We were summoned to see Volker again, so accompanied by Tohrwulf, Herewulf and Herefrith I went to see Volker. We were greeted courteously and taken to a small, well-appointed part of the hall, which was partitioned off and up some stairs. It had solid floors and it would be difficult to eavesdrop on our conversation.
The walkyrie Frithugyth was present as a guard and we were introduced. Volker warned us to be aware that there were many peoples here in Hameburg and that the Saxons of Old Saxony had mixed relations with some of their neighbours. To the West were the Friesians – not one people, but many small kingdoms where men with a single hall and a longship could call themselves king. It was marshy and difficult to traverse and easy to hide ships in many channels and prey on trade. He had a plan with which we might help. First, he had to have my word nothing heard here would pass these walls and I agreed. He gave a nod to Frithugyth who returned with a Thunor priest and an oath ring and oaths were made.
He knew Friesians had spies in Hameburg and that he couldn’t catch and kill them all. They watched which ships were laden will valuable cargo, and learnt to where they would sail. Many of the ships went to Franks and Jutes and Saxons in Britannia and beyond. Of late the pirates had become annoyingly competent at sallying forth from the marshland and catching prizes.
He wanted to lay a trap but would need some bait, which is where we could help with our small fast ship – if the wind was right, we should be able to escape, but the trick would be not to escape too completely. He wanted us to lead the pirates away from shore, so his ships could cut them off. The scheme would be its own reward, we would get to keep what was loaded as the lure. We would need a good wind and the winds were usually not good for Britannia, but the Thunor priest, Sigbald, assured us there would be such a wind in the next week. Volker’s ships would be disguised as ships of no value to go out separately. He thought the pirates would likely have four longships, but maybe more, with maybe 100 to 200 men. If the pirates failed to respond to us, we would be free to continue on with our prize.
I decided to claim that we were taking a gift to Britannia if the question arose and when I whispered the plan to Wihtburg, she suggested that Athelbert of Kent should be the recipient. If we entered the mouth of the Thames then the kingdom of the Angles would be close to the north bank.
I tried to recruit more crew members and had six applicants. One was Gifel, the young pilot, who I rejected as too young and inexperienced. We accepted the others immediately, apart from Arcil, who was a difficult case. He was known to be an excellent fighter and a very experienced seaman, but he had killed Sperling. I told the crew I felt that he had been a victim of circumstance and as far as I was concerned the wergild had settled the matter, but I invited the crew to raise any objections. Aethelbert said that it was strange to take him on, but didn’t object, Zosimus sucked his teeth but didn’t object either, Herefrith was uncomfortable but would accept my decision. Berthildis agreed with my summary, so he was accepted.
We waited in port and prepared for departure. I distributed the wergild to the crew. Tohrwulf was showing promise and had now learnt the symbols and meanings of the runes. After four days there was a scuffle on the quayside and a cart trundled up. Six sea chests were taken from it and loaded on to the ship. One was dropped on to the deck and silver spilled out and was hurriedly reloaded and the chests all stowed. There were lots of offers of help from bystanders. Shortly after I received a message to sail the next day at dawn and await a favourable wind at Cuxhaven.
It was an easy day to Cuxhaven with the current and we were greeted in friendly fashion by the harbourmaster and with a nod and a wink from Godsbrand. He told us everything was ready for dawn the following day.
We set sail at dawn and when we got to sea we were met by a southeasterly wind. As the crew adjusted the canvas, one of the crew found Ythil hidden away. The lad claimed he would be useful and pointed out a sandbank, but I didn’t think we had time to return him to land. Bumoth agreed that the currents were tricky here. Akka shouted out the directions for getting the sail up and set the course – slightly south of west.
Tohrwulf was out on the extremity of the yard arm and fell into the water. Bumoth removed his gear and dived in, changing into a seal, and rescued him. The ship lost way and haul in Tohrwulf and managed to get Bumoth on to the gunwale so he could change back. Many of the crew were astounded by the transformation. “Why weren’t you wearing your cloak?”, asked Bumoth.
We started to see the Friesian coast and Osgyth gave advice. I decided this was the time to reveal the plan to the crew and had a mixed reaction. Bumoth was upset not to have been included in discussions. All were concerned by the danger.
Sometime towards midafternoon there was a cry from masthead; five ships on the port bow. We had been sailing a couple of points to the south of the wind direction, but Akka now adjusted the canvas to sail before the wind, which meant we were sailing tangentially away from the line the ships were taking. They seemed to be primarily using the wind too. We were heading out towards the sea of the dead. After half an hour two of the pursuing ships had dropped back, but three were gaining on us.
In the next half hour, of the two laggardly ships, one caught up with two of the leading ships but the other dropped further back and one was in the lead and closer. Over another 30 minutes Tohrwulf, who was up the mast, could see one ship still gaining, with another dropping back further with one slightly ahead of the other two, and the fifth keeping pace but behind. In the next half an hour we maintained station against the closest, with two stages to the next one, then another stage to the next two, and a further three stages to the last. Tohrwulf could see in the distance a line of ships behind our pursuers.
After another 30 minutes the closest pursuer was now in bow range and the next was only one stage behind, the next was a further stage behind and the next a further two stages back, and the last had changed course and was heading away on the wind. Akka changed course slightly to sail close hauled and Eadrid and I tried to shield the helm, but no arrows came our way. We were now heading pretty much straight north and opened a bit more of a gap. Now there were two ships close behind and a third two stages further back. The fourth was even further back, and the fifth was now heading East. It looked as though there were 8 other longships – we hoped they were Saxon.
We completed our maneuver but Osfram held on to the rope too long and headed overboard. Aethelbert tried to grab him, but was too far away and Osfram fell, into the cold water and we left him behind. Sfter a further half an hour it looked as though only one of the pursuers could manage to sail as close hauled as the Spearhafoc and the others were dropping back. Two Saxons were chasing after the pirate that had changed course and the others were following the remaining pirates with the wind behind them to north west.
Over the next 30 minutes we opened a small gap and quite far behind us the single pirate longship had been engulfed by two Saxon ships. Bumoth commented approvingly that the Spearhafoc really held to Wade’s currents. He was mainly spending his time in the prow shrieking galdor, but occasionally shouted an instruction back to Acca at the helm.
After another 30 minutes our pursuer had closed to a very long bow shot. The ship looked like a 40 man longship and we could make out men on board wearing mail and grimhelm and we could see an archer on the foredeck, but his shots came nowhere close to us in the difficult winds. It was now about 2 or 3 hours from dark. Directly to our front we could see a big bank of dark sky, which looked like an approaching storm. Suddenly our sail ripped up the middle and we were left with two rags to give us a little way in the buffeting winds, which see4med to be coming from varying directions as the storm approached. The storm descended on both ships as I gave the order to arm and we prepared for boards.
It was now too windy fore archery as the Friesian pirate started to close. We could see armed men lining the sides of our opposition, several were wearing byrnies and many others were in studded leather. The ship seemed to be running us down.
There was an almighty crack, and it sounded like we had sustained some damage as the prow of the Friesian longship crashed in amidships but Acca turned at the last moment to shield us from the worst of the impact. Some of our crew were jostled by the impact and Wihtburg went down, struck her head and didn’t get up.
Grapples were thrown and landed on our gunwales and I ordered the crew to cut them. Aenrid severed one, but three were still joining the two ships. Herefrith cut the one in the prow, but more were thrown. However, the sea was very heavy and it was difficult for the Friesians to drag the ships together. Spears and daroth were exchanged. Herewulf and Tohrwulf struck a couple of the pirates and Acca took a daroth in the thigh. Herefrith was also hit a glancing blow. Sigehelm and Aenrid damaged were also wounded. Eadgyth very nimbly skipped from bench to bench and cut a grapple and Osgyth severed another, but there were still some attached. Even so the ships were yawing wildly back and forth, at the closest point Friesians were poised to jump but decided they were not close enough.
A gust of wind blows Aedrid’s shield off his arm and it skimmed away a remarkable distance in the fierce wind. Herewulf looked into the turbulent water – there were a lot of whitecaps, but he thought he saw a form in the waved with long white hair.
The Friesian longship had now taken the sail down. Another grapple landed and Leoflaed had her leg pinned and started to scream in pain. Arcil rushed to her aid and managed to cut her free. Herewulf could see more forms in the water. Bumoth seemed to break off his chant and started shouting and pointing at the waters. The crew managed to slash off the last of the cables connecting the two ships. I looked over at the Friesian longship and could see that they were no lomger paying us much attention. Bumoth shouted something about the daughters of Llyr and then took his spear and thrust it over the side.
Tohrwulf and I both glanced down and saw something like a wave which turned into a person and grasped the gunwale of the ship and there were others doing the same. Tohrwulf thrust but missed and jabbed his spear into the ship. I hit it with my rune marked spear and cleaved straight through as though it was water and it disappeared to be replaced by another. They looked like women with white hair like spume. They were gripping the ship and tossing it from side to side. The Friesian pirate was drifting away, but was also struggling with similar forces. I hit another figure and again it disappeared like water.
It was becoming apparent that only those without rune-marked weapons were having any impact on the figures. One of them reached out of water and wrapped itself around Gorvan and sucked him off the Spearhafoc into the turbulent waters. A great rocking began and the gunwales were in danger of being swamped. Bumoth was again shouting galdor, with a serious look on his face.
Herewulf found himself between Osgyth and Berthildis, and gave his spare rune marked scramasaex to Berthildis, just as another daughter of Llyr emerged from the water to grapple her. She stabbed it and it became seawater again.
Tohrwulf and I were quite close to Bumoth as cries of despair came from around the ship and the Spearhafoc started to go under the waves. The Wade priest was still in the prow and he shouted as though the galdor was coming to a crescendo and he thrust his scramasaex into his own chest as the ship goes beneath the waves. Tohrwulf and I clung to the rigging as the ship went down.
There was a sensation of falling and then a terrible crunch as the ship hits rocks and it felt as though the bones of the ship were breaking up, but we were no longer in the water. I looked around and could see that it was still twilight but on a low-lying shore. There was flotsam and jetsam around. There were some bodies lying still and others moaning in pain, while others were getting up and looking around. I felt completely disoriented.
We were quite far up a shingly beach. To the north was a big stand of rushes like the sea margin. To the south and slightly to the west were wooded hills. It was baffling. On the prow of the Spearhafoc was Bumoth with a knife in his chest clutching the gunwale, dead. Where were we?