Lords of the North

by Bernard Cornwell

  It was time, then, for us to go. Guthred and I were already in mail, our horses were saddled, and all we needed to do was ride south to join Ragnar’s shield wall, but Guthred had been unnerved by the loss of the relic. As we left the church he took me aside. “Will you ask Ragnar if he took it?” he begged me. “Or ask if perhaps one of his men did?”

  “Ragnar didn’t take it,” I said scornfully. “If you want to find the culprit,” I went on, “search them.” I pointed to Aidan and his horsemen who, now that Ivarr was close, were eager to start on their journey north, though they dared not leave so long as Ivarr’s men barred the ford across the Swale. Guthred had asked them to join our shield wall, but they had refused, and now they waited for a chance to escape.

  “No Christian would steal the relic!” Hrothweard shouted. “It’s a pagan crime!”

  Guthred was terrified. He still believed in Christian magic and he saw the theft as an omen of disaster. He plainly did not suspect Aidan, but then he did not know who to suspect and so I made it easy for him.

  I summoned Finan and Sihtric who were waiting to accompany me to the shield wall. “This man,” I told Guthred, pointing at Finan, “is a Christian. Aren’t you a Christian, Finan?”

  “I am, lord.”

  “And he’s Irish,” I said, “and everyone knows the Irish have the power of scrying.” Finan, who had no more powers of scrying than I did, tried to look mysterious. “He will find your relic,” I promised.

  “You will?” Guthred asked Finan eagerly.

  “Yes, lord,” Finan said confidently.

  “Do it, Finan,” I said, “while I kill Ivarr. And bring the culprit to us as soon as you find him.”

  “I will, lord,” he said.

  A servant brought my horse. “Can your Irishman really find it?” Guthred asked me.

  “I will give the church all my silver, lord,” I said loudly enough for a dozen men to hear, “and I will give it my mail, my helmet, my arm rings and my swords, if Finan does not bring you both the relic and the thief. He’s Irish and the Irish have strange powers.” I looked at Hrothweard. “You hear that, priest? I promise all my wealth to your church if Finan does not find the thief!”

  Hrothweard had nothing to say to that. He glared at me, but my promise had been made publicly and it was testimony to my innocence, so he contented himself by spitting at my horse’s feet. Gisela, who had come to take the stallion’s reins, had to skip aside to avoid the spittle. She touched my arm as I straightened the stirrup. “Can Finan find it?” she asked in a low voice.

  “He can find it,” I promised her.

  “Because he has strange powers?”

  “Because he stole it, my love,” I said quietly, “on my orders. It’s probably hidden in a dung-heap.” I grinned at her, and she laughed softly.

  I put my foot in the stirrup and readied to heave myself up, but again Gisela checked me. “Be careful,” she said. “Men fear to fight Ivarr,” she warned me.

  “He’s a Lothbrok,” I said, “and all Lothbroks fight well. They love it. But they fight like mad dogs, all fury and savagery, and in the end they die like mad dogs.” I mounted the stallion, settled my right foot in its stirrup, then took my helmet and shield from Gisela. I touched her hand for farewell, then pulled the reins and followed Guthred south.

  We rode to join the shield wall. It was a short wall, easily out-flanked by the much larger wall that Ivarr was forming to the south. His wall was over twice as long as ours which meant his men could wrap themselves about our line and kill us from the edges inward. If it came to battle we would be slaughtered, and Ivarr’s men knew it. Their shield wall was bright with spears and ax-heads, and noisy with anticipation of victory. They were beating their weapons against their shields, making a dull drumbeat that filled the Swale’s wide valley, and the drumbeat rose to a great clattering thunder when Ivarr’s standard of the two ravens was lifted in the center of their line. Beneath the banner was a knot of horsemen who now broke free of the shield wall to ride toward us. Ivarr was among them, as was his rat-like son.

  Guthred, Steapa, Ragnar, and I rode a few paces toward Ivarr and then waited. Ten men were in the approaching party, but it was Ivarr I watched. He was mounted on Witnere, which I had hoped he would be, for that gave me cause to quarrel with him, but I hung back, letting Guthred take his horse a few steps forward. Ivarr was staring at us one by one. He looked momentarily surprised to see me, but said nothing, and he seemed irritated when he saw Ragnar and he was duly impressed by Steapa’s huge size, but he ignored the three of us, nodding instead at Guthred. “Worm-shit,” he greeted the king.

  “Lord Ivarr,” Guthred replied.

  “I am in a strangely merciful mood,” Ivarr said. “If you ride away, then I shall spare your men’s lives.”

  “We have no quarrel,” Guthred said, “that cannot be settled by words.”

  “Words!” Ivarr spat, then shook his head. “Go beyond Northumbria,” he said, “go far away, worm-shit. Run to your friend in Wessex, but leave your sister here as a hostage. If you do that I shall be merciful.” He was not being merciful, but practical. The Danes were ferocious warriors, but far more cautious than their reputation suggested. Ivarr was willing to fight, but he was more willing to arrange a surrender, for then he would lose no men. He would win this fight, he knew that, but in gaining the victory he would lose sixty or seventy warriors and that was a whole ship’s crew and a high price to pay. It was better to let Guthred live and pay nothing. Ivarr moved Witnere sideways so he could look past Guthred at Ragnar. “You keep strange company, Lord Ragnar.”

  “Two days ago,” Ragnar said, “I killed Kjartan the Cruel. Dunholm is mine now. I think, perhaps, I should kill you, Lord Ivarr, so that you cannot try to take it from me.”

  Ivarr looked startled, as well he might. He glanced at Guthred, then at me, as if seeking confirmation of Kjartan’s death, but our faces betrayed nothing. Ivarr shrugged. “You had a quarrel with Kjartan,” he told Ragnar, “and that was your affair, not mine. I would welcome you as a friend. Our fathers were friends, were they not?”

  “They were,” Ragnar said.

  “Then we should remake their friendship,” Ivarr said.

  “Why should he befriend a thief?” I asked.

  Ivarr looked at me, his serpent eyes unreadable. “I watched a goat vomit yesterday,” he said, “and what it threw up reminded me of you.”

  “I watched a goat shit yesterday,” I retorted, “and what it dropped reminded me of you.”

  Ivarr sneered at that, but decided not to go on trading insults. His son, though, drew his sword and Ivarr held out a warning hand to tell the youngster that the killing time had not yet come. “Go away,” he said to Guthred, “go far away and I will forget I ever knew you.”

  “The goat-turd reminded me of you,” I said, “but its smell reminded me of your mother. It was a rancid smell, but what would you expect of a whore who gives birth to a thief?”

  One of the warriors held Ivarr’s son back. Ivarr himself just looked at me in silence for a while. “I can make your death stretch through three sunsets,” he said at last.

  “But if you return the stolen goods, thief,” I said, “and then accept good King Guthred’s judgment on your crime, then perhaps we will show mercy.”

  Ivarr looked amused rather than offended. “What have I stolen?” he asked.

  “You’re riding my horse,” I said, “and I want it back now.”

  He patted Witnere’s neck. “When you are dead,” he said to me, “I shall have your skin tanned and made into a saddle so I can spend the rest of my life farting on you.” He looked at Guthred. “Go away,” he said, “go far away. Leave your sister as hostage. I shall give you a few moments to find your senses, and if you don’t, then we shall kill you.” He turned his horse away.

  “Coward,” I called to him. He ignored me, pushing Witnere through his men to lead them back to their shield wall. “All the Lothbroks are cowards,” I said. “They run a
way. What have you done, Ivarr? Pissed your breeches for fear of my sword? You ran away from the Scots and now you run away from me!”

  I think it was the mention of the Scots that did it. That huge defeat was still raw in Ivarr’s memory, and I had scraped scorn on the rawness and suddenly the Lothbrok temper, that so far he had managed to control, took over. He hurt Witnere with the savage pull he gave on the bit, but Witnere turned obediently as Ivarr drew his long sword. He spurred toward me, but I angled past him, going toward the wide space in front of his army. That was where I wanted Ivarr to die, in sight of all his men, and there I turned my stallion back. Ivarr had followed me, but had checked Witnere, who was thumping the soft turf with his front right hoof.

  I think Ivarr wished he had not lost his temper, but it was too late. Every man in both shield walls could see that he had drawn his sword and pursued me into the open meadow and he could not just ride away from that challenge. He had to kill me now, and he was not sure he could do it. He was good, but he had suffered injury, his joints were aching, and he knew my reputation.

  His advantage was Witnere. I knew that horse, and knew it fought as well as most warriors. Witnere would savage my horse if he could, and he would savage me too, and my first aim was to get Ivarr out of the saddle. Ivarr watched me. I think he had decided to let me attack, for he did not release Witnere to the charge, but instead of riding at him, I turned my stallion toward Ivarr’s shield wall. “Ivarr is a thief!” I shouted at his army. I let Serpent-Breath hang by my side. “He is a common thief,” I shouted, “who ran from the Scots! He ran like a whipped puppy! He was weeping like a child when we found him!” I laughed and kept my eyes on Ivarr’s shield wall. “He was crying because he was hurt,” I said, “and in Scotland they call him Ivarr the Feeble.” I saw, at the edge of my vision, that the goading had worked and that Ivarr was wheeling Witnere toward me. “He is a thief,” I shouted, “and a coward!” And as I screamed the last derisive insult I touched my knee to my horse so he turned and I raised my shield. Witnere was all white eyes and white teeth, big hooves flailing up sodden turf, and as he closed I shouted his name. “Witnere! Witnere!” I knew that was probably not the name Ivarr had given the stallion, but perhaps Witnere remembered the name, or remembered me, for his ears pricked and his head came up and his pace faltered as I spurred my own horse straight at him.

  I used the shield as a weapon. I just thrust it hard at Ivarr and, at the same moment, pushed up on my right stirrup, and Ivarr was trying to turn Witnere away, but the big stallion was confused and off balance. My shield slammed into Ivarr’s and I threw myself at him, using my weight to force him backward. The risk was that I would fall and he would stay saddled, but I dared not let go of shield or sword to grip him. I just had to hope that my weight would drive him to the ground. “Witnere!” I shouted again, and the stallion half turned toward me and that small motion, along with my weight, was enough to topple Ivarr. He fell to his right and I collapsed between the two horses. I fell hard, and my own stallion gave me an inadvertent kick that pushed me against Witnere’s hind legs. I scrambled up, slapped Witnere’s rump with Serpent-Breath to drive him away and immediately ducked beneath my shield as Ivarr attacked. He had recovered faster than me, and his sword slammed against my shield, and he must have expected me to recoil from that blow, but I stopped it dead. My left arm, wounded by the thrown spear at Dunholm, throbbed from the force of his sword, but I was taller, heavier, and stronger than Ivarr and I shoved the shield hard to push him back.

  He knew he was going to lose. He was old enough to be my father and he was slowed by old wounds, but he was still a Lothbrok and they learn fighting from the moment they are whelped. He came at me snarling, sword feinting high then thrusting low, and I kept moving, parrying him, taking his blows on my shield, and not even trying to fight back. I mocked him instead. I told him he was a pathetic old man. “I killed your uncle,” I taunted him, “and he was not much better than you. And when you’re dead, old man, I’ll gut the rat you call a son. I’ll feed his corpse to the ravens. Is that the best you can do?”

  He had tried to turn me, but tried too hard and his foot had slipped on the wet grass and he had gone down onto one knee. He was open to death then, off balance and with his sword hand in the grass, but I walked away from him, letting him rise, and every Dane saw that I did that, and then they saw me throw away my shield. “I’ll give him a chance,” I called to them. “He’s a miserable little thief, but I’ll give him a chance!”

  “You whore-born Saxon bastard,” Ivarr snarled, and rushed me again. That was how he liked to fight. Attack, attack, attack, and he tried to use his shield to hurl me back, but I stepped away and clouted him over the back of his helmet with the flat of Serpent-Breath’s blade. The blow made him stumble a second time, and again I walked away. I wanted to humiliate him.

  That second stumble gave him caution, so that he circled me warily. “You made me a slave,” I said, “and you couldn’t even do that properly. You want to give me your sword?”

  “Goat-turd,” he said. He came in fast, lunging at my throat, dropping the sword to rake my left leg at the last moment, and I just moved aside and slapped Serpent-Breath across his rump to drive him away.

  “Give me your sword,” I said, “and I’ll let you live. We’ll put you in a cage and I’ll take you around Wessex. Here is Ivarr Ivarson, a Lothbrok, I’ll tell folk. A thief who ran away from the Scots.”

  “Bastard,” he rushed again, this time trying to disembowel me with a savage sweep of the sword, but I stepped back and his long blade hissed past me and he grunted as he brought the blade back, all fury and desperation now, and I rammed Serpent-Breath forward so that she went past his shield and struck his breast and the force of the lunge drove him back. He staggered as my next stroke came, a fast one that rang on the side of his helmet and again he staggered, dizzied by the blow, and my third blow cracked into his blade with such force that his sword arm flew back and Serpent-Breath’s tip was at his throat.

  “Coward,” I said, “thief.”

  He screamed in fury and brought his sword around in a savage stroke, but I stepped backward and let it pass. Then I slashed Serpent-Breath down hard to strike his right wrist. He gasped then, for the wrist bones were broken.

  “It’s hard to fight without a sword,” I told him, and I struck again, this time hitting the sword so that the blade flew from his hand. There was terror in his eyes now. Not the terror of a man facing death, but of a warrior dying without a blade in his hand.

  “You made me a slave,” I said, and I rammed Serpent-Breath forward, striking him on one knee and he tried to back away, tried to reach his sword, and I slashed the knee again, much harder, sawing through leather to cut to the bone and he went down on one knee. I slapped his helmet with Serpent-Breath, then stood behind him. “He made me a slave,” I shouted at his men, “and he stole my horse. But he is still a Lothbrok.” I bent, picked up his sword by the blade, and held it to him. He took it.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  Then I killed him. I took his head half off his shoulders. He made a gurgling noise, shuddered, and went down onto the grass, but he had kept hold of the sword. If I had let him die without the sword then many of the watching Danes would have thought me wantonly cruel. They understood he was my enemy, and understood I had cause to kill him, but none would think he deserved to be denied the corpse-hall. And one day, I thought, Ivarr and his uncle would welcome me there, for in the corpse-hall we feast with our enemies and remember our fights and fight them all over again.

  Then there was a scream and I turned to see Ivar, his son, galloping toward me. He came as his father had come, all fury and mindless violence, and he leaned from the saddle to cut me in half with his blade and I met the blade with Serpent-Breath and she was by far the better sword. The blow jarred up my arm, but Ivar’s blade broke. He galloped past me, holding a hand’s breadth of sword, and two of his father’s men caught up with him and forced him away before
he could be killed. I called to Witnere.

  He came to me. I patted his nose, took hold of the saddle and hauled myself onto his back. Then I turned him toward Ivarr’s leaderless shield wall and gestured that Guthred and Ragnar should join me. We stopped twenty paces from the painted Danish shields. “Ivarr Ivarson has gone to Valhalla,” I shouted, “and there was no disgrace in his death! I am Uhtred Ragnarson! I am the man who killed Ubba Lothbrokson and this is my friend, Earl Ragnar, who killed Kjartan the Cruel! We serve King Guthred.”

  “Are you a Christian?” a man shouted.

  I showed him my hammer amulet. Men were passing the news of Kjartan’s death down the long line of shields, axes, and swords. “I am no Christian!” I shouted when they were quiet again. “But I have seen Christian sorcery! And the Christians worked their magic on King Guthred! Have none of you been victims of sorcerers? Have none of you known your cattle to die or your wives to be sick? You all know sorcery, and the Christian sorcerers can work great magic! They have corpses and severed heads, and they use them to make magic, and they wove their spells about our king! But the sorcerer made a mistake. He became greedy, and last night he stole a treasure from King Guthred! But Odin has swept the spells away!” I twisted in the saddle and saw that Finan was at last coming from the fort.

  He had been delayed by a scuffle at the fort’s entrance. Some churchmen had tried to prevent Finan and Sihtric from leaving, but a score of Ragnar’s Danes intervened and now the Irishman came riding across the pastureland. He was leading Father Hrothweard. Or rather Finan had a handful of Hrothweard’s hair and so the priest had no choice but to stumble along beside the Irishman’s horse.

  “That is the Christian sorcerer, Hrothweard!” I shouted. “He attacked King Guthred with spells, with the magic of corpses, but we have found him out and we have taken the spells away from King Guthred! So now I ask you what we should do with the sorcerer!”