York, Engla-lond. Spring, A.D. 927
Hakon spotted the bodies first.
There were five of them, floating in the air like wraiths, their necks bent where the ropes had broken them, their decaying skin black and oozing on their bones. Open mouths and hollowed eye sockets gaped at the dark water below their dangling feet. Ravens sat on their stiff limbs, picking at the rotting flesh with sharp beaks. As the ship glided slowly through the fog, more corpses appeared, hanging from the jetty gallows a man"s height above the murky water.
Hakon shut his eyes tightly to block out the horrible sight. But it was too late; the corpses appeared behind his closed lids like ghosts materializing through a wall.
“Open your eyes, boy,” Hauk reprimanded him. “There is nothing to fear here. These have gone on
