Scramasax by Kevin Crossley-Holland Read Free Book Online Page A

like a lion.
    Passers-by swerved out of the way. Everyone sitting on the stone steps, gossiping or simply dozing, turned their head to see what was happening.
    â€˜I’ve been looking for you,’ growled Harald. ‘Snorri’s just told me what the Empress said to him.’
    Halfdan frowned. ‘What? What did she say?’
    â€˜â€œHarald would never dare to defy me. He owes his position and all he is … he owes his whole self to me.”’
    Harald Sigurdsson rounded on Solveig. ‘Is that right?’ he demanded. ‘Is that what she said?’
    Solveig nodded.
    â€˜â€œHe owes his whole self to me,”’ Harald repeated, mocking the clipped way in which the Empress spoke. ‘“He does as I say.”’
    Again he glared at Solveig, and again Solveig nodded.
    â€˜Is that what she thinks?’ demanded Harald in a cold, biting voice. And, for a second time, he roared to heaven. Then he jerked back his head and horse-laughed.
    Harald slapped Halfdan on his right shoulder. ‘I know who my friends are,’ he asserted. ‘And I know when to repay them. Loyalty breeds loyalty.’
    Then Harald gazed at Solveig and his pale blue eyes glittered. ‘The Empress can hang herself,’ he proclaimed. ‘You’re coming with us. Yes, Solveig, when your father and I set sail for Sicily, you’re coming too!’

5

    S olveig hastened back to the guardroom between Harald Sigurdsson and her limping father, and there Harald told his two most trusty companions, Snorri and Skarp, of his decision.
    â€˜Keep it to yourselves,’ he warned them. ‘No one else needs to know yet.’
    The two guards yelped and smacked each other’s hands when they heard of their leader’s defiance.
    â€˜She’ll take it out on her courtiers,’ asserted Snorri.
    â€˜For what they didn’t do,’ said Skarp.
    â€˜And never knew.’
    But their grim satisfaction soon gave way to talk about what Solveig could do, and couldn’t do, alongside the Varangians.
    â€˜Women,’ said Skarp. ‘Good for bed and for bearing our whelps.’
    â€˜Some women have second sight,’ observed Snorri.
    Skarp wrapped his arms around himself, and stared at Solveig.
    â€˜We only admire them,’ Snorri added, ‘if they behave like men.’
    â€˜Not that we expect them to fight in battle,’ Harald interrupted. ‘It may come to that. Solveig may have to fight, but I hope not.’
    Snorri raised his right hand. ‘Blood splattered hermail-coat,’ he declared, ‘and a sun-ray shone from her spear.’
    â€˜I know that poem,’ Harald told him. ‘But it’s about a Valkyrie, not a woman.’
    â€˜Valkyries are women,’ Solveig objected.
    â€˜More than women,’ stated Harald. ‘You can help the cooks, Solveig. You can pluck and skin and gut and chop. You can groom the horses, and muck out the stables …’
    â€˜I’ll find out,’ Solveig asserted. ‘I’ll find out what I can do.’
    Harald looked as if he’d tasted something sour, but his pale blue eyes were shining. ‘And be so good as to inform me,’ he told her.
    â€˜How far is it to Sicily?’ asked Solveig.
    Harald shook his head. ‘You’ll have to ask one of the helmsmen.’
    â€˜I can fish,’ she volunteered. ‘I can ice-fish too!’
    Everyone laughed.
    â€˜Good idea!’ said Skarp. ‘Where will you find the ice?’
    â€˜When winter comes.’
    â€˜No,’ said her father. ‘Not this far south. There’s no ice.’
    â€˜And it never snows,’ Skarp added. ‘Except when pretty Viking maidens show us their—’
    â€˜Skarp!’ Harald warned him.
    â€˜Never snows!’ exclaimed Solveig. ‘But we need frost and ice and snow … to scour the year.’
    â€˜And chill our blood,’ Harald