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

it was not mail or hardened deerskin that I smote, but solid timber, and I could not free my axe again, so strongly had I smitten.

It was the high stem head of the vessel. For I and my men had cleared away the foe from amidships to bows, and still the noise of fight went on behind us, while the fog was thick as ever.

Then Cyneward leaned against the stem head and laughed.

"Pity so good a stroke was wasted on timber, master," he said.

"Pull it out for me," I answered, "my arm is tired."

For now I began to know that my left shoulder was not yet so strong as once.

He tugged at the axe and freed it, not without trouble.

"What now?" said one of the men.

But a great shout came from aft, and then a silence that seemed strange. We were still, to hear what we might, and I think that others listened for us.

"Surely we have cleared the ship?" I said. "Let us go and see."

Then I hailed our men, asking how they fared--and half I feared to hear the howl and rush of pirates coming back on us. But it was a Danish voice that called back to me that the last foe was gone.

We stumbled back now along either gunwale, over the bodies of friend and foe that cumbered all the deck, and most thickly and in heaps amidships, where our first rush fell. One by one from aft met us those who were left of the men who had fought their way to the stern. Well for us was it that the darkness had hindered the Jomsburgers from knowing how few we were and how divided. But shoulder to shoulder we had fought as vikings will, never giving back, but ever taking one step forward as our man went down before us.

Now I called to Thormod, and his voice answered me from shoreward.

"Here am I, Wulfric. How have you sped?"

"Some of us are left, but no foemen," I answered.

"Call your names," he said. And when we counted I had but sixteen left of my thirty, so heavy had been the fighting. Yet I thought that the Jomsburgers were two to our one as we fell on them, and of them was not one left.

"What now?" asked Thormod. "There are more of these men in the town. Here have I been keeping them back from the ship."

"Let us go up to the hall," I answered. "We could find our way in the dark, and they cannot tell where they are in this fog."

So I and my men climbed on to the wharf, and there were the rest of the crew with Thormod, who had crossed the decks as we cleared a passage, even as the fog came down, and had driven the rest of the Jomsburgers away from the landing place before they could join those in the ship. Well for us it was that he had done this, or we should have been overborne by numbers, for the ship was a large one, carrying maybe seven score men.

"We must leave your tired men with the ship and go carefully," said Thormod. "Likely enough we shall have another fight."

We marched up the well-known street four abreast, and as we left the waterside the fog was thinner, so that we could see the houses on either side of the way well enough. And as we went we were joined by many of Ingvar's people, old men and boys mostly, who had been left at home when the fleet sailed. And they told us that the Jomsburg men were round the great house itself.

Yet we could hear no sound of them, and that seemed strange, so that we feared somewhat, drawing together lest a rush on us were planned. But beyond a few men slain in the street we saw nothing till we came to the gate of the stockade. And that was beaten down, while some Danes and Jomsburgers lay there as they had fallen when this was done.

Now when we saw this I know not which was the stronger, rage or surprise, and I called one of the old men.

"Where is the king?" I asked.

"He is not in the town," he said; "he is away with his own courtmen, fighting against these pirates for Jarl Swend, who is beset by them."

Now it was plain that this ship came from that place; either beaten off, or knowing that Ingvar's haven lay open to attack while his men were away thus. And a greater fear than any came over me.

"Where is the Lady Osritha?" I said.

"She was here in the town this morning."

"So, Wulfric," said Thormod quickly, "she will have fled. The steward will have seen to that. No use her biding here when the ship came."

So I thought, but I was torn with doubt, not knowing if time for flight had been given, or if even now some party of Jomsburgers might not be following hard after her. I must go into the hall and find out, whatever the risk, for it was certain that it held the rest of the pirates.

"Leave men here to guard the gates," I said to Thormod. "Needs must that we see more of this."

Ten men stayed at the gate, lest Jomsburgers lurked in the houses to fall on us, and we went across to the great porch. The door was open, nor could we see much within; and there was silence.

"Stand by," said Thormod, and picked up a helm that lay at his feet.

He hurled it through the door, and it clanged and leapt from the further wall across the cold hearthstone. Then there was a stir of feet and click of arms inside, and we knew that the hall was full of men.

I know not what my thoughts were--but woe to any pirate who came within my reach.

"Show yourselves like men!" shouted Thormod, standing back.

Then, seeing that there was no hope that we should fall into this trap they had laid, there came into the doorway a great, black-haired Jomsburg Lett, clad in mail of hardened deerskin, such as the Lapp wizards make, and helmed with a wolf's head over the iron head piece. He carried a long-handled bronze axe, and a great sword was by his side.

"Yield yourselves!" said Thormod.

The savage hove up his axe, stepping one pace nearer into the porch.

"What terms?" he said in broken Danish.

"Give up your prisoners and arms, and you shall go free," answered Thormod, for he feared lest if any captives were left alive they would be slain if we fought.

"Come and take them!" spoke back the Jomsburger in his harsh voice, and with a sneering laugh.

Now I could not bear this any longer, and on that I swung my axe and shouted, rushing on the man. Up went his long weapon overhead, and like a flash he smote at me--but he forgot that he was in the porch, and as his blow fell the axe lit on the crossbeams and stuck there. The handle splintered, and he sprang back out of reach of my stroke.

Then I dropped my axe and closed with him, and I was like a Berserk in my fury, so that I lifted him and flung him clear over my shoulder, and he fell heavily on the threshold on his head. Nor did he move again.

Cyneward thrust my axe into my hand, as past me Thormod and the men charged into the doorway. The hall was full of the pirates, and now we fought again as on the decks, hand to hand in half darkness. But it was no long fight, for those of our men who had been at the gate, finding they might leave it, came round and fell on the Jomsburgers from the back of the hall, coming through the other doors. So there was an end, and though many of us were wounded, we lost there but three men, for there were ale casks lying about, and the pirates fought ill.

Now we stood among the dead and looked in one another's faces. There were no Danes among the Jomsburgers, and they had, as it seemed, found the place empty. Then I thought:

"Those men who fell at the gate should be honoured, for they have fought and died to give time for flight to the rest."

And I called Cyneward to me, and we went through the house from end to end. Everywhere had been the pirates, rifling and spoiling in haste, so that the hangings were falling from the walls, and rich stuffs torn from chests and closets strewed the floors of Osritha's bower. But we found no one.

Then said Cyneward:

"They are safe--fled under cover of the fog."

But now broke out a noise of fighting in the streets, and we went thither in haste. Some twenty Jomsburgers had sallied from a house, and were fighting their way to the ships, for now one could see well enough. They were back to back and edging their way onward, while the boys and old men tried to stay them in vain.

When they saw us, they broke and fled, and were pursued and slain at last, one by one. Then were no more of that crew left.

Now Thormod and I went back to the hall, and in the courtyard stood a black horse, foam covered, and with deeply-spurred sides. It was Ingvar's.

And when we came to the porch, the axe still stuck in the timbers overhead, and the Jomsburg chief's body lay where I had cast him--but in the doorway, thin and white as a ghost, stood Ingvar the king, looking on these things.

He saw me, and gave back a pace or two, staring and amazed, and his face began to work strangely, and he stepped back into the dim light of the hall, and leant against the great table near the door, clutching at its edge with his hands behind him, saying in a low voice:

"Mercy, King--have mercy!"

Now, so unlike was this terror-stricken man to him who stood in Hoxne woods bidding that other ask for mercy, and gnashing his teeth with rage, that I could hardly think him Ingvar, rather pitying him. I would have gone to him, but Thormod held me back.

"Let him bide--the terror is on him again--it will pass soon."

"Aye, I saw him thus once before in Wessex," said one of our men; and I knew that this was what Cyneward had told me of.

Very pitiful it was to see him standing thus helpless and unmanned, while his white lips formed again and again the word of which he once knew hardly the meaning--"Mercy".

Presently his look came back from far away to us, and he breathed freely. At last he stood upright and came again to the doorway, trying to speak in his old way.

"Here have you come in good time, comrades. Where are the Jomsburgers?"

"Gone," said Thormod, curtly. "Where were you, King?"

Now Ingvar heeded me not, but answered Thormod.

"With Jarl Swend beating off more of this crew. Then I saw the ship leave, and I knew where she would go. Hard after me are my courtmen, but I was swifter than they."

Now all this was wearisome to me, for I would fain follow Osritha in her flight, if I could. So I left Thormod, without a word to Ingvar, and went to the stables. There were but two horses left, and those none of the best; but Cyneward and I mounted them, and rode as fast as we might on the road which he said was most likely to be taken by fugitives.

We had but two miles to ride, for in the fog that frightened crowd of old men, women, and children had surely circled round, and had it lasted would never have gone far from the town.

When they saw us the women shrieked, and what men were with them faced round to meet an attack, thinking the pirates followed them; but we shouted to them to hold, as we were friends, though not before an arrow or two flew towards us.

At my voice, Osritha, who sat on her own horse in the midst of the company, turned round, saying quickly:

"Who is it speaks?"

And I took off my helm, and she saw me plainly, and cried my name aloud, and then swayed in her saddle and slipped thence into her old steward's arms, and one or two of the maidens went to her help.

But the men cheered, knowing that now help, and maybe victory, had come with us.

"Is all well?" they said in many voices.

"All is well," I answered; "let us take back your mistress."

Now Osritha came to herself, and saw me standing looking on her, for I feared that she was dead, and she stretched her hands to me, not regarding those around her in her joy and trouble.

"Wulfric," she cried, "take me