Four men swaggered into my hall and all activity froze as if suspended in time. The newcomers drew all attention to their fearsome appearance. They imposed themselves with their arrogant strutting but in no favourable way; instinct warned me an ill wind had blown these men my way. Men of rank, I assumed, they were dressed in timber wolf fur leggings with shoulder pelts of the same animal draped over their woollen tunics, held in place by crossed leather straps. This assessment I affirmed by noting the detail of their costly wrought clasps.
If the impression they wished to make was of force and menace by their gait and scowling faces, it would have no effect on me. I had faced far worse in the shield-wall. My cringing servants irritated me but unreasonably – unlike me, they are minions, no
