Wolfsangel c-1 Page 19

  He was only just too late — the longship was close offshore. He couldn’t see Adisla but there were around twenty warriors visible on the boat. Still he didn’t really absorb Drengi’s words: ‘Vali, they were looking for her.’ His brain was hot with hatred and he didn’t even recall what Drengi had said.

  ‘Come back, you cowards!’ he screamed. ‘I am one and you are twenty. Are the odds not enough in your favour?’

  There was no reply from the ship; the Danes were too busy with their sail. But then, for a heatbeat, he saw her, struggling to dive overboard and swim to freedom. She was pulled roughly back onto the boat.

  ‘I’ll find you!’ he screamed as he splashed out into the water. ‘And know, Danes, that if she is harmed I’ll visit a thousand times worse on you and your kinsmen! I am Vali, son of Authun. I am death to you!’

  Vali felt utterly hopeless. There was no prospect of pursuit. Forkbeard’s longships were away down the coast at the regional assembly; all they had were a few faerings — four-oared inshore boats — and he couldn’t chase a warship in one of those.

  How would he find her? He’d try Haithabyr, he thought, the market where any slave brought to Denmark ended up. He could buy her, if he could raise the money from his father or borrow it from Forkbeard. Then he remembered: he had the berserk. He would get what he wanted to know out of him. He turned back towards the site of the battle.

  When he found Bjarki he was in no fit state to answer questions. The drugs, drink and the bang on the head had rendered him almost insensible. All he could do was curse and drool. He was safe for the time being but Vali wondered how long he would last if any of the townspeople got hold of him. Preserving the berserk’s life was his only key to finding Adisla. The man was too big to drag anywhere without help. Luckily, up the hill at that moment came Bragi with two farmers, Gudfastr and Baugr, Loptr beside them. So he had done his job after all.

  ‘How does it go?’ said Vali.

  ‘They’re routed. One ship captured — a good day’s work.’ Bragi didn’t look quite as jubilant as Vali might have expected.

  ‘They’ve taken Adisla. Ma Disa’s dead, and the rest of them at the house from what I can tell.’

  Bragi’s mouth fell open. ‘Anyone else?’

  ‘I don’t know. They were quick so I think it unlikely. They didn’t take him, did they?’ He nodded to the boy, who was still looking at Vali with wide terrified eyes.

  ‘They were being quick, for sure, or they wouldn’t have left the boy. He’d have got a good price at market. You’ll want vengeance, won’t you, Loptr?’ said Bragi.

  The boy said nothing, just withdrew behind Baugr.

  ‘Get that berserk down into the village,’ said Vali. ‘He’s got some questions to answer. As soon as he recovers, let me know. Tell the people that by my command there will be no celebration until Forkbeard returns. Make them keep a watch. Two drakkars escaped and may well return if they think we imagine the danger is past.’

  He turned away down the hill, towards the valley.

  ‘Where are you going?’ said Bragi.

  ‘To see Ma Jodis,’ said Vali.

  20

  A Hard Road Forward

  ‘Ma, it’s me. Ma.’

  Jodis’s house was much smaller than Disa’s — not much more than a hut sunk into the earth, its walls just waist high. With its flat turf roof you could hardly see it until you were right on it.

  Vali knocked at the door. ‘Ma, it’s me, Vali. Ma, it’s all right, they’ve gone.’

  The door opened and Jodis peered out. She was trembling though trying not to show it.

  ‘How many dead?’

  ‘I don’t know. It could have been worse. We beat them. They’ve gone, Ma.’

  Jodis wiped the tears from her eyes.‘Adisla? Ma Disa?’

  ‘That’s why I’m here,’ he said. ‘I-’

  ‘O Freya, guard them,’ said Jodis, who had guessed no good had come to the women. ‘What?’

  ‘Ma Disa is dead and Adisla taken,’ said Vali.

  Jodis could no longer hold on to her tears.

  ‘I’ll avenge the first and find the second,’ said Vali.

  She gave him that look again, the one she’d given him when she’d heard that Forkbeard had planned to hang Adisla, but then she tempered it. She was very fond of Vali but regarded him as something of an idiot. The capture of the wolfman had shown that he wasn’t.

  ‘Do you even know where they’ve gone or who they were?’

  ‘I suspect they’ll go to Haithabyr, at least eventually. They were Danes — Haarik and his men.’

  ‘They could take her to his court or sell her in the east, or do many other things with her. She could be anywhere.’

  ‘Which is why I’m here,’ said Vali.

  Jodis looked blankly at him.

  ‘I want you to work Ma Disa’s magic. It took me to the wolfman; it can take me to her.’

  She shook her head. ‘I’ve never done it. Ma Disa had a gift for that. I just helped her.’

  ‘Then you know how it’s done?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s not possible, even if I wanted to. The fire herbs are all gone. They grow only in the spring and they’re very rare. We won’t be able to harvest any for months.’

  ‘Those herbs are entirely necessary?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Vali breathed out heavily. He had no faith at all that the berserk would yield information under torture, though that wouldn’t stop him trying. Did the berserk know anything anyway? He was a hired hand. Vali knew that when Forkbeard went on raids with berserks he kept the target secret until they were at sea, to prevent them going it alone. As much as it would please him to try to beat information out of Bjarki, Vali doubted he actually had any.

  ‘There is no other way?’

  Jodis shrugged.

  ‘What?’ said Vali.

  ‘There is, but it will kill you.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘You go to Odin at the mire,’ said Jodis.

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘It’s not been done since I was a girl, but if the prophecy is important enough to you then it’s worth it. You go to Grimnir’s Mire and present yourself to the god of the hanged, the god of the drowned, and you ask him what you want to know.’

  ‘How do I do this?’

  ‘By drowning,’ said Ma Jodis.

  ‘How can the prophecy be any good to me if I die?’

  ‘You go to the edge of death, and there you bargain with the gods for your life. You offer them what you can, and if it pleases them they take it and tell you what you need to know.’

  ‘What can I offer a god?’

  ‘Your suffering,’ she said.

  Vali stiffened his jaw and gave a short nod. ‘Have you done this?’

  ‘No, but I have seen it done. It was many years ago now. Princess Heithr went to the mire.’

  ‘I thought that was just a story. Was it a success?’

  ‘She revealed four traitors in her father’s court and the location of the Thjalfi hoard.’

  ‘They found the hoard?’

  ‘They did. Though she never got to see it. The ordeal killed her.’

  Vali put his hand on the low roof and thought for a moment. What was his life without Adisla anyway? Everyone has to die, it’s just a matter of when. Only a fool would throw his life away, though.

  ‘Can you do it? I don’t want to die for nothing, Ma.’

  ‘It’s straightforward but more a question of whether you can do it. You drown at the sacred mire, the place between land and water. It’s a gateway that leads to other places in the nine worlds. The force of your will is all you’ll have to help you find the path. You need no more preparation than a warrior dying in battle does to make it to Valhalla.’

  Vali gave a curt nod. ‘How long will it take?’

  ‘Who knows? You must drown and revive, drown and revive, until the vision comes to you or you drown and do not revive. It could happen the first time; it could
happen the tenth or never. And it’s not easy to force yourself back to those waters, no matter how much you’re burning for an answer. You’ll fight it, so you’ll need to be tied.’

  Vali had vowed to ask Odin for nothing but his was a circumstance he had not foreseen.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ said Vali.

  ‘There is one other thing,’ said Jodis. ‘The gods aren’t the only things waiting in the nine worlds. We’ll put a noose on you. It’s a symbol so the god can find you, but if you snap your bonds or begin to speak as a giant or witch, or worse, then we’ll use it to kill you. Don’t converse with giants, Vali, nor with the other monsters you may see down there.’

  ‘Bring your rope,’ said Vali. ‘If this is the only way, then this is the only way.’

  ‘You’ll need men to help you in and out of the water. Even in your bonds you’ll need to be held down,’ said Jodis, ‘and I haven’t the strength to strangle you or the sureness to shorten your suffering with a knife.’

  ‘Is your grandson in there?’

  ‘He is.’

  ‘Then send him to Hogni and Orri,’ said Vali. ‘Come on. We need to begin.’

  21

  The Drowning Pool

  He had been at the drowning pool before, of course. It was in a sunken hollow on a natural shelf in the low hills that led up from Jodis’s farm. Prisoners and sacrifices had been sent to the gods in Grimnir’s Mire in years gone by, but no one had died there since the princess had sought her answer all those years before. The children knew its reputation though, and it was said that the ghosts of long-dead kings and warriors haunted the waters at night.

  Vali felt a chill go through him as he sat waiting for Hogni and Orri. Was it the breeze cutting in from the sea or was it some deeper feeling? How many had died there and to what purpose? Did places such as the mire really carry an imprint of the deaths they had seen or was it just childish memories that set his flesh creeping, the echoes of stories told to frighten and thrill the long winter nights away?

  He felt very cold. Clouds had rolled in off the sea, turning the sky to iron and spitting the air with rain. He wished he had brought his cloak with him but then realised he was going to be a lot colder soon. And what did his discomfort matter? Did Adisla have a cloak to shelter her from the rain out on that boat? What was happening to her? He couldn’t bring himself to think on that. For every discomfort or abuse she suffered, he vowed to himself, those who inflicted it on her would suffer one hundred times worse. Until he met her again, he swore, no pain would daunt him. He had suffered as much as it is possible to suffer when he saw her on that longship.

  ‘Lord, a great victory.’ A hand was on his shoulder. It was Hogni.

  ‘The Danes have taken flight,’ said Orri, ‘and the win is yours to claim.’

  ‘My glory must wait a while,’ said Vali. ‘I have another battle to fight.’ He nodded towards the water.

  It was just a pool, he told himself, something he would use for a purpose, like a plough or a sword.

  Hogni and Orri looked at the noose Jodis was tying, the symbol of Odin, the triple slip knot — if that’s what you could call it. The dead lord’s necklace only slipped one way. Once it was on, you took it off with a knife or not at all. The men glanced at each other.

  ‘You are seeking answers from the gods?’ said Orri.

  ‘I want to find where Adisla has gone. Do you have a better way?’

  ‘They’ll take her to Haarik’s court.’

  ‘Maybe, and maybe not. They could sell her in Haithabyr or in any market along the way. She could be given to a mercenary as payment, and besides…’ He didn’t want to say it, the thought seemed too bizarre. He recalled that strange man in the four-cornered hat. What had he been doing there? Drengi’s words had sunk in too.

  ‘They came for her; they were looking for her. They called her name,’ said Vali.

  ‘Why?’

  Vali shrugged. Whatever Adisla’s fate, it was surely not to be a straightforward slave. He was beyond explanation. He just knew that he had very little time and no scope to make a mistake.

  ‘This is the best way,’ said Vali.

  Hogni nodded. ‘I performed this office for your father,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘There is a place in the Iron Woods, four days from his hall. Like this, it’s a pool of prophecy. Your father asked questions of it.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘In the same way that you will,’ he said. He looked at the coil of rope.

  ‘Did he find answers?’

  ‘It was when his difficulties began in earnest,’ said Hogni.

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Four years ago. He hadn’t been well for years but…’

  Hogni looked like he was too ashamed to finish his sentence.

  ‘He never came back from the woods,’ said Orri.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Vali.

  ‘Your father lives alone in the Iron Woods,’ said Hogni. ‘He has taken up the life of a mystic.’

  It began to rain harder, a sudden sea squall coming in over them as fast as a bird.

  ‘The people say that Odin speaks to him in the woods, that he is granting the king his power.’

  ‘Do the people say that or does my mother?’

  The two men did not reply. Things were worse than Vali had thought. If anyone suspected that Authun had lost his mind it would be a disaster for the Horda. The king had more enemies than any man alive. No time to think on that. Vali looked into the dark waters and stretched his neck forward, steeling himself.

  ‘Begin,’ said Vali.

  Jodis told Orri to bind Vali by his hands and feet, while she put the noose over his head.

  ‘Is this the way Lord Authun went about it?’ said Vali. Jodis seemed confident how to perform the ritual but Vali’s nervousness made him look for reassurance.

  ‘He offered a dedication to Odin before he went in,’ said Orri.

  Vali smiled. ‘Well then, since I’m bound, perhaps I should offer a dedication to a bound god. Lord Loki, who the gods tormented, guide me to the vision I need.’

  ‘You shouldn’t invoke that fellow, lord,’ said Orri.

  ‘Is Odin any more reliable?’

  ‘Nor him,’ said Orri. ‘Freyr for a fuck, Tyr for a fight and Thor for a fuck, a fight and the rain to wash you afterwards — you don’t need any more gods than that.’

  ‘Odin is the god of kings,’ said Vali, ‘isn’t that what we’re told?’

  ‘And berserk madmen,’ said Orri. ‘Sorry, sir, but it’s true. When I go into a scrap I want to know my god’s on my side, not likely to desert me if the fancy takes him. Odin is a treacherous god; it is in his nature. I respect Lord Odin, and his kings and lunatics, but I wouldn’t call on him, or the other one you mentioned.’

  Orri wound the rope around Vali’s feet.

  ‘Loki is an enemy of the gods, not of people,’ said Vali. ‘When did you ever hear of him acting against men? He kills giants, he kills gods, but men he helps or leaves alone.’

  Jodis spoke: ‘This is Odin’s ceremony. He’s lord of the hanged, the god who gave his eye for wisdom in the waters of the well. If you want help, it’s him you’ll call for. If you don’t now, you will when you’re in there, believe me.’

  She put the noose over his neck.

  ‘I’ve sworn never to ask that god for anything,’ said Vali.

  ‘You will ask or you will die,’ said Jodis.

  She adjusted the rope at his neck, almost like she would straighten her child’s tunic before allowing him to go to market. ‘Let’s hope we don’t need this. Stay away from dark things,’ she said. ‘Only speak to the god himself.’

  ‘How will I know the difference?’ said Vali.

  ‘I have no idea,’ said Jodis. ‘Magic is a puzzle not a recipe, so Ma Disa used to say.’ Vali nodded. His hands and his feet were secure and he couldn’t even balance to stand. She finished adjusting the noose and kissed him on the forehead. ‘Tak
e him to the middle of the mire.’

  Hogni and Orri lifted him but found him cumbersome to carry between them. In the end Hogni put him over his shoulder and walked across the squelching ground and into the water, Orri in front of him to test the way. In the middle they stopped. Hogni let Vali slide down and supported the prince as he stood precariously. The water was freezing, and it came up to their belts. Vali shivered.

  ‘Should I call for Odin?’ said Hogni.

  Jodis shook her head.

  ‘The prince should call. You should save your breath. If he comes, you might need it to beg him to leave. Are you ready, Vali?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Put him under and hold him there until I tell you to bring him up,’ said Jodis. ‘Hogni, hold him down; Orri, keep hold of the rope. And both of you stand by with your knives. He is going to the gates of Hel, and if something claims him there it can’t be allowed to live in this world. This is how the swamp monsters are born.’

  The three men glanced at each other.

  ‘If you have to kill me, kill me,’ said Vali. ‘I won’t consider you kinslayers — Ma Jodis is a witness to that.’

  ‘Then sit down, lord,’ said Hogni.

  The first time was the easiest. Vali just let his legs go soft and leaned back into the mire as if into the sea on a summer’s day. He closed his eyes and did not see the dark waters close over him. The panic kept away for a few heartbeats. At first it was as if he was not himself but an observer — the danger of his situation was not clear and he still thought he could just stand up. Then fear broke over him like a wave. He desperately needed air. He tried to stand, and when he couldn’t, he tried to sit up. Someone had a boot on the centre of his chest. He could hear distorted voices from the surface and had to resist the desire to cry out to them. He wriggled free of the foot, tried to get onto his knees and then felt a push at his side. It turned him over. Someone was pulling at his hands, then they were kneeling or sitting on him, he couldn’t tell which. Hogni and Orri were doing what they had promised — helping him to stay below the water.