Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures Read Free Page A

shock of tawny tousled hair which added to the wildness of his appearance, as did his cold blue eyes. Garments he wore none, except a loin cloth; his own wolfish ruggedness was protection enough against the weather, ordinarily. For he was a slave in an age when even the masters lived lives ferociously hard and hardening.
    Now Conn faced his master, and flexing his mighty arms absently, asked: “What was it that the farers in the longship shouted to us this morning, when we were out in the fishing boat?”
    “You heard them, did you not, fool?” harshly asked Wolfgar Snorri’s son. “Can you not understand human speech? As the dragon-ship swept past the point, the Vikings shouted to me that there was a gathering of eagles on the east coast of that cursed Ireland – Brian Boru is moving against King Sitric of Dublin, and the word has gone to all the sea-farers to gather for the slaughter. This time the sea-kings will crush that doddering old fool and his naked kerns, once and for all. It shall be as it was in the days of Thorgils the Conqueror. Too long have the kings of Dublin borne the insolence of the western Gaels.”
    Conn nodded, slowly. “It was in my mind that that was the word the sea-wolves shouted, but I wished to hear it from your lips, because I am slow of comprehension sometimes.”
    Wolfgar Snorri’s son scowled. Like the slave, the Norseman was a typical figure of his age – tall, massive, with fierce intolerant eyes and a heavy golden beard. A son of those fierce Vikings who conquered and settled in the Orkneys, he was a slayer and a plunderer, who lived like a petty king in his own steading and recognized no authority save his own. Even as he sat in the comparative safety of his own skalli-hall, he wore a pliant shirt of scale mail and was girt with a broad metal-buckled belt from which hung a long straight sword in a leather scabbard.
    The thrall’s eyes strayed covetously to the blade; he said: “There will be a noble splintering of spears when the Ard-righ of Erin meets the sea-kings. I should be among his weapon-men.”
    Wolfgar snorted in high disdain. “Your life would soon be parted from your body. The Vikings will take the heads of the Dalcassians to adorn their serpent-prows. As for you – why, you fool, Brian Boru would hang you to an oak limb were you to venture into his kingdom.”
    “He was wrathful when I broke the truce with Melaghlin and slew a man of Meath, it is true,” admitted the big Gael frankly. “But though I was forced to flee from the land of my birth, I have no reason to love the Viking-folk. Thorwald Raven took me when I was weak from hunger and wounds – for the life of an outlaw is hard – and put this collar on my neck.” The thrall touched a heavy copper ring which encircled his corded throat. “Then he sold me to you – ”
    “And cheated me,” snarled the Norseman. “Why I have not cut the blood-eagle on your stubborn back long ago, I cannot understand.”
    “I’ve done the work of three men,” answered the thrall boldly. “I have not been backward when the swords were singing. I have stood at your back and mowed down carles like wheat when you warred with your neighbors. And in return you have given me – crusts from your board, a bare earth floor to sleep upon, and deep scars in my back because I would not call you master or fight for you against my own people.”
    “Well, dog,” growled the Norseman, angrily tugging at his golden beard, “do you want to be petted like a Saxon girl?”
    “I want to be free,” answered the thrall calmly. “I was not born into slavery – that’s why you’ve never broken me. No man ever broke a kern born in the western hills. We are brothers to the eagle.
    “Well, I’ve borne your abuse and waited because each time I was minded to take your throat between my fingers and crush out your black heart, the thought came to me that the time was not yet. If I escaped from you I would still be an outlaw. But now