Warriors of Ethandun by N. M. Browne

prideful whim to want to be alone – away from my family and my advisors and even my priests.’ He did not look at Dan. ‘I wanted solitude, time to think … Men I trusted betrayed me and we were lucky to escape with our lives. Now my men are all so fearful.’ He paused as if about to say more, but stopped. ‘My responsibilities and my mistakes weigh too heavily on me. I need to be bold and yet …’
    â€˜So did it help to get away?’ Dan thought that he should perhaps add some kind of honorific, but before he could think of the right one, Aelfred was already answering.
    â€˜Perhaps you have not heard, but Guthrum and his great heathen army attacked us as we celebrated Twelfth Night.’ His face as he turned towards Dan was full of pain. He appeared surprised when Dan shook his head. ‘You must truly be a stranger if you have not heard this bitter tale. My trusted ealdorman, Wulfhere of Wiltshire, and other ealdormen of Hampshire and Dorset, men who have benefited greatly from my gift-giving …’ His voice shook and he took a moment to calm himself. ‘These men conspired with my archbishop, Aethelred, who has accused me of much evil, to usurp my place upon the throne of Wessex and replace me with my brother’s child – a pawn and client king who will lend Guthrum and his Danish heathens legitimacy while they ransack my kingdom, my people, and undo all that my grandfather and father have achieved.’ His voice dropped to a whisper and he shook his head angrily. ‘I was so foolish. I did not see it coming. I believed that all right-thinking men would choose Christian freedom over subordination to heathen pirates. But I was wrong. The Danes have wealth enough to buy the services of a puppet king. They have done it in Mercia and Northumbria. I had not thought the ealdormen who have served my family would let them do it here. For now I have no kingdom but this.’
    He stretched out his hand to encompass the grey river, now bright with sunlight dappling the wind-rippled surface. The mist had gone as if it had never been and the sun shone from a clear sky; the windswept wilderness looked wild and eerily beautiful. Aelfred seemed to think so too because he added, ‘And this is better than nothing,is it not?’ He grinned and suddenly looked different: bolder and a good deal less ill. ‘All I can say is that I’m not ready to give up. I may have been foolish, vain, ungodly and complacent, but with God’s help I may not yet be defeated.’
    Dan found himself grinning back. What he did not need was to get involved in a hopeless fight against the odds, against enemies not his own, for a king with no assets beyond a cheerful grin, but he could feel himself becoming more involved by the second. Aelfred’s tale was bound to be more complicated than his simple summary, but Dan could sense the truth in what he said.
    Without saying a word, he and Aelfred manoeuvred the raft away from the bank and Dan started punting the King back to his men.

Chapter Fifteen
    The sunshine seemed to cheer Aelfred up and he started to talk, or rather to ask questions – about Dan’s companion, about Dan’s own origins. Dan was as cagey as possible and decided to refer to Ursula as if she were a man. He thought it would be simpler that way. He would describe her as his male companion, his comrade-in-arms, and if she had any magic in this world he knew that she would be able to play the part of a male warrior – she had done it so many times already. The difficulty was that he could not then ask Aelfred for his help in finding a tall blonde woman who may have shown signs of magical power.
    â€˜I do not understand how you separated,’ Aelfred said. ‘Surely you must have some idea as to where he went?’ Dan shook his head. He did not want to embroider a lie. He wanted to say as little as possible and lapsed into a moody silence. She