Why should you want that when you will not accept my counsel? Permission? To do what? Risk death and capture, simply to smell the enemy’s sweat? Yes, by all means. Go. Leave me in peace. Don’t leave the doors unbarred too long.”
Ealdstan stood, and the others rose with him.
“Thank you, wys f?der,” said Swi?gar, bowing his head.
“Be gone.”
The others muttered similar thanks as they started to file out of the room. Daniel and Freya hung back, the last to leave, standing in the doorway a little bewildered.
“Wait a second!” Freya blurted nervously, calling after the others. “Wait! We didn’t come here for this, Mr. Ealdstan,” she said, turning to him, “sir, Daniel and I-we came here because we want to go home, but we couldn’t because the tunnel was sealed up and we didn’t really have a choice. We don’t belong here. We belong at home, with our parents. Can you please show us the way out of here?”
Ealdstan listened to her with his head bowed over a dusty parchment so old it was cracking. As Freya finished, he raised his head and blinked at her. “Out? You cannot leave this place . . . Weren’t you listening? It’s far too dangerous. You’d be killed or worse.”
“Modwyn just said that they hadn’t found all the exits yet, so there’re tunnels-passages that those yfelgop things haven’t discovered yet. We came along the river. We slipped in, I know that we can slip out again. Maybe we could-”
“There is no safe passage. No escape.” He bent his head back down to the table and finished by muttering, “If there is no escape for us, why should there be any for you?”
“But we’re not a part of this-this world. None of this matters to us-we’re not important. They might not bother even chasing us.”
“No.”
“But-”
“LEAVE!”
Freya was shocked-the blood drained from her face, leaving her cold, frozen to the spot. She felt Daniel tugging at her arm and whispering her name, but she pulled her arm out of his hands-this was too important to back down from. “We want to leave!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “But you won’t let us! You have knights! You have magic! You have secret tunnels! Let us go!”
Ealdstan’s face twisted into an ugly mask of spite. “Stupid little brown-skinned girl,” he sneered through a clenched jaw. In several unexpectedly quick strides, he approached Freya. His ancient hand gripped her arm and with surprising strength he flung her out of the doorway and into the hall. She staggered a little and then ungracefully fell on her rear.
“Hey!” Daniel shouted. “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!”
Ealdstan ignored him and grabbed the edge of the large metal door and slammed it shut with a fluid motion. And because Daniel was still standing in the doorway, he took some of the force on his shoulder and one of the door’s rivets punched into his arm. He closed his eyes as excruciating pain flooded his body. He grabbed his arm and swore with all the worst words he knew. He didn’t think he’d ever been hit that hard. He kicked and pounded the door, which was so heavy and strong that it hardly made a noise.
“Oi, you!” Daniel shouted between pounds. “Ealdstan! Get out of here, you coward! Why not take me on, instead of pushing around a girl? Oi! Ealdstan! Ealdstan! ”
Daniel pounded and kicked for another moment, until his hands and feet ached. Then he turned and saw that Modwyn and the knights were standing around Freya. Ecgbryt must have helped her up-his hand was still on her shoulder. Freya was looking at him with wide, watery eyes.
“Come, lifiendes,” Swi?gar said. “We have matters to discuss.”
He then turned and they all started down the hall.
Grimacing, Daniel came alongside Freya. “Don’t worry, Freya,” he said. “We’ll find a way to get home-soon.”
4
They all started down the stairs in silence. Modwyn led them to a room on the fifth level that was nothing more than a completely square chamber with carved ledges in the wall that were used for seating. There was a low metal table in the middle of the room. Modwyn pulled a rope and a small bell tinkled in the distance.
“How long has Ealdstan been thus?” Swi?gar asked.
The door opened and Cnafa stepped into the room. “Bring a map of the Ni?erland and send Godmund here,” she instructed, and then turned to Swi?gar. “Ealdstan has been in such spirits for some time, even before the siege,” she replied in a hushed voice. “Listless and melancholic. We do not see him for months on end, and when we do, he passes by without acknowledgment or sign, leaving us to wonder if we have, in truth, seen him at all.”