d south of the
town. No better sport is there for hawk and hound than on Brandon
and Croxton heaths, and the wilds to which our Saxon Icklings and
Lakings have given their names, for they stretch from forest to
fen, and there is no game in all England that one may not find
there, from red deer to coney, wolf to badger, bustard to snipe,
while there are otter and beaver in the streams.

So they would go, for the wish of a king is, as it were, a command,
even had not both my father and Lodbrok loved to be with him,
whether in hall or field. And I thought that I should surely go
also.

However, my father had other plans for me, and they were none other
than that I should take the ship round to London with some goods we
had, and with some of the new barley, just harvested, which would
ever find ready sale in London, seeing that no land grows better
for ale brewing than ours of East Anglia.

Now that was the first time I had been trusted to command the ship
unaided by my father's presence, though of late he would say that
he was owner, not captain, and but a passenger of mine; so, though
I was sorry not to go to Thetford, I was more proud of myself than
I would show; and maybe I would rather have taken to the sea had
there been choice.

I was to go to my godfather, Ingild the merchant, who would, as
ever, see to business for me; and then, because the season was
late, and wind and weather might keep me long in the river, my
father bade me stay with him, if I would, and if need were lay up
the ship in Thames for the winter, coming home by the great Roman
street that runs through Colchester town to our shores; or if
Ingild would keep me, staying in London with him even till spring
came again.

"If I must leave the ship," I said, "I shall surely come back to
hunt with the jarl and you."

"Nevertheless," answered my father, smiling, "Ingild will have many
a brave show for you in town. Wait till you get to London, for the
court of Ethelred himself will very likely be there, and there will
be much to see. And maybe you will find some Danish ship in the
river, and will send her captain here to take the jarl home with
him; for we may not hold him as a prisoner with us."

Then Lodbrok added that, in any case, I might find means to send
messages to his home by some ship sailing to ports that he named;
and that I promised I would do. Thereon he gave me a broad silver
ring, rune graven, to show as a token to any of his country