Banners of the Northmen

by Jerry Autieri

  Ulfrik swallowed his anger, and glanced at Einar. He shook his head, and Ulfrik agreed with the silent condemnation he read in his face. Months from now, they would be no closer to breaking the Franks. He closed his eyes and imagined Snorri and Toki arriving to a happy and safe Nye Grenner, where Runa and his sons prospered and received them with joy.

  To imagine anything else would inflict more pain than the bite of a Frankish arrow through his heart.

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  Two ships raced across the gray waters, strong winds filling their red sails. Men bristled on the deck, sharpening spears and swords, checking belts and fasteners, or testing the strength of their shields. These were men sailing for war, hearts full of bloodlust and desire for gold. Gulls rode the winds above the ships, squawking encouragement, eager to be led to a feast of flesh and entrails.

  Summer had come to the Faereyar Islands, coloring the fields green and the mountains blue. The season of the raider was at hand.

  Runa stood with Konal at the tiller. Though the weather was balmy, she swathed herself in a gray woolen cloak. Her pants were loose and comfortable, and her sword and sax carried easily on their baldrics. She would no longer wear mail to battle; its weight was a hindrance and danger to her. Instead, she covered herself with a wolf pelt. Animal skins were almost as much proof against a blade as mail, and less restrictive.

  Runa the Bloody would don the armor of the great berserks. She planned to fight like one, as well.

  The deck rolled with the waves and sea spray dappled her face in cool pinpoints. Konal guided his ship close to the shores of the islands. Runa did not know the exact location of Thorod's hall, and so they followed instructions given by one of Ingrid's people.

  "Mother, I don't want to stay on the ship," Gunnar said, tugging Runa's cloak to draw her eye down to him. "I want to stand with you."

  Gazing down on him, he appeared even smaller amid so many strong warriors. She had considered leaving him with the women and his brother, but surrendered to his persistence. He wanted to accompany the men to battle. Though his eyes and hair were hers, Gunnar's heart was all of Ulfrik's. She patted his shoulder, and dismissed him with a faint smile.

  "I need a guard for my ship," Konal said. "I've trained you and your friends for that very task."

  Shaking his head, he defied his young age by seeing through the trick. "You want me out of the way."

  "That too." Konal laughed. "Now if the directions are true, then Thorod's hall should be along that beach."

  Runa followed his pointing finger to a dark strip of rocky beach that swept up into hilly grassland. A velvety purple ridge of mountains backed it up. Squinting ahead, she detected delicate twirls of smoke rising amid the hills. "I see their hearth smoke. We have found them."

  The crew animated at the news, leaning over the rails to view their landing area. Some began to take their colorful shields off the rails, slinging them over their backs. Konal's second stood in the stern and yelled orders to Kell's ship trailing behind. Once he had their attention, hand signals conveyed his intentions. Watching these ships coordinate their actions bought her mind back to when she had sailed with Ulfrik against Harald Finehair. The battles fought aboard Ulfrik's ships had stained the decks red with blood. She had stood amid fighting and dying men and terror had rendered her useless. Now, nearly a decade later, she would stand at the center of carnage, just as terrified but prepared to fight and kill. She ran her hands along the racked shields until one felt right, then she tugged it free.

  Wary of rocks, Konal and Kell dropped their anchor stones in the shallows and the men had to slog to the shore. Gunnar grabbed Runa's arm before she dropped over the rails. She had wanted to avoid seeing him, knowing she might not survive true combat. He looked at her with sober eyes that expressed his realization of the danger. Her neck pulsed and her face was hot. Nothing had prepared her for what to say, and so she remained mute. Gunnar released her, and she splashed into the water.

  Stumbling through the cold water, the rocks were sharp against her feet. Konal and Kell organized their men into groups, and looked expectantly at her.

  "You're the leader," Konal said, smiling. "Take us to whom you want slain."

  "Follow the smoke," she said, not knowing what else she should say. "Drag them out of their homes and do as you will. If they resist, put them down."

  They marched up the slope into the shoulders of rocks that concealed Thorod's hall. Kell ordered men ahead to flush out concealed archers, but they found none. The hall emerged amid a thick green field, surrounded by smaller buildings. A horn sounded, and she knew they had been spotted. Behind her, men closed their ranks and raised shields.

  "You better get in line with us, if they send men to battle." Konal opened a place to his left.

  Runa studied the hall. Distant shouts preceded men and women who rushed toward it. Nothing indicated an organized force intended to meet them.

  "If Thorod won't come out, we can break in." She pointed at the hall, and started toward it.

  The men scouting ahead now emerged into the open, and escorted the flanks of the main body up the hill until they arrived at the village. Except for a gull perched on a roof ridge, the place was empty. Several buildings had collapsed, and decay had overtaken others. Only the hall appeared in repair, though shattered barrels were strewn around the walls.

  "If I didn't see hearth smoke, I'd consider this place abandoned." Runa scratched the back of her neck. The wolf pelt fur itched her skin wherever it touched.

  "They gathered in the hall for protection," Kell said, stepping out from the line. "Unless it's a trap, this is the action of a desperate man."

  "We can burn it down and sift the ashes later," Konal suggested. He joined Runa, tapping his shield to hers. "You just want to kill these bastards anyway. Don't need to do it with your bare hands, right?"

  Again Runa had no words. She wanted nothing but death for the men who had driven her family to poverty and starvation, and who had sent their sons to murder. Now, standing amid a ruined village that seemed to have suffered the same as her own, she hesitated.

  "I want answers. Tear down those doors and let's find what is inside."

  "A hall burning is better, and safer for us."

  Runa glared at Konal until he snickered and relented. He ordered men to smash open the doors with their two handed axes. Each blow on the door brought a flurry of screams from within the hall. Most of the voices sounded female.

  "Feels good to strike terror into your enemy's heart." Konal admired his men at work. "Revenge is a delicious supper."

  As the men wrestled their axes free of the sundered door, other men came forward with spears and bows with arrows strung. They kicked apart the wood as carelessly as if it were an ordinary day’s work. One even stooped to drag timbers out of the opening. No one attacked.

  "I'll go first, and you come behind." Konal barred Runa from stepping through the breach. She did not resist.

  Sweeping in behind Konal, she found a hall of women and children and elderly. Six men armed with swords and spears had ranked up at the center of the narrow hall. The light from the smoke hole dropped squarely on their heads, lining them in a bluish-white glow and filling the shallows of their faces with black.

  As more men pushed inside, Runa strode the short span to the enemy. Holding her sword low and forward, she kept her shield high on her left. The men responded in kind, shifting into fighting stances. She searched their gaunt faces for Thorod, but could not identify him. All seemed equally poor.

  "If this is all you can muster, you are defeated." Runa filled her voice with all the derision she possessed. "A hundred men surround you."

  Her words drew cries and moans from the women. Her eyes did not leave the men arrayed against her, but she stretched her vision so no one might surprise her from the side. No one moved, except for her own warriors. Konal swept the line with his sword, pointing to all of them.

  "One of you must be the leader, or you're a
t least hiding him. You can't be protecting these people, since we've already got them as hostages."

  A girl shrieked with horror in time with Konal's words. Runa struggled not to turn behind, leaving herself open to attack. Yet the terrified screaming elicited more from others, until the hall vibrated with terrorized howls and the rough barks of the aggressors. The sounds returned awful memories of her own family hall being raided.

  She shook her head. These are your enemies, she reminded herself, these men would rape you and your women, kill your men and take your children as slaves. Don't pity them because they cannot carry out their evil.

  The six men wavered and stole glances at each other. Two of them were not young, gray hair showing at their temples and at the roots of their beards. One finally lowered his sword. "This is all that is left. That last of the hirdmen have joined with Skard."

  "Liar!" Runa's sword flickered in the milky light, but one of the other men parried the half-hearted thrust with a spear. He did not counter, so Runa let her blade lower. "You are hiding Thorod here."

  The man coughed a dry laugh. "We are hiding his bones under the earth. Thorod died of fever this winter, along with his wife and two sons. Only Gauti, his middle son, lived, and he took the hird to Skard." The man's expression grew distant, and his eyes clouded. "You came too late to defeat us. The fever claimed mostly men. The gods have extracted revenge for you."

  That the gods might side with her shocked Runa. She scanned the hall, finding scared and desperate faces. These people were her enemies, but they were too much like her own.

  "Better the gods burn you from the inside than me burning you in this hall." She pointed her blade at the man. "Your name?"

  "I am Bjornolf, and for lack of anyone else I am who serves as a leader here."

  "But Skard has the hird. So you serve him still." The man swallowed, and nodded. "Then you are my enemy. You will climb aboard Skard's ships, sail to my home, and slit my throat. But not before having your way with me. Am I mistaken? Five foolish young men tried that over winter, and I have their heads on poles to show how poor an idea that was. Yet it won't stop you, will it? A whole army at your back, kicking apart my hall and carrying away everything of worth."

  Runa's voice intensified as she recounted all the horrors she knew awaited her when Skard finally organized his force. The man shook his head, but he refused to meet her eyes. She knew he lied.

  "You have probably been to Nye Grenner to raid. Isn't that so, Bjornolf? Do you know who I am?"

  "You are Ulfrik's wife."

  "No! I am Runa the Bloody. And I will show you how I earned that name. Konal, bring me one of their children."

  Konal did not react, merely regarding her with indifference. She shouted her command again, and he turned to the first child he spotted, grabbing a girl by the leg and dragging her forward. The hall erupted in screams. The six men lurched forward to defend the girl, but a wall of sharp iron warded them off.

  Runa twisted her hand into the girl’s blond locks. She wondered if the child could feel her arms quivering with fear. Runa hoped someone had the sense to beg for her life, or she would have to follow through on her bluff.

  "Men from this place have killed my people for years, either in battle or by raiding our flocks. How many young girls like this one have died because of you?" The girl screeched as Runa yanked her head. "You came in winter, with a knife at my son's throat. Let me return the favor."

  Konal's men guarded the six enemy defenders too closely, making interference impossible. She placed the sword edge against girl's white, pulsing neck. Runa's head thundered. She was going to murder an innocent girl. She snarled, and the girl struggled, causing the blade to gash her neck. Bright blood flowed with the girl's cries, though the wound was not mortal.

  At last the mother broke through and threw herself on her daughter.

  Runa stepped away and released the girl, hoping her relief did not show to the others. The mother cradled her daughter, both sobbing uncontrollably. To maintain a fiction of ruthlessness, she kicked the mother over and dangled her sword at the woman's face.

  "How many of your sons did you send to kill my people? I should cut you from gut to neck and drown your daughter in blood."

  The woman screamed at the horrid description. Satisfied she had cowed these villagers, Runa returned to Bjornolf.

  "Do you have children?"

  Bjornolf shook his head, but a woman cowering in the corner of the hall called out, "You have a daughter!"

  Runa's smile stretched as she watched Bjornolf glare at the woman. "Be glad, Bjornolf, for you have a chance to do good by your people. I see the gods have struck the hard blow you deserve. I will not waste my time here, but I need to be certain you will not betray my mercy. Give me your daughter."

  "No, she is all I have left in the world."

  "Konal, make sure Bjornolf dies slowly and without a weapon in his hand. Then take all the children hostage."

  No sooner had she uttered the command than Bjornolf's people seized a young girl with blazing copper hair. She fought wildly, screaming for her father. Konal and his men tightened their distance to Bjornolf, who began to weep.

  "You are a poor leader to your people." Runa said, watching the girl clawing at the villagers who shoved her into the arms of Konal's warriors. "You cry where you should rejoice. I have spared you, your daughter, and all the people hiding under your protection. But if anyone warns Skard of my coming, or tries to hinder us in any way, your beautiful daughter's head will be returned to you. Her body will be fed to sharks. Understood?"

  Bjornolf nodded, and his daughter settled down. She was of an age with Gunnar, thin but possessed of wiry strength. Her hair was strikingly lustrous even in the poor light. "She doesn't look a bit like you. Are you deceiving me?"

  "No," was his hoarse reply. "She is the very image of her mother. Dead this winter too."

  "Pity," Runa said, turning away. "Everything of value here belongs to me. Konal and Kell, take what you will but leave the people unharmed."

  She strode out of the hall, the villagers screaming protest. The men began tearing through the hall, while those outside began to pillage other buildings. Runa returned to the ship, slipping her shield over her back. Her pounding heart began to calm and her ragged breath evened out. She wanted to give Gunnar a hug, and to put the horrible morning behind her.

  A summer storm preceded Runa's approach to Skardholmur. Despite its brief violence, Konal and his crew reveled in it. They screamed glory to Thor every time lightning struck and thunder followed. Black clouds had vanquished the afternoon sun, and winds churned the waters so the ships bobbed and rocked like leaves on a fast running creek. Gunnar and his friends joined the crew, and Runa had to drag him away from the rails as he stepped up to hail the lightning.

  "But Thor is with us," he had protested. "We go to destroy our enemies at last, and he celebrates with us."

  "No battle is won until you stand in the blood of your enemies." The words sounded like Ulfrik's to Runa's mind, and had the same effect that he had with Gunnar. He allowed her to guide him away from the rails.

  For all the fury in the skies, little rain fell. Konal further proclaimed this as a sign of Thor's favor. Wet ground and wet weapons would make combat a misery.

  As they neared the island where Skard sheltered his army, the clouds broke up and but for an errant flash of lightning and grumble of thunder, the storm passed. Men on both ships cheered, confident of victory and anticipating glory and spoils. Their looting of Thorod's hall had yielded more than the village would have appeared to possess, but still less than what the men desired. Bjornolf's daughter, whose name Runa still did not know, tucked fearfully into the shadows of the gunwales. Gunnar tried to speak to her, but she dropped her head and refused to answer.

  Skard's hall lay within a thin fjord of high cliffs, where Konal spotted men who either were sentries or lucky wanderers. By the time he led his ships to the soft sand beach and disgorged his crews, Ska
rd had been alerted. The warriors on the beach shouted war cries when they heard distant horns blasting in warning.

  "Stay on this ship and if evil men come ...," Runa's words faded as she held Gunnar's shoulders. Swallowing, she squeezed his shoulder and turned away. She wanted to wrap her arms about him and promise safety. Yet even Gunnar was not so young to realize if his mother did not return he would be orphaned at best, or killed by the enemy at worst.

  "I will protect myself, Mother." He patted the short sword at his side. Runa smiled, admiring his fighting spirit even as she knew Gunnar had little hope in a fight with a man.

  "When I return, all evil will be wiped from these islands and we will live in peace. The gods are with us today." Their eyes held, and Runa feared emotion would ruin her ability to lead these men.

  Disembarking, she joined Konal and Kell as they assembled with their best warriors. Konal was completing his instructions for the attack. "The land is flat and open, so loop behind and we will have surrounded them. There can't be many of them. It will be butchery today."

  The men glanced at Runa as she joined their circle. Konal directed her up a shallow grass slope toward the horizon. Sun shafts poked through black clouds, shining on the dark line of warriors.

  "The gods have marked them for us," Runa said. "Skard and his foul kin will be forever wiped from the land today. Let no one live; no one survives."

  "What about the villagers?" Kell asked, sharing a look with his brother. "We were promised captives for ransom or slavery."

  "Everyone gathered here is my enemy. Do what you will." She had spared the last village, but the men needed spoils and the most valuable spoils would be the ships at dock and the people who crewed them. She could not deny them rewards for risking their lives.

  Runa jogged at the front of the group as Konal and Kell lead a swift jaunt toward the defenders. Her thoughts were clear, much to her surprise, though her heart raced and her legs weakened. The heavy shield on her arm covered more of her than a normal man, and her wolf pelt would be proof against most blades. Only her head was exposed, since she had discovered wearing a helmet restricted her vision.