SWANHILDE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: WAR BAND

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: WAR BAND

Swanhilde stood on the uppermost deck, looking down upon those who had chosen to follow her.

She was once more clad in brown and green leathers - furs were draped upon her shoulders and she held a large wooden shield in her left hand, whilst the right held Fatebreaker; her hair was braided in its usual style, but instead of hanging loose over her shoulders, she had coiled the blonde ropes of hair upon her head. 

Her eyes had been blackened with face paint, which afterwards she had also used to smear two thick lines on each of her cheeks.

Upon her arms were all her ringlets, the symbols of her wealth and prowess - each of the band carried such.

'You know what we must do?' asked Swanhilde.

'We will follow you, princess.' said a man with a shaven head and small beard, whose face was entirely tattooed.

'I am no princess,' she replied. 'I gave up my claim.'

'You are wrong,' shouted Borg and others nodded and muttered their ascent.

'How so?'

Another man, in his thirties, tall, clean shaven and with long brown hair, his handsome looks marred by a facial scar, answered. 'Hear me, princess. I am Leif and when I was but a boy of 14 winters, I received this scar by a blade of a man of the usurper, in defense of my Jarl. Your father was a king and his daughter a princess, claim or no claim.'

Next, a lean weather faced woman, her skin cracked and brown, topped with short unruly grey hair stepped forward and waved her spear. 'I am Hillevi and these are my girls Brenna and Yiva.' She beckoned and two young women, about Swanhilde's age and a year or so younger, also clad, like their mother, in leathers and mail, ready for war, stepped forward.

'Did you also fight for my father, Hillevi?' Swanhilde inquired.

'Nay lady, but my husband died for him when I had not yet dropped Yiva. Now we will fight for you, so lead us to death or glory, my princess. We shall all follow.'

'Death shall come, not for us, but for our foemen, good Hillevi. Do you all feel the same? I am the one to lead you in war and thereafter? You will follow my lead?'

'You are the princess who was lost and found again,' Borg replied simply. 'Though we knew it not, your coming was awaited.'

Swanhilde raised her blade. 'This is Fatebreaker. Where I go and you follow, no man nor god may dictate - we are beholden to none save ourselves.' She pointed the sword towards the shore. 'When we land, we will move swiftly - strike down any who stand in your way, but harm none who flee. We are not here to ravage, but to quickly gain the slave markets, a short distance from the docks. Now sing, my brothers and sisters! And bang your shields so these folk will know death comes fast from the north!!'

***

Þat mælti mín móðir, at mér skyldi kaupa fley ok fagrar árar, fara á brott með víkingum, standa upp í stafni, stýra dýrum knerri, halda svá til hafnar höggva mann ok annan. 

BEFORE

'They will know we are coming,' Borg had said.

'Yes,' Swanhilde had replied. 'I want them to. By following Beinir's plan, we strike at their very heart and the populace will flee in fear.'

'But warriors will gather to await us.'

'Yes. They will gather in one place and then ..'

NOW