Bernard Cornwell - The Flame Bearer

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The brand new novel in Bernard Cornwell’s number one bestselling series on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg.BBC2’s major TV show THE LAST KINGDOM is based on the first two books in the series.From the day it was stolen from me I had dreamed of recapturing Bebbanburg. The great fort was built on a rock that was almost an island, it was massive, it could only be approached on land by a single narrow track – and it was mine.Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria’s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Mercia’s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed a truce. And so England’s greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago – and which his scheming cousin still occupies.But fate is inexorable and the enemies Uhtred has made and the oaths he has sworn combine to distract him from his dream of recapturing Bebbanburg. New enemies enter into the fight for England’s kingdoms: the redoubtable Constantin of Scotland seizes an opportunity for conquest and leads his armies south. Britain’s precarious peace threatens to turn into a war of annihilation.But Uhtred is determined that nothing, neither the new enemies nor the old foes who combine against him, will keep him from his birthright. He is the Lord of Bebbanburg, but he will need all the skills he has learned in a lifetime of war to make his dream come true.

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THE FLAME BEARER

BERNARD CORNWELL

The Flame Bearer - изображение 1

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction The names characters and incidents - фото 2

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2016

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2016

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover layout design © HarperColl‌insPublishers 2016

Map © John Gilkes 2016

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books

Source ISBN: 9780007504251

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780007504237

Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication

The Flame Bearer

is for Kevin Scott Callahan,

1992–2015

Wyrd bið ful ãræd

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Place Names

Part One: The King

One

Two

Part Two: The Trap

Three

Four

Five

Six

Part Three: The Mad Bishop

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Part Four: The Return to Bebbanburg

Eleven

Twelve

Epilogue

Historical Note

Read on ...

About the Author

Also by Bernard Cornwell

About the Publisher

PLACE NAMES The spelling of place names in AngloSaxon England was an - фото 3

PLACE NAMES

The spelling of place names in Anglo-Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whichever spelling is cited in either the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names or the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, AD 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and Hæglingaiggæ. Nor have I been consistent myself; I have preferred the modern form Northumbria to Norðhymbralond to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list, like the spellings, is capricious.

Ætgefrin Yeavering Bell, Northumberland
Alba A kingdom comprising much of modern Scotland
Beamfleot Benfleet, Essex
Bebbanburg Bamburgh, Northumberland
Beina River Bain
Cair Ligualid Carlisle, Cumbria
Ceaster Chester, Cheshire
Cirrenceastre Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Cocuedes Coquet Island, Northumberland
Contwaraburg Canterbury, Kent
Dumnoc Dunwich, Suffolk (now mostly vanished beneath
the sea)
Dunholm Durham, County Durham
Eoferwic York, Yorkshire
(Danish name: Jorvik)
Ethandun Edington, Wiltshire
The Gewasc The Wash
Godmundcestre Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire
Grimesbi Grimsby, Humberside
Gyruum Jarrow, Tyne & Wear
Hornecastre Horncastle, Lincolnshire
Humbre River Humber
Huntandun Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Ledecestre Leicester, Leicestershire
Lindcolne Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lindisfarena Lindisfarne (Holy Island), Northumberland
Lundene London
Mældunesburh Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Steanford Stamford, Lincolnshire
Strath Clota Strathclyde
Sumorsæte Somerset
Tinan River Tyne
Use River Ouse (Northumbria), also Great Ouse (East
Anglia)
Wavenhe River Waveney
Weallbyrig Fictional name for a fort on Hadrian’s Wall
Wiire River Wear
Wiltunscir Wiltshire
Wintanceaster Winchester, Hampshire

PART ONE

The King

One It began with three ships Now there were four The three ships had come - фото 4

One

It began with three ships.

Now there were four.

The three ships had come to the Northumbrian coast when I was a child, and within days my elder brother was dead and within weeks my father had followed him to the grave, my uncle had stolen my land and I had become an exile. Now, so many years later, I was on the same beach watching four ships come to the coast.

They came from the north, and anything that comes from the north is bad news. The north brings frost and ice, Norsemen and Scots. It brings enemies, and I had enemies enough already because I had come to Northumbria to recapture Bebbanburg. I had come to kill my cousin who had usurped my place. I had come to take my home back.

Bebbanburg lay to the south. I could not see the ramparts from where our horses stood because the dunes were too high, but I could see smoke from the fortress’s hearths being snatched westward by the wild wind. The smoke was being blown inland, melding with the low grey clouds that scudded towards Northumbria’s dark hills.

It was a sharp wind. The sand flats that stretched towards Lindisfarena were riotous with breaking waves that seethed white and fast towards the shore. Further out the waves were foam-capped, their spume flying, turbulent. It was also bitterly cold. Summer might have just come to Britain, but winter still wielded a keen-edged knife on the Northumbrian coast and I was glad of my bearskin cloak.

‘A bad day for sailors,’ Berg called to me. He was one of my younger men, a Norse who revelled in his skill as a swordsman. He had grown his long hair even longer in the last year until it flared out like a great horsetail beneath the rim of his helmet. I had once seen a Saxon seize a man’s long hair and drag him backwards from his saddle, then spear him while he was still flailing on the turf.

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