Raven Boy

Chapter 24

A white flag was raised and a side gate was opened, letting Sveinn out to meet the Foreign messenger. Despite the heat, Sveinn wore his thick reindeer jacket and his sword hung on his back. Calm as usual, he rode toward the messenger.

From the top of the wall, Orm, Olaf, and Hrafn watched as both negotiators stopped several feet from each other. To everyone's amazement, Sveinn respectfully greeted the Foreigner, and the latter greeted him back.

"Aye, Sveinn!" muttered Orm, grinning into his gray beard. "What a man!"

Then they saw the Foreigner speak. Sveinn nodded and answered. Then he turned his horse and rode back. The Foreigner remained where he was, by the white flag stuck into the dry ground.

They hurried down to meet Sveinn.

When the gate closed behind him, Sveinn started speaking without dismounting his horse. "Their king wants us to hear the following: 'Torgeir, my army counts ten times more men than this fortress can hold. You may have destroyed seven of my ships, but you lost a lot of warriors as well, and I can wipe from the earth's face this fortress and all of you with my catapults alone. If you are wise and if you value the life of your warriors, take your last opportunity and leave now. In my infinite kindness, I promise that we will let all of you go, if you disappear and leave everything intact. Otherwise, we will torture and kill every single one of you and your ships will become my trophies.'"

"That filthy dog is lying!" growled Ari, clenching his fists.

"No, he's not," retorted Hrafn. "His army really is that big."

"How do you know? He might just have put two lines of warriors alongside the horizon to make us believe they are too many!"

"I know and I'm sure! But it doesn't matter... any ideas for further actions?"

"Ten times! Well, we don't really have any arguments to oppose them," mused Kirk. "We accept their conditions and die fighting."

"What's the use of it?" intervened Orm. "They kill all of us and then they are free to keep the lands they stole from us and to attack our town again. But this time, there will be only five dozens of Brant's people to resist them. They will keep going, conquering all our neighbors one by one, as they always wanted!"

Everyone fell silent. Then Olaf stated, "He still believes father's alive."

Hrafn kicked a stone under his feet and swore. "If only we knew the secret of this damned fortress!"

"We don't really need to know it," mused Sveinn, looking at the boy with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, we do!" retorted Hrafn. "It could have been an important asset to us!"

"It still is an important asset."

Hrafn stared at him. "You mean... we bluff?"

Sveinn nodded and started ticking on his fingers. "First, until now they haven't attacked though they can easily win. Second, they want us to leave without destruction, which can only mean the fortress. Third, they have announced us the exact number of their warriors. To me our assets look obvious."

Still bewildered, Hrafn nodded. "So, we'll just pretend we know it..."

Sveinn straightened. An eager sparkle shone in his dark, long-lashed eyes. "What can we lose anyway? Let me go and talk to them!"

Hrafn threw a quick glance at the others, but no one showed any objection.

"Go," he said. "I cannot think of someone who talks as well as you do."

"Good. Wait until everyone is in place."