Blood Eye(56)

Floki turned to me, his thin lips twisting into a half-smile. He was crouched in the shadow of a smooth boulder so that his lean face looked as black as his hair, but the moonlight slashed across my own face. After my fight with Aslak and with my blood-eye I must have been a terrible sight.





'A few of the lads clattered off through there some time ago,' he said, pointing into the thicket. 'Haven't been back this way, though. Well, don't you look pretty tonight.'





'Did you get a look at them?' I asked, my heart pounding in my chest. 'What were they doing?'





'Hunting?' he suggested, though I knew he did not believe that. He stared at me. Somewhere out there in the black forest a wolf howled, the sound cutting through the night. Floki spat and clutched the hilt of his sword with his left hand to ward off evil. 'Asgot was one of them, I'll tell you that much,' he said. 'You could hear the old bastard's coughing a mile off. Don't know who the others were.' I made to rise, but Floki grabbed my shoulder. 'You'd be better to leave things alone, Raven. Take this warning. There are those of us who believe you and the tongueless old man have brought us bad luck.'





I shrugged off his hand and stood. 'Maybe I have brought you bad luck,' I said, staring into his narrowed eyes and gripping my spear. 'Your own jarl said he saw death in me. What do you see? Do you see your own death, Floki?' I dared. 'Do you fear it?'





Floki grinned then. 'Go, Raven,' he said, nodding in the direction he had pointed before. 'Weave your own fate if you think you can. For some I think it is too late.'





At that I ran down into the woods, letting the branches claw my face and hands. The wolf howled again and I knew that the Norns, those maidens of men's fate, were weaving their dark patterns. And I knew I was too late to stop them. A little deeper into the forest I heard a man's voice, but when I froze to listen there was nothing besides the sounds of the night. Whoever it was had heard my approach, but stealth meant nothing now and so I pushed on in the direction of the voice, stumbling over roots in my haste. The low sound of a single speaker was clear now, and there was something about it that stopped my heart. Then, sooner than I had expected, I was there, facing an ancient oak whose ridged trunk dominated the small clearing. Glum and Ugly Einar stared at me wide-eyed, as though they had been expecting the All-Father himself. Then they turned back towards the old oak and I saw Sigurd's godi, Asgot, standing in the shadows. I knew it was his voice I had followed. The old man's face was smeared with something dark and the whites of his eyes shone strangely in the gloom.





'Where's Ealhstan, Glum?' I asked, pointing Bram's spear at him as my right hand gripped the sword's hilt at my waist.





Asgot continued his incantations and Glum, without turning to face me, pointed up towards the oak, to its twisting black branches and shady fluttering leaves. Keeping an eye on Glum, I drew nearer and rounded the broad trunk. And I found my friend. Ealhstan hung from the base of a thick branch, an arm tied to each dividing limb. His naked body burned silver in the moonlight.





'Ealhstan!' I cried. But the old carpenter was dead. Or at least he should have been, but his left leg twitched horribly. A black gash ran the length of his torso and the meat of his guts hung from the next branch like a heavy rope. I vomited bitter-tasting lumps.





'I'll kill you!' I roared at Glum. I launched the spear at him but it flew wide. I fumbled to draw my sword as Einar and Glum drew their own weapons and braced for my attack. Asgot shuffled deeper into the shadows.





'Come, Raven!' Glum shouted. 'I shall give Óðin your corpse too.' I stepped forward and swung my sword madly. It felt as light as a stick and it seemed that Glum and Einar were rooted to the ground, so slow were they. My sword struck Einar's, breaking it in two, and his white eyes stared as I stepped up and scythed my blade into his head, screaming like a wild animal and spitting vomit. As he collapsed I yanked the blade free, sending chunks of brain flying, then blocked Glum's sword and slammed my foot into his groin. He staggered back and I stepped up, swinging my sword, which was hungry for more flesh and bone.





'Stop, Raven! No more!' Bram's voice rang out. 'Stop, lad, or I'll put you down!' Then I could not move at all. My rage burned but my body had turned to granite and I struggled until I realized that Bram's arms bound me as securely as the magic fetters bound the mighty wolf Fenrir, so that the more I struggled, the tighter the bonds became. 'Enough, lad! If you don't hold still, I'll knock you out!'





'It's over, Raven,' came a voice from behind a flaming torch. Sigurd's face flickered in the orange light.





'I'll kill him!' I roared.





'No, Raven. You will not. There has been enough death this night,' Sigurd said, watching two of his men drag Ugly Einar's corpse through the blue forest flowers that stirred like the sea as flame light and breeze played across them.