When the interrogation was done, Ragnar walked alone toward the riverbank to clear his thoughts. The air there was thick with smoke and sweat; men crowded about the heavy chain that spanned the river, that great barrier the Franks had forged to bar their passage. The chain was fastened to the shore with massive stones, each link thick as a man's thigh. Around it gathered scores of warriors, arguing over how best to destroy the thing.
At last, someone fetched a heap of firewood and drenched it in five barrels of oil. The flame took greedily. Under the steady heat, the iron began to glow a dull red, and one giant of a man raised his axe high and struck again and again. When his strength gave out, another took his place, until sweat ran down their arms like rain.
