Falcon Warrior (The Swordswoman Book 3) Page 10

  Arne led the first of the Norsemen ashore, sword drawn and shield up as protection. As some of the Lnu'k men lifted their spears and bows in natural retaliation, Bradan stepped forward and knocked Arne's shield aside with his staff.

  'These people are friendly!' Bradan said.

  'You will die for that!' Arne lifted his sword high, only for Melcorka to disarm him with a single swing of Defender.

  'Nobody will die today,' she said.

  'Melcorka is right, Arne.' Erik lifted Arne's sword and replaced it in its scabbard. 'These people are no threat to us.'

  Now that peace had been guaranteed, the Lnu'k and the voyagers mixed in harmony, exchanging gifts of furs and dried fish for lengths of rope and pieces of dried seal meat.

  Tomah attached herself to Melcorka and dragged her around the village, showing her the pointed huts which she called wigwams, with their framework of poles covered with birch bark and their entrances pointing eastward, toward the rising sun. She called the rectangular huts 'lodges' while in the centre of the village was a cleared area around a central carved pole. Melcorka understood this to be a ceremonial or sacred area, although she had no idea which god, or gods, these Lnu'k people worshipped.

  Taking hold of Melcorka's sleeve, Tomah pulled her inside what must have been her own wigwam and led her to the place of honour at the centre back. In seconds Tomah's entire family squeezed in around the central fire, and a meal of fish was produced.

  'Bradan.' When Melcorka indicated that she wanted him with her, two of the youngest Skraelings ran outside and ushered him in, laughing at the whiteness of his skin under his clothes and touching his hands. They spent the night on supremely comfortable mat beds made of spruce boughs and reeds, so similar to the heather beds of Alba that Melcorka wondered if there was some relationship between the two peoples.

  Next morning they emerged into the village to see the Norsemen emerging from various lodges and wigwams, some alone, others with Lnu'k women. Children swarmed everywhere, in all ages and stages of dress and undress, with much tolerance and laughter.

  'How old are you?' Melcorka asked Tomah, using sign language and smiles to convey her question.

  The old woman lifted her hand and spread her fingers, again and again, counting the years slowly. When she reached a hundred and ten she stopped and gave a toothless smile.

  'That is impressive,' Melcorka said. 'I've never met anybody as old as you.'

  Tomah smiled again, and rubbed her belly, then pointed to some of the younger children and back at Melcorka.

  'I think she wants to know how many children you have.' Bradan said.

  'None,' Melcorka shook her head. 'None. I have no children.'

  Tomah raised her hands high.

  'She is wondering how a beautiful woman such as you can be childless,' Bradan tried to translate.

  Melcorka smiled. 'I may have children some time' she said. 'I have much to do first.'

  Tomah laughed and touched Bradan in a very intimate spot. He shook his head, pushing her hand away as she laughed all the more, with other women gathering around to share in the fun.

  'Tomah,' Melcorka asked as they sat around the fire with the smoke seeping through the hole at the apex of the wigwam. 'Do you know of the Empire of Dhegia?'

  Tomah flinched at the name and looked away raising both hands in the air.

  'She knows the name,' Bradan said. Leaning forward, he used his finger to draw on the ground, reproducing the symbol that had been on the iceberg-woman's clothes and the men around the Ice-king. 'Do you know that sign, Tomah? It is like a bird, a falcon…'

  Still with her hands held high, Tomah backed away, shaking her head violently. Quickly erasing his drawing, Bradan took hold of her.

  'It's all right, Tomah. We are not from Dhegia. We mean you no harm.'

  'She's not happy,' Melcorka said. 'Tomah; Dhegia is our enemy. How can we find them? Where is this place?' She was unsure if the old woman understood her words so she repeated them, pointing in every direction.

  Grabbing hold of Melcorka, Tomah led her out of the wigwam and across the village to a small, oblong lodge made of wood, near to which a fire was burning inside a triangular fireplace. The man who tended the fire looked every bit as old as Tomah. Unsmiling, he listened as Tomah spoke to him and then pointed to the building.

  'You want me to go in there?' Melcorka asked.

  There was a rocky path between the fire and the building, and a small, low entrance. The roof was of spruce boughs, piled high.

  'I think she does,' Bradan had followed them. 'Maybe there is somebody inside who can give you directions to Dhegia, a chief or a priest or the like.'

  Melcorka crouched down to look inside. The entrance was too narrow to walk through and too dark for her to see the interior. 'I'll go in,' she said.

  Taking hold of Melcorka's cloak, Tomah pulled it firmly and tried to drag it away, shaking her head.

  'You have to take your cloak off, 'Bradan said and everything else I think' he continued as Tomah pulled at Melcorka's leine.

  'Take care of Defender,' Melcorka handed Bradan the sword. 'If any Norseman tries to take it from you, kill him.'

  'I am no killer…' Bradan began.

  Melcorka stood proud, tall and stark naked as Tomah hauled out a number of small clay pots from the shelter of the fire and dabbed her with the contents.

  'Some sort of herb concoction,' Melcorka said. She glanced at the fire tender, who was watching with no interest. 'I can smell sage and sweet grass,' she said and widened her eyes as Tomah put something in her mouth, chewed vigorously and dabbed the semi-masticated mess on her belly.

  'That must be important,' Bradan said.

  Speaking all the time, Tomah guided Melcorka down to her hands and knees and pushed her to the entrance of the small lodge. Melcorka had a final glance around, suddenly aware that most of the Norse were watching her and Erik's eyes were roving around her body as hungry as any adolescent youth. She allowed him a moment and then crawled inside the hut. Tomah followed. Y

  There was nobody else inside; no seer to predict her future, no wise man ready with advice. Tomah pushed her into a sitting position on the ground, beside a sizeable hole. Retreating quickly, the old woman returned with a wooden pot, from which she took seven heated granite stones and placed them in the hole, one at a time, returning four times with a further seven stones so there were twenty- eight ready-heated stones in the central hole. The small space in the lodge was as hot as anywhere Melcorka had experienced in her life.

  'What are you doing?' Melcorka asked.

  Ignoring her, Tomah scurried away again and returned with a pot of water. Using a cedar branch, she flicked the water onto the stones so a hissing cloud of steam filled the interior of the lodge.

  'What is this for?' Melcorka asked before she realised that it was some sort of religious ceremony. Closing her mouth, she leaned back and waited to see what would happen.

  Steam surrounded her, thick and hot. She struggled to breathe, gasping for air in that dark, hot place. She lay back against the log wall, mouth open, feeling the sweat bead on her face and trickle down her perspiring body to form little pools where she was sitting. Her mind drifted, back to her island childhood and onto her first sighting of Defender. Then she was in Alba, seeing the slaughter of Dunedin and the battle of the plains of Lothian, on to that strange Castle Gloom and the road north, where the People of Peace intercepted them. In her mind, she revisited Fidach with the painted, carved stones and then she was at the battle by the banks of the Tummel. She moved on, to the rule of Queen Maelona of Alba and the struggle against the Shining One at the Callanish Stones.

  Then there was Bradan, always there, ready with advice and support, with his laconic statements and dependability.

  Melcorka's head swirled with the steam. She could not tell where she was or what she was thinking. She was outside her body, looking down on that small lodge in the village, with the great river running past. She could see the silver s
treak of the river probing inland, further than she had ever travelled in a land so vast she could not comprehend distance, where travel was measured in weeks and months, not hours and days.

  The river thrust westward through dense dark forests that extended for ever; with spectacular waterfalls greater than anything Melcorka could have imagined, and then there were inland seas, one after another in a mighty succession of fresh water. Melcorka could only wonder at the sights, and there was more to stare at. There was a river even mightier than the previous one, flowing south through the wooded countryside near plains so vast they stretched forever. And then, after an uncountable length of time was the city she had seen whenever she donned the ice-woman's head-band.

  'Is that Dhegia?' Melcorka asked. 'Is that the evil empire?'

  She did not know. She only knew that if it was, then she belonged among that evil, for she felt as much at home with these unknown peoples than she had ever done in Alba. And that was a disturbing realisation.

  Tomah was grinning at her, hauling her naked and slippery with sweat out of the hut, and shocking her with a deluge of cold water. Melcorka shook herself dry, realised that she was the centre of a hundred male eyes and grabbed the clothes that Bradan held out for her.

  'I know where we are going,' she announced. 'I know where the Empire of Dhegia is.'

  'Is it far?' Erik's eyes were hungry yet somehow nervous as if he had never seen a naked woman before.

  'It will be a long and an arduous journey,' Melcorka said. 'I don't think we will all survive, but I am going to try.' She raised her voice. 'Who is with me?'

  The response was not as enthusiastic as she had hoped.

  'Who is with me?' She shouted again.

  Most of the Norsemen roared or raised their hands. Two did not. One grey-bearded man shook his head and a young man who could not have been more than sixteen backed away. The chubby Lnu'k girl at his side provided ample justification for the young man's decision to remain behind.

  'We will sail tomorrow,' Erik said, 'and this Dhegian Empire had better take care. The Norsemen are coming for them!'

  That got the loudest roar of the day.

  Melcorka sought out Bradan. 'I did not hear you respond,' she said.

  'I did not think you would need to,' he said.

  She nodded, no longer quite so sure of her man. Or of herself. 'I am glad you are still with me.' She smiled as Erik began a rousing speech to his men, and stopped to listen. Bradan walked away with his staff tapping on the ground.

  Chapter Nine

  Leaving the two Norsemen behind, the remainder sailed on up that mighty waterway with Frakkok beside Erik in the stern of Sea Serpent and Melcorka trying to ease her troubled mind through constant work. The land on either side was fertile and well forested, with the occasional village of Skraelings on the banks. They passed the small native boats, known as canoes, and sometimes traded with them, asking for information about the Dhegian Empire. Once there was a skirmish when a whole fleet of canoes swarmed out of a waterway and fired arrows at them. The Norse lifted their shields and fired back, glorying in this opportunity to show their prowess. Their arrows were longer than those of the Skraelings and landed with more power so after a few moments the canoes backed off. Three or four men floated in the water, punctured with Norse arrows.

  'They're coming for us!' Bradan said as the Skraeling fleet steered away from Sea Serpent and headed for the much smaller Catriona. There were around twenty of the light birch-bark canoes, each holding between two and eight Skraeling warriors resplendent with painted faces, bows and stone headed war clubs.

  'We can't out-run them,' Melcorka said, 'we must fight.'

  The first arrows were well-directed. Standing tall, Melcorka drew Defender and chopped them out of the sky. The second flight was aimed entirely at her. Allowing the skill of Defender to flow through her, she sidestepped them all.

  'Is that your best, Skraelings? I am Melcorka the Swordswoman of Alba! Fight me if you dare.'

  They dared. The first canoe ran alongside and half a dozen finely muscled warriors swarmed out, clubs raised high. Melcorka met them with her swinging sword, chopped off the heads of the leading men, dodged the down stroke of a club, sliced sideways to gut the owner and thrust the point of Defender into the chest of the next man.

  She saw Bradan jab the end of his staff into the groin of a Skraeling and the last man jumped back into his canoe. By that time the Norse had rowed over and the fighting was ended. Erik aimed Sea-Serpent at the bulk of the canoes, ramming three in one mighty crash, capsizing them so his men could fire arrows and throw spears as the Skraelings struggled in the river. The chants of the Norsemen echoed to the forest around.

  'Odin owns you! Odin owns you!'

  Thor and Odin!'

  The remaining Skraelings retreated. Within a minute the woods were quiet again and only the upturned canoes, floating bodies and the greasy swirl of blood were all that remained to remind of the short skirmish. A hush descended over the trees with even the birds silent.

  'Look,' Bradan pointed with his staff. On the bows of one of the upturned canoes, the figure of a falcon-headed warrior was painted. 'The sign of the Dhegia Empire.'

  'These men know of the Dhegians then,' Melcorka said. 'Or they are part of them.' She lifted a hand in gratitude to Erik, who waved his sword at her. 'We'll stop at the next friendly village and see if they can tell us anything.'

  The current strengthened as they moved upstream, but when a canoe came up to them the Skraeling were friendly and they pulled up both vessels on a sand-spit and disembarked amidst a crowd of curious Skraeling.

  After her visit to the sweat-lodge, Melcorka had a strange feeling that she understood these people. When she listened to them talking she could follow the gist of the conversation, if not all the details.

  'We are friends,' she said, hoping that her words would be comprehensible.

  They gathered around the communal village fire, Scots, Norsemen and the Skraeling chief, a man named Donnaconna.

  'We are seeking the Empire of Dhegia,' Melcorka had appointed herself as spokeswoman.

  Donnaconna nodded. 'I know,' he said. 'News of your coming has already reached us.'

  'Do you know of this city of Dhegia?' Melcorka asked.

  'We call it Saguenay,' Donnaconna said. 'It is a rich land of gold and furs, with corn for everybody, but ruled by an evil king.'

  'Will this river take us to the great inland seas?' Melcorka was satisfied with Donnaconna's answers so far.

  'This is the great river of Hochelaga. Upstream is the great roaring and beyond that are the seas.' Donnaconna looked at Sea Serpent and Catriona. 'Can your boats fly?'

  'They cannot fly,' Melcorka said.

  'Then you cannot go beyond the great roaring. You cannot sail the inland seas. Even if you did, the oniare would capsize your ships and eat you all.' Donnaconna leaned back as if his words had settled the matter beyond question.

  'The oniare?'

  Donnaconna looked serious. 'The oniare is a great snake with a horn in the middle of its head. It lives in the inland seas and attacks canoes.' He puffed on a long pipe, blowing foul smelling smoke into the lodge. 'Few have survived its attack.'

  'It's a dragon! At last a dragon!' Bradan said. 'I've always wanted to meet one.'

  'Between the great roaring and the oniare and the hostile tribes, you will never reach Saguenay.' Donnaconna passed over his pipe.

  'We will try our best.' Melcorka took a puff of the pipe and coughed. 'Thank you for the warning.'

  'Then,' Donnaconna said, 'if you do reach Saguenay, the evil king will kill you all on his mound.'

  'We are Norsemen,' Erik did not try the pipe. 'We are not so easily killed.'

  Donnaconna puffed fiercely at his pipe, eyed Erik's sword, said a few words to a warrior who stood behind him and relapsed into silence.

  They sailed again the next day, ignoring the three medicine men with horns fixed to their heads and blackened faces who padd
led around their ships, shouting loudly.

  'They are trying to warn us off,' Erik shouted from the deck of Sea Serpent. 'They want the treasures of Saguenay or Dhegia or whatever they call it, for themselves.'

  'They won't get them!' Gunnar shouted. He drew his sword and thrust it in the air. 'The treasure of Dhegia is ours, and what a tale to tell when we get back.'

  'If we get back,' a gaunt-faced man named Knut said.

  'When we get back,' Erik said quietly. He glanced at Frakkok, who grunted and looked away.

  The two ships pushed on, day after day, sailing or rowing upriver until they came to a stretch of rapids so vast and so turbulent that not even Catriona could sail up them.

  'So now what do we do?' Erik stared at the raging white water that extended as far as they could see.

  'We must go back,' Knut said. 'We've already explored further than anybody else in the world.'

  'If the Dhegians pass this, then so can we,' Melcorka said. 'Is there another channel?'

  Erik nodded. 'That will be it; we'll go back downstream and search.'

  They wasted two days in fruitless exploration, hacking through woodland, exploring small rivers that led nowhere, sweltering and sweating and plagued by insects. There was no other channel; there were only the rapids, growling and thundering before them.

  'Then we either portage,' Frakkok took charge as Erik hesitated once more, 'or we leave the ships here and march to this Dhegia.'

  'We'll need the ships later,' Melcorka said. 'There are inland seas ahead.'

  'What makes you think that?' Frakkok turned poisonous eyes on her.

  'Trust me: I know.' Melcorka said.

  'Why should I trust you?' Frakkok asked.

  Erik looked at his mother and then to Melcorka and back. 'Please don't squabble.' He raised his voice to a shout. 'Portage!'

  Melcorka had never been involved in a portage before and could only follow Erik's lead as all the contents of the ships were removed, trees chopped down and a passage cleared along the side of the river. Using the felled trees as rollers, the Norse pushed and hauled Sea Serpent along the cleared path.