“Shit!” Evelgold added.“What?” Hook asked, alarmed.“I just stepped in some.”“That’s supposed to bring you luck,” Hook said.“Then I’d better dance in the goddam stuff.”

“Who do you serve?” Lanferelle asked.“Sir John Cornerwailled,” Hook said proudly.Lanferelle was pleased. “Sir John! Ah, there's a man. His mother must have slept with a Frenchman.”

“Did you become a Christian in your nunnery?' I asked her.'Of course not.' she said scornfully.'They didn't mind?''I gave them silver.''Then they didn't mind.' I said.'I don't think any Dane is a real Christian.' she told me.'Not even your brother?''We have many gods,' she said, 'and the Christian god is just another one. I'm sure that's what Guthred thinks. What's the Christian god's name? A nun did tell me, but I've forgotten.''Jehovah.'There you are, then. Odin, Thor and Jehovah. Does he have a wife?''No.''Poor Jehovah.' she said.”

“Latin! The language of God! Or perhaps He speaks Hebrew? I suppose that’s more likely and it will make things rather awkward in heaven, won’t it? Will we all have to learn Hebrew?”

“It was while he was on the tower thatRobbie came to the rampart beneath. 'I want you to look at this,' Robbie called up to him, and flourished a newly painted shield. 'You like it?'Thomas peered down and, in the moonlight, saw something red. 'What is it?' he asked. 'A blood smear?''You blind English bastard,' Robbie said, 'it's the red heart of Douglas!''Ah. From up here it looks likesomething died on the shield.”

“Tell me how Gisela can be married to a man she's never met?'Aidan glanced across at Guthred as if expecting help from the king, but Guthred was still motionless, so Aidan had to confront me alone. 'I stood beside her in Lord Ælfric's place,' he said, 'so in the eyes of the church she is married.''Did you hump her as well?' I demanded, and the priests and monks hissed their disapproval.'Of course not.' Aidan said, offended.'If no one's ridden her,' I said, 'then she's not married. A mare isn't broken until she's saddled and ridden. Have you been ridden?' I asked Gisela.'Not yet.' she said.'She is married.' Aidan insisted.'You stood at the altar in my uncle's place,' I said, 'and you call that a marriage?''It is.' Beocca said quietly.'So if I kill you,' I suggested to Aidan, ignoring Beocca, 'she'll be a widow?”

“The first sound was the bowstrings, the snap of five thousand hemp cords being tightened by stressed yew, and that sound was like the devil’s harpstrings being plucked. Then there was the arrow sound, the sigh of air over feathers, but multiplied, so that it was like the rushing of a wind. That sound diminished as two clouds of arrows, thick as any flock of starlings, climbed into the gray sky. Hook, reaching for another broadhead, marveled at the sight of five thousand arrows in two sky-shadowing groups. The two storms seemed to hover for a heart’s beat at the height of their trajectory, and then the missiles fell. It was Saint Crispin’s Day in Picardy. For an instant there was silence. Then the arrows struck. It was the sound of steel on steel. A clatter, like Satan’s hailstorm.”