The Long Ships (63 page)

We came out of the river and sailed across the sea, uncertain whether we had guessed rightly; but when we reached the mouth of the river Dnieper, we saw fishermen there and learned from them that one of the Emperor’s red ships had entered the river the day before. My ship was smaller than the treasurer’s, but I was not afraid, for I had Lezghian and Khazar archers aboard, good men for a fight, while he had only men of his own household.

Then there was heavy rowing with few intervals for resting, but whenever the rowers began to complain, I gave them a double measure of wine and comforted myself with the thought that the treasurer, with his heavier ship, must be in a worse plight. I saw no horse-herds on the banks, and no Patzinaks, at which we were glad; for when the Patzinaks are on the warpath, or are pasturing their horses on the riverbanks, they regard the river and all that moves on its surface as their own, so that no sailor dares land to cook his food. They are the most arrogant of peoples, and the worst robbers, and the Emperor himself pays them friendship-money every year.

On the fourth day the bodies of three men floated down the river. By the marks on their backs it could be seen that they were oarsmen of the treasurer who had grown tired. This I took as an encouraging sign, and I now began to hope we might overtake him at the weirs. On the next day more bodies floated downstream, but they did not belong to the treasurer’s men. Then we found his ship, stranded on a tongue of land and empty. I realized from this that he had encountered a river ship and captured it, that he might proceed more swiftly and take his treasure more easily across the portage when he came to the weirs. For a keeled warship is no easy thing to drag overland.

Toward the evening of the eighth day we heard the splash of the weirs and reached the portage. There was nothing to be seen there save two oarsmen who had been left because they were too weak to row farther. We gave them wine, which revived them, and they told us that the treasurer had put his new ship on rollers that very day. But he had been unable to find either horses or oxen to harness to it, for the riverbanks were deserted, so that he had only his oarsmen to pull it, and they were all exceedingly weary. They could not, therefore, have got far.

Halvdan and I rejoiced when we heard this. We took archers with us and followed the tracks of the ship. Between the second and third weir, we sighted them. Then we turned inland and crept swiftly forward behind the burial mound of the Patzinak chieftains, which stands on a rise there, surmounted by skulls, and waited beside it with arrows in our bows until they had almost reached the spot where we were hiding. I saw the treasurer and his father walking beside the ship in full armor, with swords in their hands. I ordered four archers to mark them, and the others to kill the men who were in charge of the harnessed rowers.

The bows sang, men fell to the ground, and we all drew our swords and charged, whooping our battle-cry. The rowers dropped their ropes and fled, and all was confusion; but the treasurer and his father fell not, because the Devil and their good armor protected them. Zacharias the sword-bearer, who had been grazed by several arrows, fled quicker than anyone else, running like a youth. But I gave most of my attention to the treasurer. I saw him turn in astonishment, his face a sickly white above his black beard, as our arrows and war-whoops reached him. He gathered his men about him, roaring at them in a terrible voice, being pained at the prospect of being parted from so much gold. I wish he had stood his ground there longer.

Halvdan and I and the master of the archers, a Lezghian man named Abchar, were the first to reach them, and we fought with the men who stood protecting the treasurer. I saw him bare his teeth as he recognized Halvdan; but we could not get at him, for his men fought bravely, even though their leader was cowering behind them. Then the archers joined us, and we forced the treasurer’s men back toward their ship; but when at last we broke their resistance, we found him fled and several of his men with him.

It was by now almost dusk, and I was uncertain what to do. The master of the archers was a man who always did as he was bidden without asking questions; I bade him take his men and pursue the enemy up the river as swiftly as he could, not pausing until darkness fell. I told him that the Emperor had put a price of a hundred pieces of silver on the treasurer’s head, and a like sum on his father’s, and that this would be paid in full to whoever brought me their heads. So he hastened away with his men.

So soon as Halvdan and I were left alone, we climbed up into the ship. There, in the cabin, hidden behind sacks and casks, lay the treasure, in four small chests and seven skin sacks, all sealed with the Emperor’s seal. But sight of so much wealth caused me less joy than concern as to what we should do next, and how we should succeed in bringing it home without anyone else learning of its existence. Halvdan said: “We must hide this before the archers return.” I said: “Where can we find a place large enough to hide so much?” He said: “Perhaps in the river.” “You are right,” I said; “wait here while I investigate.”

I went to the river, and there found the place of which I have spoken, with the river frothing as it coursed over it. Together we carried the treasure there and hid it well, save two sacks of silver which, after much thought, I left in the ship.

Abchar and his men now returned. They carried three heads, but not those I most wished to see. Together we ate and drank food and wine that we found in the ship. Then I said to him: “Here, Abchar, you see these two sacks, sealed with the Emperor’s seal. This is the treasure that the treasurer Theofilus and his father stole from the Emperor. Whether it is silver or gold I know not, for none may break the Emperor’s seal. Now we are in a sore plight, for all this must speedily be brought intact to the Emperor; but I was commanded by him not to return without the treasurer’s head. This, therefore, is what we must do. I and my son will go up the river to search for the treasurer, as far as Kiev; and two of your men, volunteers, shall go with us. But you and the rest of your men shall return to our ship with this treasure and bid the helmsman convey you to Miklagard. We four shall find our own way back, when our task has been accomplished.”

Those were my words, and Abchar nodded and felt the weight of the sacks. He spoke to his men, and two Khazars volunteered to come with us. Abchar and the others departed with the silversacks, and I was glad that thus far all had gone well. I needed the two archers to help me in my quest for a boat, lest we should encounter robbers, or perhaps the treasurer himself, if he had managed to rally his men. I thought he would probably continue his flight from us, but in that I was wrong.

We were tired, and that night I took the first watch myself. Then I bade one of the Khazars replace me; but he must have slept, in order, perhaps, that our fatal destiny might be fulfilled. For during the night, while we were all asleep in the ship, the treasurer, with his father and four men whom he still had, fell upon us unawares. I was awakened by the clatter of stones as someone stumbled, and sprang to my feet with my sword drawn. Two men leaped at me and as I met them, I saw the treasurer fell one of the Khazars and charge at Halvdan, whirling his sword above his head. Halvdan must have been sleeping deeply, for he had barely managed to draw his sword; I would have given my life and all the gold to have come between them. The men who had engaged me fell dead, but I scarcely noticed them go down, for as I turned upon the treasurer, Halvdan was already lying at his feet. I hewed with both hands; it was my last blow, and my best. It cleft his helmet and chain hood, and split his skull so deeply that I saw his teeth fall out through his throat. But as death bit him, his sword entered my eye. I fell to the ground and knew that I was about to die; but the thought of that did not trouble me, for I thought: “Halvdan is dead, and I have avenged him, and everything is now finished.”

This story wearies me, and there is little more to tell. The next I knew was that I was lying bound, and that sword-bearer Zacharias was sitting beside me, laughing, with a laugh that was not that of a man. He told me how I was to be maimed, and croaked much about the gold. I spat in his face and bade him show me his ears. He had one man left, and between them they chopped off my hand and heated oil from the ship to dip the stump in, so that I should not die too quickly. But he promised me a quick death if I would tell him where the gold was. I did not oblige him, fearing no pain, for my soul was dead. I told him the gold was on its way to the Emperor, and he believed me. We spoke no more.

Then I heard a scream, and a man whimpered and began to cough and then fell silent. Then I was lying in a boat that was being pulled across the ground. I was given drink, and knew nothing. Then the boat was floating on the water, and it seemed to me that I was dead. The man who was rowing talked much, and I understood some of what he said. He was the second Khazar. He was singing and whistling, and very merry. He had run away when we had been attacked, and had fled back to my ship, but it had gone. So he had returned and, creeping up close behind the men who were working on me, and killed them both with arrows. Why he troubled to save what remained of me no one can know; he may have been a good man, as Khazars often are. Two poor peasants had come over from the other bank to plunder the dead, and he had given them the treasurer’s ship with all that it contained, on condition that they gave him their small boat and helped him carry me up the portage. Thus it happened; I know only what he said.

He laughed all the time and praised his luck, for on the bodies of the treasurer and his father he had found much silver and gold, and the arms and weapons that he had taken from them were of the finest workmanship. On the bodies of the other men, too, he had found money and jewels, and had, besides, taken a fine gold ring from the finger of my son. He was now, he told me, intending to buy horses in Kiev, and a woman or two, after which he would return to his own people, a rich man, in armor. He cared for me as well as he could while telling me all this. I wanted to drag myself over the side of the boat and drown, but was too weak to do so.

He knew that I wanted to go to Kiev, and when we reached the city, he handed me over to some monks. I wanted to reward him with silver, for he had left my belt untouched, but he would accept nothing. He had, he said, enough already, and had, besides, won favor with God for the way he had treated me.

I stayed with the monks and was nursed by them, until at length I grew better and began again to think of the gold. Then men from the north visited the monks and asked me questions. They understood that I wished to go home and learned that I had the means wherewith to pay them. So I ascended the river, one ship passing me on to another, until at last I came aboard the Gothlanders’ ship, where I met Orm.

All the time the thought weighed heavily on me that I would never be able to tell anyone about the Bulgar gold and where it lies, even if, by some marvel, I should reach home and rejoin my kinsmen. But now, thanks to your cunning, priest, I have been enabled to tell everything and can die happier.

As to the gold, Orm may do as he thinks best. It is a great treasure, enough for many men, and none can say what so much gold is worth, or how much blood has been spilled for its sake. It lies there in the place I spoke of and will not be hard to find for anyone who knows where to look for it. There is, besides, a mark near by which shows the place; the bones, by now pecked clean by crows, of the treasurer Theofilus and the sword-bearer Zacharias —may their souls wander without refuge till the end of time—and of my son, Halvdan, on whose soul God have mercy.

1.
China. (The word “China” was not used in those times.)

AS soon as he learned about the gold, Orm sent a man with a message to Toke.

“Tell him,” he said, “that there is question of a voyage after a great treasure in the Eastland, that he is the man whose advice I would most value on the matter, and that it would be good if he could come here quickly.”

Toke needed no further persuasion than this, and before Are and the priest had finished telling their story he arrived at Gröning, eager to learn more of what was afoot. After he had been welcomed and had drunk a cup of ale, he said:

“I heard word
Of bellied sailcloth,
Creak of oars,
And gold in Eastland.
Then I smelled
A smell remembered:
Salt of spray
And black-pitched boat’s keel.”

But Orm replied, more soberly:

“Twoscore years
And their stored wisdom
Curb men’s lust
For distant faring;
No slight task
By stealth to pilfer
Far-drowned gold
In Gardarike.

“But the treasure is rich beyond imagination,” he added, “and I have never needed counsel so urgently as in this affair. Ylva will not advise me; she says it is a matter that I must decide for myself, and it is not every day that she speaks thus. I have therefore asked you here to counsel me what to do. Here you see Olof Summerbird, who has himself been in the Eastland, and who is a man of much wisdom. Three heads are better than two when such an important matter as this has to be decided.”

Orm then told Toke of all that had happened to Are and of the Bulgar gold; the only thing he did not tell him was where the gold lay hidden.

“That knowledge,” he said, “I shall keep to myself until we reach the place. For gold can cause much bad luck; and if it should become known too soon where the gold lies, the information might come to the wrong ears, and other hands might touch it before mine. If this gold is ever to be lifted, it shall be lifted by my hands and no one else’s; for it has been bequeathed to me by Are, who thinks of himself as dead. But to those who help me get it I shall, if our journey proves successful, give good shares of it. I have been restless ever since I heard of this gold, and sometimes have hardly been able to sleep for thinking of it. What troubles me most is that, if I go in search of it, I shall be away from my home here for a long while and shall continually be plagued with anxiety for the safety of my house and family. Besides which such a voyage will necessitate the expenditure of much money on a good ship and crew. And if, in spite of all this, I seek the gold and then find that some thief has got there before me, I shall have wasted a great deal of money.”