The Long Hunt (The Strongbow Saga) by Roberts Judson

Author:Roberts, Judson [Roberts, Judson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Northman Books Inc
Published: 2013-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

9

Oeland

Though the tide had turned in our favor, the battle was far from won. We had cleared two of the pirates' ships, and aboard the ship of their chieftain our warriors, led by Hastein and Torvald, had pushed its defenders down the length of the hull as far as the mast.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind of the red killing rage that seemed to have clouded it, and looked around me. The bodies of fallen warriors were strewn along the pirate ship's deck from its bow to its stern. We had driven them off the ship we had been on and had followed them onto theirs, fighting a running battle back to the stern, where the last of them had died. I had no recollection of any of it. It troubled me.

Our warriors—the ten remaining archers, all of whom had survived the fight, plus another ten or so men from the crews of the Gull and Serpent who had come across with Hrodgar—stood gathered around in the stern, staring at me, watching me, as if awaiting orders.

"How many men did we lose?" I asked.

Gudfred answered. "Four dead. Skuli and Kari from the village, old Hrodgar from the Limfjord, and one of our own men—Grimar. All fell during the first of the fighting, on the other ship. We lost none after we pushed them back onto this one."

For a moment my mind struggled to understand what Gudfred had meant when he'd called the man Grimar one of "our "men. They were all our men, all from the crew of the Gull. Then I recognized the name, and realized that Grimar had been one of my father's and brother's men, one of the housecarls from the estate.

"We should go," Einar murmured quietly, so the others could not hear.

He was right. The fight was not over. "Archers," I said. "Retrieve your bows. The rest of you, come with us. There are enemies yet to kill."

We trotted the length of the cleared pirate ship back to its bow and climbed over the rail onto the deck of the first ship we'd captured, the one which was now lashed tight against the hull of the Gull. I stopped when I reached Hrodgar's body, where it lay in the pool of his own blood. Einar came up behind me.

"He was a good man. I shall miss him," he said, then added, "It was here that we broke them. It was you that did so, you know."

I looked at him and frowned. Gudfred paused beside us and nodded his head. "Aye," he agreed. "It is true."

"From across the ship I saw you down on your hands and knees on the deck, here by Hrodgar's body," Einar continued. "I thought you were wounded, and was running to help you, for two pirates were closing in. But suddenly you were up on your feet, and had stuck the blade of your sword through the neck of that one." He pointed to the nearby body of a warrior sprawled on his back, his throat ripped open.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.