Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud Read Free Book Online

was busy fleeing. Leif seized a scrubbing brush, hurled it at Halli's head; it missed, bounced back off the jamb and struck Leif in the eye.
    In the central yard of Svein's House, preparations for the Gathering neared completion. Boys swept the cobbles; the tables were neatly stacked; flags flew merrily. Arnkel and Astrid stood at the hall porch, handing out refreshing beer.
    Out into the yard ran Leif. Where was Halli? There – darting below a trestle! Leif sprang, vaulted the table, scattering pots around him. People lurched aside, fell back, knocking into each other; plates and produce fell crashing to the stones.
    Halli evaded Leif 's outstretched hand and hopped onto a table piled with cloth. Leif followed, trampling the cloths with his dung-caked boots. Halli jumped down and ran into the ale tent. In charged Leif, saw Halli clambering across the stack of ale casks. Pushing a woman aside, he sprang like a wolf and landed heavily on the barrels, dislodging several from the stack. They rumbled out of the tent and away across the yard, sending onlookers flying like skittles before breaking on the cottage walls.
    Now Leif closed in. He had Halli trapped at the top of the stack. Halli looked about, saw a rope hanging loose from the tent roof. He jumped, grabbed hold, swung wildly, and fell suddenly to earth as half the tent gave way. He landed heavily amid a gently settling mass of cloth and bunting, stumbled forward from the capsized tent – and stopped dead.
    Leif loomed behind him. 'Now then, brother —'
    He too stopped. He looked around. Before them stood Arnkel and Astrid, dark-eyed, stony-faced; on every side the people of Svein's House steadily converged, men, women, urchins from the gutter, all in utter silence.
    Astrid's fair hair was coiled and braided tight to her scalp; her exposed neck shone thin and white. Her expression reminded Halli of the one she wore during judgements in the hall, when felons were sent wailing to the gallows. Her eyes flicked between Leif and Halli, and back again.
    'You look like my sons,' she said, 'but by your actions you are strangers to me.' Neither spoke; the crowd watched, listened. Somewhere at the back, a baby cried. 'What,' Astrid continued in the same calm tones, 'is your explanation?'
    Leif lurched forward. His account was rambling, aggrieved, full of self-pity.
    Their father Arnkel held up a hand. 'Enough. my son. Step back a little. Your stench makes my eyes water. What of you, Halli?'
    Halli gave a shrug. 'Yes, I pushed him in the dung heap. Why not? He had struck me and abused me and my companions, as they can easily confirm.' He looked about, but Sturla, Kugi and the others had melted back among the throng. Halli sighed. 'The fact remains, I thought it a matter of honour, which I could not overlook.'
    His uncle Brodir was standing in the crowd. 'This seems reasonable enough.'
    Astrid addressed him sharply. 'Your contributions, Brodir, are not looked for. Halli, do not dare talk to me of honour! You are a wretch – you have none!'
    Arnkel added: 'If you felt Leif had wronged you, you should have challenged him fairly, not kicked his backside.'
    'But Leif is considerably stronger than me, Father. If we'd fought fairly, he would have beaten me to a sorry pulp. Isn't that so, Leif ?'
    'Yes, as I will gladly prove.'
    'You see, Father? In all honesty, what good would that have done?'
    'Well—'
    'And didn't great Svein often ambush the other heroes in the days before their truce and the Battle of the Rock?' Halli cried. ' He didn't utter an official challenge to Hakon when he saw him riding alone beside the cataract. He just threw a boulder down from the Snag. Think of my boot as Svein's boulder and Leif 's arse as Hakon: the principle is the same! Only my aim was better.'
    Arnkel adjusted his feet uneasily. 'You have a point, but—'
    'Your proper conduct, Halli,' his mother interrupted, in a voice like glass shards, 'would have been to ignore Leif 's actions altogether. Just