The Long Hunt (The Strongbow Saga)

by Roberts, Judson

  By mid-day, Stig estimated that we had probably traveled far enough to be opposite the southern tip of Oeland, although as yet nothing could be seen of it. Hastein took over the Gull's steer-board, and sent Torvald up to the bow to keep watch, reckoning that with his height and keen eyesight, he would be able to see the island before anyone else. Torvald placed two sea chests side by side on the small raised bow deck and stood atop them, one hand grasping the neck of the ship's carved dragon head, scanning the sea to the north and east.

  The afternoon was half gone before Torvald sent word back to Hastein that he could see land off to the east, just at the horizon. Hastein ordered the sail reefed and the boom lowered so that the shortened sail hung just above the central oar rack. Without her full expanse of sail stretched out above her, the Gull would sail more slowly, but would be far more difficult to spot from a distance.

  The crew of the Serpent did the same with her sail, and Stig steered her close alongside.

  Hastein called across to him. "Torvald has seen the island. The channel is narrowing, as you said it would."

  Stig shaded his eyes with one hand and stared toward the east for a time, then shook his head. "Torvald's eyes are far sharper than mine," he said.

  "Aye, than mine, too, plus he looks from higher above the sea than we do. Can you guess how much longer it will take us to reach the narrow strait where the mainland and island are closest?"

  Stig shook his head. "I know there is still a ways to travel, though I am not certain how far. It has been too many years. But once within it, we will travel a considerable distance before the channel widens again. We cannot clear the narrows this day, for certain. Night is too near."

  "Then we will break our voyage as soon as we find a suitable place to land and make camp," Hastein decided. "I do not wish to pass the night so close to where the pirates may be that our cook-fires might be seen by watchers. I do not want to risk being snuck up on in the dark."

  * * *

  I slept poorly, and the night seemed to drag on forever. The chance that we might fight on the morrow was always on the edge of my thoughts. All in the two crews seemed more subdued than usual, and Tore asked me again whether Gunhild had ever shown any signs of possessing the second sight.

  The next morning when I armed myself again, I did not leave my weapons in a pile upon the deck as I had before. I slung my the strap of my quiver and my sword's baldric over my shoulders, crisscrossed over my chest with the sword's hilt hanging at my left hip and my quiver at my right. Like Bram had done the day before, I stuck my small-axe through my belt so that it rested in the small of my back. Last, I pulled my bow from its case. Only my helm did I not put on. It was too hot and heavy to wear until it was needed.

  Around me, the other members of the Gull's crew did much the same. We were a warlike looking company. Surely, even if there were pirates ahead, they would not trouble us.

  The weather had changed overnight. Yesterday's blue sky, dotted with high tufts of white cloud, was gone, replaced by a dull gray cover of clouds so thick and solid that the sun's position could not be seen through them. A cold wind blew steadily from the north, whipping the surface of the sea into choppy waves, and filling the air with spray blown from their crests.

  "We can make some headway under sail for a bit longer," Stig told Hastein. "But when we reach the strait itself, where the channel is narrowest, we will be heading almost directly into the wind, with limited room to tack. I fear it will be a slow passage with hard rowing before we see the far side of Oeland."

  It proved as Stig had said. For a time, we had room to steer back and forth across the channel, catching the wind at enough of an angle to move the ships ahead, though our forward progress was slow. But the farther we advanced, the closer the shore drew on either side and the shorter our tacks. Finally Hastein gave the order to lower and secure the sail, and draw out our oars. On the Serpent, Stig did the same.

  We made slow headway, rowing against the wind. I could see Oeland clearly now off to my left. Its shoreline was straight, and behind a narrow beach and gently sloping grasslands beyond the land rose steeply up to a ridge running along the center of the island. To my right, on the other side of the channel, the mainland was low and heavily wooded for as far as I could see, and its shoreline was dotted with numerous small islands.

  It was mid-afternoon, after we had been in the narrow strait for some time, when Torvald, who was manning the steer-board, called out to Hastein, who had gone forward and was keeping watch from the bow.

  "Hastein! A ship is following us."

  Hastein hurried back to the raised stern deck and stood there looking back in the direction the Gull had come from. From where I was seated, rowing my oar, the up-curved stern blocked my view to the rear, but I listened as Torvald and Hastein talked.

  "When did you first see it?" Hastein asked.

  "Just before I called out to you. It cannot have been there long. I have been checking the sea behind us regularly."

  "Hunh," Hastein said. "It must have been lying in wait, behind one of the small islands we passed. I cannot tell its size from this distance, but there are many oars flashing. For certain it is a longship, not a knarr."

  "They are making no effort to catch up to us," Torvald observed.

  "No," Hastein agreed.

  Like me, Tore had been listening to them speak. "Is it the pirates?" he asked.

  Hastein did not answer him directly. But he turned and called to two of the crew standing nearby who were not rowing. "Harek, Solvi. Come back here. I need you to take over Tore and Halfdan's oars." To us he said, as he picked up his shield from where it was leaning against the side of the ship, "Fetch your bows and stay close to me. I am going back to the bow."

  By the time Tore and I had retrieved our helms and bows and made our way to the front of the ship, the Serpent had pulled even with the Gull and was plowing through the choppy sea so close to us that the tips of the two ships' banks of oars were almost touching as they churned back and forth. Stig had handed off the steer-board to one of his men and was, like Hastein, now standing on the raised fore-deck of his ship.

  Ahead of us, an island just off the mainland's shore—much larger than any others we had passed since entering the narrow channel—extended so far out into the strait that the channel between Oeland and the mainland was reduced by half.

  "That is where it will be," Hastein muttered. "If I was hunting here, that is where I would set a trap."

  As if on cue, a longship, its oars flashing, pulled into view from behind a spur of land jutting out from the island. Moments later a second followed it, and then a third.

  I seated my helm on my head and tightened its strap. As I did, Hrodgar stepped up onto the fore-deck beside Hastein. "Will you try to push on past them?" he asked.

  Hastein shook his head. "If they will not give way—if they will not give us clear passage—then we will have to fight. I will not flee like a deer pursued by a pack of wolves. It would be too dangerous if our two ships became separated.

  "Stig," Hastein called. "If it comes to a fight, we will lash the Gull and Serpent together."

  Stig nodded, and turned to a man standing on the deck behind him. "Pull out grapples and ropes, and have them ready."

  By now the three longships had rowed to where they formed a line across the center of the channel ahead of us. As we watched, in unison they raised their oars, holding them at ready out over the water, while the ships slid forward through the gray, choppy sea, slowing. When their forward progress had nearly stopped, the two on either end of their line dipped their oars into the sea and held them steady, bringing the ships fully to a halt, still broadside to us across our path, less than a long bow-shot away.

  As the other two stopped, the ship in the center turned sharply in place, its rowers on one side backing their oars while the other side pulled. When its bow had swung around to face us, it began moving forward slowly.

  "Gull!" Hastein shouted. "Raise…oars!" On th
e Serpent, Stig gave the same command, and our two ships gradually coasted to a stop.

  I turned and looked back toward the stern. The ship that had been following us had drawn much closer, till it was barely a spear throw behind us, but now it, too, had ceased its forward progress.

  The center longship ahead continued to draw closer to the Gull and Serpent, though at a slow pace. A tall, broad-shouldered man stood in her prow, one hand resting on the neck of her dragon's head, which was carved to look like a snarling wolf. What was visible of his body was covered by a mail brynie, and he wore a helm that protected his face well, with hinged metal cheek flaps on each side and a long nasal bar in the center. He had a long, bright red beard that hung down over his chest. Other men, also armored, were crowded behind him in the prow of the ship.

  Hastein glanced over his shoulder at Tore and me and said, "Ready arrows on your bows, and stand behind me on either side, where you can be seen." Turning back toward the approaching longship, he shouted loudly across the water, "Hold! Draw no nearer."

  The red-bearded man held up one hand and said something over his shoulder to those behind him. The rowers on his ship raised their oars. The wolf-headed ship drifted to a stop with its bow little more than an oar's length away from that of the Gull, squarely in her path.

  "You are blocking our passage," Hastein shouted. "Give way."

  "That is an ill-mannered greeting to give a stranger," the other ship's captain—for so the red-bearded man clearly was—replied. "My name is Sigvald. I am called Ship-Taker. With whom do I speak?"

  "My name is Hastein. I am jarl over the lands of the Danes around the Limfjord, in the north of Jutland. Now we know each other's names. Again I say to you, give way, and let us pass."

  "Hastein. And a jarl of the Danes, from the Limfjord in the north of Jutland," Sigvald repeated, a mocking tone in his voice. "Now that is a very fine thing. Strangely enough, I have just days ago heard of you.

  "I myself am but the captain of this small company you see. Although in truth, it would seem that this day at least, I have more warriors in my band than do you. But though I am not a jarl, nor even a great chieftain, I do consider these waters around Oeland to be mine. Those who wish to pass through them must pay a toll to do so."

  "The sea belongs to no man," Hastein replied. "I will not pay for the right to travel upon it."

  "Those sound like the words of a greedy man," Sigvald said, in the same mocking tone. "Surely a great jarl like yourself can afford to share some of his wealth with those less fortunate than he? You have recently returned from Frankia, have you not? I have heard that you won a great victory there, and much silver. I am asking only that you and your men share a bit of that new-won wealth with this less fortunate band of sailors."

  How, I wondered, could this pirate know that? How could he know of Hastein, and Frankia, and our victory there?

  "Make ready," Hastein murmured to Toke and me. "When I give the word, shoot your arrows into this arrogant dog's face."

  In a louder voice, Hastein called out, "I will ask you just once more: Give way. If you do not, you will not see our silver, but you will taste our steel."

  "It is a fool who chooses to lose all to save a little," the red-bearded man answered. "I have never had the pleasure of killing a jarl. It seems a good day…"

  "Now!" Hastein said. As one, Tore and I raised our bows, pulling them to full draw as we did, and shot.

  The pirate captain must have been expecting that we might try to kill him, for he ducked behind his ship's stem even as we released our arrows. The men standing behind him were not so well prepared. My arrow struck the side of a warrior's helm and glanced off, but sent him staggering backward. Tore's arrow caught another man square in the face and put him down.

  "Ship oars!" Hastein cried. "Prepare for battle!"

  As the rowers in the crews of the Gull and Serpent hurriedly pulled their oars in, two men on Stig's ship tossed grappling hooks with sturdy ropes tied to them across to the deck of the Gull. Two of our men carried them to either end of the mast-fish, the heavy wooden brace that supported the Gull's mast, and hooked them over it. As soon as the hooks were in place, Stig's crew hauled on the ropes, drawing our two ships together until their hulls were touching amidships.

  On the pirate ship, its captain, Sigvald, was shouting, "Pull, pull!" The ship's rowers heaved on their oars, propelling it forward into the space between the bows of the Serpent and the Gull. It was a bold move, but a risky one. Until the other pirate ships arrived, Sigvald's ship and crew would be outnumbered.

  "To the bow! To the bow!" Hastein shouted. "Do not let them board!"

  Our warriors in the front of the Gull surged forward in answer to Hastein's call, the two brothers Bryngolf and Bjorgolf in the lead, jostling past Tore and me.

  "Halfdan," Tore cried. "With me!" He turned and ran back to where the Gull's main water cask, as big around as the wheel of a wagon and as tall as a man's waist, sat on her deck in front of the mast. "Up here," he said, and clambered on top of it, then reached his hand down. We grasped each other's wrists and he pulled me up, too. Our height above the deck gave us a view into the enemy's ship, looking over the backs of our own men crowding forward into the fight.

  Warriors in the bow of the pirate ship swung grappling hooks around their heads then flung them, trailing ropes behind, onto the prows of the Gull and the Serpent. From further back on the pirate ship's deck, other warriors arced spears over their shipmates' heads onto our ships.

  "Torvald!" Hastein called. "To the fore-deck! To me!" Turning to Hrodgar, he said, "Take command of the stern. Do not allow those on the ship behind to board us."

  I felt, more than heard, a thud as the hull of the pirate captain's ship butted up against the Gull. A pirate in her bow, standing to the side of the raised stem post, was pulling with both hands on a rope attached to a grapple hooked over the Gull's side. His chest was exposed above the ship's side. I put an arrow into it.

  Bryngolf, Bjorgolf, and another of Hastein's men named Thorstein were up on the fore-deck now beside the jarl. They held spears in both hands, the points aimed out over the edge of the Gull's prow, their shields slung across their backs. Hastein, who was armed with only his sword, held his shield in front of him.

  A warrior climbed up onto the rail of the pirate ship, trying to jump down onto the Gull. Bjorgolf and Thorstein pushed the points of their spears against his mail-covered chest, holding him fast. As he beat at the spear shafts with his sword, trying to knock them aside, Tore shot an arrow into his face.

  "Like shooting cabbages," he said, grinning.

  Another pirate tried to cross, using his shield to sweep the spear points facing him aside as he climbed up onto the ship's rail. Hastein swung a lunging cut with his sword and severed the man's leg below his knee. He screamed, flailing his arms wide, and Bjorgolf stuck his spear point through his throat.

  By now the other two pirate ships that had been blocking the channel to our front had reached us. One took a position lying a short way off the front half of the Gull, on our steer-board side. She did not try to grapple us, but instead her crew lined her rail and shot arrows and hurled spears at our warriors in the Gull's bow. I saw arrows strike the shields slung across Bryngolf's and Bjorgolf's backs, and one glanced off Bryngolf's helm. A spear sailed past Hastein and hit Thorstein in the side. He staggered and fell backward off of the fore-deck, landing sprawled just behind it. After a few moments he sat up, pulled the spear out with his right hand, then crawled on his hands and knees past us toward the stern, leaving a trail of blood on the wooden planks of the Gull's deck, as other warriors stepped up to fill his place.

  "We must protect them," Tore shouted.

  Men shooting bows without shield bearers to protect them make exposed targets. There were five men shooting bows from along the second pirate ship's rail, while others hurled throwing spears. I picked a man who was just beginning to draw his bow and hit him high in the back, just below his shoulder. Tore
shot a warrior laying an arrow across his bow, standing upright and picking a target on the Gull's fore-deck with no thought that he himself might be in danger. Both men went down, but others pressed forward to take their places. We shot as fast as we could pull arrows from our quivers and killed six more, including all of the men at the ship's rail armed with bows, before the pirates realized where the deadly fire was coming from. Some turned in our direction and hurled their spears, while others snatched up the bows of their fallen comrades. Now it was Tore and I who were exposed without shield bearers, and we leapt down from the water cask and took cover behind it as arrows and spears whizzed overhead or thudded into the deck around us.

  The third pirate ship slid alongside the pirate chieftain's wolf-headed longship, nosing up against the far side of the Serpent's bow. While some of its crew hurled grapples to pull their ship tight to the Serpent, others used long spears to stab across at the warriors who were on the Serpent's fore-deck, fending off those who were trying to board from the first attacker.

  Behind us, the pirates' fourth ship had swung around so that she faced broadside across the sterns of the Gull and the Serpent. Her crew lined her rails, exchanging missile fire with the warriors in our rear who were fighting under Hrodgar's command. I glimpsed Einar standing at Hrodgar's side, shooting steadily with his bow.

  After losing several more men who tried to clamber up over the bow rails onto the Gull and the Serpent, the pirates had given up their attempts to board. The battle in the bows had stalled—for now at least—as on both sides the warriors jammed onto their ships' fore-decks stood shoulder to shoulder, as if in a shield wall, stabbing across at each other with their spears.

  Accompanied by Torvald, who had only moments before reached the bow, Hastein scurried back and took cover with Tore and me behind the water cask. Torvald was shaking his head, a grim expression on his face.