Edwin by Edoardo Albert

Author:Edoardo Albert [Albert, Edoardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Published: 2014-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“You want vengeance.”

Edwin did not look around. He had heard Wældhelm’s approach. The smith’s lameness made him drag his foot along the ground.

The king’s recovery dragged on, and oftentimes, when the sun was warm, he would bring a stool to the hard-packed earth where Forthred had burned from the world and sit upon it, drawing his cloak about his body and his plans about his mind.

“Yes,” he said.

Wældhelm stood beside the king, looking down at the burned earth.

“Destroy your enemies, kill their children, salt their earth and let the last sound they hear be the screams of their women. It is as the gods would do.”

Edwin slowly stood up and turned to the giant smith.

“The god of the queen tells us to eschew vengeance. He tells us to love our enemies.”

The giant smith began to smile, but when he saw no answering laughter from the king, the smile died away.

“Are you joking, lord?”

“No. No, I am not joking. That is what the queen told me this new god teaches. I could not believe she spoke truly, so I asked her priest. It is true. That is what her god commands.”

The smile spread again across the smith’s face and creased into laughter, the deep laughter that creaked in his forge as things that were once as solid as rock were made to run like water. Wældhelm wiped the tears from his eyes.

“That is a religion for women,” he said at last. “And Britons. No wonder we took this land from them.”

“It is the religion of the Franks, and the emperors, and more peoples than I have heard of too.”

“But our gods are the gods of our fathers.” Wældhelm shook his head, still marvelling at this new doctrine. “This is how our gods take vengeance, lord. The fame of Wayland the smith grew so great that King Nidud determined that he must have him as his royal smith, to make wondrous weapons for him. So he tricked Wayland into coming to his court, and he feasted him, but the mead that trickled down Wayland’s beard was laced with a sleeping draught. When Wayland woke, he found himself imprisoned on a lonely island, along with his brother, and to ensure that Wayland could not escape, King Nidud had hamstrung him.

“Wayland’s brother, Egil, collected feathers from the seabirds that nested on the island, and Wayland, in between forging swords and torcs and spears for the king, made wings. With the feathers stuck into them, the brothers were able to fly, and escape the island. But Wayland did not escape. Instead, he tricked the king’s sons into coming to visit him, and when they were inspecting his latest wonders, Wayland slaughtered them and, stripping the flesh from their bones, he made their skulls into jewel-encrusted goblets, and their teeth into a beautiful necklace. Then he brought these latest, most exquisite works of his craft before the king. Nidud was so delighted with the goblets he immediately began to drink from them, and the necklace he hung upon his beautiful daughter, Beahilda.

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