Finn took the axe in his right hand and, with a look left and right at the pale, upturned faces gleaming in the red-dyed dark, he raised the one arm and slowly, slowly, tilted the axe head down. Sweat gleamed on his forehead, I saw — but the blade touched his lips, no more. There were no cheers, simply the exhaling of held breath, like a wind through trees.
Stammkel stepped up, hefted the axe and the flame-beard of him split in a grin that curdled the bowels in me. I knew he would do it and with ease — the great roar that went up when he did made the rafters shake and I saw Pallig settle back in my high seat, stroking his thin beard and smiling.
The way it worked now, of course, was that the pair kept doing it until exhaustion set in and a wrist failed. Finn had other ideas and he winked at me, that old Botolf wink that dried all the spit in my mouth.
Then he climbed on to the table and took Odin’s Daughter in his hand. His left hand; folk made soft mutterings, like moths searching in the dark. A fighting man was almost always right-handed and that was his strong hand — Finn had raised the stakes.
He lifted the long shaft until the pitfire gleam slid carefully along the winking edge of it, then slowly lowered it to his face, turned like a petal to rain, like a child to a mother. I saw it waver, just once and had to clench hard to keep my bladder in check. Then he kissed it — a harder kiss than before, perhaps, but not hard enough to draw blood.
There were a few cheers at this, for even Pallig’s men knew skill and strength when they saw it and Finn dropped to the beaten-earth floor of the hall and offered the axe back to Stammkel, his face impassive as a wrecking reef.
The big warrior took it, scowling — was that uncertainty in his eye? I grasped at that straw as I watched him climb on to the table edge and take the axe in his left hand. He hefted it for a moment or two and frowned — my heart gave a great leap at that. He was unsure; he did not have the strength of wrist in his left!
Finn thought so and grinned up at him, trying to add to the pressure. Hesitant, uneasy, Stammkel raised the axe high — and it wavered. Folk who saw it groaned and Finn’s grin widened, so that Stammkel saw it.
Then, to my horror, the red beard opened in a laugh. Stammkel raised the axe higher still, tilted it and brought it smoothly down, kissed it lingering and gentle, then straightened and lowered it to the floor.
‘You should know, wee man,’ he said to Finn, ‘that I fight with two bearded axes, one in either hand, for the fun in it.’
The roars and howls and thumping took a long time to subside, by which time I was slumped like an empty winebag; I saw Pallig look at me and the triumph was greasy on his face.
I saw Finn’s face, too and was more afraid of that, for it had turned granite hard, with all the laughing in it that a cliff has. He took the axe from Stammkel and paused. Then he swept up the other one, Stammkel’s own long-axe, and leaped onto the table end.
My heart was hammering so hard I was sure those nearest could hear it. Finn stretched his arms out, an axe in both hands — and one heavier than the other, which made matters nigh impossible, I was thinking — then looked down at Stammkel, whose face showed only mild interest and appreciation.
‘A good kiss needs two lips,’ he said and raised the axes high.
I hoped the skald was watching, for if anything the Oathsworn ever did deserved a good saga-tale then Finn’s kissing of both Daughters at once was one. He brought them down and I had to grind my teeth to keep from crying out when the left one — Stammkel’s own axe — wavered left and right. Then it settled and both Odin’s Daughters, delicate as maidens should be, kissed Finn’s lips.
Now there was uproar. I found myself bawling out myself, all dignity lost as Finn dropped lightly to the floor and grounded the butts of both axes.
Stammkel — give that warrior his due — nodded once or twice as the uproar subsided, for folk knew legend-making when they witnessed it and none wanted to miss the word-play in it.
‘You kiss well,’ Stammkel said, ‘for a boy. Here — let me show you how such matters are done when a man is involved.’
He was bordering on arrogance, so much so that I fretted. He could not match this, surely? No sane man would try.
Yet I knew, from the moment he measured the different weights with little bounces of his wrists, that he would do it. The cold stone of that settled like ballast in my belly — where did we go from here?
Crowbone knew it, too. I only realised that when I saw his blond head come up as Stammkel raised the axes high and the hall began to ring with the rhythmic thumping of fist and ale cup to the sound of his soft-shouted name — Stammkel, Stamm-kel, Stamm-kel.
It was at the point where he started to shift the axes to his face that Crowbone sat up a little straighter — no more than that, as if to see better, as if craning in a boy’s eagerness to witness this supreme feat of strength and skill.
The weight came off the table and it trembled a little, dipped slightly under Stammkel’s bulk. Stammkel wobbled. The right-hand axe, the true Odin’s Daughter, wavered. He almost recovered it, but it was lost — the harsh, unforgiving, ornate weight dragged it down and, with a sharp cry, Stammkel jerked his head to one side and sprang down in a clatter of falling axes. Blood showed on his face.
Finn was at his side in a blink, looked, raised a hand and smeared the blood from the man’s stricken cheek. Then he grinned and clapped Stammkel on the shoulder.
‘Aye,’ he said. ‘A nice cheek scar. A name-wound, that.’
Stammkel looked at Pallig’s thunderous scowl. Then he looked across at Crowbone and my heart fluttered like a mad, trapped bird. Finally, he looked into Finn’s beaming face and I waited for the accusations, the fury, the blood that would flow. I groaned — this was not how it was supposed to be.
Instead, to my shock, I saw Stammkel nod once or twice, as if settling something to himself.
‘Next time, Finn Horsehead,’ he said and I saw Finn’s eyes narrow — then realised he had not seen what Crowbone had done, saw also that Stammkel knew this, too.
I wiped it from me as I stepped forward and looked hard at Pallig, then at the hunched figure of Styrbjorn, blinking stupidly.
‘Mine,’ I said and waved the youth to my side. He came, rat-swift and too stunned to even offer pretence of dignity.
‘Good contest,’ I said to Stammkel and dared not look him in the eye — but Crowbone, the cursed little monster, smiled so sweetly at him I felt I had to bundle him away before even Stammkel cracked.
Outside, in the cool of a night-wind washed with the promise of rain and the smell of wrack and salt, we moved steadily away from the hall, down towards the shore and the rest of the crew. My back creeped; I could hear the mutterings and feel the heat of hate on it from the hall we left, but I would not turn round to see.
‘That went well,’ Crowbone offered, his voice moon-bright in the dim.
‘Shut your hole,’ I growled at him, which brought me a puzzled look from Finn, but he was too occupied in carrying the torch that lit our way and herding the stumbling Styrbjorn, who had recovered himself a little and was beginning to make whining noises about his treatment and who he was.
‘Did you think simply to leave here?’
The voice was a thin sliver out of the dark and we came to a halt at the sound of it. Then Ljot loomed and, behind him, a handful of figures, dark with ringmail and intent. One, I recognised with sag of my knees, was the last bearcoat.
‘I have imposed on your hospitality too much,’ I managed and Ljot’s smile was a stain on his face.
‘I was told not to allow you to go upriver,’ he went on gently and the soft snake-hiss of his sword coming out of the sheath was sibilant in the shadows. ‘Now I will also relieve you of the burden of Styrbjorn. I am surprised that you thought you could get away so easily, Orm of the Oathsworn. There is too much arrogance in that.’