"Raud," I said, "if harm is done to the king, I shall surely fall on some of you--and Ingvar first of all."
"Not on me with axe, I pray you," he answered laughing, and twisting his head on one side. "I mind me of Rorik."
"Let us be going," I said, for I could not jest.
So we trotted after the party, and when we were near, Raud left me and went to Ingvar's side, speaking to him of what I had said. Then the jarl turned round to me, speaking quietly enough, but in a strange voice.
"Come with me and we will speak of this matter to Eadmund himself. Then will the business be settled at once."
That was all I would wish, and being willing to speak yet more with Raud, I said I would follow. He turned again, and looked no more at me.
Then I asked Raud of his brother, and of Thoralf, my other companion of flight. They were both slain, one at Gainsborough and one at Medehamstede. Thormod was with Halfden in Wessex, where they had made a landing to keep Ethelred, our Wessex overlord, from sending to our help. But as to Halfden, men said that he would not come to East Anglia, for the Lady Osritha had over persuaded him.
Then, though I would not ask in any downright way, I found that Osritha was well, but grieving, as they thought, for the danger of her brothers--and of that I had my own thoughts.
So with talk of the days that seemed so long past, we went on into Hoxne woods, through which Raud said that he had learnt we must go to meet the host in its onward march from Thetford.
"Jarl Ingvar lets not the grass grow under his feet," I said.