“You see,” Ingeborg said, “if you allow yourself to, you can help us. Take time to think onward. First, if I know you, you’ll dicker about your price.”
Aksel lifted his face. They saw it harden. “Why are you sure I will?” he demanded.
“What mean you?” Ingeborg replied. Niels stared in dismay.
“You’ve told me well-nigh naught, and what you did tell is
doubtless lies.”
“Remember, we’ll both swear before God to the truth of it.”
“Perjury would be petty among your sins, Cod-lngeborg.”
Aksel thrust forward his jaw. “Your story strains belief. Far likelier is that you twain unearthed a hoard in Denmark-unless you committed murder on the high seas; and the gallows punishes that too. Would you drag me down with you? Wariness beseems me.”
The woman considered him. “You act the coward, then.”
“I’m a law-abiding man who has a household to support.”
“Shit! I said you act the coward, like a strolling player. I know
you, I know your kind,” Ingeborg avowed in huge scorn. “You’ve. decided, all at once, you’ll rob us yourself. Well, you can’t do it. Dismiss us to try elsewhere, or bargain like a decent scoundrel.”
Niels shifted about and laid hand to the sailor’s knife he wore.
Aksel made a smile. “Ah, now, my dear. It’s only that I’ve
no wish either to flirt with the hangman. I need assurance-to start with, a look at that hoard.”
Ingeborg rose. “Come, Niels. Here is nothing for us.”
“Wait.” Aksel’s tone stayed calm. “Sit down. Let’s talk fur-
ther.”
Ingeborg shook her head. “The years have given me a nose for treachery. Come, Niels.”
The youth found his feet. Aksel raised an arm. “I bade you wait,” he said. “Or must I call my apprentices to seize you?”
“Never will they!” Niels yelled.
Ingeborg hushed him. “What have you in mind?” she asked
quite coolly.
“Why, this, “ Aksel answered with his ongoing smile. “I suspect you’re guilty either of piracy or of stealing royal property. Certain it is that you’ve not so much as wondered what tax may be due on your gains. Now, you are paupers and without families of your own, but God has called me to a higher station in life; I’ve more, far more to lose. Why should I risk ruin. . . for anything less than the en~ire hoard?”
When they stood moveless, he added, “I’d give you something, of course.”
They stayed mute. He scowled. “Very well,” he said, and slapped the table. “Be clear in your minds that I did not offer to become your accomplice. I just put a question to see how you’d behave. My duty is to report this matter-no, not to the sheriff; direct to the baron. Meanwhile, I can’t let you escape, can I?
“Think well, you twain. I’ve heard that Junker Falkvor’s ex-ecutioner is more skillful than most. He’ll get your whole tale out of what is left of you, for his lord.”
“And you’ll have a nice reward, no doubt,” the woman fleered.
“That is the cautious course for me,” Aksel pursued. “I’d be
sorry to follow it, for I’ve happy memories of you, Ingeborg, and your comrade has a whole life before him. Therefore sit down, and let me try bringing you to reason.”
“Niels,” Ingeborg said.
Her friend understood. His knife came forth, of terrifying size
in that dim room.
“We are going,” he said. “You’ll take us out. If we have any trouble, you’ll die first. Up!”
Abruptly blanched, Aksel rose. This was no longer a boy who confronted him. Niels sheathed the blade but kept him close by. Ingeborg dropped the ring down her bosom.
They left the house as three. In an alley some distance off, Niels released Aksel. After the trader had stumbled into the street, Ingeborg’s bitterness broke loose: “I thought he was the least bad of the lot. Where in Christendom is mercy?”
“Best we move on ere he raises hue and cry,” Niels warned.
They made a devious way to the waterfront on Mariager Fjord.
A small ship lay awaiting the tide, to depart for ports along the Sound. They had already engaged passage on her deck and brought aboard what would be needful for them. It had seemed a wise precaution. Since they had additionally paid the captain for a night’s worth of drinking their health, he let them rest in his compartment until he sailed.