The return of my horse had alerted Mary. She is a Christian and can have not a drop of volva blood in her but sometimes she knows things that she cannot know! As I approached my two eldest ran to me and I swept them up in my arms. They both babbled about presents and I felt guilty that I had not brought any. Then they asked to play with me, and it confirmed in my head that I did not need this risk for a future king’s desire.
“Children, go and prepare for food. Anna, take them to wash. Your father will put you to bed tonight and tell you stories but first I need to speak to him, alone!”
My wife had a firm voice which brooked no argument and the four of them left without complaint. “Sit and tell me all.” Mary poured me some ale. “I know that there is something going on. Agnetha came yesterday to speak to me and she rarely visits. Others have been arriving to speak to me. I thought that you had been summoned to the king for punishment and I was relieved when you returned whole but tell me so that my mind can become at peace once more.”
I swallowed some of the beer and then began. I told her of the task and then of my misgivings and how I had thought to confront my foster father. Finally, I told her that I believed I would have to do this.
When I had finished, and it took less time than I had thought she smiled and took my hand in hers. “That you worry about the lives of others rather than your own is one reason I love you so much. In all your words you never said that you were afraid or that you might die. It was a concern for the men you lead. This is a dangerous thing you do. I have heard of this Thurbrand. His family are ruthless. When I read the parchments to your mother his family name was mentioned, and it made me afraid. Now I know that you risk meeting him I am even more fearful. Sweyn Skull Taker is right. The only chance for Ælfgifu is you. One young girl may seem unimportant and if she died then the world might not even miss her, but I am a Christian and know that every life is important. What happened to her family was inexcusable. If this was Gunhild would you want her held against her will expecting death, or worse, when she went to bed each night?”
Mary’s words were like a dagger to my heart. I would fight all the demons of her God’s hell to save my daughter. I kissed my wife’s hand, “You are right. Thank you.”
“God sent a good man to take me from my home. When I think of the warriors who could have taken me, I wake shivering and shaking. You are still, despite my efforts, a pagan but one day you will see the Christian who lies within your heart.”
The next morning I began to assemble my crew. I approached each one individually so that I could explain the dangers and that there was no expectation from me that they would go with me. To my amazement, all wished to sail with me. I had sixteen men and I stopped at that number. More would have been useful if we found ourselves facing many enemies but sixteen would be a reasonable number for the crew of a large trader. Sweyn Sweynson would be the ship’s boy and that left the helmsman, Edgar. He still worked for Aksel, but he had taken a Danish wife and lived in Ribe. He was keen to sail with us despite the danger. I discovered the reason within the first moments of speaking to him. He had been promised that he could captain the trader we used. It belonged to Cnut for his father had given it to him and Edgar knew the profits he could make. He also knew the two rivers and that convinced me. We had a crew but the motives of all of us were different. I think that I was the only one sailing to rescue a young girl. Cnut hoped to win a crown, Edgar a boat and the rest did it out of duty to me!
When Cnut arrived in Ribe, we sailed the trader, ‘Raven’s Wing’, down to Agerhøne. Our original plan to load the ship at night had long been abandoned for the whole village knew that we would sail west. They did not know where we sailed but as it was filled with warriors, they all assumed that we were raiding. However, to maintain the illusion that we were traders we would not be taking either shields or spears. Our mail would be kept below the deck in the capacious hold. We would wear beaver skin and seal skin hats and simple kyrtles. Half of the crew would stay hidden beneath the gunwale if we closed with any other ship and we had some almost empty barrels of pickled herring and salted meat on the deck to add to the deception. We left at the start of Ýlir. The days were getting shorter and that would help but, at the same time, it added to the danger as we would be sailing at night. There would be fewer ships on the sea and that too would help. When we landed, we would have more darkness to help us. The last night was spent in my thrall hall when we went over everything we planned. Sweyn Skull Taker had mounted a guard on our ship so that Edgar and Sweyn could attend.
I spoke and made certain that I could see the eyes of all, “The voyage will take four or five days and nights. We will have three watches and that means two thirds will be sleeping or be hidden. That is intentional. I lead.” I looked at Cnut who nodded. “That means that if I think we cannot succeed then I will abort the mission, and no one shall argue.” They all nodded. “Edgar, the river and the hall?”
Edgar answered confidently, “The River Humber is as wide as a sea but the entrance has a shifting sandbank called Spurn Head but once we have navigated that the Humber is easy. The Hull can be tricky but as we have no cargo then ‘Raven’s Wing’ will ride higher in the water and the shallow waters will not hurt us. Indeed, if we are pursued, when we escape then the enemy will be more likely to fall foul of them.”
“Pursued?”
“Yes, Sven Saxon Sword. Thurbrand has his own warships. They are on the Humber but if word gets out he can send them after us.” He shrugged, “It is a risk and there is no getting around that.” I nodded. “The hall has a stone tower attached. I think that one of Thurbrand’s ancestors built it from the stone of a Roman signal tower. It is not high, but it gives a good view, during the day, over the flat lands that surround the hall. There is no ditch, and the hall is similar to this one. The warriors and the captives will all live in the hall.”
“Thralls?”
“Aye, there are thralls and, at night they are locked in a thrall hall.” Locking thralls at night was a normal procedure.
Gandálfr asked, “How do you know so much about this place, Edgar?”
“When I was young, I sailed on a ship from Jorvik to Lundenwic. I travelled the river each month and the hall can be clearly seen. It is the last home you see before you reach the open sea, and I was young and curious. I last saw it five years ago, but I cannot see that they will have changed it much.” He paused, “They might have, I do not know.”
“And that is why we land when the sun has set, and we have darkness to scout out the land. Before you ask, we do not know how many men guard the captives. It is a maid and two servants. It could be just six men but, equally, it is a large hall, and it could be the crew of a ship. We might have twenty or thirty men to face.” I wanted none to be complacent. “We will take bows with us for some of you are good archers and an arrow is silent. It will not be honourable work. My seax and Norse Gutter are more likely to be used than Oathsword. We cannot spare any of the guards. If the alarm is given, we cannot fight off a warship.”
There were an hour or so of questions and then they all retired. Edgar and Sweyn went to the drekar and my men returned to their families. I went to watch my children sleeping. Mary came to slip her arm through mine, “All will be well, and this is more honourable than raiding nunneries, is it not?”
“Perhaps.” I was still unconvinced.
The next morning I was at the ship early. It was moored at the furthest end of the quay and the least popular berth. We had decided to have the men join us in pairs. There were other ships in the port and we could not control them. I was trying to make my men almost disappear while walking to the ship. We had decided to sail without fuss and so none came to see us off. We had said our farewells in our halls. We all looked like sailors rather than warriors. We had brought our weapons the previous night and our mail had been stored for a couple of days in the hold. We loaded the barrels and, as the last of the crew boarded, we set sail. We were advised by Edgar who told us what to do. The ships we passed saw just five of us for the rest were hidden from view by the barrels which would be our disguise. We headed north for the simple reason that we spied no ships and any of the ones in Agerhøne that had seen us leave would assume we headed to Norway or Østersøen. It was also the natural way to go around the offshore islands. Once we had an empty horizon we turned to head west and with Sweyn as the lookout, the crew were able to stand. The time of year ensured that the sea was empty. Winter was not the time to sail. The wind was fresh and helped us but also brought squally rain. That too helped as it made the visibility poor.
After the speed of a drekar, the tubby cargo ship seemed to barely move. It would take a long time to reach Holderness. I mentioned this to Cnut and Edgar. Edgar smiled, “We do not reef the sail at night for there are few ships and we do not travel fast enough. With a good watch then any danger can be spotted. We keep the same speed no matter what the time of day. Slow and steady that is the way of the trader.”
He was proved right. I took one of the watches while Edgar slept. It was unnerving to sail into the dark. Until dawn, we would not know if we were on course or not but Edgar had given me some tips on how to steer without the stars. By keeping the forestays and the mast in line with the short prow it was possible to sail in a relatively straight line. It meant we lost a little speed when the wind changed but that was acceptable. I woke Edgar who took the rest of the night watch. When we woke to a cold but bright day then he had another sleep once he had checked the compass and put us on the right course. We had not deviated by much. We saw not a single ship that day. Lars and Leif were happy to steer and with four of us sharing the steering board none were overtired.
Cnut was quieter than I had expected. With little experience of sailing a ship he was not given the steering board, but he stood his watches with the rest of us. Here he had no opportunity to be pampered. His hearth weru had been left with his father. That had been my decision. This would be hard enough without having men I did not know with me. I had trained all the men with me with the exception of the brothers Lars and Leif, I had fought alongside them since before I found Oathsword.
As Cnut and I watched the smudge that was England approach, and we took in the sail a little so that Edgar could find the estuary, I asked him about our quest. “And what if the girl does not wish to come?” I waved an arm at my men, “To a maid, these will look worse than Thurbrand’s guards.”
Cnut smiled, and gestured to his face, “Before I returned to my father, with the idea still growing in my head, I asked Mary what she found so attractive in you when you took her by force. She told me you looked less threatening because you were clean-shaven.”
I laughed, “I barely had a whisker in those days.”
“The times I have spent with your wife and your children’s nurse has improved my words and enabled me to use gentler ones than I might otherwise have. When we find her, Sven, I will see her alone and speak to her.”
“Do not worry, Cnut, we will have plenty to occupy us. So, your plan is to make her like you?” He nodded. “Good luck with that. We may have to carry her and that can hardly be done in silence. I hope you succeed in convincing her for the alternative may well bring down the wrath of the men of Holderness. It might be sparsely populated but they have horses and fast ships. We are a barrel with a sail.”
Edgar knew the waters. He found the estuary and I still know not how for I did not see it. The shifting spur of sand was, to me, invisible, but Edgar turned us around it and then headed into the widest estuary I had seen since the Tamese. We reefed the sail just to keep way and then followed the setting sun towards the River Hull. We took out the twelve oars and the men began to row. I was taking a chance and we would not don mail until we were closer to the hall. Sweyn hung over the prow and I stood with Edgar watching my cousin’s son as he directed us away from shoals, sandbanks, and the shore! I was relieved that the river did not twist and turn as much as many other rivers I had used. I was also grateful for the lack of dwellings on the marshy shore for when we surprised a flock of sea birds and they took off, the noise was enough to wake the dead! I regretted not making a blót. If I could I would take one of the birds and make a sacrifice with it! The seven or eight miles we rowed seemed to take an age. Had we been in Wessex or Cent we might have heard the tolling of a bell but there was nothing to mark the passage of time. I could see why Aethelred had chosen such a remote place to keep his hostage to fortune. Cnut had told me that the young girl might be used to make an alliance with some important warrior. The King of England was grooming the child to become marriage material. What Cnut was doing was similar but, knowing Cnut as I did, I hoped that he would give her a choice.
When we turned to sail up the Hull then all of us were needed for it was narrow. In places, it was just twice as wide as the ship but Edgar was confident we would find somewhere we could turn. The wind had shifted a little, in any case, and there was no room to tack. When it widened a little and we saw, to the north-west, what looked like smoke we stopped and prepared to land. The smell from the building reached us a mile before we knew where it was. A mixture of animal and human waste combined with woodsmoke and cooking food told us that we had reached our destination. We turned the ship around and Sweyn and Folki tied us to the shore. Edgar said, quietly, the tide is almost completely out and explains why it took so long. If you can be back within two hours, then we have a chance of using the tide to reach the sea before dawn. The wind has already changed.”
I knew that because we had smelled the hall and seen the smoke before the sun set completely. I nodded, “You and Sweyn take care. If you are disturbed and have to leave then we will head downstream to find you.”
“I hope that it will not come to that!”
“As do I.”
I was the leader and I led. I placed Cnut six men down the line of warriors and it was Leif, Lars, Gandálfr, Faramir, Ulf and Harold who followed me. They were dependable. I had my swords and neither shield nor spear. I carried my helmet for I needed my ears and my eyes. We saw the hall and the tower within half a mile of leaving the river. They stood against a western sky. I saw a glow from a door as someone came out. We were too far away to see but it showed me how close we were. I held my hand up and we stopped. We moved again once I saw the door open and close. When we were within a quarter of a mile we stopped, and I waved my arm for my warriors to form a half-circle and squat. My arm arrested Cnut and I put him behind me. We waited and we watched. I studied the top of the tower and I saw no movement. More importantly, I saw no glow. It was cold and the wind from the northwest brought a chill to the land. Nor could I see any sentries patrolling outside. That made sense as the girl had been here for some time. Boredom would bring complacency. None of us had moved and we were invisible. There was a building attached to the tower but it was relatively small and I guessed it might be a sort of armoury or workshop. A door to the hall opened, I saw the glow and when a door to a second building opened to the east of the main hall I froze. I saw movement from the main hall and people heading into the second building. When the light disappeared, and I heard a bar being dropped into place then I knew that it was the thrall hall and the slaves had been locked away for the night. As soon as the light went from the main hall, I circled my arm and spoke quietly. The wind would take my words away from the hall but I was succinct in any case.
“Ulf and Harold, head around to the back of the hall and see if there is a second door. If not, then guard the door to the thrall hall. The rest follow me. Cnut, stay at the rear. This is warrior work!” This was not the time for any heroics from the prince.
I donned my helmet and drew Oathsword and Norse Gutter. This would be close and bloody work. We had not been able to ascertain numbers and, as we neared the hall, I heard the sound of laughter. The Saxons were awake. We would not be able to slit throats and kill silently. We would have to rely upon surprise. As I neared the door, I realised that I did not know if it was barred. If it was then all surprise would be gone. The noise from inside was louder. It was the sound of men talking and some were laughing. I was fifteen paces away when I heard the neigh of a horse. It came from close to the single tower and I saw what had been hidden when we had spied the buildings, a small stable. Of course, there would be a horse, perhaps more than one for we were many miles from anywhere. The neighing horse must have alerted one of the guards or it may have been that he needed to make water. As I almost reached the door it opened and, thankfully, it opened outwards which meant I was shielded by it. The light from within would have blinded the man in any case. I waited until I saw his back and then drove my sword up, through his ribs to rip through his heart. He died without a sound. I swung his body around so that Lars could lower it to the ground. Leif stepped over the body and into the hall. I quickly followed.
I saw that the men were seated around a table and drinking. Of the girl and her attendants, there was no sign. That would be the task of Cnut. Leif leapt towards the nearest man and the eighteen or so warriors, I did not have the time to count, all looked up in surprise. Perhaps they thought that it was the man who had just left, returning. Whatever the reason the first man died at Lars’ hand and I was on the second, swinging Oathsword across his neck. The warriors reacted quickly. I realised if I had waited longer, they might have been abed. I had not done what I had planned! The rest of my men were in the hall and we held the advantage for we had swords drawn already and they did not. Even so, they were tough men and one lunged at me so quickly that even as I used Oathsword to block the blow and turn, his sword slid along my mail byrnie, damaging some of the links. I backhanded Norse Gutter across his throat, and he fell. Faramir was struggling to defeat a large warrior who, unlike the rest, still wore a byrnie. When Faramir slipped on a pool of blood, the mailed warrior raised his sword to end my young warrior’s life. I brought Oathsword across his back with such force that it sliced through mail links and into his flesh. He was a hard man and he started to turn. I used Norse Gutter to end his life, “Go to your God!”
I saw that my men were whole, and the guards lay dead or dying, “Cnut! Find the girl.” Just then I heard the sound of hooves and while my men looked at each other I ran from the hall and was just in time to see two men on horses galloping west. The door to the tower lay open.
Ulf and Harold ran towards me. “We were about to come around to the thrall, for we found no rear door when we saw the two men come from the tower and mount the horses. They saw us and fled. They did not even bother to saddle the horses.”
I cursed myself. Even if men could not see far from the tower, they would keep it manned. We had just been lucky that the two men had slept. Awoken by the fighting and seeing Vikings they had fled. The Norns had been spinning and time was now against us.
“Get to the ship and have Edgar prepare for sea. We will be right behind you.”
When I entered the hall, I saw that Cnut had found the captives. He was speaking to them and they cowered in the corner.
“Is anyone hurt?” They shook their heads, “Two men have gone for help. I know not how far away it is but Thurbrand has ships of his own and they are warships. We must run, Cnut! Now!”
“I have explained to them what we must do and they are content. Afraid but content. I will come now.”
Turning to Lars and Leif I said, “Open the door to the thrall hall. Perhaps when they run it will confuse our pursuit. Make them run north and west!”
“Aye, Sven.”
“Gandálfr and Faramir, help Cnut. The rest of you fire the hall. I want the Saxons confused!”
Setting fire to the wooden building was easy. The chairs were hurled upon the fire and the rest laid close by. Even as Gandálfr and Faramir urged Cnut and the three Saxons towards the door the fire bit and the wooden chairs began to burn. As the table was thrown on top of the fire the flames leapt higher and soon the roof would be alight. It was Cnut with Ælfgifu who led us back to our drekar. Gandálfr and Faramir had slung the two women over their shoulders but it was Ælfgifu who determined our pace and she was not quick. I saw as we neared, ‘Raven’s Wing’, that Edgar had the sail raised and the ship was tugging at its moorings. It was maddening to have to follow Cnut and Ælfgifu who were moving too slowly. Gandálfr and Faramir reached the ship first and dumped the women in the ship. They then stood at the two lines securing the ship to the land and waited. Leif and Lars almost hurled Ælfgifu over the side as my men scrambled aboard.
I shouted, “Gandálfr and Faramir, get aboard, we will cut the ropes!”
The seamen in them had thought to save the ropes but I knew that the two men risked being stranded ashore. Their lives were worth more than two ropes. As soon as they were aboard, I sliced through one rope and Ulf the other. Our ship belied her tubbiness. A combination of the tide and the wind made her leap downriver. There was a chance!
“Cnut, secure your,” I hesitated for the word, “ladies at the prow.”
“Aye, the lady is grateful, Sven, for lately the guards had begun to cast covetous and lewd glances at them. They feared for their virtue. They were afraid of us until I took out my cross and swore that no harm would come to them. They believed me.”
I said, in Saxon, for the benefit of the three, “And it is true for I, Sven Saxon Sword, do not make war on women!”
I saw a smile and a nod from the youngest, Ælfgifu.
Turning to my men I said, “We are not out of this yet. Prepare bows and then eat and drink. If those riders reach the Northumbrian ships, they will follow us and if they are warships then they will be rowed and faster. They will catch us! Eat while you can and let us hope that we can lose them in the vastness of the sea.”
I went to stand with Edgar and took out the stopper of the ale skin. I drank deeply. Edgar’s eyes never left Sweyn astride the prow as he spoke to me, “If we can make the sea before they appear then we can try to hide. It is like the game, fox and geese. The foxes will not know where we have gone. If it is just one ship that follows then we might well disappear but two or more make it less likely. They can spread out and all they need to do is to seek a sail. If we were one of your drekar we could take down the mast and simply row. We cannot do that and even though we are unladen we are still far from fast.”
“Do the best you can.”
He smiled, “Of course, and should we survive then when I have children this will be a tale to tell to make their eyes widen!”
The men had opened the barrels of salted herring. They had been put aboard for show and none were anywhere near full. They ate and an idea grew in my mind. I let it spin there while I went to partake in the feast.
Faramir said, “I owe you a life, Oathsword!”
I shook my head, “We fight for each other. The Norns spun and you slipped. I was handily placed, and it was nothing. If we get out of this then we will all be better warriors.”
Ulf asked, “Do you think we will escape?”
I pointed to the northwest. The fired hall could be seen as a glow in the distance. All else was blackness, “The Northumbrians may well seek us close to their hall, but we have to assume that they will not and that they will sail their warships down the River Humber to retrieve their property. The people of this land have Danish blood and may well have drekar or their own version of a drekar. Whatever they have will be faster than this ship but we can hope that we make the sea before dawn and disappear.”
We reached the Humber far quicker than on our journey upriver and when we left the narrow waters of the Hull, I was relieved. However, it soon became clear that no matter how fast we were moving we would not reach the sea in darkness. The black sky behind was contrasted with the slight glow ahead as the new day began to dawn. By the time Sweyn was no longer needed for the estuary was wide, it was daylight and the empty sea beyond the shifting sands beckoned us. I joined Edgar.
“The wind is from the north and west. If we sail south and east then we will travel faster but it means that, at some point, unless the wind changes, we will be forced to tack and sail more slowly to reach our home.”
“And if we sail due east?”
“Then we keep a steadier speed to Agerhøne.” I heard the caution in his voice.
“The Northumbrians do not know we came from there. They may think we are Norse. Aye, you may be right. When Jarl Svein Hákonarson raided last year he did us a favour. The Norns have already spun. Let us sail due east and hope that they either think we were Norse or that we are tricky Danes who try to throw them off the scent.”
The sun was rising in a chilly blue sky and we thought we had escaped when Harold, who along with Faramir was watching astern spotted the sail. We turned to look. The exception was Edgar who stared ahead. “Sweyn, up to the top of the mast and see if you can identify it. It may be another trader.”
The son of Sweyn One Eye clambered to the top and sat astride the mast, his legs dangling over the yard. He stared and when his words drifted down it was like a crack of doom, “It is a drekar with shields along the side and they have oars out.”
We could all see the sail which lay to the southwest of us. We had taken off our mail for if it came to a fight with such overwhelming odds as we seemed likely to face then it would only slow an inevitable end. “Take your bows. Cnut, you guard your ladies.”
“It may not be them.” He was still seeing everything as half full and it was not.
Shaking my head I said, “It is them and the Norns have spun.”
As if to confirm it, as the pursuing ship drew a little closer Sweyn shouted, “There is a second one. It is further away and to the northwest.”
Edgar said, “Aye, they have kept each other in sight and with lookouts on their masts would have a better view of the sea. I can go no faster and they will catch us. It is just a matter of time.”
I nodded, “Unfasten the barrels of herrings. When they get close, I want the barrels hurled overboard. Who knows, they may be careless and hit one?”
That made the crew smile and Gandálfr said, “And that would be a great jest!”
In truth, it just gave them something to do and stopped them worrying about how they would die. Lars and Leif had been at Svolder and they knew what happened in a sea battle. They would have told the younger warriors.
The two ships began to converge, and we could see that they were smaller than a threttanessa but of a similar design. The nearer one, the ship we had first spotted had a red sail while the other had one which might have had a colour at one time, but it had faded to a dirty white. Neither had a dragon prow, but they had shields hanging along the side. I estimated there were thirty on each one. That mattered little for the two of them had enough men aboard to easily outnumber us. One advantage we had was that we all had bows. We could shower them with arrows, and it was unlikely that they would be able to respond in kind. We might take some of them and a fouled oar from a dying man might well slow them down. Such are the thoughts of a drowning man who clings to any hope. I wanted to live and see my family and I hoped that the Norns had not spun my death!
“When they are close enough send arrows at them. We will wait until they are much closer before we use the barrels. Sweyn, come down and help us to move them.”
The ship was wider than a drekar and that would help us. The six barrels were all almost empty. They had just been to disguise our intent. They would float and bob about. They could be avoided but in such a manoeuvre then the warship would lose way and any carelessness might be rewarded with a sprung strake. When the barrels were ready, I saw that the two ships were almost within range of our bows and that there was no one at the prow. The oars were biting, and the ships were drawing closer, but their speed did not suggest that they were double crewed.
Lars had a good arm, and he drew back his bow first to send an arrow soaring towards the nearest warship, the one we had seen first. It plunged into the wooden prow. It was the signal for the rest of my men to loose their arrows. Half of them managed to drop their missiles into the rowers. I knew that for I saw one oar foul another. The ship slowed and that allowed the other to close with us. After another shower at the first ship, Lars and my men switched to the other. The two ships were now closing rapidly and our arrows were too few to hurt two warships.
“Sweyn, help me with the barrels.”
My plan was simple. We just used the weight of the almost empty barrel to tip it over the side. We had to use the larboard side for fear of fouling the steering board. The first barrel splashed and then bobbed towards the second warship. It was seen at the last moment and the ship veered to larboard as Sweyn and I dropped over the second barrel. The ship which had veered gave my archers a view of the steering board and they sent arrows towards it. The steersman steered a little further away as the arrows struck the boy next to him. The barrels now lay astern of us in a line and the two ships tried to avoid them. We heard the crack as the first ship, the one with the red sail, hit one a glancing blow. The effect was to drive it further from us. The barrels had done their job and the two warships now had to use a different approach. They would try to come alongside us but that meant that one would reach us before the other for the dirty sail would have the wind and the red sail would be fighting it. We had bought time but not much of it.
“Concentrate your arrows on the one which has the wind gauge.”
Leif said, “That means we will be loosing into the wind.”
“It cannot be helped.”
Cnut was peering over the prow and he shouted, “I see a sail ahead. Could this be another of them?”
The trading ship was much shorter than a warship and his words were easily heard. Edgar shook his head, “Unlikely. It will probably be another trader. They will be wary until they recognise that we are a trader too.”
“Might they intervene?”
He laughed, “When they see the two warships they will head away as fast as the wind will carry them.”
The dirty sail was now closing with us. Some of the rowers had been taken from the oars and they held their shields over the steerboard so that we could not hurt the men there.
Gandálfr said, “The other ship, the one with the red sail, is not closing as fast as the other.”
Edgar risked a glance, “The barrel must have hurt her. With a sprung strake, she will take on water. There is hope!”
Dirty sail suddenly put their steerboard over to come directly for us. They were trying to drive us in to the path of her consort. Edgar edged our steerboard over and our speed increased but it meant we risked being rammed by the ship which had been damaged by the barrel.
The white-sailed ship was going to hit us, that was clear but if they wanted the girl back then they would not try to sink us, “Prepare your weapons. We need to stop them boarding!” I turned to Edgar, “Keep moving away from them and tempt them to hit the stern. At the last moment put over the steering board and try to take out their oars!”
I thought I might have intimidated him, but he looked delighted, “This is indeed a joke. The sheep becomes the wolf!”
I drew my two swords, “Cnut, can you make out the ship yet?”
“Not yet but it looks a large one.”
Cnut was not one of the clan. We would have all known the type of ship and how many oars it had. I feared that this was a Norse pirate and we could end up being picked over by two enemies. My first priority was the white-sailed ship which was now barrelling towards our larboard side. Edgar cleverly kept us parallel to them. The red sailed ship was barely keeping pace with us but once the other hit us we would have to stop and then we would be lost for we would be fighting two crews. Only Sweyn was still loosing arrows and he gave a victory cry as his arrow slammed in to the chest of the Saxon whirling the grappling hook. Another took his place and I saw that we were just a ship’s width away. The Saxon was going to lay alongside us.
“Now Edgar!”
As he put it over Cnut shouted, “I recognised the sail, it is ‘Sea Serpent’!” The women of Agerhøne had made the sea serpent on the sail and Cnut had recognised it.
The clan was coming to our aid and even as I began to believe we might live I wondered how. There were cries as the oars on the side of the white-sailed ship were shattered and some of the crew were impaled or stabbed with sharp shards and splinters of broken oars. I leapt up onto the gunwale and held on to the backstay with my left hand. Edgar’s move had made some of the Saxons lose their footing while I had jumped on the side of the more stable trader. I swung Oathsword at the head of the nearest Saxon who lunged at me with a boarding pike. Leaving go of the stay, I used my other sword to deflect the head and Oathsword bit into the skull of the man. I saw that there were twenty or so men aboard and many were still struggling to their feet or trying to stem the bleeding from wounds. I did something foolish but, at the time, I thought it was necessary. I did a Hawk and jumped down to the Northumbrian’s deck. It took both crews by surprise and enabled me to swing both of my swords at head height. I hit men straight away and then I ducked, dived, blocked, and stabbed. I knew that whatever flesh I hit would be an enemy’s.
My men shouted, “Oathsword!” and jumped down to join me. It was a mad thing to do and left ‘Raven’s Wing’ with just Cnut, Edgar and Sweyn to guard the women against the red sailed ship which was looming up from steerboard. Then I heard a roar and as I whirled to block an axe coming at my head while stabbing up into the throat of a Saxon, I saw the prow of ‘Sea Serpent’ as our drekar smashed into the prow of the already damaged red sailed Northumbrian ship. My men had the joy of battle in them and even though when we had boarded, we had been outnumbered, my berserk attack and their anger had slain every warrior who was still alive. I saw the helmsman and three of his crew hurl themselves from the stern. It reminded me of King Olaf Tryggvasson, but the motives of the Northumbrians were less noble, they were trying to save their lives.
I heard Lars shout, “Oathsword, the ship is sinking. We have yet to lose a man! Back!”
I nodded, “Aye, the red mist has left me!” I was the last to be pulled up by Cnut and the water was already lapping around my sealskin boots as I did so. Even as I stepped aboard there was a gurgle of air and the ship slipped beneath the waves.
‘Sea Serpent’ loomed over us and Thorstein the Lucky leaned over, laughing, “I think, Sven Saxon Sword that you must be the luckiest warrior I have ever met!” I saw that the other ship was wreckage and men were clinging to it and kicking as far away from us as they could get.
Cnut came and put his arm around my shoulder, “No, Thorstein, the bravest and, maybe, the greatest warrior! Sven Saxon Sword, Oathsword!”
The cry was taken up by both crews and nodding, I kissed the hilt of Oathsword.