Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

Author:Michael Crichton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Crichton, Historical - General, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, General, Fiction - General, Science Fiction, Popular American Fiction, Historical, Michael - Prose & Criticism, Fiction
ISBN: 9780061782633
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-04-28T17:48:30.344000+00:00

The Eaters of the Dead

The Northmen say of the act, “I did battle with such a woman or another,” and proudly show their blue marks and abrasions to their comrades, as if these were true wounds of warfare. However, the men never did injury to any woman that I could see.

Now this night, while all the warriors of Buliwyf slept, I was too afraid to drink or laugh; I feared the return of the wendol. Yet they did not return, and I also eventually slept, but fitfully.

Now in the following day there was no wind, and all the people of the kingdom of Rothgar worked with dedication and fear; there was talk everywhere of the Korgon, and the certainty that it would attack upon the night. The clawmark wounds on my face now pained me, for they pinched as they healed, and ached whenever I moved my mouth to eat or speak. Also it is true that my warrior’s fever had left me. I was afraid once more, and I worked in silence alongside the women and old men.

Toward the middle time of the day, I was visited by the old and toothless noble whom I had spoken to in the banquet hall. This old noble sought me out, and said thus in Latin, “I will have words with you.” He led me to step a few paces apart from the workers at the defenses. Now he made a great show of examining my wounds, which in truth were not serious, and while he examined these cuts he said to me, “I have a warning for your company. There is unrest in the heart of Rothgar.” This he spoke in Latin.

“What is the cause?” I said.

“It is the herald, and also the son Wiglif, who stands at the ear of the King,” the old nobleman said.“And also the friend of Wiglif. Wiglif speaks to Rothgar that Buliwyf and his company plan to kill the King and rule the kingdom.”

“That is not the truth,” I said, although I did not know this. In honest fact, I had thought upon this matter from time to time; Buliwyf was young and vital, and Rothgar old and weak, and while it is true that the ways of the Northmen are strange, it is also true that all men are the same.

“The herald and Wiglif are envious of Buliwyf,” the old noble spoke to me. “They poison the air in the ear of the King. All this I tell to you so that you may tell the others to be wary, for this is a matter fit for a basilisk.” And then he pronounced my wounds to be minor, and turned away.

Then the noble came back once more. He said, “The friend of Wiglif is Ragnar,” and he went away a second time, not looking back upon me further.

In great consternation, I dug and worked at the defenses until I found myself near to Herger. The mood of Herger was still as grim as it had been upon the day previous.

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