The servants of the goddess Senuna were to make their way into the hallway to find the corpse of Sarah, and were to freeze one and all. The men who were not men, had been raised all of their lives under the dominance of the lady Senuna and her Nereids, and were thus void of the courage that was so natural to those such as Glædwine and Hroðgar. They were not alone in this regard, as the women were of no less a cowardly disposition and scarcely of the same calibre as the likes of Sarah so that Sigewulf found himself full of scorn for them also. It was a disgrace he thought to himself, truly it was. How could they claim to be the most stalwart and loyal of Senuna’s supporters if they feared blood as they did? Even as a child, though he had felt much the same way when his siblings were murdered, Sigewulf now found himself mostly unmoved by the sight of it.

What was more was that he had little in the way of affection for Sarah, whom had abused and sought to murder his father. Though, he did not know for certain how it had happened that his father had come to be a boar, he knew that the man’s life had been in danger.

None offered the slightest resistance when Sigewulf and Eadburht burst passed them, so intent were the servants upon the corpse. Bursting pass them, led by Hroðgar who charged not in the direction of the goddess but in the direction of the entrance to the palace, or so Sigewulf assumed. Not quite familiar with all the labyrinthine passages of the palace they wove past one hallway after another, first going down one path that seemed to lead back to the mead-hall, only to twist down a leftward corridor. After a few minutes of racing forward, they were to twist down a rightward one, then another left and then another right, then right again then straight so that the children soon became utterly dizzied.

When at least they burst outside, after a short flight of seven stairs it was with a surge of shock that Sigewulf saw his father race forward on all four legs leaving him behind, whilst he and Eadburht gaped. It had been so long since they had properly seen the light of the twin suns’ that they could not help but stall if momentarily.

The sad truth was that, just as they prepared to race after Hroðgar a pair of arms enveloped both of them in steely grips that neither of them could quite escape from.

“And where in the name of her Grace the Lady Senuna do thou intend to flee to in such a hurry?” A sing song voice hissed, the voice being one that Sigewulf recognized at once as that of the Lady Lladriana, one of Senuna’s favourites.

A buxom maiden who appeared no older than twenty summers old, she was blond of hair and had wild blue eyes, with glistening skin, full lips and was often dressed in the same Romalian style that Senuna favoured herself. Her long mane of hair was tied in a series of braids that went down the length of her smooth back, with Sigewulf having only ever seen her in passing at a distance. Up close as he was to discover, she was far more beautiful than she had ever seemed before.

“Let us go! Release us at once!” Eadburht squealed struggling against the arms of the Lady Aven who had caught him up also, herself another beauteous Nereid, except she had blue hair and dark eyes that flashed with a hint of madness.

“Now why would we do such a thing? Especially since it might be best to feed the two to our cousins the sirens?” Aven asked of them with a short shrill laugh that made Sigewulf’s stomach plummet to the ground.

Lladriana herself was visibly annoyed at this suggestion and was to answer in a harsh voice, “Now, now Aven we have already discussed this before, we shan’t have them fed to the seas and our cousins.”

The second Nereid was visibly discontented by this statement, glancing at her fellow Nymph with a moue of displeasure. Neither child could quite understand why it was that they could not struggle free, much to the amusement of their new captors.

Recalling many of the lessons that his father had taught him, Sigewulf with a glance to his own captor was to try to swing his head back which the lady avoided with ease. This was a feint however, not that she could have possibly known this so inexperienced was she in the seizing of others and violence. Sticking out his elbow that he might knock the air, from the woman’s lungs so that in spite of her greater strength than most mortal ladies was nonetheless forced from her. Stricken, Lladriana released him instinctively at which time Sigewulf regained his feet, hardly waiting for the Nymph to recover he twisted about that he might throw himself against the surprised Aven.

Petite though nowhere near as much so as Lladriana, who was almost a foot shorter than she, Aven had little in the way to fight off Sigewulf half so well as she might otherwise have believed herself capable of doing. Thrown from her feet, by the large boy she was to struggle to push him away as he struck her over and over, as swift and fiercely as he could.

Seizing him once more, now that she was fully recovered from his blow to her side, Lladriana struggled to pull him from above Aven and to hold him back.

Struggling as best he could, Sigewulf turned to shout at Eadburht, “Eadburht! Fly! Fly whither after father!”

Eadburht had no need to be told a third time. Regaining his feet faster than either Nereid could have, he was to hurry from the top of the mountain down the path, and along the large stone bridge that led to the great palace of Senuna. Fast as lightning he flew to the surprise and anger of the pair of goddesses who were to exchange displeased looks.

Seizing Sigewulf they might well have thrown him over the side of the cliff, if only out of petty vengeance against him, for having struck them as he had. Neither of the women though made it very far before Senuna regained control of herself.

“Wait,” She said to her cousin, “Whither are thou taking him?”

“To the Sarvanian Rock, why?” Senuna snapped as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“But only criminals have ever been thrown from this here rock,” Lladriana declared shocked, and panting from the exertion of striving to hold onto the flailing arms of Sigewulf. Deeply maternal even if she was not particularly skilled at demonstrating it quite as plainly at that moment as she might have otherwise done, to slay a child as Aven was proposing was quite beyond her. Nervous and at a loss, she was to seek to reason with the other maiden, “We have never before thrown a child from this rock.”

“What of it?” Aven demanded of her, infuriated she snapped at her, “This boy has aided that pig in escaping us, and it murdered poor old Sarah!”

“Yes, but-”

“Release me!” Sigewulf cried out once more, struggling to break free from them, stricken with panic at the thought that they might truly throw him down below.

This plea caused Lladriana to try to pull him away from Aven, moved by the desperation and fear in his eyes. The two women though were to come to a sudden halt, when they heard the voice of their mistress thunder through the air. Though of the fairer sex, Senuna was a woman with a voice as profound as that of the ocean, one that could thunder like the very worst of tempests just as it could soothe far more capably than any herb ever could.

To hear her voice outside of her innermost chambers or the great tower where the said chambers were to be found, was a natural source of shock.

“Milady, what brings you hither?” Aven queried nervously, after a moment of silence.

Senuna had heard of some of the troubles that had come to haunt her palace, this had made her descend from the said tower she had been locked away in with Glædwine to discover her chief-handmaiden Sarah dead and the other handmaidens in a panic. To find her Nymphs in a mad fury, with two of them eager to murder a child something of a shock to the goddess, who had never entertained such a notion prior to that moment.

The figure who captured the eye of the pair and Sigewulf, though was not the goddess herself but rather the male figure who stood tall, bearded and was the image of youthful vigour; Glædwine. Dressed not in the manner of a Valhol warrior, but a Romalian gentleman that is to say in a tunic with a toga thrown over his left shoulder. This was a striking vision in the eyes of Sigewulf who had never seen a man dress in such a manner before then, so that he did not much ponder the particulars or history of the man’s choice in wardrobe.

It was thus with blazing eyes that Senuna had appeared in the doorway with a number of servants, her lips pursed, as she regarded the pair. “What is the meaning of this? And who let out that boar that murdered my Sarah?”

“Milady, it was Sarah herself, who wished to prepare a special feast for the occasion, only for the boar to slay one of the handlers and escape.” Lladriana explained stuttering as she spoke, such was the fear in her voice, for none were greater on the isle of Senuna than Senuna. “The boar found his way to this child, whom Aven wished to throw down the Sarvanian Rock!”

“You ugly hag, how dare you!” Aven shrieked dropping the youth’s legs that she might leap nails first against her fellow Nereid.

The two might well have struggled against one another, were it not for Glædwine’s intervention. Leaping forward, to interpose himself just as Aven dropped the upper body of the child as she leapt away from her cousin, Glædwine was to scold the two of them furiously as one might disobedient children. “Comport yourselves! This islet is a holy place, and after you have struggled to murder a child, you would heap more shame upon thyselves?”

This served to soothe Lladriana who feeling safer behind Glædwine ceased struggling with the older Nereid, who was to only stop her efforts to claw at the other woman when she noticed her mistress glaring at her. Infuriated she was to accuse with a pointed finger in the direction of the other woman, “She is to blame, just as this boy is for the murder of poor, sweet and innocent Sarah!”

Sigewulf could not resist a snort at this description of Sarah. The woman had proven herself time and again, to be both a brute and highly unlikeable in his experience, so that he like all the other boys had come to regard her with thinly veiled scorn. His gaze was inevitably drawn away from Lladriana and to Glædwine in the hope that he might intervene on his behalf once more. The man did not appear fully inclined towards helping him; rather he seemed to be perplexed.

“How could he be to blame for what a wild animal did?” Glædwine asked confused, looking from one Nereid to another.

“I did not kill Sarah, though I would have done so quite proudly,” Sigewulf hissed at them all, “It was my father who did so!”

This admission startled everyone, with several of the servants nodding their heads in agreement. Both Nymphs were to also nod their heads if reluctantly so, each of them acknowledging the truth behind his words.

This confession though, and the acknowledgement of it served only to confuse Glædwine who blinked his eyes, in bewilderment, “I had thought that a boar was to blame for all of this?”

“That would certainly seem to be the truth,” Senuna agreed at once, keen to dissuade him from questioning into the matter further.

“If what you say is true, Hroðgar is innocent of such a crime,” Glædwine replied attempting to understand failing to, the meaning behind the words of those around him.

There was a tense silence that followed, during which the exasperated Sigewulf simply stared at the man he had come to like and regard almost as highly as he had his father. “No, Glædwine! They turned him into a boar, wherefore he fought to free himself and gored Sarah to death!”

This revelation stunned Glædwine who like all men in his situation had sought, to turn his gaze away from the painful reality that stared back at him. Gaping at the youth, he was to stare from him to the woman he had come to revere, studying her embarrassed expression he was faced with the reality of what she had done.

It was at first with an innocent expression that she attempted to reach for him, at which time when he drew back, it was then that she turned dark eyes upon Sigewulf. The boy was to swallow audibly at the anger in those eyes. He had never seen such fury, not in the eyes of his father, nor in those who had murdered his brother and sister, nor had he ever seen it in the eyes of those warriors his father had defended him from.

Those men had made clear what it was that they intended to do, and were far more likely to strike at him at once, while this woman gazed on him with such disdain and fury that he knew he had perhaps made an enemy for life.

Frightened, Sigewulf was to look from her to his only protector to see that Glædwine had also noticed the momentary flash of hatred in her eyes. Seeing the consternation and the dawning realization on his face, Senuna sought to temper her earlier slip with immediate sweetness the likes of which the boy had never seen before.

“Oh, my Glædwine there is naught to fear,” She said to him, reaching once more for him, “I will admit that I used Circe’s flute to turn Hroðgar into a pig, however it was he, and he alone that I did this to, I swear it!”

Circe was of course the ancient goddess who had enchanted Odysseus, and had ensorcelled his ship-crew and turned them into beasts and animals. What none had of course known was that amongst her own servants and faithful friends, was Senuna who had of course when that ancient goddess had been slain by the latter day hero Francus when he had been shipwrecked in his youth on Circe’s isle. It was he with the sword of Priam that was later renamed by the line of Francus, Joyeuse.

It was at Circe’s passing that the goddess Senuna had taken the flute for herself, and settled upon her own isle to continue that ancient goddess’ mad doings. It was also for this reason that she had gained the ire of a great many of her relations and fellow gods, who hardly it was said cared for such behaviour on the part of even the lowliest of goddesses.

“Turned Hroðgar into a pig? Does that mean the rest of the ship crew, has been likewise cursed?” Glædwine said with a moment of realization and horror.

Before anyone could answer, he was to empty the contents of his stomach over the side of the cliff. Others might well have defended themselves, or sought to deny their wrongdoings yet not Senuna who studied him with visible frustration and hurt. Hardly able to understand all that he felt, or the depth of it she could only look on as he became ever more distanced from her where before he had clung to her, as a child might their mother or father.

The moment of shock and horror was one that Sigewulf better understood; when he heard the man he had come to think of as a kindly uncle murmur, “Does that mean that those pigs and deer we ate were my crew?”

“You are over-tired, my Glædwine, Lladriana, Aven, escort him back to my chambers,” Senuna commanded with an imperious look in the direction of her Nereids.

“But what of Sigewulf?” Lladriana asked with a worried frown on her full lips, and with a glance to the boy she was supposed to be holding prisoner.

“We should not discuss this here, let us discuss it in my bedchambers away from the presence of others, Glædwine,” Senuna said to her lover, who attempted to once more pull away from her.

Still stricken with horror and disgust, Glædwine had little say in the matter, before Senuna made the decision for him. Certainly Senuna was not the goddess that any of the Ásynjor were, nothing compared to those such as Freyja, Gerðr or even Skaði.

To Sigewulf this was to be the strangest moment of his life. Thus far, he had always fancied the gods to be all powerful, or beyond mortal ken yet it was one thing to think such a thing, but an entirely different affair to witness some measure of proof of this fact. In the blink of the eye, they went from being just outside of the palace of Senuna to now finding themselves, in the middle of a large and spacious bedchamber.

The room was more of an atrium, and was of a similar size to the mead-hall, with seven balconies to the right-hand side, while a doorway to the left led to a staircase that led down to the main floor. The chambers’ decorations were far more ostentatious than elsewhere in the palace, with there being large sofas in place of bedding, with large cushions of bright purple, vermilion, brown and other colours strewn about.

There were also tables all about them, with wine-pitchers atop them and with rare cooked meats on silver glimmering plates. Such was the wealth that was on display that Sigewulf almost lost himself in it, almost found himself longing for this sort of life.

It was only the memory of how his father had once told him that wealth of that sort, when not earned was for the weak, and that it would serve only to weaken them.

Glædwine for his part hardly noticed any of it, any of the fine curtains that hung near the balcony doors or gold-edged windows, or even the finely woven tapestries. Tapestries that displayed images of the great deeds of ancient figures such as Roparzh King, Cormac the Hero, Odysseus, Heracles and Sigurðr. Utterly ignorant of most of these figures, Sigewulf was to recognize only the image of Sigurðr’s slaying of Fáfnir so that he stared at it far longer than any of the others. It was his favourite story, with the youth hardly caring for the others due to his great ignorance towards them.

“You had no right to do this, Senuna,” Glædwine growled furiously, angered by her choosing to move them from the entrance of the palace for them without so much as a ‘by your leave’. “It was for myself to decide where I might go, and to discern the truth. It seems to me though that you have shown exactly, what the truth is. Therefore I demand that you turn over that flute, of which you spoke.”

The demand for the flute visibly wounded Senuna. Never could she have imagined that he might make such a command, so that Senuna could only stare at him incensed. Observing the dawning horror and hurt on her face, Glædwine however did not relent. Not many men could well have stood strong against a woman’s tears, especially a woman they had claimed as their own. So that Glædwine’s accomplishment which was to say his steadfast defiance, on behalf of his friends and the son of one of those friend’s.

Proud and strong, and clever, it was these very qualities that Senuna most admired, and most revered in Glædwine so that she was as a beast caught in a trap of its own making. Seeing her struggle with this knowledge, might have amused Sigewulf were he not already made fearful of the strange and mysteries powers that could be wielded and found, in the sea-goddess.

What neither the well to do Valhol, nor the child quite expected was what the goddess resorted to, in her desperation to forbid them from leaving. She was to blubber at first, saying to the man she had come to consider her own, “But I could not risk thy departure, my Glædwine, please can we not discuss this?”

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“No, we shan’t not if you feel it appropriate to spirit us away to these bedchambers,” Glædwine hissed, “If I am unable to be the man of the two of us, there is to be no future between us. Therefore, I say this to thee goddess, I intend to once more set out on the morrow, and I would very much appreciate it if you were to give over the flute, and break the spell that has been cast upon those I am responsible for.”

The lady of the isle in response to this heated statement on the part of the ferocious warrior, was to the consternation of both males turn a vivid shade of scarlet. In this she was to comport herself hardly all that differently from noble Glædwine, yet where they differed was in how she was to retaliate to his decision.

“To me my men! To me! Take him away! I would not have him here, to poison Glædwine against me, not when I’ve waited a hundred lifetimes to at last have him herewith me!” Senuna screeched pointing to the child before her.

It was not simply the servants who gripped Sigewulf, and tore him from Glædwine’s side. But also guards that were dressed in hauberks, with the guards having arrived from the staircase just outside the main room where Senuna lived. The guards dressed in dark hauberks, were to come to a stop before the three people present therein the bedchambers, their faces hidden by large black helms.

So stunned were Glædwine and Sigewulf by the sight of them that they could hardly keep from gaping. Neither of them, had quite prepared themselves for such a demonstration of force on the part of the goddess, who had hitherto never indicated that she might have armed guards in her service. Disdainful of violence and weapons, this display was one that neither of them had imagined her capable of, though they ought to have known better.

Still Senuna was Senuna, and was hardly to desire bloodshed then, saying to her guards once more, “Away with the child but do not harm Glædwine!”

The guards knew their duty and did as bidden, hardly thinking even as Glædwine sought to interpose himself between they and the boy. His best efforts were all in vain, as he was soon transported elsewhere in the palace, away from the bedchambers by Senuna so that Sigewulf had no protector.

The boy did not seek to remain idle, but rather attempted to flee from the guards who seized him within short order by the back of the neck. Thereupon they took him up into their arms, and bore him away far, far down below into the bowels of the palace to back to whence he came. It was hardly dark as night by the time he was deposited back amongst the other children. However, the notion that twilight in some manner had arrived was one that Sigewulf could hardly escape from, such was his despair at being seized and deposited there.

“Do not let him out of sight,” One of the guards growled in a cold voice that could have come from a necropolis to one of the servants, who shook and trembled.

Quite where they came from few of the children really knew. Later, it was to be whispered to Lladriana who was to in turn whisper it to Sigewulf that these were the lost boys of the isle. That is to say that the elderly and female servants taken in, were raised to serve while the young men on the isle were turned into warriors and guards to serve Senuna. None were to ever father children or to in any way behave with any sort of independent thought, as such things were corrupt or so they were taught and hardly suited them. The young men’s energies were thus redirected as they were made to also farm, and otherwise live apart from everyone else until such a time as they had completed their education that turned them into witless puppets of Senuna’s will.

It was a terrible fate, and one that Senuna had reserved for the likes of Sigewulf and even Eadburht and the other boys. It was a fate that the servants of the isle considered wholly natural so long had they abode upon the island. Yet it was one that Sigewulf was determined to avoid at any cost.

Left unharmed, and without news for days, Sigewulf was to begin to suspect that there was more afoot than some scheme to turn him into a guard. But now that he knew that Senuna was near the summit of the palace as he had seen the stairs that led upwards to the chambers and been dragged down them, with nary any stairs leading further up and dragged along to the feast-hall where the other children were he knew his way back.

The only difficulty was that he did not know what had become of Glædwine, or his father or Eadburht. He suspected that his father would help protect and take care of Eadburht, but still fretted about the other boy.

“It is up to me,” He told himself late one night, “To make my way back to Glædwine to help care for him and find some means to escape from this place. I must!”

The only question was how? The truth was that since the day he had been returned to the mead-hall to stay with all the other children, he had been carefully guarded and kept always within sight of one servant or another. Few now trusted him, and even fewer were willing to allow him to whisper to any of the other children without ensuring that someone was near to overhear.

What little trust they had previously had for him, was evidently gone. It was therefore going to be considerably more difficult to scheme up some way to escape from this hall. Telling the other children was also incredibly difficult, as most still believed Senuna to be their benefactor and had thus come to disdain Sigewulf.

It was their view that he had in some way sinned, and that this was why the servants no longer much liked him, so that they now ostracized him. Some of the boys might well have attempted to beat him, were it not for him pounding such notions out of their heads with his own two fists first.

Only little Sunngifu still trailed after him, and was willing to be friendly and this had much to do with the fact that she was Eadburht’s cousin, her father Sigeweard, was Glædwine’s elder half-brother. Sigeweard had remained in Bretwealda on account of being the elder of the two siblings, and on being closer to Vengest, so that it was the younger sibling’s duty to go fetch his wife and daughter from Valhol.

It was as he sat on the eighth day by the window, eyes fixed on the landscape far below, ears perked and listening for the sound of the crashing waves that seemed resolved to rock the whole of the isle. Many were the sunrises and sunsets that those waves, had seen long before the arrival of their ships’ crews and many were those that they were destined to see long after they had disappeared from the land, he mused as he stared out across the heavily forested islet. Interrupting his thoughts, Lladriana was to ask him, “You always stare out to the forests these days, do not tell me you hope to leave soon with some of the other boys?”

“Of course not,” Sigewulf told her, “I am no fool, I know what becomes of them once they are gone.”

“What does happen to them?” Sunngifu queried unaware of Sigewulf’s suspicions.

“They are taken away to be taught to be guards,” Lladriana interrupted, causing the two of them to leap a little and turn to glance her way.

The resplendent Nymph stood there dressed conservatively for one of her breed, which was for one thing to mean she was dressed at all. What was more was that she had taken it upon herself to wear a Stola, which was tied at the shoulders in the old Romalian custom, and wore her hair in a bundle atop her head. It was quite a mystery to Sigewulf why he suddenly felt shy in her presence, certainly she was pretty yet there was still a part of him that felt mistrustful of her.

“And what is it that happens to them?” Sunngifu asked, feeling no less shy given her own quieter tone.

“They are raised to be guards of the Lady Senuna,” Lladriana explained at once, favouring the six year old girl with a full-lipped and toothy grin that brought a smile to the girl’s own lips. “It happens that most do not remain ever the same, during their training.”

“How are they trained?”

“That I do not know, I know only that Boris who is the chief guard near the south-western outpost is the keeper of that knowledge, him and the others. Most of the guards though cannot speak, but seem to communicate in some other way,” Lladriana replied at some length with a shrug of her delicate shoulders.

Frustrated, Sigewulf could not help but feel this information, this knowledge to mostly be superfluous. He could see that Sunngifu hardly felt the same being of the view that he was alone in wishing that this knowledge, could be of some use to their immediate predicament. That is to say, help them in escaping from the palace and curing everyone of the curse heaped upon them by Senuna via Circe’s flute.

The knowledge of where she kept it, was kept secret by Senuna who was far more cautious than the goddess from whom she had learnt so much of her arts from. It was something that had she known Lladriana, might well have told him, whereupon she shrugged. “Naught to do, save enjoy life such as it is, I suppose.”

“Hardly,” Sigewulf snapped pondering about what his father might have said, “We must find a way out from this place. We must also rescue those who have been turned into animals to slake Senuna’s boundless appetites.”

“But how?” Lladriana asked sceptical, “You are mortal, and could never match Senuna for power or wrath. One single attempt to counter her influence and she will simply turn thee into a rodent and quash you underfoot.”

“There must be some way to resist it!”

“There is, but I do not know it, the Elves across the waves might yet I do not,” Lladriana snapped impatiently, “But you would need a boat to reach them, and the aid of the sea itself.”

“I must also meet with Glædwine,” Sigewulf retorted sharply unsure of how to accomplish such a deed.

It was not until the following day that he was to discover the means, by which he might escape, to Senuna’s private chambers. Most of the guards were to leave in a few days’ time he discovered if briefly so, for the south-west if only to participate in a series of exercises with a fresh series of recruits into their ranks. The recruits in question had arrived hither, a number of years ago, when last a ship crashed onto the island’s shores, so that the palace was to be bereft of a number of not only her guards but also her servants. It was for this reason that Sigewulf became excited for this particular occasion, it was not this however that gave him a glimmer of hope though.

What happened was that for sport several of the Nereids threw themselves from the window down into the craggy cliffs below. This was done out of boredom all of a sudden, so that they burst into water down beneath them all. Quite how they began doing so, had to do with another of the children asking if they truly were made of water (he had heard so from one of the servants). To prove that they indeed were as much water, as they were humanoid creatures the Nereids decided in their strange whimsical manner, to turn this into a game.

Observing them gave Sigewulf an idea. He would have to rely upon some sort of aid once more, in his scheme to escape Senuna’s palace, which was how he arrived at the conclusion he had to trust Lladriana.

When he next saw her the following day, she was dressed in a similar manner as when he had last seen her, except her hair was down and flowing all about her pale shoulders, as she brought him his lunch. “Deer meat from the local forest, and fish,” she rolled her eyes when she saw his hesitant expression. “Taken from the forest, it is not a transformed man or woman.”

Devouring it with a great deal more eagerness, than he might have shown otherwise, Lladriana watched over him with a slight smile on her lips. Annoyed, he tried to ignore her for the longest time, until at last he could not do so. “Why do you stare?”

“There is no reason, only that I wonder how long it shall be before you have become a man,” Lladriana remarked curiously. “Time does not pass the same for us daughters of Pontus, as it does for you sons of men.”

“A few years yet,” Sigewulf snapped not liking being reminded of how he was still a child, when all he wished to do was grow up to become a man to fight by his father’s side.

“A few years yet?” Lladriana said looking far away with a dreamy look, it was a strange expression one that heightened the loveliness of her face and that made her seem all the same, even younger and more alien than she already seemed. Snapping back to herself a few minutes later, she was to pull from a satchel girded to her belt, “Glædwine will be different when you see him.”

“Different how?”

“Different, put this in wine if he seems strange and give it to him.” Lladriana told him briskly, suddenly serious where she was not before, or so he thought. “Now that I have given you this magic bean, will you tell me thy plan o Sigewulf?”

Sigewulf told her what he had conjured forth, thinking he had no other choice. Of course his plan was not wholly completed, but he gave no sign of the doubt that this lack of completion daunted him. Keen to project the sort of manly competence his father always did when thinking up some ruse, to slip out from a trap he told her what he had in mind.

Wincing when it turned out that the most dangerous part might be played by her, Lladriana was to hesitate before agreeing to it. Seeing her fear, Sunngifu reprimanded Sigewulf saying to him, “You ought not to have poor, sweet Lladriana do all the dangerous work, and prepare the ship for the escape! Besides one ship will not be enough for everyone to escape this place!”

“One ship might not be enough for everyone, but it should be enough for a small crew,” Sigewulf retorted evenly, irritated by her scolding.

“It is quite aright, I shall do this.” Lladriana agreed heavily, shivering already with fright, “But I will choose the time and the date, you hear me O Sigewulf?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Milady,” He bit out against his will.

“Good,” Lladriana said with visible pleasure, only to say to him, “But I will only assist on one condition.”

“And what will that be?” Sigewulf asked, his stomach sinking already.

Lladriana answered with a small smile, one that was like a knife across her beautiful face. “I shall decide upon it, when the time comes many years from now. But until that time comes, I shall endeavour to assist and support you in all things Sigewulf, if you will promise that when the time comes you will find me near the Lladriana-River in western Brittia.”

“Why?”

“Never you mind that, you shall do so when I call and at that time shall join me,” Lladriana replied with a distant look in her eyes. “Because if I am to be banished from this place of joy, and to be bereft of milady, I would like my own palace of happiness…”

There was naught to do, save wait for Lladriana to put in effect the plan he had confided in her, with the lady taking a great deal of time to do so. The Nereid waited until the second day that the guards were gone for, on account of the fact that she did not wish to risk a confrontation with Senuna. On account of her fear of the goddess, who had power even over the Nereids, she was thus afraid with good reason.

It was later in the day when at last Lladriana began to put the plan into action. Doing so with great reluctance, so that Sigewulf began to doubt whether she would do so, given the unhappiness that had followed her as a trail of blood followed the children of Ealdwald.

The first to take notice of the smoke though, was Sunngifu who noticed the stench first, “What is that smell? Wait, smoke!”

Startled, the servants who had hardly set foot in the kitchens since the Nereids had volunteered to do the cooking that day at the insistence of Lladriana, they were to gape and stare as a number of the Nymphs burst forth from the kitchens. Screaming as they ran, a great many complained plaintively at that moment, “It is all the fault of Lladriana! She stuffed by accident cloth onto the fires!”

What did not help was how a great many servants began to appear in the mead-hall to call for aid. “Fire! Fire in the servant-quarters and in the east-wing!”

This led to a great many more shrieks and shouts that resounded throughout the whole of the palace, as fire began to overtake all corners of the great building. Horror decorated every porcelain face and every greying one, as they all began to shriek for someone to do something forgetting in their panic the children.

It was Lladriana who glancing to one side looked to Sigewulf first to ensure that he had begun to move. He had not, for fear of capture. Heaving a heavy sigh, Lladriana shouted at the top of her lungs, “Away! Away we must go sisters for fire is our bane! Let us be away from this place, and leave the battle with the flames to the servants and to our mistress! Someone send for her!”

“But you are the goddesses, do something!”

“Yes, let us leap now to safety!” And so saying Lladriana leapt then from the window to presumed safety; turning herself into water before she struck the bottom.

Nereids being the most vulnerable and feeble of the gods at least ordinarily, were hardly known for their valour, all those present taking fright as one of the eldest of their numbers leapt out the window were to follow after her example. “We also shall go away to safety! To our father!”

While the Nymphs fled, the servants panicked and shouted, “Do not abandon us! You cannot abandon us!”

Free from the watchful eye of a great many of the servants, if only for the moment, Sigewulf elated was to at last slip away. The halls were filled with a number of women, most of whom panicked and stricken knew not what to do. There had not been a fire started within the halls of the palace of Senuna in all the time they had been there so that none knew how best to deal with such danger. What was more, was that those men present were not in command, or were too young, to respond as swiftly as the guards might well have done. This along with Lladriana’s panicked leap out the window had caused a great many of the Nereids to leap out the windows that they might all the swifter return to their home-rivers and take refuge.

None paid him much mind, when he arrived at last at the foot of the stairwell that led upwards to the bedchambers of Senuna. Climbing the steps four at a time, Sigewulf very near came close to falling back down the way he had come, panting and heaving he was more than a little grateful to see the door loom before him, as he turned rightward.

Throwing open the door, a moment later he was however overwhelmed with consternation such that Sigewulf came to an abrupt stop, near Glædwine. The older male was seated upon a collection of cushions, and upon closer examination to the confusion of the boy, he bore an almost sedate smile and hardly seemed to notice much of anything. There was a strange almost drunken manner to him, so that Sigewulf had no doubt that the man could hardly comprehend him. This along with the slurred speech bespoke of a great deal of drink, though the manner in which he bobbed and moved his head, did not seem at all reminiscent of any drunk that Sigewulf had ever set eyes upon.

Confused and bewildered he was to hiss Glædwine’s name several more times before he asked of him, “What has Senuna done to you, Glædwine?”

“She has taken care of me,” Glædwine replied in a slurred sing-song voice, one that furthered the apprehension that had begun to unfurl within Sigewulf. “She has given me wine, would you care for some wine Sigewulf?”

Sigewulf was hardly to be tempted by such an offer so great was his disgust and suspicion of it. Looking from it to the sedated eyes of his friend, he knew at once what was to blame. Knew that it had to be something in the wine of Senuna that had diluted Glædwine’s wits, drugged him and robbed him of his very self.

It was however at this time that he recalled back to what Lladriana the Nereid had said to him. She had never agreed to take a rod for him, or for Glædwine to be robbed of his wits, and how she had given him a bottle containing honey. The honey she said would cure Glædwine of all that ailed him, wherefore Sigewulf took the wine-goblet and turned away that his friend might not see him cleanse the drugged wine of whatever drug inhabited it.

Once he had he mixed in the wine, only to turn back and offer it back politely, “Before I drink from it,” He said hoping to hide the gleam that entered his eyes, “I would like you to drink first.”

Though drugged and hardly able to think, this however struck Glædwine as odd, “Why?”

Struggling to find an excuse of some sort, Sigewulf’s gaze however fell at that moment upon one of the tapestries of Odysseus. He did not then recognize the hero, for he did not know the man’s stories, he only knew that the hero appeared at the start to the left, as a mendicant old man, and later massacred his enemies. Seeing the part of the tapestry where it was shown that the invaders of Odysseus’ home were invaders was what gave him the idea.

“Because, I will only drink after you have done so.” Sigewulf told him, with rather more confidence than he felt then. “It only seems polite to me, given thy higher rank to my own.”

This still might have seemed odd to another man, yet not to one so heavily drugged as Glædwine was at that moment. Shrugging his shoulders he took up the goblet, wherefore he drank deeply.

It took several minutes of him drinking, swallowing and then smacking his lips before the effect of the bean given by Lladriana took effect. The effect when it occurred was instantaneous. Glædwine’s eyes which had been glazed suddenly cleared. Pleased by this transformation, Sigewulf was however startled when the man’s expression twisted with rage and a great bellow was torn from his lips.

“That wench! I shall have her head, divine or no!” Glædwine burst out with such explosive fury that his entire frame shook.

“Glædwine, are you aright now?” Sigewulf queried timidly, though he knew the answer to that very obvious question.

Frightened by the great roar that had been torn from the lips of his friend, he glanced over his should towards the doorway from whence he had come. The door remained closed, as he had shut it upon entry into the large bedchambers though now he regretted that he had not properly closed it. Of course, this concern was noticed by Glædwine who guessed what it was that worried him so, and quickly regained his wits.

“Did you forget, young Sigewulf Senuna can transport herself from one place to another without the use of doors, and move even our own persons from room to room without our consent,” Glædwine reminded him sharply. “Never you mind the door!”

“How are we to escape if not through the door? Someone will have heard your road!” Sigewulf scolded him pointedly.

“We? No, Sigewulf you will escape now.” Glædwine replied at once, “Tell me what has happened while I have been… asleep, while we work.”

It was on the tip of Sigewulf’s tongue once more to argue with him, to vouch for the two of them to escape together however he saw no need to while remaining idle. Not while Glædwine had a plan for them to escape, and one that the clever commander of the fleet of Valhol ships’ had already begun to put into motion.

Aware that there was no other place to escape from, save the balcony which overlooked the sea and the land of Senuna, Glædwine had reached for the bed-sheets, the tapestries and drapes and even the cloth coverlets that covered the tables and the pillows.

Working hurriedly, while Sigewulf informed him of what had happened, Glædwine soon within a few minutes had all the bits of cloth tied together into a makeshift rope, one which once secured, was tied all around Sigewulf’s chest before he could so much as blink.

“What are you doing?” He blurted out, while Glædwine glanced over his shoulder.

“You do not know this Sigewulf, however Senuna is never far from this place and may come and go as she pleases-”

“I know that!”

Glædwine continued as though he had not been interrupted, “And what is more is that she has my dear boy, the means to see all that happens here and all throughout her isle. The manner in which she does this is with a special pool of water herein her chambers, in the bath near here, so that she will have certainly heard the commotion as she brought a portion of that water away, just as she did so before in the past.”

“But still, you must come away with me!” Sigewulf hissed at him, as Glædwine helped him climb over the edge of the balcony that overlooked the fields down below.

“Once you have dropped, take this knife,” And he thrust the handle of a knife into the youth’s hands, “Sever the line and go down to the beach to where the ship, you have arranged for and fly, fly from this place!”

“But what of yourself?”

“I shan’t leave quite yet,” Glædwine hissed at him, just as a strange sound akin to a bottle being uncorked was heard, and the sound of water flowing from a bottle followed thereafter.

“Why?” Sigewulf demanded frustrated, but it was just as Senuna’s voice was heard that the cry of a baby could be heard from another room.

Glædwine’s face became pained, “I cannot leave, not without Ealhswiþ!” Before Sigewulf could utter another word, the goddess called out and the worried warrior pushed him over the edge.

The last thing Sigewulf saw of his friend was the angry face of Senuna and the back of Glædwine.