Hereward 03 - End of Days, page 2
Brigid rocked back and forth. A tremor crossed her face. ‘I see … fire. I see ravens feeding on a hill of bodies. A bloody sky and a bloody lake.’
In front of Sighard, a wife’s shoulders began to shake with silent sobs.
‘A cold wind blows from the north, and there are ashes in the wind,’ Brigid continued.
A crash reverberated through the woods nearby. Men jumped to their feet, and a moan of unease rippled through the group. ‘It is the wuduwasa,’ someone gasped.
In that febrile atmosphere, Sighard could see the moment was slipping away from him. He stood up and raised his chin, trying to look commanding. It seemed to work, for all eyes turned to him.
‘My name is Sighard. I come from the camp at Ely,’ he announced. His mouth felt too dry. Though he dreaded the answer, he had to ask the question that all in the camp needed to know. ‘Where is Hereward?’
The words seemed to hang in the air. Sighard swallowed, more afraid than at any time since he joined the rebel army.
Brigid squinted, trying to discern his face through the smoke. ‘Is he alive? Or dead?’ he continued, unable to hide the tremor in his voice.
There. It had been said and could not be unsaid. Though he kept his gaze upon the wise woman, he sensed the others around the fire turn to look at him. So much hope had been invested in Hereward. The leader of the uprising and the one man who could turn back the iron tide of the Normans. Who could prevent all the misery and the suffering. If the rebels had not been so desperate, he would never have said anything that would shatter that hope, which had been in such short supply for so long.
But desperate they were.
Brigid bowed her head and began to mutter to her unseen companions. Sighard held his breath, waiting for her answer.
A terrible, throat-rending scream tore through the night.
Sighard jerked in shock. Panic flooded through the congregation. Cries of ‘The wuduwasa is coming!’ rang out and within moments the terrified throng were fleeing in all directions. In the confusion, Sighard lost sight of the wise woman, and when his view across the fire was clear he saw that Brigid too was gone.
As the contagion of dread throbbed through him, he dashed away from the fireside. Bursting through the curtain of willow branches, he found Madulf crouching against a tree, hunted eyes darting.
‘That scream,’ his brother hissed. ‘What stalks this place?’
Crashing erupted away in the trees as if some great beast raged there. The two brothers gaped at each other and then they scrambled away. In that wild flight, Sighard fancied he could glimpse bloody fangs in the dark, and feel cold breath upon his neck.
When the two men tumbled out of the trees on to a beaten surface, Sighard realized that by blind luck they had found their way to the old straight track. Pearly moonlight dappled the way ahead. Sucking in a gulp of air, he looked around, chose his direction and ran. Madulf bounded at his heels.
Behind them, breaking branches cracked.
Blinking away tears of fear, Sighard muttered a prayer. If God allowed him to slip away from the wuduwasa’s grasp and reach the safety of Ely’s walls, he would make an offering at Etheldreda’s shrine every week.
But God was not yet ready to come to his aid. Stumbling over a root, he sprawled on the track. The air rushed from his lungs. Madulf skidded to a halt, looking all around. With shaking hands, he grabbed Sighard and wrenched him up on to sore knees.
‘Come,’ he insisted.
‘Wait …’
‘Are you mad?’
As Madulf tried to drag him along, Sighard threw him off. His hands were wet, sticky. Raising his palm to his nose, he recoiled from the iron stink.
‘Blood,’ he whispered. ‘Fresh.’
‘If the wuduwasa hunts behind us, how could that be?’
Sighard felt the uncertainty drive his terror to a new level. Jumping to his feet, he advanced with hesitant steps, no longer sure which way he should go.
When Madulf grabbed his shoulder, he almost cried out. ‘There.’ His brother’s hand shook so much he could barely point.
A dark shape lay across the path. A moan rolled towards them. Fighting the instinct to run, Sighard crept forward and dropped to his haunches. In a shaft of moonlight, he saw that it was a man. A growing black pool shimmered around him.
Flashing a worried glance at his brother, Sighard turned over the prone figure. He flinched. ‘Jurmin,’ he whispered.
‘What?’ Madulf leapt to his side. ‘The scout?’
Sighard nodded. Jurmin had been dispatched to spy upon the Normans when the worries about Hereward’s disappearance had reached fever pitch. The scout coughed and a mist of blood settled on Sighard’s arm. Jurmin blinked, forcing himself to focus on the face hovering over him. With a burst of vigour, he grasped Sighard’s wrist and tried to lever himself up on to his elbow. ‘Run for Ely as fast as your legs will carry you,’ he croaked. ‘The hour is later than we ever realized. The Normans are everywhere.’
Still caught up in visions of the wuduwasa, Sighard fought to comprehend what the scout was saying. ‘The Normans?’
‘You must find Hereward … Kraki … any of them … warn them … warn them all.’ He choked and spat a mouthful of blood. ‘Warn them … the king is coming. The king!’
Sighard reeled. ‘William the Bastard is making his move?’
Madulf clutched his head. ‘We thought we had all the time in the world. The king would never attack before the spring floods had gone. Everyone said!’
Dry wood cracked in the trees behind them. Not the wuduwasa at all, Sighard realized. Something that could be far worse. He strained to hear. The clank of iron. Dim voices calling in the harsh Norman tongue.
‘Go,’ Jurmin insisted. ‘God comes for my soul. You cannot help me.’
Sighard gave the man’s arm a squeeze. He could see from the puddling blood that Jurmin was right: his days were done. Grabbing hold of Madulf’s arm, Sighard urged him along the track.
As they crept away, jubilant cries rang out. The Norman hunting band had found Jurmin. Sighard glanced back and saw shapes looming over the wounded scout. Moonlight glinted off helms and mail shirts. A note of triumph rang in the harsh voices. Swords flashed up, then down. Jurmin screamed.
Consumed by terror, Sighard ran. The king was coming, and Hereward had abandoned them. A hell of iron was about to descend upon the English.
The End of Days was here.
CHAPTER TWO
IN THE WHISPERING reed-beds, the English warriors were waiting to drench their spears in blood. Silent, unmoving, they crouched, breath tight in their chests, eyes fixed upon the wall of fog drifting among the willows. In that hour after dawn, the fenlands still slumbered. For too long, the only sound had been the steady patter of moisture dripping from the branches on to the blanket of sodden brown leaves. Now the muffled jangle of mail shirts rang out. The ground was throbbing with the distant pounding of hooves.
Kraki smiled. This time was to be savoured. The peace before the axe fell and the blood pumped. He could smell his own sweat, musky and comforting under the aged leather and furs. The reassuring weight of his hauberk was heavy upon his shoulders. The eyelets of his helm framed the world in iron. He always saw the world that way, a circle that was an arena, for fighting was all he had known since he was a boy. There had only been two choices in his northland home, where the sun glinted off the mountain snows and the air was as sharp as a Norman sword, and he could never have settled for the dull consistency of a farmer’s life. The back-breaking ploughing, and the sowing and the praying. Life was harsh, and you had to place your hands round its neck and throttle it until the myriad riches tumbled from its purse. He remembered the first man he had ever killed, the face split in two by his axe, the glistening contents steaming in the chill air. He had felt no remorse, no queasiness at the brutal realities of death. For his lack of emotion some thought him cold-hearted, a butcher even. But in battle, he heard the song that filled the heart.
Away in the fog, a horse snorted.
Kraki glanced through the waving reeds to where Guthrinc waited. As big as an oak, the Englishman had to all but fold himself in two to hide. Guthrinc cocked his head, listened for a moment, and then nodded. It was nearly time.
Before Kraki could order his men to make ready, the sounds of a scuffle tore through the quiet. Barely able to contain his fury, Kraki bounded over to where two of his men rolled around in the reeds. He yanked the warriors apart, snarling under his breath, ‘Give away our hiding place and I will cut off your cocks and feed them to you.’
Mad Hengist sprawled on his back, clearly the victim of the struggle. Bruises dappled his ratty face and blood trickled from his nose. The other man, Elstan, glowered.
‘What is amiss?’ Kraki growled.
‘I will not call him shield-brother,’ Elstan muttered. ‘He murdered Oswyn the potter. He cannot be trusted.’
The Viking clanged the haft of his axe against the side of the warrior’s helm. ‘Have your brains leaked out of your ears?’
‘His knife was found upon the body,’ the warrior snapped. Kraki snorted.
‘Ask at the tavern. Ask the monks—’
The Viking rapped his axe round Elstan’s head once more. ‘Enough,’ he spat. ‘Get back to your place or you will feel the bite of this blade.’
Sullen, Elstan crawled off. Kraki eyed Hengist, who ran his fingers through his straggly blond hair, muttering to himself. Since he had seen his kin slaughtered by the Normans, Hengist had veered between madness and clarity, but he had always been loyal. ‘Ready yourself,’ the Viking murmured, shaking his axe for emphasis. He crawled back to the front and raised his arm. He could feel all eyes settle upon him.
After a while, grey shapes appeared in the mist. They gradually took on form and weight until three men on horseback and five on foot emerged into the thin light. They were cloaked and hooded against the damp and the chill, but Kraki did not need to see their faces. Those on foot were guards, fodder, in case bandits attacked. Two of the riders were knights, dangerous with their double-edged swords and battle-honed skills. But it was the third man who interested Kraki the most.
He dropped his arm.
The English burst from the reeds with a throaty battle-cry. The horses reared, whinnying, as the rebels circled their prey. Their spears whisked up, their shields raised to cover their lower faces. One of the knights tumbled back on to the soft earth. The other two riders fought to control their mounts.
‘Hold, if you value your lives,’ Kraki barked.
He strode to the front of the war-band, swinging his axe by his side. The Normans glanced around, saw they were outnumbered.
Kraki levelled his axe at the third rider and said, ‘Reveal yourself.’
The man tipped his head back in disdain and slid his cowl from his head. He showed a cold face to his captor. Unafraid, as Kraki had anticipated. He looked like a raptor, with a long, hooked nose and piercing grey eyes. His thick brown hair was shaved at the back in the Norman style.
‘Abbot Turold,’ Kraki noted, ‘caught like a rat by a pack of mill dogs.’ He looked the churchman up and down. Turold was not like any of the bent-backed, weak-armed English monks. No, he was one of the feared Norman warrior-priests, broad-shouldered and strong, as used to wielding a sword or an axe as a Bible. Kraki had heard how the English in Burgh had grown to fear this man since the king himself had sent him to take charge of the abbey. He had once raised an enemy off the ground with one hand at the throat, so tales said. And he had single-handedly slain three robbers who had attacked him while he was riding in the forest to the west of his new home. Kraki was not impressed. He could do those things himself without raising a sweat. But they were feats for a churchman, with that he had to agree.
Turold glowered. ‘Dogs, you are, that you would attack a holy man.’
‘Your hands are not clean,’ Kraki grunted. ‘Do not pretend you are close to God. Down in the mud, where you belong.’
The English rebels jabbed their spears at the abbot until he climbed off his mount. He still held his head high. Kraki nodded and Guthrinc wrenched open a chest strapped across the rear of Turold’s horse. Gold plate glimmered. Guthrinc delved into the casket, tossing out jewel-encrusted chalices and silver boxes as if they were scraps for pigs. ‘Here,’ the big man said with a wry smile. ‘Let me unburden you. You will travel much faster to Burgh without this weighing you down.’
Hengist and another man collected the treasure and stuffed the items into sacks. ‘Some merchants will be regretting the day they hid their fortunes in an English church for safekeeping,’ Hengist noted as he weighed his sack. ‘Little did they know the king would consider it all fair game for his own coffers.’
‘William the Bastard will plunder anything in England that catches his eye,’ Kraki said, ‘and he has more than enough lackeys to make it so.’ He eyed Turold. The abbot held his gaze. The Viking grinned and said to his men, ‘Get to work.’
As the English looted the treasure, Kraki prowled around the Normans. He was uneasy. Sly words were not his strength. He only truly felt comfortable when he was swinging an axe. But he had to play the game, for it was the sole reason they were there, risking their necks to rob one of the most feared Normans in the east, a man who had the king’s ear.
Remembering the words he had discussed with the others at their council in Ely two nights gone, he said, ‘Hereward sends his greetings. He yearns for the day when he will meet you in the flesh. At the end of a sword.’
Kraki cursed silently as he saw all his men glance up at the abbot’s face, though they had been warned to pretend they were engrossed in their tasks. But Turold seemed not to notice.
‘If your leader was as brave as his words, he would face me this day,’ the Norman abbot said with contempt. ‘Instead, he hides away with the women and children at your camp.’
Turning away, Kraki kicked amongst the treasure so that the other man would not see any emotion play on his face. He had discovered what he needed to know: the invaders had not killed Hereward. Nor did they hold him prisoner. Turold would not have been able to contain his mockery if that were the case. He recalled mad Hengist’s words at the council: ‘Hereward is the English rebellion in the eyes of the Norman bastards. The king’s men would have overrun Ely by now if they knew our leader was gone.’ Now there was no doubt.
Kraki knelt to pretend to examine a goblet. He felt no jubilation at this news. If Hereward had not been taken by their enemies these six weeks gone, where was he? Drowned in a bog? The Mercian was no coward, that was certain. He would never have fled, no matter how great the odds. Kraki tossed the goblet to Guthrinc. ‘This should buy us a few more axes-for-hire,’ he said. He nodded to Turold. ‘Your greed has made your work harder still. Our army grows by the day. Soon we will be coming for you. Take that message back to the snakes you call your friends.’
‘I am no go-between,’ the abbot roared. His sword flashed out of its sheath faster than Kraki could have dreamed. The cutting edge blurred towards his neck. His axe swung up without a thought, driven by instinct honed on a hundred battlefields. A stream of sparks. The ringing of iron. An impact jarring deep into his shoulder, forcing him back a step.
With some Norman epithet that Kraki didn’t understand, Turold threw himself forward. This was madness, Kraki thought. Surely the churchman knew he would be cut down in an instant. He had thought the abbot cleverer than that.
Kraki wrinkled his nose at the stink of strange spices as the Norman slammed into him. It was like being attacked by a bear: big and strong, with a ferocious, unrelenting attack. With skilful flourishes, the sword hacked towards the few areas of exposed flesh on his body, neck, arms, calves. Kraki grunted, keeping a cool head. The priest was trying to make sure he didn’t have time to think.
He swung his axe up in front of his face and hurled himself into the path of the dancing sword. The blade clanged against his weapon, more by luck than design. But he had his opening. Kraki rammed his helm into the abbot’s face. He heard the Norman howl as cartilage burst. Hot blood splashed across his cheek.
With a yell, Kraki swung his axe up. He was ready to cleave Turold’s head in two, the opportunity to send a message back to the king be damned. But as his weapon wavered at the apex, Turold let his sword fall to his side. Kraki glimpsed the ghost of a smile on the man’s lips. He heard the sound of pounding feet in the undergrowth. One of the monks who had accompanied Turold was racing away into the woods. The fight had been a distraction. He cursed himself.
Thrusting Turold aside, he launched himself in pursuit of the darting figure. Guthrinc and Hengist crashed into the undergrowth alongside him. The monk was small and wiry, and he had a good head start. Kraki could see they would not catch him easily. And yet the churchman skidded to a halt. From a pouch at his waist, he pulled a hunting horn and raised it to his lips.
‘Bring him down,’ Kraki bellowed.
Guthrinc notched a shaft to his hunting bow. In one fluid movement, he took aim and loosed his arrow.
Too late; the lowing of the horn rolled through the still woods a moment before the shaft thudded into the man’s back.
Away in the trees, another horn answered.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN THE HUNTING horn blared again, nearer this time, Kraki, Guthrinc and Hengist jerked alert as if they had been burned. Wood cracked. Running feet thrummed on the leaf-mould.
Kraki cursed.
‘We stand and fight?’ Hengist peered into the mist with his unsettling pale eyes.
Turning, the Viking shook his head. ‘Too many of them by the sounds of it,’ he whispered. ‘Back to Ely.’
‘The treasure?’ Guthrinc made a hurt face; he already knew the answer.
‘Leave it. It will only weigh us down. We take with us something greater than gold – the knowledge that the Norman bastards have not spilled Hereward’s blood.’
The horn moaned once more, closer still, and it was echoed by two more. The call and response rang across the fog-shrouded woods. Kraki frowned. This was no mere hunting band.
