This is a long piece, but necessarily so. Coenred slips back into the captured city of York with a number of objectives to achieve. Not only is he concerned with discovering what the Vikings plan to do next, he has both good and bad news to deliver to the families of men he fought alongside with only a few hours earlier. Last, but certainly not least, he wishes to discover the fate of Mildryth.

For her part Mildryth must face a spectre from her recent past; Tostig Godwinson. When he was the Eorl of Northumbria, Tostig engineered the murder of several prominent theigns who spoke out against his apparent misrule of the eorldom. Mildryth’s husband and son had travelled with those theigns to attend a meeting at Tostig’s invitation, once there they were all killed in cold blood.

As the night draws in and the loss of the battle colours the minds of the citizens of York the future begins to look very grim for one and all.

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