TLV - 03 - The Sign of the Raven Read Online Free PDF Page B

tawny head lifted as he answered: "Sooner shall we fall man by man, one atop the other, than fly."
    Magnus' eyes glowed.
     
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    Thora refused to stay ashore, and Harald had no time to compel her. "Keep down below the foredeck, then," he said as he put his shoulder to the longship. "The men will have work to do."
    Wading out and pulling himself over the side, he scrambled into helmet and byrnie, hung a sword at his waist, and laid shield and ax nearby. For the shooting that would come First, he had a six-foot bow from Finland and a chestful of goose-feathered arrows, each a yard long with barbed iron head. He told off one of the younger men to steer, while he placed himself in the bows. As they rowed slowly off, he took out his banner and lashed it to the figurehead. A light breeze caught the red and gold, the raven seemed to beat hungry wings, Landwaster was going to sea.
    Ulf's ship, a dragon smaller only than the Fafnir, slipped alongside to larboard. The marshal paced up and down the plank laid across the benches, urging his crew to readiness—a bearlike form in bright helmet and rattling mail, eyes greenly alight. To starboard, Styrkaar yelled oaths and orders. Further along on that side was Magnus, his boy's face drawn white and tense, shivering in his costly armor; beyond him were the Throndheim men under Ey-stein's command. Larboard were the ships of the Dale and other southern districts, farthest out the Upland fleet of Haakon Ivarsson.
    They had not come a great way when they found sea room. Harald snapped an order, and ropes were tossed, linking ship to ship with his own at the point of a blunt wedge. On the wings of it, many remained free to go where their captains should see need; among these were Jarl Haakon's.
    Svein steered closer, the evening sun ablaze behind him. It was hard to see against that glare of molten gold, but Harald descried the royal banner of Denmark on the foremost enemy craft, and beside it a ship flying Finn Arnason's standard. Harald smiled sleepily. Calm had come over him. All waiting and yearning were past; now it was only to fight.
    The Danish force was indeed mighty, bound together into a many-legged giant. This was going to be a hard battle, and Harald hoped the men on his wings could keep the enemy from flanking him. He thought so. His host was only half as great, but proven warriors, not bewildered yeomen.
    Through the rise and fall of voices, clank of arms, rattle and splash of oars, he heard a skald on Ulf's ship chanting. Thjodholf was silent, hefting a spear. Rags blew above helmeted heads; it could almost have been a May queen's pageant. But . . .
    "Sound the attack," said Harald.
    Thjodholf set a horn to his lips, and the hooting lifted, wild. Answers cried down the line, and the fleet lumbered forward.
    "Now on, lads, on," shouted Harald. "St. Olaf is with us, and he who stands fast this night will not be forgotten while the world endures. He who wants fame, honor, riches, let him fight!"
    He thought he heard Svein egging his own folk on, and nocked an arrow and let fly. It was at long range, but the gap was closing.
    Shafts and stones began to fall. Harald's own bowstring hummed and sang, snap, snap, snap, give them iron in their hearts!
    A rock bounced off the Fafnir's snake head, an arrow thunked shuddering into the nearest bench. A man by Harald lurched and fell, holding on to the dart which had pierced mail and breast alike. The king howled and sent his shots toward the eye of the sun. The pale evening sky was darkened by the whistling flight of missiles.
    Glancing down the larboard line, Harald saw Haakon's green-painted dragon lunge forth at a knot of loose Danish boats. Hooks went out, they grappled, the jarl led the storming party. Sounds of banging metal and yelping men drifted through the sunset air.
    Now Svein's ship loomed close. Its eagle figurehead seemed to hiss at the Fafnir's gape. The sun was down, the western sky a huge wash of yellow, and black against