Viking Dragon (12 page)

I laughed, "Then they do not know me."

"No, Jarl. I tried to tell them but they would have none of it.  They were also afraid of me.  They took from me anything I might use which was magical. They threw away my leather pouch with my herbs and my amulet. It is why I had to leave the clues in the mud and with twigs."

"It worked." We rode in silence and I wondered how best to deal with these Danes. There could be no reasoning with them.  We would have to fight them.  With just a handful of Ulfheonar I could not hope to defeat them now.  I had to get back to Cyninges-tūn.  I would need a large warband. I had to draw them back across the country.

"Rolf, are they in sight?"

"No Jarl."

"Then stop and gather round."

If they thought me mad they said nothing.  "We need to draw them back across the divide and then we can bring a warband to defeat them.  Leif, ride to Cyninges-tūn. Fetch a warband to the wall. You can ride across country and be there in a day of hard riding. As soon as you are in our land you can get a mount from one of our farmers. We will draw them across the country."

Erik said, "Is that not a risk, Jarl?"

"Would you rather we reach home and then keep watching over our shoulders for a warband of Danes to descend upon our valley and slaughter our people?" He shook his head. "This way we get it over with. We pull them west.  Let them think we are weaker than we are. Leif, ride!" Leif smacked his horse in the rump and took off.

"I see them, Jarl." Rolf was our rearguard.  He had good eyes.

"Then we ride but make it look as though our horses are struggling."

As the day wore on we rode and stopped.  We let them get within two hundred paces and then we moved. It was exhausting work. Snorri reined in when we approached the Roman fort on the Tinea.  "We will need to find somewhere to rest, Jarl.  We could stay here.  It is defensible."

"No, Snorri, I want to be further north west and closer to home. Leif still has hours to go before he reaches our people.  It will be late tomorrow at the earliest before a warband could reach us." Even as I said it I knew that I should have sent him to Ulf Olafsson first.  Ulf and his warriors were the closest to us.

"Jarl we need food and we need to rest the horses."

"We ride to the fort and then dismount and walk.  That will rest the horses. We will still be within sight of the Danes but we will have a good lead over them."

As we rode Aiden said, "You are gambling, Jarl."

"I am.  If we keep on this road then they cannot get ahead of us. We have drawn them away from their drekar.  They may cut their losses and return to their boat but if they see us walking and not riding then they will renew their efforts. It will tire them out.  If we are hungry then so are they.  If we are tired then they are even more so."

He nodded and said, "There is another fort just eight miles ahead.  We will have to stop there."

We descended towards the Roman bridge.  When we reached it I dismounted and looked up the hill. The Danish warband was strung out. It was a large warband.  I wondered how many drekar they had. The warriors I could see wore no mail. They would be the ones keeping us in sight. Even as we stopped I saw one of them halt and turn.  He would be shouting to the brothers. We walked across the bridge and we passed the old fort.  We kept walking while we were within sight of the Danes. The road was straight for some way beyond the fort and the Danes could still see us but as it passed through a wood we were hidden. 

"Mount and we ride for the next fort.  Let us hide there."

It was a five mile ride to the fort.  The Danes were too far from their drekar.  They would have to camp.  I wondered if they would camp at the fort we had just passed or would they pursue us? They would now know our destination.  If they were determined then they would rest for a short time and then try to catch us as we slept.

Evening had fallen as we dropped down into the river valley. We dismounted when we saw the bridge over the river and the deserted Roman fort. "Rollo and Rolf, stay on this side of the bridge and watch for the Danes.  We will take your horses."

We unsaddled the horses and led them to the river to drink. "Snorri, we need food!"

"Aye Jarl.  I could eat a horse and not bother to skin it!"

I had not slept the night before and now exhaustion was setting in. When the first drops of rain fell on me I felt grateful for they refreshed me but as the raindrops turned to a downpour I became less happy. We took shelter under the roof of the crumbling bath house. Aiden managed to get a fire going and then he said, "I will fetch Rollo and Rolf.  We have no need for them to watch.  I will make an alarm. We will be warned of the Danes but I do not think that they will venture out in the rain."

Aiden was away for some time. Rollo and Rolf returned, "Aiden said to come into the dry, Jarl!"

"He knows what he is doing. "

Snorri came back with a young lamb.  Within a few moments it was skinned and butchered and the joints speared on the ends of seaxes and thrust in the fire. It would take some time to cook through but we would eat each part as it cooked.

Aiden returned. "If they come then we will hear them."

I nodded.  "We must take it in turns to sleep.  They will come before dawn."

Snorri said, "Jarl you have not slept the longest; you will sleep.  We have Aiden now."

He looked at Aiden who said, "He is right, Jarl.  You will make bad decisions if you are tired."

I nodded.  My eyes were closing.  I curled up in a ball and pulled my wolf cloak over my head and I dreamed...

I was on Halvelyn and I was alone.  I was naked with no sword to protect me.  The creatures of the night crept up on me and they surrounded me.  I looked around for a weapon and spied a broken branch.  I held it, determined to sell my life dearly. I swung it around as the foxes and rats leapt at me. I felt their teeth as they nipped at me and I began to bleed and then there was such a roaring that I thought my head would burst and flames danced all around me.  A huge dragon, the one I had seen in my dreams, landed and it picked me up in its talons.  We flew high into the air.  We flew so high that we left the earth far behind. We flew over Ulf Olafsson at Thorkell's Stad and he waved as I passed over. Circling the dragon began to descend and I was dropped on the top of Old Olaf. As I turned, the dragon ascended and disappeared. I reached up to touch the beast and it was gone.

"Jarl!" I looked up and saw Snorri. "It is almost dawn Jarl." The rain was still relentlessly pouring down.

"We must send to Ulf Olafsson for help. Let Rollo go.  Give him a spare horse.  Tell him to get there as quickly as he can."

"You dreamed?"

Aiden said, "He dreamed."

"Rollo! Ride to Ulf and have him bring his men along the wall to meet with us." He leapt on his horse and galloped off.

Just then we heard a cry from the river. "They have tripped my trap, Jarl."

"Then we ride.  Let us mount."

As I mounted Finni stuck a lamb shank in my hand.  "We saved this for you.  You cannot kill Danes if you are hungry."

I mounted the horse and felt every bone in my body aching.  It was some years since I had ridden so hard and slept on the ground. I was getting old. We began to trot down the road. I tore hunks of meat from the shank as we rode. Suddenly Snorri said, "There are Danes on the road!"

"Rollo?"

Snorri shook his head.  "They have come from the south and I can see no sign of him."

"Then head north, towards the wall.  We can cross the wall.  We will be slower but the wall will give us some protection and it will hide us for a while."

We heard more shouts from behind as more of Aiden's traps were set off.  They would incapacitate and not kill. Their purpose was to warn us. It was rough ground over which we travelled and we headed for the wood and the high scars. The rain was so hard that, if we could make the woods then they would find it hard to see us.  If they had to search then we could buy time for our men to reach us.

I bit another hunk out of the cold lamb. I had never tasted anything so fine in my life. I barely chewed I was so hungry. As we reached the woods we halted. I turned and, still eating, looked at the Danes.  They were trotting towards the woods.  They had been refreshed by the halt. I turned and followed Snorri through the woods.  We emerged on the other side and I saw a pile of rocks. "We will hide behind them. When they come through the woods they will waste time searching for us." There was something familiar about this landscape but I could not remember being here. Perhaps the teeming rain made it look like somewhere I had been before.

It was when we disappeared behind the rocks that I spied them.  It was a pile of bones. There were pieces of rusted metal too.  It was a grave, an old barrow, and the rain had washed away the soil. I saw Aiden and he had a look on his face which I had rarely seen.  It was as though he was awake and yet dreaming. He dismounted. Snorri shouted, "Aiden!"

"Leave him!"

He wandered over to the pile of bones and reached down.  I had no idea what he sought but his hand seemed drawn to something. He lifted a piece of cloth.  It looked to have been golden but in the rain and with the detritus of an age it was hard to tell.  There looked to be metal at one end.  To me it looked like the sleeve of a giant's kyrtle. I moved closer and it was the second object which had a greater effect.  It was a golden dragon with a metal chain. It was the dragon of my dreams. This was the place that Myrddyn had shown me.

Aiden turned and, still looking dazed, brought them over to me.  He handed me the chain and the dragon. "Jarl, this is what the old man wished you to have. They are both from the times of the Romans. They are links to your ancestor."

I lifted it up and saw that it was the same dragon which had carried me to Old Olaf.  I put it around my neck. Suddenly a Dane appeared and shouted, "I have them!"

"Mount!"

Snorri knocked an arrow and sent it in the direction of the Danish scout but he had already gone to ground. Holding the long sleeve Aiden mounted and we galloped west.  As we did so I heard a weird wailing as air passed through the dragon sleeve. Finni shouted, "What is that?  Is it the dead, Jarl?  Have we done wrong?"

"No," shouted Aiden, "This is
wyrd
! This is the fulfilment of the Jarl's dream. The dragon cries.  The dragon is born again!"

I had to put the thoughts of the dragon beyond me for the Danes were flooding across the rough ground towards us. The rocks and spongy, muddy turf were not good for the horses and we could not extend our lead.  We rode in a rough line.  There was little to be gained from travelling one behind the other.  I risked a glance over my shoulder. Some of the Danes, the ones with mail, were falling further behind us.

"Head for the wall! There is a gap up ahead at the fort!"

There was an old Roman fort which rose above the valley.  We would be able to make it before the Danes and once through we would be able to reach the road. The leading Danes were less than forty paces behind us. As Snorri led us towards it I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the Danes were even more spread out.  Our manoeuvre had taken them by surprise. Disaster struck when we were just sixty paces from the ruined gatehouse. Aiden's horse slipped and stumbled.  He was never the best rider and he flew from its back. Vermund had the last spare horse.

"Rolf and Finni, come with me."

I reined my horse in and slipped from his back.   The Danes redoubled their efforts to reach me as Snorri and Vermund helped a groggy Aiden to the back of his horse.  Rolf and Finni flanked me. I slipped my shield around and drew Saxon Slayer. I stabbed directly at the middle of the leading Dane whose spear was already lunging towards my head. Without taking my eyes from the Dane I flicked my head out of the way of the spear.  The Dane impaled himself on my sword. Finni's sword struck a second Dane so hard on the side of his helmet that he fell stunned and Rolf's two handed axe took the head of the third. There was a gap to the nearest Danes and I shouted, "Mount.  We have done enough."

Our horses were so tired that they had not moved far and we quickly remounted.  Snorri's arrow made the closest Dane duck behind his shield and we lumbered up the slope to the gatehouse. The gates had long ago fallen and the rain, which still poured down had weakened the stones. "Rolf smash the gate's support with the back of your axe."

While Finni held his horse Rolf leapt from his back and giving a mighty swing the powerful young man's axe thundered and cracked into the left hand gate support. The ancient wood crumbled. The stones were loose and they tumbled down the slope filling the gate and falling down towards the Danes.  It would give us a lead.  It would be a short one but it would have to do. As soon as he had mounted I shouted, "Ride along the wall."

The Roman wall had a turf top and was wide enough for two horses. It was less slippery than the cobbles inside the fort. I turned and saw that they had yet to clear the gate.  Trees had grown over part of the wall and, as we headed west, we were hidden from view.

The rain began, thankfully, to ease off and the skies cleared from the north.  To our right was a sheer drop and the dark waters of a large tarn. Snorri shouted, "Jarl we had best be off the wall here.  There is a cliff ahead."