The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell Page A

his men had taken. 'Besides, I

have these.'
    He meant he would not go to Cynuit. The slaves, once they were sold, would bring him silver

and he must have reckoned Cynuit was not worth the casualties.
    Svein needed my help next morning. His own ship was in Callyn's harbour and he asked me to

take him and a score of his men to fetch it. We left the rest of his crew at Peredur's

settlement. They guarded the slaves he would take away, and they also burned the place as we

carried Svein cast up the coast to Callyn's settlement.
    We waited a day there as Svein settled his accounts with Callyn, and we used the time to

sell fleeces and tin to Callyn's traders and, though we received a poor enough price, it was

better to travel with silver than with bulky cargo. The Fyrdraca was glittering with

silver now and the crewmen, knowing they would receive their proper share, were happy.
    Haesten wanted to go with Svein, but I refused his request.
    'I saved your life,' I told him, 'and you have to serve me longer to pay for that.'
    He accepted that and was pleased when I gave him a second arm ring as a reward for the men

he had killed at Dreyndynas.
    Svein's White Horse was smaller than Fyrdraca. Her prow had a carved horse's head and her

stern a wolf's head, while at her masthead was a wind-vane decorated with a white horse.
    I asked Svein about the horse and he laughed.
    'When I was sixteen,' he said, 'I wagered my father's stallion against our king's white

horse. I had to beat the king's champion at wrestling and swordplay. My father beat me for

making the wager, but I won! So the white horse is lucky. I ride only white horses.'
    And so his ship was the White Horse and I followed her back up the coast to where a thick

plume of smoke marked where Peredur had ruled.
    'Are we staying with him?' Leofric asked, puzzled that we were going back west rather than

turning towards Defnascir.
    'I have a mind to see where Britain ends,' I said, and I had no wish to return to the Uisc

and to Mildrith's misery.
    Svein put the slaves into the belly of his boat. We spent one last night in the bay, under

the thick smoke, and in the morning, as the rising sun flickered across the sea, we rowed

away. As we passed the western headland, going into the wide ocean, I saw a man watching us

from the cliff's top and I saw he was robed in black and, though he was a long way off, I thought

I recognised Asser. Iseult saw him too and she hissed like a cat, made a fist and threw it at

him, opening her fingers at the last moment as if casting a spell at the monk.
    Then I forgot him because Fyrdraca was back in the open sea and we were going to the

place where the world ended.
    And I had a shadow queen for company.

PART TWO
Chapter Four
The Swamp

    King
    I love the sea. I grew up beside it, though in my memories the seas off Bebbanburg are

    grey, usually sullen, and rarely sunlit. They are nothing like the great waters that roll

    from beyond the Isles of the Dead to thunder and shatter against the rocks at the west of

    Britain. The sea heaves there, as if the ocean gods flexed their muscles, and the white birds

    cry endlessly, and the wind rattles the spray against the cliffs and Fyrdraca, running

    before that bright wind, left a path in the sea and the steering oar fought me, pulsing with

    the life of the water and the flexing of the ship and the joy of the passage. Iseult stared

    at me, astonished by my happiness, but then I gave her the oar and watched her thin body

    heave against the sea's strength until she understood the power of the oar and could move

    the ship, and then she laughed. 'I would live on the sea,' I told her, though she did not

    understand me. I had given her an arm ring from Peredur's hoard and a silver toe ring and

    a necklace of monster's teeth, all sharp and long and white, strung on a silver

    wire.
    I turned and watched Svein's White Horse cut through the water. Her bows would sometimes

    break