Viking Dragon (19 page)

Between the walls and the halls lay thrall's huts and animal pens.  We would have to move quietly and not disturb the animals. Snorri and Beorn led the way across the open area.  Suddenly a huge dog began to growl as Snorri passed. He put his hand out and murmured something.  The growling stopped and I saw the dog's tail wagging. If there was such a thing as a perfect scout then it was Snorri. He was prepared, even for savage guard dogs. He and Beorn went around the rear of the warrior hall to head to the Jarl's hall.

We moved along the side of the warrior hall. I could hear the noises of men snoring, talking in their sleep and, inevitably, farting.  Aiden stayed there and waited for Asbjorn and his men.  They carried faggots with which to fire the hall. I halted in the shadow of the warrior hall to watch the sentries. There was but one door into the hall and they guarded it.  There were steps up to it. A Danish hall was often built below the ground to create a high roof.  This looked to be one such. It explained why it was on slightly higher ground.

Haaken and Erik Eriksson stood behind me.  I saw Beorn creeping along the side of the hall.  I guessed that Snorri was on the other side.  We had fifty paces to cover as soon as the two sentries were dead. Beorn was about to strike when Loki played a trick. One of the sentries decided to make water and he turned to go down the hall.  He saw Beorn.  Beorn's blade was fast but the sentry shouted, "Vikings!" before he fell.

There was no time to waste and we sprinted across the open ground.  Behind me I smelled burning as Aiden lit the first fire.  With men guarding the one door in the hall I hoped that they would be able to kill the warriors with few losses to themselves. Even though we ran as fast as we could we could not reach the door before the oathsworn reacted to the alarm.  I saw Snorri and Beorn fighting five men.  They stood back to back.  A mighty giant raised his axe to decapitate Snorri but an arrow flew from nowhere and struck him in the side of the head. One of Snorri's archers was alert. The Dane fell as though pole axed.  Even so the odds were too great and I saw Beorn fall to a blow from behind.

As the warrior raised his sword to finish him off I saw that Rolf had sprinted ahead of us and he brought his axe around to scythe through the Dane's leg. Rollo was close behind and before the second Dane who had been fighting Beorn could change his attack Rollo had run him through. There were more Danes rushing from the hall but we were all at the gate and we met them sword to sword.  I saw that Snorri, too, was wounded.  As I blocked a sword from a Dane I shouted, "Get Beorn to the drekar!"

I punched the warrior in the face with my shield and, as he reeled brought my knee up hard between his legs.  He was not wearing mail and he fell backwards.  I stabbed him in the throat.  Behind me the warrior hall was on fire; the flames raced up the sides of the bone dry building and I heard the screams of those within. My target was Ragnar Halfdansson. Olaf Leather Neck and Rolf Horse Killer cleared the door to the hall with two mighty swings from their axes.  The Danes wore no mail.  The three who had stood there fell backwards writhing as they tried to hold in the nest of intestines which were spilling out.

Haaken made the door before I did and he roared his challenge, "I am Haaken One Eye! If you face me then you die! I am Ulfheonar!"

He was almost berserker as he ran to the nearest Danes.  The fact that there were three of them did not discomfit him in the least. I followed him for Haaken was not as young as he had once been. He slew one and blocked the sword from the second but the third had stepped to the side and was about to run Haaken through under his outstretched right arm when I brought down my sword and took the Dane's arm. Even as he stood bleeding I brought the blade backhanded into his chest.

"Find Ragnar Halfdansson!"

Haaken might have only had one eye but it missed nothing.  He pointed to the far end of the hall where I saw Ragnar and four of his oathsworn.  They had been donning mail.  Now that they saw us they ran towards us.

I raised my sword and shouted, "Ulfheonar! To me!"

Leif the Banner and Finni the Dreamer appeared as though by magic and I heard a roar which told me that Olaf Leather Neck was on his way.  He would not let his jarl fight alone!

Ragnar spat out his words as he raced to me, "When I had no word from my men I should have known you had used magic to defeat them!"

"I used the same weapon on Gurt the Silent that I will use on you, Ragnar Halfdansson, Ragnar's Spirit!"

None would interfere in our combat.  It would be jarl to jarl. He was a much younger man than me.  I was at least fifteen years older.  He was in the prime of life. He was a big man.  I remembered that from the Wall but we were fighting in a hall.  It would be speed and skill which determined the outcome of this contest. The hall had a high roof and Ragnar Halfdansson brought his sword in a huge swing.  It was aimed at my head. I did the unexpected; I stepped into him below his swing.  I pulled my shield up as I did so and his right arm struck my shoulder and then the edge of my shield smashed up into his jaw.  I had not even bothered swinging Ragnar's Spirit which hung from my hand.

Ragnar Halfdansson stumbled backwards with his shield up to block the blow which never came. His mouth was pouring with blood.  "Trickster! I knew you could never defeat Halfdan the Black without such tricks.  Tricks and magic! You are no warrior!"

"Then this will decide that!" I feinted with my shield and he moved his own shield to block the strike. The tip of my sword darted out and plunged into the flesh above his knee.  I twisted the blade as I did so.

This time he screamed with pain and I was showered with gobs of blood from his mouth. I wanted him annoyed and reckless.  I wanted him to try to kill me with brute force. He lurched towards  me with a flurry of sword blows from his sword and his shield.  I had to dance out of the way blocking as best as I could.  Each blow weakened him for he was bleeding now from mouth and from knee. He had struck me with such fury that he had bent his sword.

It was time for me to go on the offensive.  I did not strike at his shield; instead I made a sweep at his head.  He brought up his own shield and swung at my shield.  My strike was the first I had made with any force and I saw that it had hurt his arm. Because his sword was no longer straight it had little force behind it. It bent a little more when it struck my shield. He looked at the blade as though it had betrayed him and he threw it at me before reaching down and picking up an axe. The way he hefted it told me that he was a skilled axe man. He grinned and it almost made me laugh for blood oozed from the sides of his mouth. 

"Dance away from this, Dragonheart!"

He brought the axe over his head with as much force as he could muster.  I knew it would hit my shield and I angled it at the last minute as I stepped to the side. It slid down the face of my shield and caught on the boss. It stuck between the wood and the metal. As he tried to jerk away I lunged in with my sword. I put my whole force behind it and it tore though his mail.  In his hurry to fight us he had not put on his leather byrnie and my sword found flesh.  I twisted as I withdrew the sword touched by the gods.

Ragnar Halfdansson was hurt. He was dying but he could still hurt me. He swung again at my head and I was barely able to sway away from the strike. His weak knee and the power of the swing carried his body forward.  As he tumbled towards me I brought my sword over and took his head in one swift move. I spun around and saw that the hall was a like a charnel house.  The dead lay everywhere. Through the door I saw dawn breaking. In another part of the hall I heard screaming from the families of the Jarl.

"Take what you can and then back to the drekar." Fetch our wounded." I took Ragnar Halfdansson's axe and helmet. They would remind me of the Halfdan clan.

When I emerged the warrior hall was still blazing.  My Ulfheonar formed a wedge around me for there had been other Danes living nearby and they were already gathering. They were wary of attacking us and they stood blocking our way to the gate and the river. Haaken said, "It looks like we will have to fight our way out."

Olaf Leather Neck had not had enough of death and destruction.  He roared, "Come on you Danes! Taste my axe!" He swung  it in a figure of eight and Rolf joined him.  We made our way to the river.  There were one or two heroes but they were swiftly slain by my Ulfheonar. We burst through and marched towards the river. Some carried treasure and trophies but of more value was the fight that we had had.  We had defeated Jarl Ragnar Halfdansson and his oathsworn in their own hall.  It would be a tale told by fires long after we were all dead and in Valhalla.

Aiden and the rest of my men had made a shield wall by the jetty. Erik and Olaf had tied up next to the Danish drekar. They had placed gang planks across them and I shouted, "Back to our drekar.  We have done enough!"

Aiden waited for me. "We have soaked the Danish ships in seal oil and we have fire ready. They will not raid again."

I stood on the jetty until there were only Danes before me.  I took a step forward and raised Ragnar's Spirit, "This is a warning to all Danes. Stay away from my land.  I will punish all who dare to threaten me, my family or my land!" I pointed my sword at the glow from the burning hall. "This is the punishment for such transgressions."

I turned and walked slowly to my drekar.
'The King's Gift'
was already pulling away.  I turned as I stepped on to my ship and nodded. "Cast off!"

Using their oars my crew pushed us into the middle of the river.  Aiden, Olaf, Haaken and Erik all hurled their burning brands into the drekar. With a whoosh the bone dry drekar burst into flames.  The heat was so great that I felt it from ten paces away. As the sail was lowered we moved away from the doomed dragon ship.  Ragnar Halfdansson had thought he could take on the Viking dragon.  The flames of his burning hall and ships proved him wrong.

We needed no oars for we had the wind and we were moving downstream.  Warriors were being tended to by comrades but I saw Aiden and Snorri.  They were kneeling close to Beorn. It seemed like an age since he had been wounded.  I hurried to his side.

"How is he?"

Aiden did not look up.  I saw that Snorri had his hand held to Beorn's thigh. "He has taken a bad blow to his leg.  I fear the blade has cut the bone.  We must stitch it.  We have no fire to cauterize it. We must stop the bleeding."

Snorri said, "He took a blow to the head too. He breathes but he is not in this place."

I could see that Snorri was concerned for his friend.  The two of them were inseparable. "Aiden is a good healer.  If he can be saved then Aiden is the man to do it and if not...it is
wyrd
."

"You are right, Jarl. None of us are getting any younger. We are now like Old Olaf and those older warriors with whom we first fought. We thought them old because we were young and full of life.  Time has caught up with us and we did not see it."

"We are not yet ready to go to the Otherworld, Snorri.  Beorn is a fighter. He will fight this."

We were aided by the fact that we sailed down a slow river. Erik had to navigate carefully and it meant the deck did not move overmuch. Haaken was watching the land as we passed through the land of Northumbria. "They are watching us, Jarl. Word must have spread for the signal towers flame. They are warning their men."

"Have the men ready to fight if we have to.  Issue the bows."

My worry was not men on the shore with weapons; those we could deal with.  It was the river.  If they blocked the river with a chain or a rope then we might be stranded.  Until we reached the confluence with the Humber then we were in danger.

"Jarl, fetch some water.  Pour it over my hands and Snorri's. There is so much blood it is hard to see the wound."

I was grateful for something to do.  There were buckets of sea water kept in case of fire. I knew that the salt in the water would keep the wound cleaner.  I picked one up, "How is Beorn?"

"He is fighting Erik, as we all do."

"Aye we come into the world kicking and screaming and, if you are a warrior, then you leave the same way."

I stood over Aiden, "Just pour it, Jarl."

I did so and as the blood was washed away I saw that the wound was as long as my hand and I could see the white of bone. It was a bad wound. There was some water left and I poured it on his head.  I saw that his skull was not depressed as Haaken's had been but it was another bad cut.  This bled but not as fast as the one in his leg. "What about his head, Aiden?"

"It needs sewing but I have but one pair of hands."

He sounded irritated.  "If you have a spare needle and gut we will see what I can do then eh, galdramenn?"

"Small stitches! No one will see his leg but his young wife will not want a monster to return to her!"

I had seen Aiden stitch enough men to know what to do. It took me some time to thread the bone needle but I managed. I washed away some of the blood and joined the two flaps of skin.  I began to sew. It was fortunate that Beorn was between worlds for I am certain that my clumsy hands would have made him cry out and move had he been awake. I finished before Aiden did. I had tried to make the stitches as small as possible but I had closed the wound.  He now just bled from his leg.

Eventually Aiden sat back.  "I have done all that I can.  It is now in the hands of the gods.  We must watch him and keep him warm.  Snorri, try to get some ale into his mouth."