SWORD OF KINGS Bernard Cornwell Copyright HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019 Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2019 Map © John Gilkes 2019 Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019 Cover photograph © CollaborationJS/Arcangel Images (helmet/foreground and horse detail in background) and Shutterstock.com (all other images) Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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Source ISBN: 9780008183899 Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 9780008183912 Version: 2019-08-29 Dedication Sword of Kings is for Suzanne Pollak Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Place Names Map Part One: A Fool’s Errand One Two Three Four Part Two: City of Darkness Five Six Seven Part Three: The Field of Barley Eight Nine Ten Part Four: Serpent-Breath Eleven Twelve Thirteen Historical Note About the Author Also by Bernard Cornwell The Sharpe series About the Publisher PLACE NAMES The spelling of place names in Anglo-Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whichever spelling is cited in either the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names or the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, AD 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and Hæglingaiggæ. Nor have I been consistent myself; I have preferred the modern form Northumbria to Norðhymbralond to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list of places mentioned in the book is, like the spellings themselves, capricious. Andefera Andover, Wiltshire Basengas Basing, Hampshire Bebbanburg Bamburgh, Northumberland Beamfleot Benfleet, Essex Caninga Canvey Island, Essex Ceaster Chester, Cheshire Celmeresburh Chelmsford, Essex Cent Kent Cestrehunt Cheshunt, Hertfordshire Cippanhamm Chippenham, Wiltshire Colneceaster Colchester, Essex Contwaraburg Canterbury, Kent Cyningestun Kingston upon Thames, Surrey Crepelgate Cripplegate, London Dumnoc Dunwich, Suffolk East Seax Essex Elentone Maidenhead, Berkshire Eoferwic Saxon name for York, Yorkshire Fæfresham Faversham, Kent Farnea Islands Farne Islands, Northumberland Fearnhamme Farnham, Surrey Ferentone Farndon, Cheshire Fleot, River River Fleet, London Fughelness Foulness, Essex Gleawecestre Gloucester, Gloucestershire Grimesbi Grimsby, Lincolnshire Hamptonscir Hampshire Heahburh Fictional name for Whitley Castle, Cumbria Heorotforda Hertford, Hertfordshire Humbre, River River Humber Jorvik Danish name for York, Yorkshire Ligan, River River Lea Lindcolne Lincoln, Lincolnshire Lindisfarena Lindisfarne, Northumbria Ludd’s Gate Ludgate, London Lupiae Lecce, Italy Lundene London Mameceaster Manchester Ora Oare, Kent Sceapig Isle of Sheppey, Kent St Cuthbert’s Cave Cuddy’s Cave, Holburn, Northumberland Strath Clota Kingdom in south-west Scotland Suðgeweork Southwark, London Swalwan Creek The Swale, Thames Estuary Temes, River River Thames Toteham Tottenham, Greater London Tuede, River River Tweed Weala, brook The Walbrook, London Werlameceaster St Albans, Hertfordshire Westmynster Westminster, London Wicumun High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire Wiltunscir Wiltshire Wintanceaster Winchester, Hampshire Map PART ONE A Fool’s Errand One Gydene was missing. She was not the first of my ships to vanish. The savage sea is vast and ships are small and Gydene, which simply meant ‘goddess’, was smaller than most. She had been built at Grimesbi on the Humbre and had been named Haligwæter. She had fished for a year before I bought her and, because I wanted no ship named Holy Water in my fleet, I paid a virgin one shilling to piss in her bilge, renamed her Gydene, and gave her to the fisherfolk of Bebbanburg. They cast their nets far offshore and, when Gydene did not return on a day when the wind was brisk, the sky grey, and the waves were crashing white and high on the rocks of the Farnea Islands, we assumed she had been overwhelmed and had given Bebbanburg’s small village six widows and almost three times as many orphans. Maybe I should have left her name alone, all seamen know that you risk fate by changing a ship’s name, though they know equally well that a virgin’s piss averts that fate. Yet the gods can be as cruel as the sea. Then Egil Skallagrimmrson came from his land that I had granted to him, land that formed the border of my territory and Constantin of Scotland’s realm, and Egil came by sea as he always did and there was a corpse in the belly of Banamaðr, his serpent-ship. ‘Washed ashore in the Tuede,’ he told me, ‘he’s yours, isn’t he?’ ‘The Tuede?’ I asked. ‘Southern shore. Found him on a mudbank. The gulls found him first.’ ‘I can see.’ ‘He was one of yours, wasn’t he?’ ‘He was,’ I said. The dead man’s name was Haggar Bentson, a fisherman, helmsman of the Gydene, a big man, too fond of ale, scarred from too many brawls, a bully, a wife-beater, and a good sailor. ‘Wasn’t drowned, was he?’ Egil remarked. ‘No.’ ‘And the gulls didn’t kill him,’ Egil sounded amused. ‘No,’ I said, ‘the gulls didn’t kill him.’ Instead Haggar had been hacked to death. His corpse was naked and fish-white, except for the hands and what was left of his face. Great wounds had been slashed across his belly, chest and thighs, the savage cuts washed clean by the sea. Egil touched a boot against a gaping wound that had riven Haggar’s chest from the shoulder to the breastbone. ‘I’d say that was the axe blow that killed him,’ he said, ‘but someone cut off his balls first.’ ‘I noticed that.’ Egil stooped to the corpse and forced the lower jaw down. Egil Skallagrimmrson was a strong man, but it still took an effort to open Haggar’s mouth. The bone made a cracking sound and Egil straightened. ‘Took his teeth too,’ he said. ‘And his eyes.’ ‘That might have been the gulls. Partial to an eyeball, they are.’ ‘But they left his tongue,’ I said. ‘Poor bastard.’ ‘Miserable way to die,’ Egil agreed, then turned to look at the harbour entrance. ‘Only
