Wulfric the Weapon Thane: A Story of the Danish Conquest of East Anglia by Whistler (novels for beginners .TXT) 📗

looking at Cyneward, who sat apart from us across the king's chamber where we were, "Ingvar is not all himself lately, and all men fear him, so that he is no loss to the host."

I knew somewhat, I thought, of the reason for this, and so did Cyneward, but passed that over. Now nothing seemed more plain to me than that Halfden meant that I should seek Osritha.

"What is Halfden doing?" I asked. "Will he not go back to your own land?"

"Why, no. For he takes Northumbria as his share of what we have won. Hubba is there now. But we fight to gain more if we may, and if not, to make sure of what we have. One way or another Ethelred's power to attack us must be broken."

"So Halfden bides in England. What meant he by his message?"

"Why, Wulfric, if you cannot see I will not tell you."

"What of Ingvar?"

"Now, Wulfric," said Thormod, "if I did not know that you at least were not afraid of him, I should say that he was best left alone. But as neither you nor I fear him, let us go and see what may be done."

"Let me think thereof," said I, not yet daring to make so sure of what I most wished.

"Shall I tell Osritha that Wulfric thought twice of coming to see her?"

"That you shall not," I cried; "I do but play with my happiness. Surely I will go, and gladly. But will she welcome me?"

"Better come and see concerning that also," he answered, laughing a little, so that one might know what he meant.

"Let us go at once on this tide," I said, starting up.

"Not so fast now, comrade," laughed Thormod. "Would you come again half starved, as last time, into the lady's presence?"

Then I called Cyneward, but when he rose up and came to us, Thormod stared at him, crying:

"You here, Raud! I thought you were with Ingvar."

"Aye, Thormod, I am here--at least Cyneward, who was Raud, is with Wulfric."

"Ho! Then you have turned Christian?"

"Aye," answered Cyneward, flushing, though not with shame, for it was the first time he had owned his faith to one of his former comrades.

"Now I thought this likely to happen to some of us," said Thormod, not showing much surprise, "if maybe it is sooner than one might have looked for. However, that is your concern, not mine. Keep out of Ingvar's way, though."

"I bide here with Wulfric," he answered, having paid no heed to our low-voiced talk.

"Wulfric sails with me to find--Ingvar," said Thormod, and at that Cyneward turned to me in surprise.

"Not Ingvar," said I, "but one in his house. Will you come with me?"

Then he understood, and his face showed his gladness.

"This is well," he cried; "gladly will I go with you and return with that other."

"That is to be seen," I answered, though I thought it surely would be so. "Now go and see to the arms and all things needful, and send the steward to me, for we have to victual the ship."

So I left Thormod with the steward and sought Ingild, telling him what I would do. Whereat he, knowing my trouble, was very glad; and then Egfrid would fain come with me also when he heard. That, however, I would not suffer, seeing that there was Ingvar to be dealt with. My mother wept, and would have me not go. But here my sister helped me.

"Bring Osritha back if you can," she said. "Soon will our house be built again, and we shall go, and you will be lonely."

For Egfrid's father had owned Guthrum, and his house and theirs were nigh rebuilt.

In a day's time Thormod and I set sail, and once more I took the helm as we went out over our bar. And the quiver of the tiller in my hands and the long lift of the ship over the rollers seemed to put fresh life in me, and my gloom passed away as if it had never been.

The breeze was fresh, and the ship flew, yet not fast enough for me, though so well sailed ours that when day broke the other was hull down astern of us, and at night we had lost her altogether. And the breeze held and the spray flew, and I walked the deck impatiently, while Thormod from the helm smiled at me. Bright were the skies over me, and bright the blue water that flashed below the ship's keel, but my thoughts would even have brightened such leaden skies as those that last saw me cross along this ocean path. And I thought that I could deal with Ingvar now.

CHAPTER XVI. HOW WULFRIC BROUGHT OSRITHA HOME.

There was a haze far out at sea, and a fog was coming in with the tide when we came to the mouth of Ingvar's haven; and rounded the spit of land that shelters it from the southerly winds. Soon we cleared it and then saw the town and hall above it at the head of the haven, and what my longings were I need not write.

Now by the wharves lay two ships, and I thought little of that, but on seeing them, Thormod, by whose side I was as he steered, seemed to wonder.

"Ingvar has got another ship from somewhere," he said, "or has built one this winter, for he sailed home with one only."

Then, too, the men began to say the like, for the second ship was strange to them also, and, as seamen will, they puzzled over her until we were close at hand. But I leaned on the gunwale and dreamed dreams of my own, paying no heed to their talk.

Out of those dreams I was roused by Thormod's voice.

"Yon ship is no Dane," he said sharply. "Clear the decks and get to arms, men. Here is somewhat amiss."

Then was a growl of wrath from our crew, yet no delay, and in a moment every man was in his place. Down came the sail, and the mast was lowered and hoisted on its stanchions overhead, and in five minutes or less the oars were out, and the men who were arming themselves ran to take them as they were ready, while those who had rowed should get to arms also. Not for the first time saw I that ship cleared for action, but never had I seen it done so swiftly, though we had but half our fighting crew, sixty men instead of a hundred and thirty or so.

I armed myself swiftly as any, and Thormod bade me take Halfden's place on the fore deck, where the men were already looking to bowstrings and bringing up sheaves of arrows and darts.

Then when I came they shouted, and one gray-headed warrior cried:

"Now you have a good fight on hand, axeman."

Then I asked:

"Who are the strangers?"

"It is a ship of the Jomsburg vikings," he said. "They know that our men are all in England, and have come to see what we have left behind--Thor's bolt light on them!"

Now, of all savage vikings these Jomsburgers are the worst. Red-handed they are, sparing none, and it is said of them that they will sacrifice men to the gods they worship before a great fight. Nor are they all of one race, but are the fiercest men of all the races of the Baltic gathered into that one nest of pirates, Jomsburg.

Now a cold thrill of fear for Osritha ran through me, and then came hot rage, and for a little I was beside myself, as it were, glaring on that ship. Then I grew cool and desperate, longing only to be hand to hand with them.

Swiftly we bore down on the ship, and now from her decks came the hoarse call of uncouth war horns, and her crew came swarming back from the streets with shouts and yells, crossing Ingvar's ship to reach their own, for she lay alongside, stem to stern of the Dane, and next to the open water.

Now I could see that men fought with the last of the Jomsburgers as they came down the street to their ship, and there were no houses burning, so that they could have been for no long time ashore. And that was good to know.

We came into the channel abreast of her, and then Thormod roared to me:

"Now I will ram her. Board her as we strike if we do not sink her!"

Then he called on the oarsmen, and they cheered and tugged at the oars, the men in the waist helping them, and my fore deck warriors gripping the bulwarks against the shock. Down we swooped like a falcon on a wild duck, and as we came the Jomsburgers howled and left their own ship, climbing into Ingvar's to fly the crash, while some tried to cast off, but too late.

"Shoot!" I shouted to my men, and the arrows flew.

Through skin-clad backs and bare necks the arrows pierced, and the smitten pirates fell back into their own ship, as they swarmed the higher sides of Ingvar's, like leaves from a tree.

Then with a mighty crash and rending of cloven timbers our dragon stem crushed the Jomsburg ship from gunwale to gunwale, splintering the rail of the other ship as the wreck parted and sunk on either side of our bows, while above the rending of planks and rush of waters rose the howls of the drowning men.

I clung to the dragon's neck, and the shock felled me not. Yet my men went headlong over the oarsmen as we struck, rising again with a great shout of grim laughter, to follow me over the bows as I leapt among the pirates who thronged on Ingvar's deck before me.

Then was the sternest fight I have ever seen, for we fought at close quarters, they for dear life, and we for those even dearer than life. There was no word of quarter, and at first, after our cheer on boarding, there was little noise beyond the ringing of weapon on helm and shield and mail, mixed with the snarls of the foul black-bearded savages against us and the smothered oaths of our men.

Then came a thickness in the air and a breath of chill damp over me, and all in a moment that creeping sea fog settled down on us, and straightway so thick it was, that save of those before and on either side of him no man might see aught, but must fight in a ring of dense mist that hemmed him round. And for a while out of that mist the arrows hissed, shot by unseen hands, and darts, hurled by whom one might not know, smote friend and foe alike, while if one slew his man, out of the fog came another to take his place, seeming endless foes. And as in a dream the noise of battle sounded, and the fight never slackened.

All I knew was that Cyneward was next me, and that my axe must keep my own life and take that of others; and I fought for Osritha and home and happiness--surely the best things for which a man can fight next to his faith. And now men began to shout their war cries that friend might rally to friend rather than smite him coming as a ghost through the mist. Then a man next me cried between his teeth:

"It is Ragnaroek come--and these are Odin's foes against whom we fight."

And so smote the more fiercely till he fell beside me, crying: "Ahoy! A Raven!--a Raven!"

Then was I down on the slippery deck, felled by a blow from a great stone hammer that some wild pirate flung over the heads of his comrades before me, and Cyneward dragged me up quickly, so that I think he saved my life that time. And I fought on, dazed, and as in a dream I fancied that I was on the deck of my father's ship fighting the fight that I looked for in the fog that brought my friend Halfden.

When my brain cleared, I knew not which way we faced. Only that Cyneward was yet with me, and that out of the dimness came against us Jomsburgers clad in outlandish armour, and with shouts to strange gods as they fell on me.

"Hai, Wainomoinen! Swantewit, ho!"

Then I cast away my shield, for I grew weary, and taking both hands to my axe, fought with a dull rage that I should have fallen, and that there were so many against me. And all alone we two seemed to fight by reason of the fog, though I heard the shouts of our crew to right and left unceasingly.

Then I felled a man, and one leapt back into mist and was gone, and a giant shape rose up against me out of the thickness, towering alone, and at this I smote fiercely. Yet