Viking Wrath (13 page)

There was a sudden shout and an alarm bell began to toll. I saw the guards at the gate slam them shut. We saw nothing then save sentries moving from the towers at the corner of the wooden and stone walls. Their faces flickered in the glow from the torches. Then, after a short while, the gate opened and two horsemen with the dragon standard of Gwynedd emerged and led a column of fifty men out. They turned towards the estuary once they had left the gate and they rode between the high ground and the river. Although I could not see it I knew that it was a drekar which had been spotted. I hoped that, this time, my son would obey his orders and not risk his drekar. He would not be able to turn in the narrow river until the tide was at its height. Elfrida was with him and that would ensure he obeyed my orders. It had been his concern for his wife which had caused him to disobey me the first time.

Snorri risked peering from the side of the ditch and he waved when the column of warriors was far enough from the gate to allow us to enter. We rose as one and raced towards the gate which was still open. There were two guards there but they were speaking with each other. Their attention was not on the road before them and they fell to the blades of Snorri and Bjorn the Scout before they even realised that they were under attack.

When we entered I could see that this was a grander place than the hill fort had been. The halls and buildings all had stone foundations and slate roofs. There were men on the walls but I ignored them. It was obvious which building was the palace. It had two sentries outside. This time they did see us and raise the alarm. My men began shouting
'The King comes! Death to the rebels!'

The sentries on the walls looked to the south and the east seeking the rest of our army. It allowed us to enter the hall. The two guards who had sounded the alarm lay in widening pools of blood.

"Spread out and find them!"

There were servants as well as soldiers inside the palace. We could not afford to discriminate and any who crossed our path fell to our swords. The women generally ran and when we saw that they were not the three we sought we allowed them to go. They had left guards for the priestesses for a column of men ran from a guard room and hurled themselves at us. I shouted to Aiden, "Keep looking! We will hold these!"

There were ten of them and we outnumbered them but they came at us in a column and Harold Olafsson died as he found himself attacked by two of them. I slew one of his killers as Haaken despatched the second but it allowed the others to rain blows upon us. They were using spears and had the advantage of length. I felt a spear slide across my mail. My armour had been made by Bjorn and it turned it. The Weird Sisters were at work for the head of the spear slid into the side of Rolf Rolfson. I barely had time to raise my shield and deflect the spear which jabbed at my neck. I heard a roar as Sigtrygg threw himself bodily at the attackers. He had scant regard for his own safety and his blade carved a gap between them. Haaken and I plunged into them and we two laid about us with our swords. I punched with my shield and, when I saw a Welsh face with an open helmet before me I head butted him and he fell to the floor. I swung Ragnar's Spirit across his throat and then I realised that our attackers were gone. They had all died to the fury of our attack. It had cost us. As well as Rolf and Harold, Arne and Siggi had both been wounded. I heard a shout and we ran towards the sound. I heard the clash of arms and metal on metal. There was a scream and we flung open the doors at the end of the passage.

I saw Aiden and the other four engaged in a furious fight with eight guards. Haaken was before me and he rushed to their aid. Suddenly a knife appeared, wielded by a woman's hand. She had been hiding behind the door. It tore through the cloak, the mail and the leather byrnie into Haaken's back. I swung my sword and it ripped across Demelza's middle, cutting through to her spine. Her mouth hurled a dying curse at me as she fell.

Angharad screamed and ran at me with a scythe held in her hand. She shouted at me as she came. I guessed she was cursing me. I held my shield before me and, as she swung the blade in my direction I blocked it and stabbed up through her body. The end of my sword came out of her neck and she was frozen in death. There was hate in her eyes until the end. I was disappointed that her end had been swift. I had wanted to make her pay for her deeds and for the losses we had suffered.

I heard another scream. I turned at the cry and saw Kara throw herself at me. She had a knife in her hand. Suddenly a fist came from nowhere and struck her on the side of the head. She fell as though hit by a poleaxe. I saw Ulf looking in horror at his hand.

"I am sorry, Jarl. But she would have slain you."

"You did right, Ulf. Aiden, bind her and gag her." I saw Haaken writhing on the floor. "Magnus Redbeard, help Haaken. Go out of the seaward gate and get the two of them to the drekar we will cover your backs."

I looked around to see who was left. Sigtrygg, Snorri, Bjorn the Scout and Karl Knutson were all that remained. Nor could we do anything for the passage into the other world of our dead for the guards who had been on the walls now raced towards us.

I hesitated and Sigtrygg said, "The gate is the best place to hold them!"

I nodded and we ran. There were just five of us against the rest of the garrison. Those were not good odds. The hall was a maze of passages and doors. A pair of warriors burst from one to our right. Sigtrygg slew one and Bjorn the Scout the other but not before Knut had taken a spear thrust to the leg. Then, mercifully, we were outside. I saw the open gates ahead and the three dead guards. My new Ulfheonar had acquitted themselves well. We turned at the gate and Sigtrygg and I grabbed a discarded spear each. I jammed my sword into the hard packed earth. The sentries ran at us. They too had spears. I parried one spear and then jabbed quickly mine into the man's chest. My spear was hacked by another guard and I picked my sword from the ground and slashed across his face. I heard a grunt next to me. Knut had a spear sticking from his belly. He grabbed his killer's head and pulled him on to his sword. As he slid to the floor he said, "Ulfheonar!" and then he died.

I was tiring now but we had to buy more time for Aiden and the others to reach the cliffs. I blocked another spear and, dropping to my knee jabbed my sword into the groin of the spearman. I swung my sword to the side to free it from the body and it fell across our front. There was now a barrier of the enemy dead. Then I heard a trumpet sound and saw that the men of Gwynedd had heard the commotion and returned to their walls. We now had the whole of Hywel ap Rhodri's warband hunting us. This time we would be defeated if they caught us. I had counted them and there were fifty of them.

"We run!"

We turned and ran for the distant sea. I could not see anyone ahead of us but I only had a rough idea of the distance we might have to travel. The heather and the gorse meant that we had to follow the paths which twisted and turned. The men who followed us had an advantage for they would know the paths better than we. There was little point in bemoaning our predicament. It was
wyrd
. I hoped that we had achieved what we had set out to do and rescued Kara but, already the cost was high. Eight more of my Ulfheonar would not return to
Cyninges-tūn.

I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw that the men of Gwynedd were barely a hundred paces from us. When I felt spray on my face I felt hope. The sea was not far away. My legs felt like jelly and my chest burned but still we ran. My armour felt like I had a mountain on my shoulders but still we hurried on. We almost ran over the cliff but Snorri who had reached it first had seen the edge and he yelled at us, "Stop!"

Bjorn the Scout pointed, "Look there is a path, of sorts."

I looked where he had pointed and saw that the others were almost at the rocks. There was however, no beach.
'The Heart of the Dragon'
was edging dangerously close to the savage rocks and she was crewed by a handful of men from my son's warriors. This would be a stern test of Erik's skill and that of his ships' boys.

"Get down. I will follow." They hesitated, "I command you!" They began to clamber down the narrow track. I turned and faced the two horsemen who galloped towards me. I yelled, in Saxon, "If you follow us then I swear to come back and wreak revenge on you all. Turn back now and I will never return."

In answer one of the horsemen galloped towards me with a long spear in his hand. I stood my ground. At the last moment I moved to my right and took the spear on my shield. I swung Ragnar's Spirit and it hacked into the rump of the small horse. I felt it grate on bone and then the rider and the horse disappeared, screaming, over the cliff as the horse reared away from the pain. The other veered to one side and I swung backhanded at him. The tip caught his leg. The men on foot were hurrying after the rider. I punched my shield at the horse and the rider. He wheeled away and rode towards his men.

I had had my answer. "I will return and you shall pay, Hywel Ap Rhodri! You have sown the wind and now you will reap the whirlwind. Better you had never been born than incur the wrath of Jarl Dragon Heart of Cyninges-tūn." They all hesitated for a moment. The sight of a warrior in a wolf skin holding a sword above his head and defying a huge band of warriors confused them.

Holding my shield over my head I turned and headed down the steep and precarious path. I had descended barely ten paces when I felt arrows thud into my shield and ping off my helmet. I kept going, oblivious to the danger. I could see, below me, that Erik had brought the drekar close to a rock. While half of his rowers kept the ship pressed against the rock the other half held their oars as a buffer against the cliff. I saw that Kara and Haaken were already on board and that the others were boarding. Sigtrygg, Snorri and Bjorn the Scout had barely twenty paces to go. Suddenly something crashed into my shield and I felt myself falling into space. I released my shield but held on to my sword. I moved my arms to try to keep my balance but it was in vain. I would hit a rock and I would die. I was saved from a rocky end, ironically, by the carcass of the dead horse I had slain. It broke my fall but I then slid from its bloodied and broken body into the water. I was momentarily stunned. I opened my eyes and saw that my armour was taking me down to the bottom. It was every nightmare I had ever had and it was now a reality.

I closed my eyes, pleased that I had held on to my sword. At least I would get to Valhalla. I put my left hand on the pommel too and, as my hands touched the blue stone I heard a voice in my head, "
Fight for life, my son! This is not your time
!"

My feet touched the sandy bottom and, as my knees bent, I pushed up as hard as I could with the sword held in two hands. I am still not sure if I would have made it had  Erik and Aiden not dived into the sea. The two of them pulled me to the surface. We broke through the water and I coughed and spluttered. Hands pulled me up as arrows slammed into the side of the drekar. As I rolled onto my back like a beached turtle, I heard Erik shout, "Lower the sail!"

As the ship's boys released it, I felt a sudden gust of wind move us away from the arrows, stones and spears which cascaded down upon us and into the open sea.

My Ulfheonar held their shields above the rowers as the angry men of Gwynedd continue to rain missiles upon us. I coughed up more seawater and, as I turned my head I saw that Haaken looked pale and Aiden was trying to get his mail from him. Forgetting my own encounter with death I crawled towards him and held his legs so that Aiden could pull the mail off his body. We repeated it with his byrnie and his kyrtle. I saw that the knife had not penetrated very far. Yet Haaken looked close to death. I saw a frown on Aiden's face. Before I could ask him anything an arrow thudded into the deck a hand span from Aiden's leg. He barely glanced up. He leaned forward and sniffed at the wound.

As he raised his head he looked at Kara who, although bound and lying between the rowing benches, glared death and hatred at us both. "It was a poisoned blade, Jarl. He is slipping towards the darkness of death."

"Save him Aiden; I cannot lose the last of the first Ulfheonar!"

"I will try, Jarl but I know not what poison she has used."

As he went through the potions and antidotes he kept in his leather satchel I regretted that the deaths of the two witches had been so swift. I would they had suffered. I realised we were out of range when Sigtrygg and Snorri joined me. "Aiden, Bjorn the Scout has an arrow in the leg."

I looked up at them. "Take it out and bind the leg. Aiden is trying to save Haaken's life. You will have to heal Bjorn the Scout." They nodded. I turned back to Aiden. "What can I do?"

"Find charcoal and grind it into a paste with water. Make it fresh water not sea."

I struggled to my feet. My body felt as though it had been battered by a giant troll. There was a small bag of charcoal which we kept as fuel when we ate ashore. I put a handful in a pot. Aiden had not said how much. I used a beiti-ass from the rack by the stern to grind the charcoal into a powder. I watched Aiden as I did so. He had opened the wound and was encouraging blood to flow out of it. Then he said to one of the ship's boys. "Fetch me a pail of sea water."

As the boy went to the stern I saw that Josephus was three lengths behind us. My son and his wife had made it. This time he had obeyed me. The lesson was, however, expensive. It had cost Cnut and other Ulfheonar their lives. Even now Haaken might die and it could have all been prevented if Wolf Killer had only done what I had ordered him to do.

"Jarl, the charcoal?"

My mind had been wandering. I was as guilty as my son. I mixed water and made a grey sludge. I saw that Aiden was washing the wound with sea water. I showed him the paste. After carefully putting a salve into the wound he took a further handful of the paste and smeared it over the injury. "Add more water to the paste and we will make him drink it." He bound a bandage around the wound to hold the paste in.

"I thought that only worked if someone had swallowed poison."

"So did I but I am running out of ideas." We held his head and Aiden poured the disgusting looking mixture down his throat. Even though he was barely conscious Haaken's body tried to gag and to vomit. Aiden held his nose and Haaken had to swallow. "Stand back."

We both released our hold on him and allowed him to lie on the deck. He was still for moment and then his body convulsed and shook. He began to vomit all over the deck. Normally Erik would have been angry but, as he steered the ship to safety he watched as, at first, a grey sludge emerged and then it became flecked with red blood and black bile. After what seemed an age he stopped and lay still. I was not certain if he was dead.

Aiden put his head to Haaken's chest and said, "He lives still." He then went to the vomit and sniffed it. "Some of the poison is here I can smell it." He took off his blue pendant and put it in Haaken's hand. "Jarl, put Ragnar's Spirit in his other hand." I did as I was asked, "Erik, get us as close to Wyddfa as you can. I have done all that I can. Now it is up to the spirits." He rose and went to Bjorn the Scout.

I sat on the bench closest to Haaken and stroked his head. It was cold and clammy. He felt like a corpse already. Kara's face was close to me on the other side. She was lying between the benches bound and gagged as I had ordered. I looked at her as I stroked Haaken's head. There was pure hate in her eyes. This was not my daughter. The witch had made her into monster. Perhaps the best thing would be to throw her over the side. Even as the thought came into my head, I knew that I could not. Despite what she had done it had not been her fault. I was her only parent now and it was my responsibility to bring her back from the dark place she now inhabited. She had saved us before now and I had to save her. The trouble was I did not know how. It did not take long to bind Bjorn the Scout's wound.

My new Ulfheonar were at the oars and Sigtrygg and Snorri joined them. I heard Ulf say, "We are risking the straits again then, Magnus?"

Aiden answered him. "It may be the only way to save Haaken but I think the journey will be less fraught this time. The Weird Sisters did not take Jarl Dragon Heart at Aberffaw; I cannot see them taking him now."

Silence descended as we entered the straits and all that could be heard was the creak of the oars in the rowlocks and the flapping of the canvas. Sigtrygg had no chant to call out. We were all in the power of the mountain. As we drew level with it I heard Kara begin to cough. Then she began to twist and turn. Aiden came and removed her gag. Her cries could hurt no one now. She began to curse. "You will all die a painful death! You have killed the High Priestess and the Mother will punish you all. None of you will ever return home! We will be taken by Ran to her depths and crabs will eat your eyes and fish will devour your flesh.

"Gag her again, Aiden. We need not this!"

"It is part of the healing, Jarl. Look at Haaken." I saw that some colour was returning to Haaken. She convulsed again and a trickle of thin red blood came from his mouth. Then he sighed and lay still. I began to move and Aiden said, "Hold! The stones and the mountain are doing all that they can. Do not interfere!" The blue pendant she wore around her neck had fallen out of her dress when she had convulsed and it gleamed a little.

I was not used to being ordered around but I obeyed. Just then Kara began to keen and wail. "Stop! Stop! You are hurting me!"

I looked and there was no-one near her.

Aiden pointed to the mountain. I knew that it was the cave, now covered in a rock fall, to which he pointed. "It is your ancestors who help us now, Jarl. Your mother's spirit is strong here. I can feel her. She wrestles with Kara for her heart and mind." He pointed to the dragon prow. "See, we are nearly past. The crisis will be soon!"

Even though she was bound, hand and foot, Kara's body arched and she gave a primeval scream and then fell unconscious. She and Haaken were both like corpses. What had we done?

We had been so concerned with the two of them that we had not noticed that it was coming on to dark. Erik said, "We should land if we can, Jarl."

Sigtrygg said, "This is still the land of Gwynedd. We will need to sail further north. We need to land past the Maeresea. There are dunes there and we can rest in safety."

I looked at Erik and nodded. He shook his head. "
'The Heart of the Dragon'
is hurting too Jarl. She will need much work when we reach home." He paused and looked at the setting sun. "If we ever reach home."

Aiden closed his eyes, "Oh we will reach home. The sacrifice of the Ulfheonar has ensured that."

As we sailed into the blackness Sigtrygg said, "We will have to find more Ulfheonar, Jarl. There are but seven of us left."

"Do not forget, Haaken, he lives still. But you are right. We will ask at Windar's Mere and Thorkell's Stad. I fear there are few candidates in Cyninges-tūn."

"It is meant to be Jarl. There has been much upheaval. Words have been spoken which should not have been and your family is riven from each other. I heard your words to the men of Aberffaw but you will have to wait some time to keep your word."

"I will not be foresworn."

"I know but you cannot take eight men there and expect to win, can you?"

I laughed. "You are right. I would need at least ten!"

For some reason that set all of us, save Kara and Haaken, laughing. Even the ship's boys laughed. I ordered the men to stop rowing as we passed the Dee. The land to the west of us would grow emptier. The lantern we hung from our stern was a marker for the other drekar and I waved it from side to side to show that we would be landing soon. Erik anchored in the sea just offshore from the sand dunes. Aiden and I would stay on board with the two who were still struggling with the demons. The rest would go ashore and cook food.

As the men who had come from the
'Josephus'
clambered over the side I thanked them. "I am in your debt. Had you not brought, with Erik, the drekar in so close then none of us would be alive now."

Arnulf, who was their leader paused and said, "It was an honour, Jarl. For years we have heard of the courage and the deeds of the Ulfheonar. We have now seen them in action and the tales do not do you and your warriors' justice."

Erik sent the ship's boys ashore to fetch us some food. He joined Aiden and I as we sat with Haaken. It was so silent, for the others had camped well away from the ships, that I jumped when Haaken spoke, "Am I in Valhalla?"

I was so relieved that I could have shouted. Instead I said quietly, "No, old friend, but it was touch and go for a while."

"What happened? The last I remember was seeing our new men fighting against great numbers and then I felt a sharp pain in my back."

"The High Priestess stabbed you with a poisoned knife." Aiden took my sword and gave it back to me and then took back his pendant. "The blue stones and Wyddfa saved you."

"Not to mention our Galdramenn. You owe him your life."

He nodded, "Thank you Aiden. And where are we now?"

"We are north of the Maeresea. The rest are ashore. Food will be coming soon."

He shook his head. "My stomach is full of writhing eels."

Aiden nodded and poured him a horn of ale from the barrel we carried. "Here, this will do you as much good as food."

The ship's boys came aboard with the food. I had thought about going ashore but I did not want to leave Kara alone. I felt, as her father, that I owed it to her. I was disappointed that my son did not choose to join us. Perhaps he brooded about my curt comments and criticism. He had to learn to take such things. That was the way to becoming a man. To know when you had made a mistake and admitting it.

Kara still glared at me. I nodded to Aiden, "Sit her up Aiden. She will need drink and, I daresay, food."

He gave a rueful smile. "She may need it but until she emerges from this dark place she will not thank us for it."

We sat her up and, surprisingly, she did not struggle. That may have been because she had had enough of being horizontal. She had been listening to us for she spat out. "Aiden is right; I do not wish to eat."

I smiled, "Then you recognise Aiden? That is a step in the right direction at any rate."

She looked confused and Aiden smiled. "You are right, Jarl. This is a sign she is getting better. She should have water at least. The salt air dries lips and she may become ill." He went to the water skin. I stood and, before she could do anything I pinned her shoulders. She tried to move her head away from Aiden's hands and so I held her head straight. She kept her lips together. Aiden smiled and pinched her nose. She had to open her mouth and, when she did so I pulled her head back and Aiden poured the water down her throat. She coughed and spluttered but she kept some down.

Aiden looked at her cheek. It was beginning to blacken. "Ulf struck her a powerful blow at the palace."

"He had no choice."

"Then let us hope this is just bruising and that nothing is broken. She will not thank your new warrior for a disfigurement."

After they had eaten the crew came back aboard. Sigtrygg arranged the watches so that there were always two crew awake. One would watch Kara while the other would watch the sea. I was exhausted after the last two days and I slept like the dead. It was a sleep free from dreams and, for that, I was grateful. Kara was still asleep when I awoke. Sigtrygg was on watch and he was sat next to Haaken who had also woken.

"She looks peaceful, Jarl."

"Aye. Aiden does not know when she will come out of this."

Haaken nodded, "Cnut would think it a fair exchange if his death meant that she was returned to us."

"You and I are the last of the Ulfheonar now, old friend."

"That does not matter, Jarl. Sigtrygg and the others are every bit as good as those who have died. It is not the names and faces which are important; it is the hearts. And our comrades are in Valhalla. It is
wyrd
."

And he was right. I had a more settled mind as we set sail for Úlfarrston. Kara slept most of the way. Aiden moistened her lips as she slept. "I think there is a change now, Jarl."

"When will we know?"

"I cannot say. This is unfamiliar territory for me. The only person I could ask is Kara and she is not Kara, is she?"

It was as we passed the northern coast of Mann that I saw a real change in her face and her expression. She opened her eyes and looked terrified. She saw me and said, "Father!" She tried to stand but, as she was her hands and feet were bound, she fell over.