Stones of Power 02 - Last Sword of Power Read Free Page A

return and not one man, not one woman, not one squalling babe will be left alive from Anderida to Venta. The choice is yours.'
    Within two hours both the King and his army had departed and the stunned Saxons gathered in the Council of Wotan. Wulfhere was only twelve and could not vote, and Calder was appointed as steward to help him govern. The rest of the day was devoted to the election of men to the Council. Only two survived out of the original eighteen, but by dusk the positions were filled once more.
    Two hours after dawn the Eighteen met and now the real business began. Some were for heading east and linking with Hengist's son, Drada, who was after all Wulfhere's uncle and blood-kin. Others were for waiting until another army could be gathered. Still more suggested sending for aid across the water, where the Merovingian wars were displacing fighting men.
    Two events turned the day. At noon a wagon arrived bearing gifts of gold and silver from the King, to be distributed 'as the Council sees fit'. This gift alone meant that food could be bought for the savage winter ahead, and blankets and trade goods from the Merovingians in Gallia.
    Second, the steward Calder made a speech that would live long in the minds, if not the hearts of his listeners.
    'I fought the Blood King and my sword dripped red with the blood of his Guards. But why did we fight him? Ask yourselves that. I say it was because we felt he could be beaten, and there would be plunder from Venta, Londinium, Dubris and all the other merchant towns. But now we know. He cannot be beaten ... not by us ... perhaps not by Drada. You have seen the wagon - more coin than we could have taken in a campaign. I say we wait and judge his word: return to our farms, make repairs, gather harvests where we can.'
    'Men without swords, Calder. How then shall we reach Valhalla?' shouted a tall warrior.

    'I myself follow the White Christ,' said Calder, 'so I have no interest in Valhalla. But if it worries you, Snorri, then join Drada. Let any man who wishes to fight on do the same. We have been offered friendship - and surely there are worse things in the world to receive from a conqueror than a wagon of gold?'
    It is because he fears us,' said Snorri, lurching to his feet. 'I say we use his gold to buy men and arms and then march on Camulodunum.'
    'You will perhaps take the barn with you on your campaign,' said Calder. Laughter followed his words, for it was well known that Snorri had hidden from the Romans under a blanket in the broad barn, only running clear when the enemy put it to the torch. He had been voted to the Council merely on the strength of his landholdings.
    'I was cut off and it was that or die,' said Snorri. ‘I’ll take my gold and join Drada.'
    'No one takes the gold,' said Calder. "The gift is to the Council and we will vote on its use.'
    At the last Snorri and four other landsmen, with more than two hundred men, joined Drada; the rest remained to build a new life as vassals of the Blood King.
    For Grysstha the decision tasted of ashes. But he was Calder's carle and pledged to obey him, and the decisions of the great rarely concerned him.
    That night, as he stood alone on High Hill, Calder came to him.
    'You are troubled, my friend?' the steward asked.
    'The Days of Blood will come again. I can feel it in the whisper of the wind. The crows know it too.'
    'Wise birds, crows. The eyes of Odin.'
    'I heard you told them you followed the White Christ?'
    'You think the Blood King had no ears at our meeting? You think Snorri and his men will live to join Drada? Or that any of us would have been left alive had I not spoken as I did? No. Grysstha.
    I follow the old gods who understood the hearts of men.'
    'And what of the treaty with Uther?'
    'We will honour it for as long as it suits us, but one day you will be avenged for the loss of your sword-arm. I had a dream last night and I saw the Blood King standing alone on the top of a hill, his men all dead around him and