Gunnilda runs into the fire

Gunnilda Hogge pushed her way through the crowd. People were saying Egelric was still in the barn, that the Duke had run inside looking for him. And then she heard the crash, and Alred howling Egelric’s name – that was it, he was inside, he was dead. Gunnilda ran.

She burst into the barn and ran into a heat so intense that it stopped her like a wall. She looked wildly around, but there was nothing to see beyond the flames. Egelric was dead. It was too late.

Duke Alred was leaning against the wall, coughing or sobbing, she couldn’t tell.

This was something she could do. She grabbed him by the tunic with both hands, dragged him to the door, and tossed him outside. Just like putting out the cat, she thought with grim humor. Alred fell face-​​first in the dirt, but she was already back in the barn, for she had heard a shrill scream.

Just behind the door Gunnilda found a girl whose dress had caught fire. The girl was screaming in panic and in pain, and couldn’t make it to the door on her own. 

As she grabbed the girl’s arms, Gunnilda recognized her face in the firelight: it was the girl she had seen with Egelric. Her heart gave a painful throb as she wondered why it couldn’t have been Egelric himself.

“Help me!” she screamed at another woman who was dancing in panic behind her. 

Together the two of them dragged the girl outside and held her up as the men threw buckets of water on her dress.

It was impossible to see how badly she had been burned; her dress hung in blackened tatters around her legs. 

Gunnilda let go of the girl’s arm and took a step back. Her head was spinning – her lungs ached – her arms were trembling – Egelric was dead. It was too unreal. The men looked like monsters in the eerie light. It was all a dream. What had he said to her? “You will see that it was all a dream. I have left no sign.”

Gunnilda let out a sob. It was all a dream. He was gone, and he had left her no sign.

The girl suddenly stopped screaming and lifted her arms towards the fire, towards the sky. Then, with an appalling moan, she pitched forward onto the grass and lay silent.

Egelric ran across the yard, but he was too late to catch her as she fell.