by Griff Hosker
“Cnut, find four men to escort the animals and our people back to the river. The boys of Thorkell the Tall can take them to Thorkell’s Stead.”
“Aye Jarl Dragon Heart.”
When the animals and the people had gone it was much quieter. I had not expected much opposition. That would come when they knew that we were in their lands. “Sigtrygg, set sentries. We will rest here for a few hours and then seek the next farmstead.”
It was at times like this I missed Aiden. Often he would help me to plan our next moves. I had to do it alone. There were just eight slaves we had freed and the same number of animals. There had to be far more in this land. I had hoped to achieve more in my first raid. I prayed that we would become lucky the next day.
We could all survive on but a few hours of sleep. When I awoke Snorri and Beorn were preparing breakfast. They had killed the fowl that we had not been able to send back to Thorkell and the smell of their cooking flesh put an edge on my appetite.
“When you have finished eating find us a bigger settlement. I want to make a bigger impact.”
Haaken stretched and said, “Why?”
“I want the army of whoever controls this part of the land to come looking for us. We need to give him a bloody nose. That way he will seek easier targets: the Saxons perhaps.”
“His army may be too big.”
“It matters not how big it is. When I was in Constantinopolis I discovered then that the size of an army does not matter; it is the quality of the army which is most important. Bardanes Tourkos infiltrated a huge army of killers into the palace but we defeated them.”
He laughed, “You nearly died and you had to flee to the Ulfheonar to finish them off.”
I smiled and took the leg which Snorri proffered. “And we can do so again.”
Cnut, who had been listening, looked confused. “We have no Ulfheonar to run to. We are all here.”
“We have Thorkell, his ship and the land to help us. I want the leader of the Dál Riata to pursue us intent upon our destruction. We will flee and draw him into a trap. That is why I asked for the ship to stay on the river and for the boys to watch for us. They can bring Thorkell and ‘Great Serpent’. We will destroy them.”
“You are confident, Jarl.”
“Aye Sigtrygg for I know the mettle of the men I command. When I fought the rebels and assassins of Bardanes Tourkos I saw men who were paid well but fought badly. You are hardly paid and yet you fight like none I have ever seen. That is why I am confident.”
The four men sent to escort the animals returned at dusk as did Snorri. ”Jarl Dragon Heart I have found a collection of farms. It is along the coast close a stream which leads to the sea. There is no wall around it but they have a ditch and they have many cattle that are penned.”
“Are there warriors?”
“They carry swords and there are twenty or thirty men who live there. It looks like a prosperous place. We saw thralls.” He paused. “I saw Tostig Olegson. He has lost his hand.”
These were our people. I had fought alongside Tostig when he was still a warrior and before he had chosen to be a farmer. It was also a target which might attract the attention of whoever ruled in these parts. “How far away is it?”
“Fifteen miles. We can run there in four hours.”
I laughed, “You might be able to do so, Snorri but we will take an hour or so longer than that. We will wait for Beorn to report until we set out. You have done well. Get what rest you can.”
Beorn arrived soon after sunset. “I have found a farmstead. It is up the valley to the north and they have many sheep there.”
“How many warriors?”
“I saw none.”
“And how far away is it?”
“Perhaps four or five hours of running.”
That decided me. “We will strike at Snorri’s village and then we mark our way up the valley to Beorn’s farmstead. I think they will follow us. The survivors from this farmstead should have reached other villages by now and they will investigate. They will follow us west to the village but we will have gone by the time they reach us. We will send the animals back from the farmstead of Beorn.”
It seemed simple as I said it but I did not know what the weird sisters had planned for us. As usual they interfered with my idea and strategy. Perhaps I had not learned enough in Constantinopolis.
We set off after dark. I went at the rear for I wished to see my men in the night. They were almost invisible. The black armour and the wolf cloak hid us from view. If the full moon came out and illuminated the land we would be seen. If not then we would be hidden. We would not be merely wolf warriors we would be ghost warriors.
Snorri halted us a mile or so from the village. We could smell the smoke and the animals. As we waited and adjusted armour and shields we heard the faint noise of conversations within the village. It must have been close the time when they all went to their sleeping rooms. We heard the people of Dál Riata as they said, ‘Good night’ to each other.
The herd was in a pen to the north and Erik Dog Bite and Tostig Wolf Hand took Bjorn Carved Teeth, one of the newer Ulfheonar, to secure the valuable animals. The rest of us spread out in a half circle with me in the middle. We crept through the night; our weapons drawn and our shields ready. The fire in the centre of the village was already dying and they had one sole sentry in the middle. Snorri’s arrow plunged into his back but he shouted a dying warning to the others. It made little difference. We were in the village in an instant. As warriors emerged, weapons in hand, from the huts we attacked them. As with the other settlement we let the women and children flee. Although there were more men this time I suspected that these had been drinking for they fell easily to our blades. When they had all been despatched and any treasure recovered, I ordered the village to be burned. The dry roofs soon caught fire and night became day with the fierce flames.
“They will see this from many miles away. They may even see it from their hill fort.”
“I hope they do, Cnut, for they will hurry here and we will be gone. Let us go north and take the animals with us.”
“They will make a noise and alert the next village.”
“And the villagers will flee and the word will spread that the Vikings are raiding. What will they do then?”
“They will try to catch us.”
“Precisely.”
We gathered the handful of slaves. Tostig Olegson was so grateful I thought he would weep. He had all of his own family alive but his brother and nephew had both died. “Give me a sword, Jarl Dragon Heart. I only have one hand now but I can use it. I will not be taken so easily a second time!” We gave all the men weapons. The women and the children were given the task of leading the animals.
In the end the animals remained remarkably silent as we headed to the lonely farmstead. It was the dogs which woke the inhabitants. There was a shepherd boy with the sheep and when the dog warned him of our presence then he shouted the alarm. The farmer and his people fled. This time there were no slaves but the flock was a large one.
It was coming on to dawn and my men were tired but I had another task for them. “Erik Wolf Bite, I want you to lead the animals and our people to safety. We will stay here and slow down the men of Dál Riata. Keep going until you reach the river and then ask Thorkell to bring his men to the river for we will be bringing them the ones who destroyed his farms.”
“Aye Jarl Dragon Heart.”
They moved swiftly out. I knew they would not keep the pace up all the way to the river but they did not have far to go. It was less than twenty miles to the safety of the bridge. They had freedom to spur them on. I had been a slave and knew that freedom was a better master than slavery.
My men looked all in. “We can rest but first I want to prepare this place to receive visitors. Snorri and Beorn go down the trail and lay traps. The rest of you deepen the ditch and plant stakes. Cover them with the bramble bushes.”
I joined my men and we worked hard to create defences
which they would not be expecting. They too would be tired but the difference was that we were expecting them. They thought that we were fleeing and they were just following us. They would not expect us to fight them. I made them all rest after two hours of hard work. Snorri slept down the trail in the branches of a tree. He was a light sleeper and he would warn us of the arrival of our pursuers. We had all eaten the food the farmer had had prepared for his family and all of us fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the ground.
They reached us just before dawn but we had had some rest. Snorri woke us when he heard their approach. We all hid behind the wall. Four of my men had bows and they would begin the attack. The men of Dál Riata fought as the Hibernians did. They used a wild attack and prized individual combat. My men also liked that but they could be disciplined and today they would be as disciplined as the bodyguard of Emperor Nikephoros himself.
The men of Dál Riata tried to come silently up the trail. Perhaps they hoped that we had rested and they would catch us asleep. They were, however, unable to do so silently. We heard them. Readied, behind the small fence to keep in the animals, we waited with swords ready to wreak death upon the men of the Dál Riata.
They were far too noisy and we were ready. As soon as they hit the ditch they screamed their pain and my archers let loose at targets no more than ten paces away. They screamed as the barbed arrows ripped into naked flesh. We remained silent. We knew the benefits of silence. It created uncertainty and fear. Warriors who are not Ulfheonar do not like stepping into the unknown. The men of Dál Riata knew nothing of what they faced. As soon as the first warrior who survived the traps climbed over the fence I sliced horizontally with Ragnar’s Spirit. He went to the Otherworld in an instant. As soon as they realised that we were waiting I heard a voice shouting orders. I knew not exactly what they said but I guessed that they warned them that we had not fled and we were standing to fight.
The second warrior who launched himself at me over the dying body of the man before him thought that he had me as he sailed through the air with sword raised. I held my shield for protection but Ragnar’s Spirit sliced through his poorly made sword and it split in two. As he landed behind me I brought the sword down to dissect his head which did not have the protection of a helmet. The sounds of battle were mixed with the cries of the men of Dál Riata. It was a brief combat. My archers were still picking their targets and men were dying before they could fall into the deadly ditch. I saw that there was no-one before me. All that I could hear was the sound of the wounded and the dying.
“Light torches! Let us see what is here!”
It was a horrific sight which greeted us. Our superior weapons, tactics and armour had ensured complete victory. No one had escaped either a wound or death.
“I need a prisoner who can walk and another who is going to die. The rest can go to the Otherworld.”
I heard the sighs as men were killed. Torches were lit and I went to Haaken and Snorri who had two prisoners. One had a bad cut to his leg whilst the other had been gutted and would not last an hour.
I went to the dying warrior. “I can put a sword in your hand and send you to the Otherworld if you answer me but one question.”
His hands were trying to hold in the guts which were desperate to spill out. He nodded.
“Give him a sword.” Cnut put a short sword in his hand and he smiled.
“A name! Who is your leader?”
“Fiachnae mac Neill,” he winced, “and he will eat your heart!”
I nodded and Sigtrygg slit his throat. I turned to the other one. “We will bind your leg and send you back to your Warlord.”
“He is our king!”
“Whoever he is tell him this. If he ventures south of the river again he will feel the wrath of Jarl Dragon Heart and the wolves will feed on his flesh!”
He looked at me in surprise. “That is all? I can go?”
“You can go!”
His leg bandaged he hobbled off as fast as he could go; grateful, no doubt that he had survived and encounter with the Ulfheonar.
When he had gone I said, “And now we sleep.”
Cnut shook his head, “We should run as fast as we can.”
“Why?”
“This Fiachnae mac Neill will know that we are here and he will seek us out! He will bring his whole army!”
Haaken laughed so hard that tears poured down his cheeks, “Cnut, my friend, we are sending a man with a wounded leg to run twenty miles to report to his king! Can he fly? Is he Myrddyn the wizard? The jarl is right. We have two days before this Warlord reaches us.”
“Exactly. We rest and then head towards the river, slowly. We tease them; we tempt them and we draw them on and when we are ready then we slaughter them and show them how the Norse makes war!”
My men suddenly shouted and cheered; we had won and we had won easily. How the Norns must have laughed.
Chapter 4
We all had a good day and a night’s sleep and then we headed east before dawn had broken. Beorn and Snorri left to keep watch on our enemies. We knew that as soon as they heard what had happened to their warband they would rush after us. They would not stop until they reached and then they would be so full of anger that that they would throw themselves upon us to wreak their vengeance on these barbarians who had dared to invade their land. We would be fresh. We left a clear trail and went slowly. Twenty miles in one day was not difficult and we camped five miles from the river. Stig Sweet Tooth met us and told us that all was in place. Thorkell had both his ship and his men ready to support us. All that we lacked was the numbers Fiachnae would bring.
We found a good defensive site some three miles from the river. Sigtrygg Thrandson discovered it; he had a good eye for such things. It was almost made for us. Wyrd. There were trees behind us and a stream which meandered to join the two rivers. It was autumn and the rains had made the ground to our left swampy. My men cut branches from the woods and planted them to our right. When the Dál Riata came they would come for me. My wolf shield would draw them on. When we had sent the messenger back we had left it in plain sight. I was the one, in the black armour and the mail mask who had spoken to him. They would know who the leader was and they would seek me out. We would fight in a wedge and they would die. At least that was the plan. When we looked north we saw some of the standing stones placed there by giants. They dotted our land and they were a good omen for us. It meant that the old ones and the old ways ruled in the land in which we fought. The giants and the gods were on our side.
We ate the last of the fowl we had killed and we waited. I needed a bath. I needed a shave and my hair combing. Constantinopolis had changed me. I was not the same warrior who had defeated Rorik and fled south. I was now used to a little more civilisation than before. I was becoming the warrior painted on the wall of the tomb. Wyrd!
They reached us late in the morning. Beorn reported their numbers. There were over a hundred of them. Had we been anyone other than Ulfheonar we might have been worried for they outnumbered us by three to one. My four archers had ten arrows left to each of them. I turned to them, “I want every arrow to strike home; a death or a wound for all forty arrows. Do that and I know that we shall win!”
“We will to let you down.”
“The rest of you must be patient. They will climb this hill and be eager to die. Send them to the Otherworld.”
I knew that Ragnar’s Spirit needed sharpening. I checked that I had my two daggers and seax close to hand. If I had to I could fight as well with those weapons. I regretted not wearing my new armour. It would have been much lighter. I was just happy that Haaken had persuaded me to wear the mask of mail. It made me look even more terrifying.
We stood in a shield wall with the men angled back from me. Snorri raced up the bank. “They are half a mile behind. There are four mailed warriors and the rest are the hairy arsed barbarians we might have expected!”
I laughed for Snorri had grown from the young ship’s boy into an Ulfheonar without p
eer. I banged my shield with my sword and roared, “I am Jarl Dragon Heart! Flee while you can for if you come here then you will meet death!”
Their leader, whom I took to be the warrior in the mail with the two handed sword shouted something back and they raced up the hill. The archers’ arrows flung back those at the front. May archers knew what to do. They avoided hitting those with armour; they were harder to kill. They aimed at the rest who were half naked and the ones they hit died. The warband was thinned, almost decimated, as it came towards us. We waited patiently. They had seen our numbers and thought that they could beat us but they reached us with a third less men than they started.
The ones to our right struck the hedges. They became stuck in the branches and brambles; my archers used the last of their arrows to slaughter them. The ones to our fore fell as we scythed them down with our superior swords and spears. I heard their leader shout something and men ran to our left. There they became stuck in the sticky swamp. This was the moment for me to unleash the beast that was the Ulfheonar. “Ragnar’s Spirit!”
We hurtled down the hill. They could not believe that they were being attacked. They outnumbered us still! A warrior ran at me and held his sword up to stab me. I smashed down with Ragnar’s Spirit. The blade of my foe folded and buckled and my sword continued down to rip into his unprotected shoulder. I stepped over his body and looked for another enemy. I went for Fiachnae mac Neill; he had a chieftain’s torc about his neck. I held my shield before me. He swung his sword wildly over his head. I ducked beneath it and punched with my shield so that he fell backwards and then plunged my sword into his throat. I began banging my shield. The fighting stopped as the remainder of Fiachnae mac Neill’s stared at us. The men of Dál Riata saw their dead leader and the other mailed warriors lying slaughtered on the ground. They had had enough. They fled and took back tales of the monster that was Jarl Dragon Heart. The threat to the north was gone, for a while, at least.
I took the torc from the dead leader’s neck. It was made of old. It would be used to make wolf pendants for my new warriors. We would take the weapons and the helmets but they were of poor quality. These men were brave for they fought with inferior equipment and training. It was no wonder that we always won. We put the bodies in the farmstead and fired it. Their spirits would go to the Otherworld where they would talk of the disaster which had struck them. We headed back to the river leaving a pall of smoke behind us.
