Page 83 of Summer of the Viking

‘If he was in your custody, then he took no part in the raid on the farmhouse,’ Alwynn said. Her heart pounded in her ears. The boy could identify Valdar, but he was also innocent of the attack. ‘He can know nothing of it if he was imprisoned in your hall, Lord Edwin.’

Lord Edwin’s face fell, but he recovered. ‘What does it matter? He tried to take some grain. The law is quite clear on what to do with thieves.’

The boy hugged his arms about his stomach and pleaded in a foreign tongue that none present could understand. Alwynn stood upright. With each word she uttered, her confidence grew. ‘If we seek to prove we are better than the Northmen, then we must obey the laws. Men are innocent until proven guilty. Not because of their birth, but because of their actions.’

The entire court seemed to be shocked into silence.

Lord Edwin clapped his hands. ‘A very pretty speech, but meaningless.’

‘Your name, boy!’

The boy seemed to understand a little. ‘Eirik, son of Thoren.’

‘Was this Valdar, son of Neri, part of your raiding party?’

‘Valdar, son of Neri, died in the storm which broke the mast. He volunteered to die to save us all, but particularly me.’ The boy closed his eyes and continued in broken and heavily accented Northumbrian. ‘I want to go home. I was supposed to be a merchant. I had furs to trade. My mother waits for me. I’ve a field I want to plough, cows to milk.’

‘Did you come to raid this country?’ Alwynn asked, holding her hands out.

Slowly the boy shook his head. Then his eyes widened. ‘You are wearing Valdar’s ring. How did you get that?’

‘It was given to me by its rightful owner.’

A smile flickered across the boy’s face. ‘Then my mother was right. The Norns decide the time of your death, not men. There is hope for me.’

‘I will help you if I can,’ Alwynn said in a low voice.

‘I rest my case,’ Lord Edwin said. ‘The Lady Alwynn has been consorting with the enemy and deserves to die and have all her lands confiscated. She seeks to help this Northman. How many other laws will she break?’

Edwin’s steward grasped her arm and dragged her over to where the boy was confined.

‘Unhand me!’ Alwynn said as she twisted against the steward’s tight hold.

‘Tell us where Valdar Nerison is,’ Lord Edwin sneered.

‘I am here!’ Valdar thundered from the back of the crowd. ‘Lady Alwynn is innocent of any wrongdoing!’

‘And you are?’ the king asked as all eyes of the court turned towards where Valdar stood.

Inside Alwynn died a little. Her eyes drank Valdar in, but she also knew that he was walking into a death trap. There was no way he would get out of here alive.

‘Valdar Nerison.’ He came forward with his head held high and his shoulders bristling. His sword gleamed at his side. ‘I am a man from the North, but not a raider or a pirate. The men who were killed at the farm were outlaws. In my country as well as yours. They started the voyage as merchants and became pirates, bent on murder. They acted without the consent of their countrymen and outside of the laws of their land.’

The king leant forward. ‘And what is your connection to them?’

‘I was part of the original fellowship, but we parted ways when I jumped off the ship in a raging storm.’

‘He saved me,’ the lad cried. ‘I got the black stone, but he exchanged it.’

Valdar gave him a dark look. The boy hung his head. Alwynn patted his hand and whispered that it was fine.

‘When in Northumbria, I concealed my identity and persuaded Lady Alwynn to hire me. I then fought and defeated the leader of the outlaws, but not unfortunately before he destroyed Cleofirth’s farm.’

‘You defeated him in single combat?’ the king asked, tilting his head to one side.

‘Yes, and I will happily defend that honour by defeating anyone who challenges my version.’ Valdar gave Lord Edwin a hard look.

Edwin shrank back. ‘Who defeated the Northmen is not in dispute. The entire village has been celebrating it. But the fact remains that he is a Northman.’

‘It strikes me that if this stranger had not been here, the entire village and all the harvest would have been destroyed, particularly as you were at court, Lord Edwin.’ The king turned towards Alwynn. ‘Why did you rescue this stranger?’

‘Because he was in need,’ Alwynn said. ‘Lord Edwin had ordered that any stranger who appeared from the sea be killed. I thought it was wrong to kill a man until we knew if he was friend or foe.’

As she spoke, her voice strengthened. They might not like what she had to say, but she was determined to say it. ‘Before I knew Valdar, I thought like most people in this room that Northmen were all demons in human form and that no one born in the North could have a drop of compassion in his body. I was wrong. Northmen are like us. Some good, some bad and most just doing their best for their families. Not every Northman raids. In the same way that not every Northumbrian is an outlaw. It is time we stopped judging people on where they were born and started judging them on their actions.’

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