The Bretwalda (The Casere Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

home, and she was able to swim out and sneak aboard; after it got to Aeaea she disappeared into the forest.
    ‘Whose idea was it for you to become a stowaway?’
    ‘My grandfather’s. He told me to come here and wait.’
    ‘Wait for what?’ Conn asked.
    ‘He didn’t say – just wait, he said. I would know the answer when it was there for me to see. I didn’t question him.’
    ‘Curiosity certainly never killed a Twacuman cat.’ Conn added dryly.
    She looked at him curiously. ‘Are you the Feorhhyrde?’ She then questioned Derryth. ‘Is he the Feorhhyrde?’
    Derryth nodded, with a grin. ‘He is. I find it hard to believe too.’
    She looked at him strangely; Derryth was developing a so called sense of humour and it troubled his kin. ‘When I saw so many of my kin here in the forest, I was very confused because they are armed. Kin who are theow are never armed. Then I remembered a story my grandfather told me about a Priecuman who became the Feorhhyrde. Only the Feorhhyrde would have armed kinsmen.’
    Conn was confused. He looked at Derryth. “How would someone in Neritum know of a Priecuman Feorhhyrde?’
    ‘The wind.’
    ‘The wind told him that the Feorhhyrde was a Priecuman? Over an ocean?’
    ‘The wind travels a lot further than your pigeons, and tells a lot more. Useless creatures.’ He paused. ‘But I don’t think it is you that he was thinking of.’
    ‘One of those from Meshech?’
    He shrugged. ‘Or even Sytha. That I cannot say.’
    ~oo0oo~
    They sent the three young women away with Kutidi and Hallvi to have a bath, while Derryth left with Dagrun on his new ship. It was a cog, previously used as a fishing boat. They only knew that because Dagrun had already complained a lot of the smell.
    They would be back by evening, with the weapons. As they waited, Conn assisted Volund in assembling and sorting his wiga. With three squads and three Corporals, Volund was promoted to Captain.
    By evening Dagrun had returned with the weapons. Unloaded they were distributed amongst the men and within a relatively short period of time, Volund had fifty well-armed wiga at his command.
    Volund looked at Conn curiously as the men were assembled. ‘What makes you think we won’t turn against you?’
    ‘The Ancuman can never turn a weapon gifted to them against the giver. It is part of your code.’
    He laughed. ‘The things you know, amaze me. We just need some horses. We have fifteen.’
    ‘I’m working on that. Will the Jarl have heard by now?’
    ‘He should have. Rumours spread fast. Bad ones even faster.’
    ~oo0oo~
    The last night she would spend as a theow, Kutidi sat with Conn in the bedroom she had purloined in the inn.
    ‘Sarun will enjoy having a big sister just like him. And you have another one out there all alone. There is still much for you to do, Conn il Taransay, before you too can rest.’
    ‘Just when I think I have things under control… oh, well, let’s get some sleep before the morning. It promises to be an interesting day.’
    Kutidi smiled at him, grabbing his hand, and drawing him towards her. ‘This is our last night together – I wouldn’t be planning on getting much sleep.
    Despite the lack of sleep, Conn stood with Derryth as the sun peeped through the trees. Siga had been up and about already, and Derryth watched the young woman as she disappeared in and out of the trees.
    ‘She’s very good – I think she would be almost impossible to track.’
    ‘I know’, Derryth added, ‘the Iladions are in despair. They haven’t seen anyone as good since… well… us. And I think she is better than… us.’
    ‘Something else we shouldn’t tell anyone.’
    Siga returned in a run. She was fast as well. ‘Perhaps fifty... sixty horses ... about ten minutes away.’
    Conn’s second rumour was that the folgere had been kidnapped or murdered by wiga from Alwa and the Southern Isles – and they were now planning to rebel against the Jarl or execute the folgere at sunrise.