Arthur D. Howden Smith

“ Women made for the skalli; men snatched up their weapons and ran to meet the strangers. Horses were caught and saddled. Shouts echoed obscurely, and the shrill blasts of the ludr-horns overrode the excitement.
Frakork’s people rallied with entire confidence, for most of them supposed that they had to confront nothing more serious than a raid of the Redbeards, driven desperate by hunger; and some sixty men formed a hasty shield-wall behind a short, immensely broad man, whose black beard and swart features showed conspicuously against the dazzling white background of the snow. ”

“ I have prayed to the Old Gods for you, Swain. I think it is they who will aid us. This White Christ which Olaf Tryggvi’s son forced upon us is no god of vengeance, whatever Bishop William may say.”
Swain shrugged his shoulders.
“I have more trust in my sword than in any gods,” he said. “But we shall soon know. At any rate, I have not forgotten how my father and Valthiof died.”
“You would not, my son. Be vigilant and show no mercy.”
They kissed each other, and Swain stamped off across the ice-hummocks to enter the boat which carried him to Deathbringer’s side. ”

“ The ax he had flung sang over his head as he saw daylight through the dissolving haze of the smoke. He stumbled to the door, fell out and banged it after him. Osbiorn and a dozen others ran to aid him, eyes popping in their bearded faces.
“Has she spelled you, Swain?” “Can you speak?” “Are you whole in your body?” “Are your wits with you?”
Swain found his feet and waved them all to silence.
“We will burn her,” he said grimly. “Yes, she would have put a spell upon me. But for Osbiorn’s call she would have succeeded, She has stronger magic than I thought. But any witch will burn in fire. ”

“ His wife, the Lady Margaret, caught up his words.
“It is no more than natural that Swain should prosper,” she remarked, “seeing that he has become the guardian of our son, and must therefore be almost as great a man as Jarl Rognvald, himself, in the islands.”
Swain laughed as he stared insolently into her ripely handsome, haughty features. Of Norse stock, she towered over her lord.
“I was wealthy before the youngling came to Orphir, and I have had no need to pouch his revenues since,” he answered. “All the world is my purse. If your Atjoklar was but richer you would see me oftener.” ”

“ The Orkney-folk were traversing a narrow defile, climbing with effort over icy rocks and drifts of snow, when a storm of spears assailed them from a height and they had barely time to form a shield-ring before the Redbeards were on them. The Atjoklar men whom Jarl Maddad had sent for guides shouted that they must retreat, but Swain sternly swore that he could cut down him who repeated the advice.
“We will teach our foes to fear us at the beginning of our acquaintance,” he said. ”

“ What would you have of me?”
“One longship, and eighty men,” replied Swain promptly. “I can raise at least as many more.”
“Are you sure it will be enough?”
“I take two men for each of Frakork’s.”
“A mad scheme,” fussed the Jarl. “You stay out in Deathbringer until all have thought you shattered by ice, and next you must be off in mid-Winter to traverse Scotland to slay enemies who may not be there. You will do well to escape with your life. Who would care to accompany you of his own free will?” ”

“ Olaf and Valthiof are dead. You will die in a few moments—very horribly, Swain; your carls outside will be of no avail to aid you. Then I think Gunni will die as he blunders homeward. And after I shall come to Asleif, myself. Some one must tell her of her sons’ ends. Why not I?”
The cold sensation communicated itself to Swain’s eyelids. They became rigid. He tried to open his mouth, and could not. He made to raise his ax, and it weighted his arm down. The hall dwindled before him. Frakork melted to a bust, a head, a pair of green eyes that blazed with chilling fire. ”

“ We have had honor, if we have not had plunder. We can not always be fortunate.”
“Perhaps,” replied his brother, Gunni, eyes never leaving the racing seas over the dragon stern. “But it is my thought that our mistake was in following that report Olvir Rosta had been in Ireland. There is small gain to be had in Ireland. Franceward, now——”
Swain’s face clouded.
“You forget yourself, Gunni,” he said bitterly. “Vengeance comes before plunder. I would sink this dragon and all she holds of men and gear, myself, too, if by so doing I might uncover Frakork and Olvir! But the day will come. ”

“ Swain would not suffer his men to butcher the enemies’ wounded, instead explaining by means of the guides to those who could walk that his party were intending to pass this country without doing harm to its inhabitants, if they were left in peace, and with this word he sent them to their leaders, and formed his camp for the night on the scene of the encounter. To keep themselves warm the Orkney-folk reared a cairn above their dead, for in that high place the sweep of the wind and the chill of the snow-banks made sleep impossible. ”

“ Swain was thrown upon its flank, helpless to do more than hew at the outer rank of housecarls, with such of his own men as came up in time, while the mass of Olvir’s attack struck with hammer-force a shearing blow that lopped off the whole left flank of the viking-farers’ line and scattered the snow with lifeless bodies. ”

“ He is a good warrior. Close up, men. Shield to shield!”
And the viking-farers ordered their array, so that they presented a solid front, shield lapping shield, with reversed flanks at either extremity of the line to guard against assault upon the rear. In the center of the line was Swain; Gunni was upon the right end and Osbiorn on the left. They tramped forward silently across a field and a frozen brook until they were within a long spear-cast of the line of the Hjalmundale men, who had eyed them with increasing surprize as they drew nearer. Here Swain halted them, and stepped forward alone. ”

“ Fields were outlined under the snow. Cattle and horses moved in the yard. Men and women hurried about their duties. Straight beneath the viking-farers the stead dogs were lifting their muzzles in a denunciation which drew puzzled glances from an occasional housecarl or serving-man. It was plain that Frakork’s people had no thought of danger from that quarter.
Swain drew a great breath of satisfaction, and unsheathed his sword.
“Now we shall make a vengeance men will talk of in our children’s time,” he said. “Swords out! Go quietly.”
“Ho!” exclaimed his brother Gunni. ”

“ But what of you? Have you rendered good account of yourself?”
“Good enough,” swaggered the boy. “Will you take me next Spring?”
“No, no, you must be first as tall as a man’s sword. Now, peace!”
Swain turned his head to Jarl Rognvald.
“You asked me how I might reach Frakork, Lord Jarl. I hold the means in my two hands here.”
“What? The youngling?”
“Even so—little Jarl Harald. His father, Jarl Maddad, rules Atjoklar [2] for the Scots king. Maddad owes me certain obligations, and will not be disposed to deny me guides and a free passage through his marches into Sudrland.” ”

“ You are Swain. And as Swain, I accept from you what I would not from other men. But let us end this bickering. When Spring comes you shall go to Jarl Maddad, and try your venture. In the meantime, we are celebrating Yule here at Orphir, and it is my desire that you and your following pass the feast with me.”
Swain shook his head.
“I thank you for the favor you would show me, Lord Jarl, but I must be about the matter of my vengeance without delay.”
“You are mad!” protested the Jarl. “At this time? In Winter? I tell you the mountain passes will be deep in snow. ”

“ They landed by Staur in Sudrland on the coast of Scotland’s Firth, and went secretly up into the country of the mountains, where only the wild hill-folk dwell, and there they have built and planted themselves a steading, with all their folk around them, on the bank of Hjalmundale’s river. There are high mountains and spreading forests on every hand, and they have stayed so quiet that even the King of Scots believes they have fled oversea. ”

“ And it is to be said that more men died through this feud and its consequences than through any other cause that was ever known in the North. But at that time Swain recked little of it. He gained much honor from his march through Scotland, and the King of Scots sent for him and invited him to curb the Redbeards who wreaked havoc with the settled parts of the kingdom. Jarl Rognvald also listened to him with increased respect, and he earned popularity by dividing the spoils of the raid among his followers without claiming any share himself. ”

“ I have business to do here with Frakork. When that is attended to, the rest of us will come after you.”
Gunni selected ten of the viking-farers who were comparatively fresh, and stopping only to fill their pouches with food from a near-by farm kitchen, they set out to follow the horses’ tracks in the snow. Swain returned to the skalli, and put his men to gathering torchwood; but he was annoyed to learn that they were all fearful of approaching close to its walls.
“What is the trouble?” he demanded. “There are no men inside.” ”

“ But we talk to no purpose. Did you never think to look for her in Scotland, Swain?”
“I have looked for her far and wide in Scotland,” retorted Swain impatiently. “She is not there. She and Olvir fled thence in a long ship after they left their lands at Morkaorsbakki on the coast of Caithness when Jarl Paul was overthrown. ”

“ A hoarse hail from the forecastle, where a knot of men off rowing-duty huddled under such protection as was provided by the huge, up-curving figurehead and the low bulwarks above the decked storage space. ”