Raven Boy

Chapter 23

Ten days later, both fully repaired ships arrived at the conquered fortress.

It stood in the middle of a sun-burned plain covered with random dry bushes and yellow grass, and seemed lonely and abandoned, like some sort of monastery.

This time, Olaf and all the warriors were there because their ally Brant sent five dozen of his warriors to protect
the town and Turid was to assist their chieftain in case of
trouble. Hrafn's raven was with him, so he knew before the others that the Foreign army stood already at the fortress's walls.

The Vikings lingered in the sea and arrived at night. They managed to get into the fortress unnoticed by the
enemy.

Their fellows in the fortress told them that the
Foreigners' army had been there for two days now, but for some reason had not attacked yet. However it looked very big, so the Vikings were expecting an attack any moment.

"We have been waiting for the new konungr to decide what to do here," explained Leif, the Viking who was left in command in the fortress, his eyes flickering toward Hrafn. "If their army is as big as it seems, we have no chance to win."

A war council was called. After some deliberation, it was decided that they didn't have much choice: they had to fight here or the army would follow them to their land and fight them there.

The first prospect seemed more promising – at least, they would fight far from home, keeping the danger away from their families. After they die, the Foreign army would be smaller, so the town might have a chance against them.

Once the decision made, the Vikings started building more catapults and fortifying the walls.

Meanwhile, Olaf and Hrafn were searching the fortress back and forth, looking for something strategic in it.

The whole construction was pretty simple: a rectangular stone building stood in the very center of a large rectangular yard, protected by high stone walls with towers at each
corner.

The central building was built over a small natural
cavern with a stream of water and several natural pools, wide enough for a man to take a bath there. Thanks to the stream, the water in the pools was constantly renewed, evacuating through a series of small natural underground passages.

The central building had a kitchen with a fireplace, a privy next to the outgoing water stream, and six sleeping rooms on the second floor.

The yard was dry and empty. Three lonely trees grew in a small garden by the main building, while stables, chicken coop, smithy, storehouses, and other work-related premises ran alongside the fortress walls.

"There must be something vital for them here!" stated Hrafn for the thousand and fifth time.

Olaf leaned on the stone wall. "We searched every stone and there is nothing!"

"Obviously, because we found nothing!" said Hrafn,
irritated. "Or we found something, but didn't pay attention to it! Otherwise, why aren't they attacking?"

Olaf approached the edge of the wall and spat down. He watched his spittle fly all the way down the wall and fall on a gray sunlit stone. The air was hot and motionless, and on the other side of the wall, all the grass was dry and yellow.

"Look, Hrafn, it's so hot that the spittle cooked away!"

Forgetting for a moment about the fortress, Hrafn peered down from the top of the wall as his brother repeated the experiment.

"Ha!" he exclaimed and spat as well.

"Nay, mine lasted longer!" stated Olaf.

"It can't be!"