Knights of the Hawk

yourself that you’ll need someone who speaks Danish. If this is our one chance to destroy Haakon, then we might as well give it our all. If nothing else, at least we’ll die knowing that we did everything we could. There is honour in that.’

There was indeed. I grinned back at him and held out my hand. He clasped it firmly, and so it was settled. Our destinies were bound, and we would go to Jarnborg, Haakon’s stronghold, the iron fortress, together.

Fate can lead a man upon many strange and unexpected paths, and I confess that this was one of the strangest I’d ever embarked upon. Before me was someone who not so long ago I’d have counted among my enemies, whom I wouldn’t have hesitated in killing, and no doubt the feeling was mutual. However, just as a storm will scatter ships to the wind and carry them far from their intended courses, so fate had carried us both far from the places we called home and into this alliance, with circumstance and common cause the only things binding us. Now as sword-brothers we were going to war.

I only hoped I was not making a grievous mistake.

And so it was agreed. Magnus and I would stay behind to lead the raid on Jarnborg itself, while the others, led by Wace and Eudo and Ælfhelm, would mount the feint on Haakon’s ships. The next morning, then, we parted ways. We would make it look as though we had heeded the Dane’s warning after all, decided against trying to fight him, and thus quit the island.

‘As soon as the fog starts to lift tomorrow morning and it becomes safe to sail, that’s when you’ll need to begin your approach,’ I told Eudo and Wace. We stood on the beach above the tideline while Wyvern’s crew pushed her out on to the water. ‘By that time we’ll either be inside Jarnborg, or we’ll all be dead. Haakon’s men always come to the spring in the morning, an hour or so after first light, or so we’ve been told, anyway.’

‘I hope your information is sound,’ Wace said. ‘For your sake, not ours.’

I hoped so too. Only now, as we were about to embark upon this strategy, did I realise what a fragile thing it was, and how much we were relying on matters beyond our control: on the trustworthiness of the information given us; on the water-carriers coming to the spring at the right time; on Haakon doing exactly what we expected of him.

‘Remember,’ I said, ‘don’t commit yourselves to battle unless it’s clear that the numbers are in your favour. I don’t want any more Norman blood spilt than is necessary. Enough good men have wasted their lives because of me in the past couple of years.’

‘So tell us again,’ said a confused-looking Eudo. ‘If we’re not going to fight Haakon’s forces, then what? Are we simply to lie in wait off the shore?’

‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘Wait until you see the flames licking above Jarnborg’s palisade. In the confusion that follows, with any luck our enemy will be distracted. That’s the moment when you strike.’

‘Luck is the right word,’ Wace said bitterly. ‘We’ll need some, if this plan of yours is to bear any fruit.’

Was that not true, though, of every struggle that had ever been fought? No strategy could account for every possible course of events, nor make order out of the turmoil of the mêlée, nor allow for the courage of the few or the timid hearts of the many. So much in battle was a question of luck, and every warrior needed good fortune, no matter whether he was a fresh-faced youth standing in the shield-wall for the first time, or a knight who had spent more than half his life travelling the sword-path. The poets who write the songs that pass into legend would have it differently, of course, but every man who lives his life by the sword knows it well.

Yet I still believed that the best warriors were those who made the most of their luck, who grasped in both hands the opportunities given them, who saw their enemies’ weaknesses and how they might be turned to their advantage. That was why I refused to believe that our cause was as desperate as it might seem.

‘What about the Englishman?’ Eudo asked, nodding his head towards Magnus, who was embracing his huscarls down by the water’s edge. Wyvern and Nihtegesa were already afloat, bobbing in the swell as they lay at anchor. The sea-mist had cleared to reveal skies heavy with the promise of rain to come, and I only hoped that another storm was not on its way. ‘Do you really trust him?’

‘Only about as far as I could throw him,’ I answered. ‘But he wants the same thing as we do. Until we achieve it, there’s no reason why we can’t depend on him.’

Wace didn’t look convinced. ‘What did Haakon mean yesterday when he called Magnus the son of Harold?’

‘Did he say that?’ I said, doing my best to feign surprise, although the looks they gave me suggested I hadn’t succeeded.

‘Don’t play games with us,’ Wace said in a warning tone. ‘You know something. He didn’t mean the Harold, surely?’

I met his stare, but realised it was pointless to try to keep the truth from them any longer.

‘Is he, or is he not, the son of the usurper?’ Wace asked.

‘So he claims.’

‘You knew?’ asked Eudo, while Wace simply turned away, cursing under his breath. ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’

‘Why do you think? If you’d found out he was Harold’s son, would you have come this far, or would you have taken Wyvern back to England?’

He didn’t answer, but they knew as well as I did what they would have done.

‘I don’t believe this,’ Wace said. ‘It’s one thing to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with Englishmen, but I never thought I’d find myself sharing bread and ale with the usurper’s own blood.’

‘Quiet,’ I hissed, aware that Magnus and his huscarls were not far off. ‘Don’t forget that we outnumber them by three swords to every two of theirs. If anyone has any reason to be worried about being murdered in his sleep, it’s him, but he obviously trusts us, or else he wouldn’t be here, would he?’

‘He has the oath-breaker’s blood running in his veins,’ Eudo said. ‘What’s to say he won’t turn on us, just as his father turned on King Guillaume?’

‘He hasn’t yet.’ It was a poor answer, and one that even I was not convinced by, but it was the only one that came to mind. ‘If he’d wanted to kill us, he’d have found a way to do so before now.’

‘And on that reasoning you’re prepared to stake your life?’

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure, not entirely. What I was sure of was that if I gave up now, when we were so close, the knowledge that I had fled from this fight would forever haunt me. Never would there be a better opportunity for us to slake our thirst for vengeance, or for me to take back the woman who was taken from me, the woman whom I had yearned for above all others. That was why I had to do this, and that was why it had to be now.

‘So long as you know what it is you’re taking on,’ Wace said. ‘From the moment we’re out on the water, you’ll be on your own. We won’t be able to help you.’

‘I know,’ I replied. ‘But hopefully you won’t have to, and the next time we meet we’ll be celebrating a great victory.’

‘I only hope so,’ Wace said.

We embraced then, but they didn’t bid me farewell, nor I them, since that would have seemed too final. For all the doubts that plagued me, I still believed we would be victorious and that we would all be standing come nightfall tomorrow. Nor did I stay to watch them cast off from the shore, although that was for a different reason, since there was a chance that Haakon’s scouts might be watching, and that would only have aroused their suspicions. Instead Magnus and I and the small band we’d gathered slipped away one by one into the copse overlooking that inlet, where we intended to lie in wait the rest of that day and the night as well. But between the trunks I was just able to make out the blue-grey waters, and Wyvern’s black-and- yellow-striped sail billowing, and the flecks of white as the oars of both ships broke the surface. I watched until they were out of sight.

There was no turning back now. The next morning we would strike at the very heart of Haakon’s power, and take the fight to him. Three long years had passed, but tomorrow, I promised myself, I would have Oswynn back, and Robert de Commines would at last be avenged.