Blood and Judgment by Lars Walker

Author:Lars Walker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0743471733
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Published: 2003-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

"Master Horatio," they said,

Bearing on thine affect for Lord Hamlet,

Much remarked and praised by all and general,

Who holding high conceit of his discourse and parts

Would see him eased from the dark address

Of his late melancholy; for his good weal

We'd tell thee of a wonder—"

"Lead on, MacDuff," said Howie. "Why the hell not?"

CHAPTER XI

Will ducked in out of the night, through the low door into the entryway of the great hall. He came into the main hall through another low door.

The room went silent. It was like Wild Bill Hickok entering a saloon in a Western movie. Will would have enjoyed it under other circumstances.

He wasn't sure how he'd gotten here. He wasn't sure he wanted to come inside. But the shadowed forest frightened him. The last thing he remembered was his hot coupling with the Old One woman. He wasn't even certain he'd enjoyed it. And if he'd hoped to learn how to get home from here, he'd been badly disappointed.

The benches along the walls were crowded with the jarl's men, feasting at trestle tables. Thrall women moved among them, keeping the ale horns filled.

Midway down the north wall, on Will's left, Jarl Feng rose from his high seat and cried, "Amlodd! Amlodd my nephew, we'd given you up for hill-taken!"

Will stood silent, scratching his head.

"Come up and drink with me, Amlodd!" Feng said. "Tell us what passed with the woman from the sea!"

Will trudged down the rush-strewn hearthway. He climbed up on the bench and sat at Feng's right. He took the horn offered him and drank deeply. His throat was dusty; he needed the drink. The drink, he discovered with a cough, was not ale but mead—a fermented honey drink too strong for a man confused.

"Who was the woman?" Feng asked. "Some say they did not recognize her; others say she looked like Katla."

" 'Twas my mother," said Will. It didn't sound right, but he felt fuddled.

"Your mother? No one said aught about your mother!"

" 'Twas Katla."

"Katla! Did Katla leave the village today?" Feng called out.

"No," said Amlodd's mother from the women's table at the end. "She was here all day. I was with her much of the time. Surely she never went as far as the sea."

" 'Twas one of the Old Ones," said Will.

The room went silent again. Hands crept behind backs as men crossed their fingers against the Evil Eye.

"And what happened with this Old One?" Feng asked.

"We lay together." The words seemed loud in the breathless hall.

"Where did you lie?" Feng asked, hoarse. "Did she take you under the hill with her?"

"We lay on a horse's shoe, and a cock's comb and a bit of roof," said Will. The words sounded familiar. Oh yes, it was Saxo again. So be it.

Whispering, like a swarm of flies over a dead thing, filled the hall. Will sensed he was in danger. He was too weary to care.

"We have a gift for you," said Feng. He clapped his hands and thralls came in carrying a long bundle wrapped in woolen cloth.

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