him loose,’ I said.
But before I could even think of a way to reach him, a horse came galloping round the corner of the building, the smoke and scarlet flames from the rider’s torch streaming out behind him like a banner. As the horseman passed the entrance to the byre, he tossed his blazing torch into the straw. The flames ran swiftly across the floor, then roared upwards as the whole byre ignited at once.
‘Look at the roof,’ Vítor whispered. I followed his finger. Behind the byre, flames were starting to curl up through the turf roof of the hall. Dense smoke rose into the air as the turfs smouldered from the heat beneath.
Beside me in the darkness, I heard Ari cry out in horror.
‘They’ve fired the whole building,’ I breathed. ‘They must have set the hall ablaze from inside.’ A terrible chill went through me. ‘Isabela and the women are in the store chamber. The fire will spread along the beams. They’ll be trapped. We have to help them.’
‘The Danes are waiting for us to do just that,’ Vítor said. ‘The moment you go out there you will be captured just like the boy.’
‘But we can’t just leave her. We have to get her out.’ I started up, but someone grabbed my arm and twisted it, forcing me to the ground.
I felt a knee in my back pressing me down. Vítor bent his mouth so close to my ear I could feel his hot breath on my skin. ‘They won’t let you get within shouting distance of the farm. We need an accident, remember. Think about it. Her blood will be on the hands of the Danes, not yours. I have made it easy for you.’
I was struggling to fling Vítor off, but with the full weight of his body pressing down on my back, I was as helpless as a trussed chicken.
Fausto scrambled to his feet. ‘I’m not just going to sit here and watch her die, not my Isabela. I won’t. I have to try, I have to!’
Ari tried to grab him and pull him back down behind the bushes, but Fausto shook him off and the next minute he was running back towards the farmhouse, crouching low, trying to keep to the shadows. The flames from the burning house were now so high that they bathed the whole meadow around it in an eerie red glow. We could feel the heat from it even where we lay. We could see the dark outline of Fausto running towards the back of the building. It looked for a moment as if he was going to reach it, but the Danes must have had men watching.
A cry went up which carried even over the roar of the flames. Two men came galloping around the side of the building towards Fausto. We saw the glints of their blades, blood-red in the firelight, as they raised them. They drew level with him, one on either side. Fausto raised his staff and swung at one of the riders, but the second rider thrust his sword into his back at full gallop. For a moment Fausto was thrown clean off his feet with the force of the blow, his back arched in agony, and then he crumpled and fell without a cry.
As Fausto was slain, the farmstead, as if it could bear no more, surrendered itself to the ravenous fire. With a thunderous crash the roof caved in and flames shot high into the air. Red and golden sparks from the burning turfs and hay drifted over us in the dark sky, falling to the earth like rain.
I stared at the inferno, numb with horror. I couldn’t take it in, but even as I watched, unable to speak or move, I knew that nothing … nothing could remain alive inside that tangle of burning wood and flames.
Eydis
Imp – to mend the broken feathers of a hawk. A wooden imping needle, whittled from a piece of twig, is inserted in the hollow shaft of the broken feather, to which a previously moulted feather can be glued, enabling the bird to fly.
The corpse is healing now. I watched and waited for three days, turning the pot containing the severed head in the embers of the fire, until the flesh and bone were dry enough to pound to pieces. I knew they sat with me in the shadows, the old woman and Valdis. As mourners we waited, we watched not to see life depart, but restored.