by Griff Hosker
Night was falling fast as we hurried up the slopes. We knew the mountain well. We had walked it since our first days on the island. We reached one of the many dells and formed a small defensive circle.
Beorn lay down and put his ear to the ground. “I cannot hear them yet.” Ragnar leapt away into the night. A short while later he returned with a freshly filled water skin. We took out what little food we had and shared it.
Haaken sat on the ground and took off his helmet. “They will come tonight. They cannot afford to have us here. They know we are Ulfheonar. They have the bodies of Carl and Ulf.” He looked at me. “As much as he wants Erika he wants you more. The others will tell him where you are and he will come.”
“I know but that means he will not attack our citadel.”
“We will be outnumbered.”
“I know but things are not yet lost. Twelve of us remain. Six sleep while the others lay some warning traps and then we swap over.” I pointed behind me. We still have some way to go before we reach the top. They will not know where it is and the darkness will help us. We are the wolf and this is our territory. We make them fear us.”
There was silence then Tostig asked, “What if they wait until morning and surround us? Then we will have no place to hide.”
Haaken laughed, “I know One Eye. We will be surrounded already. He will have warriors all around the base of this mountain.”
“Then he is a fool for he does not have enough men for that.”
“Nevertheless there will be warriors moving now to cut us off.”
I stood. “I know. Tostig, Beorn, Einar and Sven; you will sleep now and we will make some traps. When we are done then we will wake you.”
Cnut sounded indignant in the dark. “We were not complaining…”
I cut him off. “And I am still jarl so do as I tell you and sleep.”
I would not brook any argument and they knew it. They wrapped themselves in their cloaks and slept. We had all learned the skill years ago.
“Harald you watch here while the rest of us prepare traps to catch the unwary.”
“I should watch…”
“You are a fine bodyguard but you are like a bear. The enemy would hear you. Watch and listen.”
The four of us crept down the hill. There were small traps which we could make. They would not kill any warriors but they would warn us and that was as good. I used an old branch to prop some stones. I carefully stacked the stones until there were a large number of them and then I strung a spare thread from my leggings to another small branch. If someone pulled it then I would hear the rocks tumble.
I found another rock and I moved it. With my seax I scraped a hole beneath half of it. If someone stepped on it then the rock would tip and we would hear them fall. Finally I found a bramble bush and I cut many of the long trailing branches. I laid them across the area between the two traps. My work done I headed back.
When the others rejoined me I awoke those who had slept and I curled up to sleep. It was easy to sleep for we had done all that we could. If it was our turn to die then it would be a good death and we would have saved our families. That is the way of the warrior. I had no doubt that word would now have reached Erik and Rolf. They might not get to us in time but they would be able to reach our families and save them. My son would get revenge for my death. My sleep seemed to last but a moment. The hand that awoke me came over my mouth to stop me making a noise.
I opened my eyes and saw Cnut smiling down at me. He pointed down the mountain. I could see from the moon that I had slept a little. Dawn would be but a couple of hours away and with it, our deaths. I drew my sword and glanced around at the others. Beorn and Ragnar were missing. I looked at Cnut and he pointed behind us. His hand made a sweep telling me that my two best wolves were going hunting. The few of us who remained would have to do the job.
I listened carefully and heard the noise of stones skittering down the slope. They were coming. Einar had his spear ready and as the white face appeared he stabbed it forward to pierce the eye and enter the brain. The warrior barely had time to whimper. He fell dead. Behind us I heard a blood curdling scream as one of my men killed another. I sensed a movement to my left. There were none of my warriors there and, holding my shield before me, I stabbed blindly in the direction of the noise. I felt it strike something and I pushed harder. There was a grunt and then metal struck the boss of my shield. I withdrew my sword and then swung it overhand. I heard it smash into metal and then felt it slice through the shoulder of the warrior who screamed his death. There was a flurry of noise to my right and I heard two more gurgles of the dying. Then there was silence. It was nerve wracking but I knew that the silence worked in our favour. It meant no one else was coming. We were small in number but that also meant we were hard to find.
We waited until the moon had disappeared and Beorn and Ragnar had returned. I waved us up the mountain to the peak. We slipped silently up the slope. We would make our last stand on Snaefell’s crown. We moved silently and swiftly using the sparse cover and the folds of the land to hide us. Our tricks and traps had made them wary and I thought that they would wait until daylight to venture after us. I was correct.
We concealed ourselves just below the top. There were some rocks for cover and the ground below it was steep. Now that dawn was here I could see the bodies of their dead dotted along the slope. They still lay where they had fallen. We had not killed many but I suspected it was the braver ones whom we had slain. I saw Harald One Eye as he led his warriors in a long line up the slope. He was like a hunter with beaters. He had driven his quarry to a place with no escape. When he was a hundred paces from us he waved his men forward. This was no shield wall; the land did not favour that. This was a line of his best warriors and they would fight as individuals.
We had all taken a spear during the night and that would be our first weapon of choice. We would be above them and have superior reach. Of course, if they were any good then they would simply take the spear and hack off the head but if they were careless then they would die.
As we waited I looked across to the fort. It was too far to make out faces but I knew that Erika would be watching. It gave me comfort to know that she knew I had returned to try to save her. She would see, in a moment, how few of us remained. She would be witness to the last stand of the Ulfheonar.
Chapter 23
“Are we ready?”
“I was born ready,” growled Harald, making Haaken and the others laugh.
Suddenly one of the warriors facing us threw off his top and began biting the edge of his shield. I could see that his eyes were wide and he had the battle spirit upon him. Cnut shook his head, “That’s just what we needed, a berserker!”
The warrior seemed to hear Cnut for he hurled his shield at us and, taking his axe in both hands rushed at us. The problem with berserkers was that they took some killing. They were like chickens without a head; they did not know they were dead. The others would use the distraction to attack us.
“I’ll take the berserker; the rest of you watch for the others.”
As he ran towards us I stepped on to the rock. He had a maniacal grin on his face as he hacked down with his axe. I stepped to the side and stabbed down with my spear as his body came across the rock. It went through his back and the head came out at the front. Being a berserker he wrenched at the spear. I expected that and, as he overbalanced I leapt down, drew my sword and decapitated him. His bloody body slumped to the ground. His body twitched and then he was dead.
Just as I had predicted the rest of the warriors had run in the berserker’s wake. I now had a rock protecting my back and the rest of the Ulfheonar spread out on either side. I picked up the berserker’s axe and, as the first warrior roared out a challenge and ran at me I threw it at his head. The force of it split his head open and he fell backwards. I could feel the joy of battle come upon me.
“I am Jarl Garth Dragon Heart. I am Ulfheonar and I bear the sword touched by the gods! Fear me!”
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A mailed warrior with a full mask helmet hurled himself at me. I waited until he had committed to his blow and then I spun to the side and skewered him through his side. My blade went through the mail rings and I felt it crack off his ribs. I twisted it and turned it before kicking him from my sword. He rolled down the hill and I saw his body take the legs from three others. Their numbers were such that they surrounded our front but they could not get behind us for the rock. When they did then our resistance would, sadly, end. Until then they would bleed their lives away on Snaefell.
Harald was almost a berserker himself. He roared and he screamed as he laid around him with his sword. He was a big man and he had a longer reach than most men. Inevitably it was a small man who was his undoing. A warrior dropped to his knees and slashed at the back of Harald’s left leg, severing the tendons. I chopped down and killed the man but Harald fell backwards; unable to stand. Before he could be slain Beorn stepped into the gap and protected the fallen giant with his shield. I stabbed the man who would have killed Beorn.
Now that we had lost one warrior it became harder. A warrior rushed at me, I vaguely recognised him for he had an open helmet. His name had been Magnus the Bed Shaker. He was a huge warrior and he stabbed forward at me as he shouted, “I will take the sword forged by the gods and then a real warrior will own it!”
I took the blow on my shield and then I stabbed down at his foot with Ragnar’s Spirit. He howled in pain. I held my seax behind my shield and I thrust it upwards under his byrnie. I felt it enter his groin and warm blood and urine cascaded down my hand. I kept pushing upwards and I put my face close to his. “A real warrior has just sent you to Valhalla!” Punching him with the hilt of my sword he fell backwards and his bloody body rolled towards Harald One Eye.
The line of warriors before us halted as Harald shouted, “You have become better slave but you are still just a Saxon Slave spawned by a whore.” He was trying to antagonise me but I was cold within. “Butar will now be food for crabs and soon I will own this pathetic little island!”
His men began to bang their shields as they chanted, “Harald! Harald!” Over and over.
I did not mind the rest. We needed it. I glanced around my men. I saw that just Lasse remained from the three who had joined us. Only Harald had suffered a wound and he was tying a bandage around his knee. He would not be able to stand and fight but I knew that he would still fight, even from a prone position.
“Is anyone else injured?”
Einar spat out a tooth, “I have had worse wounds sharpening my blade.”
They would fight on but I knew that our blades needed sharpening. We had good Frankish blades but they had been cutting bone and iron for almost a day and, mine apart, I knew that they would be little better than iron bars. I glanced at the dead bodies and saw a variety of weapons lying there. We needed to slow down their next attack.
“Pick up any weapons that we can throw at them.”
I found a seax, a small axe and a short sword. I plunged Ragnar’s Spirit in the ground and waited for them to move. I knew what they were doing; we had bloodied them, the Bed Shaker had been a renowned warrior and yet he lay dead. They were building up to attack us. It would be a sudden rush when they ran at us. The slope of Snaefell would help us and I hoped that the weapons we would throw at them would also disrupt their attack. We could not fight for much longer.
Suddenly Harald One Eye shouted, “Charge!”
The line of thirty warriors who had been chanting suddenly launched themselves at us. I hurled the axe, picked up the short sword and sent that spinning towards the line. Finally I threw the seax like a throwing knife. Two of the weapons had drawn blood while the third had made the warrior trip. It was a line of ten men who struck us. I picked up my sword and swung it across the faces of the men who charged. Two pulled back their heads to avoid the tip but the third was too slow. It ripped across his mouth and he fell screaming to the floor. A spear jabbed from the ground as Harald stuck one of the two who faced me. I punched the third as he advanced and hit him on the side of the head with the pommel of my sword. It penetrated his cheek. As he fell back I drew the edge of my sword down his face and cut him open to the bone.
Sven suddenly collapsed to the ground holding his right arm. Tostig and Ragnar closed about him but we were now in danger of being swamped. Just a handful more men would have made a difference. If we were to die then we would die together. “Ulfheonar!” I shouted.
My men roared out the challenge too and then, in the distance I heard, “Dragon Heart!”
Then Cnut shouted, “It is Rolf!”
A heartbeat later, as the men of Harald One Eye looked in dismay to their right, Haaken shouted, “And Jarl Erik!”
“Push them down the hill!”
There were still sixty warriors before us but I knew that with fresh men and legs we could win. I could avenge Prince Butar and kill his treacherous cousin.
We could not see all of our allies but Harald One Eye could and I saw him shout to those around him to fall back. Leaving our two wounded comrades I led the others towards the thin line which now faced us. The heart had gone from them and they vainly held their shields before them. I used my own shield to push them to the ground and then stab them in their bare throats. My blade might have no edge but the tip could still kill. They ran. They headed for the north coast. Erik and Rolf led their men from the west and they drove into the fleeing warriors.
We were too tired to keep up with those who fled but I was determined to end this. Man is a small island and it was but a couple of miles to the coast. As we emerged from a dry valley I saw the reason for Harald’s route. His last ship awaited him. Unless we could reach him quickly he would escape.
My legs seemed to be like jelly as we ran down the hill. I could feel myself shaking with the effort. I saw Haaken tumble over a rock and then struggle to rise. Ahead of me I saw Snorri running along with Rolf after the fleeing raiders. Of all my warriors they were the ones who stood the best chance of catching them.
When we reached the flatter land, closer to the beach, I saw ten warriors detach themselves from those racing towards the ship. They formed a shield wall and I could hear a song. They were sacrificing themselves for their jarl. They were his oathsworn and they were fulfilling their oath. They would die to stop us catching Harald One Eye.
I saw Rolf and Snorri halt and form their own wedge. A dozen of Rolf’s men began loosing arrows at those fleeing beyond the oathsworn. Already I could see men clambering aboard the drekar. Some would escape now no matter what we did. Rolf shouted, “Charge!” and the wedge ran at the small shield wall.
The delay had enabled us to catch the rear of the wedge. I saw Snorri’s sword slice down and I heard the noise as it smashed the helmet in two and the warrior screamed as he died. Rolf and his men rolled over the line. Warriors who fell were skewered by those following and then we were past them and racing to catch Harald One Eye before he could leave our land.
We were destined not to do so. The sisters had other plans. My thread and that of One Eye were still entwined. We caught and killed a few of the slower warriors but Harald and many of his men boarded the drekar and it began to row away from the land.
I saw Harald One Eye standing by the steering board. He raised his fist. “This is not over, slave. You and I still have unfinished business!”
I stabbed my sword impotently into the sand. He was right. I had failed. I still had to avenge the death of my stepfather. I still had a quest and another journey I would have to take.
I sank to my knees in the sand and the surf. Snorri ran up to me, “My lord, what ails you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing but I had thought to end this here and now. I have failed.”
I heard Haaken and Cnut laughing behind me. Haaken lifted me up, “You have just held off two drekar crew with less than ten men and you have failed? I think not, Dragon Heart.” He pointed at the stern of the departing ship. “We will find him again.”
“But where will he be?”
Cnut dragged a wounded warrior towards me. “Let us ask this one.”
“Where is Harald One Eye going?”
In answer the warrior spat at Cnut. Cnut laughed, pulled out his seax and sliced off the fingers from his left hand. “Now you do not need your left hand to grip a sword. If you wish to go to Valhalla then answer my question.”
As he held his bleeding stumps with his right hand he glowered and glared at Cnut. “And if I tell you I will be given my sword?”
“You have my word.” I saw hesitation on the warrior’s face. “I am Jarl Garth the Dragon Heart and my word is law. You were left here by your jarl. That is the end of the oath you swore.” Cnut swept a hand around the bodies which were surging back and forth on the tide. “Your brothers are in Valhalla waiting for you. You have done your duty and the Allfather will welcome you.” He reached down for the man’s right hand and took out his knife again. “Or I can send you to meet with Hel. It is your choice.”
“We have found an estuary over on the west coast of Northumbria. There was a fort and a monastery there but they had been destroyed. That is where Harald lives.” He held out his right hand. “I have done as you asked now fulfil your side of the bargain.”
Cnut nodded and stepped behind the warrior. Snorri handed him a sword. As soon as it was in the warrior’s hand Cnut slit his throat.
“There, Dragon Heart. He has gone to the monastery we raided. We can go there any time we like.”
I nodded, “Thank you.” Turning to Snorri I said, “Harald and Sven are on the mountain top, wounded, have them brought to my wife and the healers.”
I saw the warriors of Rolf and Erik despatching the wounded and collecting weapons and armour. We had done well. We had defeated a larger warband of warriors. It still hurt to lose so many fine warriors of our own. Ours were irreplaceable.