Read The Lords of the North for Free Online

but I was no threat, Sven had five men within a

few paces, all of them armed with swords or spears, and he had at least forty other men inside

the village. Sven drank some ale. 'I hear there was trouble in Eoferwic?' he asked Bolti.

Bolti nodded. I could see his right hand convulsively opening and closing beneath the

table. 'Some Danes were killed.' he said. Sven shook his head as though he found that news

distressing. 'Ivarr won't be happy.'
    'Where is Ivarr?' Bolti asked.
    'I last heard he was in the Tuede valley,' Sven said, 'and Æd of Scotland was dancing

around him.' He seemed to be enjoying the customary exchange of news, as if his thefts and

piracy were given a coating of respectability by sticking to the conventions. 'So,' he

said, then paused to fart again, 'so what do you trade in, Bolti?'
    'Leather, fleeces, cloth, pottery.' Bolti said, then his voice trailed away as he decided

he was saying too much.
    'And I trade in slaves,' Sven said, 'and this is Gelgill.' he indicated the man beside

him, 'and he buys the slaves from us, and you have three young women I think might prove very

profitable to him and to me. So what will you pay me for them? Pay me enough and you can keep

them.' He smiled as if to suggest he was being entirely reasonable.
    Bolti seemed struck dumb, but he managed to bring a purse from beneath his coat and put some

silver on the table. Sven watched the coins one by one and when Bolti faltered Sven just

smiled and Bolti kept counting the silver until there were thirty-eight shillings on the

table. 'It is all I have, lord.' he said humbly.
    'All you have? I doubt that, Bolti Ericson,' Sven said, 'and if it is then I will let you

keep one ear of one of your daughters. Just one ear as a keepsake. What do you think,

Gelgill?'
    It was a strange name, Gelgill, and I suspected the man had come from across the sea, for

the most profitable slave markets were either in Dyflin or far off Frankia. He said

something, too low for me to catch, and Sven nodded.
    'Bring the girls here.' he said to his men, and Bolti shuddered. He looked at me again as if

he expected me to stop what Sven planned, but I did nothing as the two guards walked to our

waiting group.
    Sven chatted of the prospects for the harvest as the guards ordered Hild and Bolti's

daughters off their horses. The men Bolti had hired did nothing to stop them. Bolti's wife

screamed a protest, then subsided into hysterical tears as her daughters and Hild were

marched towards the table. Sven welcomed them with exaggerated politeness, then Gelgill

stood and inspected the three. He ran his hands over their bodies as if he were buying

horses. I saw Hild shiver as he pulled down her dress to probe her breasts, but he was less

interested in her than in the two younger girls. 'One hundred shillings each,'
    he said after inspecting them, 'but that one,' he looked at Hild, 'fifty.' He spoke with a

strange accent.
    'But that one's pretty.' Sven objected. 'Those other two look like piglets.'
    They're twins,' Gelgill said. 'I can get a lot of money for twins. And the tall girl is too

old. She must be nineteen or twenty.'
    'Virginity is such a valuable thing,' Sven said to Bolti, 'don't you agree?'
    Bolti was shaking. 'I will pay you a hundred shillings for each of my daughters.' he said

desperately.
    'Oh no.' Sven said. 'That's what Gelgill wants. I have to make some profit too. You can keep

all three, Bolti, if you pay me six hundred shillings.'
    It was an outrageous price, and it was meant to be, but Bolti did not baulk at it. 'Only

two are mine, lord.' he whined. 'The third is his woman.' He pointed at me.
    'Yours?' Sven looked at me. 'You have a woman, leper? So that bit hasn't dropped off yet?'

He found that funny and the two men who had fetched the women laughed with him. 'So, leper,'

Sven asked, 'what will you pay me for your woman?'
    'Nothing,' I said.
    He scratched his arse. His men were