‘Let him,’ Gislin said after time, tiredly. ‘Doesn’t matter who does it. Hild?’
‘Lord?’
‘Cut his bonds. And then hold a knife on his shoulder. If he turns to fight us, cut a tendon. The Bear will roar without an arm.’ The lord’s eyes glinted and I cursed, as the madwoman approached. She stepped before me, considering the ropes around my wrists, and then pulled my sword and cut them. She nodded and Whisper stepped forward.
‘Do it,’ he said huskily. ‘Here.’ He handed me the ax. The warriors stared at me carefully, their hands on their weapons, and the spears and the hooks were turned my way. I grasped the weapon, and Hild stepped behind me, very close, and the blade was on my shoulder, cutting the skin. She put a hand around me and stroked my belly nearly lovingly, ran her fingers inside my pants and chuckled as her hands touched me where she should not go, and I cursed the mad bitch, while I shuddered with disgust. I squirmed from her, though she followed, holding on to my belt, as I stepped forward for Maino. I lifted my eyes to my enemy, saw the pain and terror there and swallowed away the bile of fear at the terrible situation.
A knife rested on my shoulder. The men around us were tense.
I raised the weapon. It was a good weapon, sharp, sturdy, and my only ally.
I swung it. The sword moved away for a moment to allow for me to strike.
Instead of finishing the strike and opening up Maino’s chest, I slammed my elbow on Hild’s already ugly face. She fell back with a shriek, the knife clattering across the stone. I turned and kicked the cauldron over and the burning bits of wood scattered over the floor. Shadows sprung up as much of the light fled and I swung my ax at Maino’s bonds.
It struck true. One leather bond was severed and the man hung from one arm, his toes touching the ground. ‘Do it! The other one! Hurry, you bastard!’
I heard screams and yells, and a spear flew past me, and I heard Eadwine bellow a challenge behind us.
I saw Hild from the corner of my eye, up on her feet, coming for me with Hel’s Delight, her snarling, bloodied face intent on killing me. Men approached, Gislin amongst them, his face twisted with surprise and anger, trying to stop her. I could not deal with them, not if I had to release Maino. And without him, we’d die. Woden, let them trip, I begged.
I turned my back, and hacked at the other binding.
It snapped, drawing some blood from Maino’s wrist. He fell from the trunk onto his knees and I gritted my teeth, waiting to be stabbed mortally.
It was no Woden who intervened, but Aldbert. He saved me. Or rather, Saxa and Aldbert did.
Saxa’s axe, the one I had given her flashed in the semi-dark as Aldbert charged the völva. He was surprisingly fast, put all his strength into the swing and Hild’s skull cracked sickly as she sprawled on the floor behind me. Aldbert’s face twisted with disgust and then agony, as the shadow of Gislin pushed him aside brutally, steel dagger flashing. Aldbert screamed, wounded in the back, and I turned and attacked the Svea lord. His fox-face helmet fell from his head as he stumbled away, his eyes huge with fear, but I cared not for his fear as I swung the ax, and hit the mass of his body before me.
The weapon bit deep, chopped through his arm, slammed into his chest and he fell on his back, screaming, and blood was flying from his nose. There was a huge wound across his chest.
The shadows around me were cursing and moving with confusion. There was a shriek as someone fell, another as a Svea stabbed a spear at a man that I took to be Eadwine, who was yelling with pain as he struggled with many of the enemy. I saw Whisper’s face in the moonlight, not far. ‘Take him alive! Kill the others!’
I laughed spitefully and rushed him.
The ax came down, split a Svea shield that had appeared out of the dark to save Whisper and then some men tackled me. Whisper was dancing behind them, praying to his gods. I managed to whip the ax into a man’s foot, and it was neatly split in half, bone showing. Then two men sat on my chest, one struck me with a fist and I swooned from pain.
‘Get up, you damn weakling,’ a familiar voice growled and one of the Svea made a choking sound as he disappeared into the embrace of a huge man and that man was Maino, who slammed his fist in the Svea’s throat. Eadwine appeared, bleeding from many wounds, panting, and kicked the other one in the head, and I was freed. I heard there was a fight somewhere close, where Svearna had apparently started to fight each other in the dark. Whisper retreated to the deeper shadows, skittering up the hill.
I got up, gave the ax to Maino, grabbed Hel’s Delight, and then the Svea chief who had fetched us stumbled to us. His eyes enlarged with surprise at seeing us armed but to his credit his ax came down fast. Eadwine grasped him in mid-swing and they fell to the floor, rolling in the dark, grunting. Shouts could be heard where there was a doorway higher up, and more men carrying torches came in. I looked at Maino, who nodded, and went like an avenging spirit to the dark to help Eadwine. ‘Here,’ Maino shouted and a shriek was heard, and he came back with Eadwine, the enemy chief dead.
‘Hope he was a high one,’ the champion said with pain, and held a spear and a shield. ‘Good luck to kill a warlord.’
‘Good luck to have killed Gislin,’ I said and kicked the twitching corpse and spat on Hild. ‘And that bitch. We have to move.’ I witnessed Whisper running up a small incline for the doorway where the newly arrived Svea were, and nodded that way. ‘We go through that door. Or not at all. Now’s your chance to show what you are made of, cousin.’
‘What of him?’ Eadwine slurred and pointed his spear at Aldbert, who was gasping on the floor.
I gazed at his glistening eyes. ‘We’ll fight first. He deserves to be saved from this filthy hole of Lok.’ I moved forward with Eadwine, but Maino did not follow. I turned to look at him and his resentful eyes burned as he stood over Aldbert.
‘He betrayed us, didn’t he? He gave us the wrong hall. So many died because of that bit or treason. So I’ll worry about him now,’ he laughed and swung the ax.
‘No!’ I screamed, but I was far too late and the ax entered Aldbert's belly. My friend made a squealing noise and I stared at him in stupefied shock. Whisper shrieked above as if he had seen the deed.
‘Take them! Take Maroboodus alive! They have to pay, and they shall!’ he yelled, dancing on top of the stairway. ‘Gislin is dead!’
The warriors, eight to ten, bellowed, wide and fur-clad, and turned to charge down towards us, to the dark shadows, their torches burning lazily. They probably didn’t see well, only shadows. Maino went past me; laughing like an evil spirit set free, and Eadwine hesitated, and went after him.
I kneeled next to Aldbert, swallowed my rage, and looked down at my former friend, who was twisting in pain. His guts were spilling from the wound, entwined on his tunic, and he looked like a mother holding a baby as he tried to keep his belly in. It was a death that was coming slowly, and so I lifted Hel’s Delight. He nodded for the ax by Hild. ‘Saxa gave it to me. She had hidden it. Sister, imagine that. Told me to hide it as well. Said I could finally do some good, and—’
‘I am sorry. I didn’t mean for this,’ I whispered and he seemed to nod again.
‘We failed each other,’ he said weakly. He grasped my hand. ‘The twigs, the skull, the hull. Next, a girl and a choice,’ he grimaced. ‘Choose wisely,’ he added, biting back a scream of pain, and so I prayed to Woden as I pushed the blade into his chest and he fell silent.
I turned to look up the incline.
There, Whisper was holding his head, half out of his mind, his eyes pools of madness. He went to his knees. I hesitated and wondered what that meant, and then I looked at Aldbert, and wondered if the gods thought my friend was a fitting sacrifice, and the damned bastard had had a vision, a sight?
If he had, he wasn’t running, and that was too bad for him.
I ran up the shadowed, near dark path, behind murderous Maino and Eadwine, and we would hack our way through the Svea. Shadows shot up before us, and I saw Eadwine roar, slam his shiel
d forward, toppling a Svea, stabbing down at the writhing mass. A boy-sized Svea stumbled into Maino’s path and howled as my cousin slapped him down so hard bones cracked. He was in his rage now, careless, brave, and mad, and despite the burning hate for him, I knew he might get us through the enemy. I pressed next to him, Eadwine ran after us, as we all roared out defiance at the Svea. They lined their shields across the path, unsure where we were, the spears rested on the shield rims, clubs and daggers and axes were hefted, but Maino didn’t care. This is why I had left him alive, and despite the fact it had cost Aldbert his life, Maino’s rage saw us through the battle. He roared and slapped spears aside, growled away a club strike and then he was in the midst of the enemy. His ax split a tall, older Svea. He rolled and came up lightning fast, laying about him. Chunks of meat and bits of shields and broken spears flew. Men tried to spear him, but he moved like a drunken wraith, never still, dreadful, and threw his enemies around like a wounded boar. He growled away a slash on his forearm, another on his leg, but his ax slammed down, opened a face, and then beat a neck open, leaving a Svea on his knees, gasping with terror. Another crawled to the darkness, and Eadwine speared him.
And I fought as well. I wanted to get to Whisper.
A chief, clean-shaven and thick-boned attacked me with a younger man that looked like his son. He probably was too. They came at me, spears slashing forward and with luck they went under my armpit and shoulder, as they got in each other’s way. I pushed the sword down, and the younger man’s side opened up. I grasped the shield of the older, horrified man and pulled him towards me, hoping to kill him easily, but he let go of the shield and grappled me. He had a dagger in his hand as we rolled and I raked my hands across his eyes as fast as I could and butted his mouth so hard his lips bled and his eyes rolled in his head. He didn’t move. I felt blood all over my face as I got up from the comatose man, and spotted Whisper, still on his knees, not far. The vitka was clutching his face, moaning and I charged up, dodged a confused Svea, whom I pushed down where Eadwine killed him and got to Whisper. He looked up at me, horrified as I kicked him onto his back.
Eadwine appeared on the other side. ‘Don’t kill him!’ I screamed.
‘Why not?’ Maino, covered in gore demanded. ‘I want him dead. He won’t boast of having Maino of Marka stripped on a pole, will he?’ He grabbed the little man and I put a sword to Maino’s throat. ‘What are you—’ he began.
‘You shit,’ I growled. ‘We need him!’ I turned to Whisper. ‘You are getting us out of here.’
‘They will never let you leave,’ he said with a wistful, tearful smile. ‘You killed Aldbert—’
‘I didn’t! I didn’t want his life,’ I hissed as I looked at Maino’s mocking eyes. ‘But it is done, and now I will go after Saxa and you will help me.’
Whisper smiled. ‘His death, I felt it. I had a vision. Lok spoke, boy, in his slumber, whispered and dreamed,’ he said and looked on in terror as Maino finally dropped him, stalked to the side, and broke the neck of the last enemy in sight, a wounded man trying to crawl away. ‘You are the one, indeed. The Bear. But it will be the Raven who will serve our god most, perhaps. The raven! Yes. You will push the Raven into madness and beyond. This escape? It is as it should be. We didn’t fail. If you get away, if you survive long enough in your life, you will serve Lok well.’
‘Who is Raven?’ I asked him, scowling.
‘Your son,’ he smiled. ‘A bastard like you.’
‘Will I be proud of him?’ I asked. ‘Will I have him with Saxa? Will I—’
He cackled. ‘With Saxa? I’ll not tell you. But know that you will hate him. He will hate you. He might die. I saw he would be in mortal danger many times in his life. You might die as well. But all is possible. Our god might be released. You will see. Our kin in the south will help—’
‘I’ll stay here in the north, Whisper,’ I told him with a growl, ‘and I shall spit in your mouth if you don’t stop talking about it. I’ll rape Lok with this sword if he shows up, now or later. Get up. We shall leave.’
‘Why ask him?’ Maino yelled and grasped him. ‘We’ll just take him.’ He was right, of course, and then he threw the vitka across the floor, kicked him so hard Whisper yelped like a dog, and we gathered shields and weapons. I took one of the strange hooked spears, and the others were ready as well. ‘We go out, and we don’t give an inch,’ Eadwine said grimly. ‘There will be many men there. Better to die fighting than get locked back in here and tied to the log. We are more seasoned warriors than they are. We might make it.’
‘Indeed,’ Maino hissed, still totally under his berserker’s spell. ‘I’ll never go back that way. Never. And I will not forget what you did—’
I pushed him and he stared at me mulishly with red eyes. ‘Nor I what you did. But now we have a long way home. And a war to fight.’
‘Hrolf and the twins,’ Eadwine growled. ‘Ingo and Ingulf. For Danr and the others. As long as they live, Maino, we shall not touch Maroboodus.’
‘As long as he holds Saxa, your fight is mine,’ I hissed.
‘So be it,’ Eadwine said and stared at Maino, who slowly recovered some bit of his senses from the fogs of Woden’s rage.
‘So be it,’ he said hollowly and grabbed Whisper. ‘Shall we see our way out?’
The tunnel was short and we stumbled forward, carefully looking at each nook. Outside, there was silence.
They were there, nonetheless.
We stepped into the moonlight, and dozens of Svearna of Gislin’s dark clan stiffened and banged their shields together. Many wore chain mail, the apparent champions of the village, and one wore Maino’s, another Eadwine’s and yet another Danr’s. We grasped Whisper before us and Maino growled in his ear, as we eyed the multitude of the enemies before us. ‘Tell them to put their weapons down,’ Maino hissed. ‘Now.’
‘I’ll do no such thing, fool,’ he answered. ‘None of it matters. It’s in the hands of the gods. You’ll see.’
‘You are going to die—’
‘Of course I will,’ he said, smiling with bloodied gums. ‘There are others in the family to take this burden. I care not for it. And I shall see you die, perhaps, son of Bero, before I go.’
Maino grunted, looked at the determined, savage, fur-clad band and casually snapped Whisper’s neck. ‘You won’t,’ he spat. Whisper’s body fell to the mud before us and the Svearna murmured with rage. The shieldwall came closer, and I glanced back to the tunnel. ‘We must hold it. The tunnel.’
‘They have routes in,’ Eadwine said. ‘They will just overwhelm us or smoke us out. I think we should just die well, then.’
‘I won’t die here,’ I shouted.
‘He did say,’ Maino told me with mad relish, ‘that you might die after all, despite all the fucking prophecies. We’ll go together.’
Whisper had said that. He also thought I would escape that night. And he was right.
Perhaps Lok guided allies to us as Saxa’s brother arrived.
A mass of men ran in the dark. Spears glittered, shields made a hollow noise as they struck each other. There were sixty men with Agin, all angry, all swift as shadows of the night. The men on the Snowlake’s shieldwall grew alert, stared around uncertainly, looked behind them and saw the mass of men charging for their backs. We stared in stupefaction as javelins flew, arrows whistled and cudgels and axes fell on men’s backs.
The men in the shieldwall broke and ran.
There were thirty men of Snowlake, all sturdy warriors, but they ran for their lives, the better armed ones pointing at the tunnels beyond us and so they sought safety over us. ‘Back off!’ I yelled, and we fled to the tight corridor. The Svearna were thick, dark and hulking beasts as they pushed after us. They carried heavy spears, thick shields and were the best warriors in the strange clan, and we might have died fast.
Eadwine did.
He fought in the middle of us. He held his spear low, and the first enemy warrior rushed at us, thrusting with his seax but he mis
sed the low-held spear and rushed into it, impaling himself. He made a meowing, pained sound as his brothers pushed past him and we managed to block their mass with our shields. They were pushing and hacking at us, we beat them back, but Eadwine was too slow to let go of his spear and a club caught him in the face. He fell forward and before we could stop them, one of the huge, hairy champions stomped on his back so hard his neck broke, and he died a brave, but pained death.
We backed off slowly. We fought and hacked and struck with our weapons as hard as we could, punching at the relentless enemy. Our shields thrummed with hits as fingers tried to pry them out of our grasps. Maino slashed the cheek open of one champion; I killed a lesser man that tried to sneak by us and lost my spear in his throat. I pulled my sword, and with desperation born out of fear of death I hammered the weapon on the wounded champion trying to kill Maino. He howled, his cheek flapping open as he fell away, but such heroics did little as we were finally pushed through the tunnel into the cavern, where we would die from the sides.
They didn’t care to kill us.
The enemy clawed past us, cursing, some fled to the darkness and the tardy ones fell under stabs and thrusts of spears. The men of Wolf Hole appeared. We stared at Agin, the huge man who scowled at us. ‘Where is Saxa?’ he asked darkly. ‘Is she alive? Speak, Maroboodus!’
I took a step forward and clasped his shoulder. ‘She is being taken away with Hughnot. She will marry another,’ I told him. ‘Hughnot is working with the Boat-Lord. Always was.’
‘She is not here?’ he said in astonishment. ‘Hughnot is allied to my father?’
‘He is, he visited here in secret last spring. And Saxa. I told you, she is gone. She—’
‘They have nearly two hundred men,’ Agin said. ‘But I shall sacrifice every man of mine to regain her.’
‘I’ll help,’ I said.
‘Of course you will. You are her husband. We will all go. And so will he.’ He nodded at Maino, who said nothing, while stripping a champion of his precious chain mail.
Maroboodus: A Novel of Germania (The Goth Chronicles Book 1) Page 29
