by Griff Hosker
The ground was awash with blood, bodies and discarded weapons. We had not managed to avoid losses. Eight warriors were dead and four others would never fight again. Six warriors, including Tostig and Einar had wounds which needed stitching. I hoped that the sacrifice had been worth it.
“Snorri, find the villagers and bring them here.”
My warriors went around ending the suffering of the dying. Already Rolf had the men taking the weapons and the treasures from the Hibernians. Some of them had metal torcs around their necks. One looked to have gold and silver inlaid into the iron. These raiders were wealthy.
I heard a wail as the villagers were led out. They cowered. I could see that mothers gripped their children as though they expected them to be torn away from them. Their yokes made this difficult. They look thin and emaciated. They had not eaten well.
One man, a little younger than me, stood proudly and stared at me. I realised that we all had our helmets on and we must have looked intimidating. I laid down my shield, sheathed my sword and, taking off my helmet, smiled. I was not certain what language they spoke and so I began with Saxon.
“Who is your headman?”
The proud looking man said, “I am Pasgen son of Urien and I am the headman.” He paused and then, before I could speak, said, “If you think we fear you Viking, you are wrong. We did not fear the Irish and we will not bow the knee to you.”
I turned to my men, “Take their fetters from them.” I spoke in Norse and when my men approached them I saw that they bunched their fists and looked ready to fight. I held up my hands and said, in Saxon, “We mean you no harm. My men will take your yokes from you. We come not to enslave you but to free you.”
I could see the doubt on their faces but, once the first wooden yoke had been taken it was replaced by joy. Pasgen dropped to his knees when he had his yoke taken from him. He spoke in his own language. “Forgive me wolf man. I thought you came as they did to enslave and abuse us.”
I lifted him to his feet. “Do not believe all the stories you hear of the Norse. They are not all evil although there are some, I must admit, that I would not turn my back upon.” I pointed to the pots of food. “You all look as though you need food. My men will remove these bodies while you eat and then we will talk.”
I understood much of what he said. “Rolf, remove the bodies. We will make a pyre by the river else the carrion will come and feast. See to the wounded.”
Haaken joined me, “They have been cruelly treated. It was a good thing we did here today.”
“I know. It is wyrd is it not? We were meant to come here. It was a good blót. Have some guards placed outside. I do not think that any escaped but it is better to be safe than sorry.” He left and I waved Cnut over. “Have the Ulfheonar collect the treasure and take it to the river. Signal the camp and then they know we are safe. When it is dawn we will get the drekar and bring it over.”
Cnut nodded and then said, “I thought that huge warrior with the two swords might have had you Dragon Heart.”
“Once I realised that his hands were full I just used my head. Fighting without a helmet and armour may look heroic but it is foolish.”
Pasgen joined me, “I cannot tell you how grateful we are.” He suddenly looked worried. “Will we be beholden to you now? Owe you fealty?”
We sat on one of the logs by the fire. “You owe me nothing.” I took a deep breath, “I am not Norse. I was born of a Saxon father and a mother who was the daughter of the last Warlord of Rheged.”
If I had conjured something out of the air he could not have been more amazed. “You speak true?”
I laughed, “I am Dragon Heart and known to be a man of my word. I found the tomb of Myrddyn and a Warlord I believe to be my ancestor. I also found a sword. I have been told by some priest of the White Christ that my ancestors came from around here.”
He nodded, “I am descended, through my father, from the Royal family. We kept the names but for time immemorial we have just been farmers and fishermen. When the Warlord took our warriors south we were forced to fend for ourselves. Your coming gives us hope.”
“Good. I look forward to exploring this land that gave birth to my mother’s father.”
He looked fearful, “You cannot leave yet!”
“Why not? We have killed the raiders.”
He shook his head, “There are others who brought them. They are due back with the new moon.”
I looked up in the sky. That would be less than seven nights away. “Then we will stay.”
He relaxed, “Good. My father resisted them and they killed him and my mother. They are heartless and evil.”
“We will stop them.”
He suddenly seemed to see my shield and how we were dressed. “You look like wolves.”
I nodded, “We are the Ulfheonar. The wolf warriors.”
His eyes widened. “Then you are indeed descended from the Warlord for he was called the Wolf Warrior.”
I felt a shiver down my spine and the presence of Ragnar. “Wyrd.”
He nodded, “Wyrd! What is wolf warrior in your language?”
“Úlfarr.”
“Then we shall rename our town as Úlfarrston in your honour. We will be the town of the wolf warrior. You did not ask me for fealty and I shall give it of my own free will. I am your man and all my people will follow you.”
“But I may not stay. I have my family on Man.”
“It matters not. We will follow you. It was meant to be.”
Most of the people and many of my warriors had returned to the huts or lay down around the fire to sleep. I could not. My mind was a maelstrom of thoughts and dreams.
“Tell me Pasgen what you know of this.” I took out my seax and drew the dragon we had seen on the box.
He smiled, “That was the device and the banner carried by my ancestors. It came from the Roman Army and was a piece of cloth fashioned to look like a dragon. When the horsemen rode the wind blowing through the head made it wail. It frightened our enemies.”
Suddenly it all made sense; the sword, the banner, the cave and my involvement. Now I knew that my destiny lay not on Man but here, in Rheged.
Chapter 9
I awoke and felt the stiffness in my body. Although I was not old, the fact that I had aches and pains after a battle such as the one the previous day showed me that time was passing and I still had much to do. Had my ancestor, the one buried with the wizard beneath Wyddfa’s rocks, managed to achieve all that he intended? I doubted that for Rheged had been conquered. I had to work harder before it was too late.
I went to the river. Rolf had had some of his men swim across the river and I could see them loading the ship. He was still trying to make up for his delay with the storm. Pasgen walked behind me. “What do we call you?”
“My people gave me the name Dragon Heart and I am a Jarl.”
He nodded, “Then we will call you the same. Jarl Dragon Heart.” He looked to the west. “When the Hibernians come what will do you, Jarl Dragon Heart?”
“I have fought them before. They are a cunning race of warriors. They are disorganised and wild but they are clever too. If they see my ship then they will know that something is wrong and will return to their homeland for more men. There are many young warriors on their island who seek adventure and battle.” I pointed to the river. “How far up the river can we take my drekar?”
“There is a bend not far up there. I would say a Roman mile or so.”
“Good. Then when we have repaired my ship I will moor it beyond the bend where it can be hidden.” I looked to the north of the small settlement. The land rose gently. There appeared to be dips and hollows for I could see the tops of some trees. “My men will build a camp up there where we can hide from view and we will watch for the Hibernians. When they return what do you expect them to do?”
A frown passed across Pasgen’s face. “They will take the children who have grown since their last visit and sell them. They will find the young girls who are now wo
men, take them and sell them.” I saw him stiffen, “Any women who are not with child will be taken.”
“This village is a valuable source of income to them?”
He nodded. “In the spring they take most of the new animals born over the winter.”
“And that is why you are all hungry.”
“We could not hunt with the yokes and when they hunted they kept it for themselves. We were forced to live off the fish in the river. But their numbers have declined.”
I led him to his gate. “We will make the Hibernians fear this place but there are others who will come. There will be Saxons and Vikings who see you as something to be devoured. We need to make them fear you. I want each one of your men and young men to take one of the weapons we captured. Practise until you can use them. Then we will show you, when they have been defeated, how to make a better gate, a deeper ditch and higher wall. I am afraid you made it too easy for them.”
“I know but that was my father. We had had peace in his lifetime and that of his father. No-one bothered us and he thought it would stay that way.” He shook his head. “He kept dreaming of the day that the Warlord would come back and men in armour would ride to our rescue with the Dragon Banner.”
“That will not happen. There are no such men now.”
He looked at me curiously, “But he was right about one thing. He said that one day the Wolf Warrior would return and here you are. He will be happy now, in the Otherworld. We will do as you say. I hope your warriors can show us how to use the weapons.”
“Oh they can do that all right.”
When I reached the river they were unloading the drekar. I saw the relief on the face of Arturus. Aiden gave me a slight nod. My son had come through the ordeal well. It was all part of becoming a warrior. This voyage would see my son take the last steps as a boy before he became a man. The winter would bring many changes.
“Rolf, when we have repaired her we can moor her up river beyond the bend. Without the mast she will not be seen.”
He rubbed his hands. “Good. I will get the horses unloaded and then,” he grinned, “the boys can get rid of the horseshit from the bottom.”
I saw Arturus’ face fall. As the son of the jarl he had not expected to be doing such menial tasks. I had begun life doing just that. Strangely it was good for a warrior to experience that kind of job. You realised that it had to be done and that everyone in your community was as valuable as everyone else.
I gathered my Ulfheonar around me. Rolf and the rest of the men would need all of their energies to repair ‘Bear’. We had other things to do. “Come with me.” I led them up the slope to the low ridge which overlooked the river. As I had expected there was a depression, it looked like a bowl, which would serve as our camp. “We are going to build a hidden camp here. I will use the boys to watch for the Hibernians and I am hiding the drekar beyond the bend.”
“When do you expect them?” Haaken was the one who liked to plan. He was the natural leader when I was not around.
“They came in the spring to harvest the animals and the children. I would imagine that they will come towards the end of summer. The headman thinks they will come with the next moon.”
“We do not have long then.”
“No, Haaken, we do not. I am going to give them some of the weapons we captured. I want you to train them to use them. We will not be staying here. I intend to move on and winter elsewhere.”
That surprised them. “Why? There is shelter here and we are close to the river and our ship.”
“Because, Cnut, I would explore this land. I have a mind to bring my family here. From what Pasgen told me there is little danger here save from Hibernians and they like to strike close to the coast. I intend to find somewhere safe deep behind those mountains. They are not as steep as Wyddfa but these have no Welshmen lurking behind rocks.”
I saw Thorkell nodding. “Snorri and Beorn; I want you to explore the land north of here. Follow this river. See where it leads and how far along we can take a drekar. You have six days and nights. Do you want Aiden to go with you and draw a map?”
Snorri laughed and shook his head, “He will slow us down and I think, Jarl, that we too can draw a map. We may be just warriors and we cannot read but we can make marks on calfskin.”
“I am sorry Snorri. I was not trying to make light of your skills. I just wished you to be able to give me the information I required. If you are both happy with my instructions?” they nodded, “then waste no more time here.”
They raced back to the boat to collect what they would need. “The rest of you can spend the day hunting. These people have little food and the woods around here must be filled with animals.”
As we walked back to the town which would now be Úlfarrston Haaken walked with me. “Where is the youth who happily cleaned out the bottom of the drekar and cared for an old man?” I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face. “Now you are so decisive and know your own mind.”
I laughed. “He is still within but now he wears the skin of a jarl.”
“You know the men think of you as a prince?”
“I would not have Prince Butar’s title. I can never be the leader he was.”
Haaken shook his head, “You could be greater. There is nothing to stop you from becoming king.”
“King? King of what?”
He swept his hand around the land and the sea. “This is not Northumbria and it is not Hibernia. Pasgen said as much. This is the land of Rheged or what remains of it. He is descended from the last kings but he does not claim the title.”
“Enough. I am happy to be jarl and watch over my family.”
He nodded, “Then we will continue to serve you.”
The next five days passed quickly. The ship was soon repaired and I took Pasgen aboard as we rowed up the river. I saw smaller rivers which entered the large one. I realised that I could have saved my scouts much work had I spoken with Pasgen first.
“Where does this river lead? And how far along could we sail this drekar?”
“It ends at a large water. There is an old Roman fort at the head of it and my people used to live there. As for sailing?” He shrugged. “It is wide enough for this boat all the way to the water but I do not know about how deep it is. It becomes almost dry in the summer. In winter, when we have had the rains and snow, then it would not be a problem.”
That sounded promising. Once the problem of the raiders had been solved I would take my men up the river and see what we could find.
In the evenings I spoke with Pasgen and learned all that I could about this Warlord. They had many stories which had been passed down from father to son and I was sure that they were not all true. There was one story about how the Warlord flew with his wizard into the castle of a treacherous king and killed him before walking out through the walls. I did not believe that. However I learned that he too wore a wolf skin and fought under a wolf banner. The mounted men fought under an old Roman standard. The Dux Britannicus was called King Coel by Pasgen and was revered. He was keen to tell me all the tales he could. The Warlord appeared to have come from the east. The night he told me I felt shivers down my spine. “He came from a place close to the river the Romans called the Dunum.”
Could it be that I had been taken from the very place that my ancestor had grown up?
On the sixth day, late in the afternoon, Snorri and Beorn arrived back. Although I had spoken at length with Pasgen he had only given me a second hand account of the land to the north. He had never been there himself. It seems the community had kept to themselves. Had the Hibernians not visited them they would have remained isolated for all time.
They took off their weapons and slumped by the fire which was cooking our evening meal; the hunting had gone well. “This is good land, Jarl Dragon Heart; far better than that around Wyddfa.” I saw Thorkell exchanged a glance with Harald Green Eye. It was they who had liked the land around the high mountain. This was, perhaps, some compensation for them. They had los
t one dream and now another came their way.
“Yes, Beorn is right, Jarl. This river twists and turns and ends in a long and wide water. The water of the river was quite high but I do not think we could get ‘Bear’ into the water. Perhaps when the rains come…”
“That is what their headman told me.”
“The water teems with fish and is surrounded by mountains. We headed west after that and found a most disappointing place. It was filled with biting insects and flies.” Snorri showed me his arms which were covered in tiny red bites.
“Aye, we thought to turn around and come back down the river but we kept on and we were glad that we did. We found another water, longer and narrower than the first. This was closely surrounded by mountains. We only found two passes to it from the north. We followed the river south and it brought us out just a mile or so up this river.”
“Both places would make good settlements but Beorn and I preferred the second one.”
They exchanged a look with each other which made me curious. “Why?”
“The air was cleaner and there were fewer flies.”
That did not convince me, “And…?”
They both looked a little sheepish and embarrassed. “And there is a mountain which looks like old Olaf the Toothless bent over. We saw it as the sun set behind it. It was wyrd.”
“Then when we have dealt with these raiders we will visit the old man and pay our respects.”
We had another few days training Pasgen’s warriors. They were not very good. They had not been trained with weapons from a young age. Arturus had used a wooden sword as soon as he could walk. It was funny watching my son, who was little more than a boy, showing men twice his age how to use the swords we had procured for them. They were better with their bows and javelins, having used them for hunting but we had to show them how to make arrows which could kill a man. We made them better spears which they could not throw as far but which penetrated flesh better.