The Winter Sword: A Novel of Germania and Rome (Hraban Chronicles Book 3)

by Alaric Longward

  But there were none.

  They had fled. For there were men in the valley.

  CHAPTER 10

  There were a hundred men, to be exact, and they had fooled us to chase after enemy that was not in the east after all.

  All were well armed, rising from grass and moss all around us. Many had bows and arrows, and before we knew what had happened, Kuno screamed and fell from the saddle. His horse bolted, and I ripped Nightbright out, hit the flanks of the horse and aimed the beast at a man just getting up from behind a rock, his eyes confused. I stabbed down, he hissed and fell on his knees, and I forgot about him as spears flashed around my horse. They probed me, pushed me and the horse, and I could not get close to any of the men. Thusnelda screamed, and I looked her way to see the last of Kuno’s men beaten down in a tangle of grass and twigs, his face open from an ax swing. Hugo was above him, and I paled. The young man smiled at me with vicious joy. Thusnelda was surrounded on her horse though the men around her did not point a spear at her.

  I cursed and got ready to die, but I did not.

  ‘Hold him,’ a thin, mirthful voice demanded, and I gave a strangled voice as I knew who it was.

  ‘Catualda,’ I whispered and saw Thusnelda was staring behind me. I turned my horse, holding on to Nightbright and saw a man on a fat, white horse push back his hood. There, the blond young man with supremely thick lips stared at me.

  He bowed ironically. ‘Hraban. It has been a while. Last time we saw you, you were about to kill Vago the Vangione and made quite a mess of our plans. To imagine, you would escape his prison? Unbelievable. But here there is no escape.’

  He was right, I cursed. Fifty men were gathered around us, many with bloodied weapons. Others rode around in the dark, making sure we were not disturbed. There were now ten warriors between Catualda and me, and I contemplated again throwing the weapon, but I doubted I would be as lucky as I had been with Ragwald. Thusnelda cursed him. ‘He is with Armin now. You killed Armin’s men. Not his! You dammed idiot.’

  I spat on the ground and pointed my sword at Hugo. ‘So. Is Fulcher alive?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ the young man said with a shrug. ‘Sorry, but I did tell you I serve Segestes. I left your friend horseless as he was taking a piss.’

  Catualda bowed to Thusnelda, just slightly. ‘I am here to take you to your lord father. I’m afraid he is very worried about you.’ The cur was staring at me with hatred even as he spoke with Thusnelda. I had wounded him, tried to kill him, and he enjoyed his moment of triumph like a cat would enjoy mauling a crippled mouse. And he had been waiting for us.

  ‘I command you ...’ she began.

  ‘Let it rest, Thusnelda,’ I said heavily. ‘He has betrayed Armin.’

  ‘He is your relative!’ Thusnelda scolded him, shocked. ‘And you betray him?’

  ‘Armin is my relative,’ he nodded. He held onto a long spear and pointed it south. ‘He has given me his love and his hall. But I have other relatives. You are one. And so is Segestes.’

  Thusnelda grimaced in anger and nodded. ‘I’ll not go!’

  ‘He desires you to follow his army under his guarding eye,’ Catualda said with seemingly innocent concern, manipulative and treacherous. ‘And so we shall go that way. That Hraban is here as well? It is a wonder. I hardly could believe it when Hugo told Segestes. I was happy to set this up, and it worked splendidly. And yes, you will go, Princess. Bound or with honor.’

  ‘He will come as well,’ she hissed, pointing at me. ‘You will not kill him. Do not overplay your importance to Segestes. He has sold us to Rome, and Hraban is a friend to Nero Claudius Drusus. At least he should be spared your vengeance.’

  Catualda was weighing the words of Thusnelda. A burly warrior approached him, and he was whispering and pointing his ax to the southern woods. They had no time for a lengthy stay. He finally nodded and pointed at me. ‘You, Hraban, will come with us. Give your sword to him.’ He pointed his finger at a young man approaching me with apparent fear, and I nodded heavily. I dropped the blade and glowered at Catualda.

  ‘Shall I wear shackles as well?’ I asked the dog.

  He laughed. ‘No, but you will be well guarded. Hold him.’ Men approached me, spears out. They aimed their weapons at me, and I was surrounded by spears, their tips inches from my body. Catualda guided his horse forward. He held out his hand and took Nightbright from the young man. He held it up, wondering at the blade in the pale moonlight, and I saw his eyes come to rest on me. There was something dangerous there, he hesitated. He was contemplating on slaying me anyway. I held my head high and cursed him. Woden was whispering to me to kill him, to kill them all and die trying, but I held my mouth shut. Patience, Armin had said. Catualda’s horse stopped in front of me. He used Nightbright to open up my tunic and whistled as he saw Leuthard’s old chain mail. He tapped the bronze beast head on my chest with my sword. ‘A fancy armor, eh. You keep them. Your armor and helmet. You keep them. That way you are known amongst our people. But beneath, it, you will have a mark.’

  He pressed Nightbright on my neck and slowly slashed the edge across, drawing blood. He kept the weapon in the wound as I trembled with pain and rage. Then he dropped the sword. He leaned down to whisper to the young man who picked up the sword, and that man grasped something from the ground beside the blade and handed it to Catualda. Catualda stared at me and poured something from one hand to another. I saw he had filth, horse turd and dirt on his hand, and he crushed it together. Then he spat on it. He leaned over and rubbed it on my wound and smiled. I trembled in anger, and he saw it and smiled at me with pity.

  ‘Since you are a friend to Segestes’s Roman friend, I shall spare you. Next time I see you, Hraban? If ever? You should run. I will have many men following my banner,’ he smiled inanely and nodded at a burly Cherusci, who waved his hand to the north. Catualda left me and rode away, and the Cherusci around us were preparing to leave. I gazed at Thusnelda, who shook her head at me. She was my only ally, and I calmed myself.

  It was hard.

  He had spat on the dirt and the turd. Woden was dancing inside my skull, and I kept staring at Thusnelda, who kept shaking her head. I breathed deep, trying to calm down.

  Only Lif mattered. Armin, if I could get him. Later. Catualda would hold. He would hold.

  CHAPTER 11

  The sun came up as we rode northward. Fifty men rode with us to guard us and Catualda guided his horse carelessly around the troop. Thusnelda was giving him withering looks, but he ignored them. ‘Your father will give me many men. He is a visionary if you are wondering why I am leaving your lover.’

  ‘I did not wonder at all,’ Thusnelda informed him disdainfully. ‘My father has many plans and as ever, finds vermin to execute them. You are a Roman now. Like Hraban there.’

  ‘It is strange,’ I said darkly from under my helmet, ‘that you once fought for Armin’s dream of uniting the tribes and so easily abandon them.’

  ‘Oh come now!’ he chided. ‘Simpleton. Today’s submission to Rome is but a safeguard under which to grow strong. Give Rome an alliance, and they will fortify lightly. Give them resistance, and they shall build many castrum here. Best be friendly when you can. I still love my people best.’

  ‘And you think you will rule the Marcomanni one day?’ I teased him.

  He was silent for a time, and then he agreed. ‘Armin? He thinks he knows my plans, yes? Perhaps he does. The south is rich, Hraban. And I have the blood of great men running wild in my veins. And I am still a Germani, not a Roman, as I said. They will respect me and love me.’

  ‘You would fight Father for the south?’ I mocked him. ‘You?’

  ‘I will have to see what opportunities open up, Hraban,’ he gloated. ‘It will be a very interesting few years. Perhaps I need not fight him at all to gain power there. Or here. We will see. I’m at the top of my world; possibilities spread left and right under my gaze! And as Lord Segestes rises, so shall I. Perhaps over Rome, one day!’ I remained silent at hi
s gloating words. He spoke very freely in front of a Roman soldier. He had no plans to let me go. Thusnelda gave me a worried glance, and I knew she had thought about it as well.

  The sun climbed higher as we followed the river. The light illuminated the land, the horizon white and golden and the fog dissipated. Forlorn birds sang, and men working on fields stopped to look at us. Some were imperceptible, almost, working on the edges of the woods, and none offered me any hope of escape. There was to be another perilous day for the Germani as the relentless Drusus would chase after them. As if to answer my thoughts, far, far to the south, I thought I heard the aneators of the legions blow their horns. The legions were up and awake, and the cavalry were already out and about. Many Cherusci villages would burn. Perhaps Armin’s own. We ate in the saddle, napping in restless tiredness as our horses took us north. The horses were going at a steady gait, the legs carrying us over a flat land, the river banks, and small hillocks. Thick patches of forests spread to our right, with wildflowers filling meadows with their colorful wonders, hares popping their ears up at our approach, eagles and hawks stalking the sky for morsels for the bellies of their ever hungry offspring.

  Behind us, the first smoke pillars of the day arose in the sky.

  I grew tired of the silent company and spoke with Thusnelda. ‘It is a shame the Romans reached this far. Drusus is implacable. This is rich land, with plentiful crops and beautiful, rarely burned villages. See there, that hall is fabulous,’ I told her, nodding at a hillside to our right with a white hall and a village surrounding it.

  She nodded. ‘It is a shame we missed the Glittering Oaks. That one belongs to Sigimer, Armin’s father. There Armin grew up, amidst the flowing wheat, and the great flocks of cattle. His mother was almost a mother to me as well, for mine is dead,’ she said mournfully.

  ‘Ah, and there you got your first kiss from your cousin as well.’ I grinned, looked at her face, and she blushed. ‘How much power do you have over Segestes?’ I asked her carefully. ‘Is he a father or just a bastard? Does he grant you wishes? Because, I think, I might have to call on you for a favor.’

  She shrugged and waved her hand towards Sigimer’s holdings. ‘Favor? You know I will try. And power? As much as I have the power to save these homesteads. Not much. He might have abandoned the idea of marrying me to your father, but he has plans to marry me anyway. I have a brother, but he does not share his power with him either nor ask for advice. So, he is just a bastard, to answer your question. But he is a careful bastard, and I will try my best.’ She looked away and shook herself, trying to sound confident. ‘He will release you. He has to. He is allied to Rome.’

  ‘Hah,’ I said bitterly. ‘I hope he fails and falls on his face,’ I said, despite that being a reverse in the plans of Drusus.

  She laughed. ‘Armin will fight, and we will rise again.’

  ‘We?’ I grinned.

  She smiled back. ‘Armin. Thusnelda. Perhaps you.’

  ‘Great,’ I cursed.

  ‘I will try,’ she said, touching my hand. I nodded. ‘Wealth is more than halls. The cows are hidden, horses in war, women will make bandages in the woods and many of Armin’s foes will die, no matter my father and his betrayal. Armin has none lord over him now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed some victories this year still. It is madness, Hraban, but he might surprise them all. My father will be surprised, I am sure.’

  I snorted. ‘If Segestes has his way, the cows will pay for Roman taxes, women will seed children to Roman soldiers, and the men will serve Rome far from here,’ I told her morosely. ‘The end might not be as glorious as you might think.’

  ‘No,’ she said more quietly, yet with determination. ‘But it is better to be forgotten and dead people than grasp for straws like my father does. I do not wish Roman ways or Roman laws to enter our sacred halls. I speak Latin, I know of the enemy because my father wills it, and I know their gods. I do not wish to know of them, but I do. Instead, I pray to Frigg for wisdom, and I think Armin would never let Drusus go home if all the brave men followed him. He will do anything to stop them.’ She glanced at me. ‘We must try our best to help him. And fight to the end. Perhaps this is how it must be. For a young lord to become the leader of such a nation as this one, he has to become its oldest Lord.’

  I sighed, for I was, in truth, a man of Drusus. ‘That, lady, may be true. Yet, I wonder, did not the nations of latinium, of Gaul, of Hispania and the mighty Greeks think to fight to the end? If only one would lead, they would be free. And one did lead, like Vercingetorix, like, in recent years, Ambiorix of the Eburones in Gaul? Pyrrhus? They paid the prize for trying,’ I said, staring at the rich villages all across the land. ‘I used to think fame was most important thing in the world. But perhaps the life of your children is.’

  She nodded at my words, with little conviction. ‘I have no children. Should I have some, perhaps I would think differently. But you speak of people who are vanquished. They are not vanquished as long as you have heard of them. If they did what Father did, nobody would speak of the Gauls and Latins and Greeks. Glory will resonate through the times, cowardice will be forgotten.’

  ‘Children care nothing for the glory of centuries past when they laugh and run free over the hills. But perhaps you are right, and they will not run free if Roman slavers set up shot here.’

  She was nodding and then leaned on me. ‘You know of the world? How do you know of such things? You are, but a hay smelling Suebi brute from the south?’ she said, teasing me.

  ‘Father did not love me, but he had me taught by a Roman tutor, an exile. To know my enemy, I thought,’ I said. ‘But now they are my friends. Wyrd. I will help Armin if he does not demand I fight Drusus.’ I looked away so she could not guess at my true thoughts. ‘And if I should survive this tragedy.’

  ‘He is a mighty man, your father. Perhaps he taught you in case you would be useful, not a hard-headed lump of muscle as you are. Or to make a presentable hostage to Rome? Rumors tell he is forsaking the old ways, the gods; the rituals and men still follow him because they fear Rome. You tell me he will eventually betray the Germani for Rome. But I would not marry him if he were a finer man than Armin is,’ she said. ‘As you said, I kissed Armin and never will I love another. I will fight. For you and me as well. Be at ease. I will try to set you free. You did save me.’

  ‘I will suffer, lady,’ I told her, and she did not deny it. Had not Segestes tried to kill me once already? For Antius, perhaps, but now he would have other reasons to do so.

  We reached a camp of Segestes that evening.

  The scouts of the Cherusci lord rode up to us, looked us over, saw Thusnelda, and rode off. Late in the afternoon, we saw the glowering, fat man on a huge horse perched on a hill, lush with barley. He had hundreds of men around him, men finely decorated with silver torcs and some high women with fine earrings made in the Roman style. Expensive tunics and finery were the norms of those he seemed to hold in high esteem, yet most were sporting the beards of the Germani. Contradictions and savagery, for the man next to him, was Ragwald, his arm limp, and a savage glee spread on his face as he saw me walk my horse uphill. I did not look his way, but I was scared shitless.

  ‘Are you all right? Why did you leave my camp in the battle?’ grunted Segestes to Thusnelda, his fat jowls flapping under his short beard. She nodded and rode up, and I wondered if there were any men present who would not wonder how such an ugly beast could spawn such a beautiful creature as his daughter was.

  ‘I am fine, Father. I was with the army that fought when the Romans attacked. Hraban here found me, saved me from rape and murder and brought me to safety,’ she said, casting her eyes up to him, deliberately not mentioning Armin. She tilted her head and spoke to him sweetly and with obvious derision. ‘I had no idea the plan called for your sudden retreat. A masterful maneuver that, Father.’

  Segestes ignored her barbs. ‘Brought you to safety? Not to Armin? He is in charge of Sigimer’s troops, after all,’ said Segestes, f
ully well knowing the truth. Ragwald was fingering a spear with his left hand, barely able to hold his peace in my presence.

  ‘Armin was there, yes. Why?’ she asked and looked at the grizzled man, the former champion of her bodyguard with worry. Ragwald’s arm was bound and limp, and his eyes were fixed on me. She eyed me, and I shrugged. She rolled her eyes, understanding I had recently met Ragwald and left him a cripple.

  Segestes looked at her, then me. ‘Are you not with the Romans, boy? Why didn’t you take her to Drusus?’

  ‘I was. I killed Romans for your daughter, Segestes,’ I said gloomily. ‘And I know Romans do not always respect their female prisoners.’ She would have been safe with Drusus, but he did not know it. ‘And I had no idea where you were to be found. Hence; Armin.’

  Ragwald snickered. ‘Worried for women. Should worry for yourself,’ he stated with relish.

  ‘I saved your daughter, Segestes,’ I told the lord squarely. ‘And now I should return to Nero Claudius Drusus. Your liege lord.’

  Segestes brushed his shiny metal shield absentmindedly. ‘I have a hunch you had a reason to save her, so perhaps I should not fall on your feet in gratitude. But I am grateful, nonetheless. As for my liege lord? I have none. Our family has held this land for as long as your family has been lurking in Gothonia. You might not think so, but the poets say it is so. No Roman is my liege lord. We are allies.’

  ‘And you shall be skinned alive,’ Ragwald spat. ‘Our Lord Segestes has already once condemned you. Now—’

  Segestes shook his head heavily. ‘Hold, yes, I am discourteous as I let my disgruntled lord here insult our guest.’ Ragwald’s eyes shot open, and he stammered but held his silence as Segestes went on. ‘You are not welcome here, Hraban, but I thank you for bringing my daughter back to me. It would be remiss of me to deny you my hospitality, despite the unfortunate affair with Antius. After tomorrow, you will leave my camp.’