craning her neck, looking over her father’s shoulder, was the large blond girl, in her black velvet and silver.
“Praises be unto the Priest-Kings!” called out the High Initiate.
“Praises unto the Priest-Kings.” Responded the initiates.
It was in that moment, and in that moment only, that I detected on the thin, cold face of the High Initiate of Kassau, an tiny smile of triumph.
He bent down, on one knee, they tiny, rounded, golden box containing the grease of Priest-Kings in his left hand and drew back with his right hand the long, white shroud concealing the body of Ivar Forksbeard.
Doubtless it was the High Initiate of Kassau who first knew. He seemed frozen. The eyes of the Forkbeard opened, and Ivar Forksbeard grinned at him.
With a roar of laughter, hurling the shroud from him,to the horror of the High Initiate, and other initiates, and the congregation, Ivar Forksbeard, almost seven feet in height, leaped to his feet, in his right hand clutching a great, curved, single-bladed ax of hardened iron.
“Praise be to Odin!” he cried.
Then he with his ax, with a single swing, splattering blood on the sheets of gold, cut the head from the body of the High Initiate of Kassau, and leaped, booted, to the height of the very altar of the temple itself.
He threw back his head laugh, with a wild roaring the bloody ax in his hand.
I heard the beams of the two doors of the temples being thrown in place, locking the people within. I saw ther cloaks of the men of Torvaldsland hurled from them and saw, gripped in their two hands, great axes. I suddenly saw the large man of Torvaldsland, he of incredible stature, seem to come alive, veins prominent on his forehead, mouth slobbering, strikingabout himself almost blindly with a great ax.
Ivar Forksbeard stood on the high altar. “The men of Torvaldsland, “ he cried, are upon you!”
Chapter 3 I make the acquaitance of Ivar Forkbeard and book passage on his ship
Screaming pierced my ears.
I was almost thrown from my feet by the buffeting, shrieking bodies.
I strained my eyes to see through the clouds of incense hanging in the temple.
I smelled blood.
A girl cried out.
People, merchants, the rich, the poor, fishermen, porters, fled towards the great doors, there to be cut down with axes. They fled back to the centre of the temple, huddled together. Axes cut through their midst. I heard shouts. I heard the harsh war cries of Torvaldsland. I heard golden sheets of metal being pried from the square pillars of the temple. The interior of the sanctuary was strewn with deadinitiates, many hacked to pieces. The four boys who had sung in the services held to one another, crying, like girls. From the high altar, standing upon it, Ivar Forkbeard directed his men. “Hurry!” he cried. “Gather what you can!”
“Kneel beneath the ax!” cried out one of the burghers of Kassau, who wore black satin, a silver chain about his neck. I gathered he might be administrator in this town.
The people, obediently, began to kneel on the dirt floor of the temple, their heads down.
I saw two men of T loading their cloaks with golden plate and vessels from the sanctuary, hurling them like tin and iron into the furs.
A fisherman cringed near me. One of the men ofTorvaldslandraised his ax to strike him. I caught the ax as it descended and held it. The warrior ofTorvaldsland looked at me,startled. His eyes widened. At his throat was then point of the sword of Port Kar.
Weapon s are not to be carried in the temple of Priest-Kings but I had been taught, long ago, by Kamchak of the Tuchuks, at a banquet in Turia, that where weapons may not be carried, it is well to carry weapons.
“Kneel before the ax,” I told the fisherman.
He did so.
I released theax of the man of Torvaldsland, and removed my blade from his throat. “Do not strike him,” I told the man of Torvaldsland.
He drew back his ax, and stepped away, regarding me, startled, wary.
“Gather loot!” cried Forkbeard. “ Are you waiting for the Sa-Tarna harvest!”
The man turned away and began to pull the gold hanging from the walls.
I saw, twenty feet from me, screaming, the giant, he of incredible stature, striking down at the kneeling people, who were crying out and trying to crawl away. The great blade dipped and cut, and swept up, and then cut down again. I saw the wild muscles of his bare arms bulging and knotted. Slobber came from his mouth. One man lay half cut through.
“Rollo!” cried out Forkbeard. “The battle is done!”
The giant, with the grayish face and shaggy hair, stood suddenly, unnaturally, quiet, the great, curved blade lifted over a weeping man. He lifted his head slowly, and turned it, slowly, towards the altar.
“The battle is done!” cried Forkbeard.
Two men of Torvaldsland then held the giant by the arms, and lowered his ax, and, gently, turned him away from the people. He turned and looked back at them, and they cowered away. But it did not seem that they recognised them.It seemed he did not know them and had not seen them before. Again his eyes seemed vacant. He turned away, and walked slowly, carrying his ax, toward one of the doors of the temple.
“Thosewho would live,” called our Forkbeard, “lie on the your stomachs.”
The people in the temple, many of them splattered with the blood of their neighbours, some severely wounded, threw themselves, shuddering, man and woman, and child, to their stomachs. They lay among many of their own dead.
I myself did not lie with them. Once I had been of the warriors.
I stood.
The men of Torvaldsland turned to face me.
“Why do you not lie beneath the ax, Stranger?” called out Forkbeard.
“I am not weary,” I told him.
Forkbeard laughed. “It is a good reason,” he said. “Are you of Torvaldsland?”
“No,” I told him.
“You are of the warriors?” asked Forkbeard.
“Perhaps once,” I told him.
“I shall see,” said Forkbeard. Then to one of his men, he said, “Hand me a spear.” One of the spears which had formed the platform on which he had been carried, gaining entrance to Kassau and the temple, was handed to him.
Suddenly behind me I heard a war cry of Torvaldsland.
I turned and swept to the guard position, in the instant seeing the man’s distance, and spun again to strike from my body, before it could penetrate it, the hurled spear of Ivar Forkbeard. It must be taken behind the point with the swiftblow of the forearm. The spear caroomed away and struck the wall of the temple, fifty feet behind me.In the same instant I had spun again, in the guard position, to stand againstthe man with his ax. He pulled up short, and looked to Ivar Forkbeard. I turned again to face the Forkbeard.
He grinned. “Yes, he said, “once perhaps you were of the warriors.”
I looked to the man behind me, and to the others. They lifted their axes in their right hand. It was a salute of Torvaldsland. I heard their cheers.
“He remains standing.” Said Ivar Forkbeard.
I sheathed my sword.
“Hurry!” called the Forkbeard to his men. “Hurry! The people of the town will gather!”
Swiftly, tearing hangings from the walls, prying loose sheets of gold, pulling down even lamps from their chains, filling their cloaks with cups and plates, the men of Torvaldsland stripped the temple of whatthey could tear loose and carry. Ivar Forkbeard leaped down from the altar and began, angrily, to hurl vessels of consecrated oils against the walls behind the sanctuary. Then he took a rack of candles and hurled it against the wall. Fire soon bit into the timbers behind the sanctuary.
The Forkbeard then leaped over the rail of the sanctuary and strode among the people lying on their stomachs, the wall facing the Sardar being eaten by fire, illuminating the interior of the temple.
He reached down, here and there, to rip a purse from one of the richer townsfolk. He took the purse of the burgher in black satin, and took, too, from his neck, the silver chain of his office, which he slung about his own neck.
He then drew with the handle of his ax a circle, some twenty feet in diameter, in the dirtfloor of the circle.
It was a bond-maid circle.
“Females,” he cried, gesturing with the great ax toward the wall opposite the doors, “swiftly! To the wall! Stand with your backs against it!”
Terrified, weeping, the men groaning, the females fled to the wall. I saw, standing there, terrified, their backs against it, the blond girl in the scarlet vest and skirt, her hair in the snood of scarlet yarn, tied with filaments of golden wire; and the large statuesque girl, in black velvet, with the silver straps over her breasts, and tied about her waist, with the purse. Ivar Forkbeard, in the light of the burning wall of the temple, quickly examined the line of women. From some he took jewellery, bracelets, necklaces and rings. From others her took purses, hanging at their belts. He tore away the purse from the large blonde girl, and the silver straps, too, which had decorated the black velvet of her gown. She shrank back against the wall.She was large breasted. The men of Torvaldsland are fond of such women. The jewellery and coins which he took he hurled into a golden sacrificial bowl, which one of his men carried at his side. As he went down the line, he freed certain women of the wall, telling them to swiftly returnto their place, and lie beneath the ax. Gratefully, they fled to their former places.
This left nineteen girls at the wall. I admired the taste of Forkbeard. They were beauties. My choices would have been the same.
Among them, of course, were the slender blond girl in the red vest and skirt, and the larger one, now in black velvet, torn, stripped of its silver straps, its brooches, the purse.
