Maroboodus: A Novel of Germania (The Goth Chronicles Book 1) (18 page)

‘Coward,’ I said with spite. ‘Too lazy to grasp at a branch offered in good faith, one that might see you to your homes.’

Ceadda’s eyes flashed and his fingers twitched aggressively. ‘Perhaps so. But why should we go with you? What could you do, boy, if we just helped ourselves now?’ They took a step forward, all of them and even the two wounded tried to sit up.

I pushed the spear in Ceadda’s chest, the tip breaking skin. His eyes widened, but he clearly contemplated walking on, anyway. I shook my head at him, begging him not to. ‘If you have no honor, you do have sense, I am sure. You will help me, or die here. I have never seen a Saxon die happily in a cage, fed, rested. Think of the songs they shall sing of Ceadda and Njord, the fat, lazy sacrifice. They will, you know.’

‘Wait a minute, I—‘ Ceadda began but I didn’t let him finish.

‘They shall laugh in your halls. Except for your sons. They will weep as they are mocked.’ His face went slack and he looked away and I knew I had won. I went on, brave as a young god. ‘You could kill me, but you know it’s a bad idea, because you would be running around the Goth lands until my people catch you again and they will string you up like wingless sparrows, a feast for the crows.’

‘We’ll row out,’ Njord said stubbornly.

I snorted. ‘The oars have been taken from the boats. Paddle with your hands and feet?’

‘We can make oars,’ he insisted.

‘They will find you,’ I said with a bored voice, hoping they would listen. ‘The horses are guarded, most of them, despite the fire. Come with me. This way you will help a high lady of your enemies, and those enemies can and will help you in return.’

‘Interesting thing, that fire,’ Ceadda said darkly, ‘but I’m sure we don’t have to know what’s going on there.’

I had nothing to hide. ‘You will know everything, or most if you come with me. We are in the same floundering shitty tub together, my friend, I admit that much, and it won’t be easy. You can, if you wish, stay here, and wait for one of the damned vitka to sober up, and start to ponder how to fulfill some fools request. There will be a chief, who is wondering which cow he should buy from his neighbor. Then he will need mighty magic to find an answer, and perhaps your blood will decide which one it shall be? Soon they will sacrifice some of you to Woden. The rest will be split up and sold as slaves, nonetheless, and you won’t be Saxons any longer. Some few might go home if a ransom is paid, and that could take years. Your wives will take new husbands and your children will call them Father, and forget you, and just think of the mockery they’d endure. Imagine, slain by Bero, the least of the Goths.’ That didn’t go down well with them. They all twitched with anger. ‘Or,’ I said, ‘have an adventure with me. Free as birds, or dead.’ I leaned closer. ‘And I doubt you are honorless men, no matter if you raid, rob, and murder. We do as well, don’t we? I’m here to offer you freedom. You can go and try to figure out a way to get some oars together, but you won’t get far. Help me,’ I said proudly and bowed to them.

Ceadda laughed softly as I straightened, and shook his head. ‘My, but you are a wordy one. Bowing to a Saxon? Should be happy you don’t have an ax in your skull. You are leaving the Goths? All the Goths? And really wish to travel to the west, boy?’

I nodded. ‘I was offered a place with the Black Goths. My father told me never to trust Hughnot and I agree with him. I don’t love Bero. I even hate him. I know I hate Maino. And now I don’t trust my father, either. Moreover, there was an incident in the hall, as well. In the Bone-Hall.’

‘I thought the sword had a red tint,’ Njord said. ‘I smell guts and shit on it, pup.’

I shifted the weapon, but didn’t smell a thing on it. ‘No shit, but blood. It visited a throat. But you have a good nose. Look, we don’t have all—‘

As if to make my point, a man was screaming nearby, apparently chasing a horse spooked by the fire that still seemed to be ongoing.

I took the spear away from Ceadda’s chest. ‘You will make oaths to me. Your brothers, fathers, and relatives will hear, across the oaken floors of Valholl, and hold you to them. I need you to help us get there. Take it or leave it because I have to run, nonetheless.’

‘Gods above and below,’ Ceadda said, looking desperate as he tugged at his beard. ‘What say you, boys?’

They said nothing, but somehow Ceadda read an answer in their weather-beaten faces and the sullen silence and turned to me. ‘When she is home, we go free. We won’t come to the Svea village, though. They’d roast us.’

‘Get us there,’ I smiled. ‘And you go free. We will try to get you a boat and you can take the Long-Lake back to the sea, if it is feasible.’

‘The wounded,’ Njord whispered. ‘We must leave—‘

‘No,’ Ceadda said sadly. ‘We help them to Woden’s care.’ He eyed the two men, who shuddered with fear, but did their best to look brave, clutching their wounds. He leaned on me. ‘They have heard us speak, as well.’ I flinched as they approached their brothers. They seemed half dead, horribly wounded anyway, but the deaths were brutal, neck-breaking affairs in the dark, and I realized I was in league with
real
killers. After the deed was done, Ceadda nodded at me and came to stand before me. ‘Oath?’

‘Give them,’ I told him. Outside, yells were getting more desperate. I heard pained whinnying of horses as the hall was probably a terrible inferno and likely, the fire had indeed spread, perhaps elsewhere, further away, helped by Hughnot’s seedy men. Ceadda kneeled and so did the shadowy, murderous Saxon crew. ‘We shall honor you as our lord …’

‘Maroboodus,’ I said.

‘Lord, Maroboodus,’ he went on, ‘the Pup, and shall fight to the death to get you to the safety of the Svea village. Then, we are free to go. Moreover, we would appreciate some help in the form of a boat, when we get there. Long-Lake is Goth and Svea waters, dangerous, but better than walking.’

‘And you shall honor the girl,’ I told him. ‘She must be safe, no matter how much you fear her and her village.’

‘Yes,’ he stated simply. ‘Of course. Do we have to spell everything out? You wish to have a Thing here and settle terms? Trust our word.’

I had one more point. ‘And you will take me with you, if this is a terrible idea,’ I added.

He cursed, for he had probably thought about leaving that option open still. ‘And that, lord Pup. An oath on that as well, damn you, though I don’t know where we shall go, if it is that desperate and there is no boat.’

I shrugged and wiped my stubbled chin. I hesitated for a moment and then handed him the spear, which he took after a moment of stunned silence. I felt like I had given a wolverine claws, but it was a tamed beast for a moment as he grabbed the weapon gratefully. For a few moments, I wondered if he would be ramming it in my belly and by the look on Njord’s face, he was as well. Ceadda did not, but set about speaking to his men in a way that left me confused. They rushed about, picking up their few personal items. ‘Shall we?’ I asked him.

‘Lead on,’ Njord said, eyeing the spear unhappily and enviously. ‘I’m better with a hasta, brother.’

‘You’d confuse it with your cock,’ Ceadda said and pushed me on. ‘I’ll keep it.’

We rushed out. I ran in the shadows of the village’s halls and sheds, the Saxons followed me nearly soundlessly, but most everyone was fighting the fires and indeed, there was more than one hall on fire. We flitted from shadow to shadow, hall to hall until Ceadda stopped us near a ship. He hesitated, his eyes glinting and I felt rage creeping into my heart. ‘You renegading already? I told you they don’t have oars. You cannot seriously think you will get away—’

He shook his head and grinned like a naughty child. ‘No. Let’s release one of them. Push it off, perhaps it will drift away through the islands with the currents, going far to the sea, and they shall look for us there? Or it will just look silly, stuck on some branches over there in the bay. But first, we need weapons.’ He nodded at me, I nodded back, and they climbed the boats. Some came back with spare spears, some had bows, none had shields, but they also found axes and seaxes, long, thick daggers. It was Hughnot’s ship they found most in and I grinned at the thought of the lord’s fury, and then felt cold claws of fear dance on my back as I remembered his face when he had told me not to fail. I was failing, spectacularly. Finally, the Saxons let the ship go after pushing it mightily and we ran for the end of the beach, a line of fugitives, and nobody cared to stop us, not even the few dogs that came near to sniffle and wonder at us. I scuttled to the woods and turned to look back at the village. I eyed the ferns and thick woods, hoping to see a glimpse of Aldbert. Ceadda pulled me around, nervously looking at the burning hall, where hundred men were trying to put it out. ‘Are we going?’

‘We need her, first,’ I said. ‘And my friend.’

‘Oh, they are here,’ he nodded towards a pair of shadows and I saw it was so indeed. There were horses and I saw their faces in the pale light of the conflagration. I walked forward, cursing as I struck my toe on a root, and felt sudden reluctance, as I was afraid the woman would reject me in the end. ‘Do not tarry, lord Pup, and let us get on with this,’ Ceadda said darkly as he eyed the woman he so feared. Aldbert rode forward and looked sheepish as the beautiful woman rode next to him. Her eyes were cold as the north as she eyed the killers of her kin, blue and icy and her lips full and without emotion, drawn in silent rage. Her long, dark hair was braided thickly and her animal skins clung on her round hips. My eyes did not leave hers and I felt the Saxons making some signs to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. She had been unlucky for them indeed. I bowed to her stiffly but she did nothing in return.

‘Boat over the Long-Lake, across it to the Svea lands?’ I asked. There was a long stretch of water, and while it was called the lake, it was a sea and lake combined, and ran for days to the west, separating Hughnot’s and our lands, leading deep to the lands of the Svea, past our gaus.

‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘That would be good. That or a smaller boat down one of the rivers leading west. There are some this side of the Long-Lake.’

‘No,’ Ceadda said and rubbed his face, as his eyes gauged us, anticipating an argument and it was easy to see the girl was about to give him one, because a furious storm gathered behind her eyes. Ceadda lifted a hand before she unleashed her spit on him. ‘You don’t know shit about boats and being hunted in one. We would be visible to everyone. We don’t have the time to go slowly, to avoid villages, and wait for the night. We’d have to row fast. They would come after us, send messages ahead, and if there’s a lord out there with some boats, they will find us. All they would have to do is ask the first fisher they meet, and they would happily tell them when and where we are. No. We, my crew will escape carefully with a boat, taking our time, but we take you two where you want to go through the woods and hills and hope they think we are
stupid
enough to try the lake. Even the Saxons rowing about with great many boats try to avoid that bit of cold water. It’s a death trap. Though it seems we must brave it to get home later, as you know.’ He gave me a resentful look, knowing I might be with them then.

The girl sighed. ‘You promised them a boat?’

I nodded. ‘Yes. And we might wish to listen to them. We should.’

There was still rage on the face of the girl as she looked at the Saxons, but she finally nodded. ‘Do so,’ she said coldly. ‘Over the land, then.’

‘Lord Pup,’ Ceadda said and I nearly shouted for him to remain silent, but the girl bent down and put her cool hand on my cheek.

‘When we get where I wish to go to, I will marry you, mighty Maroboodus. I see power in your future. I also see and smell blood and death, I see unhappy sons, dying lords, betrayed tribes and many riches for you, and I see you will be both happy and unhappy. You’ll ride to war a king, with an old sword and a ring. I will marry a man the Red Lady so richly loves. Freya approves of you.’

I let her keep her hand on my face, and braved a question. ‘Do you see us together, sharing such riches and happiness?’

She hesitated and shrugged, straightening in the saddle. ‘I don’t know. It is possible. Anything is. But I see we will have happiness, though as for the future and how far that happiness lasts, it depends on our choices.’

All the Saxons shifted in their feet, unnerved by her intensity, and I knew Ceadda had a look on his face that was directed at me, and was saying, “I told you so, Pup.”

I took a deep breath and so began our flight. ‘Let us leave.’

We rushed up the hill, spears clanking on trees in the darkness and the night seemed to disapprove of our haste as we all stumbled along, save the horses, which were wiser. Then we took to the west over some harvested fields, and crossed a ball-freezing river and rushed for a village that was days away, in the land of the Gislin, lord of Svearna. Behind us, horns blared.

I was a Goth no longer. I was not sure what I was.

But I knew I was in love.

‘Gravemound is warm.’

Njord

W
e trekked swiftly and quietly through the woods and over the hills, and there were plenty of rich valleys and hillsides filled with Goth homesteads. Dogs were barking lazily, the sound eerie in the night, echoing everywhere, and often leaving one confused of the direction of such possibly dangerous signs of pursuit. The four-legged guards sensed our presence, despite our attempt at stealth and when we did see a smoky hall half hidden by the woods and night-fog, men would often stand at the doors of the halls, squinting into the darkness, expecting beasts on two or four legs. We would wait, and then move, keeping close together.

‘We are lucky so many are in Marka,’ Aldbert noted and he was right. Many warriors had indeed traveled there for the funeral and the Thing. We moved like young hares, carefully, expecting to be pounced upon, but determined to find safety. The horizon and the clouds in the sky were light behind us, likely with the fires in Marka, but soon that too ebbed, and I swallowed in terror at the thought of them finding Ludovicus’s corpse in Maino’s room. There would be a thorough search. I looked at the Saxons guiltily, for even if I hoped for their protection on our journey, it was true we might have moved more stealthily and quicker with fewer people. No battle would end well, when there were only eighteen of them, and while I also thought they might buy me a way to escape the land altogether should the girl prove to be a liar, I had half hoped they might be blamed for stealing her, and for taking me as well.

But Hughnot would know.

Bero would guess.

No matter what conclusion Father reached, it would be safe to assume most thought I had reconsidered my allegiance and changed sides, and not even Father could spare my rear. Though, of course, they would be right to do condemn me. I
had
changed sides. It felt terrifyingly invigorating, everything was new and at the same time also rotten. I was a traitor. Savage men were there with me, a woman worth dying for, but I still felt terrible for my choices.

And it might all go to waste. They could catch us.

I just wish we had more time to escape, but we didn’t,
I thought. They would know I had done it. They would know soon. I thought about the guard I had let live, and cursed myself for not taking his life, but in the end, I decided I couldn’t have performed such a murderous deed, and I knew it well enough.

I gazed at Ceadda. The man’s face was looking right and left, his head swinging, his grip on the spear strong, tense, as he passed from shadows to lighter spots, ever ready. He had been a warrior for a decade, at least. They would have had no issue with slitting the guard’s throat, but they had missed him in the dark.

We might have to fight.
Perhaps we could do well in a battle,
I thought.

The Saxons had no shields, but the raiders were a hardy bunch, their beards long and limbs strong, and they would not play fair, should something be thrown at them. They would be brave. They were also wise. One could see it in their eyes; concern. We were walking on very thin ice, and the ice was cracking under our weight, but we had no chance to be cautious. We had to risk much. They had been promised a boat, and for that, they had given oaths, but not a man amongst them could be sure to see their wives and children again.

A wolf howled somewhere near, startling me from my contemplations.

Ahead, the girl guided her horse with her shapely thighs and looked over the vast woods as if she owned them. Her eyes didn’t tell me anything like those of the Saxons, but she must have known how desperate our escape would be, no matter our trickery with the boat and not taking a one across the lake.

‘What will we be eating?’ Ceadda asked me as if this was the most pressing concern on the muddy track to freedom. He eyed his men running ahead in the woods, scouting, sniffling the air. Others were bringing the rear and he was right. We would need to eat. I eyed Aldbert, who patted a bag on his horse, a bulging thing, and I hoped he had not failed me there. I needed time with him to fully understand the level of his treachery. He had been my friend since our childhood, but while I wanted to understand him, to give him many chances to redeem himself, I was reluctant, and perhaps the Maroboodus that would later be the dread of his enemies was already rearing his bloody Bear’s head.

I wanted to hurt him for his deed.

I did.

I couldn’t help myself, but there was some petty, and also practical part of me that looked at him and found him a distraction, a potentially dangerous one and I was ashamed as well, because he had a hurt dog’s look on his face, and I had forced him on a very dangerous road. I regretted taking him, I regretted asking him to help me, but for some reason he was still here, trying to stay with us,
so I’d have to give him a chance.

‘Bark,’ I told Ceadda and rapped at a passing trunk. ‘We can eat that, if nothing else. No time to eat now.’

‘I ate some of my oar once,’ Njord noted. ‘It was salty with my sweat and tasted all right. Kind of squishy after I let it settle under my tongue a bit. We had lost our munitions.’

I chuckled and pointed a finger at the bags on Aldbert’s horse. ‘But I came prepared.’

He noticed everyone was staring at him and startled, he tapped the bags. ‘We have bread, lentils, and meat. It won’t last, though. We forage as we go. There are cowberries, mushrooms.’

‘We don’t have our womenfolk with us,’ Ceadda whispered and nodded at the girl. ‘Can she help pick the food, so we won’t eat something deadly? She knows the woods, no? We are sea people, and don’t farm or forage. Do I look like a bear?’

‘Smell like one. You ask her,’ I told him, eyeing the pretty creature on the horse with awe and respect, and the same part that doubted Aldbert also gnawed at my thoughts concerning her.

Surely, she would betray me.

She had made me so happy with but few words, but it was like a dream, wasn’t it? Words were nothing. I’d have to speak with her soon about her life, my plans, and what I hoped I might accomplish with her and the Svea, and if the gods were kind, the doubts would fly away like sparrows. They would, if only she smiled. She was the key to my happiness, and to power both. ‘I wish I knew her name.’

Ceadda quaffed and shook his head. ‘Ask her, fool, and while you do, you ask if she could aid us so we won’t have to starve more than we did while enjoying your Bero’s hospitality,’ he chuckled.

‘And to drink?’ Njord asked with an eager grin. He poked at Aldbert’s bags. ‘Did you pack any? Some Goth ale? It’s weak piss, yea, but still I’d rather have that than nothing. Imagine that’s the only thing we never, ever looted when we raided a Goth hall and now I’d kiss a hairy Goth ass for a sip of some of it, even if it were served in a filthy pigsty from a slop bucket. It’s good for dousing fires or bathing in, and does nothing to quench a man’s thirst, but I’d still love some.’

‘Saxon ale,’ I said. ‘We have loads of Saxon drink.’

‘Oh?’ he asked, and smiled with happy anticipation, eyeing the bags with such hope my heart nearly broke.

‘Tears. Eat your tears,’ I told him as I looked at Aldbert whose face wore a disapproving frown. He looked like an old woman who was eating dinner with her husband’s young lover. He hated our Saxon company. Perhaps he hated the girl as well.

‘Very funny, Goth,’ Njord said, chortling. ‘Tears. Saxon ale. I like your humor, Goth. It’s the sort of stuff you hear them meowing at you over their shields before they weep and shit themselves at the end of a spear.’

‘We drink
water
,’ Ceadda said simply. ‘Plenty of springs around, and rivers as well. Now, the Svea village is two days that way.’ He pointed to the west and a small river that ran that way below us lazily. It was glinting in the darkness and I heard it’s gurgling voice. ‘That river will combine with two larger ones a day away and that’s where we’re going.’

‘Three Forks,’ the girl stated.

‘Right, forks,’ Ceadda allowed. ‘We won’t go to the Long-Lake as we agreed,’ he nodded to some hills to the north with a hint of longing in his look. ‘We raided there three years ago, went past Long-Lake and I know there are some steep hills between the river to our south and the lake and that’s where we will hike, if the lady approves. We’ll avoid all the valleys,’ he said and bowed towards her back, ‘and that way we should avoid the villages and the heavily used hunt-trails. We will find some smaller game trails, and jog all the way and worry about drink and food as we go. Let’s hope they thought we took a ship away south, but if not, then we will have to be really resourceful. Let us lead, and it shall be well, eh?’

I looked behind to the east, for the coast that was not too far yet, but I was surprised I could already make out its gray surface. Then I noticed Sunna was rising. The morning had arrived. The celestial horses were dragging up their beautiful burden in the bright chariot and Hughnot would be roving to the cove, only to eventually find that I had betrayed him. I nodded at Ceadda. ‘Lead on.’

The girl turned to us. ‘It’s a good plan. But we won’t go to my village.’

‘What?’ Ceadda asked, alarmed. ‘Not going home? Where are you going?’

‘And why?’ I asked, horrified. ‘Surely we would be safe there?’

Njord groaned. ‘I know what she’ll say. She forgot something. We have to go back—‘

She slapped her palms together. ‘Shut up, Saxon. We won’t go back. In fact, we won’t go as far as you thought.’

‘Good news, finally,’ Ceadda grumbled.

She pointed a finger to the horizon in the west. ‘We will go that way, a day or a bit more away, and go over those three rivers, certainly, but we won’t trek much further from them,’ she said. ‘There is another village we will visit and that is near the river’s so you Saxons should be happy. It’s by the Long-Lake, very near the end of it.’

‘Why won’t we go to your home?’ I insisted. ‘Why—‘

She leaned closer to me. ‘I’ll tell you a bit later.’

I opened my mouth but growled agreement and turned to Ceadda. ‘Lead on. And make sure we leave no tracks.’

‘Impossible,’ said the woman with a smile.

‘Why?’ Njord frowned. ‘You think we don’t know how to lift our feet?’

She shrugged. ‘There are twenty men rumbling along in a wood filled with twigs, shrubs, and some of you drag your feet, Saxon, indeed they do. Any half-blind Svea could track this party and the tracker could be very drunk and probably crippled in addition to being blind and still have no problems finding this lot. You will have to hope and beg the Goths are not as skilled running the trails as are our hunters.’

‘They are Goth trails, aren’t they?’ Aldbert said unhelpfully.

She glanced at Aldbert with curiosity, but went on and spoke to Ceadda. ‘They’ll not be stupid, Saxon, the Goths. They will check the hills as well. They will herd us. They’ll come by the Lake, the rivers, and send men to look at the hills. They’ll make good time and go past and hope to catch us in a net. We will have to beg the spirits for help, for rain to pour down like a giant’s hammer, flattening all tracks, and even then we might walk right into them. Now we don’t have rain and will be careful and meticulous. When we stop, bury your shit. Dark gods of the rocky Jotunheim only knows why you brought horses along, as they will lumber along like a blind bear and will leave tracks a child might spot.’

‘You seem to enjoy the beast’s back just fine,’ Ceadda said with a mocking smile. ‘And I didn’t bring the horses. He did.’ He thumbed me and my red hair matched my face as I sputtered, and bit my tongue as I decided there was nothing I could say that wouldn’t sound like I was making excuses.

She glanced at me and smiled. ‘Yes, I enjoy it, Saxon. It’s best I won’t slow you down, at least, so let’s give my young, handsome Goth adeling some credit. In any case, you will make no fires. Don’t break branches, and tear out moss, if you can avoid it. Less you do, the better. Do drag your feet, and spears, and try to pretend you belong here.’

‘We have lived in these lands for a long time,’ I said with some pride. ‘We have hunted through these lands for both moose and for your war-parties—‘ 

‘Your kind,’ she said with amusement, ‘sailed to these shores a hundred years past from the islands. Your family, Friednot and Hughnot, only twenty years past. Your family is not the first who tries to take the lands from us. You know, my tribe lived in the coast then. Father often tells how his father grew up not far from your Marka. Now we have the woods and the lakes, but this is
not
your land. We made these trails, and we know them, Maroboodus.’

‘Well, while some others
tried
, we
took
the land. And kept it.’ It was a bluntly delivered statement, and I felt immensely proud for airing it.

She went quiet, her face smooth and there was no sign of anger. It was a curious, calm look, and while I wondered what that meant, Ceadda was trying to pull my sleeve. As a married man, he probably knew I was rowing into shoals, but he was too late. The girl took a long breath. She rode close to me and leaned near. ‘You, while handsome and foolishly brave,’ she said with a small smile, which made the men groan and me blush, ‘are ignorant as a babe. You and the dirty Saxons know nothing about this land. You don’t really know its smell, its beauty, the weakness and the power of the men who inhabit it, and you have never heard the voices of the spirits who occupy it, because they don’t speak to you. And you,’ she smiled very close to me, ‘would marry me? You need to know the land better, I think. Taste the turf, boy.’