CHAPTER FOURTEEN VARG

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

VARG

T he wall exploded inwards, splinters of timber flung through the air. A warrior fell, a shard of wood in his eye.

Varg stared as Glornir and a handful of the Bloodsworn exploded into the warehouse. Glornir buried his long-axe in someone's chest, hurling them through the air, Edel's hound leaped at another, jaws clamping around their throat as they fell, and arrows flitted through the room, shrieks ringing out as they found their mark. Beside Varg he felt the wolf in R?kia swell and he glanced at her, saw her teeth had grown and she was gnawing at the rope around her wrists.

A good idea , he thought and did the same, felt the rope fall away and then they were both leaping to their feet, running to the tangle of limbs that was Svik and his two guards and dragging them off Svik. The table had been overturned, Norv lying on his side, dead from blood loss, still staring at his severed wrists. R?kia grabbed her weapons belt from the floor and drew her seax, dragging it across the throat of one of the warriors wrestling with Svik, Varg heaving the other one up and head-butting him across the bridge of the nose, sending him crashing back to the floor. Svik rose from the ground snarling and spitting, blood on his lips, his teeth small and sharp. R?kia threw him his weapons belt and he buckled it on. His sword hissed into his fist and he slashed at the hamstring of a warrior close to him who was trading blows with Edel. The man swayed and folded as Edel's spear punched into his throat.

Varg buckled on his weapons belt, drew his hand-axe and cleaver and looked around the room, searching for a face.

"Leif, where are you?" he growled. The room was knots of chaos, men and women screaming, roaring, snarling, the stink of blood and iron thick in the air. Varg caught a glimpse of a fur-trimmed hat and snarl of black beard, Leif with his seax in his fist falling back before Kesha, one of Sulich's kin, Sterkur slamming his shield into her, sending her stumbling into a wall, and Sterkur was grabbing a fistful of Leif's tunic and dragging him through the hole in the warehouse wall.

"No," Varg snarled and ran after them. A body crashed into him, a woman with a long-axe in her fists and he slashed with his cleaver, felt it bite and heard a scream, ripped the blade free and shoved the woman away, moved on. The bulk of Taras was before him, holding a man over his head. He flung the body into a knot of Sterkur's crew, sending them all crashing to the ground and Edel and Svik waded in, stabbing and chopping.

Varg swerved around Taras, stepping through the hole in the warehouse wall, blinked in the bright day and saw Leif and Sterkur running along the dockside, a handful of warriors with them. Horns were blowing, dock-workers shouting and pointing, the harbour officials calling for their guards. Varg made to run after Leif and Sterkur and a hand grabbed his wrist. He pulled his cleaver back for a blow, then saw it was R?kia.

"No," she said to him.

Glornir and Svik stepped out of the warehouse.

"Leave them," Glornir said.

"But—" Varg snarled.

"The docks are seething like a kicked hornets' nest," Svik said. "We need to get to the Sea-Wolf before Rurik's druzhina come sniffing."

A horn call echoed along the docks, and Varg heard the distant clatter of hooves. He blew out a breath and nodded.

Others emerged from the warehouse, Sulich and Kesha, Taras, Edel and her hound. All that remained of Sterkur's crew were dead or down.

"With me," Glornir said and then they were all jogging along the docks, past all manner of vessels, mostly wide-bellied trading knarrs being loaded or unloaded. Sailors and dock-workers stopped in their labour to watch as the Bloodsworn passed by, and the horn calls grew louder. Varg saw a handful of harbour officials with their guards striding towards them and Glornir turned left onto a long pier. They increased their pace, rushing past dozens of moored boats, feet drumming on timber, and Varg saw the Sea-Wolf ahead of them, right at the end of the pier, the mast-pole already set in place, the sail upon it still furled. Vol stood in the stern, watching out for them. Before the Sea-Wolf another vessel bobbed on the swell of the bay, a wider-bellied transport ship, horses loaded on the central deck, heads down eating at racks of hay. As they drew nearer, Varg saw it was crewed by Sulich's kin, their coats of lamellar plate and weapons stowed in oar-chests now. They were seated ready and waiting with oars upright.

The sound of hooves grew louder behind them, and they increased their pace, reaching the Sea-Wolf in a rush, Glornir leaping onto the top-rail and standing there a moment. Sulich and Kesha boarded the other boat, while Varg and the others leaped onto the deck of the Sea-Wolf , Taras rocking the boat with his weight. R?kia slowed to untie the mooring rope and followed them all over the top-rail and onto the Sea-Wolf 's deck. Oars were thrust at them and Varg hurried to his oar-bench.

Glornir jumped from the top-rail and strode to the steering oar in the stern.

"Away," he shouted and oars were pushing them from the pier. When they were far enough out oars were threaded through the oar-holes, Glornir barking orders and Taras began beating a rhythm with knotted rope on a shield. The oars dipped, slicing into water, and the Sea-Wolf picked up speed, pulling away from the docks.

Varg saw Sulich shouting orders on the other craft, his crew rowing behind them, and the two boats carved out into the bay as a score of mounted druzhina thundered along the pier and skidded to a halt. A warrior stood in his saddle and shouted for them to stop, to row back, but Glornir ignored them. The warrior shouted more orders and arrows were flitting through the air, fizzing out of the blue sky, thumping into timber. Crew members who were not rowing hefted shields and stood over those who bent their backs at the oars. Arrows punched into shields and Varg heard a hoarse scream, but each pull of the oars moved them further out of range and within heartbeats arrows were sinking into the wake of the Sea-Wolf with barely a splash. Cheers rang out as the Sea-Wolf and Sulich's ship behind passed out of range and to safety.

Varg was sweating as they passed between the two huge statues that marked the entrance to the Bay of Ulaz, a colossal bull one side and an unknown creature the other side that Svik had told him was a scorpion. He glanced up at it and hoped that he would never meet one. Gulls rested on the statues' limbs as the sun sank low over the western horizon, reflecting red and orange upon the forms, making them seem as if blood pulsed through their veins.

Glornir called for the sail to be unfurled and it billowed, catching the south-westerly wind, and then the Sea-Wolf was carving through waves, salt-spume whipping across Varg's back. Oars were raised and shipped, stowed in racks on the deck and Varg stood, stretching his back, and leaned on the top-rail.

"Well, that was a close one," Svik said as he stood next to Varg, braiding his hair. "That Leif Kolskeggson has a lot to answer for, not least making me go through all this without my hair combed and braided."

"Aye," Varg grunted.

"And Sterkur," R?kia said as she joined them. "He has to die."

"I did not like him either," Varg muttered.

"‘Like' has nothing to do with it," R?kia said. "My wolf broke loose, ruled me for a moment. He saw it in my eyes. He knows I am Tainted."

Varg and Svik stared at her, the implications of what she had said sinking in.

"We will find the nieing , sister," Svik said, "and we will silence him."

"I am sorry," Varg said. "I have brought this trouble upon you. Upon the Bloodsworn." He gripped the top- rail, knuckles white, and looked back towards Ulaz. As he stared he saw shapes appear on the horizon, dark smudges. He let the wolf trickle through his blood and his eyesight sharpened, the blurs coming into focus. Longships, five of them, and as he watched he saw sails drop on masts, the wind filling them. White sails with a black hawk.

"Bollocks," Svik muttered, following Varg's gaze.

"What?" Varg asked him.

"They are Rurik's longships," Svik said, "and my guess is that they are following us."