Viking Boy (15 page)
Authors: Tony Bradman
“My father was no fool,” said Gunnar. “And neither am I.”
Gunnar closed his eyes and saw the third Norn holding her shears over a thick thread. He heard all three sisters cackling.
One will live and one will die…
Then he opened his eyes and swung Death-Bringer for the last time in this fight. The blade swept clean through Skuli’s neck and his head rolled across the floor.
Gunnar raised Death-Bringer in triumph, and torchlight leaped from it like bolts of lightning.
“GUNNAR! GUNNAR!”
roared the people of his hall.
This was his home, and no man would ever take it from him again.
IKING
BOY
T
ONY
B
RADMAN
has been involved with children’s books for over thirty years as a writer, a reviewer and an editor of anthologies. His books include the highly successful Dilly the Dinosaur series, the Happy Ever After sequels to famous fairy tales, and picture books such as
The Perfect Baby
and
Through My Window
. Tony has been a judge for the Smarties Book Prize, the Booktrust Teen Awards, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and is chair of the Siobhan Dowd Trust.
Viking Boy
is his first standalone novel.
About
Viking Boy
, he says: “I’ve loved everything about the Vikings since I was a boy. I first encountered them in history lessons at school, and soon found my way to great stories by writers such as Rosemary Sutcliff and Henry Treece before going on to read some of the original Viking sagas.
Viking Boy
grew out of my desire to write an adventure story that I would have loved to read when I was young.”
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published in Great Britain 2012 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2012 Tony Bradman
Illustrations © 2012 Pierre-Denis Goux
The right of Tony Bradman and Pierre-Denis Goux to be identified as author and illustrator respectively of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-4273-4 (ePub)