Alwy comes in the night

Egelric lay in the dark, dimly wondering whether the barking and the knocking he heard were not part of a dream.

“Da?” Iylaine whispered, tapping his shoulder. “Someone is here.”

Egelric threw off the blankets and rose at once. “You stay here, Baby girl,” he warned. “Don’t let me catch you out of this bed.”

The house was achingly cold: he had heard the wind blowing the gritty, crystalline snow against the boards of the walls all night. He should have dressed, but the knocking sounded urgent.

Outside were Alwy and the bitter cold.

“Good God!” he cried as the cold laid hold of him. “Come in, man,” he said, pulling Alwy inside and shutting the door. “What do you need? Is Gunnilda all right?”

“You better get dressed and come down to the crossroads, Egelric,” Alwy said. Once Egelric had lit a candle, Alwy’s face revealed itself to be paler than even the cold allowed. “And bring your black dog. It’s them wolves again – they got old Red Curran’s oldest boy.”

“What – they killed a man?”

“They did, right in the middle of the crossroads. It was Ethelmund what came to me – I never heard nothing, but he said he heard a scream. But he was already dead and the wolves gone when he got there. Now you got to come, Egelric. We don’t know what to do.”

Egelric darted into the bedroom to grab his clothes and came back out to Alwy to dress. “What in God’s name was the lad doing out in the middle of the night in this weather?” he asked as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“Well, I guess Gunnie says he’s been going over to see his girl after her Da’s asleep.”

“I should have known,” he muttered. “Women: the age-​​old source of every folly!”

“I guess the wolves must have been real hungry ’cause it’s so cold and we been putting all the animals away.”

“We didn’t put the animals away so that the wolves would kill the men!” Egelric sat and began lacing up his boots. “For God’s sake, has no one heard them? How are we supposed to defend ourselves from wolves if we cannot know when they are in the valley?”

“I don’t know, Egelric,” Alwy whined. “You don’t think they can come into houses, do you? My babies are all at home.”

“No, Alwy, I never heard of such a thing. They haven’t hands to open latches. But you just keep your babies inside at night. And I shall do the same with mine.” 

Being so reminded, he stepped back into the door of the bedroom and called to his daughter, “Baby, you stay in this bed. I must go out for a short while.”

“Where you going, Da? Who’s here?” she called in such a tiny voice that Egelric was afraid – despite his assurances to Alwy. She was no more against a wolf than a lamb.

“It’s only Alwy. I must go help him with something. Now you stay in this bed, and don’t get out of it or open the door for anyone. Hear that?”

“Aye,” she said. He could see two sparks of reflected candlelight shining out in the dark from her eyes.

“Go back to sleep, Baby girl,” he said as he closed the door. “Let’s go, Alwy.”