*Indicates a Fictional Character
Anglo-Saxon England, 1006–1012
Royal Family
Æthelred II, King of England
Emma, Queen of England
Children of the English king, in birth order:
Athelstan
Ecbert
Edmund
Edrid
Edwig
Edgar
Edyth
Ælfgifu (Ælfa)
Wulfhilde (Wulfa)
Mathilda
Edward
Emma’s Household
Aldyth, niece of Ealdorman Ælfhelm
Elgiva, daughter of Ealdorman Ælfhelm
*Father Martin
*Hilde, granddaughter of Ealdorman Ælfric
*Margot
Wymarc
Robert, Wymarc’s son
Leading Ecclesiastics
Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury
Ælfhun, Bishop of London
Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, Archbishop of Jorvik
Leading Nobles
Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of Northumbria
Ufegeat, Ælfhelm’s son
Wulfheah, Ælfhelm’s son (Wulf)
*Alric, his retainer
Ælfric, Ealdorman of Hampshire
Godwine, Ealdorman of Lindsey
Leofwine, Ealdorman of Western Mercia
Eadric of Shrewsbury
Godwin, Wulfnoth’s son
Morcar of the Five Boroughs
Siferth of the Five Boroughs
Thurbrand of Holderness
Ulfkytel of East Anglia
Uhtred of Northumberland
Wulfnoth of Sussex
Normandy
Duke Richard II, Emma’s brother
Duchess Judith
Dowager Duchess Gunnora, Emma’s mother
Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, Emma’s brother
The Danes
Swein Forkbeard, King of Denmark
Harald, son of Swein
Cnut, son of Swein
Hemming
Thorkell
Tostig
Shrove Tuesday, March 1006
Calne, Wiltshire
Æthelred knelt, his head clutched in his hands, bowed beneath the weight of his crown and his sins. Somewhere above, the vesper bells rang to mark the call to evening prayer, and at the very moment of their tolling he felt his limbs tremble, convulsed by a force beyond his control.
The familiar, hated lethargy settled over him, and though he strove to keep his head down and his eyes shut, a will far stronger than his own pulled his gaze upwards. The air before him thickened and turned as black and rippling as the windswept surface of a mere. Pain gnawed at his chest, and he shivered with cold and apprehension as the world around him vanished. Sounds, too, faded to nothing and he knew only the cold, the pain, and the flickering darkness before him that stretched and grew into the shape of a man.
Or what had been a man once. Wounds gaped like a dozen mouths at throat and breast, gore streaked the shredded garments crimson, and the menacing face wore Death’s gruesome pallor. His murdered brother’s shade drew towards him, an exhalation from the gates of heaven or the mouth of hell – he could not say which. Not a word passed its lips, but he sensed a malevolence that flowed from the dead to the living, and he shrank back in fear and loathing.
Yet he could not look away. For long moments the vision held him in thrall until, as it began to fade, he became aware of another figure – of a shadow behind the shadow. Dark, indistinct, shrouded in gloom, it hovered briefly in the thickened air and then, like the other, it was gone.
Released from the spell, he could hear once