was quick, wasn’t it? How long does it take to strangle a woman, Cruz?’
I was woken unceremoniously as several feet trod on me at once. I cursed and turned over, determined to burrow back into sleep, until I realized that everyone was scrambling out of the communal beds and pushing their feet into their shoes. The fire in the hall had died down to a faint ruby glow, and only two small dish-shaped oil lamps burned on the upright beams, which hardly gave enough light for me to see my own hand.
‘Is it morning already?’ I groaned.
‘Dogs outside are barking,’ Hinrik said.
‘What of it?’ I mumbled. ‘Dogs bark at their own shadows. Maybe they saw a fox.’
‘They are trained only to bark at men.’
Unnur hurried Isabela and her own daughters out of the hall ahead of her, pausing only to give her husband a brief but desperate hug. Fannar turned and addressed the three of us in low urgent tones.
‘Wait, Hinrik, come back and tell us what he’s saying,’ I called.
Hinrik had started to follow the women towards the hiding place in the store room. He hesitated, then reluctantly slunk over to us, his eyes wide with fear.
‘He says you have claimed the protection of his badstofa … It is his duty as a host to defend you … As guests, it will be no dishonour to you if you go with the women and hide, but if you wish to stay and fight as brothers …’
Seeing the grim exchange of glances between Fannar and Ari, the blood started to pound in my head and I felt my chest tighten. They were in earnest and they were afraid, which was nothing to what I was. For a moment or two I was sorely tempted to run after the women, but Ari began to hand out heavy staves and axes, and before I knew it I found myself grasping an axe. I was grateful for the stout wooden handle to hold on to, but in truth I had no more idea of how to wield an axe than shoe a horse. I just hoped I could swing it around a bit and do some damage to the right people, without chopping my own leg off in the process. But what would these unwelcome guests be armed with? We could already hear horses’ hooves clattering into the yard.
‘Komdu! Komdu!’ Ari whispered, beckoning frantically to us to follow him.
He led us out into the narrow passage and through a door on the opposite side to the store room. We crowded in and found ourselves standing in a cow byre, stinking of dung and piss, where half a dozen cows and a couple of calves lay on a thick layer of straw and dried bush twigs. The beasts rolled their eyes back and scrambled clumsily to their feet, lowing in agitation at the sudden appearance of five men in the middle of the night.
Ari motioned to me to help him lift a beam and lower it into two iron brackets either side of the door we’d come through, to brace it shut behind us. Then he whispered to Hinrik, gesturing to a low, wide door on the opposite side of the byre. All three of us pressed our heads close to Hinrik. He was shaking and cringing at each new sound that echoed from the courtyard.
‘He … he says crouch down. Keep very still and quiet. When he opens that far door … we must … must push the kýr out and creep out between them so they hide us.’
Outside in the yard, men were calling to one another as they dismounted and yelling at the dogs which were still barking. Then came a thundering at the main door, as if someone was pounding on it with the pommel of a sword. I gripped my axe more tightly and glanced at Ari, but he motioned us to keep still.
We heard the grate of the door as it opened, a man barking questions and the lower tones of Fannar answering. There was a thump as if someone had been shoved hard against a door, followed by the clanging of metal and more shouts as the men pushed their way down the narrow passage. The great hall must have run directly behind the byre, for though noise was muffled by the earth wall, there came the sickening sounds of wooden panels being ripped off, beds being torn apart and objects being hurled aside. The men were