CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Sviggar’s health improved not a whit as they journeyed homeward.

Each day they rode slower as his need for rest grew, and Lilla insisted they move on only when he felt strong enough to sit atop his horse.

By late afternoon on the third day, whatever gladness there might have been in returning home had long leached away.

‘This feels like a bloody funeral march,’ murmured Kai, as they rode along. A fair wind was gusting through the trees. ‘Not exactly the triumphant procession I imagined.’

‘Knowing your imagination, I’m not surprised.’

‘I should’ve been with Bodvar’s lot. I’m not all cut up like you. It’s past time I got my sword wet.’

‘Catch,’ said Erlan, chucking a flask of water. Kai caught it with his left hand and yelped in pain. ‘Wolf-Hand,’ winked his master, point proven.

‘Baaah! My sword arm’s good.’

‘Save it for a fair fight. Down that hole you’re not like to get one. Anyway there’s plenty of—’

‘Time – yes, I know. So everyone keeps bloody telling me!’ Kai glanced back at the king, flanked by his faithful Finn. ‘I’ll be wheezing away like the old goat before I get a decent fight.’ He pulled a face. ‘Still, there’s a thought! I could take the king of all Sveäland just now. Easy! Hey – would that make me king?’

Erlan gave up trying to follow his friend’s meandering mind.

‘First law I’d make – every new king gets three wives. In fact, I’d have all the fairest women fight it out for the privilege.’ He grinned to himself. ‘I can think of some of them Uppland minxes who wouldn’t mind.’

‘Isn’t it usually the other way round?’

‘Men fighting for women? Oh, I know that. But these darlings couldn’t stop ’emselves! With old King Kai on the throne, show me the beauty who wouldn’t want to share his bed.’ His face fairly glowed at the prospect.

Erlan answered his question with a nod in the direction of the princess riding behind. ‘How about our frosty maid back there?’

‘Hmm. . . Tell you what – a king should be gracious. She could be a prize of office. A reward for my most loyal servant, the famous earl of bloody Niflagard,’ he said, grandly. ‘And other stink-holes he’d care to conquer. The noble lord Erlan – son of no one, heir to nowhere in particular. There you are – what a generous king I’d be!’

‘Reckon I’d be warmer sharing my bed with a block of ice.’

The two of them laughed long and loud.

‘What’s so amusing?’ a soft voice sounded behind them. They turned as Lilla nudged her horse between theirs.

‘This one’s foolishness isn’t for your ears, princess.’

‘Sometimes there’s great wisdom hidden in great folly.’

‘Then Kai must be the wisest man in the kingdom.’

Lilla laughed and Erlan discovered that it was a beautiful sound – free and fresh and full of life. She should do it more often, he thought.

‘Hey, it’s not that funny,’ protested Kai, as Lilla struggled to recover herself. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, my lady. I must be alone.’ He gave a mocking little bow, pulled off to one side and dismounted, already unbuckling his belt.

‘A friend is a valuable thing,’ said Lilla, as they watched him disappear off into the trees in a hurry.

‘So it is. You should try it yourself.’

Her mouth only twitched in reply.

‘How’s your father?’

‘Stronger today. In his limbs, at least. His breathing is still weak. Sometimes he coughs blood. But the draught I gave him is helping.’

Erlan sucked on his teeth. ‘Well – a long life to him.’

She looked at him, scanning his face for sincerity, apparently unsure.

‘I mean it. My life is bound to his now.’ He glanced back at the slumped figure of the king. He had to admit that, just now, the withered old man looked a pitiful sort of protector.

Lilla gazed up at the wind gusting in the trees. ‘I fear what will become of this land when he dies.’

‘I suppose your brother will become king and rule as your father does.’

‘He may rule, but not like my father. A son is not his father. When kings die, bonds of fealty are tested. And kingdoms quickly fall.’

‘Are there any to challenge the Sveärs?’

She scoffed as if she couldn’t believe his naivety. ‘Many! There are always many. But the most jealous are blood kin.’

‘You mean the Wartooth’s line?’

‘You know about that?’ She sounded surprised.

‘I heard a little talk. That and your father nearly took my head for being King Harald’s catspaw.’

‘You’re lucky he didn’t.’

‘As are you.’

She ran a tongue across her dry lips. ‘I suppose so,’ she said, eyeing him carefully. ‘The jealousy of kings is long-lived and never simple. In the times of our fathers, there wasn’t the peace we have now. My grandfather was a great king. His power spread beyond Sveäland to Denmark and the lands of Eastern and Western Gotars.’

‘Ivar Wide-Realm?’

‘Indeed. So named because far and wide, kings paid him tribute. He lived long. Long enough to outlive his first wife, who’d given him a daughter called Autha.’

‘The Deep-Minded.’

‘So you know all this?’

‘Some – but little more.’

‘He married Autha to King Rorik of Denmark and they had a son called Harald. Later Ivar took another. . . My grandmother.’

‘But they were never married.’

Lilla looked up. A nerve pricked. She shook her head.

‘So both wine and mud run in those royal veins of yours,’ he teased.

‘You think I care about that,’ she snapped. ‘Except that it gives other fools reason to slander my father’s name.’ Her eyes fixed his. ‘They call him the Bastard King, but there was never born a bastard so noble. And as for my grandmother – she was a matchless woman. She had more dignity in her little finger than the blood of a dozen kings or queens.’

‘So why didn’t he marry her?’

‘For no better reason than he was a stubborn fool.’

‘But she gave him a son. Your father.’

‘Yes. For that he was grateful.’

‘So where did the bad blood between them arise?’

Her brow furrowed as she told how Autha had demanded that her father name her heir to his realm as his only legitimate child. Ivar was riled and instead named Sviggar heir, and schemed to murder her husband and take Denmark for himself.

‘He murdered his own daughter’s husband?’

Lilla nodded.

‘Small wonder she hated him.’

‘There were wars. First in Denmark and then across the East Sea in Estland and beyond. Harald, Autha’s son, won great fame for himself there, as did my own father. But this strife came to an end when Ivar died suddenly. He drowned off his boat one night, but no one knows how.’

Afterwards the young Sviggar had returned to Sveäland to secure his throne, while Autha sent Harald home to Denmark to take up his inheritance. Lilla sighed as she came to the end of her story. ‘There he now rules – over Danes and Eastern Gotars. And my father kept Sveäland and draws tribute from the Western Gotars.’

This was all new to Erlan. He had heard of the Wartooth, of course, but never how he had come by the Danish crown.

‘And now there’s peace between your lines.’

‘For now – yes. . .’

‘You think it will hold?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Would Harald still try to take your father’s kingdom?’

‘Harald isn’t strong enough to do that. As for my father, he’s long lost his appetite for finishing Autha’s line.’

‘So a balance is struck.’

‘While my father lives. And if my brother Staffen had lived. . . He understood the limits of the kingdom’s power. Oh, he was conceited, but he wasn’t stupid, nor blinded by grand ideas.’

‘And Sigurd?’

‘He’s not the same. He always speaks of the “true kingdom” – the Wide-Realm of our grandfather, in which Danes and Gotars and Sveärs were all under one king. That’s how he believes the kingdom should be and he’s forever goading my father into restoring it.’

‘And what do you think?’

She laughed. Again he was struck by its sweet sound. ‘What a strange question!’

‘Why?’

‘One thing you learn as a girl raised in the halls of kings – it’s not a woman’s place to speak openly her opinions on realms and war.’

‘Only whisper them into their menfolk’s ears at night, perhaps?’ He smiled. ‘Is that not a woman’s skill? To make a man believe her thoughts are his own?’

‘Are you so distrustful of us?’

‘Some of you.’

‘Well, you needn’t fear on my account,’ she smiled. ‘Kingdoms are ideas in the heads of men seeking glory. I care not for ideas, but for people. For my folk and family and those I love. If I want glory, I need look no further than the woods I walk in or the first glimpse of a sunrise.’

‘Men die for glory. Would you die for those you love?’

She thought for a moment, and then said, ‘Yes. . . Yes, I would.’

‘Hel of a gale up!’ They turned to see Finn smiling at them from atop his grey mare. It was true – the whistle of the wind overhead seemed to be getting louder all the time. ‘How’s the arm?’ he asked Erlan.

‘Stiff. Sore.’

‘Well, what wound isn’t? But you’re a big lad now, eh?’ He leaned over and thumped Erlan on the back. ‘If it’s not keeping you from amusing our fair princess here, I won’t be worried on your account.’

‘I’m about as far from fair as ever I’ve been,’ said Lilla, demurely.

‘And yet a lot closer than most women are ever like to get.’

She gave a flick of a smile in reply.

‘What about him?’ Erlan nodded at the king. ‘Are you worried on his account?’

‘I’m always worried on his account,’ joked Finn. ‘But you’re right. I doubt he can go much further this evening. We’re losing light fast.’

‘Seems we cover less ground each day,’ said Erlan.

‘Well, the days are getting shorter.’

‘It’ll soon be the winter solstice,’ observed Lilla.

‘Yep,’ replied Finn. ‘By rights, we should be wrapped up cosy in our halls, toasting our way through the long nights and feasting on a fat Yuletide hog. Hel’s teeth – I can’t remember a night out here I haven’t dreamed of getting home. One thing that wife of mine can do is keep a man warm in bed!’

‘We’ll reach there soon,’ said Lilla.

‘Not soon enough for me,’ he grinned.

‘You surprise me,’ said Erlan. ‘Didn’t you want to join Bodvar and his men?’

‘I suppose there was a time I might have wanted to,’ admitted Finn, cheerfully. ‘But a man can’t do everything. And I realized long ago, if you miss one fight, there’s usually another round the corner. Besides which, once you’ve figured where your duty lies and you stick to it, life becomes a lot simpler. Mine – for good or ill – is beside that fella.’ He tipped his head at Sviggar.

He seemed to have all the answers. Erlan found himself envying Finn his untroubled mind.

Behind them, there was a thud of hoofbeats approaching. Kai rode up at a canter, shot straight past the king and pulled up beside them, eyes wide.

‘What the Hel’s up with you?’ asked Erlan.

‘There’s something out there,’ Kai gasped breathlessly.

‘Out where?’ demanded Finn.

‘Back there,’ he puffed, pointing off into the gloom to their rear. ‘I heard something moving around. I swear!’

‘There’s nothing out in this bloody wilderness.’

‘I know I heard something!’

‘Probably a snow fox.’

‘It wasn’t,’ insisted Kai. ‘It was much bigger than that.’

‘Ha!’ snorted Finn. ‘Well – there’s no need to be jumpy. We’re a dozen armed men. No beast would take us on. Anyhow, whatever it was, you and your bare arse probably frightened it off already.’

But Kai looked anything but reassured. Finn laughed and shoved him. ‘Your face!’ He shook his head with mirth. ‘I was like that when I was a lad. This time of year, my mother warned us not to get caught outside on a winter’s night like this. Used to turn my liver white with her tales of the Wild Hunt. You heard of it?’

‘Maybe,’ said Erlan. ‘You mean Odin’s Hunt?’

Finn nodded, smiling. ‘Aye – some call it that. She’d tell us bairns if we ever heard the sound of thunderous hooves and terrible cries and whoops in the treetops, we were to throw ourselves flat on the ground and keep our eyes tight shut. ’Cause anyone who happened to look up, curious at what was all the racket, was like to have his soul snatched away, scooped up by High God Odin himself, riding like fury at the head of the hunt, with his bloodthirsty maids and heroes in his wake, all baying like mad bloody hounds. And that poor bastard would drop stone dead and be found next day stiff as a post.’ He gave Kai a wink. ‘Not a merry prospect, you’ll agree. We once played a trick on my baby brother and scared the poor little bugger so bad, he soiled himself. Oh, we got a beating off my mother I never forgot. Gods, she was a tough one though!’ He laughed to himself.

Erlan had heard tales like it, sat at Tolla’s knee beside the hearths of Vendlagard. He felt a stab of longing for home. For its worn old smells and familiar voices. Never going back, he reminded himself.

Never is a long time. . .

Kai wasn’t looking any happier. But before he could reply, the wind licked up as wild a gust as they’d heard, blasting at the pines, tossing the treetops till there wasn’t a flake of snow left on them.

A gale was on them and Erlan saw Finn was about to speak when, all of a sudden, the whistle and howl dropped to nothing. Total stillness. . .

The stillness of the grave.

The companions swapped uneasy glances. And then, out of the silence rose a whine, faint at first, then louder and louder, till it was high and piercing sharp through the dead air.

‘What the Hel is that?’ murmured Kai.

In answer, somewhere off in the thickening gloom, something started barking. . . then another bark replied, much fainter.

‘You hear that?’ asked Kai, wide-eyed.

‘We’re not bloody deaf,’ said Erlan.

‘One of them is near,’ said Finn, unslinging his bow. ‘That other’s further off.’

‘Is that a wolf or a dog?’ asked Lilla.

‘Out here, likely a wolf,’ said Finn. ‘But that other sound. . .’ He grimaced, and the whining droned on, high overhead.

‘We should get to higher ground,’ said Erlan. ‘And quickly. We need fire.’ The last of the light would be gone soon and they hadn’t a torch alight between them. A little way ahead to the right was the outline of a rise in the ground.

‘There!’ pointed Finn. Higher, the slope gathered into a broad knoll, at the top of which Erlan could make out a thinning in the trees and a jagged outcrop of large rocks. ‘Head for those rocks.’

‘My father,’ exclaimed Lilla, twisting round. ‘I must go to him.’

But Finn was already wheeling. ‘I’m with him, my lady – don’t fear. Go with Erlan. We’ll be close behind.’

Shouts passed round the company, and one by one they broke off and followed Erlan up the slope. The crunch of snow and crack of fallen branches under-hoof sounded loud in the still air.

‘Go ahead,’ he called to Kai. ‘Start a fire, quick as you can.’ Kai nodded, kicking on. ‘A big one!’ he yelled. ‘You go with him, Princess.’

‘What about you?’ she cried.

‘I’ll be right behind you. Now go!’

Lilla did as he bid, while he turned to look back. He could just make out the other riders, and the gaggle of men and mounts around the king. There were a dozen men, plus him and Kai, to guard the king and his daughter. He tried counting them off, shadow by shadow, but the trees obscured much, and the gloom was bleeding every outline into darkness.

The barking had stopped. Maybe the wolves or wild dogs or whatever had moved on. But it was better to be cautious. A rider passed him, then another. He recognized the brothers Beran and Jovard.

He had turned to follow them when a terrifying scream rent the night. He felt his horse shudder under him.

Is that a man’s voice? It sounded again and again. Horrible shrieks punctuated by imploring whimpers that communicated only one thing – unspeakable, agonizing pain.

‘Shit,’ he whispered, putting his heels to his animal’s flanks, heading uphill. Ahead the shadows of the rocks loomed out of the forest, and then he was passing through a gap between two of them onto the summit of the knoll.

He saw Kai on foot, hastily throwing down an armful of branches on a surprisingly sizeable pile of wood. The lad works fast. No doubt of that. Nearby Lilla was holding the horses. He jumped down.

‘Let’s have that fire started, Kai.’ He was trying to keep his voice steady, but he wouldn’t be happy till they had a blaze going.

‘What’s that noise? What’s happening?’ Even in the gloom, Kai’s face was pale with fear.

‘Quick as you can, lad.’ Kai obliged, dropping to his knees and getting to work with his flint and firesteel. The sparks shone bright as new stars in the gathering darkness.

Other riders were coming through the gap now, and at last Finn and the king appeared. The men already afoot went to the king and helped him down. ‘See to it every man is here,’ ordered Sviggar, voice rough as rust.

The screaming had stopped. So too the whining. It seemed like the whole forest was holding its breath.

‘Sellvar is missing,’ said Finn. ‘I count thirteen beside the king and the princess. You?’

Erlan scanned the men. ‘Aye – the same. Did you see him?’

‘Not I.’

‘He was in the rear,’ offered Jovard, the younger of the brothers. ‘I heard him following behind us.’

Well, he wasn’t there now. Wherever he was, Erlan didn’t imagine he’d make a pretty sight.

One of the other men cursed. Lilla asked what was going on.

‘We don’t know yet. But we should secure this place.’ Erlan looked around the circle of the outcrop. As Kai’s fire took bite, the shadows turned to pitch, but the flames also revealed the ground they’d chosen. They were inside a kind of enclosure, formed by two massive curved boulders bulging out of the ground like granite garlands around the crown of the hill.

‘Is this the only way up here?’ He pointed at the gap they’d just ridden through.

‘There’s another gap on the north side,’ answered Kai, who’d been scavenging around for wood.

Erlan limped a few paces north and could make out the second gap, perhaps twenty feet across. The southern gap was no more than a dozen. Inside this outer perimeter the ground rose higher, peaking in a steep-sided granite platform with three gullies running to its summit.

‘Whatever comes up this hill, we hold them at this outer ring. If we’re overrun here, we fall back to the summit. Finn – you take that larger gap to the north.’

Finn barked a sarcastic laugh. ‘My thanks for that, friend.’

‘Take six with you.’

He named Gakki, Jovard, Falger, Manulf, Dani. . . and Kai.

The men began separating. ‘If there’s any fighting to be done, I’m doing it with my brother,’ insisted Jovard.

‘Fine,’ said Erlan. ‘Beran, you go with them. Dani – you’re with me.’ Danel the Sami herdsman, a bead-eyed terrier of a man who could take a crow on the wing with knife or arrow, nodded. ‘We’ll take the southern gap with Vakur, and the rest.’ A burly brute draped in cowhide swung his axe up to his shoulder. The others divided accordingly and went off to their places.

The king was seated awkwardly on the stone jutting from the earth. ‘Lord, you stay close to the fire. Lady Lilla with him.’

‘You know,’ said Finn, scratching his chin. ‘He made me swear an oath I wouldn’t leave his side.’

‘Best way you can protect him is to see nothing comes through that gap.’ Erlan pointed north into the menacing darkness.

‘No, no,’ protested Sviggar, ‘I’ll not sit here idle.’ Though he looked haggard. ‘You need me to fight.’

‘We don’t know what’s needed yet, my lord. Might be we sit watch through the night and no more. For now, you should rest here by the fire.’ With a grunt, the king acquiesced, settling back on his stone.

‘And the horses?’ asked Lilla.

Erlan considered their animals. Aye – what the Hel could be done with them? That much horseflesh could cause serious disruption if there was a fight coming. And likely, they’d be far more trouble to the defenders than to anything attacking out of the dark. There were a couple of saplings straining out of the earth near the granite summit.

‘Tether them to those.’ Lilla looked where he was pointing and nodded, understanding. She went to the horses, then stopped. Looked back. He could see in her eyes they had the same thought. ‘Erlan – if it is the Vandrung. . . They aren’t like the others.’

‘I know.’ He held her eyes a moment longer and turned away. ‘Just see to your father.’

‘Be careful,’ he heard her call.

Be careful? That was the one choice this night would not leave him.

‘See anything?’ he asked when he reached his place at the southern gap. Dani’s crouched silhouette was peering into the darkness, his bow across his knee.

‘Nope.’ The Sami spat sourly into the snow. ‘Whole lot of black is all.’

‘Keep watching.’ Erlan unslung his shield from his back and drew out Wrathling. He looked at the blade’s dull sheen. Demon’s bane. A fair new name for the sword, he reckoned. If I ever get to use it. His shield weighed heavy on his wound, but he gritted against the pain. There’d be time enough for healing if they ever got away from this place.

He crouched beside Dani. Beyond he could see nothing but the tall shadows of the trees and the pale snow clinging to their branches. Around him, the others readied their weapons for the watch.

‘Going to be a long night,’ muttered Vakur. The big man was fairly bristling with steel – a huge axe in his hand, a sword on his back with a spear leaning against the rock.

‘Who can bloody sleep in this cold anyway?’ replied Dani.

Suddenly, a shout went up from the north. ‘I see them! I see them!’

Kai’s voice.

Erlan looked ahead. ‘Be ready,’ he whispered, squeezing his hilt tighter.

And then the darkness came alive.