Vandrad the Viking Part 23

It was about mid-day, when, as they were coming down a wooded slope, Helgi exclaimed,--

"Hark! what is that clamour?"

Jomar too heard the shouts, for he stopped for a moment and listened keenly, and then started off faster than before. With every step they took the distant sounds grew louder and the shouts of men, and even it seemed the clash of steel, could be distinguished.

"The attack is made," cried Helgi. "Pray the G.o.ds they scatter not the dogs before we come up."

Jomar heard him, and looked over his shoulder with a savage glance.

"Sometimes dogs bite and rend," he said.

"Why have they waited so long?" said Estein, half to himself. "The fools should have fallen on Ketill that very night. I thank them for their folly."

They had now broken into a run, and the uproar sounded so loud that they knew they must be close upon the town.

"Some one comes," exclaimed Helgi, and just as he spoke a man dashed past them in the opposite direction, and throwing them only a startled glance, disappeared among the trees behind. A minute later two others ran by to one side, and a fourth stopped and turned when he came upon them. All were Jemtlanders, and Jomar, when he saw them, cursed aloud, while the Nors.e.m.e.n pressed the more excitedly forward.

Thirty yards further and they were at the edge of the wood, stopping at a spot not far from where the expedition first came out upon the town. The great lake and the open country lay below them, white still, but with all the sheen and sparkle off them, and overhung now by a grey, wet-weather sky. But they took little note of sky or snow-fields, for their eyes were enthralled by a more stirring spectacle.

Over the little town rolled a dense and smoky canopy, and from each doomed house the flames leapt and danced. All around it the plain was alive with the signs and terrors of war they saw, black against the snow, men flying over the open country, turning sometimes for the woods, or sometimes sliding and running across the frozen lake, the shouts of the pursuers came to them in a confusion of uproar, and here and there out over the waste, and more thickly near the town, the dead lay scattered. The battle was at an end. Small parties of Nors.e.m.e.n were still driving the vanquished Jemtlanders before them cutting them down as they fled; but the main force seemed already to be devoting itself to the burning and sacking of the town, and Helgi sighed as he exclaimed,--

"Too late after all! the cowardly rabble could not even fight till we had come to join in the sport."

Like an infuriated animal Jomar turned upon him.

"Whelp of a Norseman!" he cried, drawing his dagger and springing forward, "never more--"

As he spoke, Estein, who stood between them, had just time to throw out one foot and bring the Jemtlander flat on his face, his dagger flying from his hand. After looking for a moment in astonishment at their fallen guide, his would-be victim burst out laughing, and picking up the dagger, handed it back to him, saying,--

"I forgot, friend Jomar, that you were so nigh me. You owed me something, indeed, but try not to pay it like that again, for your own sake."

The man took the dagger sullenly and answered,--

"I hope never more to see either of you. Go down to the town now, if you can reach it without losing your way again, and my curse go with you."

Without waiting for reply or reward, he left them abruptly, and disappeared in the wood. "That is a man I am glad to see the last of," said Helgi, as they started for the town. "It can only be by black magic that Atli made him serve us."

"It is strange indeed," replied Estein, thoughtfully. "I have noted before that a powerful mind has a strong influence on men of less wisdom, yet like enough there is something more besides."

When they had come near enough to be recognized, a loud and joyful shout went up from their men; one after another of the victors ran out to meet them, and it was with quite a company at their back that they entered the burning town. In the open market-place, round which most of the houses stood, they found Ketill, his armour dinted and smeared with blood, and his eyes gleaming with stern excitement. At last he had got his burning, and he was enjoying it to the full. A batch of captives had just been pitilessly decapitated, their gory heads and trunks were strewn on the crimson snow, and beside them lay five or six more, their legs bound by ropes, awaiting their turn.

Inured though he was to spectacles of blood and carnage, Estein's mind recoiled from such a scene of butchery as this, and he replied to Ketill's shout of astonishment and welcome,--

"Right glad I am to see this victory, Ketill, and gallantly you must have fought, but when has it become our custom to slay our prisoners?"

"Ay," answered Helgi, "we could well have missed this part."

"Know you not that the Jemtlanders slew the twenty who followed you to King Bue?" answered the black-bearded captain. "They slew them like cattle, Estein; and shall we spare the murderers now? I knew not also whether you and Helgi had fallen into their hands, and in case ill had happened to you, it seemed best to take vengeance on the chance."

"Then since I need no revenge, let the slaying cease," said Estein, "though in truth the treacherous dogs ill deserve mercy."

"As you list," replied Ketill; "yet there is one here who would be better out of the world than in it."

As he spoke he went up to one prisoner who was lying on his side, with his face pressed down into the snow, like one sorely wounded, and in no gentle fashion turned him over with his foot.

"Can you not let me die?" said the man, looking up coldly and proudly at his captors, though he was evidently at death's door.

"It will not take long now."

"Thorar!" exclaimed Estein.

"You have named me, Estein," replied the wounded lawman. "I had hoped to witness thy death, now thou canst witness mine."

"Treacherous foe and faithless friend," said Estein, sternly, "well have you deserved this death."

"Faithless to whom?" replied Thorar. "To my king and master Bue I alone owed allegiance. Long have I planned how to rid us of your proud and cruel race, and I thought the time had come. Witless and confident ye walked into my snare, like men blindfolded; and it was the doing of the G.o.ds, and not of you, that my plan miscarried."

"'Witless and confident?'" answered Estein. "Say rather trustful of pledges that only a dastard would break."

"The strong and foolish fight with weapons suited to their hands,"

said Thorar; "the weak and wise with weapons suited to their heads."

"So hands, it seems, are better than heads," put in Helgi.

"Know this at least," exclaimed Ketill, "your sons have perished before you. I slew them in the outset of the battle."

The dying man laughed a ghastly laugh.

"My sons!" he cried. "Think you I would trust my sons with Nors.e.m.e.n? Those boys were thralls. They died for their country as I die," and his head fell back upon the snow.

"Dastard!" cried Ketill, "you die indeed."

He raised his sword as he spoke; but Estein caught his arm before it could descend, saying,--

"You cannot slay the dead, Ketill."

"Has he baulked me then?" said Ketill, bending over his fallen foe.

It was even so. The lawman had gone to his last account, his bolt impotently shot, and his enemies standing triumphantly over him.

"He at least died well," said Helgi; "when my turn comes may it be my luck to look as proudly on my foes. But tell us, Ketill, what befell you here since our parting."

The burly captain frowned and scratched his head, as though deliberating how to do a thing so foreign to his genius as the telling of a narrative.

"On a certain day you left us," he began.

"Well told indeed," cried Helgi, laughing, "an excellent beginning--no skald could do it better."

"Nay," replied Ketill, frowning angrily, "if you want matter for a jest, tell a tale yourself. Mine have been no boy's deeds."