IN THE SHADOWS

      ‘Do good,’ Brand’s mother said to him the day she died. ‘Stand in the light.’

      He’d hardly understood what doing good meant at six years old. He wasn’t sure he was much closer at sixteen. Here he was, after all, wasting what should have been his proudest moment, still trying to puzzle out the good thing to do.

      It was a high honour to stand guard on the Black Chair. To be accepted as a warrior of Gettland in the sight of gods and men. He’d struggled for it, hadn’t he? Bled for it? Earned his place? As long as Brand could remember, it had been his dream to stand armed among his brothers on the hallowed stones of the Godshall.

      But he didn’t feel like he was standing in the light.

      ‘I worry about this raid on the Islanders,’ Father Yarvi was saying, bringing the argument in a circle, as ministers always seemed to. ‘The High King has forbidden swords to be drawn. He will take it very ill.’

      ‘The High King forbids everything,’ said Queen Laithlin, one hand on her child-swollen belly, ‘and takes everything ill.’

      Beside her, King Uthil shifted forward in the Black Chair. ‘Meanwhile he orders the Islanders and the Vanstermen and any other curs he can bend to his bidding to draw their swords against us.’

      A surge of anger passed through the great men and women of Gettland gathered before the dais. A week before Brand’s voice would’ve been loudest among them.

      But all he could think of now was Edwal with the wooden sword through his neck, drooling red as he made that honking pig sound. The last he’d ever make. And Thorn, swaying on the sand with her hair stuck across her blood-smeared face, jaw hanging open as Hunnan named her a murderer.

      ‘Two of my ships taken!’ A merchant’s jewelled key bounced on her chest as she shook her fist towards the dais. ‘And not just cargo lost but men dead!’

      ‘And the Vanstermen have crossed the border again!’ came a deep shout from the men’s side of the hall, ‘and burned steadings and taken good folk of Gettland as slaves!’

      ‘Grom-gil-Gorm was seen there!’ someone shouted, and the mere mention of the name filled the dome of the Godshall with muttered curses. ‘The Breaker of Swords himself!’

      ‘The Islanders must pay in blood,’ growled an old one-eyed warrior, ‘then the Vanstermen, and the Breaker of Swords too.’

      ‘Of course they must!’ called Yarvi to the grumbling crowd, his shrivelled crab-claw of a left hand held up for calm, ‘but when and how is the question. The wise wait for their moment, and we are by no means ready for war with the High King.’

      ‘One is always ready for war.’ Uthil gently twisted the pommel of his sword so the naked blade flashed in the gloom. ‘Or never.’

      Edwal had always been ready. A man who stood for the man beside him, just as a warrior of Gettland was supposed to. Surely he hadn’t deserved to die for that?

      Thorn cared for nothing past the end of her own nose, and her shield-rim in Brand’s still-aching balls had raised her no higher in his affections. But she’d fought to the last, against the odds, just as a warrior of Gettland was supposed to. Surely she didn’t deserve to be named murderer for that?

      He glanced guiltily up at the great statues of the six tall gods, towering in judgment over the Black Chair. Towering in judgment over him. He squirmed as though he was the one killed Edwal and named Thorn murderer. All he’d done was watch.

      Watch and do nothing.

      ‘The High King could call half the world to war with us,’ Father Yarvi was saying, patiently as a master-at-arms explains the basics to children. ‘The Vanstermen and the Throvenmen are sworn to him, the Inglings and the Lowlanders are praying to his One God, Grandmother Wexen is forging alliances in the south as well. We are hedged in by enemies and we must have friends to—’

      ‘Steel is the answer.’ King Uthil cut his minister off with a voice sharp as a blade. ‘Steel must always be the answer. Gather the men of Gettland. We will teach these carrion-pecking Islanders a lesson they will not soon forget.’ On the right side of the hall the frowning men beat their approval on mailed chests, and on the left the women with their oiled hair shining murmured their angry support.

      Father Yarvi bowed his head. It was his task to speak for Father Peace but even he was out of words. Mother War ruled today. ‘Steel it is.’

      Brand should’ve thrilled at that. A great raid, like in the songs, and him with a warrior’s place in it! But he was still trapped beside the training square, picking at the scab of what he could’ve done differently.

      If he hadn’t hesitated. If he’d struck without pity, like a warrior was supposed to, he could’ve beaten Thorn, and there it would’ve ended. Or if he’d spoken up with Edwal when Hunnan set three on one, perhaps together they could’ve stopped it. But he hadn’t spoken up. Facing an enemy on the battlefield took courage, but you had your friends beside you. Standing alone against your friends, that was a different kind of courage. One Brand didn’t pretend to have.

      ‘And then we have the matter of Hild Bathu,’ said Father Yarvi, the name bringing Brand’s head jerking up like a thief’s caught with his hand round a purse.

      ‘Who?’ asked the king.

      ‘Storn Headland’s daughter,’ said Queen Laithlin. ‘She calls herself Thorn.’

      ‘She’s done more than prick a finger,’ said Father Yarvi. ‘She killed a boy in the training square and is named a murderer.’

      ‘Who names her so?’ called Uthil.

      ‘I do.’ Master Hunnan’s golden cloak-buckle gleamed as he stepped into the shaft of light at the foot of the dais.

      ‘Master Hunnan.’ A rare smile touched the corner of the king’s mouth. ‘I remember well our bouts together in the training square.’

      ‘Treasured memories, my king, though painful ones for me.’

      ‘Ha! You saw this killing?’

      ‘I was testing my eldest students to judge those worthy to join your raid. Thorn Bathu was among them.’

      ‘She embarrasses herself, trying to take a warrior’s place!’ one woman called.

      ‘She embarrasses us all,’ said another.

      ‘A woman has no place on the battlefield!’ came a gruff voice from among the men, and heads nodded on both sides of the room.

      ‘Is Mother War herself not a woman?’ The king pointed up at the Tall Gods looming over them. ‘We only offer her the choice. The Mother of Crows picks the worthy.’

      ‘And she did not pick Thorn Bathu,’ said Hunnan. ‘The girl has a poisonous temper.’ Very true. ‘She failed the test I set her.’ Partly true. ‘She lashed out against my judgment and killed the boy Edwal.’ Brand blinked. Not quite a lie, but far from all the truth. Hunnan’s grey beard wagged as he shook his head. ‘And so I lost two pupils.’

      ‘Careless of you,’ said Father Yarvi.

      The master-at-arms bunched his fists but Queen Laithlin spoke first. ‘What would be the punishment for such a murder?’

      ‘To be crushed with stones, my queen.’ The minister spoke calmly, as if they considered crushing a beetle, not a person, and that a person Brand