Genevra smiled and nodded. “I agree. We should.”
In the meantime, she spoke to Akkar and Genevra and everyone who served them. For the first time in her life, Camelee didn’t feel alone. She even laughed when Akkar dropped his drink in his lap and swore.
But in a moment, everything changed. The sound of a commotion drew some of the others to the tent flap. They looked outside. The women screamed and hurried back inside. “Men are coming! They will kill us!”
Akkar leaped to his feet and drew his sword. “Stay here!” he ordered Camelee and rushed for the opening. Was he going to leave them? When she saw him peer out and then hurry back to her, her relief was short-lived.
“They are Saxons!” He yanked at the spikes securing the back wall and pulled them up. “Go! Run!”
But the Saxons were there, too, waiting. They tore through the tent, as the screams of the women inside blended with those clearly heard now from outside.
Everything happened so fast. Three of them broke through the barrier and stepped inside. They looked fierce with wide shoulders clad in animal skins.
One of the men, the biggest of the three, sported a long beard and long, straggly blond hair. He shifted his soulless gaze to Camelee, and then to Hild.
Camelee had the urge to block the girl from his gaze.
“What is going on?” Genevra demanded with all the authority of a queen.
Unfortunately, her countrymen didn’t recognize it. One of them came from behind her and struck her in the back of her head with the hilt of his sword.
Hild began to cry.
In an act of supreme bravery, Akkar swung at the three Saxons. One went down. It was the one who’d struck Genevra. But another, just as big as the one who’d spoken first, drove his giant broadsword into Akkar’s belly. Camelee watched it come out of Akkar’s back, the same way Fin’s spear had come from Genevra’s lord.
She watched him go down with a horrified scream ripping through her heart.
Fin! Where was Fin!
“Leofric,” said the first brutish Saxon. “I wanted him to tell their leader who did this.”
Leofric looked around. There was only Camelee and Hild left. “Leave her, Aethelwold.” He pointed to Camelee.
They were going to have to kill her if they thought she would let them take Hild without her.
“No,” said Aethelwold. “I want them both.”
And then her heart went cold when he reached for Hild.
“Don’t touch her!” Camelee commanded without thinking or hesitation.
Aethelwold paused for a moment but took hold of the girl. Hild screamed, reaching for an unconscious Genevra.
“Where is the chief?” Leofric, with red braids hanging from his temples, asked. “Is he hiding?”
Camelee wished Wolf was here so he could put an end to this scum who killed Akkar. “He went to meet another marauding band of Danes and bring them here.”
“Why are you three females sitting at a table and eating when every other Saxons is serving the Danes?” Aethelwold asked, holding his hand over Hild’s mouth. “Are you valuable to the chief?’
“Take your filthy hand off her.” She couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t used to cowering to anyone. Besides, there had to be trillions of germs on his skin.
“A spirited one,” Aethelwold remarked with a smirk while stepping out of the tent.
“Aye,” said Leofric grabbing her wrists and shoving her out of the tent opening behind Hild. “The kind I like to break.”
Where was Wolf? Had he taken Fin with him? Surely these Saxons were more civilized than the Vikings. But no. She thought of what one of them had done to Genevra, and to Akkar. She didn’t care if he was a Dane, she liked Akkar.
She looked around and then wished she hadn’t. There were dead men everywhere. Women ran every which way, terrified and screaming, not sure where to go. Saxon soldiers were setting fire to everything. Smoke billowed upward, darkening the sky.
