"F" "Weapon." "It's time, Freya." "I told you before, Father the answer is no!" "Wulfric will be a good man!" "With you by his side maybe a good king!" "He'll bejust like his father a tyrant and a butcher." "I won't marry him!" "Then you better choose someone else." "Because when he's king it'll be too late to say no." "Then don't make him king!" "Let me look at that." "It's fine." "Let me see it!" "I'm not getting any younger, Freya." "Ljust want to make sure that you're well looked after when I'm gone." "I know, Father." "I know." "And if any one can make Wulfric keep the peace, by the gods, it's you." "I rule Herot and Freya rules me." "I don't think so." "And no queen ofmine will fight like a man." "I will take care of you." "She's like her mother." "You'd do well to tread more softly with her." "There's nothing soft about her." "Gunnar's village was sacked." "What happened?" "I don't know." "There were no bodies, nothing." "Slavers?" "Too much blood." "What about Gunnar?" "He's still trading with the Rus." "He'll be back before the snow." "He'll think it was us." "It should've been." "Was it?" "No." "We caught a man nearby in the woods." "One of ours?" "Well, what tribe was he?" "Frankish, Rus?" "I don't know." "But I'll find out." "Well, do it quickly." "It's war if you don't." "I'll take those." "Bring him" "So who are you, Outlander?" "I'd answer him, friend." "Your name!" "My name is Kainan." "Kainan?" "What kind ofname is that?" "Where are you from?" "An Island to the north." "Why did you attack Gunnar's village?" "I didn't attack anyone." "Then why were you there?" "I was hunting." "Hunting?" "Hunting what?" "That." "A dragon" "Tell me!" "Why where you there?" "Where are your men?" "Told you." "Don't lie to me." "Stick with the dragons." "I like that one." "All right." "I'll tell you." "I was hunting... dragons." "Not yet" "The prisoner's hurt." "So are you, by the looks ofit." "And he needs looking after" "I've got work to do." "You clean up your own mess." "To hell with it then." "He dies, it's on your head." "Bjorn!" "He needs looking after" "Let me pass." "That's enough!" "Get out!" "What did he tell you?" "Nothing." "Some lies about a dragon." "But he's hiding something." "Keep at him." "I have to send riders to find Gunnar." "He has to know that it wasn't us." "He'll never believe us." "Not when he sees his village." "We should kill him while we still have the chance." "Like your father would have done." "And he would have been right." "My father's dead because of Gunnar." "Your father's dead because he was a fool!" "You want to kill Gunnar." "I can understand that." "And you want to rule from here." "I can understand that, too." "But it's not your sword that will make you king, nor Shield Hall." "It's how you rule your own head and heart." "Until you understand that then you'll never wear this." "Water." "Please." "Thank you." "Did you do what they're saying?" "Did you attack Gunnar's village?" "No." "Bjorn!" "It's sharp." "It's never sharp enough." "If Gunnar comes tonight..." "If Gunnar comes tonight he'll stick that blade right up your arse." "...then you'll wish it wasn't so sharp." "You smell that?" "Arn?" "The sentries are gone!" "It's Gunnar!" "Get to the walls!" "Where are they?" "!" "Is it raiders?" "Give me my blade, woman!" "They're inside the walls." "Take your men, fan out!" "The rest with me!" "Gunnar!" "Moorwen!" "He's getting away!" "Get him out ofhere!" "Where is Gunnar?" "I don't know!" "What could have done this?" "Right, get up." "It was the demon, Mimir." "Come to drag us down to Jotunheim and freeze us dead." "Enough of your forest spirits, Unferth." "It was Frankish raiders." "Sure enough!" "They climbed over the walls." "Then what, Boromir?" "We all saw Bjorn's body." "He was clawed to death." "It was an animal." "No!" "This is the work ofLucifer!" "Visited upon us because you buried King Halga like a pagan... and not like a Christian!" "My father was a Viking." "He worshiped Odin not some woodworker nailed to a cross." "And I'll be damned ifit was anything but a bear!" "First Gunnar, now us." "Three ofmy men are missing five are dead." "May Odin keep them." "So why don't you tell me about your dragon?" "My people call it a Moorwen." "A Moorwen?" "I've never even heard of such a thing." "Believe me." "The first time I saw one," "I didn't know what I was looking at." "It wasjust a smudge of light in the darkness." "It could have been anything." "That's how it draws its prey in, with light." "Foxfire." "It kills men, beasts, everything." "And it smells like death." "There's nothing like that here." "Yes, there is." "Because I brought it here." "Silence!" "Leave him!" "Come here!" "You say you're responsible for this." "Yes." "It got on my ship, it killed my crew." "Then we crashed here." "I know you don't believe me... but this thing has carved out a territory and you are in it." "You think you can frighten us with children's stories." "This is no story." "But whatever you think did this, you're going to hunt it down aren't you?" "Take me with you." "How am I supposed to fight it like this?" "You're not." "That one's yours." "What do I do with it?" "Hey!" "What do I with it?" "Outlander." "Enough!" "Mount up." "How's yourjaw?" "Yourjaw!" "Freya?" "Here." "Try some ofthis." "Cure anything from a sword in the guts to a broken heart." "You shouldn't feel too bad." "You see that?" "She once stuck me with a fork." "It seems I got a little too familiar when I was in me cups." "Well, go on!" "Drink!" "Good, eh?" "What is it?" "What is it!" "What kind of backwater are you from?" "Some place far from here." "For certain." "Far off and sad that's not tasted Herot mead." "Boromir likes his drink." "You know, Outlander... we trade in every direction for a thousand miles." "South, east and west, not north." "There's nothing there." "Maybe you haven't looked far enough." "Perhaps." "But what's a man who lives so far north doing in these seas?" "We have an outpost near here." "And that's where this Moorwen got on board your ship?" "Yes." "And what it did to your village it did to mine." "We were taking the bodies back for a burial." "That's when it must have gotten onboard." "Hold up!" "Bear came this way." "There's been a lot of animals through here since." "We should split up try to find the main trail." "That's a bad idea." "We should stay together." "We'll pair up." "Wulfric, you take the Outlander." "A bear wouldn't do this." "It's here." "Wulfric!" "Wait!" "Now that's a bear." "Outlander!" "Take this sword." "And your life, too." "It's yours again." "Wulfric!" "Wulfric!" "Kainan!" "Kainan!" "Kainan!" "Sit here!" "Be my guest tonight." "Daughter!" "Kainan needs some drink." "See, now you look like a Viking." "Doesn't he, Freya?" "Perhaps." "Nobody cooks this better than my kitchen." "Eat!" "There I was, running into the cave ahead of everyone... when suddenly, out ofnowhere came the biggest... most vicious bear I've ever seen." "He tore up two grown men... and was about to eat the king himself... when the Outlander stuck his sword in it." "You see, the bear was there." "No!" "There!" "And Rothgar was..." "Rothgar was here." "What's this?" "Creeping into Shield Hall uninvited." "Off you go!" "Wait!" "What's your name?" "Answer him, lad." "Here." "Are you hungry?" "He wants to see the sword that killed the bear." "No." "I'll trade you for your name." "Eric." "Eric." "A sword for a name." "Just bring it back in one piece." "His parents were killed by raiders a year ago." "The boy'll be fine." "We take care of our own." "Shields!" "Shields!" "Shields!" "It is." "Shield!" "Shield!" "Shield!" "You!" "Kainan!" "You." "Kainan!" "Kainan!" "Kainan!" "Up!" "Kainan!" "Kainan!" "What now?" "Follow me." "The Outlander's good." "Care to wager some gold on him?" "No one beats Wulfric at shields." "Kainan!" "Now you try this." "Oh hell." "Are you ready for this, Boromir?" "I am now." "Okay." "Not bad." "Sorry." "Outlander, I wanted..." "Kainan." "My name is Kainan." "Kainan," "I wanted to thank you for bringing my father back to me." "For saving his life." "It happened so fast I did it without thinking." "Like when you hit me?" "Hit you?" "Yes, sorry about that." "We're even now." "All the women are talking about you." "They say you're from a place far beyond the ice." "I heard one say from the home ofthe gods." "What do you think?" "I think... she was a little drunk." "Freya!" "Eeveryone thinks that bear killed your people." "It didn't." "It was the Moorwen and it will come back." "Get the others!" "It's Gunnar!" "Get out ofhere!" "Get out ofhere!" "Get out ofhere!" "Rothgar!" "It's over." "We've lost!" "No!" "Let me go!" "Get your hands offme!" "Rothgar!" "The gate." "Close the gate!" "Rothgar!" "Where are you you bastard son of a bitch?" "Where's my wife?" "Where's my boy?" "You didn't even leave me their bodies." "If it takes a thousand years" "I'll carve your heart out of your rotting chest." "Do you hear me?" "This is the man you want to make peace with?" "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "That looks deep." "Here let me clean it." "What happened out there?" "Who was that?" "That was Gunnar." "Gunnar?" "King Halga, Wulfric's father... called all the tribes together for a raid on the Franks." "Gunnar never showed." "There was an ambush and Halga was killed." "So Wulfric thinks Gunnar betrayed him." "And Gunnar thinks his village was destroyed in revenge." "That's right." "Wulfric is simple like his father." "He'll send a party into the treesjust before dawn." "And then attack from the main gate first light." "But I think he's in for a surprise." "Gunnar said wait here." "Aethril?" "Circle up." "Circle up!" "Get Wulfric and Rothgar up here now!" "What's going on?" "Wulfric!" "Wait!" "Don't shoot!" "Hold your fire." "We surrender." "It's a trick." "Archers!" "Ready!" "Fire!" "Wait!" "Hold your fire, you bastards!" "Wait!" "No!" "Open the gates!" "Wulfric!" "No!" "Look!" "Now that is not a bear." "It was like hitting a stone wall." "I hit it with all I had." "Ran." "Just like you ran from my father." "I'll cut your tongue out, boy." "Stop!" "Both of you." "That thing is still out there!" "The gods have cursed us all." "We should leave this place while we can still save our families." "This is our home!" "We are not going to let that thing chase us out!" "She's right!" "We're not leaving." "We're going to hunt this thing down and kill it like Vikings." "Hunting won't work." "You can't take it on in the open." "It's too powerful." "Well, what else is there?" "We trap it." "Even if you do track it down," "How are you going to kill it?" "Why are we even listening to him?" "He's not one of us." "That's right." "I'm not." "But you're wrong about this, Wulfric." "Like you were wrong about and the bear." "And you'll always be wrong until you stop thinking with this." "This is finished!" "You're not one of us." "The decision is ours." "However, I'm still your king." "And myjudgment is that the Outlander is correct." "We build the trap." "So, where do we start?" "Here..." "And ending... here." "What are you waiting for?" "Dig!" "The forge, what does it burn?" "Wood." "What about the torches, the lamps?" "Whale oil." "I'll need it." "How much?" "All ofit." "How's it coming?" "Is it deep enough for you?" "No." "Four more feet." "And when you got that..." "I need two rows of postholes running up both sides." "Post holes?" "Yeah." "What do you need post holes for?" "Posts." "Posts." "Posts." "Are we done now?" "Not yet." "Not yet?" "What's left?" "Shields?" "Shields." "When this thing is over there's a place here for you." "Should you wish it." "You hungry?" "What about you?" "I'll eat when you're finished." "No." "You sit." "Thank you." "I saw you talking to my father today." "What did he say?" "He asked me to stay." "What did you say?" "Freya..." "You don't even know what kind ofman I am." "I know enough." "No, you don't." "So, tell me." "Kainan?" "My people are no different than yours." "Hungry for land." "So when we found an island we wanted, we took it." "It didn't matter that it already belonged to something else..." "Moorwens." "Millions ofthem." "But we wanted it." "After all, we told ourselves they were nothing." "Just animals." "Beasts." "So we killed them all with fire." "Those we missed, we hunted down." "You obeyed your king's orders." "You didn't have a choice." "You always have a choice." "Land that belonged to the Moorwens now belonged to us." "As part ofmy pay I was given a place for my family to live." "And I thought I could forget what I'd done to get it." "Some things you can't bury deep enough." "Hey!" "What are you doing?" "That plant, it stung me." "It what?" "It stung me." "Let me show you something." "Stay right here, okay?" "Kainan." "The guns are up." "And there are none ofthem left." "You'll be safe." "I love you." "I love you, too." "Three weeks later I got word that one ofthe Moorwens had survived." "And it got in our compound and killed everyone." "It was the will ofthe gods." "It was their destiny." "There is no destiny." "There is no gods." "It wasjust me." "And I failed them." "I failed them." "This is a king's sword, passed down from my ancestors." "My father gave it to me... and told me that one day" "I would know the man to give it to." "A good man." "If you truly believe that you write the tale of your own life then the end is up to you." "More arrows!" "The gods be with you." "Boromir, close the doors." "Open the gates!" "You sure this will work?" "That's what I thought." "Hold this." "Gods above..." "Wait for my order!" "What's your damn priest doing?" "I command thee, Lucifer, quit this place!" "Ready!" "Wulfric!" "Hold your fire!" "Shoot!" "Take my hand!" "Shoot!" "Hold!" "Take it now!" "Fire!" "By the gods!" "Freya?" "Freya!" "Freya!" "Moorwen!" "Kainan" "There's another one!" "Kainan!" "Everyone's leaving." "Eric, it's not safe here anymore." "Everyone's going to the boats." "You need to go, too." "But, I want to stay here with you." "You'll come back soon." "Everyone will." "You promise?" "I promise." "Your boots, do you want them back?" "No." "They're his now." "What are you going to do?" "You're king now." "King of what?" "This?" "This... and them..." "Whatever Herot becomes tomorrow... will be because of what you do right now." "Let's go kill this thing together." "You're daft!" "We're not going down there." "That's where it came from." "That's where we're going." "But we don't know how to kill it yet." "We need better weapons." "No." "We need better metal." "Boromir, get the forge ready." "Unferth, Olaf, get the torches and the ropes." "Let's go." "I'm coming with you." "No you're not." "That thing killed my father and destroyed my home." "I'm coming with you." "This is where your ship went down?" "That's right." "In a lake?" "Don't ask." "Kainan?" "Freya?" "Freya?" "Where's Freya?" "Just get the metal and make the swords!" "Damn." "What kind ofmetal is this?" "King's sword again." "You're..." "I know." "Daft." "Let's go." "Where's it coming from?" "It's beneath us." "God." "I slipped." "Let's keep moving." "Ain't nothing down there." "Unferth!" "Wulfric!" "Can you see anything?" "Over here!" "Boromir!" "We'll drink together again, Kainan." "Herot mead." "Best in the world." "No!" "Kainan!" "Freya!" "Freya...!" "Kainan!" "That way!" "Freya!" "I'm here." "Freya, Freya." "Freya!" "Freya." "Squeeze through!" "Squeeze through!" "Too tight." "Take it!" "Freya, calm down, calm down." "By all the gods." "Move!" "Over there!" "Get her out ofhere!" "Come on!" "Swing me!" "Wulfric!" "Is it dead?" "Yes." "I wanted this for so long." "At least I got to wear it for a day." "I hope you wear it for longer than I did." "We could have been friends." "We are friends." "Eric." "Up here!" "Up here!" "Up here!" "Up here!" "You wait here for the others." "I've got something to do." "You're not coming back, are you?" "In the year ofFour Kings," "Rothgar and Wulfric were laid to rest." "Heroes in the war against the Moorwens." "And Kainan, once a stranger to us became king." "He took for himself a wife... and a boy, who became as his own son." "But only I knew his secret." "That the gods had sent us Kainan." "And when it came time to return to them he chose to stay with us instead."