Kings and Pawns by James L Nelson

Author:James L Nelson [Nelson, James L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780578515106
Publisher: Fore Topsail Press
Published: 2019-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Has the sea him deluded,

or the sword wounded?

On that man

I will harm inflict.

The Poetic Edda

Thorgrim’s ships were ready, with time to spare. The tide line was still creeping up the beach when Godi declared Blood Hawk seaworthy. Hundreds of willing hands heaved her up onto an even keel and guided her down the rollers, back into the shallow water of the river against which the ad hoc longphort was backed.

Godi and Harald and a few others were aboard as the ship eased into the water and then floated free. Their eyes were fixed on the repairs that had been made to the damaged plank. They were quiet for a moment, and then Godi called, “Good! It’s good! Once the wood takes up it’ll be tight as can be.”

Thorgrim nodded. That was indeed good, good for many reasons. He was ready to get out of that place. They had the spoils from the monastery. They had the danegeld, one hundred pounds of silver, even though they had intended to leave without it. They had won all those riches with just a little hard fighting, nothing more. Thorgrim did not know how long such good luck would last, and he did not wish to push it.

“We are not so far from Frankia now, you know,” Louis de Roumois said. He was standing beside Thorgrim, one of the last of the men remaining on the shore. “A week or two’s sailing would get us there.”

Thorgrim watched Harald vault over the Blood Hawk’s side into water up to his knees, then come wading ashore. He turned to Louis.

“You’re a navigator now?” he asked. “If you can turn yourself into a sailor, maybe you can turn yourself into a bird and fly home.”

Louis shrugged. “We’re both guessing as to where in Engla-land we are. If our guesses are right, then it is a week or two to Frankia.”

Thorgrim looked out over his fleet, the bows of the ships pointing roughly east into the flooding tide. They were all manned up, the men using their sea chests for rowing benches, oars held straight up, waiting for the order to ship them and row. The English prisoners had been distributed around the fleet. Gudrid and Harald had told them of their fate, explained that they would be set ashore on the far side of the harbor, but it was pretty clear from their faces they were skeptical at best.

“My family is very wealthy,” Louis continued. “Once I have regained my place you would be paid well, you know. A lot more than a pathetic hundred pounds of silver.”

Thorgrim smiled. He did not consider a hundred pounds of silver to be an impressive haul, riches beyond his imagining. He wondered if Louis thought he did.

“You’ve told me this before,” Thorgrim said. “More than once.”

“And I’ll probably tell it to you many times more,” Louis said. “Because we seem to grow closer to Frankia all the time.”

“If you go to Frankia, and become king or whatever you say you

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