The Rule by Jack Colman

Author:Jack Colman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007593057
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-02-19T13:43:29.632000+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Bound at the wrists, Gunnarr stumbled through the town, heading west towards the cliffs.

Evening had come on quickly, as it did in the shortening days to winter, and the sky was already reducing to darkness. The rain had ceased. Thorvaldr led, lighting the way with a glaring torch. Beside him rode Stigr, the man whom Egil had put in charge of proceedings. He had the other end of the rope that secured the prisoner tied to his saddle, so that Gunnarr was forced to walk with his hands out like a beggar. Behind came Gulltoppr and Koli. They knew Gunnarr well enough, and had been reluctant even to bind him.

‘Will you struggle?’ they had asked him, with empathy if not warmth.

Gunnarr had looked at them grimly and sighed. ‘Yes,’ he said, and that had decided the matter.

As they neared the outskirts of the town, the buildings that they passed began to thin. People stood watching from their doorways at intervals, and Gunnarr felt sadness at the thought of one of them scurrying off gleefully to tell his poor mother. Some called out questions to the executioners but were met with shaking heads. The churning of hooves and flapping of torch flames were the only sounds that any of the party made. Gunnarr noticed that Stigr’s palm rested cautiously on his sword.

They exited in single file through the narrow western side-gate, crossed a short stretch of pebble beach, and began a gentle winding climb up onto the cliffs. The wind picked up immediately, causing the torch flame to recoil into a trembling blue orb, with flecks of fire occasionally losing purchase and being ripped off into the darkness. Strips of racing clouds passed before the moon above, obscuring what sheen it might have reflected upon them. Gunnarr felt the darkness swallow him up as the wind cast his hair across his eyes, leaving only the pale tail of the horse that led him within his vision, flicking out occasionally, while the weary torch hovered above it like a failing star. He kept his senses in his feet, stumbling over loose stones that threatened to buckle his ankles.

Eventually the dull clack of stone against the horse hooves echoed away, and Gunnarr misstepped as the ground beneath him flattened off into the soft grass of the clifftop. Away to his left he could hear the waves smashing into the rocks below, and sensed the great hidden void only a footstep or so to his side. His balance shifted with the sensation that he was being sucked towards its emptiness. The riders carried on dutifully with their heads now bowed against the wind and cloaks hunched around their shoulders. The distant glow of the town fires evaporated behind them.

They carried on in that way for what seemed like miles. Gunnarr had been working on loosening his bonds since the moment they were enveloped in darkness. By now, the muscles of his forearms burnt with the strain of constant flexing, but the ropes were too well tied.

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