King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett Page B

his northlands.
    Thorkel Amundason forced the first axe-blade off its stake and weighed it in his hands, gazing after the shipmaster as he strode with his fellows back down to the jetty, and if Thorfinn had been there, might have been tempted to give him first trial of the edge of it.
What is he doing? What is the young imbecile doing now?
    Then Earl Hakon, the viceroy of Norway, sailed in and, barely observing the welcome-ale, mentioned that, being now lord of Norway, his uncle King Canute was pleased to fulfil the oath he had taken to make the Earl Thorfinn ruler of two-thirds of Orkney. The Earl Brusi had been informed, and had received land in Møre in compensation. Earl Hakon was glad to bear news so welcome and, time being short, would be equally glad to receive the taxes now owed to King Canute: namely, those for two-thirds of Orkney and Caithness.
    Along the board, the Earl’s men talked on, but Thorkel could hear how all his own had fallen silent. He said courteously, ‘Being unaware of the great good fortune you mention, we have prepared for you the tribute for one-third of Orkney, as was usually paid to King Olaf, and as no doubt the Earl Brusi has already prepared for his double portion. As to the rest, the Earl Thorfinn owes nothing for the lands of Caithness.’
    Hakon Ericsson, last of the great Norwegian Earls of Lade, was no great dissimulator, but at thirty-three knew the tricks of the conference table quite as well as did Thorkel. ‘This I was prepared to believe,’ said King Canute’s nephew with an air entirely reasonable, ‘until I learned that King Malcolm’s tax-servants also have been recently menaced with weapons. If you owe notax and no service to Alba, then Earl Thorfinn’s agreement with Norway is valid and the tax is now owed to King Canute.’
    It was then, after a very hard year and in prospect of another just like it, that Thorkel’s self-control for a moment gave way. ‘Then that is a matter, is it not, that King Canute must raise with Earl Thorfinn himself in England?’ he suggested. ‘Whatever agreement they come to, you can rely on me to fulfil to the letter.’ And to himself:
He began it without me. Let him finish it, if he can
, Thorkel added.
    He paid for two-thirds of Orkney in the end. He had expected to. Just as Earl Hakon had had no real hope of the Caithness tribute—as yet. The talk ended, of course, with a careful reference to the numbers of Trøndelagers who had deserted King Olaf for Canute, including Thore Hund of Bjarking, now in England with his son Siward. Earl Hakon thought he could find Thore land in Huntingdon. Siward preferred further north. Earl Hakon’s own father had found much satisfaction in ruling Northumbria. Thorkel, of course, would have heard the latest news of Northumbria.
    Thorkel had.
    ‘Dynastic marriages,’ said Earl Hakon, smiling. ‘But the Arnasons aren’t coming out of it all too badly. There is Kalv married to a rich widow. Finn got King Olaf’s niece to wife, which no doubt is why Finn felt constrained to follow Olaf to Russia. And now his two daughters are placed.’
    ‘Sigrid and Ingibjorg?’ said Thorkel. Poor Finn, in Russia. Rognvald had fled to Russia as well. He wondered what Finn had done about Rognvald. He said, ‘I thought the girls were too young. Or is it just a contract?’
    ‘Thirteen and upwards, I should think,’ Earl Hakon said. ‘One of them is married, anyway. To my cousin Orm. The one with the long hair. Sigrid, isn’t it?’
    ‘There was one called Sigrid,’ said Thorkel. They both had had long hair, so far as he could remember. ‘What about the other one?’
    ‘Oh, the other one should be across in the spring,’ Earl Hakon said. ‘You’ll be interested. Of course, they broke her contract to the blond boy who’s gone to Russia. Now she’s signed to marry one of the two lords of Moray. Gillacomghain. The one who submitted to my lord Canute. Maybe,’ said Earl Hakon, smiling, ‘she’ll