John Norman - Marauders of Gor

But the men of Torvaldsland are not easily pleased. The Blue Tooth leaned back. "There was, Forkbeard," said he, smiling, "a third condition to the wergild."

"Oh, my Jarl?" asked Ivar.

"It seems I must keep this treasure," said he, "and you remain outlaw. It may, however, count as the first two installments of a completed transaction. I shall revoke your outlawry when, and only when, too, you deliver to me the daughter of my enemy, Thorgard of Scagnar."

The Blue Tooth's men, not pleased, murmured angrily. "The Forkbeard, surely, has more than paid wergild," cried one. "What man has been set such a price and has paid it?" cried another.

"Silence!" cried Svein Blue Tooth, standing behind the table. He scowled at his men.

"No one, not an army or a fleet," cried another, "could take the daughter of so powerful a Jarl as Thorgard of Scagnar!"

"You seem to ask the impossible, my Jarl," observed Ivar Forkbeard.

"I do ask the impossible," said Svein Blue Tooth. "Of you, my friend, Ivar Forkbeard, I choose to ask the impossible."

The Forkbeard's men muttered angrily. Weapons were grasped.

Even the men of Svein Blue Tooth, perhaps a thousand in the hall, were angry. Yet the Blue Tooth, boldly, their Jarl, matched his will to theirs. Which one of them would dare to challenge the will of their Jarl?

I admired the Blue Tooth in his way. He was courageous. In the final analysis, I had little doubt that his men would abide by his decision.

The Blue Tooth sat down again in the high seat. "Yes, friend Forkbeard," said he, "of you, as is my right, I ask what cannot be done, the impossible."

The Forkbeard turned and, facing the entrance of the hall, called out, "Bring forth the female."

There was no sound in the great hall, save the crackle of the fires and torches.

The men, and the thralls and bond-maids, parted. From the doors to the hall, swung wide, now approaching, came four figures, Ottar, who had accompanied the Forkbeard to the thing, two of the Forkbeard's men, with spears, and, between them, clad in rich robes of concealment, such as are worn in the south, even to the veils, the figure of a girl.

These four stopped before the table, opposite the high seat of Svein Blue Tooth. The girl stood among the gold, and the heaped sapphires. Her robes were marvelously wrought, subtle, soft, seeming almost in their sheens, like the jewels, to shift their colors in the light of the lamps and the flickering torches. The robes were hooded; she was twice veiled, once in white silk and, under it, in purple silk.

"What mockery is this?" demanded the Blue Tooth, sternly.

"No mockery, my Jarl," said the Forkbeard. He extended his hand toward the girl. "May I present to my Jarl," he asked, "Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar?"

The girl reached to her hoods and brushed them back, freeing her hair, and then, pin by pin, she unfastened the two veils, one after the other, and dropped them.

"It is she," whispered a man at the table of Svein Blue Tooth. "I was once in the hall of Thorgard. It is she!"

"Are you-are you," asked Svein Blue Tooth, "the daughter of Thorgard, Thorgard of Scagnar?"

"Yes, my Jarl," she said.

"Before Thorgard of Scagnar had the ship Black Sleen ," said Svein, slowly, "he had another ship. What was its name?"

"_Horned Tharlarion_," she said. "He still has this ship, too," she added, "but it does not now serve as his flagship."

"How many oars has it?" he asked.

"Eighty," said she.

"Who keeps the fisheries of Thorgard?" asked a man.

"Grim, once of Hunjer," she said.

"Once in battle," said Svein Blue Tooth, "I wounded Thorgard of Scagnar."

"The scar," she said, "is on his left wrist, concealed under a studded wristlet."

Svein leaned back.

"In this same engagement," she said, "he wounded you, and more grievously. You will bear the scar in your left shoulder."

Bera flushed.

"It is true," said Svein Blue Tooth.

"I tell you," cried the man at the table, "it is Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar. I have been in his hall. It is she!"

The women of the north, commonly, do not veil themselves.

"How were you taken?" asked Svein Blue Tooth.

"By trickery, my Jarl," said she. "In my own compartments was I taken, braceleted and hooded."

"How were you conveyed past guards?" asked the Blue Tooth.

"From the window of my compartments, braceleted and hooded, late at night, helpless, in darkness. I was hurled into the sea, more than a hundred feet below. A boat was waiting. Like a fish I was retrieved and made prisoner, forced to lie on my belly in the boat, like a common maid. My captors followed."

There was a great cheer from the men in the hall, both those of Ivar Forkbeard and those of Svein Blue Tooth.

"You poor, miserable girl," cried Bera.

"It could happen to any female," said Hilda, "even you, great lady."

"Men are beasts," Bera cried. She regarded Ivar, and me, and his men, with fury. "Shame be upon you, you beasts!" she cried.

"Svein Blue Tooth, Jarl of Torvaldsland, meet Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar," said Ivar. "Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar, meet Svein Blue Tooth, Jarl of Torvaldsland."

Hilda inclined her head in deference to the Jarl.

There was another great cheer in the hall.

"Poor girl," cried Bera, "how you must have suffered!"

Hilda lowered her head. She did not respond to Bera. I thought she smiled.

"Never had I thought to have Hilda, daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar, stand prisoner before me, before the high seat of my house," said Svein Blue Tooth.

"Before you I stand more than prisoner, my Jarl," said she.

"I do not understand," said Svein Blue Tooth.

She did not raise her head.

"You need not address me as your Jarl, my dear," said Svein Blue Tooth. "I am not your Jarl."

"But every free man is my Jarl," she said. "You see, my Jarl," said she, lifting her head proudly and pulling her rich, glistening robes some inches down upon her shoulders, "I wear the collar of Ivar Forkbeard."

The collar of black iron, with its heavy hinge, its riveted closure, its projecting ring of iron, for a chain or padlock, showed black, heavy, against the whiteness of her lovely throat.

"You have dared to collar the daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar!" cried Bera to Ivar Forkbeard.

"My master does what he pleases, Lady," said Hilda.

I wondered what Bera would say if she knew that Hilda had been put at the oar, and taught to heel; that she had been whipped, and taught to obey; that she had been caressed, and taught to respond.

"Silence, Bond-maid!" cried Bera.

Hilda put down her head.

"To think," cried Bera, "that I expressed solicitude for a collar-girl!"

Hilda dared not speak. For a bond-maid to speak in such a situation might be to invite a sentence of death. She shuddered.

In fury, Bera, lifting her skirt from about her ankles, took her way from the long table, retiring to her own quarters.

"You collared her!" laughed Svein Blue Tooth.

"Of course," said the Forkbeard.

"Superb!" laughed Svein Blue Tooth, rubbing his hands together.

"Lift your head, Wench," he said. His attitude toward Hilda had changed, completely.

She did so.

She had a beautiful face, blue eyes, long, loose blond hair.

"Is she pretty?" asked Svein Blue Tooth.

"Remove your slippers," said the Forkbeard.

The girl did so. She stepped from them. She did not wear stockings. Roughly the Forkbeard, then, his hands at her shoulders, tore away the robes of concealment.

The men, and the bond-maids, cried out with pleasure, with admiration.

Hilda stood proudly, her head high, amidst the heaped gold, jewels, sapphires, in the dirt about her feet. She had been branded. It had been done by the hand of Ivar Forkbeard himself, before dawn, some days ago, shortly before the ship had left for the thing. She had been carried weeping, over his shoulder, her brand fresh, aboard his ship, The collar, too, before the brand, that very morning, had been closed about her neck, and riveted shut.