by Griff Hosker
I laughed, "Then they do not know me."
"No, Jarl. I tried to tell them but they would have none of it. They were also afraid of me. They took from me anything I might use which was magical. They threw away my leather pouch with my herbs and my amulet. It is why I had to leave the clues in the mud and with twigs."
"It worked." We rode in silence and I wondered how best to deal with these Danes. There could be no reasoning with them. We would have to fight them. With just a handful of Ulfheonar I could not hope to defeat them now. I had to get back to Cyninges-tūn. I would need a large warband. I had to draw them back across the country.
"Rolf, are they in sight?"
"No Jarl."
"Then stop and gather round."
If they thought me mad they said nothing. "We need to draw them back across the divide and then we can bring a warband to defeat them. Leif, ride to Cyninges-tūn. Fetch a warband to the wall. You can ride across country and be there in a day of hard riding. As soon as you are in our land you can get a mount from one of our farmers. We will draw them across the country."
Erik said, "Is that not a risk, Jarl?"
"Would you rather we reach home and then keep watching over our shoulders for a warband of Danes to descend upon our valley and slaughter our people?" He shook his head. "This way we get it over with. We pull them west. Let them think we are weaker than we are. Leif, ride!" Leif smacked his horse in the rump and took off.
"I see them, Jarl." Rolf was our rearguard. He had good eyes.
"Then we ride but make it look as though our horses are struggling."
As the day wore on we rode and stopped. We let them get within two hundred paces and then we moved. It was exhausting work. Snorri reined in when we approached the Roman fort on the Tinea. "We will need to find somewhere to rest, Jarl. We could stay here. It is defensible."
"No, Snorri, I want to be further north west and closer to home. Leif still has hours to go before he reaches our people. It will be late tomorrow at the earliest before a warband could reach us." Even as I said it I knew that I should have sent him to Ulf Olafsson first. Ulf and his warriors were the closest to us.
"Jarl we need food and we need to rest the horses."
"We ride to the fort and then dismount and walk. That will rest the horses. We will still be within sight of the Danes but we will have a good lead over them."
As we rode Aiden said, "You are gambling, Jarl."
"I am. If we keep on this road then they cannot get ahead of us. We have drawn them away from their drekar. They may cut their losses and return to their boat but if they see us walking and not riding then they will renew their efforts. It will tire them out. If we are hungry then so are they. If we are tired then they are even more so."
He nodded and said, "There is another fort just eight miles ahead. We will have to stop there."
We descended towards the Roman bridge. When we reached it I dismounted and looked up the hill. The Danish warband was strung out. It was a large warband. I wondered how many drekar they had. The warriors I could see wore no mail. They would be the ones keeping us in sight. Even as we stopped I saw one of them halt and turn. He would be shouting to the brothers. We walked across the bridge and we passed the old fort. We kept walking while we were within sight of the Danes. The road was straight for some way beyond the fort and the Danes could still see us but as it passed through a wood we were hidden.
"Mount and we ride for the next fort. Let us hide there."
It was a five mile ride to the fort. The Danes were too far from their drekar. They would have to camp. I wondered if they would camp at the fort we had just passed or would they pursue us? They would now know our destination. If they were determined then they would rest for a short time and then try to catch us as we slept.
Evening had fallen as we dropped down into the river valley. We dismounted when we saw the bridge over the river and the deserted Roman fort. "Rollo and Rolf, stay on this side of the bridge and watch for the Danes. We will take your horses."
We unsaddled the horses and led them to the river to drink. "Snorri, we need food!"
"Aye Jarl. I could eat a horse and not bother to skin it!"
I had not slept the night before and now exhaustion was setting in. When the first drops of rain fell on me I felt grateful for they refreshed me but as the raindrops turned to a downpour I became less happy. We took shelter under the roof of the crumbling bath house. Aiden managed to get a fire going and then he said, "I will fetch Rollo and Rolf. We have no need for them to watch. I will make an alarm. We will be warned of the Danes but I do not think that they will venture out in the rain."
Aiden was away for some time. Rollo and Rolf returned, "Aiden said to come into the dry, Jarl!"
"He knows what he is doing. "
Snorri came back with a young lamb. Within a few moments it was skinned and butchered and the joints speared on the ends of seaxes and thrust in the fire. It would take some time to cook through but we would eat each part as it cooked.
Aiden returned. "If they come then we will hear them."
I nodded. "We must take it in turns to sleep. They will come before dawn."
Snorri said, "Jarl you have not slept the longest; you will sleep. We have Aiden now."
He looked at Aiden who said, "He is right, Jarl. You will make bad decisions if you are tired."
I nodded. My eyes were closing. I curled up in a ball and pulled my wolf cloak over my head and I dreamed...
I was on Halvelyn and I was alone. I was naked with no sword to protect me. The creatures of the night crept up on me and they surrounded me. I looked around for a weapon and spied a broken branch. I held it, determined to sell my life dearly. I swung it around as the foxes and rats leapt at me. I felt their teeth as they nipped at me and I began to bleed and then there was such a roaring that I thought my head would burst and flames danced all around me. A huge dragon, the one I had seen in my dreams, landed and it picked me up in its talons. We flew high into the air. We flew so high that we left the earth far behind. We flew over Ulf Olafsson at Thorkell's Stad and he waved as I passed over. Circling the dragon began to descend and I was dropped on the top of Old Olaf. As I turned, the dragon ascended and disappeared. I reached up to touch the beast and it was gone.
"Jarl!" I looked up and saw Snorri. "It is almost dawn Jarl." The rain was still relentlessly pouring down.
"We must send to Ulf Olafsson for help. Let Rollo go. Give him a spare horse. Tell him to get there as quickly as he can."
"You dreamed?"
Aiden said, "He dreamed."
"Rollo! Ride to Ulf and have him bring his men along the wall to meet with us." He leapt on his horse and galloped off.
Just then we heard a cry from the river. "They have tripped my trap, Jarl."
"Then we ride. Let us mount."
As I mounted Finni stuck a lamb shank in my hand. "We saved this for you. You cannot kill Danes if you are hungry."
I mounted the horse and felt every bone in my body aching. It was some years since I had ridden so hard and slept on the ground. I was getting old. We began to trot down the road. I tore hunks of meat from the shank as we rode. Suddenly Snorri said, "There are Danes on the road!"
"Rollo?"
Snorri shook his head. "They have come from the south and I can see no sign of him."
"Then head north, towards the wall. We can cross the wall. We will be slower but the wall will give us some protection and it will hide us for a while."
We heard more shouts from behind as more of Aiden's traps were set off. They would incapacitate and not kill. Their purpose was to warn us. It was rough ground over which we travelled and we headed for the wood and the high scars. The rain was so hard that, if we could make the woods then they would find it hard to see us. If they had to search then we could buy time for our men to reach us.
I bit another hunk out of the cold lamb. I had never tasted anything so fine in my life. I barely chewed I was so hungry. As we reache
d the woods we halted. I turned and, still eating, looked at the Danes. They were trotting towards the woods. They had been refreshed by the halt. I turned and followed Snorri through the woods. We emerged on the other side and I saw a pile of rocks. "We will hide behind them. When they come through the woods they will waste time searching for us." There was something familiar about this landscape but I could not remember being here. Perhaps the teeming rain made it look like somewhere I had been before.
It was when we disappeared behind the rocks that I spied them. It was a pile of bones. There were pieces of rusted metal too. It was a grave, an old barrow, and the rain had washed away the soil. I saw Aiden and he had a look on his face which I had rarely seen. It was as though he was awake and yet dreaming. He dismounted. Snorri shouted, "Aiden!"
"Leave him!"
He wandered over to the pile of bones and reached down. I had no idea what he sought but his hand seemed drawn to something. He lifted a piece of cloth. It looked to have been golden but in the rain and with the detritus of an age it was hard to tell. There looked to be metal at one end. To me it looked like the sleeve of a giant's kyrtle. I moved closer and it was the second object which had a greater effect. It was a golden dragon with a metal chain. It was the dragon of my dreams. This was the place that Myrddyn had shown me.
Aiden turned and, still looking dazed, brought them over to me. He handed me the chain and the dragon. "Jarl, this is what the old man wished you to have. They are both from the times of the Romans. They are links to your ancestor."
I lifted it up and saw that it was the same dragon which had carried me to Old Olaf. I put it around my neck. Suddenly a Dane appeared and shouted, "I have them!"
"Mount!"
Snorri knocked an arrow and sent it in the direction of the Danish scout but he had already gone to ground. Holding the long sleeve Aiden mounted and we galloped west. As we did so I heard a weird wailing as air passed through the dragon sleeve. Finni shouted, "What is that? Is it the dead, Jarl? Have we done wrong?"
"No," shouted Aiden, "This is wyrd! This is the fulfilment of the Jarl's dream. The dragon cries. The dragon is born again!"
I had to put the thoughts of the dragon beyond me for the Danes were flooding across the rough ground towards us. The rocks and spongy, muddy turf were not good for the horses and we could not extend our lead. We rode in a rough line. There was little to be gained from travelling one behind the other. I risked a glance over my shoulder. Some of the Danes, the ones with mail, were falling further behind us.
"Head for the wall! There is a gap up ahead at the fort!"
There was an old Roman fort which rose above the valley. We would be able to make it before the Danes and once through we would be able to reach the road. The leading Danes were less than forty paces behind us. As Snorri led us towards it I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the Danes were even more spread out. Our manoeuvre had taken them by surprise. Disaster struck when we were just sixty paces from the ruined gatehouse. Aiden's horse slipped and stumbled. He was never the best rider and he flew from its back. Vermund had the last spare horse.
"Rolf and Finni, come with me."
I reined my horse in and slipped from his back. The Danes redoubled their efforts to reach me as Snorri and Vermund helped a groggy Aiden to the back of his horse. Rolf and Finni flanked me. I slipped my shield around and drew Saxon Slayer. I stabbed directly at the middle of the leading Dane whose spear was already lunging towards my head. Without taking my eyes from the Dane I flicked my head out of the way of the spear. The Dane impaled himself on my sword. Finni's sword struck a second Dane so hard on the side of his helmet that he fell stunned and Rolf's two handed axe took the head of the third. There was a gap to the nearest Danes and I shouted, "Mount. We have done enough."
Our horses were so tired that they had not moved far and we quickly remounted. Snorri's arrow made the closest Dane duck behind his shield and we lumbered up the slope to the gatehouse. The gates had long ago fallen and the rain, which still poured down had weakened the stones. "Rolf smash the gate's support with the back of your axe."
While Finni held his horse Rolf leapt from his back and giving a mighty swing the powerful young man's axe thundered and cracked into the left hand gate support. The ancient wood crumbled. The stones were loose and they tumbled down the slope filling the gate and falling down towards the Danes. It would give us a lead. It would be a short one but it would have to do. As soon as he had mounted I shouted, "Ride along the wall."
The Roman wall had a turf top and was wide enough for two horses. It was less slippery than the cobbles inside the fort. I turned and saw that they had yet to clear the gate. Trees had grown over part of the wall and, as we headed west, we were hidden from view.
The rain began, thankfully, to ease off and the skies cleared from the north. To our right was a sheer drop and the dark waters of a large tarn. Snorri shouted, "Jarl we had best be off the wall here. There is a cliff ahead."
"Find us a path!"
After a hundred paces or so he leapt from the wall with his horse to the soft ground south of it. Most of the others managed to do so as well but Aiden was still shaken from his fall and he had to gingerly lead his horse. We galloped south towards the road. We had travelled almost twenty miles since dawn and we were exhausted. The Danes would be too. We reached the road and we stopped. Two of the horses were lame or would be soon and I had a feeling that the Danes were up to something.
"Aiden, the Danes who waited for you, were they alone?"
He still looked shaken but my question made him become more alert. "They may have been but then again the men who took me spoke of large numbers of Danes."
Erik said, "If there were two brothers might that not mean two or even three drekar? Remember that Halfdan the Black had over forty men with him. That is not a small drekar. There could be seventy or eighty Danes out there."
Aiden's shoulders slumped, "I have let them make me panic and I should not have done so. I knew you were coming, Jarl and I should have used my head. Of course there were two drekar. They had me. It makes sense that they would have other men waiting to ambush you. It was just luck that you evaded them."
"Or the Norns!"
"Aye , the Norns."
"Then we should stop running. We are dancing to their tune. Ulf will be on his way soon. Leif and the men from Cyninges-tūn will be here tomorrow. There is another warband. They are driving us towards it."
Aiden nodded, "That explains why there were Danes on the road close to the fort."
"We dismount. Aiden take the horses to the woods and hide. Tonight we become Ulfheonar. We will teach them to be wary of the darkness." We dismounted and hefted our shields around. We helped Aiden to lead the horses to the dell between the wall and the road and we tied them to the trees. Aiden drew his short sword. He pointed to the dragon around my neck. "The spirits would not give you that in order for you to die here on the wall. The Norns have plans for you. What you do is right. I feel it in my bones."
I led the Ulfheonar half a mile to the east and the edge of the woods. I was now down to a handful of men: Snorri, Rolf, Erik, Vermund and Finni. There were six of us to stop a warband. To many that would have seemed impossible but these were Ulfheonar. Snorri pointed to the east. "They have been driving us and I see now why they did so. Have you noticed Jarl that it has been the men without armour we have seen? They are saving the others for the battle. They will come across this open ground and then enter this wood."
"Then we wait here!"
We spaced ourselves out so that any who entered the wood would have to pass us. The sun was setting early this night. The clouds still filled the sky and it was dark. That suited the men who wore wolf skins.
I stood behind a tree which masked my profile. With my black cloak, black helmet and mail I was invisible. The only thing which reflected light was my sword. Ragnar's Spirit seemed to glow in the dark and I kept it hidden behind the tree.
I heard the Danes. They were t
alking as they approached. "Why we have to do the chasing and Ragnar's crew just wait is beyond me!"
"He is the elder. Besides we get to kill the Dragonheart and gain his sword."
"I will not risk that. No man has fought him and lived."
"But the glory!"
Another voice shouted, "Shut up or I will cut your tongues out!"
"They are far ahead of us, Hersir! We would smell their horses."
"Spread out. We have the chance to close with them. No more talking."
The last voices were just paces away and I held Ragnar's Spirit ready to strike. I watched as a warrior holding a spear and a shield passed the tree. He paused and sniffed. Had he smelled me? Then he walked on. I put my left hand around his mouth and pulled Ragnar's Spirit across his throat. His warm blood gushed over my hand and I lowered him gently to the ground. I could not see my other men but I knew they would have slain those who had passed them.
I turned to the other side of the tree. The Hersir had said to spread out. Sure enough I heard the Dane walking towards me. He too paused and sniffed the air. Could he smell blood? As he passed me I took no chances. He was not wearing mail and I rammed my sword up through his ribs and into his heart. I lowered his body to the ground too.
There was silence and then I heard a voice. It came from the east. "Sven, where are you? Are they close?"
I risked looking around the tree. It was the mailed warriors. There were thirty of them and they had halted short of the wood. I guessed that we had slain all of their scouts. The warband halted and closed ranks. Good warriors could smell trouble. I knew that they were listening. They would hear us when we moved. No matter how quietly we shifted our position there would be some sound. I silently sheathed my sword. The sheepskin in my scabbard ensured silence. Then, cupping my hands together, I howled. The other Ulfheonar howled too. And then, as one we stopped and I turned away to head through the woods. The effect of the howling of the wolf was always the same. The warband tightened their ranks and drew together. Those who had never heard it before asked others what it was and the leaders would try to determine how many Ulfheonar lay in wait in the woods. The noise of their questions masked any noise we might make.