For Me Fate Wove This by Octavia Randolph

Author:Octavia Randolph [Randolph, Octavia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pyewacket Press
Published: 2021-04-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter the Twelfth: Always Ready to Die

ÆLFRED had not been to Kilton for over a year. The eldest son thereof had been kept in the field by Eadward for seven months. The King must go to the sea-girt fortress. He had need to visit the families of all the burhs of Wessex, that they might know their monarch, and the bonds of fealty be renewed. He needed their loyalty as much as they required his protection. With a burh such as Kilton, the bonds were of long duration. Godwulf of Kilton had been the great friend and brother-in-arms of his father, Æthelwulf. The Lady Modwynn, Godwulf’s widow, had been almost as a second mother to Ælfred when he and his brothers were boys. Her oldest son, Godwin, had proved a superior warrior, and unshakable in daring. Her younger son, Gyric, had fought alongside Ælfred when he himself had been Prince. Ælfred never forgot that Gyric had served himself up as decoy to the Danes, drawing the heat of battle away from the Prince and his body-guard, and allowing himself to be captured in his stead.

Ælfred, and Kilton, had lost Gyric and then Godwin, the younger brother blinded out of spite, the elder fallen prey to the Dane Sidroc on the distant island of Gotland. The sons of the hall were now Ceric and Edwin. They had both come of age in a time of war, as had Godwin and Gyric. The King, approaching Kilton, considered the undulating rhythm of the conflict with the Danes. It had ruled every aspect of his life, and was likely to do so for that of his son, and the sons of Kilton.

He had left the rest of his fyrd back in Witanceaster, and travelled with just a small detachment comprised of his personal body-guard. Raedwulf, the Bailiff of Defenas, rode at his right side. Ælfred had sent two men ahead to warn Kilton of his near arriving. On an afternoon marked by its calm Summer fairness, the King advanced at a steady walk through the outlying pasturelands. The horn of a ward-corn in a tower perch hidden by trees sounded, letting all know the royal party was nearly upon the burh.

An answering horn rang out from Kilton’s ramparts upon the timber palisade. Edwin, in his finest clothes, stood before the opened gates to meet the King and his retinue. He was flanked by his grandmother, Modwynn, and his mother, Edgyth. Standing off to one side was Raedwulf’s daughter, Wilgyfu, and her husband, Worr, the horse-thegn of Kilton. At that second horn blast the folk of the village of Kilton left what they were doing, and lined the road to see their King. A cheer went up for him, cries of “Ælfred” and “Wessex,” to which Ælfred lifted his hand. The glad faces of the family of the hall were before him as well. Sometimes his own folk looked at him warily; his men needed constant feeding and this is why he must shift that burden from burh to burh with frequent travelling amongst them.

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