The Swordswoman - Books 1-3

Chapter 3-3

"Cenel Bearnas!" Melcorka shouted.

It took that long for the remainder of the Norse war band to reach her. She heard the whirr of the thrown spear, inclined her head so it passed harmlessly by, and laughed at the attempt. Two arrows were next, their flights like the screaming of demented wind, but Melcorka flicked one from the air and ignored the second.

"Cenel Bearnas!"

"Odin!" The reply came from a dozen throats. "Odin owns you! Odin and death!"

"A quick death for you!" Melcorka yelled, as the Norse formed a semicircle around her, with the flames and smoke from the burning village rising behind them, flickering orange against the purple-bruised clouds of the sky.

They came in a rush, twelve young men with chain mail dulled by the salt-spray of their ocean passage and smears of blood on their faces from their m******e of the villagers. Twelve warriors with iron pot-helmets on their heads and iron-studded sandals on their feet. They unleashed a volley of spears, then drew long, straight swords and charged; there were twelve angry Norsemen against one untried woman. But Melcorka had Defender, and the power of the sword dictated her fight.

As the Norse approached, Melcorka shifted her weight to her left foot, so they had to alter their attack, crossing one another in their eagerness to kill. Melcorka waited until they were so bunched together that they blocked each other"s sword arms, then she stepped forward with controlled swings of Defender that took the legs from three men and left them screaming on their stumps. The next man hesitated for a second that cost him his life, as Melcorka thrust Defender straight through his throat.

"Leave some for me." A nearly toothless grin shone through Oengus" grey beard. He drew the two-handed sword from its scabbard on his back and slashed diagonally downward, cutting a Norseman nearly in half.

Melcorka nodded her appreciation as the remaining Norse turned to run. She bounded after them, caught and killed the slowest and then threw Defender at another.

"No!" Oengus held out a restraining hand. He was too late. The sword spun, blade over hilt, once, twice, three times before it lodged in the spine of the running man.

Melcorka watched the Norseman fall. She did not see the spear that a young warrior hurled until it thrummed past, with the shaft catching a glancing blow on the side of her head. She yelled and dropped, clutching at her injury.

Hearing her scream and witnessing her fall, half a dozen Norsemen ran forward, roaring their war cries: "Thor! Thor! Thor! Odin owns you!"

Melcorka could not get back to her feet. Dazed, she saw Oengus take six steps forward and stand, sword poised, to meet them. "Oengus, be careful!" Her voice was slurred, her vision blurred as she watched events unfold.

Oengus was like a rock, a chunk of granite around which the tide of Norsemen surged and broke. Melcorka forced herself to her feet as Oengus felled the first man with a short stab to the groin, ducked the swing of an axe, slashed the Achilles tendon of a third and cracked the top of his helmet onto the nose of the next. Melcorka took a step forward and stopped in sudden panic. She was no warrior! She was an island girl; she had never seen a sword until only a few days ago and had certainly never killed a man before today.

Oengus laughed as he crossed swords with a lithe, red-haired man, gasped as his opponent nicked his neck, and roared in triumph as he thrust his blade into the man"s chest.

Melcorka took a step backwards, shocked at the raw blood and shattered bodies of the battlefield. This horror was much worse than anything she had ever imagined; worse than her worst visions of hell.

"Come on, you Northern hounds!" Oengus shouted, as two warriors attacked him together, one on either side. He parried the blow of the man on his right, but swung left just an instant too late to stop the young man"s blade l*****g in at the level of his kidneys. His roar of pain raised the hairs on Melcorka"s neck.

"Oengus." She covered her mouth with her hands as the Norse swords rose and fell. Oengus, the granite rock of a few moments previously, was now an old man, a plaything to these active young warriors. They killed him slowly, chopping him to pieces as he collapsed, and laughing as his blood flowed. "Oh God, no!"

"Cenel Bearnas!" The slogan rose high in the air. "Cenel Bearnas!"

They came in a wedge formation with Bearnas leading and the rest following, men and women that Melcorka had known all her life now wielding swords and axes with as much aplomb as the most doughty of champions. They crashed into the Norse, hacked them down in seconds, then split into pairs and hunted through the clachan for any who survived.

"Mother." Melcorka could not prevent herself from shaking. Tears scored her face and dripped from her chin. "Oengus… I got him killed."

Bearnas stood over Oengus" body. "He chose the warrior"s path and died in combat," she said quietly. "It was his time. You had nothing to do with it."

"If I hadn"t…"

Bearnas put two fingers across her lips. "You don"t know what might or might not have happened, Melcorka." She stepped back. "Did you lose Defender?"

"I threw it at a Norseman," Melcorka explained.

"You know now that it is Defender that has the skill and the power, not you. You are the conduit. Without you, Defender is only a sword; without Defender, you are only an island girl. Next time you fight, never let Defender go."

"I"ll never fight again." Melcorka shook her head, still in tears, staring at the scene of horror and the butchered corpse of Oengus. "Never."

"Here…" Retrieving Defender from the body of its last victim, Bearnas threw it to Melcorka. "Clean that blade and keep it safe."

Baetan sheathed his sword. "We were lucky," he said. "That was just a raiding party."

As soon as she held Defender, Melcorka felt her courage return. "What do you mean, Baetan?"

"The fleet we saw held the Norse army, real trained warriors, not ten-to-one murderers like these creatures were." Baetan spat on the nearest Norse body. "That thing would be scared to stand in the shadow of a real Northman." The look he gave Melcorka could have frozen a volcano. "Did you think you had bested Norse warriors in a fair fight? You have a lot to learn, Melcorka, before you can face a Norse shield wall."