Gunnar, not quite believing his good fortune, made no further protest but agreed at once, lest the king change his mind. Harald summoned one of his men, who stepped to the king's rough throne. The king put out his hand and the warrior gave him a leather bag from which the king withdrew a handful of silver coins. "I would not have you think ill of your king," he said and, selecting a few coins from his hand, motioned for Gunnar and me to approach.
"For the loss of your slave," Harald said, pouring six silver coins into Gunnar's outstretched hands. Then, as if thinking better of his offer, he took three more coins and added these to the others. "For your hound," the king said, and gave Gunnar six more silver pieces. "Heya?"
Gunnar glanced at me and shrugged. "Heya," he replied, greatly relieved. With a flick of the king's hand, my master retreated gratefully, tucking his silver into his belt. The warrior stepped up and took me by the arm; I was brought to the king's throne. Harald Bull-Roar reached out, seized hold of my slave collar and pulled me down to my knees.
"You are my slave now," he said. "Do you understand this?"
I indicated my submission with a bow of my head, whereupon I was hauled to my feet and shoved roughly back behind the king and made to stand with the king's other servants. Even as I was struggling to adjust to this startling turn of fortune, I was thinking that the king had planned his justice very carefully. I think that from the moment he had seen me on the riverbank, he had begun scheming and this was the result.
I found my place among the king's following of serving men and slaves. Once out of sight, the king seemed to lose interest in me and, since no one gave me anything to do, I stayed out of the way and observed the ordering of his court. I learned little for my effort, however, for there was no order to anything.
At the conclusion of the theng the next morning, everyone bade farewell to friends and kinsmen, most of whom would not be seen again until the next summons brought them all back to the council ring. The forest trails round about echoed with the sounds of homewarding Danefolk calling to one another, and whooping with loud exuberance at the heady prospect of sailing into fame and fortune with Harald Bull-Roar.
For, before dismissing them to their various journeys, the king had stood at the fierce dragon prow of his handsome ship and restated the terms of his offer: anyone who followed him to Miklagard would be exempt from paying tribute for five years and would also gain a share in the treasure to be won. Sure, most of the free men and nobles had pledged to join the king straightaway.
Most, I say, but not all. Ragnar Yellow Hair did not pledge his support and, following their lord's reluctance, neither had Gunnar or Tolar, nor several of Ragnar's house karlar, though these, it must be said, were less than pleased with their jarl's opposition to the plan.
When the last of the people had gone, the king boarded his ship and we started down the river. I found a place at the rail and watched the theng-place disappear behind us. Sorrow overwhelmed me at the thought that I would never see Ylva or Karin again, nor Helmuth, nor little Ulf, nor even Gunnar. They had been good to me, and I never had the chance to bid them fare well. I did what I could, however, and prayed for them, and asked the Lord Christ to send an angel to be with them. As I did not know what kind of master Jarl Harald might be, I prayed for myself, too, that I would prove worthy of my calling.
After three days, travelling both day and night, we arrived at the river mouth and, after another day's travel north and east along the coast, came to the king's holding at a tiny bay called Bjorvika: little more than an armed camp with a low turf wall raised around a double handful of mud-and-thatch houses, and a stout timber dock for his ships, of which there were three. The dragon longship was the largest, but the other two had twenty benches each.
The king's holding, I soon learned, was but one of three. In addition to his port, Harald maintained a summer settlement, with fields and cattle, and a winter holding where he drank and hunted during the cold months. As he planned to sail from Skania with the next full moon, the king had brought only those people he would need to the port settlement; the rest remained elsewhere.
