Saxon 01 - The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

do you have?"

I demanded.

"There is food, lord," one of the monks said.

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom "How much?" I demanded again.

"Enough."

"He says there's enough," I told Ragnar.

"A sword," Ragnar said, "is a great tool for discovering the truth. What about the monk's church? How much silver does it have?"

The monk gabbled that we could look for ourselves, that we could take whatever we found, that it was all ours, anything we found was ours, all was ours. I translated these panicked statements and Ragnar again smiled. "He's not telling the truth, is he?"

"Isn't he?" I asked.

"He wants me to look because he knows I won't find, and that means they've hidden their treasure or had it taken away. Ask him if they've hidden their silver."

I did and the monk reddened. "We are a poor church," he said, "with little treasure,"

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom and he stared wide-eyed as I translated his answer. Then he tried to get up and run as Ragnar stepped forward, but he tripped over his robe and Heart-Breaker pierced his spine so that he jerked like a landed fish as he died.

There was silver, of course, and it was buried. Another of the monks told us so, and Ragnar sighed as he cleaned his sword on the dead monk's robe. "They're such fools," he said plaintively. "They'd live if they answered truthfully the first time."

"But suppose there wasn't any treasure?" I asked him.

"Then they'd tell the truth and die," Ragnar said, and found that funny. "But what's the point of a monk except to hoard treasure for us Danes? They're ants who hoard silver.

Find the ants' nest, dig, and a man's rich."

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom He stepped over his victims. At first I was shocked by the ease with which he would kill a defenseless man, but Ragnar had no respect for folk who cringed and lied. He appreciated an enemy who fought, who showed spirit, but men who were weakly sly like the ones he killed at Gegnesburh's gate were beneath his contempt, no better than animals.

We emptied Gegnesburh of food, then made the monks dig up their treasure. It was not much: two silver mass cups, three silver plates, a bronze crucifix with a silver Christ, a bone carving of angels climbing a ladder, and a bag of silver pennies. Ragnar distributed the coins among his men, then hacked the silver plates and cups to pieces with an ax and shared out the scraps. He had no use for the bone carving so shattered it with his sword. "A weird religion," he said.

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom "They worship just one god?"

"One god," I said, "but he's divided into three."

He liked that. "A clever trick," he said, "but not useful. This triple god has a mother, doesn't he?"

"Mary," I said, following him as he explored the monastery in search of more plunder.

"I wonder if her baby came out in three bits," he said. "So what's this god's name?"

"Don't know." I knew he had a name because Beocca had told me, but I could not remember it. "The three together are the trinity," I went on, "but that's not god's name. Usually they just call him god."

"Like giving a dog the name dog," Ragnar declared, then laughed. "So who's Jesus?"

"One of the three."

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom "The one who died, yes? And he came back to life?"

"Yes," I said, suddenly fearful that the Christian god was watching me, readying a dreadful punishment for my sins.

"Gods can do that," Ragnar said airily.

"They die, come back to life. They're gods."

He looked at me, sensing my fear, and ruffled my hair. "Don't you worry, Uhtred, the Christian god doesn't have power here."

"He doesn't?"

"Of course not!" He was searching a shed at the back of the monastery and found a decent sickle that he tucked into his belt.

"Gods fight each other! Everyone knows that. Look at our gods! The Aesir and Vanir fought like cats before they made friends."

The Aesir and the Vanir were the two families of Danish gods who now shared Asgard, Bernard