Maroboodus: A Novel of Germania (The Goth Chronicles Book 1) (27 page)

‘In that case, we will see. We’ll ask the spirits, and gods rage, if you lie,’ Gislin said. ‘You have betrayed and failed us before.’

‘I am sorry, lord.’

‘You came here to save him,’ the man said, smiling thinly. ‘But he’ll not enjoy it. Take him.’ I turned, but I was too tired to fight, and fell as three men pulled me down. I heard Saxa screaming, but they were not trying to hurt me, as they tied me up expertly, and stood me up roughly.

‘Your Grandfather Hulderic,’ Gislin said. ‘Has he spoken to you of Woden’s Curse?’

‘The prophecy, yes, but—’

His eyes glowed with intensity. ‘Then know we work to see it come true. The god that cursed Woden is jealous, and my family come from the breed of this other god. And now you shall serve his will. Aldbert did fail, but only because he loved you. Oh, the irony.’

‘I will not help—’

‘You will,’ he smiled. ‘I see your greed, you are relentless. I feel and taste it. You’ll stay with me now, and I shall think on how to employ your curse if you are the one. Gods are watching, and I had better not fail.’

‘Saxa is mine, and I shall live with her, and heed no prophecies,’ I told him bitterly. ‘But these Goths shall kill us if you don’t—’

He laughed bitterly. ‘You will not get Saxa,’ he said and walked forward to face the Black Goths. ‘And they’ll not get you.’

Hughnot greeted Gislin. He sat on his horse, slouched, tired, and eyed me. He pointed a finger at Saxa. ‘I tried to save your daughter. The Saxons would have sold her to our lord, but I attempted to snatch her from my brother Friednot. I had a plan. This man betrayed us.’ He nodded towards me.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Gislin said, cocking his head at him.

Hughnot went on. ‘Doesn’t it? But I expect our alliance, nonetheless. The Boat-Lord still wishes for it.’

The Boat-Lord? Was he working for the Boat-Lord? ‘You—‘ I began, but a Svea slapped me.

Hughnot looked at me and shrugged. ‘I grew tired, Maroboodus, of Friednot. I made a deal with our old master. I’d give him back the Ring and the Sword, and I’d return to his rule. That Friednot died, was just a bonus. I’d prayed for it for so long, that when it finally happened, I was so surprised. Perhaps I helped it along a bit as well, eh? That Friednot learnt of the deal between Gislin here and the Boat-Lord was unfortunate, and how he snatched your Saxa from the Saxons, was a cursed nuiseance. But it’s all fixed now. The Black Goths shall rule the coast under Boat-Lord’s banner.’

‘And what of your banner flying over faraway lands?’ I yelled at him. ‘Liar! Maggot!’

Hughnot shifted in his saddle, angry. ‘Hrolf will take her to the Boat-Lord,’ he said. ‘And I’ll hang you.’

‘No,’ Gislin said simply.

‘No?’ Hrolf asked with anger. ‘Why not?’

‘Your Boat-Lord still needs us to conquer the coast. You and him alone? No, you might not make it. We will ally, and do what we planned. Saxa goes with you.’

‘No!’ I screamed.

Gislin ignored me. ‘And I am in a happy, generous mood, lord Hughnot, since you delivered to me something I had not expected. Something we have sought for ages. We will help you in your wars to make yourself a Thiuda of a great nation, we will reap the profits of such wars and greed, and you shall be thanked.’

Hughnot grunted. Then he pointed a finger at me and my belly filled with ice-cold fear. ‘And that something is him? Why?’

‘I shall not speak of it,’ Gislin said quietly. ‘It doesn’t concern you.’

Hrolf bellowed. ‘That traitor? Him. I want him. He lied to us, he betrayed us. He made a fool of Hughnot, Father, our lord and I will have his head sent to his father Hulderic.’

‘No, lord,’ said Gislin and I looked balefully at the traitor Aldbert, who had apparently both betrayed and saved me. Gislin would not let me go quickly. Not ever, in fact. ‘He has his uses here. He shall be mine, not unlike a tamed bear—’

‘He is not to be tamed,’ Hrolf grunted. ‘He is a wild pig. Stick and reward will not teach him, and he’ll escape! He’ll come after Saxa.’

‘She is my wife, you dung-chewing weakling,’ I yelled. ‘We are married. Properly married.’

Hrolf’s eyes flew open, and he stammered, as his men looked at him snidely.

Hughnot sighed. ‘See, he is dangerous.’

‘We have ways of taming such as he, my lord, we do have them, never worry,’ Gislin said and smiled at me. ‘We will take him to my haunt, deep down the hill and there he shall change into a tool for my god. He will eat a heart, and man flesh and such a fare will change a man. Trust me, lord.’

Hughnot glowered, not happy with the decision of Gislin. He evidently considered ordering a butchery, but took a deep breath, knowing the Svearna, especially Gislin, would be needed in taking care of the Goths of the coasts. Then he nodded. Gislin whistled and men rode out of the village. They were leading Saxa forward on a horse, and the happy girl I had known briefly was cold and sorrowful again. Hughnot sat up in his saddle. ‘You have just been divorced, woman. We shall take you to meet the Boat-Lord. He might or might not marry you. Or perhaps he will marry you to a chosen warrior. He will guard you.’ He nodded at Hrolf, who glowered at her, unhappy and I prayed to gods she would not suffer at his hands for my words. But she would, of course. ‘Send me a thousand men when we begin, Gislin, and you shall gain lands and fame and sit in my Thing as an ally. You will always be welcome in the Spear Hall, my home.’

‘It sounds proper, rich, and what I desire, oh great Goth,’ Gislin said smoothly.

Hughnot turned his horse around and his army rode away. I stared after Saxa but she did not turn, until at the very end, and her cool, cold composure cracked and as she turned to look at me, her eyes filled with tears and fear and I struggled against my guards. I felt a blow on my back, then another and fell down amidst Svea feet. I crawled but Gislin stopped me from doing so as he placed a foot on my neck.

‘Take this Bear to Himnhall, the Dark Below. Get him to a cage and see to his wounds. I shall need a sacrifice to give to the gods as we prepare. We’ll make sure he is what we think he is. Then we shall seek guidance. Gods will whisper lies, but I know spirits that shall aid us in helping the Dark Walker escape his prison. Let the Ragnarok come. At least we have finally found the strand, the beginning of the end. Finally.’

Ragnarok. End of the world. I spat on his foot, and he wiped it on my face.

His eyes looked across the field. ‘The champions are alive,’ Gislin said. ‘Some of them. Go and find which ones and bring them along. They will make fitting feed for us, won’t they? We shall sacrifice one for our answers. The higher, the better.’

Men agreed with grunts and moved to obey. Some grasped me and pulled me along. I saw them knocking over Goths, killing many wounded ones and then they carried Maino and Eadwine out of the piles of wounded, both alive still.

They blindfolded me and after a long walk in a moist, cold place that was underground, they locked me in a cage and ripped off the hood. 

I was not alone. Maino and Eadwine were in the same cage.

‘We have her. We will have Gislin’s Svea. We have the ring. The sword. You go home, and wait. The end will come soon enough.’

Hrolf to Maroboodus.

I
stared at my two fellow prisoners balefully, but they were in no condition to pick up our fight. Eadwine was not well at all, it was clear. He was throwing up in the corner, his hair matted with blood, and Maino was holding his side, face down on the wooden floor, breathing harshly, though he would occasionally look at me, mouthing curses. The Svear had retreated from the cages. I looked around to see a natural cavern of some sort, with sputtering torches, and shingles set on alcoves, and shadowed faces looked at us from many points in the cavern. They were not human, but stone or faces carved hideously from mud.

              I banged my head on the bars.

Saxa was gone. Aldbert had tried to help me, and he’d suffer for it.

And Hughnot? A traitor. Filthy traitor, worse than I was.

I banged my head on the bars again, this time so hard I winced and Maino looked up. ‘You shit,’ he whispered. ‘Can you at least suffer silently?’

‘No, you murderous pig-faced maniac,’ I countered, and didn’t really care if he’d be riled up. I’d welcome it, in fact.

He grimaced at me, in no condition to throttle me then and there. ‘Coming from the killer of Ludovicus and Gasto, that is thick as reindeer stew. You’ve doomed us all,’ he panted, ‘and yet you still live. Gods must have something worse than this in store for you, eh?’

‘Shut up,’ I spat. ‘It’s been a long two days. I’ll slit your belly later. I’ve lost a wife, and you would do well to keep your trap shut. I’m past fearing you, cousin.’

The astonishment on his face made him look like a child caught stealing mead from a cellar. Then the child disappeared and the animal took its place and he sat up, cursing, hoping to get up, and I stretched my legs, readying myself to fight. Some Svear moved in the shadows, nervous and alert.

Eadwine got up with a groan, grabbed Maino’s shoulder and shook his head. Maino fought the grip, but the powerful warrior kept him still. I stared maliciously at the fool, spite shining on my face. ‘Lord,’ Eadwine said sternly. ‘We
need
to work together. We are all sitting in the same pool of piss, our fates tied together. We will settle our scores later, if we can.’

‘We aren’t going anywhere,’ Maino hissed, ‘so might as well do that now.’

‘Perhaps this time you won’t end up on your face or under a horse?’ I coaxed him. ‘Hughnot would laugh, he would, seeing you sputter and make a fool of yourself.’

‘He would smile when I rip your throat out and spit down your neck,’ he growled. ‘To imagine you have managed to betray every Goth on the coast? Impossible. But at least you ended up trapped in the end. If you ever step out of here, Maroboodus, you’ll have to travel far if you ever want to find people who utter your name without a curse. I’ll rest a bit, and then I’ll—’

‘I doubt they will let you touch me,’ I told him as a pair of hulking Svear came forth with long spears and a hook attached to a spear shaft. ‘They look like they know their business.’

‘Why did they lock us up in the same cage anyway?’ Eadwine grumbled as he let go of Maino carefully.

‘Probably for the entertainment,’ I said and spat out of the cage. The Svear grinned as Maino slouched and leaned on the bars, while glowering at me.

‘I’ll find a better time and place, then,’ he said sullenly.

‘Is your father out there?’ I asked. ‘Or did he get lost? Went home?’

Eadwine answered for Maino, trying to keep his voice from dripping with accusation. ‘Lord Bero led the main force. We ran off without leave. Gods only know if Hughnot surprised and killed him. We heard nothing of the sort as we chased you, and surely some would have seen it, but if he is alive, he is in danger.’

‘That would make
me
the lord of the gau,’ Maino said smugly and both Eadwine and I looked at him dubiously.

‘It would make you a shitty lord prisoner whose gau is defended by my father, and …’ I began and clamped my mouth shut. I had spied a shadow deeper than the rest, and it had moved. It had been squatting there, right next to the cage, listening, and I frowned at it. ‘They put us here so they can learn of us. Who we are. If
you
are important.’ My eyes didn’t leave the shadow and then a small man rose to his feet and walked to where there was light and guards. He pointed a finger at Maino, who blanched visibly at the unwanted attention and a guard scampered off. ‘I guess we just told them you are important indeed.’

The man came forward and squatted near our cage. His hair was ragged, a sweaty thing of grease, his bones shone beneath his skin and he looked like a sick, strange man, or a corpse.

‘What are you, I wonder?’ Maino said arrogantly. ‘An animal or a man?’

‘I’m called Whisper,’ he said, and indeed his voice was one, a soft whisper like a distant wind ruffling trees on a hillside. ‘I’m vitka of the Dark One.’

I snorted. ‘Is this about the Woden’s curse again?’

Whisper nodded vigorously. ‘It’s
all
about it, boy,’ he said, his voice slightly excited. ‘All our lives are tied to it. Yours too.’

Maino moved from the bars to sit at the center. He grabbed a pebble and tossed it at the man. ‘I don’t give a damn about your curses and I don’t care for your face. What will you do to us?’

‘We’ll see if Aldbert is right,’ Whisper said to me, ignoring Maino. ‘Gislin thinks he is, he felt the stirrings of the dark one when he saw you, and so we’ll ask the gods if they agree with Aldbert. We will sacrifice and find the truth. I’m good at truth-finding. Like Aldbert, I see things. I’m no charlatan like Hild.’

I shook my head. ‘I will not be convinced by strange tricks. Your Aldbert tried it already.’

‘Your Aldbert,’ he said with a sad smile. ‘He told us. The twigs and the skull? You saw these things already? And a rotten hull?’

I felt my jaw tighten. ‘There are skulls, twigs, and rotten boats all over the land.’

‘Yes,’ he laughed. ‘But you believe him. I see it. Aldbert is your friend indeed. Tried to help you, but you didn’t want that, did you? He tried to hide you from us, but no, you came after all. Poor fool failed left and right. He was sent to you as a boy. A talented one, he was, like Gislin. Like me. Saxa and Agin never had the gift, but Gislin and his father before him have sent men and women to serve and live near your family, here and in the islands. In times past, there have been others like you, other Bears and we have tried to get our hands on them before. We always failed. But we try, and Aldbert was sent, but he was too young. He turned Goth. Now? He is here. Gislin’s not happy, but you are here, and that balances things.’

Eadwine snorted and rubbed his head. ‘Poor boy, this Aldbert. Not much to look forward to in his old age if he has to lick your stinking feet. Will they let him live?’

The surprisingly sane vitka shrugged and kneaded his shoulder, uncertain. ‘He served the clan well, finally, and when he was touched by the spirits, that night he sang the galdr with you, Maroboodus, he knew he could not run from it. I don’t blame him for trying. He tried indeed, but couldn’t run. It’s too bad he loved you so much. He might have left the land on his own.’

‘Is Agin alive?’ I asked, swallowing my guilt over Aldbert.

Whisper smiled. ‘His village, the Wolf Hole? It’s gone. They say he died to Bero’s men. Others say he led many men away after the loss. It’s sad business, really. Not all Svearna agree with our clan, very few worship the Dark Sleeper, and while most respect and obey Gislin, Agin’s been a growing power and a painful, ever growing thorn in our backsides. You did us a favor by getting rid of Agin for us.
If
he is gone. We don’t have his body. We’ve sent men to seek him.’

I walked to the bars and looked down at him. ‘What exactly do you need? Of me, that is.’

He got up to eye me. He was filthy, spoke of sacrifices casually, but didn’t seem as unkind as one might have imagined. ‘I don’t know, son. If Aldbert failed and lied? If you are a nobody? You’ll die. Gislin will want you given to the Sleeper, but if you are what Aldbert said you are, what Gislin believes you are? You will live here. Perhaps they’ll let you out of the cage, even.’

‘To
what
end?’ I hissed at him.

He shrugged. ‘That is the thing. We know not. We know you herald the end of the world. That it starts with you. What else is there? We will find out. Little by little we shall coax the spirits for what the curse means, what your part is.’

‘Mad lies, all of them,’ I said.

He shook his head. ‘Boy, this is an old story. Your family is ancient, so is ours. It has lived in Gothonia, the islands, for long and long ages, longer than any, and since Woden gave life to your ancestors, you also carry the responsibility of upholding his honor. By staying true to family and honor, by being brave, the very best of men, you stave off the curse some gods put on you. And if you are not the very best of men? The curse says it leads down a dark road, with wars, death, and the end.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s not much, I agree, but there is this line. It’s all we know. It says the Bear will roar, and the Raven will find the way. We know little more right now. There was a seer here once. They say she knew much, very much about this, and goddesses gave her the full lines of the curse the Dark Sleeper cast when your kin was born. Those lines give hints of this curse, but she fled, fearing the lines, and Gislin sent people to find her. None have returned. But we know there is the Bear, and the Bear comes from your blood, and will herald the calamity that is to come.’

‘And you welcome such calamity?’ Maino spat. ‘Madmen.’

Whisper glowered at Maino, and I half hoped Maino would push a bit more, enough to tip the Svea’s patience over like an unbalanced barrel of water, but Whisper ignored the fool and spoke to me. ‘See the difference between you and him. He is of your blood, a wretched, if valiant thing, much like most warriors who stomp the land of Midgard. You would never know he has a god’s blood running wild in his veins. He’s not that special.’ Maino looked ready to refute the claim, but Eadwine slapped his foot to keep him silent. ‘The blood is there, but its just blood. Yet you, Maroboodus, son of Hulderic, you decided to change everything. And you have. Blood, war, misery follow you, and such are the paw-prints of the
true
Bear. There have been others.’

‘Others?’ I asked him, cursing him, and myself softly. ‘Before. The men you have spied through our past?’

‘Yes. Your relative, the Boat-Lord? He is the rightful head of your clan, and long has he kept your family in Gothonia, as his father before him, and many others like him. There were harsh men in your family like you before, men who thought differently, obeyed little and our family has forever tried to catch them. You do know many of your kind died miserably at the hands of the vitka of your family?’

‘I’ve been told,’ I said darkly.

‘Hulderic. Your grandmother,’ he surmised. ‘But they are no Boat-Lord who would have hung you quickly. You are ours. And no, Maroboodus, I do not embrace the fate Midgard will face. I’d rather your family had stayed in Gothonia where we could not find you easily, but Friednot and Hughnot rebelled, and stole your family sword, and the ring, and opened up a dangerous door.’

I stared at him, wondering how he knew such things. ‘Stole? How do you know?’

He waved his hand. ‘Hughnot told us many things when he visited us last Spring.’

‘How is this Boat-Lord related to us?’ I asked him.

He chuckled. ‘Why, he is your great grandfather. Old as shit. Your grandfather and Hughnot are his sons. They left Hogholm without his permission, and while he
had
given Friednot the ring and the sword, he never approved they be taken away from Gothonia. He was very upset. But so was Friednot. He hated the Boat-Lord. They had had a smaller brother once, a young man, whom your Boat-Lord had given to Donor for being reckless, possibly another Bear, and Friednot and Hughnot had never forgiven him for that. Even the mighty families fall if they squabble.’

‘And Saxa is to marry
him
?’ I breathed. ‘This ancient man?’

‘At least he can’t get it up, eh?’ Whisper laughed, but sobered. ‘But no, I think he will give her to Hrolf. The key is that he will do the gifting. He is the master, see? Did you see how upset Hrolf was when you told him she was your wife? Jealous.’

‘Curse him, may a spear rip his ass out,’ I sobbed and struck the cage and the Svea tensed, but only for a moment, as Whisper waved them back.

‘Gods only guess if that is possible with them holding all the advantages,’ he smiled. ‘Hrolf and Hughnot are going back home, and the sword and the ring they stole will be given back as soon as Bero dies, and Saxa will cement their alliance to Gislin. Gislin will take back much of our lands on the coast. It’s a good deal for everyone except for Bero and your father and the other Goths further south.’

‘I’ll not stay here,’ I said slowly. ‘If you don’t want this fate of your god to come to pass, why don’t you—’

He blanched. ‘I dare not rebel. No. Why would I give away my position here? I fear the future, but I fear hunger more. You’ll be ours and perhaps you won’t want to leave either,’ he said with a sad smile. ‘We will ask the gods, a high man shall die,’ he said and looked at Maino, who cursed, ‘and you shall change, slowly, but you shall. No man stays defiant forever. You’ll live here, and we’ll let the gods decide how best to use you, Bear, while you suffer your way into weeping obedience.’