The Long Hunt (The Strongbow Saga)

by Roberts, Judson

  "We should go," Einar murmured quietly, so the others could not hear.

  He was right. The fight was not over. "Archers," I said. "Retrieve your bows. The rest of you, come with us. There are enemies yet to kill."

  We trotted the length of the cleared pirate ship back to its bow and climbed over the rail onto the deck of the first ship we'd captured, the one which was now lashed tight against the hull of the Gull. I stopped when I reached Hrodgar's body, where it lay in the pool of his own blood. Einar came up behind me.

  "He was a good man. I shall miss him," he said, then added, "It was here that we broke them. It was you that did so, you know."

  I looked at him and frowned. Gudfred paused beside us and nodded his head. "Aye," he agreed. "It is true."

  "From across the ship I saw you down on your hands and knees on the deck, here by Hrodgar's body," Einar continued. "I thought you were wounded, and was running to help you, for two pirates were closing in. But suddenly you were up on your feet, and had stuck the blade of your sword through the neck of that one." He pointed to the nearby body of a warrior sprawled on his back, his throat ripped open. "Then, almost quicker than I could see, you whipped your blade sideways and cut clean through this other one's neck." He pointed at another body, this one headless. Einar grinned. "I think it was the sight of his head sailing through the air that unnerved the rest, for the pirates closest to you backed away as fast as they could, and they all broke when the rest of us pressed forward against them."

  Gudfred turned his head to the side and spit upon the deck in disgust. "It is always a bad idea to turn and run," he said. "Many of their slain have their death-wounds in their backs. It is a poor way to die."

  I stared at them blankly. Einar squinted and studied my face. "You do not remember it, do you?" He and Gudfred exchanged quick glances.

  I did not answer. "We must not tarry here," I said, and trotted away to where I had left my bow and quiver. Tore was still there, leaning back against the side of the ship, his eyes closed. His breathing was so shallow that for a moment I feared he was dead. When he heard me approach he opened his eyes and looked around, seeming confused.

  "How goes the battle?" he asked. He was very pale, and the leg of his trousers was soaked with blood.

  "Help me lift him," I said, turning to Einar. "We must take him to the Gull, to Cullain. Perhaps he can stop the bleeding."

  Tore groaned as Einar and I pulled him up and draped his arms across our shoulders. "Do not leave my bow," he panted.

  Gudfred bent down and picked up Tore's and my bows and quivers. "I will bring these," he said.

  "Get Storolf's quiver, too," I told him. "Divide his and Tore's arrows among the archers."

  Aboard the Gull, the wounded who were strong enough to walk or crawl away from the fighting had gathered aft of the mast, and were seated or lying on the deck there. Cullain was moving among them, checking and binding their wounds. He was helping the archer from the Serpent who had been hit in the shoulder with an arrow remove his tunic when Einar and I arrived with Tore. He was no longer even trying to walk between us—his feet were dragging across the deck, the right one leaving a trail of blood behind it.

  Seeing him, Cullain hurried over. "Where is he wounded?" he asked.

  "In his hip. It was an arrow."

  After we laid Tore on his back on the deck, I straightened up and took my bow and quiver from Gudfred. "We must go," I told Cullain, who was removing the makeshift bandage Tore had tried to staunch the bleeding with. The strips of cloth were so soaked that blood was dripping from them onto the deck. "Can you save him?"

  "His life is in God's hands, but I will do what I can."

  The battle was now being fought primarily on the wolf-headed longship of the pirate captain, Sigvald. Its bow was still wedged between and lashed to the bows of both the Gull and the Serpent, and the sounds of fighting—men shouting, cursing, sometimes screaming in pain, and the clash of weapons striking shields and helms—carried from it back onto the deck of the Gull, where I paused just forward of her mast to survey the scene. The front half of the Gull was completely deserted—all of her crew, save Cullain, the wounded, and the warriors who were with me, had boarded Sigvald's ship with Hastein.

  Most of the Serpent's crew, including Stig, had also joined the boarding party, climbing from the right side of the Serpent's prow onto the pirate vessel, though a handful of men still manned the Serpent's fore-deck to guard it against attack from the pirates' other longship, which had grappled the left side of the Serpent's prow early in the battle and was still lashed bow to bow with her. The pirates aboard it had also grappled and tied their ship side by side with Sigvald's, and most of them had by now joined in the battle to repel Hastein and his men. Some had crossed over to Sigvald's ship to fight with his men, while others lined their own ship's side and launched missile fire at Hastein's flank. Seeing that most of the Serpent's warriors had boarded Sigvald's ship, the pirates had left only a few men on their ship's fore-deck to guard against any attempt to board from the Serpent.

  As I studied the scene before me, I realized with a shock that the gilded dragon's head mounted on the stem post in the bow of the last pirate ship was carved in the likeness of the head of a fighting horse. It was the Sea Steed—the ship Snorre had captained in Frankia, and one of the two ships Toke had fled from Jutland with.

  Einar and Gudfred were standing beside me, with the rest of our archers and the men whom Hrodgar had led gathered close behind.

  "Look," I said to Gudfred, and pointed at the pirate ship. "It is the Sea Steed."

  He stared at it for a few moments, frowning, then grunted. "Hunh. So it is."

  "What are your orders?" Einar asked. It was strange to hear those words coming from him. We were comrades. I considered us equals.

  How could we best help Hastein? Our small force was the only reserve of warriors on either side that was not already committed to the battle.

  "We will clear the fore-deck of that ship," I said, pointing at the Sea Steed. "Einar, Asbjorn, Hallbjorn—you come with me. Gudfred, take the rest of the men to the Serpent's fore-deck. I want you, with Stig's men who are already there, to cross the bows and board her."

  "And you?" Gudfred asked.

  "When you begin your attack, the three of us will shoot them from behind."

  Only six pirates had been left to guard the bow of the Sea Steed. When they saw Gudfred and the warriors with him clamber from the Gull onto the Serpent and race toward them, they cried out in alarm to their comrades farther down their ship, calling for help, then raised their shields and spears and pressed forward to stand against the bow rail, to try and fend off the attackers' attempts to climb across onto their ship.

  The fore-deck of Sigvald's ship was deserted like that of the Gull, save for the bodies of those killed during Hastein's attack, for the fight had by now moved further down the hull. Einar, Asbjorn, Hallbjorn, and I climbed from the bow of the Gull over the butted rails of the two ships, dropped down onto the deck of the pirate vessel, and moved down along it until we had a clear line of fire at the bow of the Sea Steed.

  The six pirates desperately trying to defend the Sea Steed's bow from being boarded by Gudfred's much larger force were little more than the length of a spear shaft away from where we stood. I nocked an arrow, drew it, and shot it into the back of the head of one of them. Shooting beside me, Einar, Asbjorn, and Hallbjorn each killed a man, too. At such short range, it would have been difficult to miss. One of the two remaining pirates swung around to face the new danger. A spear thrust by one of Gudfred's men from the fore-deck of the Serpent pierced his back. The last man tried to flee, but Einar and I each put an arrow into him and brought him down.

  As Gudfred and the warriors with him began climbing across the bow rails onto the fore-deck of the Sea Steed, the rest of the pirates aboard her who had been lining her left rail, firing on Hastein and his men, cried warnings to each other and hurriedly swung around to form a line across their sh
ip's deck. There were only ten of them. The rest of her crew—besides the six we had just killed—must have crossed over to Sigvald's ship.

  "For once in this fight the odds favor us," Einar said. Including the members of the Serpent's crew who had been guarding her fore-deck, our warriors who were now boarding the Sea Steed's bow numbered twenty-one.

  A warrior in the center of the pirates' shield wall, a big man almost a full head taller than his fellows, was exhorting his comrades to close up and tighten their line. His attention was solely on Gudfred and his men—he was unaware that four enemy archers were standing in the bow of Sigvald's ship, alongside. I nocked another arrow, drew, and fired. My arrow hit him in his left eye. The odds were even better now.

  "Gudfred!" I cried. "Line your archers across the fore-deck, and the rest of your men on the main deck in front of them in a shield wall, to protect them. We will all shoot together, on my command."

  It is a hard thing to stand and watch a man, not thirty paces away, draw a bow and aim it at you. It takes much courage to keep watching until the arrow is released, and great quickness to evade or block the shot. It is far, far worse when there are ten men shooting at you from two different directions.

  Our first volley felled three men. Our second, four more. Then our shield wall charged and cut down the rest, and the ship was ours. Our men aboard the Sea Steed standing over their enemies' bodies waved their bloody weapons overhead and let out a ragged cheer.

  On the pirate chieftain's ship, the main battle was still being fought amidships. The pirates had arrayed their shield wall in a wedge rather than a straight line. Its peak was held by Sigvald and two other men, one on either side of him, each of whom was armed with shield and spear. Behind them the line slanted back on either side until it reached the ship's sides. The remainder of the pirates were massed inside the wedge, ready to step forward and take the place of any warrior who fell.

  Sigvald was armored, in addition to his helm, in a brynie with long sleeves that came to his wrists, and a skirt that reached below his knees. I had never seen such a mail shirt—it left little exposed on him to strike at. He had slung his shield across his back, and was using both hands to wield a weapon that was also unlike anything I had seen before—a long-handled axe with a spear point for stabbing mounted above its blade on the end of the shaft. He was using it to both strike with and to parry blows aimed at him. His position at the peak of the wedge meant he faced the brunt of our shield wall's attacks, but also allowed him to swing great blows with his weapon. The bodies of four of our warriors, crumpled on the deck in front of him, attested to his ferocity and skill.

  Hastein and Torvald opposed him in the center of our line. Their shields were badly hacked and looked as though they'd taken several hard blows from Sigvald's weapon. When the cheer by our warriors rang out from the deck of the Sea Steed, Hastein glanced quickly in that direction, then cried out, "Fall back! With me—fall back."

  As our shield wall disengaged from the pirates and slowly backed away from them, on the Sea Steed Gudfred arrayed his men along that ship's left side. He and the five archers with him lined up opposite the right side of the pirates' wedge formation, two warriors with shields and spears guarding each archer, and began to launch arrows into the pirates' ranks at point blank range, steadily drawing and firing.

  By now our shield wall aboard Sigvald's ship had pulled back far enough from the pirates' line to be safe from anything except a thrown weapon. At Hastein's command, they stopped and stood facing the pirates' wedge, their line bristling with spears held at the ready. Hastein switched his spear to his left hand, holding it together with the handle of his shield, raised his horn to his lips and blew one long peal upon it. At the sound, the warriors aboard the Sea Steed turned and looked in his direction. "Hold your fire!" he cried to them. "Hold your fire!"

  Torvald, who because of his height could see above the heads of our warriors crowded in the back ranks of our shield wall, glanced behind him toward the pirate ship's bow. Spotting me and the three archers standing beside me back on the fore-deck, he leaned down and spoke to Hastein, then waved his arm, signaling us to come forward.

  When I pushed through our men and reached him, Hastein asked, "Where is Tore? I do not see him aboard that other ship."

  "He was hit by an arrow."

  "Is he dead?"

  I shook my head. "He still lived when I left him with Cullain. But he is in a bad way. And Hrodgar is dead."

  Hastein shook his head. "Stig is down, too. He fell when we were crossing over the bow rails. I do not know if he still lives."

  Stig had fallen? I must have passed his body in the bow. I had not bothered to look closely at the dead there.

  "Who commands those warriors aboard that ship?" Hastein asked.

  "Gudfred. He was one of my brother Harald's men."

  "Hunh," Hastein said. "Clearing that ship was well done. He must be a good man. What of the fourth ship?"

  "It has been cleared as well," I answered.

  He turned and stared at the pirates' line. They were staring back, but for now showed no inclination to attack.

  "They have lost their stomach for this fight," Torvald said. At some point during the battle he had armed himself with a long-handled war axe. The edge of its big, curved blade was wet with blood. "Let us finish them now."

  "We are closely matched in numbers," Hastein said. "And now it is they who must fight on more than one front. But I would end this without losing any more of our men. Halfdan, you and Einar come here, and stand beside me on my right. Asbjorn, Hallbjorn, on my left. Ready your bows. On my signal, shoot together. Kill their leader."

  I nocked an arrow and held my bow at ready down in front of me, my bow arm flexed, the first three fingers of my right hand curled around the string, ready to draw. Beside me, Einar did the same.

  In a loud voice that carried the length of the ship, Hastein called out, "Put down your weapons and surrender. You cannot win. You are surrounded. Your other ships have all been cleared. All of your comrades aboard them are dead. Put down your weapons, and we will let you live."

  Sigvald raised his weapon over his head, brandishing it with both hands, and roared, "We will never…."

  "Kill him!" Hastein shouted.

  Einar and I swung our bows up together, drawing them as we did. Asbjorn and Hallbjorn did the same. I was staring at Sigvald's eyes, at his right eye, and saw it widen in fear and surprise. At such close range, he had no time to try to escape his doom. All four of our arrows slammed into his face, snapping his head back, and he flopped down onto the deck.

  "Like shooting cabbages," Einar said. "Eh, Halfdan?" I remembered that Tore had said the same to me, early in the battle. I wondered if he still lived.

  "Put down your weapons," Hastein cried again. "Surrender, and I give you my word, my men will not kill you."

  One of the two warriors who had been standing beside Sigvald glanced down at his captain's lifeless body, then slowly bent down and laid his spear and shield upon the deck. Behind him, others began to do the same.

  * * *

  Over the course of the battle, the wind, which had been blowing from the north all day, had gradually pushed our ungainly raft of lashed-together ships toward Oeland's shore. By the time we'd finished disarming the pirates who surrendered—there were more than a score of them—we had drifted close enough to the island to be able to see that its beach was rocky.

  "We need to free the Gull and Serpent from these ships and from each other," Torvald warned Hastein. "We must be able to steer if we are to keep them clear of the rocks."

  Hastein stared at the shore, as if trying to gauge how much time we had before the ships were blown against it.

  "We will cut away all but this ship—their captain's ship," he finally said. "It is the finest of them, and the richest prize. I do not like letting the others go, but you are right—we have no time to try and save them all. We must send men to each of the other ships to retrieve any of our dea
d or wounded who are aboard them. And they should quickly search each ship, and take all weapons and anything else of value they find on board before they cut them loose." He glanced around, scanning the faces of the men nearby, then spoke to the two brothers called the Ravens, who had been listening. "Bjorgolf, Bryngolf, take five men each and do this quickly. As soon as you have searched each ship, cut it loose and push it off from us."

  Turning to Torvald, he said, "I will need you to take command of the Serpent. Once they are done and we separate our two ships, we will head back down the channel, and look for a safe anchorage along the mainland shore."

  "What of the prisoners?" Torvald asked.

  "We will leave them aboard this ship, under guard, and tow it behind us. Halfdan," he said, turning to me, "you will stay aboard here, and keep watch over the prisoners. Pick four men to stay with you. You will be greatly outnumbered. If any of the prisoners disobeys any order you give, kill him immediately. Do not let them become tempted to try to overcome you and regain their freedom."

  I selected Einar, Gudfred, and Hallbjorn to assist me. I was intending to ask Asbjorn, too—I thought it would be a good idea if all of the guards were archers, as we could kill the prisoners from a distance if they should try to rise against us—but Bram, from the village, asked if he could help, so he became our fifth man.

  After Bjorgolf and Bryngolf had departed with the men they'd picked to help them, the rest of us set about completing the task of securing the pirate chieftain's ship. The greatest numbers of our own dead and wounded were aboard it, for it was here that the fiercest of the close fighting had occurred. A search of the bodies scattered across its deck revealed that seven of our warriors had died during the fighting after the boarding of her—three from the Gull's crew and four from the Serpent—and seven more had been badly wounded. Stig, to Hastein's relief, was among the latter. Though badly hurt, he still lived.