The mood that was affecting Sarah, Astrid and Ulf could also be felt throughout the steading. In an effort to raise spirits, Astrid decided to put on a feast of sorts and that evening everyone was in the hall enjoying a meal, gossiping and listening to stories.
Without all the warriors the feast was much less rowdy and the two remaining warriors had chosen to do a patrol. They too felt a sense of unease and Astrid was glad that her husband had left them behind. All evening she found her eyes glancing nervously towards the doors of the hall, half expecting something.
As the meal was coming to an end and mothers with sleepy babes rose to put them to bed. In a rush of cool air the doors to the hall burst open and a dozen warriors rushed in quickly subduing the only men, Ulf included. Women screamed and children ran to their mothers, hiding behind their skirts, sobbing. For Sarah all of this seemed to happen in slow motion as she quickly realised this was not Geir and his men and that two of these foreign warriors already had blood on their blades. As Ulf struggled with his captors, Astrid strode to the front of the hall and with barely contained fury demanded;
“Who are you to burst into my hall, threatening unarmed women and children?”
One of the men stepped forward. Unlike the others he had his sword still in its scabbard and wore no helm. He was obviously the leader of this pack. His eyes scanned the room insolently and without even a glance in her direction slapped Astrid across the face, the force of the blow causing her to crumple to the floor. At this Ulf struggled harder until one warrior obviously had had enough and knocked him unconscious with the butt of his axe.
“Quiet!” shouted the warrior. “Right, I want all the men over there and the women and children on the other side, kill any who resist”. This casual declaration sent chills up Sarah’s spine.
His warriors quickly sorted the villagers into the groups and ignoring the men, he quickly went through the women and children pulling out seven youngsters, including Harald and Rolf. Meantime his men were busily pillaging for anything of value, ripping brooches from shoulders, taking anything that took their fancy.
“Ok, so this is how it is going to be, I am taking these with me” he said indicating the children “if you value their lives then do not come out of this hall until daybreak.” Turning he nodded at two men who each carried a bow and quiver.
“You two know what to do if any attempt to leave”. With those words echoing into a stunned silence, the children were herded out of the hall.
As soon as the doors slammed shut and pandemonium broke out, Sarah rushed over to Astrid who was beginning to sit up, one hand nursing her face.
“I’m fine Sarah, you go and see to Ulf, I’ll see to everyone else” said Astrid as Sarah helped her to her feet, a bright red hand mark clearly visible on her face. Too stunned to speak, Sarah simply nodded and did what she was told.
Astrid knew how serious the situation was. Children had been taken, her youngest two included. Fighting down the urge to scream, only a clear head was going to get the children back safe. Looking around she noticed that no one had yet made an attempt to step outside the hall, unarmed men and women were no match for archers, and no one seemed prepared to take the risk that the man may have been bluffing. Where were Gunnar and Ivar? Their absence did not bode well.
Standing in the hall with men and women shouting and crying all around her, she calculated that the children they had taken were five boys between the ages of six and nine summers and two girls both around nine summers. None of it was making any sense, but realising that she was about to give in to the panic that threatened at the edges of her mind, Astrid made a decision, her eyes met those of her second eldest son, Hakon. She beckoned him over.
“Quietly now, sneak out of the hall through the hatch at the back and see if they really did leave men behind and if not which direction did they go,” whispered Astrid urgently. Hakon looked his mother in the eye, squeezed her hand, nodded and quickly moved to the back of the hall to do as she had asked.
Astrid then strode over to the kitchen area picked up an iron pot and a wooden stirrer and banged them together loudly, knowing that this would be more effective at getting everyone’s attention then shouting herself hoarse. The noise in the hall stopped abruptly, all eyes turning to Astrid.
“Right, now that I have your attention, for the sake of our children we need to be calm. Hakon will be back soon and he can tell us what he has seen. Sarah? Is Ulf alright?” asked Astrid looking over the heads towards where she last saw Ulf.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine, had harder knocks in my life. But I don’t know where Sarah is, she was with me just before you started making that racket and by the time you’d finished waking the dead she was gone,” said Ulf as he made his way to Astrid’s side.
Sarah had seen Astrid speak to Hakon and without thinking followed him to the back of the hall and out of the little hatch. Crouching in the shadows she watched as Hakon sneaked from shadow to shadow stopping once to inspect what looked like a lumpy shadow and then silently headed down the path that lead to the beach.
Taking a deep breath Sarah followed Hakon and as she approached the lumpy shadow, she could see that it was the figure of a man lying down. Slowly she crept forward, her heart pounding, then just as she was within a few feet of the man the moon came out from behind a cloud illuminating the man’s face in an unnatural glow. It was Gunnar; his wide open eyes and a large gash from ear to ear telling Sarah he was dead. She was just about to open her mouth and scream when a hand was clamped over her mouth from behind.
“Stop Sarah, it’s me Leif. In Thors name, be quiet – you don’t want the men who did this to Gunnar know that we’re out here, do you?” Leif whispered urgently into Sarah’s ear as he slowly took his hand off her mouth.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, but I saw you follow Hakon so I thought to follow you. Just as well really, you were about to go all girly and scream, weren’t you?” said Leif shaking his head in disgust, trying hard not to look at the corpse at his feet.
Turning to him, Sarah gave him a punch in the arm that almost sent him toppling over the body,
“You bloody scared me! Don’t you ever do that again and for your information I was not going to scream, I was just taking a big breath,” she said in an angry whisper, Sarah was sure that whatever gods were listening wouldn’t mind her little white lie. Leif didn’t look convinced.
“Come on then,” he said “we had better move it if we are going to catch up with Hakon” as he started off down the path after his brother. After a moment’s hesitation Sarah followed.
As they were coming to the end of the path Leif suddenly stopped pulling her down into the dark shadows at the edge of the path his hand once more over her mouth. A dark figure was rushing towards them, but as he drew level with Sarah and Leif he stopped and looked intently in their direction, the moon, ever helpful, once more came out from behind the clouds illuminating the dark figure. It was Hakon; with a sigh of relief both Sarah and Leif emerged from the shadows taking him by surprise.
“Brother, what are you doing here? You could have got yourself killed, Mother will not be happy. Come on, we best get back to the hall, I’ve got things to tell her,” said Hakon using his best grown up voice and making no attempt to be quiet, completely ignoring Sarah.
“Hakon. Stop! What things?” said Leif running after him as he strode off back up the path towards the hall.
Sarah, who was beginning to feel really irritated for no reason, ran as fast as she could and rugby tackled Hakon to the ground, winding both of them in the process. Figuring she didn’t have a lot of time, Sarah then jumped up and sat on his back taking a handful of hair and pulled.
“Right Mr I’m So Important, you are going to answer your brother or I will pull your hair so hard that you will never grow a beard!”
“Aargh, for Odin’s sake get off me you crazy girl” Hakon sounded very peeved, but then again, thought Sarah, so am I. Even so, she slowl
y got off him, giving his hair one last yank for luck.
Hakon rolled over, stood up and dusted himself off, glancing at Sarah with total loathing. He then turned to his brother, “there were no archers, they killed Gunnar and Ivar, they have left by boat with the youngsters and…they’re Kurlanders” he said spitting on the path.
Chapter Seven