Read Online Scramasax by Kevin Crossley-Holland - Free Book Online Page A

hooves.’
    â€˜What I will say,’ Edwin volunteered, ‘is that it would be a strange messenger who travelled for many weeks with only one song in his mouth.’
    â€˜You mean,’ Solveig said, ‘a go-between can sing out of both sides of his mouth.’
    Edwin raised an eyebrow.
    â€˜So was your other message for …’
    Edwin raised his right hand and gently pushed it against Solveig’s mouth.
    â€˜It was,’ said Solveig in a muffled voice. ‘I know it was.’
    â€˜This won’t be my last journey here,’ the Englishman told her.
    â€˜You’re coming back?’
    â€˜Very possibly.’
    Solveig’s heart lifted. ‘Then I’ll see you again. I will, won’t I?’
    Edwin smiled. ‘If you’re here,’ he replied.
    Before they left the receiving room, Edith and Edwin stared for a while at a mosaic of two children riding on a strange beast with two humps on its back.
    â€˜A camel,’ Edwin told them. ‘They only need to drink once each week, and even then they prefer muddy water.’
    Edith shook her head. ‘I feel thirsty the whole time. It’s so hot in Miklagard.’
    â€˜And they live for more than one hundred years,’ added Edwin.
    â€˜Even older than the Empress,’ Solveig said with a smile.
    â€˜And the females fight in battle. They’re very brave.’
    Females in battle, thought Solveig. I’m telling Harald.
    â€˜Look how long their legs are,’ observed Edith, fingering the mosaic’s tiny, glittering tiles. ‘Not like our pony.’
    â€˜In Riccall, you mean?’ asked Solveig.
    Edith nodded.
    â€˜Can Emma and Wulf …’
    â€˜Oh, yes! They ride her. Along the riverbank. Oh, Solveig!’ Edith sighed.
    â€˜Tell me,’ Solveig said gently.
    â€˜All the water lilies.’ Edith gulped and swallowed. ‘I wish you could see them.’
    â€˜It’s a bumpy ride,’ said Edwin, ‘on a camel.’
    â€˜Have you ridden one?’ Solveig asked him.
    â€˜In Africa,’ the Englishman told her.
    â€˜I wish I could.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Edwin. ‘And the three of us, we had a bumpy ride on our way here. A very rough ride. We shared hardship. And that makes this leave-taking all the more painful.’ Then he began to sing-and-say:
    â€˜On middle-earth there’s no one so assured that he harbours no fears about seafaring and what the Lord will ordain for him. He thinks not of the harp nor of receiving rings nor of rapture in a woman nor of worldly joy, nor of any thing but the rolling of the waves …’
    Edwin gave a gentle groan, almost a hum. ‘So, then, may the Lord ordain our return journey is a calm one.’
    â€˜Sineus is waiting for us on Saint Gregorios,’ Edith reminded them.
    â€˜Oh!’ said Solveig. ‘I hope his foot has healed well.’
    Edwin gave her a wry smile. ‘I hope he’s got two legs!’
    â€˜Do you remember telling me about that English poem?’ Solveig asked Edith. ‘The one that begins “I saw a wonder”.’
    â€˜That’s right,’ said Edith. ‘When Edwin pointed out the red-breasted geese and water-mint and bald ibis and tamarisks. And I said it’s how you see. I said that if you’re sharp-eyed, anything and everything becomes a wonder.’
    â€˜Oh, Edie!’ exclaimed Solveig. ‘I hope your life’s always like that.’
    â€˜What about yours?’ Edith said, slipping her arms around Solveig’s neck. ‘It’s so roomy here. So grand.’
    â€˜Too grand,’ said Solveig. ‘I don’t belong here. I don’t like it.’ She gazed at Edwin over Edith’s shoulder.
    â€˜Harald Sigurdsson,’ said Edwin, ‘he’s sailing to Sicily.’
    Solveig nodded.
    â€˜With your father, no doubt.’
    She nodded again.
    â€˜Yes,’ said Edwin in a