Blood Eye: A Novel (Raven: Book 1)

Olaf smiled. 'You did good, lad. Sigurd could be happy. ' 'Make him go away, Olaf,' I stated, brooding about if the riders had well-known the pagan knife with its bone deal with of carved beasts. 'Please,' I further. Olaf's eyebrows arched and that i guessed his strategies. Sigurd used to be now not a guy who will be made to do something. We approached Thorolf on watch at the bluff overlooking the small bay and he straightened as we neared, his eyes devouring the joints of meat on our shoulders. 'Save a few for me! ' he pleaded, as we all started down the slender, muddy song to the seashore the place the Norsemen had piled wooden for cooking fires clear of the rotting whale. 'Just maintain your eyes open, Thorolf, or i will have you ever on dried codfish until you sprout fins and drink seawater! ' Glum threatened. 'We will not be in Harald's Fjord now. the people around right here will not supply a fart that your father says you are a sort lad who loves his mom. they're going to nail your conceal to a church door and spit on it two times an afternoon. ' while Ealhstan observed me he nodded sharply. Then I observed him make the signal of the pass over his chest and that i knew he should have prayed for my secure go back. We stowed the beef within the ships' small holds, notwithstanding Sigurd ordered fires lit for 2 large joints of darkish pink pork marbled with skinny threads of fats. It used to be nonetheless raining, however the wooden washed up directly to the seashore was once white as bone and two times as dry and could burn good sufficient. Then Olaf stuck my eye, scratched his hairy beard and gave a moderate nod, and that i watched him technique Sigurd. I went nearer. 'Let's be away, Sigurd,' he stated via a calm smile. 'It'll be solid to place a few brine among us and those English. ' 'The males are rainy and hungry, Uncle,' Sigurd stated, opting for a flea from his yellow beard and crushing it among his thumbnails. 'We're now not leaving until eventually they've got eaten an exceptional meal. along with, the wind is from the south. I will not lead them to row opposed to it with their bellies empty. ' Olaf squeezed the rainwater from his lengthy, greying hair. 'We take a possibility if we stay,' he stated. 'If we have been males governed via worry, we might by no means have positioned to sea, previous friend,' Sigurd responded, sweeping again his yellow hair and tying it with a thong. 'We will depart with the moon while you are anxious in regards to the English. yet allow them to consume ahead of you are making them row. ' He grinned. 'Our fathers weren't males of the plough, good day? ' Olaf nodded, accepting his jarl's choice, yet now Glum stepped up. He picked up a few dried seaweed and dropped it to check the wind. 'The boy thinks the English could come, Sigurd,' he acknowledged, touching his sword's hilt for solid success and looking out at me. I moved nearer. 'They have been suspicious, lord,' I stated, glancing at Olaf. 'It used to be of their eyes. ' Sigurd's forehead darkened. 'I won't run from them, Glum,' he acknowledged. 'Óðin doesn't favour cowards. ' Glum's face flushed purple opposed to the darkening sky and he appeared approximately to talk, yet as a substitute grew to become his again on Sigurd and marched away. 'Take off the patch, Raven. ' Sigurd was once me, his beard damaged via a skinny smile. 'Raven?