Neither spoke until they stopped a couple of yards from the tiny, breaking waves.

"This is a hard talk, outlander," Thoraldson began, "yet I must speak it."

"Go ahead."

"The first fight against the evil ones. You aided us. And on the water, you all fought bravely. And in the tests, you did much to shame the finest warriors of this steading."

"But?" Ryan could still smell blood and sweat on the massive Norseman at his side and almost taste an odd kind of nervousness.

"But... the wisewoman has been warning for weeks that there was a plague coming toward us. When the first child became sick of the bloody flux she said it would be worse. Now she swears the omens blame you and your friends, particularly the black-skinned woman."

"You believe her?"

Jorund's shaggy head swung slowly toward him. "No. I think you and your brothers are true fighting men of courage. But since you came, there have been so many deaths. I cannot stand against the wise-woman and all the steading."

"She wants us all dead?"

"Truly. All but the white-haired one. She says we must adopt him into our family, and he will lead us from the darkness."

"The darkness is what I've been trying to tell you about. Along the coast we found undeniable evidence of a dreadful rad leak, and that's what's chilling your folks. The rashes and the sickness and..."

"No, no! I must not listen to this. She made me swear to speak only as she had told me."

"She runs this? She's the fucking baron is she?" Ryan felt his anger misting his mind, and he tried to control it. "You're the baron, aren't you?"

"Aye. I am. Yet the wisewoman has the minds and souls of my people. But I have spoken against her. I have tried. And she has agreed that I shall make you this offer."

"Go ahead."

Ryan felt the faintest tremor from the restless earth beneath his boots. But Jorund said nothing, and Ryan wondered whether he'd even noticed it.

"The outlander you call Jak Lauren?"

"Sure. With the white hair. What about him?"

"If you will agree to this, then he must stay with us."

"And the rest of us go free?" Ryan had enough confidence in Jak's cunning to be certain that the teenager would find a way of escaping within a day or so.

"No. All but one of you."

"Mildred?"

"This is the only hope I can give. You refuse this, and you will all pay the price."

"Jak stays. Mildred dies. The rest of us walk?"

"Aye. And Jak will sacrifice the black woman to our gods before you go free."

Chapter Thirty-One

"You said what?" Krysty shouted, raising her hands to her forehead to try to calm herself. "What did you say to him, Ryan?"

"I told him I'd think about his suggestion and give him my reply before noon."

His short conversation with Jorund Thoraldson had ended a quarter of an hour ago. He'd gone straight back into the hut and been locked in. It hadn't taken long to shake the others from sleep and tell them what had happened.

"You'll think about it!" Mildred exclaimed. "Terrific, Ryan."

"You think I should have looked him in the eye and told him to fuck off? Think that would have been a real clever idea?"

"I guess not. No. Sorry."

"What else did he say?" J.B. asked.

"Said that any more attempts to escape by any of us would mean flying eagles all around. One chilled, all chilled."

The Armorer nodded. "It'll be harder to make the break this time. Lot harder."

"Sure. But that's the only choice we have."

"Does it sound dipshit stupid to suggest you could always do like the big guy says? That way I go up the Hudson, one-way, and the rest of you walk clear."

There was a long silence, while everyone thought about it.

If Jorund Thoraldson kept his word, then the death of one man would buy the lives of five. It was a lot better arithmetic than most you got in Deathlands.

Ryan broke the stillness. "Can't argue with odds of five for one. I think we'll take you up on the offer, Mildred. After all, we pulled you out of the ice and saved your life. Least you can do is give us that life back again."

Krysty stood up, her finger pointing at Ryan like the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. "I don't believe what I'm hearing, lover."

Ryan faced her. "Well, you better believe it, lover, because I'm the man in charge here and I say what happens. And what's going to happen tomorrow evening, is that Jak does what they want and takes Mildred's life. The rest of us'll walk free. That's the way it'll be."

Doc leaped to his feet, his face glowing with righteous anger. "I do not believe that I have been traveling with such an unprincipled scoundrel! If I were a few years younger and more spry I vow that I would teach you a lesson you would not forget in a hurry. Blast you!"

Jak didn't stand, and he wouldn't look directly at Ryan. "Since father chilled, thought you... Fucking wrong, Ryan."

"That only leaves you, J.B. Let's hear your thoughts on the matter."

His oldest friend looked at him. "We'll do it like you say."

Chapter Thirty-Two

The baron of Markland was delighted when Ryan told him their collective decision.

"The black woman will offer herself willingly on the stone of darkness?"

"Sure."

"And the blade of mercy will be wielded by..."

"By Jak? Yeah. And all this'll be tonight, will it?"

"After the sun has set. The whole of the steading will make its way in a procession of flaming torches through the forest to the arena of seeing. And there it will be done."

"And the rest of us can go free?"

Jorund nodded solemnly. "I have given my word as karl."

"Can we leave before the chilling?"

Ryan held his breath as the Norse leader considered the question. "No."

"No? But you gave your word."

"And I shall keep it. But the sacrifice to the gods must be completed first. You and the others, but not Jak Snowhead, may leave us at first light on the morrow."

Ryan nodded. "Will you give us food and milk for our journey?"

"We will. And the wisewoman will instruct Jak in the ceremony. It is simple. And the black one will feel little pain. It is swift."

"Glad to hear it."

"Jorund agreed that we didn't have to actually go along and watch the execution. Says he'll let us stay here in the hut, with just a handful of guards to watch us."

"Ryan?"

"Yeah, J.B.?"

"How many's a handful?"

"Not more'n six, I'd guess. I've promised we'll stay and wait until the chilling's done. I gave my solemn oath on the bones of Odin himself that we wouldn't try to escape again."

Jak had been taken out to be schooled by the wisewoman. By the time he returned, the afternoon sun was already slipping away behind the hills.

"How d'it go?" Mildred asked. "Wouldn't want you to screw up and give me a messy ending. Wouldn't like that at all."

"By the three Kennedys!" Doc said. "I fear that I do not find this a fit topic for merriment. This is life and death for all of us."

Mildred patted him on the arm. "Simmer down, Doc. It's your life and my death."

Ryan turned to Jak. "What did the old woman say to you?"

The boy looked down at his feet. If he'd been able to blush, Ryan suspected there'd have been a pink glow to his cheeks.

"Wanted fuck. Grabbed cock. Lay down, legs open. Wanted."

Krysty grinned. "Gaia! That must be one of the sidelines of being the wisewoman. You get to lay every young god that comes by. What did you say to her, Jak?"

"Said too old."

Mildred laughed. "She must have loved that, honey. Way back when I was alive — when I was first alive — it got to be common for older women to take a much younger lover. They were called toy boys. So the old bitch wanted a blond toy boy, did she? Tough shit, lady."