Viking Rune Smith 3 by Michael-Scott Earle

Author:Michael-Scott Earle [Earle, Michael-Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MSE Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“Everybody know the plan?” I hissed as we sailed closer to the gap between the stone sea walls.

My clansmen all nodded as they gripped their weapons, and I knew there was no turning back now. We would defeat Óhreinn, then we would defeat Hylmrek and Svelgard, and then nothing could stop us.

But one thing at a time.

Just before we started to sail into port, I ducked down into the hold to speak with Rafial. A number of my clansmen were hiding down here too, so I stood right beside the massive minotaur so I could speak without any of the Farthegns overhearing me.

“Listen, and feel free to tell the others,” I told Rafial. “You’re not chained up, and we’re all about to leave the ship to conquer Óhreinn. You’ve all had a raw deal as slaves, and if you’re not here when we come back, I won’t be surprised, and I won’t look for you.”

“You would let us go?” the minotaur whispered.

“Yes,” I replied. “I don’t know where you come from, but if you want to try and get home, you can. If you want to stay and be the slaves of Clan Briggs, I’d be happy to have you on board, but I won’t force you into anything. The choice is yours.”

Rafial was so surprised that he stopped drumming, and the rest of the rowers all stuttered and started to clatter their oars together without the constant timekeeping. The minotaur immediately resumed his job on the small canvas drum, but he didn’t say anything until the oarsmen were all rowing in sync again.

“I will inform the others, my chief,” the minotaur replied, but he didn’t say what his own answer would be.

At least now the choice was his.

I took my position beside Ulrik as we sailed into the harbor, and I was even more impressed once we were past the stone sea walls. The harbor itself was huge with enough docking stations for a good ten or twelve longships. Two sets of wooden docks stretched toward the middle of the harbor from another set of wooden docks that lined the inside of the stone walls, and each dock was lined with torches to help illuminate each port.

Just when I was about to ask Ulrik where we should dock, two torches waved toward us from the left dock closest to the shore. It felt like we were on an airport runway being guided in, only we were being guided by a bunch of poor unsuspecting saps who were about to get their throats slit.

“I guess that’s for us,” I muttered. “You know what you’re doing?”

“Not really,” Ulrik chuckled. “But enough to pass off any mistakes as the sloppy work of a drunkard.”

“Just try not to crash us,” I groaned.

Rafial’s constant drumbeats from below deck had stopped the moment we passed into the harbor, and all the slaves were letting the oars drag in the water to help slow down our passage. When we glided past the first dock, I glanced at the stronghold on the hill and steeled myself for what we were about to do.

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.