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possess. It was an effort to get him onto his
back. Two arrows pierced his chest.  Cynric’s face wore an awful expression.
His blue eyes stared sightlessly skyward. Raedwyn had known, as she had watched
the arrows hit him, that the shots were mortal. She sat back on her haunches
and looked at the men lying scattered around her – not one of them moved. They
had killed them all.
    “Butchers!”
she hissed. Anger rose up in her as she surveyed the carnage. Cynric’s men had
fought back, but in the end the outlaws outnumbered and overwhelmed them.
Raedwyn took a good look at the crowd of men around her. They were dirty and
unkempt but well armed. They had used the element of surprise well, for trees
surrounded this part of the riverbank. The men gawked at her and Raedwyn stared
back, her eyes narrowing into sapphire slits.
    Had she
the means, she would have slaughtered them all.
    “I see you
have some of your father’s fire m’lady.” A rough voice caught Raedwyn’s
attention. She struggled to her feet and stood to face the tall bear of a man
who limped onto the path. He was a giant, with a long black beard and hair
streaked with white. He fixed her with a cold, obsidian gaze. “It’s a pity you
had not been born a man.”
    This man
scared Raedwyn. Shivering and in shock, the desire to crumble before him was
overwhelming but she stood her ground.
    “If I had
been, you and your toadies would be groveling at my feet now,” she ground out
between chattering teeth.
    To her
surprise and indignation, the giant laughed. Around him, his men sniggered,
including Hengist, who looked upon Raedwyn with a malicious leer. Only the
cloaked man stood silent, like a wraith, at the edge of the group.
    “That
mother of yours is a hard, shrew of a woman. It appears you are no different.”
    The giant
recovered from his laughter and took a menacing step towards her.
    “I see no
grief in your eyes for your departed husband. You do not have the guile to
feign sadness.”
    “We knew
each other but two days,” Raedwyn replied. “I see no point in putting on a show
so you and your men can jeer at a woman’s tears.”
    The giant
cocked his head to one side and grimaced. “A forked tongue, just like your
mother.”
    “You know
nothing of my mother!” Raedwyn spat, stepping back from his menacing presence.
    “Don’t I?”
he was clearly enjoying tormenting Raedwyn. “You are too young to have memories
of me but I remember your family well. I was once your father’s most trusted
ealdormen. I was more of a brother to him than one of his own kin.”
    Raedwyn
stared back at him, disbelieving. Only the fierce expression on his dark face
stopped her from declaring him a liar.
    “Seaxwyn
was a fire-haired Saxon beauty in those days and you were but a young child.
However, behind her fairness your mother was devious and sly. She poisoned the
king against me. She fed him with lies until Raedwald banished me from his
kingdom on pain of death.”
    The giant
reached forward and placed his hands on Raedwyn’s shoulders, pinning her to the
spot.
    “Ceolwulf
the Exiled am I – and exiled I was – for many long winters. I have lived in Gaul, awaiting the day I would take revenge on the Wuffingas. That day has now come.”
    Raedwyn’s
stomach churned and bile rose into the back of her throat. She thought then of
her half-brother whom she had never met, Sigeberht, who Raedwald had also
exiled to Gaul. However, her father had never told her of this man.
    Ceolwulf
was obviously a lunatic; she did not believe a word he uttered but she would
not dare contradict him. Her mind scampered about, frantically searching for a
way to escape, but there was none. Her false bravado dissolved and she stood
there, too frightened to move.
    Ceolwulf
stepped back from Raedwyn before glancing over to where the cloaked man stood
watching.
    “Caelin,”
he said softly, “come.”
    The man
crossed the path, stepping over bodies as he did so, before he stood next