Shield Maiden Read online

  “Run!” Anna shouted, thrusting the horn back into her pouch, but the children did not need to be told. With little Ellette scampering along in front and Wilburh bringing up the rear they scuttled down the path back to the village green.

  “The horn! Bring it back!” They could hear Iden shouting as he started to follow them.

  Anna looked towards the headman’s hall but could see none of the occupants from this distance. “Whatever is going on here, that Kendra woman is at the centre of it. We must get away from the village and her,” she panted, “but where can we go?”

  “This way! We can hide in the wheat,” Ellette shouted, running to the south side of the village where lay the land the villagers farmed, growing their corn and vegetables in long strips across the ground, which they tilled with the aid of two old oxen.

  Following Ellette, the children plunged into the wheat and kept their heads down. The crop had been sown in the early spring and was now tall, the ears swollen and ripening ready for the harvest that would be only a few weeks away.

  Here they hid, but it was only a brief respite, for in a short while they heard people spilling out of the village and coming towards them.

  “They went this way,” Iden’s voice sounded. “After them!” he commanded.

  The children gasped as they realised that Iden had got all the women from the village out looking for them and by the sound of it, the womenfolk were thrashing at the wheat, deliberately beating it down as they moved closer and closer ....