Warriors of Ethandun (30 page)

His sword was already drawn when she reached him.

‘Freya?'

‘My name is Ursula.'

‘You are free? I feared that you had been taken and –'

‘I can look after myself,' she answered shortly. ‘I have come to tell you that I am with representatives of the true King of Wessex, Aelfred. He has a place for good warriors if you were to swear allegiance to him.' She found his expression hard to read. He was looking at her as if he had just had some kind of religious vision; it made her feel uncomfortable.

‘You would have me betray my cousin?' he said at last.
Perhaps she had misunderstood what was going on. If Ursula was wrong about him and he was still loyal to Guthrum, her interference would cost him his life.

‘I thought that you had argued with Guthrum, that Fin—the blind girl had become too influential.' It was impossible for Ursula to speak of Finna by name, for fear of alerting Finna to her presence on this undefended road. She swallowed hard.

‘You are well informed, Goddess. I have parted company with Guthrum but I see no reason to fight on Aelfred's side. I could join any war band on this island!'

‘Yes, but you are riding west across Wessex, while Mercia and Northumbria are north.'

‘But you, my Lady, had gone west, or so it was rumoured. I had to find you, to be sure that you were unharmed.'

Ursula shrugged. ‘I am unharmed. If you will not fight for Aelfred, you must ride north now as fast as you can because he knows you are coming and he will catch you if he can.'

‘And why do you, a Viking goddess, serve this Aelfred who was dethroned by his own people? Why don't you come with me and together we will find a worthy leader: there is none here.'

Ursula was almost tempted for half a moment – she had missed the adoration that burned in his eyes; she had known little of it in Aelfred's world.

‘My oath is already given,' she said. ‘I serve King Aelfred.'

Gunnarr smiled. ‘Then for your sake I will serve him too.'

It did not seem to Ursula to be the best way of deciding loyalties until she realised that it was exactly what she had done in choosing Aelfred. She chose Aelfred because Dan had chosen him.

‘Good,' she said. There was no time to say more because at that moment Dan arrived, on foot in the guise of the bear.

Dan could not control the sudden surge of violent feeling he felt towards this ‘kind' Gunnarr. He dismounted and removed his boots, his sword belt and most of his clothes without really being aware of what he was doing. By the time he had removed his second boot the transformation was complete.

‘No, Dan!' Taliesin waved his arm in Dan's direction but he'd had enough of Taliesin's meddling and his power over Dan had ended. He unseated him with one swipe of his massive arm. If Aethelnoth had any plan to stop him, he kept it to himself and made sure that Dan could see both his hands in clear view. Dan didn't waste time worrying about either of his companions; he had to get to Ursula and rescue her from the charms of the Dane.

He saw that he'd startled her. She did not seem glad to see him. She gave him a very steely look, almost as if she were herself again.

The Dane had his sword drawn – a good sword, though no match for the bear's claws or teeth. Gunnarr was tall and, Dan supposed, good-looking if you admired long
blond hair and chiselled features. He was muscular and strong too, but he was nothing compared to the bear.

Gunnarr dismounted with athletic ease and eyed the bear steadily. If he was terrified, he didn't show it. For some reason this made Dan even angrier and he began to salivate at the thought of removing Gunnarr's pretty blond head from his broad shoulders. Gunnarr attacked, but Dan blocked his sword easily and knocked it from his hand. Dan growled and moved in for the kill.

Suddenly the woman was there before him, protecting the Dane. Her eyes shone with dark fire and she held the sword as if she knew what to do with it.
‘Stop it now, Dan.'

The woman, Ursula, was in his head and he could not disobey her. He let his arm drop.

‘Get a grip on yourself – Gunnarr has agreed to join us. Please don't kill Aelfred's allies – he needs everyone he can get.'

Something in Ursula's mental tone made him ashamed. He felt himself literally cut down to size, shrinking back to normal human proportions. He stood there in front of Gunnarr in his real form, that of a half-naked teenage boy. He could not help but feel puny beside the Viking warrior. He hung his head in shame and embarrassment.

‘You are the Bear Sark. The one they talked about at Cippenham, one of Odin's blessed.' Gunnarr sounded awed, impressed, as if the fact that he had nearly been killed was unimportant.

Dan did not answer, mainly because he couldn't: Gunnarr was a warrior, and a brave one, and Dan had nearly killed him for no other reason than that Ursula admired him. He felt too mortified to answer. He hated
what the magic of this world was doing to him. He was becoming more of a beast with every day he spent in Aelfred's world.

‘Yes. This is my comrade-in-arms, Dan, and he is the Bear Sark, though I do not know if he is blessed or cursed,' Ursula said, and Dan knew that she was angry. He was becoming a liability, and without Ursula's presence he would have killed Gunnarr and perhaps Aethelnoth and Taliesin too. He hoped that he had not hurt Taliesin when he'd knocked him from the saddle. He was an old man.

Dan went to him at once to apologise as soon as he heard his approach. Taliesin looked pale and his left arm hung uselessly by his side.

‘I'm so sorry. I did not know what I was doing.'

Taliesin looked sceptical.

‘Yes, you did. You knew you were transforming – you took off your boots and your clothes. Aethelnoth put them with your horse.' He inclined his head to indicate a neat bundle that Aethelnoth had secured with the reins. ‘Asser is right. You do not want to be rid of the beast. You are allowing it to take you over. I thought you were going to kill me. I know you have your reasons for being annoyed with me, but I have always been loyal to you in my way. I did not deserve this.'

Dan could feel his anger rising again even at this. Taliesin's loyalty was the kind he could well do without. He was so busy trying to stay in control of himself that he did not notice Aethelnoth's arrival. It was his scream of furious rage that got his attention. He turned in time to see the Aenglisc warrior hurl himself at the Dane.
Gunnarr was unarmed, his sword still lying where Dan had knocked it from his hand. Once more Ursula placed herself before the Dane and raised her own sword in defence.

Aethelnoth knew her reputation, had watched her fight, and yet he still did not believe he could be bested by a woman. Gunnarr stepped back out of reach of Ursula's sword arm and Aethelnoth screamed, ‘Out of my way!'

He slashed at her and looked surprised as she parried his blow easily. As their blades locked she pushed him backwards. He had thought to drive her from his path to Gunnarr; he could not quite believe he had given ground. Dan saw Gunnarr grab his own sword and ready himself for an attack, but none was necessary. Ursula's face remained impassive but she would not let Aethelnoth pass. He was getting angry, his blows more frenzied. Dan knew that Ursula was fighting her magic as much as she was fighting Aethelnoth; he was a warrior of some reputation but he was not Ursula, and her steady, concentrated defence looked effortless. Dan had no worries about her swordsmanship; she would be fine as long as the magic did not distract her, as long as she could stay fixed in the moment. Having been inside her head, he knew that was not easy. Aethelnoth was not trying to hurt her, but as she frustrated his every attempt to disarm her so that he could get to the Dane, Dan saw his intention change: suddenly Aethelnoth saw her not as barrier to be surmounted but as an enemy to be killed. Dan saw the instant Aethlnoth's attitude shifted. He wanted to cry out to warn Ursula but did not dare distract her. He had to hope that she had
noticed the change too. He ought to have had more faith. Aethelnoth stepped back, the better to lunge at her heart, and quicker than a snake Ursula's sword was at his throat. Dan had always admired her unflashy economy of movement.

‘Stop now, Aethelnoth,' she said and for a moment she looked like the old Ursula. Her eyes were still their unnatural green, but less dark, and the look on her face was one Dan had seen many times before: triumph mixed with wonder.

‘I am in awe,' Gunnarr said, sheathing his sword and smiling.

Dan had to fight down the bear when he saw Ursula's answering smile. She thought it was over. She turned away from Aethelnoth, withdrawing her blade, and in that moment Aethelnoth attacked. Dan's hands were still clumsy from his transformation but he launched himself at Ursula to knock her out of the way. Aethelnoth's sword was raised and it seemed certain that he would kill Gunnarr with a swift blow to the throat. Ursula cried out. Dan did not hear what she said but when he disentangled his limbs from hers, Aethelnoth stood frozen like a man turned to stone, his sword arm poised to strike. Although he could not move he could still speak. He let out a howl of anguish and frustration that chilled Dan's blood. But it was Ursula's angry voice in his mind that he heard first.

‘Dan, you didn't stop me. I used magic. Finna will find me!'

It seemed to Dan as if he could do nothing right. He was about to make an angry response when he saw Ursula's face. She was staring at Aethelnoth. He was
crying silently and glaring at Gunnarr, who seemed utterly unnerved. ‘You killed her!' he said.

‘What is going on?' Dan asked, as whatever it was seemed far from obvious.

Ursula answered him in such a way that he knew she thought he was being slow on the uptake. The bear seemed to have blunted his normal human sensitivity. ‘Gunnarr killed Aethelnoth's wife in a raid a few months ago. It was not all he did.'

Dan let that sink in for a moment. He remembered that Aethelnoth had confused him with Gunnarr because of their height and skill with a sword.

‘She was carrying our child,' Aethelnoth said in a voice so lost and full of despair that even Dan could understand the depth of his grief.

‘I am sorry,' Gunnarr said, in halting Aenglisc. ‘It is what happens in these times. Set him free, Goddess, and let him try to kill me. He has the right.'

Ursula shook her head. ‘This is all madness. There needs to be an end to it. If you fight, you will both be injured, perhaps even die. What is the good in that?'

‘I will give my life gladly to avenge my wife. Let me free.'

Taliesin spoke then for the first time and Dan suspected him of weaving magic into his tone. His voice sounded more beautiful than ever and subtly coaxing. Ursula looked surprised.

‘Gunnarr, can you not pay wergild to Aethelnoth for his wife – wergild equivalent to the loss of a Viking warrior? In that way can you not satisfy honour and live,
Aethelnoth? Would you not agree to that, Gunnarr?' Taliesin asked.

‘I don't know. I have no gold now, not enough anyway, but I will promise it. I will swear it on my own life.'

‘Danish promises are worth nothing,' Aethelnoth, said and spat on the ground.

‘I can make it bind,' Ursula said softly. ‘It is a form of magic I will do – if it will save your lives. But, Aethelnoth, you must not tell Aelfred of this. I do not want him to see me as a sorceress.'

‘Are you sure you want to do this, Ursula? What about Finna?'
Dan asked, speaking without words.

‘It is too late. She knows where I am – I can feel her pulling at me, like she has me on a tether. Help me not to give in!'

Dan did not have the slightest idea of how to do that but agreed readily. He would do whatever he could.

Ursula opened her fist, which until that moment she had been holding tightly clenched, and released what looked like a golden ribbon which writhed and twisted through the air like a water snake in a pond. As Dan watched, it lengthened and became a thin golden cord; one end wound its way around Gunnarr's chest, binding it tightly, while the other bound Aethelnoth's chest. The two men remained visibly tied together for a moment and then the cord seemed to change again, burrowing into the men's chests before apparently disappearing.

‘That is what a binding oath looks like – a chain of gold that you cannot break.'

The men looked horrified; each stared at their chests in wonderment.

‘I do not think you can kill each other now,' she said matter-of-factly. ‘So I will release you, Aethelnoth, so that you may sheathe your sword. Aelfred will ask for your oath, Gunnarr, and you can be certain that too will bind you. Are you sure you want to make such a promise?'

Dan thought that Gunnarr coped remarkably well with so much strangeness. In response he nodded. ‘I have wanted to serve a worthy leader and it seems that if this Aelfred is served by both a warrior goddess and the beloved of Odin, the Bear Sark, then he must be such a leader. I confess I did not think it obvious at Cippenham, but I have been wrong before. I will give you my oath now if that is what you wish.'

Taliesin intervened then and recited the form of words which Aelfred would accept and Gunnarr repeated them. Dan's attention wandered away. Ursula was about to faint. He rushed to her side and caught her as she fell.

‘The Goddess – she is good?' Gunnarr asked in his awkward Aenglisc.

‘I don't know,' Dan said, feeling suddenly coldly afraid. ‘What do you know of the seith-wife who serves Guthrum? I am afraid this is Finna's work.'

It felt like she was drowning. Ursula could no longer hear the voices of her companions; she could no longer see Dan or Taliesin. She was in some dark place where she could no longer feel anything but fear and anger. She knew at once what had happened. Finna had called to the magic. If she had not succumbed to the magic, allowed it to flow through her again, whatever trap Finna had sprung could not have caught her. She had been a fool to wield the magic again – but what else could she have done? Allowed Dan to kill Gunnarr or Gunnarr to kill Aethelnoth? She didn't think that she could have stood by and let that happen. Neither anger nor fear was much help to her in her current situation. She needed to think, not to be overwhelmed. She needed to be brave.