Chapter 23: Reinforcements

In November 1013, along the East Bank of the River Severn, Askeladd rides up to an old ferryman and pays him to carry a single scroll across the water. He insists it reach anyone of authority at once and be announced as a message from Askeladd, son of Lydia. The man recognizes the name and the breastplate, and agrees immediately. Meanwhile the keen-eared scout called Ear presses his ear to the earth and warns that Thorkell's pursuers have closed to less than a day behind, and two enemy riders spot the band from a nearby ridge.

Askeladd admits to Ragnar that they cannot beat Thorkell in a straight fight, but claims help is coming and they need only keep running until it arrives. His exhausted men grumble, since the closest allied post lies two weeks off and any newcomers would demand a share of the plunder. At the campfire, Bjorn presses Askeladd about his strange mood ever since Canute was unmasked. Askeladd explains that decades spent among ruthless men taught him to judge a man at a glance, and that a single look told him the prince did not have a king's face. Bjorn counters that the boy is only seventeen and may yet change.

Before dawn Askeladd rouses everyone to march through the dark. At last, through heavy fog, two cloaked figures wait atop stone steps. Askeladd bows and hails one of them as legatus, who greets him warmly by name, and the other man whistles as two ships glide forward out of the mist.

Askeladd dispatches a scroll across the Severn to summon hidden allies. Ear confirms Thorkell is nearly upon them and scouts pinpoint their location. Askeladd shares his conviction that Canute lacks the nature of a king. A Roman-styled officer and two ships appear from the fog as the promised reinforcements.

The twenty-third chapter is part of Volume 4 and was adapted in Episode 12 of the anime. It was published on July 25, 2006. Its epigraph, spoken by Askeladd, describes his knack for reading a man's worth from a single look at his face.