Viking Voices (12 page)

Ragnald is ecstatic with the amazingly successful raid and cannot congratulate himself enough for having had such a brilliant idea, which is sure to bring him great acclaim across the Norse world. His status will be greatly enhanced by this adventure and few will now pick an argument with such a successful warrior and raider. I have mixed feelings about his selective memory, as it is clear that I will not get the credit I deserve for the idea. On the other hand he will know, probably deep in his subconscious, that I have made a hugely valuable contribution to his success and I do expect that it will enhance his view of my abilities.

In the short term there is a decision to be made, do we continue north to meet up with our comrades from Jorvik taking our prisoner with us, or return home with him? Or even find a place from which we can contact Ottar's people and negotiate his ransom? It is not part of my plan to kill off Ottar when he represents so much value in ransom but Ragnald has some doubts about that idea. It is obvious that his hatred of Ottar runs very deep, and he might well choose to just kill Ottar and forget the ransom. He is, however, the true pragmatist and always responds to the idea of acquiring more silver. A dull light comes into his eyes whenever there is the prospect of getting more treasure for his hoard.

His eventual decision, which I am sure is the right one, is to find a place on the coast north of here to hold the fleet, ideally as much out of sight as possible. Our intention is to send an ambassador to negotiate a ransom and then to exchange Ottar for as much silver as can possibly be had. Ragnald states boldly that he will accept nothing less than ten skippunds, which is literally a king's ransom.

Ragnald would be fairly happy if the Vannin Danir were not prepared to pay a ransom so that he can slit Ottar's throat in an offering to Woden. I even think he might prefer that, though it makes little sense to me. I even feel some sympathy for the poor, terrified old man. His only real crime was greed and foolishness, there are plenty, including some quite nearby, who are equally guilty of both of those.

So we are sailing north and feeling very fortunate as even the wind is going in our favour. In the deep twilight we can just spot and enter a large estuary with sandy beaches, wide bays and rocky islands on either side and we take the entire fleet far down the river estuary and eventually, as it turns a corner and narrows, we take the boats ashore, again at the highest point that the tide can reach. The banks are narrower here and the river itself is too shallow for our boats.

There is a tiny village here but the inhabitants have wisely all fled as they saw our fleet approach. We have the place to ourselves and make use of their shelters and the fires that are still burning. It is difficult to imagine the natives of this remote place ever being able to get a large enough army to expel us, we are secure here. No one will ever find us in such a remote place.

The mood among our warriors is extremely joyous and they are allowed to celebrate their victory with a great feast made up of the fresh foods plundered from their victim's town, including a lot of meat, and all washed down with a great quantity of mead. It has been a very long day but a hugely successful one. Now it is safe to celebrate as none, other than the chosen ambassador, will need to be active in the next few days. The celebrations continue late into the night and for once there is great laughter and no fighting or brawling among the drunken warriors.

So the ambassador is chosen and sent off to negotiate, and the bad news is that I am the chosen one. It is certainly not a task I welcome as the people we are meeting are unlikely to welcome us. I am certain that it will be extremely dangerous as I remember how Ottar treated the previous messenger from Ragnald. This would not be the first time that the messengers were slaughtered in revenge if it were to happen.

On the other hand they will know that if we are harmed it will end any possibility of Ottar being released alive. It is quite possible that his family will be pleased to get the news that he is alive, they must now fear that he has been killed already since they must be aware of Ragnald's reputation and his hatred of Ottar.

We leave on high tide the next day and the ebb flow assists our return down the estuary, and the trip takes us little more than half a day to reach the family's seat on Vannin. We arrive as the sun is setting and fortunately we are received politely, if more than a little frostily. The atmosphere is very tense and so we are very much aware of the dangers we face. Ottar's family are represented by his heir, Bardr Ottarson, who is both very angry and, at the same time, very anxious to recover his father unharmed. He knows that this will only be possible if we are returned safely, and reluctantly accepts this, though it is also clear that he is burning with a desire for revenge and would happily take it out on us.

I present Ragnald's demand for silver which I increase to twelve skippunds to allow some scope for negotiation. It does not improve the mood at all as it is clearly much more than Bardr had expected to be asked to pay. It seems that Vannin has very little silver, none is mined here and they have not traded in it very much, despite this being common and increasing practice in the Viking world. It seems that the money economy has not really yet reached Vannin. They want me to take boats and animals as ransom, what a primitive people they are!

I explain that I am not really here to negotiate about the amount, as that has been determined by Ragnald, but simply to agree the detail of how to make the exchange. I can see that Bardr does not like this but, as a very young man, he has perhaps not more than sixteen years, he does not really know how to conduct the discussion. He veers from angry outbursts to whimpering pleadings, but none of that has any impact on my position. I must remain detached and unemotional; I am simply waiting for hard information and a tangible offer.

The emotion is simply unwelcome extra baggage which is delaying us but it is obviously an issue I need to deal with. I am confident that if I remain calm Bardr will come to terms with the limitations of his own position. I know my role is to remain calm and resolute, and to be patient. The shouting, whimpering and hectoring goes on for two days but I do not make any concessions or change my position.

Eventually it becomes clear that while Bardr has been going through his anguish his mother, who after all is the only adult involved, has been collecting as much silver as she can get her hands on. It amounts to seven skippunds, a great deal less than I have been told to collect.

Fortunately I get the opportunity to talk to Bardr's mother informally that evening and explain the limitations in my negotiating position. In turn I have to accept her limitations in gathering silver and ask whether there is any other item of value that can be added to their offer in order to secure her husband's freedom. She is silent and it is clear that this is now her time to accept something which she is finding difficult to take. I leave her to think over the position overnight.

In the morning she has also come to terms with her problem and increases the offer of seven skippunds to nine. It seems that additional silver which did not exist yesterday has since come to light, or perhaps they have found a way of borrowing it. Now I do truly believe that they have emptied their coffers of all their silver. I am inclined to accept and take on the tough task of persuading Ragnald to accept this amount which is a huge amount of silver to add to his current hoard. I decide to sleep on it despite my discomfort at extending my stay, I am very conscious of the danger of outstaying my welcome here.

In the morning Ottar's wife has now become the frustrated and emotional one, and she is threatening me with death in order to get us to accept the deal. It is a very intimidating atmosphere as her large band of warriors all stand behind her, each glowering at us, showing their weapons and making it clear that they are also very angry at this situation. I know that I have gone as far as I can with these discussions and promise to put their offer to Ragnald rather than accept it on his behalf.

From my own point of view it is a terrible outcome as I will now need a second trip into this cauldron of hatred. I will need to come once more into this horrible atmosphere, perhaps to ask for yet more silver, and to risk the reaction that will provoke. It does have the huge immediate advantage of getting me out of this place. Last time I was here I was looking at this fort and wishing for a warlock who could turn me and my men into ravens so we could fly in. This time I want us to become the ravens so we can fly away, I feel not only uncomfortable here but also very frightened.

I can see that my opponents are equally horrified at this outcome, as it at least means their king will have his stay in the hands of Ragnald substantially extended, and the threat to his life will be intensified. I am clearly suggesting to them that my king will not be content with the current offering. They must know enough about Ragnald's character to know that he is very capable of happily resolving the deadlock by slitting Ottar's throat.

As I prepare to leave Bardr and his mother come forward with one last throw of the dice. In addition to this large amount of silver they also have a small amount of gold. It is clearly very precious to them and they only give it up very grudgingly, but they can also see that the moment has come to include all they own in order to get a successful conclusion. I accept the offer as graciously as I can on Ragnald's behalf, and I am genuinely touched by their grief and anxiety over Ottar's fate, even though I know it is my job to remain unaffected by it. He is clearly the object of some genuine affection for them; they are a very close knit family despite their contempt for everyone else, including their own subjects.

Having agreed the terms the discussion can finally come to the matter of how to make the exchange. I know they will want it to be here on this island, but they must know that cannot possibly be acceptable to me. It would allow the greatest probability of treachery as they could hide large numbers of warriors around the meeting site to release their king with the ransom unpaid, and slaughter all of us in vengeance. In fact, there is absolutely no doubt that they would do exactly that.

Ottar has already breached the Norse code of honour when he refused to meet Ragnald in single combat and I do not trust his family at all. So I propose that the exchange is done at sea, half way between the island and the land to the north at midday three days after I have left. We will both need to carry white sails on our boats so we can maximise our chances of finding each other in the open sea.

The timetable and the proposed venue gives them some indication of where our fleet are positioned but I doubt if they have sufficient information to find us, or sufficient boats left to attack us even if they did. I will, however, be taking great care to see whether we are followed when I leave, or even observed from the north point of the island. I consider going south and then north along the east of the island but rule this out as it will just take too long. I also know that the island has an awkward tidal race to avoid off the south west corner, and that would add a lot of time and distance if we are to avoid the most dangerous places.

So we go directly and we will take our chance on rejoining our group in as quick a time as possible, knowing that my comrades will already be wondering why we are away so long.

It is time to return to Ragnald and his fleet and I am very glad to go, my time here has been filled with fear. No wonder I dream of warlocks and black ravens that turn into warriors when I visit this place. It is a place of dread and fear for me. I have slept little and uneasily while I was on Vannin. Several times the terror dreams that I first had after the battle of Dyflinn have returned. They leave me jolting awake cold and sweating. Images of heavily armed enemies about to strike my head off constantly dwell in those dreadful nights.

We leave at the first light of dawn. The voyage is not so far and should take less than a day; the only difficulty is in finding the large estuary again. After some time going along the coast we finally find it. I had deliberately turned too far west, in part to misdirect any observers but also to put ourselves upwind to allow us to sail back much more easily with the strong wind behind us. Nevertheless it has taken much longer than I had expected, and for a time I had started to fear that we had missed it completely. The estuary looks very different when approached from the west than from our original approach off the open sea. Of course, we also arrived originally in the dark. Navigation is an imprecise process with a great deal of guess work and estimation in it. Many boats are lost as these are dangerous waters.

Now we are rowing wearily into the estuary, and once more the light is starting to fade. We are only six in this crew, the very minimum that could handle the boat, proof, if it was needed, that Ragnald has understood how dangerous the mission was. He has put as few men at risk as he can. We are all completely exhausted and heartily relieved and very glad to be at our journey's end. When we eventually reach the beach our comrades run out and we leave them to pull the boat out of the water, and over the high tide mark.

Ragnald is delighted with the news of the deal I have struck, as he had started to fear that something had gone amiss with the delay in our return. I am barely able to explain it all to him before I collapse into a deep sleep. It is mostly from nervous exhaustion, and for once my terror dreams leave me alone.

In the morning I find the miserable Ottar. He is still frightened; as frightened as I have been, but at least his bruises have started to fade. I am pleased to see that he has not been given any fresh beatings and I take him some food and talk to him. It looks like he has had little to eat and he has lost quite a lot of weight and the strain of his ordeal shows in his face. His skin looks grey and more heavily wrinkled than I remember.

I am happy to be able to tell him the news he wants to hear, particularly that the ransom is agreed and that he will soon be going home. I think he draws a little comfort from my being prepared to talk to him in a polite way, I am sure that has not happened for a while now. He has only been subjected to continual abuse and threats here. I can see the relief flowing across his face at the news I bring. Although his ordeal is not over yet the prospect of its end is now before him. I am not sure he believed that his family would be prepared to give up their valuable silver to get him back.