Wolfsangel

10

‘What did you say?’ Vali turned to face the person who had spoken. It was Ageirr, one of Forkbeard’s sworn bodyguard, a man of around nineteen, two years older than Vali though not much taller.

It was over three years since the raid — three years in which Vali had gone no further than half a day’s travel from the farms. He had asked Forkbeard to let him go trading, asked him even to allow him to command his own raids, but the king was adamant. Vali would go and fight as a common warrior or not travel at all. So Vali did not go.

There were many reasons for his refusal. One was that he would not take part in needless slaughter when there were so many easier ways of extracting loot. He had calculated the profit that had been thrown away on the raid on what he now knew was a monastery, and had concluded that the price of the slaves he’d lost to Bodvar Bjarki’s brutality alone could have bought him ten head of cattle, before he even started considering how many possible captives had gone free because the berserks hadn’t bothered to surround the island.

Another reason for his reluctance was that he thought his people had things to learn from the West Men. One of their priests — the men with the shaven heads — had visited Eikund when Vali was fifteen. To Vali’s disappointment, Forkbeard had refused to even let him tell his stories. When the man showed him his writing and pointed out how useful it would be in the administration of his kingdom Forkbeard had torn it up in front of him and told him to go while he still had his life. It had been the talk of the village. Vali had learned the man was a member of the cannibalistic religion of Christ, whose followers ate flesh and drank blood.

The main reason he kept away from war, though — hardly acknowledged to himself — was that he wanted to be branded sword-shy. He hoped Forkbeard would not let his daughter marry such a man, which would leave him free to marry Adisla. But so far the king had refused to release him from his obligation. Vali had also got a merchant to carry a message to his father telling him point-blank that he would not marry the girl but there had been no reply. Vali took it as a rebuke and felt foolish. His father could hold him to his duty if he chose, his protestations and refusals were meaningless.

He had to accept he was a prince but, until he was forced to confront the fact and marry Ragna, he would indulge the fantasy that he was a farmer — a free man, as they were called. He gave Adisla’s little brother Manni his seax and only attended training with Bragi to allow the old man to retain his self-respect. Without a valued task, he knew Bragi would wither. Out of gratitude for the kindness Bragi had shown in guiding him through the raid, he tried hard too. When he was beating Bragi’s shield with the stave that stood in for a sword, he let the injustice of his inability to marry Adisla fuel his aggression.

For the rest of the time he helped Adisla and her mother around their farm or worked the flocks with her brothers and spent his evenings chatting in Danish with Barth. He would not go raiding though. That took all his courage. He knew that the gods hate nothing more than a coward, and only the knowledge that he was acting for the right reasons allowed him to keep up the pretence that he was.

The king didn’t call Vali a coward to his face but there were plenty in his bodyguard who murmured the word as the prince passed. Ageirr was one of them. Vali would have preferred to take the insults, looking on them as helping him on the path that he wanted to travel, but he wasn’t made like that and always reacted.

‘I said, what did you say?’

‘Nothing, prince, nothing at all.’

Vali had heard the word but he didn’t want to press Ageirr to repeat it. If he did, Vali would be forced to challenge him to a duel. Ageirr was no keener. He wanted the fun of taunting Vali but didn’t want to push it to a fight. Vali was still Authun’s son and so valuable to King Forkbeard. The penalty for killing the prince, in a legal contest or not, would be severe. And besides, he had seen the way the prince split those staves against Bragi’s helmet. He didn’t want to find out what he could do with a sword.

Vali grunted and turned away.

‘Are you looking forward to the wedding? We’ll have a rare feast that night, I think,’ Aegirr said as he did so.

‘What wedding?’

‘Adisla, the slut from the top farms, is to marry Drengi Half Troll from over the valley. What a union that will be!’

Vali was stunned. He even forgot the insult to Adisla.

‘That is not so,’ he said.

‘I’m afraid that it is,’ said Ageirr. ‘I heard it from her brother this morning. Go and ask if you don’t believe me.’

‘If you’re lying, you’ll answer to me,’ said Vali. Then he ran. He knew that Drengi had asked Adisla to marry him before and been refused. Drengi was a good man, strong and hard-working, but he was known as Half Troll because he was both ugly and not much given to talk. Adisla, thought Vali, could never agree to marry him, could she?

He made Disa’s house at a sprint. Adisla wasn’t there when he arrived, but her mother was sitting outside in the sunlight pulverising some acorns from her store with a large stone.

‘Is it true?’

He saw by her eyes that it was.

‘Why?’

Disa stopped her pounding.

‘You are of a different rank, Vali, and sworn to a princess. My girl is three summers past the age she could have married. It’s right that she should do so.’

‘I love her, Ma. Is it right she should turn her back on that?’

Disa tapped the pounding stone on the edge of her wooden bowl.

‘She hasn’t said yes to him yet, though I think she intends to.’

‘Don’t let her. Make her refuse him.’

She pursed her lips. ‘What life would it be as your concubine, Vali? You can’t marry her so that’s all she can ever be. What if you tire of her?’

‘I will not tire of her.’

‘Won’t you? Forkbeard changes his concubines with every season.’

‘I’m not Forkbeard,’ he said.

Vali wanted to say more, to reason with Disa, but he was too shocked. He had never discussed it with Adisla but had always assumed he would have to marry Forkbeard’s daughter, if that’s what their peoples demanded. Then he would father a son and never have much to do with her again, taking Adisla as his wife in all but name. Once Adisla was married to another man, it became a different proposition. That brought spears, blood and feuds.

Vali glanced around, looking for Adisla’s brothers to see if they could talk some reason into Disa. They weren’t there, though — gone away to Nidarnes as part of Forkbeard’s advance guard to prepare the way for the meeting of kings before midsummer.

‘I won’t let this happen,’ said Vali to Disa.

‘It’s for the best. You love her now but will you offer her the security a husband can when she’s old? Will you-’

He didn’t wait for her to finish speaking. Forkbeard’s hall was a good distance inland but he arrived there in a heartbeat. The king was hearing a dispute between two farmers when Vali burst in. The farmers recognised him and withdrew to the side of the room.

Another man, further down the hall, stood up as Vali entered. He was tall, young and powerfully built. His clothes were out of the ordinary. He wore a bright white silk shirt, the like of which Vali had only ever seen in the possession of the trader Veles Libor. Vali thought that perhaps he recognised him, but the thought was fleeting. He approached the king and bowed. Forkbeard — one of those squat strong men who gives the impression of being wider than he is tall — was slurping at a bowl of soup and getting much of it down his beard. He was a tough man who’d come to kingship through fighting his way there. His court was not one of intrigue and debate but a place where, to carry an argument, you had to outfight or outdrink your opponent, preferably both.

‘If, prince, you’re here again with some fancy plan about how we can win battles without fighting, then save your breath. A man goes into war thinking only of his foe to his front and his friend at his side, not weighed down with schemes. Raid and fight or stay put, that’s the deal. Take it or leave it and don’t ask me again. We’ve been here too many times before, haven’t we, lads?’

A couple of the bodyguard nodded and said that they had. Vali had repeatedly annoyed Forkbeard with his contention that planning could win a battle more effectively than direct attack. Forkbeard had always just asked him where glory fitted into his schemes.

‘I have not come about that.’

‘Then what is it?’

‘I want you to release me from my marriage pact with your daughter. I am not the son you want, and the Rygir deserve a better, stronger prince than me.’

Forkbeard snorted. ‘You’re right there, son.’

Vali’s heart skipped.

The king lifted his beard and licked the soup off it. He seemed to ponder for a moment.

‘But forget it. Too many questions if I release you — half the kings along the coast would think I was planning to have a go at Authun. And, worst still, so might he. That is a war-loving fellow indeed. Ain’t that right, lads?’ The bodyguard said that it was.

‘My father will not take offence, and he has not raised a sword these ten years.’ Even though Forkbeard was not given to niceties, Vali instinctively gave him the respect of high speech.

‘Too long for a man like that,’ said Forkbeard. ‘I tell you, son, if I could think of a way to stop this marriage then I would. Your children will be weaklings, but what can I do?’

‘Find another prince, lord.’

Forkbeard shook his head. ‘Your old dad wouldn’t like it,’ he said, ‘but, as it happens, there might be a way out after all. Hogni, get up here.’

The young man in the silk shirt came forward and bowed to Vali and Forkbeard.

‘Hogni son of Morthi,’ he said, ‘messenger to King Authun.’

So that was where Vali had seen him, at Authun’s court.

‘Tell the prince what his father has said.’

The man bowed again and looked slightly nervous.

‘Go on,’ said Forkbeard. ‘No one gets the chop here without my leave. It’s me who’s asked you to speak to him, so say what Authun told you. If the prince wants to pick a fight about it he can pick one with me, and that’s a bit of trouble he won’t want, I can tell you.’

‘That’s right!’ said a bodyguard.

Hogni glanced at Forkbeard and then addressed Vali precisely and formally. ‘Exalted King Forkbeard, terror of the south, mighty in battle, lord of the Rygir, know that it is my wish that my idle son be shaken from his life of ease. Reports tell me that he ignores arms, counsel and raiding in favour of conversation with women. Let him prove himself. The land to the north of our kingdoms is beset by bandits. Merchants, shepherds and farmers all fear attack from the savage men who plague the Troll Mountains. Truly these men are wolves, sorcerers able to assume the form of that monstrous animal, striking down with fury and viciousness all that cross them, invulnerable to weapons and murderous in intent. Seven of my own men have died trying to wipe out this scourge. My son will bring you the head of one before midsummer. If he does not, then I leave it to you to impose a meaningful penalty.’

Vali looked at the man and then back to Forkbeard.

‘Why this? Why now?’

‘Who are you whying?’ said Forkbeard.

Vali ignored his belligerence. ‘It makes no difference to my request. Release me from the pact with your daughter and allow Adisla to marry me, or at least forbid her from marrying anyone else.’

Forkbeard looked to the rafters.‘That farm girl is the cause of all the bother in my life. I have less problems with the bastard Danes than I do with her!’ He lowered his eyes and stared straight at Vali. ‘Return with a wolfman’s head — no, better for proof, the whole man — or your Adisla is Odin’s bride at the summer blot. She’ll hang to please the god.’

Vali went pale.

The bride of Odin was a tradition almost never celebrated in individual kingdoms. He had heard that on great feast days, when kings from all over the land met for a festival, a blot, there were human sacrifices, but Forkbeard had never insisted on one before.

‘You can’t do this,’ said Vali.

Forkbeard sipped from a jewelled drinking cup, booty from a raid. Vali thought of the Odin-blind berserks and the needless deaths they had caused, thought of the stupid frenzy that had exposed his kinsmen to danger and the valuable slave hanged on the returning boat. One day he would drink Odin’s blood, tear that god down and make him pay for his corpse lust.

‘Can’t I?’ said Forkbeard. He leaned forward and said in a forceful whisper, ‘I might have to go running to the assembly to get my laws passed but religion is my turf and mine alone.’ Now he stood and shouted, ‘I’m the king, the top boy, Odin’s priest on earth, bargaining with the god, telling all you lot what he wants for his favours! Do you get that?’ He sat again, but he was pointing at Vali. ‘Well, he wants this girl for his bride unless you bring him the head of his enemy, the wolfman. Your father reckons you’ve got what it takes. I don’t. We’ll see who’s right. I expect you’ll die even before you get to the wolfman, which’ll suit me down to the ground as I’ll be able to get someone with a bit of balls about him for my daughter. And you’ll have the consolation of knowing that your farm girl will be filling your cup in the halls of the slain.’

‘You can’t take a free-born woman and sacrifice her. The people will know she didn’t volunteer,’ said Vali.

Forkbeard shook his head.

‘She’s a threat to the kingdom, lad! And it’s you who’s made her one. The people will understand why she had to die. And if the gods want to stop it, then they’ll bring you success. Seems straight enough to me. What don’t you understand?’

Vali stood shaking. He wanted to shout that if Adisla died, it wouldn’t be the head of the wolf that he presented to the people of Rogaland but that of Forkbeard himself, but he saw now how stupid he had been, how artless. He should have hidden his true thoughts from others, participated in their chaotic attacks, bragged about the slaughter of old men and boys. As a respected warrior he would be in a much better position. Forkbeard would treat him seriously, would ban Adisla’s marriage at least. He wouldn’t even need to ban it. If word of his displeasure reached the prospective groom’s house, he would never go through with his suit. Now this. And what if he couldn’t find the wolfman? His only option would be to challenge Forkbeard to single combat. He was confident he could survive on a battlefield but a one-on-one duel with a man who had cut his way to kingship was a different thing. Never mind. If Forkbeard tried to harm Adisla then Vali would defend her.

‘This is a perilous course for all of us,’ said Vali.

‘Perilous courses are my favourite sort,’ said Forkbeard. ‘Remember, kings are made for glory, not long life.’

Vali tried to reply with something like he would have said to Bragi — ‘If you have the wit, you can combine both’ or ‘You seem to have lived to a respectable age’ — but the words seemed lodged in his throat.

‘I’m up at the assembly of kings at Nidarnes until midsummer. It is a month. Return with the wolfman by then or watch your farm girl hang,’ said Forkbeard.

‘And then will you excuse me marrying your daughter?’

‘Not a chance. You’ll have proved yourself a great warrior. Your girl’ll live, that’s all. Now get out of here before I change my mind on that one too.’

Vali saw how he had been forced into a situation where the best he could hope for was that things would remain as they had been. The worst? Well, that wasn’t going to happen. The chances of finding wolfmen, let alone capturing one, were terribly slim. A different plan was needed. Adisla would have to marry her farmer immediately. That would make it much more difficult for Forkbeard to take her as a sacrifice. It would mean they would never be together but she would live. And he would still have to go on his mission. He was sure he wouldn’t return.

For the second time that day, he ran the distance between Forkbeard’s hall and Adisla’s house, pushing himself ever faster. Halfway there he heard hooves behind him — three riders of the king’s bodyguard, their purpose clear. They were riding bareback, with only bridles on the horses. They hadn’t had time to saddle up because they were trying to beat him to the farm.

The horses slowed as they approached. They were on a narrow track through trees and he moved to bar their path.

‘You stop there!’ shouted Vali. ‘As a prince I command you to stop.’

The horses drew up. The riders were armed — one with a sword and two with spears — but he felt sure they wouldn’t attack him.

The swordsman drew his weapon and pointed it at Vali — it was Ageirr, who had told him the news of Adisla’s marriage in the first place. ‘Where are your arms, prince? Ah, but you are Vali the Swordless, hearth hugger and thrall friend, aren’t you? How do you propose to stop us? With the words you learned from the women? Or are you going to speak our enemies’ language at us?’

The other two laughed, though slightly nervously. Vali was after all a prince, and they knew very well that at some point he might have the power of life and death over them.

Vali was desperate. ‘I’ll pay you to let me go first. On oath, you’ll have money if you do so.’

Where Vali would get this money from, he didn’t know. Maybe he could sell the helmet his father had given him, if he could get it back off Bragi.

‘We are sworn defenders of the king,’ said a spearman. ‘There is no money that can sway us from his orders.’ He urged his horse forward at a trot.

As he came past, Vali lunged for him, grabbing his tunic and pulling him from the animal’s back. The horse was spooked and bolted, streaming the reins behind it. The other two kicked their mounts forward and around the pair brawling on the ground. ‘See you at the slut’s house!’ shouted Ageirr as he passed.

Vali jumped up in useless desperation.

The bodyguard followed him and dusted himself down.

‘A fair smack, prince, weapon or no weapon, I grant you that,’ he said. Then he looked to the ground. ‘I’m sorry for what’s to happen to her. She is a fine girl.’

‘Save your words for your horse,’ said Vali, turning to run through the trees to the farm.

She was gone, of course, when he arrived. Disa was waiting in the doorway. He had never seen her so angry.

‘What have you done?’ she said.

Vali felt hot and wretched. ‘How is she? Where have they taken her?’

‘She’s at Forkbeard’s hall. She’s perfectly well and likely to remain so until they hang her. What are you going to do about it, boy? What are you going to do?’

Vali’s body felt full of energy. He was bursting to go somewhere, to do something, to make it all go away, but even as he said the words, they sounded unconvincing. ‘I’ll do as Forkbeard demands — I’ll find the wolfmen.’

‘How?’

‘I… I’ll go north and walk around until they attack me.’

For the first time in his life Vali saw Disa’s eyes fill with tears.

‘You’ll do nothing of the sort, you useless fool. That’ll be two of you dead if you do.’

‘Then I’ll go to Forkbeard’s hall and fight him for her.’

‘You’ll fight Forkbeard, a man who killed his first enemy at twelve and who has murdered more people than you have ever seen. You fight Forkbeard, you’ll…’

She wiped her eyes. Bragi was watching from where he was sitting beneath a tree. He had decided long ago that the best way to keep an eye on the prince was to spend time at Disa’s himself.

‘You, old man, you go with him.’

‘I was told the order yesterday, madam. The boy is to go alone.’

‘You knew, and sat there drinking at my table?’

‘I knew he was to go; I knew nothing of the fate of your girl, on my oath.’

Disa composed herself.

‘Will you lend him your sword at least? It’s the best blade in the kingdom.’

‘It would be my dearest wish,’ said Bragi.

‘Then come on,’ said Disa. ‘We have no time to waste. Come inside.’

‘I need to go now. I need to find this wolfman,’ said Vali.

‘That,’ said Disa, ‘is exactly what we are going to do. Get Ma Jodis; we have work to do.’