The Sword Song of Bjarni Sigurdson (33 page)

The Chief nodded, his eyes thoughtful and a hint of a smile at the young man’s face. ‘So, and what better reason to make for the home keel-strand? And the fortune?’

‘At least I have come back richer than I went.’ Bjarni grinned. ‘For I have this dog that followed me from the black alleyways of Dublin town, and a fine horse, and three gold pieces. And there is my sword and sea-kist that you hold for me.’

‘And a fine tale to tell in the Hearth Hall after supper, I am thinking.’

‘That too. I am pledged to eat with my brother and his woman – our two women – this night, but after, I will come back to tell it, and to claim my sea-kist and my sword that Heriolf left for me.’

‘You carry a better sword now than the one I gave you,’ Rafn said, his eyes on the beautiful weapon that Bjarni was nursing across his knees.

‘Aye,’ Bjarni agreed. ‘And I earned it. But the giver bade me set aside the other for my eldest son.’

Laughter sounded deep in Rafn’s throat. ‘Sa, sa – and a sorry thing it would be to rob the eldest son.’

So far they had spoken lightly enough, in the hearing of men at work on the galley and now packing up work for the night; and not one word had been spoken as to the reason for Bjarni’s leaving in the first place; and linked with that the message he had carried so long was with him still.

‘Rafn Cedricson,’ he said, very quietly with the half-laughter all gone, ‘I have a thing to tell, a message that I have carried three years for you.’

Rafn got up, and they strolled together around the side of the boat-shed among the blown dune-sand laced with marram grass.

‘What message?’ Rafn asked, checking in the shed’s lee. ‘Who from?’

‘Three years since on lona, I was prime-signed for the White Christ, and the holy man who stood sponsor for me, he gave me the message.’ Bjarni was looking out over the saltings and winding waterways into the pale brightness of the silver-gilt sunset, but he felt the man beside him grow suddenly tense. ‘I had told him of the ill thing I had done, to the east out of the settlement. I told him all; and when he was told, he said, “When your outcast years are accomplished, and you go back, tell Rafn your Chief that Gisli his
foster-brother forgives him the oath-breaking . . .” That is all.’

‘It is enough,’ said Rafn the Chief.

And when Bjarni looked round at him he also was looking to sea, and there was something in his face that might have been only the sunset, but Bjarni thought was something more. ‘It is enough,’ he said again. He brought his gaze back out of the sea distance. ‘Aye, it is enough.’

They had begun to wander back towards where the high gables of the Hall upreared themselves above the close gathering of lesser roofs. Beside the mill they stopped again, the soft wet rush of the mill wheel in their ears. ‘It is good that you have returned,’ the Chief said, not a man to whom the softer ways of speech came easily. ‘Away with you now to the woman you left beside your brother’s hearth. Later come to claim your sea-kist and your sword for your someday son, and to tell us the tale of these five years – a fine tale, I make no doubt – the Sword Song of Bjarni Sigurdson.’ His great paw was on Bjarni’s shoulder, spinning him round. ‘The settlement has grown since you left it, but there is good land still for the in-taking, further up the dale.’

Rosemary Sutcliff was born in 1920 in West Clanden, Surrey.

With over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children. Her first novel,
The Queen Elizabeth Story
was published in 1950. In 1972 her book
Tristan and Iseult
was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and in 1978 her book,
Song for a Dark Queen
was commended for the Other Award.

Rosemary lived for a long time in Arundel, Sussex with her dogs and in 1975, she was awarded the OBE for services to Children’s Literature. Unfortunately Rosemary passed away in July 1992 and will be much missed by her many fans.

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