The peaceful years ended with the arrival of a fanatic.
Word reached the valley that King Olaf Haraldsson had returned to Norway.
He was a zealot, converting Jarls by blinding them or cutting out their tongues if they refused the Cross.
Bilal's intelligence network—fed by the beggars he gave free bread to—warned him that Olaf was purging the old royalty.
Prince Haakon, the young nephew of Emperor Cnut the Great, was trapped in the south. If Olaf caught him, the boy would be executed.
Bilal acted instantly. "If I save the Emperor's nephew, Cnut becomes my shield," he calculated.
He sent his elite stealth team. They found the terrified teenage Prince, hid him beneath a false bottom in a wagon loaded with sacks of white flour, and smuggled him straight to a fast ship bound for England.
When Haakon arrived in London and told Emperor Cnut that the "Giant of the North" had saved his life, Bilal's political insurance policy was stamped in blood.
But the immediate threat remained. King Olaf was marching north, and he was coming for the "Demon" who refused to bow.