As more straggled through the gates, questions turned from Ulfrik to the new arrivals. The mood was solemn but still laughter sprouted up where an uninjured man returned to his kin. More painful to hear were the names of men he already knew to be slain. As the dead were carried in, wives and daughters cried and young sons stood trembling with balled fists.
Runa burst out of a crowd of women straining to find their own. She dragged Aren by his hand like a doll flying behind her. "Where is Gunnar and Hakon?"
"They're with you," Ulfrik said, and Runa froze. Her mouth made half-formed words and Ulfrik's blood turned to ice.
She shook her head slowly, then she punched him on his mail hard enough for her knuckles to come away bloodied. "They've been missing since you set out. Gunnar followed you!"
"With Hakon?" Ulfrik could see Gunnar disobeying him, but not Hakon. "He's only a child; Gunnar wouldn't …"
"You've got to find them," Runa hissed, her face contorted with anger. "Look at this mess. If they went after you, I don't want to think of it."
"You're getting ahead of yourself." Ulfrik grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. She calmed as he spoke evenly to her. "We don't know exactly what happened. What has Snorri said?"
"Ask me yourself, lad." Snorri followed on Runa, his lame leg stiff and ungainly. "Gunnar said he would keep watch on the eastern wall for you, and Hakon didn't tell me anything. He took his toy sword, and I assumed he was going to play. We didn't know they were gone until you were spotted coming from the trees."
Ulfrik thought of Gunnar, as headstrong as his mother and as eager for battle as he had been at Gunnar's age. In many ways, he had half expected him to follow, but never with Hakon. Visions of the carnage in the woods replayed in his mind's eye, and he had to push the thoughts aside. He had only one choice.
"You are both certain they are not here? Gunnar didn't go find his girl?" Runa shook her head and Snorri rubbed his face.
"Lad, I've had men tearing up every corner of this place. There's a few good hiding spots, but not that many. They're gone."
Einar, smiling with both his daughters clinging to his legs, joined them. Konal also approached. Ulfrik informed them of Gunnar and Hakon's disappearance. Konal smiled without mirth at the news.
"He begged me to take him along," Konal said. "Claimed that he'd not let you find out."
"What did you tell him?" Runa snapped, nearly lunging at him. "I hope it was sensible."
"Is telling him to obey his father sensible?" Konal's ruined face rippled with his strained smile. "He was saddened, but I told him to wait for his time and to heed his father's words. He left me with a promise he would, but I see desire got the better of him."
Runa began cursing and Ulfrik felt his own anger rise. "I'll go to search the woods. Einar, organize whoever is still able and bring torches."
"I'll go as well," Snorri added. "My eyes are not what they were, but you need help."
Ulfrik did not deny the need for help. After the battle, wolves would descend on the bodies left behind and they would not be averse to attacking two boys in the wood. Runa and Konal volunteered and soon Ulfrik led a half dozen search parties armed with torches back to the woods. Many were as weary as he, having fought and labored with heavy mail armor all day. His shoulders slumped and his back ached with the weight, but his sons were lost in these woods and the urgency to find them drove his feet forward. The dark trees echoed with calls of his boys' names, and nothing but a thick blackness remained when voices fell silent.
By midnight he was staggering and had fallen too many times to count. Runa pushed on with her group, but he had to rest as did many of the others. Exhaustion claimed the searchers one by one, and the search succumbed to it in the cold hours of the morning. Ulfrik insisted Einar take Runa and Snorri back to Ravndal, and he would sleep in the forest to resume the search the next morning.
His stomach growled, arms trembled, and feet throbbed as he slipped into the bole of a tree with only his cloak to protect him from the cold night. He drew his sword and laid it across his legs, and promised himself he would only sleep a few hours. As he drifted into sleep, he imagined he heard both his boys speaking to him, but it was merely the taunt of his imagination and he finally slept knowing his sons were lost in the forest.
Chapter 11
Throst's belly grumbled and his arms trembled, but purpose drove him forward. He had eaten nothing better than stale bread in days. He had tried to catch fish or wild game, and realized it was much harder to do than it seemed. The constant whining from his mother and sister had grown from a distraction to a consuming fixation for him. Even one complaint from them drew his ire.
The three of them stumbled along the trail in the woods, rocks and roots battering their feet as they went. Leaves and debris hid depressions and his mother fell on her face at least seven times since setting out that morning. Throst did not wait for her. She was a burden more than anything else, and her only use was in keeping his young sister in conformity with Throst's plans. He heard her curse as she again crunch down into the dry leaves. This time he stopped and turned, dropping a hand to his sword. His mother was on her face, and his sister dragging her up by the arm. Her head cover had long been lost, and her tousled gray hair caught a rim of yellow light falling through the autumn canopy above.
"All right, you two are stopping here. No more following me." Throst glared at his sister, expecting her to release his mother back to the ground, but she continued to pull her up. She staggered to her feet, and brushed down her tattered skirt.
"I'm not born for living in the forests. I was always a village girl. And I'm starving. Will these men have food?" She gave Throst the same pathetic pout she used to give to his father, which aggravated him in the same way.
"Now you belong to no one," Throst said. "Thanks to the great Lord Ulfrik Ormsson, you are a widowed outlaw. So get used to starving."
"I asked about food. You said you could hunt and that's a lie. What am I going to eat?" She folded her arm and lined up with his sister, as if the ten-year-old girl were an enforcer in her employ.
"Listen, Mother," he spit the words like chewed gristle, "I'm the man of this family now that Father is gone. You'll eat after I eat, unless you can get your own food and then you owe me a share."
"I want to eat too," his sister said, sliding closer to their mother as she did.
Throst rubbed his face, trying to force patience he did not feel. "I've got a plan, and I'm going to make it work. After this morning, I will have us a home and men to serve me. But not if you two fools drive me mad first. Just shut up."
His mother drew herself up straight, puffing out her chest and cheeks like she always did when she presumed to have authority over Throst. "How dare you threaten your mother like that!"
Throst's slap sent her reeling back and she tripped over a root, sprawling on the ground. He would have laughed were he not about to risk his life. His sister rushed to their mother's side, but she recoiled when he yelled at her to stay away. He hovered over his mother. "I'll speak to you anyway I like. Father always said you needed a few hits before you understood anything. Remember who will protect you with him gone? Me, I'm all you can depend on, so do what I tell you."
His mother rubbed her face and glowered at him, but she did not move. His sister knelt on the dead leaves with her head down. Throst lingered over them a moment before continuing. "Lord Ulfrik thinks he has seen the last of me, but I've got plans he can't even understand. When I'm done, he'll regret killing my father and making me an outlaw. You want to see Lord Ulfrik cry like a baby, don't you?"
His mother nodded and slowly righted herself, a lock of gray hair hanging over her face.