For The White Christ Part 38

Urged on by the peril of discovery, Olvir had crept sideways up the ledge, even as the Saracens galloped away. The rock, as he slipped along its face, seemed to reel and thrust out against him, so that at each slow step he thought to hurl down into the chasm. It was well for him that in his boyhood he had climbed for the nests of sea-fowl on cliffs yet dizzier. The rock was swaying before his darkened gaze.

Instinctively he drew himself upward. At last he was bending over the cliff's edge. Then darkness fell upon him, and he sank forward in a death-like swoon.

But life lay strong in the breast of the sea-king. In a little he sighed and half turned. His opening eyes gazed sideways along the cliff's edge. A hundred paces or so distant, over a projection of the rock, he saw the tops of a pair of turbans. Stung to instant action by the sight, he drew himself up from the brink of the cliff, and crept over the rocks toward a little fir wood on the slope above. Within a spear's length the heads and shoulders of the two Saracens came into view; but both men were leaning over the brink of the precipice, staring down at the wild scene in the gorge bottom.

"Odin blind the Asiamen!" he muttered, and he glided like a wounded weasel over the bare s.p.a.ce which lay between him and safety.

At last he gained the first tree. He was safe from the swart watchers.

But then something stirred in the midst of the young firs, a few feet before him. A groan rose to his lips. He sank down, only to grip his sword-hilt and rise again, the bared blade ready to strike. His lips pressed together in a smile of grim despair, and he crept forward again.

Something showed through the fir twigs. He peered under the branches into a tiny glade. There, within half-a-dozen steps, stood Zora his red mare, tethered beside two other coursers, and no man was in sight.

CHAPTER XXVII

Then Brynhild laughed Till the walls rang again: "Good luck To your hands and swords That have felled The goodly prince!"

LAY OF SIGURD.

Midway down the valley of the Little Nive the warriors of the Frankish host lay at ease about their fires, while across the camp fell the shadow of the early mountain twilight. All alike were merry; for now the rugged fells were pa.s.sed; the sun-scorched Saracen Land lay behind.

In the morning the great train of plunder-laden carts and wains would be allotted, and each folk-levy would journey home by its own way, to enjoy the war-loot.

Not the least merry in the host were the king's "men," gathered about the royal pavilion. Messengers had come from Ca.s.seneuil with confirmation of the queen's good health, and the welcome tidings that old Rudulf, the Grey Wolf, had come leaping out of the Sorb Mark in the nick of time, to save Fulda from the ravaging Saxons. With Teutoric, Count of the Frisian Mark, sweeping across Westphalia toward Paderborn, and Gerold and Worad making for the harried Rhinegau by forced marches through Austrasia, none might doubt that the wolves of Odin would soon be fleeing back to their forests with aching teeth.

In celebration of the fair tidings, Karl had relaxed his usual abstemiousness, and was drinking freely with his lords at the door of his tent. All about the royal seat the Franks stood laughing and jesting. The king himself sat smiling in careless amus.e.m.e.nt at one of the gay groups where Rothada and Liutrad played at tag with the pages about Abbot Fulrad.

But back in the dark recess of the pavilion was another group, whose members gulped their wine from shaking goblets, and peered out at the wa.s.sailers with little merriment in their looks. Crouched in the corner behind the others was Kosru, the Magian leech, muttering plaintive invocations to his sun-G.o.d.

"It cannot now be long. The word will soon come," growled Hardrat, who, though drinking even more immoderately than usual, was kept sober by the intense strain. The Magian edged a little nearer the thickset Thuringian.

"The word will soon come," he echoed in a trembling voice.

"And we crouch here like witless oafs," rejoined Fastrada. "Come; there's nothing to betray us but our own faces. Let us go out and make merry with the others."

"Well spoken, daughter of Rudulf! This time our great plot has failed; yet our enemy will soon have cause enough for grief. We will go out and rejoice at the tidings which shall soon blacken his merrymaking. Come.

The good wine has put heart into me," answered Hardrat, and he stooped to grasp Kosru by the arm. But the Magian was palsied with terror; and while Fastrada lingered beside him, in a vain attempt to overcome his fear, Hardrat came springing back from behind the king's seat.

"Stay!" he cried. "Here comes a rider, fleeing down the valley."

"_The word!_" Seized with a second panic, the plotters drew back again into the depths of the tent.

A sudden hush had fallen upon the merrymakers about the king. All had turned, with paling cheeks, to gaze up the road. Down the valley a red Arab courser was racing as for life, and upon the flying beast sat a blood-stained figure which swayed and reeled in the saddle like a drunken man.

The king sprang up beside Fulrad.

"G.o.d's wounds!" he cried. "What mummery is this?"

But then from the viking camp in the rear burst out a terrible shout, and the lofty figure of Floki the Crane came rus.h.i.+ng through the midst of the Franks.

"Olvir! Olvir!--my earl--my bright one!" he cried; and as Liutrad sprang in and halted the red mare at the edge of the gathering, Floki's long arm caught her rider from the saddle. But it was Rothada who took the king's flagon out of the cupbearer's hand and ran to place it at the lips of the Northman.

The fiery wine lent new strength to the fainting messenger. He drew away from Floki and faced the king.

"Vengeance!--vengeance, lord king!" he gasped. "Slain is the Hero--my brother--and all his host! I alone come forth alive--I alone--to call for vengeance!"

Karl's eyes blazed with terrible anger.

"Whose is the guilt?" he demanded.

But Olvir was reeling. Blood gushed from his mouth. He fell back into Floki's arms like one dead.

Quivering with rage and grief, the giant raised his earl as though a child, and turned upon the king.

"Thor!" he roared. "Do you still stand idle? Who rules the fell-folk?"

"Ha! Lupus,--that b.a.s.t.a.r.d fox!" cried Karl. "Where's Hardrat? Stay; 'tis a deed for his own men; they will not fail. You shall lead them yourself, Crane,--you and Liutrad. Those who have horses, let them ride; the rest follow as best they may. Five thousand of my Austrasians shall come after. Here is my seal-ring. Go swiftly to Bordeaux, and seize the Vascon Wolf!"

Without a word, Floki laid his earl upon the ground and ran to turn back the wild rush of vikings who came seething around the pavilion. Liutrad paused to lay his hand on Olvir's b.l.o.o.d.y breast and mutter a vow. Then, leading Zora by the bridle, he ran after Floki.

As the crowd parted before the Norse leaders, Karl knelt down beside their stricken earl.

"The leech,--where's the outland leech?" he demanded.

Back in the pavilion the plotters dragged Kosru to his feet.

"Hist, Magian!" cried Hardrat. "The king calls; I know that tone. Woe to you if you fail to heed!"

"_Ai_, G.o.d of Light! I cannot, n.o.ble lords. My limbs fail--"

"Here's the spur, dotard," said Hardrat, brutally, and he shook his dagger in the leech's face.

"Go, friend," urged Fastrada.

Rea.s.sured by her look, Kosru threw his cloak about his head, and ran, tottering, out beside the king.

But the fear-stricken Magian left behind him others little less overcome. As he pa.s.sed through the entrance, Fastrada turned upon Hardrat.

"Oaf! sluggard!" she hissed. "You loiter here, and the chance is gone.

Others ride first to Bordeaux. Lupus will be taken."

The Thuringian turned, snarling; but Fastrada was already calm again.

"Why wrangle, count?" she said. "What is done is done. Lupus is lost."

"And we with him! He will tell all to save his own skin. Who trusts a Merwing?"

"No, no," insisted Fastrada. "His is too crafty a nature. He could not speak straightforward if he wished. There may be danger if his trial is kept waiting; but if that happens my knowledge of the king is at fault."