The Ice Queen by Bruce MacBain Page A

ears.”
    â€œYes, Dag, all right—but an ambush? You’re not serious.”
    â€œNever more. Why—you think she isn’t capable of it? No, dammit, everything fits. Have you ever seen a battle with no dead left on the field, not so much as a single weapon dropped? Believe me, I looked. They left nothing behind that could be traced to them.
    â€œAnd then back comes Eilif the next day without a single prisoner to show for his efforts, but with five wounded of his own, and claiming tohave won a battle with the ‘pagans’, after which he hanged all the survivors, says he, and burnt down their village. Which I don’t doubt—the hanging and burning—to make it look good. But those casualties were none other than the men we wounded, being smuggled back into town.”
    â€œAnd all this was done for the purpose of killing Harald?”
    â€œAnd you and me, yes. And they damn near succeeded.”
    â€œYou’re forgetting the princess was wounded too.”
    â€œA sham. Self-inflicted. For a heathen, friend Odd—if that’s really what you are—you seem strangely anxious to pin the guilt on them. Or does the fair Ingigerd’s guilt disturb you even more? Don’t set your foot on that path, my friend, it’s a slippery one.”
    â€œDon’t worry about me.”
    â€œI worry about everyone.”
    At that point Harald, who was so weak he could barely talk, gritted his teeth and raised himself up on an elbow. “I blame you for this, Dag Hringsson!” he said between clenched teeth. “You persuaded me to take refuge in Gardariki—refuge, you said. And what do I find but swords drawn against me! I’m as sore wounded as I was on the field of Stiklestad and it’s your fault! Now, I want that woman dead—you hear me? I want her palace burned to the ground, I want her head brought to me on a pike, and Magnus’s head with it! I’ve got six score Norwegians here ready to die for me, and every one of them a match for five Swedes. Now, you see to it, goddamn you, or it’ll be your head on a pike, you hear me … ahh!”
    He fell back, clutching his belly; fresh spots of blood showed through the bandages.
    Dag leaned forward and said in an earnest voice, “You’re right, my friend, I underestimated her. I blame myself. I simply didn’t expect her to move so soon. Now listen to me carefully, Harald. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think the prize was worth the hazard. What happened today won’t happen again. From now on we guard you well—a dozen of our best men with you at all times—waking, sleeping, shitting, drunk, sober. But as for Ingigerd, we smile and do nothing—no violence, no threats, no accusations—nothing. We bide our time. She has enemies; I know who they are. More important, we have a friend. Yaroslav. He favors you already, soon he won’t be able to do without you. He must realize that he put his head in a Swedish noose the day he married that vixen. She and her relatives have just about stolen his country from him. And that’swhere we come in. We’re the lesser of two evils, and not just to Yaroslav—the boyars will see it that way too.”
    â€œThen let’s waste no time,” I said. “I’ll pay a visit on the mayor and arrange a parlay. It’s a skald’s job.”
    â€œGood. Do it at once,” said Dag. “But disguise yourself somehow. Ingigerd has eyes everywhere.”
    Harald roused himself again. “I’ve never heard Dyuk Osipovich speak Norse. How are we to parlay with him?”
    â€œI’ve been hard at work on my Slavonic,” I said. “I’ll manage.”
    â€œYou—” he said with an expression that seemed to convey equal amounts of wonder and exasperation. I didn’t like his tone of voice. We looked hard at each other.
    After an uncomfortable moment, Dag