Viking Warrior Read online

  Viking Warrior

  Book 2 in the

  Dragon Heart Series

  By

  Griff Hosker

  Published by Sword Books Ltd 2014

  Copyright © Griff Hosker First Edition

  The author has asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  Ireland before the Vikings

  This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923. This work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less.

  Table of contents

  Maps- Ireland before the Vikings

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Glossary

  Maps-The Viking lands

  Historical note

  Other books by Griff Hosker

  Chapter 1

  I stood at the stern of ‘Wolf’. She was my ship, a drekar. She was not a large ship; she only seated fourteen rowers on each side. Sometimes warriors who did not know me derided her by calling her a threttanessa. I did not mind. They were speaking the truth, she was only small. The’Ran’ which was Jarl Erik’s boat had twenty oars on each side and my step father’s ship, ‘Man’had fifty warriors on board, twenty five on each side. The truth was that we did not decide on her size; the gods did. We used the longest and best pieces of timber for Prince Butar’s boat. That was as it should be. We had to use whatever was left over for my boat and so it ended the size that it did. Olaf the Toothless had built her, knowing that she would be mine someday. He and Ragnar had been oathsworn and he looked after me whenever he could. It did not stop me from suffering his blows and his comments when I did not meet his standards but I normally deserved such treatment.

  Chapter 1

  I stood at the stern of ‘Wolf’. She was my ship, a drekar. She was not a large ship; she only seated fourteen rowers on each side. Sometimes warriors who did not know me derided her by calling her a threttanessa. I did not mind. They were speaking the truth, she was only small. The ’Ran’ which was Jarl Eric’s boat had twenty oars on each side and my step father’s ship, ‘Man’ had fifty warriors on board, twenty five on each side. The truth was that we did not decide on her size; the gods did. We used the longest and best pieces of timber for Prince Butar’s boat. That was as it should be. We had to use whatever was left over for my boat and so it ended the size that it did. Olaf the Toothless had built her, knowing that she would be mine someday. He and Ragnar had been oathsworn and he looked after me whenever he could. It did not stop me from suffering his blows and his comments when I did not meet his standards but I normally deserved such treatment.

  Her sea trials had been forced on us too when we used her on the raid to the mainland. It proved a godsend for we worked out all the smaller problems so that now she flew across the water. I was proud of her because the crew were all handpicked; they were Ulfheonar. They were the sea wolves who each wore a wolf cloak taken from the body of a wolf they had killed. We had all sworn an oath of brotherhood and we were feared by all who fought us. Many warriors feared me because I was Dragon Heart and I had the sword which was touched by the gods. My blade had been struck by lightning and was considered the most powerful blade on the island of our people, Manau.

  This was the first time I had captained my ship and I was proud. Yet the pride was tinged with more than a little anger. We were sailing west and we were not raiders. We were heading for Hibernia to recover the family who had been stolen from our land by the pirates who lived there. My mother, Prince Butar’s wife, had been murdered by them when they raided our town of Hrams-a. Tadgh, a Saxon who had come from our village on the Dunum, led them and I had sworn to kill him myself. He had always hated me. When we had been children he and his friends had mercilessly picked on me because I was different. I had a Saxon father and a mother who had been stolen from her people in the west. My childhood had been a torment until I had been captured and enslaved. Ironically that improved the quality of my life.

  The warriors who sailed with us on our three ships were not singing. That was always a sign that they we were not happy. All of us knew someone who had been enslaved by the Hibernian Norse. Renegade Norse pirates were despised by true warriors and the Hibernians were known to have no honour. All of the men who rowed were determined to bring back all of the captives. My wife, Erica, and baby son, Arturus, were now prisoners, along with my half sister, Eurwen. We would not return without them.

  I knew that Tadgh and his pirates had a good start on us; it had taken some time to gather the men and the ships together. My twenty eight men were the smallest crew while Prince Butar’s drekar had over fifty warriors. Jarl Eric, my brother in law, commanded the third boat. A hundred and odd warriors sound like a large warband but we knew that we were entering an environment where everyone would be an enemy. The Hibernians were a treacherous people who would happily slit a neighbour’s throat for a cow or two. We were under no illusions, we would have to fight for our families.

  We were still wary of our sneaky neighbours and our oldest and best warrior, Olaf had remained behind to defend Duboglassio. With Jarl Eric with us his settlement was undefended. There were many Hibernians and we had made our island prosperous. Olaf would defend it along with Jarl Harald and his men. We had temporarily abandoned Hrams-a for it had been devastated by the raiders. It was a brutal and stark reminder of the perils of a surprise attack. We would, once again, rebuild it but we needed to wait until we had recovered our families and our slaves.

  My ship was the fastest of the three; she was slim and had the shallowest draft. We were leading the others and heading west. Our ship acted as the scout for the other two. We had no idea where the raiders had gone. We had discussed where Tadgh might go. We could not imagine him sailing too far with overloaded boats. We would make the earliest landfall we could. We would land as soon as we could and search for them.

  The night before we had sailed we held a council of war. We were under no illusions, this was war. They had come in the night and killed the old and taken the young and the women. If we did not fight for our families then there would be no one left on Man. We selected the men who would sail and those who would remain. Every warrior wanted to go.

  My step-father, Prince Butar, had become old almost overnight. My mother had been the love of his life and Eurwen the sun in his sky. Without my mother he was half a man and without his child he was little more than a dead man walking. It was as though the heart had been ripped from him. He cared for his people and it showed. Jarls Eric and Harald had both brought their families and oathsworn to serve under Prince Butar on our newly conquered island. The settlements and their families were safe. They had no need to follow us. Jarl Eric would not be left behind; his sister was my wife.

  “Tomorrow
Dragon Heart and I will take our drekar and we will sail to Hibernia to bring back our families.” He had looked at Olaf, his oldest friend, “I leave Olaf the Toothless in command until I return. Jarl Eric is oath bound to rescue his sister and Olaf will protect all our people at Jarl Eric’s home.” He had stopped as though he couldn’t find the words but I knew it was my mother’s death which preyed on his mind. “I ask no man to follow me. All those who wish to sail with us do so of their own volition.” There had been a clamour of men shouting to become part of this attack to wreak revenge on the renegades. Prince Butar had held up his hands. “Some must stay to defend our home. If we succeed and lose the island then we have lost all.”

  Jarl Harald stood, “I would follow you across the oceans to the edge of the world and back Prince Butar but what you say makes sense.” He had spread his arm in the direct of his men. “We lost many men in the raid on the Dee and others protecting our home. We would not be able to add great numbers to those sailing. I will stay and I swear that I will defend the island against all who try to wrest it from us.” I did not know how he could be willing to stay when there was a chance for revenge but he had suffered no losses as yet.

  And so we had our warbands. Prince Butar had the largest number of men although in truth many of them were barely boys. Eric had some doughty warriors but he was forced to leave some to protect his wife and family and there was my band of Ulfheonar. We were the fewest in number but I knew our enemies would fear us. We were well trained in fighting at night. We were adept at infiltrating enemy camps and there was no one who could face us man to man. Although I was younger than some of those who followed me, they had all fought alongside me since we had come to the island. We had fought Saxons, Hibernians and now Norse; we had never been beaten.

  It had been hard to leave Scanlan, my slave, for his wife and family had been kidnapped but I needed him at home. I needed him to keep what little we had for our return. He had begged permission to follow me but I had had to be ruthless. He was a slave and could not fight with my warriors. If he fought alone he would die. I cared too much for him and his family to risk that and so it was just the handful of us who pulled across that cold Hibernian Sea to the unknown land to the west.

  I had two of the boys who would be warriors with me as crew. They acted as lookouts and brought the rowers sustenance. They would also guard the boat when we went raiding. It was a way of blooding young warriors. We had the sail raised to make the fastest crossing we could and their young eyes were invaluable. Snorri perched precariously at the top of the mainmast; his legs astride it and dangling over the red and white sail. It was he who first sighted land.

  “Land to the north west!”

  His small voiced carried aft on the wind and I waved to acknowledge it. I turned the tiller slightly and we headed in the direction of the distant land. We had all seen Hibernia when we sailed south but we knew better than to land on this island of half naked madmen. It was an unknown quantity. We sought somewhere without people but yet close enough for us to explore. Bjorn the blacksmith’s son and the only survivor of the raid had told us that there was at least one drekar. The Hibernians did not use our ships and so if we found the drekar we would have found our families.

  “It is an island! There are houses!”

  That meant we could not land there. “Is there land beyond it?”

  “Yes, my lord, to the west.”

  I leaned on the tiller. The people on the island would see us and know us for what we were, they would call us Lochlannach or Gaill. They would hide their animals and bar their gates. The word would spread and it would reach Tadgh. It was now a race against time. Would we reach my wife before Tadgh heard that we were hunting him and were close?

  I did not have to worry about the other two ships. They would follow me. We had been lucky that the sea was so calm and we had not had to bail. The wind, too, had helped us. Perhaps the gods were being kind to us now having been so cruel to us before.

  I could now see the land spied by Snorri. There were low hills which reminded me of our island home and, to the south, I saw the smoke of a settlement. “Snorri, is there anything ahead of us? Any settlements?”

  “Just the one to the south, my lord.”

  I decided to head into the lee of the hills that we could see. Hopefully there would be a beach for us to run our boats upon. “Haaken and Egill, get the sail down.”

  Olaf had taught me to sail and he had drilled into me the importance of a safe beaching. If I hit the beach too hard I could rip the bottom out of my boat. As he said to me once, “There is always time to go in slowly. It is getting out that sometimes has to be quick!”

  I was also thinking about the two bigger ships. They would see my sail being lowered and know that we were landing. As Ulfheonar we were the scouts and the first to land. It was a great responsibility but you learned to make decisions beyond your years.

  I saw the beach ahead and there was no sign of rocks. The white caps just reflected the tide and not savage underwater obstructions ready to rip out your keel. I judged the moment was right and I shouted, “Up oars!” With only twenty odd men it was a slick operation. Prince Butar would struggle to achieve the same quick and efficient movement. My warriors began to ship the oars and store them out of the way. They donned helmets and grabbed their shields from the side where they had added protection from the elements. There might not be any hostile force waiting to greet us but we would take no chances. We would be ready to fight the moment we stepped ashore.

  I felt relieved as the keel gently slid along the sand. I left it to my men to secure the boat to the shore and I donned my helmet, shield and cloak. My sword, Ragnar’s Spirit, hung from my side. It was a deadly and powerful weapon having been made from the finest Frankish iron and forged by lightning. None of us used axes; that was the way of the Dane. Swords had a heart of their own and lived in a way that an axe could not. We were true warriors.

  By the time I reached the prow most of the men were on the shore in a defensive half circle. ‘Wolf’ was tied to two trees which had somehow managed to grow on a grassy knoll above the beach. I looked behind me and saw the other ships coming into shore.

  “Snorri, watch the ship. We will scout.” I did not issue any more orders; it was unnecessary as the men of the Ulfheonar knew exactly what to do. I began to climb the hill. There was no settlement to the north of us; we had seen that as we had entered the small bay. The hill proved to be higher than we had anticipated. It seemed to climb up into the sky. There were no rocky gullies and precipices but each time we thought we had reached the top we had not. Eventually I could see no more hills before us. Just below the ridge we dropped to our hands and knees. It was undignified but, with our wolf cloaks, we appeared like animals from a distance.

  Cnut reached the top first and he waved his hand to signal that he could see something. I took off my helmet and slithered towards the bracken crowned crest. There was a village on the other side of the inlet. It looked to be about the same distance as that which we had climbed. It was a good, safe bay and would make a perfect anchorage. The people had built a wooden palisade around their huts. I looked at Haaken, who had just joined me. “This is not Tadgh’s settlement.” There was disappointment in my voice. I had hoped for a little luck.

  “No, he would have his ships there if that was the case.”

  “You and the others stay here and keep a watch. I will go and report to Prince Butar. Egill, come with me.”

  When we reached the bottom the other warbands waited expectantly. There was no criticism from my father in law, just a question. “Did you have a problem?”

  “No, Prince Butar. The hill was higher than we thought. It looked to be the same as the one at home but it is bigger. Beyond the mountains there is an inlet and, on the other side, a settlement with a wall around it. The anchorage is a good one but it is empty. It would be safer to anchor there than here.”

  Butar stroked his beard as he weighed up his options. Eric
looked up at the mountain. “Then Tadgh is not there?”

  “If he is then he has no ships and that seems unlikely.”

  Prince Butar nodded as though reaching a decision. “We will visit this settlement.”

  “With our ships?”

  “No, Jarl Eric, for that would alarm the people. I will go with the Ulfheonar. We will walk there. Keep a watch from the hill tops and when I signal then bring in the ships.”

  I could see doubt on my brother in law’s face. “Suppose they attack you?”

  He laughed, “With Dragon Heart and the Ulfheonar? I think I will be safe enough.” He looked at me, “How many huts are there?”

  “No more than fifteen.”

  “Then we will be safe. That would only mean ten or twelve men who could be warriors. I do not wish to harm these people. I just want our women and children returned. Spread the crews out in the three ships to bring them around.”

  “Egill, go and tell the men to join us. It will be easier to walk around the mountain than go over it.”

  We walked slowly; this was partly to allow our men to catch up with us and partly to avoid walking into an enemy. I glanced at Prince Butar who looked distracted. We had not been alone since my mother’s death. We had both grieved as she had been buried but our thoughts remained our own. I knew that she would not be shedding tears in the Otherworld. She was too strong for that. She would, I knew, want her child and my wife and son bringing safely home. She had been enslaved twice and it was only the second enslavement which had been a happy time for her. The first, with my father, had been a living hell. Happiness came with Prince Butar.

  Perhaps Butar sensed my thoughts for he said, quietly, “We will find them. Of that I am certain.”