Varanger

by Cecelia Holland

  He stopped and drank from his cup, and wiped his mouth. Nobody spoke.

  “Then,” he said, “like a drunken idiot, I agreed to go with him. And Raef goes where I go, so we went off with the Jomsvikings to attack Hakon the Jarl.”

  Now some people were turning to look at Raef, and he lowered his eyes. He noticed that Conn had not mentioned the woman that he and Sweyn had been fighting with at the time, who was most of the reason; but they had been very drunk.

  “So we raided along the coast of Norway, where there are villages and farms on every fjord. We had seventy ships and each ship was full of men. All the people fled as we came up but we burned homesteads and took every living thing away, cattle and slaves, and whatever we could find of gold and silver and fine cloth. Much of it we sent off to the Jomsburg, where it may be still, for all I know.

  “But Hakon the Jarl heard we were corning, and he gathered all his men. Norway is a big country, and Hakon could call a lot of men together.

  “We rounded the cape we call Stad, and put in on a little island, and someone captured a man from the shore. In return for his life this churl agreed to go find Hakon for us.

  “Now among the Jomsvikings, no one lies, and we all counted it the best thing for a man to meet his enemies face-to-face and strike blows arm against arm, and maybe that’s why we didn’t think this churl would lie to us. Or maybe it was witchcraft. In any case, when we heard that Hakon was in Hjorunga Bay, just around the cape from us, without only a few ships, and a handful of men, we all got into our ships and sailed there.”

  Raef’s hands had clenched on the table. He remembered how he had felt, before this battle, and how he had been afraid to tell anybody, for fear of what they would think of him. And even knowing what he knew, he had still gone. Had he told them, they would all still have gone, battle-mad and roaring. Better to die than waver.

  “It was a bright, hot, sunny day, and many of us had our shirts off because of the heat. And we rowed into the bay, and there in front of us, and on either side of us, were hundreds of Hakon’s ships.”

  “Now, no Jomsviking will leave the battle without the victory, as I said, and so we attacked them. Hakon the Jarl lined all his ships up before us and we tied our ships together with hawsers in a line, and rowed straight at the middle of them. First we threw spears and shot arrows, and when the ships lapped, we fought hand-to-hand, battling back and forth. And in the middle of Hakon’s line, we fought so hard and so well that we cleared Hakon’s own ship as far as the mast, and we were clearing the ships beside his, too, even though we were outnumbered.

  “Then Hakon broke off the fighting, and pulled his ships back, so that he could save them. And we drew back also, to keep from being separated from our line, and the battle stopped for a while.

  “Now, when this happened, the day was still fine, and the sun shone. We grouped our ships together, and all we Jomsvikings ate and drank and got ready for the battle to begin again. But Hakon the Jarl had other ideas.

  “It’s well known that Hakon has the favor of a certain ogress, whose shrine is in a forest not far from the shore of Hjorunga Bay. He went into this forest and called the ogress to him, to give him the victory. But she was angry with him. Maybe he had not been faithful. There was some talk he had let Harald Bluetooth sprinkle the water on him. He begged and pleaded with her, but she refused to help him.

  “Then he offered her gold, all the gold he had, but she still refused.

  “Then he offered her sacrifices, nine white horses, shod and bridled in gold, but she refused.

  “Then he offered her greater sacrifices, nine men, whose blood he would spill here, in her own grove, and hang their bodies from the trees to feed Odin’s birds, but still she refused.”

  Conn stopped. The hall was utterly still. Volodymyr was canted forward, his eyes blazing. Beside him Rashid had a frown on his face. Behind all the gathered men, Raef could see other people creeping into the doorways to listen—the women, and the servants. Conn looked all around at them, from face to face.

  “Then,” he said, “he offered her the sacrifice of his own son, his youngest boy, whom he loved dearest of all his children. And this she accepted.”

  A gasp went up, all around. Among the women, one gasped, and the music jangled out of tune. Conn nodded. “And so it was. Hakon’s slave took the boy right away and cut his throat.”

  Another gasp, and a moan, and Raef thought, pleased, that this was a good revenge; ever after, these people would remember nothing of Hakon save this sacrifice.

  “So then Hakon went back to his ships. And the battle began again.

  “But now the sky was turning dark. Great black thunderclouds rolled up across it. The rain began to pound down on us. The two lines of ships joined, and we fought with spears and stones and hand-to-hand, striving to leap onto the ship in front, and drive all our enemies off. But when we threw spears the great wind turned them back into our faces, and when we shot arrows they came back into our faces.

  “Then on Hakon’s ship, straight before me, I saw the ogress herself. And she was twice as tall as a man, and twice as broad, and she had three eyes and three mouths, and a tongue sticking out of every mouth. She flung out her hands toward us, and from each finger arrows flew, one after another, so the men around me went down like mown hay.

  “We fought on—I got onto the ship next to Hakon’s, and Raef with me, and many other Jomsvikings, and we were forcing our way down that ship when in front of us suddenly there was another ogress, just as big and ugly as the first, and she stretched her hands out, and from each finger arrows flew, and shot men down.

  “Lightning crashed, and the thunder was so loud nobody could hear anything. After being so hot it was cold as winter now, and from the sky came hailstones the size of men’s heads.

  “We could not stand against the work of two ogresses. We backed up, we yielded, it humiliates me even as I say it, but we took all our men with us, not a Jomsviking did we leave behind us on that enemy ship, but got all back onto our own ships. Then Hakon charged us. We fought, Raef and I, back-to-back, against thirty of them, but then a hailstone as big as a horse hit our ship and holed her, and she went down in an instant.

  “We swam to a rock. Many other Jomsvikings were leaping into the sea, as Hakon’s men with the ogresses behind him swarmed over their ships, and as the hailstones smashed down. The rain pelted us. It was cold and I thought we would drown there.

  “But Hakon came for us, and he dragged all of us—what was left of the Jomsvikings, maybe seventy men—up on the shore. They tied us all together in a line, and Hakon bid one of his men to cut all our heads off.

  “This man’s name was Thorkel Leira, and he was a base and evil man. He started by killing three men who were already dying of their wounds.

  “The rest of us were still lively, and we all started in calling insults to Thorkel, for being such a coward, and killing wounded men. He did it thus: he got a slave to take a stick and wind it in the hair of the man he was going to kill, and thus stretch his neck out, while he knelt helpless on the ground, and then with his sword Thorkel sliced his head off. It was like killing sheep.

  “All the Jomsvikings began to jeer at Thorkel; Hakon and his sons were looking on, his oldest son Eric, who was a Jarl also, and the rest of Hakon’s best men. Hakon said, ‘Kill these live ones, Thorkel, I want to see if they face death as bravely as they all say.’

  “And the Jomsvikings now began to try to outdo themselves in bravery. The first two went straight up to be killed as if they were going to a marriage feast, while we waiting in line taunted Thorkel for his clumsy strokes. They were coming closer to me and Raef, but also, we Jomsvikings were all making such an uproar at Thorkel that I could see he was getting rattled. Even Eric the Jarl was laughing at him. He was still cutting off heads, but he stopped, in between, to bellow back at us, and his face was red and his hands shook. Twice he missed the blow, and struck the man he was hitting in the skull, or across the shoulders, and h
ad to do it over again.

  “Somebody called out if he was so bad with his sword he must be just as bad in bed, which was why his wife was so eager to have all of us. Then we all started shouting how we had fucked his wife, and added in some details of her and that, and how excited our long swords had made her.

  “Now I was next, and they cut me loose from the rope to take up to Thorkel, but then Raef called out—” Conn turned and grinned at him. “Raef said he could not bear to see me die, and so Thorkel should kill him first.”

  Raef grunted at him. This part at least was true, although his intention had been only to stall against the inevitable. He sank his head down between his shoulders, feeling all the eyes in the room turn on him again.

  Conn went on. “And then Hakon recognized us. He knew our father, see, and he had had some business with Corban, and now he called to Thorkel to watch out for us, and kill us quick, because we were wizard-wise. But Thorkel had already given the order to cut Raef loose, too, and lead him forward.

  “So we were both loose from the other Jomsvikings, but nobody noticed, or tied me up again. Our hands were bound behind us but our feet were free. Then Raef—”

  He grinned at Raef again, and Raef put his hands over his face.

  “Raef has long beautiful hair, you see—” There was a general laugh at this; Raef’s hair, he knew, was hardly beautiful, even if it was long. “And he said he didn’t want it tangled up in that filthy stick—he can talk, you see, when he has to. Then someone of Thorkel’s men came forward and offered to hold his hair out of the way, and Raef knelt down and the man took his long hair and pulled his head out, his neck stretched, like the others, and I thought I would see him dead in front of me.

  “So as Thorkel’s sword swung, I sprang forward. But as the sword swung, so also did Raef jump backward, and he jerked his neck out from under the fall of the blade, and pulled the man’s hands in his hair under it, so the blade struck through both his wrists.

  “Thorkel saw this happening, and tried to pull out of the stroke, but as he did I hit him from the side, so hard he went down and his sword fell. Then Raef and I were scrambling toward the sword, and I was loose and had the sword and killed Thorkel there before he even got to his feet.”

  A roar went up from men around the table. Many pounded their fists on the table, so that the cups jumped, and the knives bounced. Raef looked up out of his hands; to his relief he saw everybody was watching Conn now.

  “Then Hakon’s son Eric the Jarl said he thought Thorkel had got what was due him, and anyhow, he said, it was getting dark, and we should stop this. Then Hakon himself said that he was remembering that what had befallen him with Corban Loosestrife had not been all bad, and he offered to let us go, if we fought for him.

  “Then we said we would not take our freedom unless all the rest of the Jomsvikings got theirs also. So Eric the Jarl offered them all to come into his ships, and be his men. They wanted us to join them, but we wouldn’t, and we swore to Hakon we would not fight again for Sweyn Tjugas against him, and then we came east. And here we are.”

  Volodymyr said, “That is a story for a hall full of warriors, and for the beginning of a great war. You are great men.”

  “We are only men,” Conn said. “It was all of us, the Jomsvikings, all together. We all made Thorkel die and got our freedom back. I just wielded the sword, by chance. But now the Jomsvikings are gone, there are no such men as them anymore.”

  He lifted his cup, though, and saluted the men of his band, and they all whooped and drank to him.

  Blud stood up, swaying a little, flushed red with drink. He said, “In this tale I hear what power there is in our gods, and what evil befalls men who turn to the Christ!”

  Volodymyr’s head swung toward him. “What I hear is that when men stand together, and act as one, they can do anything.”

  Blud said, “Do you deny you want to overthrow the gods? Do you deny you favor the Christ?”

  All around the tables of loud and drunken men, many paid no heed to this, but here and there, heads went up, and listened. The guardsmen opposite Volodymyr all looked up sharply, listening.

  “The old gods are many, and they scatter everything among them. Christ is one,” Volodymyr said. “As we must all be one, to make Rus’ great.” When Blud started to shout again he slashed his hand through the air. “I will talk no more of this. Let’s sit and drink and eat and listen to music.” He swept his gaze around the table, and they all quieted. The music went jingling on, strange and harsh. The servant went swiftly around again with the ewer, filling cups, and this time, Raef drank his down all the way.

  C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N

  Around sundown, the feast was over, and the Varanger all left the hall. Down at their holding, Conn set a fire and lit it, and everybody gathered around it, Helgi, Leif, Vagn, and the others. Vagn had brought a jug of wotka down from the hall. They all settled down, as the long summer night fell softly down outside the glow of the fire, and passed the jug. Raef saw the men watching Merike and caught her eye and jerked his head toward the hut, and she went in.

  Conn poked at the fire with a stick, watching the flames burst up. “There is more going on here than we were told, coming into it.”

  Several of them grunted in agreement. Leif said, “Novgorod was always Volodymyr’s city. But here, obviously, he has rivals.”

  “More than rivals,” Bjorn said.

  Skinny Harald sat across the fire from Conn, with his knees drawn up, his arms crossed over his legs. “I’ve been hearing a lot from the Faithful Band. They’re all Thor’s men, Perun they call him here, and they don’t want to walk into the water. And they hate Dobrynya.”

  “The Faithful Band,” Conn said. “You mean the men in the blue coats.”

  “The Knyaz’s guards, yes. They’re all around Volodymyr, all the time. When they’re not they loaf around the wotka shops, down by the river, and I’ve run into a few. The local people don’t like them much, either.”

  Black-haired scrawny Vagn said, “I’ve noticed that. But they’re afraid of them. They all think they’re Varanger still.”

  “They’re not,” Conn said. “Or they wouldn’t stand in corners like servants. I saw how the local people love Dobrynya, and he isn’t even from here. What about Blud Sveneldsson?”

  Leif said, “You saw him. He wants to be Knyaz, that’s plain. But if he could be, he would be already. He had some connection with this Knyaz’s father, who was all Varanger, for all he had a funny name. But that’s the trouble, likely—Volodymyr being half Sclava.”

  “Dobrynya’s half,” said Vagn.

  Raef said, “There’s more to it than even that, anyway. Volodymyr wants to be greater than Knyaz, and he will throw everybody else into a snake pit to get there.”

  Conn’s nose wrinkled up. Raef knew this was too tangled and messy for his taste. Conn said, “Whatever happens, I swore myself to Dobrynya, and I’m keeping to that. That’s the way to keep this straight.” His gaze swept the circle of firelit faces. “Anybody disagree?”

  Leif said, “No, no, we’re all with you, Conn,” and the others chorused in, nodding their heads, and Vagn clapped his hands together.

  Conn said, “Good. Because there are six ships down there on the riverbank. That means, stuffed to the gunwales, three hundred and sixty men, likely considerably less. There’s the nine of us. Pavo has another sixty, seventy men. The rest have to come from somewhere, and we’d better be sure they’re on our side when our backs are to them.”

  The others growled and grumbled; Vagn said, “If our side is Dobrynya’s side, I can tell you already one or two who are not.”

  Helgi said, “I’m not so sure of Pavo,” and a couple of other voices agreed.

  Vagn said, “That could have been another of his tricks, coming here.”

  Conn’s brow wrinkled; he said, “I think Pavo’s with us, at least while we’re in Kiev and Blud’s around.” He turned toward Raef, his eyes disturbed. “Is he?”
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br />   “Pavo’s good,” Raef said. “He’s nothing without Dobrynya.”

  “That’s the trouble.” Conn went back to stabbing and poking at the fire, showering up sparks that crackled and snapped in the air. “Once you mistrust one you mistrust everybody. That’s why we have to be together. Nine of us—that’s a sign, isn’t it? Nine’s a lucky number. And all one in a fight.”

  He stretched his hands out to either side. Raef took hold of him, and reached out his other hand and took Leif’s. He saw them all join hands, the ring unbroken, and for a moment no one spoke; they only sat there together. They let go, and the wotka jug came around again, and they talked about other things.

  In the morning Conn went off to his prowling, and Raef sat in the sun before the hut, listening to Merike clean up inside. Rashid came down the path toward him.

  He had gotten new clothes. His headcloth was white as salt, his flowing gown spotless. His pen case hung at his side. He came up to Raef and said, “Well, you are situated very nicely,” not meeting Raef’s eyes.

  Raef moved off the stone, to give him somewhere to sit where he wouldn’t get dirty. “Sit down. I haven’t seen you in a while. Merike! Bring me the jug.”

  Rashid made himself comfortable on the rock. Raef sat on his heels next to him. The Baghdad man stroked his tidy little beard. “I have been at court,” he said. “Hoping to change Volodymyr’s mind.” He sighed. “So blind the man who sees only what he wants to see.”

  Merike came out with the wotka; Rashid’s brows flew down, and he watched her come and go with a frown. When Raef offered him the jug, he said, “No, no. That is forbidden me. You have a servant?”

  “I have a wife,” Raef said, thinking that funny.