Strongbow Read Free Page A

the spit. My mouth watered. We hadn’t yet eaten our daily meal,and I was always hungry.
    The Welsh looked up and saw us. They jumped to their feet and ran for their weapons, which were piled near the fire.
    Our men ran forward, yelling. I had a sword in my hand and I yelled too, but my feet didn’t want to run forward. More than anything else, I wanted to turn around and run back into the shadowy safety of the trees. But I was afraid to run away because Father would do something terrible to me.
    My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst out of my body. I was hot and cold at the same time, and my skin prickled all over. I knew I would be scared. I didn’t know I would be this scared. It felt like the hair was standing up on my head, inside my helmet. My stomach heaved.
    Our men were making so much noise I couldn’t think. My feet acted on their own. They started to run forward with the other men. I couldn’t help myself. I was caught up in it, doing what everyone else was doing. My running feet carried me, terrified, straight towards the enemy. Men on either side of me were shoving and screaming and I screamed too. I don’t know what I said, I just screamed.
    We burst out of the trees and a Welsh warrior stepped right in front of me.
    At first his face was only a pale blur. Then I saw he was a boy not much older than myself. He didn’t even have a beard yet, though the Welsh wear beards because they’re savages.
    He looked as frightened as I was. His eyes were huge and round and very dark blue. I remember those eyes still. I’ll never forget them.
    He had a spear in his hand, and I had a sword. We stood facing each other while the men fought around us. I wonder if he wanted to run off into the trees, the way I did.
    Then I heard my father scream my name. ‘Richard!’ he cried. ‘Kill him!’
    I didn’t dare think any more. I held tight to the hilt of my swordand ran it through the Welsh boy.
    He didn’t try to spear me. He didn’t do anything but look at me with those great blue eyes. And then he fell.
    He was just a lad like me.
    My mouth tasted sour. I wanted to be sick. I ran away into the trees then, and no one tried to stop me.
    My father found me later. ‘Today you’re a man,’ he said.

Chapter 3
AOIFE

    An Insult to the King of Brefni
    My sister Urla liked to pretend she knew more than anybody else. She was older than me, and she spied on people and told tales. I didn’t always believe the stories Urla told. I thought she made some of them up to make herself seem important.
    One day she came to me with a gleam in her eyes like a stoat stealing eggs. She was still angry about the pony, I think. ‘I know something you don’t know,’ she chanted.
    I tossed my head. ‘Why should I care?’ I turned my back on her.
    ‘Because it’s about Father!’ Urla hissed.
    I paused. ‘What about Father?’
    ‘He did something very wicked once.’
    ‘You’re lying. I’ll tell my mother.’
    ‘I swear on the Holy Family that it’s the truth.’ Urla said solemnly. I had to listen, then. She would never have sworn such an oath for a lie.
    ‘It began a long time ago,’ she went on. ‘A very long time ago …’
    ‘Tell it!’ I said. I was losing patience with Urla. She liked to drag out a story too much and I was always in a hurry.
    Urla sat down on a bench and folded her hands. I sat beside her. ‘When Father was sixteen years old,’ she said. ‘Turlough O’Connor was King of Connacht – and also claimed the high kingship of Ireland.
    ‘Father’s father was King of Leinster, but he died. His enemieskilled him and buried a dog in his grave with him, as an insult. Then Father was supposed to become King of Leinster, but Turlough O’Connor wanted one of his own sons to rule Leinster instead. There was a war about it.’
    ‘I should think so! And Father won. He’s King of Leinster now and has been for a long time.’
    ‘He is,’ Urla agreed, ‘but it took many years and many