“Asgart of Wolverton rode out to the woodland with us and said we could plow from the top of the hill to the first stream behind the village. It was all the land there was to spare. He said to burn the cottages in our way, for the people inside were only squatters.”

“We didn’t want to burn them out, Lord Edon.” The eldest son finally spoke in his own defense. “Lord Asgart told my father to burn the huts or else to move north to York and ask for a hide of land from someone else.”

Edon was not surprised by that answer. He turned to Rig and said, “Send Thorulf to fetch Asgart. I will deal with him.”

These men were being used, victimized, as were the Mercian thralls in the quarry. Edon’s quarrel was not with them. Still, they had started a fire that cost a village, and someone must pay. Edon glared at all four of them and came to a summary judgment on the spot. “My man Maynard has surveyed the shire and parceled it as to my orders. There is good land, cleared and ready for planting, east of the quarry. Three of you may farm there beginning on the morrow. You, Ranulf, will pay for the damage done the village of Wootton by two months service to my general, Rig. Give your axe to your father. You will have no need of a weapon until you are released to your father’s house at the end of your duty.”

Edon turned to the father, asking, “Have you a longhouse, Archam the Bent?”

“Nay, we sleep under the stars. We will build a longhouse when we have land.”

“Rig, take the father to Maynard. You will go to my man, Maynard the Black. He will show you the fields you may work and issue you seed to plant in your field. Do not fell any trees that you cannot use for your longhouse. I will tolerate no more fires in this shire, is that clear?”

Gratitude was not a common virtue displayed among Vikings, but these men were clearly grateful for Edon’s leniency. Archam and his sons were not the type of Vikings that had gone out seeking fortunes and land forty years ago with Edon’s grandfather, Ragnar Lodbok. These Vikings had been farmers all their lives. If it came to battling with axe and sword they would be hard-pressed to defend their own, much less be of good service to Edon in a war.

That was the reason he took the healthiest son into his household to be trained in weapons and fighting by Rig. Instinctively, Edon knew where the real challenge to his authority came from: Asgart, Embla’s man.

It was time for the jarl of Warwick to assert his authority. Sighing, Edon dismissed the offenders. He went up to his keep and visited with his ladies and conferred with Theo, allowing him to use his mazer bowl on this occasion.

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