The Thrall (The Viking Hero Series Book 1) (9 page)

One of the Jarl's
guards took Rowan to the corner of the great hall and attached a
chain to the iron ring around his neck . He then fastened the other
end of the chain to one of the Hall's support beams.

Rowan was given a
meager meal of porridge by one of the Jarl's own thralls. Having not
ate for a couple days, save a few raw wild mushrooms that made him
feel a little ill, he was grateful for it.

The evening went on
rather late as men were feasting on meats and drinking mead. Rowan
obviously was not apart of this festivity and simply sat quietly in
the corner with his back to the pole that he was chained to.

The past couple of
days had overwhelmed him with exhaustion and it wasn't long until he
fell asleep.

The morning came fast and Rowan felt much better
after sleeping through the night. He slept through the entire noise
of the evening with the merriment that took place in the Hall. His
fatigue was too great to allow things such as being chained to a pole
or the occasional item being tossed at him by someone in the Hall to
be a bother to him.

He woke up to someone kicking his foot and telling
him to 'get up.' Rowan looked up and seen that it was one of the
Jarl's housekarls standing in front of him. He immediately got up to
his feet. The Housekarl unchained him from the pole and removed the
leather lashing that was used to bind his hands.

Rowan was relieved to have his hands untied. It
was a bit painful, especially sleeping, to be bound like that. He
rubbed his wrists to let the blood flow through them once again.

The Housekarl looked at Rowan and said, "I am
not going to bother tethering you. I trust you won't run off."
he said while patting the hilt of the sword that was hanging from his
waist.

Rowan nodded.

The Housekarl led Rowan outside where the rest of
the men had already gathered. It
wasn't long before the men were ready to go.

They walked to the
blacksmith's longhouse where Rowan showed them the path leading into
the forest where the sheep had ran.

The men prepared
themselves by putting on their battle gear. They wanted to make sure
they were ready in case they were ambushed anywhere along the way.
The Jarl's Housekarls wore spangenhelms with visors which made them
look real intimidating. They also wore full chain mail shirts. Some
of the karls that volunteered wore helms as well, but theirs weren't
as good of quality as the ones worn by housekarls.

All the men had round
wooden shields with iron shield bosses. Every shield was uniquely
painted and different from one another. Some of the men had swords,
some had spears, and a few carried battle axes. A couple of the men
carried bows as well.

They were all equipped
with smaller axes on their belts, which was customary.

Except for Rowan, they
were all well armed and prepared for anything that came their way.

Nevertheless, Rowan
personally didn't think they were prepared for what was up on that
hill. He knew his escaping was pure luck on his part and this time he
was unarmed. Not that it mattered at this point. He knew he hurt it
with the blacksmith's ax. There was something about the ax that hurt
it when Sven's arrows didn't.

They walked into
the forest and up the hill following the path led by Rowan. The trail
left wasn't as prom
inent as it was before, so Rowan relied on
memory and hope.

He hoped that he was taking them the right way. If
he wasn't able to lead them to the mound where Bjord and Sven were
killed, it would definitively be to his own doom.

They walked through the woods for a few hours
until they came upon the remnants of the first sheep. This was the
same one found by Bjord, but there wasn't much left of the sheep this
time. Something had discovered it and had a feast. The only thing
left of it were scattered bone and other parts. It was hard to tell
it was even a sheep.

The sight of this pleased Rowan because it told
him that they were going the right way. This was a small glimmer of
hope that he'd be able to prove his story and spare his life.

The men only paused briefly for a swig of mead
then Rowan continued leading them up through the woods until they
came to the spot where the other sheep was discovered.

Again it was obvious that wildlife had discovered
the dead sheep and had a feast. There was only the sheep's head and a
few bones left on this one. The remains reassured Rowan that he was
still leading them in the right direction. His biggest fear of this
whole expedition was going the wrong way and getting them lost.

As they continued further up the hill, the smell
of decay began filling the air around them. It was a strangely strong
and extremely rancid odor. One of the Karls that was carrying a spear
was unable to tolerate it and lost his last meal when the smell got
even stronger.

Apparently his stomach wasn't as strong as the
rest of him.

A couple of the other men had on occasion gagged
as well. Rowan wasn't sure if they were getting sick because of the
smell alone or because of seeing the other man get sick, or a
combination of both.

The smell of decay definitely had their attention.
Rowan wasn't as bothered by the smell this time as he was before. He
was more bothered by knowing what the smell belonged to. He knew the
odor meant that the Dead Walker was near.

A few of the men were starting to get concerned
and one of them said to the Housekarl leading the expedition, which
Rowan learned was named Hakon. "What if the thrall isn't lying?
Are we prepared for what we will find up there?"

Hakon answered, "we're prepared. We will make
our stand no matter what is up there."

The rest of the men nodded in agreement, not
wanting to reveal their own feelings of apprehension or show any sign
of weakness.

They continued trekking up the hill as the smell
grew stronger. A few of the men were now trying to cover their mouths
in an attempt to not breath in the putrid scent and allow it to
sicken them. It was hard for them not to feel like their stomachs
weren't about to turn on them at any moment. In fact, Rowan thought
the odor was a little bit stronger than it was the last time he'd
been through there. Not wanting to alarm them any more than they
already were, he kept that observation to himself.

Just as the eyes of some of the men were starting
to water from the putrid smell, they reached the thicket brush that
led to the cliff where Rowan climbed down when the creature chased
him.

"This is where the sheep tracks ended."
Rowan explained, "We figured that the sheep probably ran
themselves through this bush and ran over the cliff on the other
side. The hole through the bushes was much smaller."

He pointed to the now large hole through the
bushes. "This is also where I escaped the creature."

The smaller hole Sven and Rowan had original
crawled through was gone. The Draug had smashed its way through the
bushes and made a large enough hole to walk to the ledge now.

Rowan noticed the rope he used to lower himself
down was on the ground by the cliff's edge. He pointed out to the
other men.

"There's the rope I used. It's still tied to
the base of the bush root when I lowered myself down to escape the
creature. It had grabbed the rope and tried to pull me up. That was
when I was forced to let go and fall to the edge of a small cliff
below."

One of the men picked up the rope and looked at
it. After examining it he looked over the side of the cliff below and
said, "you were very lucky to have landed on that small ledge."

Rowan agreed.

He turned and looked at the other men and said,
"there was no other place to fall except to the rocks below. He
was very lucky."

Rowan knew he was lucky, that is, except for now.
He didn't feel so lucky anymore having to come back to where the
creature was. That fact just dawned on him as he turned to where the
brush was torn to the side leading up to the mound.

The thought of facing that creature again turned
him pale. He absolutely did not want to go back up there. Especially
to go back up there unarmed where the beast was probably waiting for
them. But he had n
o choice. It was
do this or face murder charges.

While the men were
still examining where Rowan escaped, he turned and pointed to the
path torn through the brush that was further up the hill.

"The mound where
the creature came at us is through there. It's also where Bjord and
Sven's bodies should still be."

"For your sake,
you better be right."

"For all our
sake, I hope I am wrong."

It was now obvious to
the men that Rowan had been telling them the truth in the Jarl's
Hall. They could see where the bushes and tree branches were torn
away by something that was much larger than a man.

They walked up to
where a path was torn through in the bushes and one of the men said
to nobody in particular, "a bear perhaps?"

Another man responded by saying, "No, that
was no bear."

Rowan pointed through the passageway and said,
"the mound where the beast was is right through there, just on
the other side of the path."

The men took on a new stance, they raised their
shields and had their weapons at the ready for anything that would
come through the torn passageway.

Rowan, being unarmed and unwilling, stood behind
them.

He hoped the men would be able to successful
battle the creature and kill it. But he had much doubt in that. He'd
seen the beast in action and knew these men were no threat to it.

The passageway, which was barely wide enough for
one man to pass through when Bjord, Sven, and Rowan had originally
hacked their way through it, was now wide enough for three men to
pass side by side. This was all thanks to the beast crashing its way
through when it was chasing after Rowan.

The men grouped up three men wide, making a shield
wall with their weapons poised as they carefully began stepping
forward through the passage.

The remaining men packed behind them at the ready.
The two men with bows each nocked an arrow and had them partially
drawn back, ready to fire over the heads of the men in front of them.

Rowan tailed behind them a pace or two. He knew
what laid ahead waiting and he was glad he was in the back of
everyone. He didn't want to go through, but even though nobody told
him to, he knew he had to pass through with them to the other side.

The men got through without incident and took up
positions in front of the mound. They were not sure what to expect,
except from what Rowan had told them had happened. The body of Bjord
still laid where the beast had killed him.

Hakon walked over and investigated the body. The
rest of the men looked on, not wanting to turn their backs to the
mound. They now believed Rowan's story completely and were visibly
shaken now.

Hakon knelt down and looked at Bjord's body,
examining it for a few moments before standing back up.

"This was not done by any man. You can tell
his body was crushed by something very large."

The Housekarl named Erik walked over by Hakon to
inspect Bjord's body himself.

"That was done by something unnatural."

Hakon turned towards Rowan and asked, "where's
the body of his son, Sven?"

"The creature threw his body over the side of
the cliff." said Rowan as he pointed in the direction of the
ledge, which was half concealed by brush.

The two men walked and looked over the side. They
nodded at each other in agreement before returning to where the rest
of the men were near the mound.

Hakon looked at Rowan and asked, "where did
the creature come out from?"

Rowan looked at him and said, "I don't know.
He was suddenly there upon us."

Incidentally, just as he said this, a mist began
coming out from the burial mound and spreading in the immediate area
around them.

"A mist just like this formed before it
appeared!" cried Rowan in panic, remembering the mist now. He
had forgotten about the mist.

Hakon lifted up his shield and yelled out to the
rest of the men, "Shield Wall!"

The men assembled next
to each other tightly and formed a shield wall by overlapping their
shields together side by side. They held their weapons at the ready
above their shields.

Rowan was greatly impressed by witnessing the
disciple in their formation. His people were a warfaring folk and
trained for battle their entire lives. It wasn't a thrall's place to
be armed beyond that of a small ax carried on the belt, which was
mainly used for utility reasons, but he's had the opportunity many
times to help Sven train and learned how to form a shield wall.

In this case, however, Rowan stood behind his
armed escort.

The mist grew thicker around them as did the
putrid smell of death and decay in the air. It was a smell nobody
could ever get accustomed to.

The two men with bows pulled back their draw
strings, ready to fire their arrows immediately at the first sign of
anything.

When the mist grew too thick to see through was
when they were startled by the ear piercing screech of the dead
walker suddenly appearing behind them.

The men on the shield wall quickly turned around
and tried to reform in the opposite direction. They were too late.
The massive angry beast, dark blue in the color of decay, charged at
them while swinging its massive arms.

One of the swings knocked Rowan to the side,
causing him to tumble in the air. He hit the ground hard and nearly
rolled off the cliff edge it had previously thrown Sven over just
days ago.

The creature knocked both bowmen back as it
charged through them and caused them to misfire their bows. Their
arrows were sent harmlessly into the air.