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Food and drink then, enough for a hand or so of days

Of Kansi-a-lari, whose voice had n

6

IVAR had been left behind with a dozen outriders to guard the horses in case the bandits slipped away from Captain Ulric and the strike force They waited in a clearing ringed with beech trees Faint trails of azed downslope, where oak trees encroached and bra hill, lay a fen populated by loet birch, stands of alder, and every rass The captain knew better than to ride into such ground; the soldiers had gone in at dawn on foot

Ivar and the others listened Because of the lay of the ground, they heard the attack as if it were the peal of distant chi; a silence as the wind turned; and scattered shouts and noises as the wind shifted back He blew on his hands Sentries prowled at the edge of his sight Two dogs snoozed on the daered, but it seemed to him that the h the sun were trying to burn through

"You’d think it’d be warroo his feet

"Hey!" shouted a sentry "It’s Erkanwulf!"

Ivar stayed aloof as the others crowded tohero, who had blood on his cheek and a frown on his face

"Well, it’s over" He caught Ivar’s gaze, and nodded "Dedi got slashed on the thigh, and Guy got knocked cold, and a couple of lads have scrapes and bruises, but we’re all safe We took theot a dozen prisoners for the biscop The rest are dead"

"For Lord Geoffrey," objected the man who had complained about summer He was a Lavas retainer

"For the biscop," repeated Erkanwulf "For justice"