Wolves of the Irish Sea: Vol 1 Ascent to Power by Brennan Conor

Author:Brennan, Conor [Brennan, Conor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

The Revenge of Harald Fairhair, Lord of All the Nor

(900)

C onstantine woke screaming, with tears streaming down his face. But as consciousness gathered itself the dreadful nightmares faded, and he could not recall what had affected him so badly. He cursed himself for his weakness. Fists hammered on the door from some concerned man servant, but Constantine shouted out that he was fine and sent him on his way. I can’t let anybody see me like this, he thought. At twenty-nine years of age, he felt that he should be mature enough, that he shouldn’t be afflicted like this and yet he was. This… malaise… hit him in unusual ways.

Over the past number of years his cousin Domnall had floated the idea of marriage to Constantine, but he always found a way to avoid agreeing to it. He had invented numerous excuses to fob off his cousin, but the truth was he feared sharing his life with another person lest they witness the cursed mind illness that he carried with him. Glundub was the only person he trusted with this secret shame, but the Irishman did not understand. Niall had suggested he see the bishop and take confession, but Constantine didn’t see how the pious bleating of a clergyman could cure his problem. Glundub, and Domnall to a lesser extent, seemed to be able to take battle and violence in their stride; in Niall’s case he positively embraced it. But Constantine was cut from a different cloth. He enjoyed peace, reading, hunting in the hills and fishing in the stream. He loved to see his people going about their lives in Dunkeld trading their wares and seeing children playing and running breathless through the streets. The endless violence weighed on him and dwelling on it affected him in his mind, waking or sleeping. He shook himself off and dressed warmly for despite it being spring, there was a bite to the wind.

The winter of 899 had been one of the coldest and harshest in living memory and had carried into the year of Our Lord, 900. Word had reached his cousin’s court that the savagery of the winter was the main reason for the death of the Saxon King, Alfred the Great. He had passed away after a long battle with illness and already civil war was brewing amongst the Saxons for the throne. Edward his eldest son, Constantine assumed, would be the victor but the Danes were supporting another candidate, a son of Alfred’s brother, who was more sympathetic to their cause. It will boil down to who Aethelfled the Queen of Mercia backs, thought Constantine. The winter of 899 and early 900 had been brutal across Europe as well, taking many of the old and infirm, including numerous names of note. The Pope had died in his sleep leaving a void in Rome, with the Germanic and Francian rulers vying to place their own men on the holy seat. In Ireland, rumour had it that one of the kings of Connaught had caught consumption and passed as well.

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