A World Of Dreams
By HeadpatSlut
The Winter was brutal that year, the stores of harvest had been found
to be tainted and the stores of meat were gone all to quick, and
so the small fortress built close to the border that parted Scotland
and Northumbria spent the Winter in near starvation, but the earl
who held it reckoned himself safe, for he knew well that though the
Northmen had landed in the North of England and taken Eoferwic, they
would not march in Winter, least of all not to take such a small
fort.
That's what the spy had told the man who now stared
hungrily at the small fortress that lay in on flat land, he could
see the fort clearly, but he had often been told he had better sight
than many men, so he was confident that those in the fort could not
see him. The Earl who held the fortress had thought that no man would
march in the cold of Winter, and that belief was generally right,
but they had marched. They had marched from Eoferwic with two hundred
men, and now they stood before their target with one hundred and
fifty, it was no great force, but for this it would be enough. For
this, one and a half hundred men would be plenty, as the fort was
so small that it could hold no more than twenty families, and of those
only the men would be warriors, but even the strongest of warriors
is as easy to kill as a small child if thy are attacked off guard.
Ravn reached into his saddlebag and produced two golden warrior
rings and handed them to the spy, who had gone and taken refuge in
the fortress for ten weeks in the middle of Winter, when the cold
was most brutal and men stayed close to their cities and towns and
warriors remained in the confines of their master's fortresses. "You
have done well, my friend, now be off, there will be a good day's
killing done, and butcher's work is no sight for you." he told the
spy, who was an old haggard man whom had been selected for the job
from a village some miles away, Ravn and his men had taken the village
two weeks before, but they had done it in a way that despite being
Christians, the townsfolk had not resisted.
The best way
to capture small towns is to forbid the men who follow you to murder
and rape, but if you storm the town in the dead of night with swords
ready and set fire to the thatch, that will happen anyway. If you
ride into the town with fifty armed men and seek to parley with the
local priests and the town's Mayor, and pay them with arm rings of
gold and silver, and swear an oath upon a Christian bible, you take
the town and gain an ally, for mayors of small towns are rarely loyal
to their rightful kings, who are too far away to care, and Bishops
and priests were loyal to whoever paid the most to their church or
monastary.
The old man who had spied on the fort took the
two arm rings, stashed them in the folds of his great bear hide coat,
which had been given to him as a gift by Raven for the trip, but
he understood that Ravn had no intention of asking for it's return.
The man gave a low bow in his saddle before riding back to his village.
"What kind of Dane would take a town without taking plunder?" asked
Heljar, one of Ravn's oath men as the spy rode away. "The kind of
Norseman who can not be trusted to keep an oath made upon a silly
book." Ravn said with a smile.
As it was just past noon,
it would be foolish to attack then, so Ravn and his men rode around
to the other side of the fort, still keeping far away so that they
would not be seen. They made camp about a mile away from the fort
and that night they all drank the last of mead and ale, and ate last
of the smoked samon they had bought from the village two days beforhand.
Later, years later, Ravn would laugh at the risk he was taking, a
fortress, no matter how small, and even in the dead of winter, should
never be attacked by a mere hundred and fifty men who could not afford
to stay for longer than a day, but he was confident in his men, for
most of the remaining men were his own oath-men, and those who were
not, at least were strong enough to survive a march through a brutal
winter, such men were bound to fight like demons in battle.
There was little sleep that night, for a proper assault on a
fortress must be made before daybreak, and so in the earliest hours
of the morning, they dressed in their mail coats and readied their
weapons, Ravn spent that time using a whetstone to sharpen his bearded
axe, a great war-axe given to him by his father, who had inherited
from his father, and from his father before him. The long axe handle
had been replaced many times, but the heavy bearded blade of the
axe had remained in Ravn's family for generations, and it had sent
a gret many souls up to the corpse hall. In Ravn's hands alone it
had shattered six shield walls and killed dozens. Because the bearded
axe is such a big weapon it is slow, and he had spent five years
using it in battle, becoming swift with it, becoming keen with it,
becoming fast, and with it now, he was as quick and agile using the
axe as he was with his sword, which was sleeping in her scabbard
at his side. He touched her pommel and gently fondled her hilt. "Wake
up, my Lady, it's time to kill." he whispered to the blade with a
malevolent smile.
They rode by the waning light of the
setting moon and they rode fast, having passed the village in peace
Ravn and his men were hungry for plunder and blood, Ravn though that
the Norns would smile upon him this day, for in the twilight or morning,
it seemed that with each galloping pace of his black steed, the scent
of blood lingered heavier in the air. "This day we bring them Death!"
he shouted as a bloodthirsty smile spread across his face.
And at the foot of Yggdrasil, where the Norns sit and weave the
Destiny of men, the Norns laughed at him.
Author's Note:
Beginning another short story set during the Danish conquest of England, note that Northumbria is essentially Northumberland, though the boundries are not the same, and that Eoferwic, or Jorvik("Yorvic") is now called York.Comments on "A World Of Dreams"
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A former member wrote:
I'm thrilled to see another short story from you, man. I just know it's going to be as good as the previous one! The beginning is promising and ambiguous. Going straight for part two.