The Long Hunt (The Strongbow Saga) (32 page)

She held out her hands in front of her and answered, "It is here. It is everywhere. It is all around us. We just cannot see it from this world, because it is the other side." After a moment, she added, "It is not just my people. The spirits of all things, of all men and all creatures, go there when their time in this world is finished."

The Finns, I thought, must be a simple folk to have such a belief. What of the gods? What of Valhalla? I felt certain that Harald's spirit was feasting there, not wandering unseen through the forest.

She pointed at the quiver in my sea chest and said, "If you have that, where is my father's bow? Do you have it also? It is a famous bow among my people. My father was a great hunter."

If his skills in the woods matched his skill with a bow, I could well believe it. The bow was in the long sealskin bag I stored my own bow in. It was wide enough to hold them both.

I nodded. "Before he died, your father gave his bow to me."

She frowned. "He gave it to you?" She looked skeptical. "Is this true, or do you lie again?"

"It is true," I said, feeling annoyed. I may have spoken a few untruths when there was a reason to, but I did not like her constantly suspecting that I lied.

My answer seemed to trouble her, for she turned away and found a space nearby at the end of the line of stacked cargo filling the center of the
Gull
's deck where she could sit, her feet tucked up beneath her, and be alone—as alone as one can be aboard a crowded ship.

*   *   *

The
Gull
reached our encampment on the beach of Oeland by late afternoon. While we had been gone, the hale members of the
Serpent
's crew had been hard at work preparing for the funeral to be held on the morrow for our dead.

On orders from Nori, that morning some of the men-folk of Oeland had brought four teams of oxen to our camp. The teams had been hitched to lines attached to the bow of Sigvald's ship. As some of our men had placed cut lengths of logs in front of it for the keel to roll across and others had walked alongside, supporting the hull so that it did not tip over, it had been dragged out of the water, across the beach and fields beyond, and up the high ridge that overlooked them, to an area of level ground halfway up its side. It made a good site for a funeral pyre, high enough to look out across the land and the water beyond.

By the time we returned, the ship was already in position. The sections of logs which had been used as rollers were now propped against its sides, holding it secure, and cut brush and wood had been piled under and against the hull on all sides. The gangplank had been set in place amidships, and the sail and awnings had been arranged over the deck to tent it.

Hastein was pleased to see that the preparations were so far along. "I thank you," he told Nori, "for sending the men and the oxen to help us."

"And I you," Nori replied, "You and your men, for helping us recover our women-folk who had been taken from us. There will be joy in many households this night because of what you have done.

"I will leave you now," he said, "but I will come again before daylight, to lead you and your men to where the sacrifice will be made. It is inland, but not too far from here. The feast will be held there also."

Despite his words he did not leave, but stood rocking from one foot to the other, a look of indecision on his face.

"Yes?" Hastein asked. "Is there something more?"

"There has been much discussion among our people…," he began, then his voice trailed off. He took a deep breath and began again. "We have another boon to ask of you."

Torvald rolled his eyes. Hastein's face, which had been smiling, slowly took on a harder expression. Perhaps he expected, as I did, that Nori was going to ask that we give the folk of Oeland some of the spoils we taken from the pirates' encampment.

"What is it that you wish?" Hastein said, his voice sounding clipped.

"Your prisoners," Nori replied. "The pirates you captured. What do you intend to do with them?"

The question clearly caught Hastein by surprise. "I have not decided," he replied.

"They and their dead comrades committed many crimes against our people. They robbed us many times, and stole our women, and in the first raids, they killed some of our men-folk. These are things that should not go unpunished. Those whom you killed in the battle found the fate they deserved. But those who were taken alive should also pay. Will you give them to us?"

"You would take revenge against them?" Hastein asked.

"It is not revenge we seek," Nori replied, shaking his head. "We would mete out justice for what they have done. That is a different thing. Would you not wish to do the same in our place?"

Hastein was silent for a long time. Finally he said, "You may have them."

I was surprised by Nori's reaction. His face blanched and he gave a low gasp. I wondered if he had hoped Hastein would refuse the request. He swallowed several times, as if his throat had suddenly grown dry, then croaked, "I thank you. We will send men before nightfall to collect them." Then he turned and hurried away.

"Others of his people may wish to put these men to death, but he clearly has no taste for it," Torvald observed. "At least this takes them off of our hands."

"Hmmn," Hastein grunted in reply. He turned to me. "Do you recall what we spoke of earlier?"

I had no idea what he meant. The two of us had spoken of many things.

Seeing the confused look on my face, Hastein explained, "Your oath of vengeance. The prisoner Skjold, who has helped us in the hope of gaining mercy. If you do not wish it, I will not give him to the Oelanders with the others. I will leave his fate in your hands."

I did not answer. I did not know what to say. It was not a decision I wished to make.

"It is not easy, is it?" Hastein said, in a quiet voice. "Killing a man in battle is one thing. This is another. You must decide for this one man what I had to for all of the others. They are in our power, at our mercy. Do I let them live or send them to their deaths? They, no doubt, will feel I betrayed them and broke my word which I gave when they surrendered. But as you pointed out to me, I promised only that I and my men would not harm them."

*   *   *

Hastein had ordered that one of the casks of ale we had found among the wares at the pirates' camp be brought ashore, for we would drink many toasts this night to the twelve comrades whose bodies we would burn on the morrow, and share many memories of them. The rest of the goods were left aboard the
Gull
, for now.

Our first night on Oeland, after washing the bodies of our fallen comrades, we had dressed them in the finest clothing we could find in each of their sea chests, and had laid each, stretched out upon his back as if asleep, upon a cloak. It was a task that was much easier to do before the death stiffness fully set in.

By now—two days after they had died—the bodies were beginning to swell and stink. Moving as quickly as possible, we lifted them by the cloaks they lay on and carried them up the ridge and onto the death ship, where we arranged them side by side along the center of the deck. Each man's armor and weapons were placed with his body, and at his feet we placed those of a pirate who had been slain in the battle. We had little else in the way of death offerings to send with them on their final voyage save the ship itself, although that admittedly was a very fine gift. At least the weapons of their slain foes and the ship captured from them would show those in Valhalla that though these men had died in the battle, they were the victors.

Einar and I helped carry Hrodgar's body, each of us grasping one of the corners of the cloak beside his feet. Hastein and Torvald held the two corners at the other end, under his head and shoulders. I thought Hastein did Hrodgar great honor by helping carrying his body, for it was not a pleasant task. Although he had been covered, as had all of the bodies, by a tent awning from Sigvald's ship, flies had found their way underneath and discovered the gaping wound in his neck. It was crawling now with maggots.

"Ugh," Torvald said. "It is a good thing we are not waiting any longer to burn them. It will take many cups of ale to remember Hrodgar as he was, instead of like this."

Hastein laid Sigvald's weapons—his helm and mail brynie, his sword, and the strange hewing spear he'd fought with—at Hrodgar's feet. I weighed placing the Finn's bow and quiver there as well, but did not. I knew it would distress the girl if her father's fine bow, and the quiver her mother had made to go with it, were burned. I should not have cared—I did not understand why I did.

"Safe voyage, old friend," Hastein said. "You were always a true comrade to me, and a brave man."

"I do not know if I could have done what he did," Torvald admitted. "Take a journey knowing beforehand that it would lead me to my death. What if he had not come?"

"No man can escape his fate," Hastein said.

*   *   *

As we walked back from the death ship, I told Einar about Nori's request of Hastein, and that Hastein had left Skjold's fate in my hands.

"They are coming for them before nightfall?" he exclaimed. "We have little time."

I did not understand. "Time for what?"

"You still have the rune sticks I carved, do you not? Did you bring them with you on this voyage?"

Einar had carved the sticks over the course of the first night the two of us had met. Together, we had questioned Tord, the only survivor of the men Toke had sent to hunt me down after I'd escaped the attack on the longhouse up on the Limfjord. Before Einar had killed him, we had learned from Tord the names of all the men who had aided Toke in the treacherous assault that had cost the lives of my brother Harald and so many others. Einar had carved the names into two lengths of wood he had trimmed and smoothed.

"They are in my sea chest," I answered.

"Let us fetch them," he said, and broke into a trot toward the
Gull
. Over his shoulder he called, "We must question Skjold about the names while we still have time."

I caught up with him at the
Gull
. As we boarded, I noticed that Rauna had removed her things from the ship and was setting up her tent a short distance down from our campsite, on the beach.

Opening my sea chest, I dug through it until I found the two rune sticks, and handed them to Einar. As I did, I said, "But it is in my power to keep Skjold, when the Oelanders come for the others. If I did, we could question him whenever we wished."

Einar frowned. "Why would you do that? He has admitted that he has followed Toke since he was first banished by your father and left Jutland. That means he was there, that night on the Limfjord. For all you know, his blade might have helped cut down your brother Harald, or my kinsman Ulf. He probably helped kill the women and children whose safety had been promised. He joined in niddingsvaark. Why would you spare him?"

I did not have an answer. All that Einar said was true. Skjold
had
helped us, here on Oeland, and had told us much useful information about Toke's plans. But he'd done so only out of fear for his own life. He was, it seemed, a man who might do anything, betray anyone, to save himself. Why should I save him?

When Sigvald's ship had been moved, the prisoners had been taken from it and were now seated on the beach at the edge of our encampment, huddled together under the watchful gaze of three of our men. As Einar and I reached them, Hastein arrived with four more of our warriors, all fully armed. While Einar pushed his way into the group of seated prisoners and squatted down beside Skjold, Hastein pulled me aside and asked, "Well? Have you decided?"

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. "Yes," I said. "The Oelanders can take him, too."

"Hmmn," Hastein said. "I agree with your decision. It can be dangerous to be too merciful. If you do not kill a viper when it crosses your path, it may bite you at another time."

"Why the extra guards?" I asked, indicating the men Hastein had brought with him. Bram, I noticed, was among them, wearing his newly acquired brynie and helm.

"The Oelanders will be here soon. When these men learn they are to be taken by them, they will know—or at least suspect—what is to be their fate. We must be ready. If any try to run or to fight, we will kill them here and now."

By the time the Oelanders arrived, Einar and I were just finishing our questioning of Skjold. One by one, Einar had read him the names carved in runes on the two sticks. There were twenty-eight of them, including Toke. For most, Skjold nodded and said, "He still lives. He still follows Toke."

Einar paused for a moment and a grim smile crossed his face before he read one of the names. "Snorre," he said.

"He is dead," Skjold answered. "You know he is dead." He glanced at me. "You killed him, in Frankia."

"Aye," Einar said. "Halfdan killed him." He slid his knife out of its scabbard and sliced, in one deep shaving, Snorre's name from the stick.

Four more times, when Einar read a name, Skjold said, "He is dead," and Einar cut the name from the sticks. All four were part of the skeleton crew who, with Skjold, had sailed the
Sea Steed
up the channel between the mainland and Oeland, while Toke had passed safely by out at sea. Three had been killed in the battle when Sigvald had attacked our ships. The fourth—Grimar—was the man Einar and I had thrown overboard and drowned.

Our sentries up on the ridge above our encampment blew a warning blast on a horn, and Torvald gave a warning shout: "Hastein, they come!" Moments later the Oelanders—there must have been close to a hundred of them, all armed with axes, knives, and other makeshift weapons, and some carrying unlit torches, as well—appeared on the crest of the ridge and marched down it, with Nori in their lead.

Einar and I stood up. "Why are they here?" Skjold asked nervously. "Why so many of them, and why are they armed?"

"There is one more name on these sticks, Skjold," Einar said. "It is yours." With his knife he cut a last piece off of one of the sticks, and dropped the shaving into Skjold's lap. To me, he said, "That leaves twenty-two, including Toke, still to find and kill. Then your oath will be fulfilled."