Maroboodus: A Novel of Germania (The Goth Chronicles Book 1) (22 page)

I began to answer, but Ceadda gave a wry smile and nudged me. ‘She wasn’t talking to you.’ He turned to Saxa. ‘He’s blind as a bat. Never seen anything.’

‘He’s my Goth, nonetheless,’ she smiled. ‘He fought well. Like I did.’

‘Yeah, you suit each other. A murderous pair of lovers, eh?’ Ceadda said.

‘Tell us about the village,’ I asked. ‘Is it fortified?’

She nodded. ‘No, not that sort of a village. Spears and shields are the walls. The village is called the “Wolf Hole” and the leader is indeed a huge man, Agin. They trade black fox furs there. Most Svear are welcome there, but not Father and his men. My brother didn’t go to him this year for the Thing of the clans but fought his ideas. Instead of marrying me to the Goths, he would have wanted to keep—’

‘Killing Goths?’ Ceadda snickered. ‘This is a man who will join in your plan to unify the two nations?’

She smiled and lifted an apologetic eyebrow at me. ‘Yes. He didn’t agree because he hates Father and loves me. He’d do anything to see me happy. He hates most Goths, but we do trade with some.’

We made our way across a dark valley, and rode and ran in thick pine woods, took routes over vast cliffs and heather fields, and before the Sunna was dragged to the sky, Saxa informed we were close to the Three Forks and the lake. We smelled smoke, saw an occasional fur-garbed hunter who stopped to stare at the unusual procession. Then, in an hour, we spotted a party of fur-clad Svea that had apparently been looking for us. Saxa waved her hand at the group of white and gray fur-draped warriors on well-built horses, and they galloped off after scrutiny of our numbers and weapons. ‘Soon,’ Aldbert said. ‘We will find out if she is true.’

‘Or if her brother loves to kill Goths for the fun of it,’ I said and looked at Ceadda. ‘And Saxons, of course.’ Njord spat in disgust, but we went on.

We closed in on one of the Three Forks, a river that streamed south, and crossed it at a shallow spot Saxa knew well, and then, as soon as the last horse rose from the river, we heard the Goths.

There was the barking of the dogs.

The terrifying baying came from the south and then the east. Ceadda turned and whistled, and a Saxon scout ran to us, looking terrified. Ceadda cursed. ‘No more than half an hour away. They doubled back and picked up the scent. They have us now, and won’t tarry.’

‘Run,’ Saxa said and nodded towards the lake shore and hopefully, the village soon after.

And then Agin appeared.

They appeared out of the woods like trouble follows a lie. They seemed to belong amidst the stones and leaves and a man riding deep in his thoughts might have considered them part of the scenery. There were fifty men holding shields of sturdy make, most fur covered, with crude talismans hanging from the rims and their spears were long and thick, well made and the spearpoints broad and deadly-looking. They had a wild, barely man-like look about them as they loped from the woods and the man leading them could have passed for a young bear. His beard was long and unruly, thick and curly and his chest was as wide as Scald. He carried a wicked, one-edged ax over his shoulder and had a frown on his face that would have stopped a charging boar and sent it scurrying away.

Then he spied his sister.

The frown disappeared like fog in the morning.

His face lit up with surprise, relief, and happiness, and he took uncertain steps forward until his men stopped him. Saxa whipped her horse, and it surged for them, and she left us standing like men taking a leak, unable to move. ‘Grab her!’ Ceadda said softly, but Njord couldn’t get to the horse and fell on his face as he tried. We stared at her back and huddled together instinctively and finally stood in an unimpressive rank, eyeing the woman warily as she whooped, rode into the group of men and jumped down to bury herself in Agin’s hug.

‘I bet that is her husband,’ Aldbert complained.

‘If that is the case, they will roast lord Pup for his plans to whelp babies on her,’ Ceadda said with a nervous smile. ‘He will put that ax in our friend’s rear and pull it out through his mouth. Will be a sight to remember. Though I’m sure, it’s not the only rear that will see that blade. How big is that man?’

‘Big all around,’ Njord said with a twisted smile. ‘I hope he is not into Saxon.’

Saxa was released from the hug, and she was now gesturing at us, and I would have given my left nut to hear what she was telling the huge man. If she told them to kill us, I’d die a fool, and we would not escape, no matter if I brought the Saxons to make sure I’d survive. If she were what she claimed to be, in love, I’d be married to a powerful Svea woman in a very short time, and that would certainly change things for all of us. The baying dogs didn’t help the anxiety. Agin was listening to her with a tilted head, and his eyes instinctively sought me out. I straightened my back and gave him a small bow, but not a deep one. Then his face melted into a ferocious scowl, and I feared Ceadda’s estimation of our demise might be right, and I cursed myself for not giving a deeper bow. She pointed beyond us where the dogs bayed, and finally, the large man nodded and gave orders to some of his men, who looked at him with open mouths and then ran off. Agin gestured us closer, and we looked at each other until Njord pushed Ceadda on, Ceadda pulled him with him and so we all went forward, looking at Saxa and Agin like a pack of scared puppies, hoping for kind cuddles and loving attention, and we all gave Agin’s ax long glances. The Saxons were rumbling something, and I was about to warn them to keep their warlike prayers in check when I realized they were just praying for deliverance. Had they not raided the people not so long ago? Perhaps Agin’s villages as well. It was not so far to where Saxa had lived, was it?

My fears turned out to be unfounded.

Saxa bowed at me. ‘This is the man I was telling you about.’

‘Indeed?’ Agin said dubiously. ‘Red-headed, sturdy, and has a look on his face that suggests the head is not just a decoration? Where is his beard?’

‘He shaves it,’ she said apologetically. ‘He’ll learn. He has cunning,’ she said with a fond smile at me. ‘He is brave. And he—’

‘Yes, yes. The others, though. Thick like mules. The lot look like they use their skulls to grind barley, no?’

Njord opened his mouth, Ceadda slapped him, and the Saxons stayed quiet.

Saxa was glowering at her brother who smiled and leaned over her to whisper, except he didn’t, and I could hear every word. ‘You sure? Cunning and brave aside, he doesn’t look any different from any of the Goth bastards we string up like pinecones every year.’

‘Can’t help being a thieving Goth, can he?’ Saxa beamed at the large man, happy and strangely wild and I found she was much different amongst the people she trusted than with the Goths. ‘And I’ll have him, nonetheless.’

‘You don’t have to, you know. You don’t need to, now that you are here and—’

‘It’s what I want,’ Saxa said, blushing. ‘I will have that one.’ Her words made me blush in my turn, and Agin groaned and rolled his eyes.

‘Father might have a thing or two to say about that, though,’ Agin said darkly, and then brightened. ‘But if he is upset, then I’m jubilant to help you marry into a robbing Goth family. Father failed to marry you to one, but if you chose one for yourself, then I’ll forgive you and help you.’

‘There will be things we need from you, other than shelter,’ Saxa said.

‘Oh?’ He frowned at her. ‘What else?’

She rubbed his cheek and made the Svea warriors chuckle as the big man seemed to melt like an ice cone. ‘We won’t be fugitives for all our lives, living in the corners of halls, hiding under the beds. We have plans. Father will be supremely unhappy I am doing this, brother,’ Saxa said with a broad smile. ‘This will kill him, perhaps. Finally. If you help, especially. And then we shall see how to build something that’s good for us all, not forced on us. We can spit on his god. We will be strong together, and none of the northern tribes can threaten us, if we—’

‘Work with some of the Goths, you mean?’ he said with horror, began to shake his head and stopped himself as Saxa’s hand took a painful hold of his shaggy beard.

‘Yes,’ she said resolutely. ‘Don’t be as stubborn as Father.’

He let her hang on to the beard and nearly lifted her off her feet. ‘He wanted to work with the Goths. He did. I just said “no”. Our supporters will think I can’t make up my mind.’

She shrugged. ‘But you saw how many of Father’s supporters agreed. And if you take over the plan, imagine what you can accomplish. The Goths won’t go away, brother. We must begin to think past our old grudges. I’ll start.’ She eyed me warmly, and I’d sold all our lands back to the Svea right then because of her beauty.

He gave her a long look, and I decided Agin was far from a fool. He had a thoughtful look on his face, and clearly there was hidden ambition inside that thick skull. They had likely spent a lot of time together when growing up, running through the meadows of Snowlake, resenting their father’s intensity, and when Agin had grown into a man and a lord on his own, the resentment had only grown. Every son knows better than the father, I thought and smiled. Agin would go on a shared quest for his sister. He was rubbing his chin and nodded sagely. ‘It might. And we shall discuss how that might take place later. I agree it has possibilities. Goths fighting for us for once?’ I stiffened because I had planned to use the Svearna to fight Bero and Hughnot. Nonetheless, I smiled at Agin, he gave me a grim smile in return, and he seemed to approve of me, for he clapped his hands together. ‘I’ll call the völva for the evening, and we shall have a small, discreet feast. Just us. The few of us. Not many. And they are …’ he pointed a thick, dirt-crusted finger at Ceadda. ‘They are not Goths.’

‘They are thin mercenaries from the south,’ she said with a hint of worry in her voice. ‘Don’t know where they come from. Cannot speak what we speak, I think, or only barely. They’ll need a boat, and that’s what we promised them for their help. Savages they are.’ Ceadda smiled wryly at the payback for calling the Svea animals.

‘You promised them one of my boats?’ Agin said with horror, his fingers twitching.

‘Yes,’ she said and saw the big man was still trying to find clues to the origin of the men. ‘Doesn’t matter, trust me. Come brother. Let’s do what I said. As I asked?’

‘Sure,’ he said, his beady eyes never leaving Ceadda, who was fingering his spear with worry. ‘Strip.’

‘Strip?’ Njord asked, horrified. ‘What? Out of our clothes? Totally?’

‘Not out of your skins, for now,’ Agin growled and nodded for us. ‘Can’t speak what we speak, eh?’ Agin said with a scowl. ‘Sister—’

‘Some can,’ she said with fury and turned to the Saxons. ‘Strip.’ The word snapped with finality.

‘Why do they need to strip?’ Aldbert asked, puzzled.

‘You shall all strip,’ she said with some satisfaction as Aldbert’s mouth shot open. ‘You, them, him.’ She pointed at me. ‘We will take the horses, the clothes—’

‘This is my horse,’ I said, for I loved Scald dearly, but saw her face and she was adamant. ‘But there will be others,’ I amended.

‘Many horses,’ she agreed. ‘We are a horse people, Maroboodus. Ships and horses, and perhaps we are not animals at all. They,’ she pointed at some ten Svear, who stepped up. ‘will take your horses and cross the Long-Lake, leaving the horses behind. They will rush to the north. They will take your shabby clothes, and the dogs will follow, bay at the banks of the lake, and the Goths will have to give chase. Our men will travel that way for some days, visiting villages of our northern tribes, going at a great pace to keep the Goths confused and that might leave the Goths in boiling water should they dare to go there—’

‘Dog-humping Goths,’ Agin agreed, and I decided to agree with a ferocious nod, which pleased the massive man immensely.

‘Keep the dog-humping Goths confused,’ she continued with asperity, ‘and perhaps they shall go home. They would be far from home and hall, and they won’t have the men to fight in the north. We will keep an eye on them from now on. We will hide in Agin’s village for a time.’

‘We will keep our weapons,’ Ceadda said more than asked.

‘Yes, you will,’ Agin said tiredly. He eyed his sister, and she nodded, to his chagrin. ‘We will arm you with shields as well since you Saxons will help us defend the village if the Goths don’t trust their dogs. You will fit in. Saxa wants this, not I.’ He nodded at Saxa, who grinned up at the giant. ‘Strip. And yea, I know you are Saxons. Do it.’

We stripped. I got down and pulled off my heavy cloak. I placed my sword and belt on the side and gazed at Agin, trying to gauge the mood of the great man. He was silent, not the huge buffoon he had seemed, but a shrewd man who let no detail escape him. He didn’t judge me, and I shrugged at him as I stripped, hoping the man would be a great ally. Whether or not I’d honestly rule with Saxa, depended on men like him, and I sensed there was as much honor in him as there was in Hulderic. We were all the same blood, divided into tribes and clans and feuds ages old, but men like Agin could mend old feuds. The Saxons had few scruples as they stripped, used to little privacy in their ships, and were soon standing over heaps of their clothing, holding clubs and spears as if they were all they needed and didn’t even mind Saxa, who was looking discreetly away from them. Aldbert was blushing fiercely, and held his hand before his genitals, as Agin was smiling at us lecherously, whispering to Saxa, who turned to look at me. I cursed the cheeky grin on her face and pulled off my pants and shoes and frowned at her as she arched an eyebrow, hopefully as a sign of approval. I pointed a daring finger her way ‘And her horse and clothes?’