Chapter 28: Night Attack

In December 1013, deep in the Earldom of Mercia, a fierce blizzard batters Askeladd's column. Ragnar blames the misfortune on Askeladd panicking and changing course when the snow began, and pleads with him to winter back in Wales, but Askeladd refuses to leave their plunder behind and insists they need shelter for the night. In a nearby village, a devout English girl named Anne shares supper as her father describes the coming Day of Reckoning, twenty years off, when the wicked will be cast into Hell and the righteous will inherit a new world.

Slipping outside, Anne retrieves a ring she stole from the market and agonizes that her sin will keep her out of Heaven. Through her parted fingers she spots armed men at her family's door and hears Willibald shrieking for the villagers to run before Askeladd's men knock him out and gag him. Bjorn storms the home, strikes Anne's mother, and demands all their food in broken English. The raiders herd the sixty-two villagers together and heap up their provisions. When Anne's father begs for even half their winter stores, Askeladd tells him they need not fear any more winters, since he means to free them from earthly suffering.

Ignoring the protests of Willibald and Ragnar, Askeladd reasons there is not enough food to keep the villagers alive, and that a single escapee could spread word of the band settling in the territory and get them surrounded. He gives the order, and the killing begins. Anne, who has fled, later stands alone in a snowy field and asks God whether her family has reached Him, concluding that He did not want her after all.

A blizzard traps the band in Mercia and shakes the men's faith in Askeladd's luck. The raiders storm Anne's village and round up its sixty-two inhabitants. Askeladd orders every villager killed to keep the band's presence secret. Anne alone escapes and questions God's silence in the snow.

The twenty-eighth chapter closes Volume 4 and was adapted in Episode 14 of the anime. It was published on December 25, 2006. The volume's supplemental pages include a map of Thorfinn's travels, the short Viking Girl Ylva, an afterword on the trials of raising Viking children, and a bonus story. The featured quote, spoken by Askeladd, coldly justifies leaving no survivors behind.