Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 22, 2025
"I only hope that we may not have brought trouble on these good men who have sheltered us," he said. "There was a ship which must have seen us cast ashore here." "We should have had her back by this time if she meant seeking us." "It is not her whom I fear," he answered. "This ship of ours was too precious for Heidrek to let go easily.
"I wonder this evil Arnkel parted with the treasure so lightly." "My folk would not have let him lay hands on it in any case," she answered plainly. "And they would keep it from Heidrek." "That is how the men of Heidrek fell on us," I said. "He must have landed his men beyond your sight, but not far off." "There were two ships seen passing north in the storm," she said.
I believe that so Hakon would have done, but that the chance never came. And that was the doing of Heidrek himself, or of his crew. What madness of despair fell on those pirates I cannot say, but Asbiorn has it that they went berserk as one man at the last, as the wilder Vikings will, when the worst has to be faced.
It was that man of ours who had told me that there was always the chance of escape, and had tried to gnaw my bonds when we were in the ship's forepeak Sidroc, the courtman. I did not pretend to know him then and there, thinking it might seem proof that Hakon was in league with Heidrek in some way.
Heidrek altered his course at once, sailing a point or two more free than we, either, as Bertric thought, because he could lie no closer to the wind, or else meaning to edge down on us. And, he being so far to windward, for a time it seemed as if he neared us fast. In two hours we knew that we outsailed him, close hauled.
Heidrek laughed at him in a strange way, but the men yelled and made a rush at us, sword in hand. Whereon Asbiorn swung his round shield into place from off his shoulder, and gripped his light axe and faced them. It was the lightness of that axe which had spared me; but the men knew, and feared it and the skill of the wielder, and they shrank back. "What, again?" said Heidrek.
The old law of the blood feud had its full meaning to him. "If Heidrek had stayed his men to meet us, Hakon would have given him terms rather than that this should have been the end," I said. "I know it, for I heard him say so. But there was a touch of the berserk in my father since his troubles came. This is not the first time he has tried to fall fighting against odds.
"We do what the young jarl does," he said; "we follow him." "The choice was whether you would follow me or not," answered Heidrek coldly; "I will have no leader but myself." Some of his wilder followers cried out now that we were wasting time, and that an end should be made, while a sword or two were drawn among them.
The end of it was that in a short time we were on board our own ship, and safely stowed forward, still bound. Heidrek had added her to his force, and manned her from the other two vessels; but before we reached the ship I saw that Heidrek's men had piled their slain into an outhouse, set the fagot stack round it, and fired it to windward.
There that talk ended, for Hakon came forward to watch the enemy, and called us to go to the raised foredeck with him. But he spoke to the hermits in passing, and though they could not understand him, yet they might see that his words were kindly. We were going to windward of Heidrek fast. His ships had tried to weather on us, but had failed.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking