Marauders of Gor (37 page)

           
The Forkbeard was, at one point, so furious at the ineptness of the musicians, that he informed me of his own intention to regale the tables with song. He was extremely proud of his singing voice. I prevailed upon him to desist. "You are a guest," I told him, "it would not be seemly for you, by your talents, to shame the entertainers, and thereby perhaps reflect upon the honor of your host, who doubtless has provided the best he can." "True," admitted the Forkbeard. I breathed more easily. Had Ivar Forkbeard broken into song I would have given little for our chances.

           
Male thralls turned the spits over the long fire; female thralls, bond-maids, served the tables. The girls, though collared in the manner of Torvaldsland, and serving men, were fully clothed. Their kirtles of white wool, smudged and stained with grease, fell to their ankles; they hurried about; they were barefoot; their arms, too, were bare; their hair was tied with strings behind their heads, to keep it free from sparks; their faces were, on the whole, dirty, smudged with dirt and grease; they were worked hard; Bera, I noted, kept much of an eye upon them; one girl, seized by a warrior, her waist held, his other hand sliding upward from her ankle beneath the single garment permitted her, the long, stained woolen kirtle, making her cry out with pleasure, dared to thrust her lips eagerly, furtively, to his; but she was seen by Bera; orders were given; by male thralls she was bound and, weeping, thrust to the kitchen, there to be stripped and beaten; I presumed that if Bera were not present the feast might have taken a different turn; her frigid, cold presence was, doubtless, not much welcomed by the men. But she was the woman of Svein Blue Tooth. I supposed, in time, normally, she would retire, doubtless taking Svein Blue Tooth with her. It would be then that the men might thrust back the tables and hand the bond-maids about. No Jarl I knew can hold men in his hall unless there are ample women for them. I felt sorry for Svein Blue Tooth. This night, however, it seemed Bera had no intention of retiring early. I suspected this might have accounted somewhat for the ugliness of the men with the entertainers, not that the men of Torvaldsland, under any circumstances, constitute an easily pleased audience. Generally only Kaissa and the songs of skalds can hold their attention for long hours, that and stories told at the tables.

           
After the entertainers had been driven from the hall and much food had been eaten, Svein Blue Tooth, who had showed much patience, said to Ivar Forkbeard, "It is my understanding that you believe yourself to have that wherewith your deed's wergild might be met."

           
"Perhaps," admitted the Forkbeard.

           
Svein Blue Tooth's eyes gleamed. He fingered the tooth of the Hunjer whale, on its golden chain, slung about his neck.

           
"The wergild was high," said the Blue Tooth.

           
The Forkbeard stood up. "Bring gold and sapphires," said he, "and bring scales."

           
To the astonishment of all those in the hall, from the side room, boxes and sacks of gold were brought forth by the Forkbeard's men, and, too, a large, heavy sack of leather, filled with tiny objects.

           
Men left the back tables; men crowded about; even the thralls and the bond-maids, astonished, disbelieving, crowded near.

           
"Room! Make room here!" called the Forkbeard.

           
For more than two Ahn gold was weighed, on two pairs of scales, one furnished by the Forkbeard, the other by the house of Svein Blue Tooth. To my relief the scales, alrnost perfectly, agreed.

           
The gold accumulated.

           
The eyes of Svein Blue Tooth and Bera, narrow, shining, were filled with pleasure.

           
"There is forty weight of gold here,' said Svein Blue Tooth's man, almost as though he could not believe it, "four hundred stone of gold."

           
There was a gasp from the throng.

           
The Forkbeard then went to the heavy leather sack and ripping the leather away at its throat, poured onto the dirt, lustrous, scintillating, a shower of jewels, mostly a deep blue, but some were purple, and other white and yellow, the carved sapphires of Schendi, each in the shape of a tiny panther.

           
"Aiii!" cried the throng. Svein Blue Tooth leaned forward, his fists clenched. Bera, her eyes blazing
 
could not speak.

           
The Forkbeard shook his sack further. More jewels fell forth, some among them more unusual varieties of sapphire, pale pink, orange, violet, brown and even green.

           
"Ah," cried the throng. "How beautiful!" cried a bondmaid, who did not, herself, own even her collar of iron.

           
"Weigh them," said the Forkbeard.

           
I had not, myself, realized there were so many varieties of sapphires. Until this time I had been familiar only with the bluish stones.

           
I had little doubt, however, that the stones were genuine. Chenbar, the Sea Sleen, would have insisted on the fee for his rescue being paid in genuine stones, as a matter of pride. Too, the Forkbeard, in dealing with his Jarl, Svein Blue Tooth, would not use false stones. He would be above that. It is one thing to cheat one not of Torvaldsland, quite another to attempt to defraud one of one's own country, particularly one's Jarl. I had no doubt that the spilled glory heaped gleaming in the dirt of the hall of Svein Blue Tooth was what it seemed, true stones, and an incredible treasure.

           
The jewels, like the gold, were patiently weighed.

           
There were many exclamations from the warriors present, and others in the throng. The weight of the stones was more than that of a full-grown
 
man.

           
Ivar Forkbeard stood behind these riches, and grinned, and spread his hands.

           
"I did not think there were such riches in all of Torvaldsland," whispered Bera.

           
Svein Blue Tooth was much impressed. He could scarcely speak. With such riches there would be no Jarl in Torvaldsland who could even remotely compare to him. His power would be the equal of that of a Ubar of the south.

           
But the men of Torvaldsland are not easily pleased. The Blue Tooth leaned back. "There was, Forkbeard," said he, smiling, "a third condition to the wergild."

           
"Oh, my Jarl?" asked Ivar.

           
"It seems I must keep this treasure," said he, "and you remain outlaw. It may, however, count as the first two installments of a completed transaction. I shall revoke your outlawry when, and only when, too, you deliver to me the daughter of my enemy, Thorgard of Scagnar."

           
The Blue Tooth's men, not pleased, murmured angrily. "The Forkbeard, surely, has more than paid wergild," cried one. "What man has been set such a price and has paid it?" cried another.

           
"Silence!" cried Svein Blue Tooth, standing behind the table. He scowled at his men.

           
"No one, not an army or a fleet," cried another, "could take the daughter of so powerful a Jarl as Thorgard of Scagnar!"

           
"You seem to ask the impossible, my Jarl," observed Ivar Forkbeard.

           
"I do ask the impossible," said Svein Blue Tooth. "Of you, my friend, Ivar Forkbeard, I choose to ask the irnpossible."

           
The Forkbeard's men muttered angrily. Weapons were grasped.

           
Even the men of Svein Blue Tooth, perhaps a thousand in the hall, were angry. Yet the Blue Tooth, boldly, their Jarl, matched his will to theirs. Which one of them would dare to challenge the will of their Jarl?

           
I admired the Blue Tooth in his way. He was courageous. In the final analysis, I had little doubt that his men would abide by his decision.

           
The Blue Tooth sat down again in the high seat. "Yes, friend Forkbeard," said he, "of you, as is my right, I ask what cannot be done, the impossible."

           
The Forkbeard turned and, facing the entrance of the hall, called out, "Bring forth the female."

           
There was no sound in the great hall, save the crackle of the fires and torches.

           
The men, and the thralls and bond-maids, parted. From the doors to the hall, swung wide, now approaching, came four figures, Ottar, who had accompanied the Forkbeard to the thing, two of the Forkbeard's men, with spears, and, between them, clad in rich robes of concealment, such as are worn in the south, even to the veils, the figure of a girl.

           
These four stopped before the table, opposite the high seat of Svein Blue Tooth. The girl stood among the gold, and the heaped sapphires. Her robes were marvously wrought, subtle, soft, seeming almost in their sheens, like the jewels, to shift their colors in the light of the lamps and the flickering torches. The robes were hooded; she was twice veiled, once in white silk and, under it, in purple silk.

           
"What mockery is this?" demanded the Blue Tooth, sternly.

           
"No mockery, my Jarl," said the Forkbeard. He extended his hand toward the girl. "May I present to my Jarl," he asked, "Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar?"

           
The girl reached to her hoods and brushed them back, freeing her hair, and then, pin by pin, she unfastened the two veils, one after the other, and dropped them.
   
-

           
"It is she," whispered a man at the table of Svein BlueTooth. "I was once in the hall of Thorgard. It is she!'

           
"Are you-are you," asked Svein Blue Tooth, "the daughter of Thorgard, Thorgard of Scagnar?"

           
"Yes, my Jarl," she said.

           
"Before Thorgard of Scagnar had the ship Black Sleen," said Svein, slowly, "he had another ship. What was its name ?"

           
"Horned Tharlarion," she said. "He still has this ship, too," she added, "but it does not now serve as his flagship."

           
"How many oars has it?" he asked.

           
"Eighty," said she.

           
"Who keeps the fisheries of Thorgard?" asked a man.

           
"Grim, once of Hunjer," she said.

           
"Once in battle," said Svein Blue Tooth, "I wounded Thorgard of Scagnar."

           
"The scar," she said, "is on his left wrist, concealed unde a studded wristlet."

           
Svein leaned back.

           
"In this same engagement," she said, "he wounded you, and more grievously. You will bear the scar in your left shoulder."

           
Bera flushed.

           
"It is true," said Svein Blue Tooth.

           
"I tell you," cried the man at the table, "it is Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar. I have been in his hall. It is she!"

           
The women of the north, commonly, do not veil themselves.

           
"How were you taken?" asked Svein Blue Tooth.

           
"By trickery, my Jarl," said she. "In my own compartments was I taken, braceleted and hooded."

           
"How were you conveyed past guards?" asked the Blue Tooth.

           
"From the window of my compartments, braceleted and hooded, late at night, helpless, in darkness. I was hurled into the sea, more than a hundred feet below. A boat was waiting. Like a fish I was retrieved and made prisoner, forced to lie on my belly in the boat, like a common maid. My captors followed."

           
There was a great cheer from the men in the hall, both those of Ivar Forkbeard and those of Svein Blue Tooth.

           
"You poor, miserable girl," cried Bera.

           
"It could happen to any female," said Hilda, "even you, great lady."

           
"Men are beasts," Bera cried. She regarded Ivar, and me, and his men, with fury. "Shame be upon you, you beasts!" she cried.

           
"Svein Blue Tooth, Jarl of Torvaldsland, meet Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar," said Ivar. "Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar, meet Svein Blue Tooth, Jarl of Torvaldsland."

           
Hilda inclined her head in deference to the Jarl.

           
There was another great cheer in the hall.