Chapter 7

Having left his good shield out in the hall, Gunnar used his sword two-handed, and it roared through the air as he swung it over his head. The first man through the door had his helmet split for his trouble, and fell dead with his brains spilling on the floor.

Then bold Hakon leaped from Ingrid's door, and his greeting to the intruders was no less manly than his kinsman's. Hakon swung his sword so hard he cleaved through the mail on the warrior who faced him, and that man fell dead.

"Let us retreat around the corner," Helgi advised, "for they are trapped here, and we can devise some way of taking them without further loss of life!"

King Brian accepted this council, for it grieved him to see his good men slain by the fearless Icelanders.

"We must take advantage of this brief time!" bold Gunnar said. "Astrid and Ingrid, listen carefully-will you come with us, or will you remain here, because I intend that we should fight our way out of here or die trying, because King Brian will never let us keep our heads after this!"

"I agree completely!" Hakon said. "But you ladies may choose to come, or to stay!"

Both the princesses quickly agreed to join their lovers rather than stay behind without them.

"Then be quick!" Gunnar advised. "Pack a few clothes, and all the jewels you can carry-all your small treasures! Hurry, now!"

The ladies did as Gunnar said, and Gunnar and Hakon quickly dressed and fully armed themselves.

Around the corner in the corridor, King Brian took counsel with his men.

Brave Thorhall, King Brian's helmsman, wanted to attack them straight away, but the king was not sure this was a good idea.

"If we do that, we are sure to lose many men!" Brian said, "for now they're armed, and they must know I will not let them escape alive after this insult!"

"If they are the gentlemen they are supposed to be, they will let the ladies go!" Helgi said. "Then we can burn them out, and if the smoke doesn't deliver them to our hands, they will perish in the names!"

Helgi peeked around the door. "Gunnar! Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you!"

"Let the king's daughters go, Gunnar! Surely you would not see them hurt for your sakes!"

"Let the daughters answer for themselves!" Gunnar said.

"Astrid! Ingrid! Can you hear me?" Helgi called.

"We can hear you, Helgi! Go and eat shit!"

"You can't mean that!" Helgi argued. "Gunnar must be forcing you to say that!"

"Gunnar isn't forcing us to say anything!" the ladies answered. "We are telling you to go eat a plate of shit! And that goes for our father, too!"

Helgi went back to King Brian and said, "I don't think the girls want to come out, sir!"

But King Brian had heard, and he was furious. "What kind of daughters are these, that tell their father to go and eat shit? We will fire this wing of the house with them in it, then! Go and bring kindling and more torches!"

Two of the king's men ran to do this, and Gunnar said, "Now is our chance, while they are short-handed! Are you ready to fight our way out, kinsman?"

"I am ready, Gunnar!" brave Hakon answered. The ladies had collected their small baggage and were ready to follow their lovers.

Gunnar and Hakon ran down the corridor, bursting upon their enemies unexpectedly. Bold Thorhall snatched up his sword and sprang up in front of Gunnar.

"What a disloyal bastard you turned out to be!" Thorhal spat. "Is this any way to repay all the honor King Brian has shown you?"

"Get out of my way!" Gunnar said.

Thorhall swung his sword, and it split Gunnar's shield to the handle. But then Gunnar swung his own weapon, and the blow swept Thorhal's leg away at the hip.

Thorhall fell dead, and another brave warrior took his place. But this man had no sooner raised his sword than fearless Hakon hacked at his neck, and he, too, lost his life there.

In all, Hakon killed three and Gunnar seven, before they had gone to the end of the corridor. But when they were in the hall, and thirty more men were arming there, awakened by the noise.

Earl Bodvark, one of King Brian's best men, looked in confusion at the sight of the king and his men retreating before the Icelanders. "Tell me what to do, my lord!" Bodvark asked.

"Attack Hakon and Gunnar!" King Brian said. "They have done me many wrongs this night, copulating with my daughters, and then slaying many of my brave men! Richly will I reward the man who cuts these scoundrels down!"

Earl Bodvark unsheathed his sword and ran to intercept the Icelanders, who were fighting their way to the door, closely followed by their ladies.

Bodvark attacked Gunnar savagely, so that Gunnar's shield splintered from the blows. Swinging his sword two-handed, Gunnar parried all of Bodvark's strokes and then dealt him with his death blow.

"I have robbed you of your shield, but you have taken my life in return!" Bodvark said, as he fell dead.

King Brian was sorely vexed to see all his best liege-men being slaughtered by Gunnar and Hakon, and now he called out to his men.

"Gunnar has lost his shield, and we must be able to take him now! Attack him, all of you!"

Twenty or more men ran at the Icelanders then, and the princesses cringed in fear for their lovers, but Gunnar and Hakon stood back to back with the girls between, and hacked and stroked with their strong swords.

Swinging his great sword over his head, Gunnar sent the heads of two men flying with a single stroke, and then leaped forward and killed another who was within reach. Bold Hakon slew one man by splitting his helmet, and then gave another his death-stroke by sending his sharp sword clean through the warrior's mail shirt.

The Orkney warriors retreated, wailing about their losses, and King Brian gnashed his teeth in horror. "Am I to believe that two single Icelanders can hold off every stout warrior in my entire household? Why have I been paying out good gold to you louts who warm my mead-benches with your fat asses and now hang back when my enemies threaten to take my daughters from my house by force?"

This speech pricked up the courage of the surviving Orkney warriors, and they rushed to make a last stand at the door, trying to prevent the escape of the Icelanders and their stolen brides.

Bold Gunnar said, "I shall take the vanguard, my dear kinsman, and you guard our rear! I think we shall be in open air before too much longer!"

With these words fearless Gunnar hurled himself at the crowd of warriors at the door, hewing right and left with his sword. He carried no shield, but his sword-strokes fell so fast that no man could break his guard, and before he stepped back again four men had gotten their death-strokes from him.

"That was well-done, brave kinsman!" Hakon said. "But I cannot go back to Iceland with honor if I allow you to heap up all the glory here! Pray, guard our flank while I make a try for the door!"

So Gunnar guarded their rear, and good Hakon ran forward at the pack of warriors, his sword flailing. Two men stepped up to meet him, but the first lost his head to Hakon's flying sword, and the second tried to raise his shield, but Hakon's flying split the shield and pierced the man's mail besides, biting into his heart and killing him instantly. Then Hakon leaned forward and swept off the leg of another man before falling back again.

"Bravely fought, Hakon!" Gunnar said. "And I thank you for the rest! Now I think it's time for us to leave here!"

With these words fearless Gunnar hurled himself at the crowd of warriors at the door, hewing right and left with his sword. He carried no shield, but his sword-strokes fell so fast that no man could break his guard, and before he stepped back again four men had gotten their death-strokes from him.

"That was well-done, brave kinsman!" Hakon said. "But I cannot go back to Iceland with honor if I allow you to heap up all the glory here! Pray, guard our flank while I make a try for the door!"

So Gunnar guarded their rear, and good Hakon ran forward at the pack of warriors, his sword flailing. Two men stepped up to meet him, but the first lost his head to Hakon's flying sword, and the second tried to raise his shield, but Hakon's blade split the shield and pierced the man's mail besides, biting into his heart and killing him instantly. Then Hakon leaned forward and swept off the leg of another man before falling back again.

"Bravely fought, Hakon!" Gunnar said. "And I thank you for the rest! Now I think it is time for us to leave here!"

With these words Gunnar leaped forward, and everyone in the hall could hear the roar as he swung his sword two-handed around his golden head. King Brian's warriors tried to ward off the blows, but such was Gunnar's strength that their shields splintered and their armor fell to pieces under his attack, and soon five more were dead and the way outside was theirs.

Of all the men King Brian had had in the hall, only Helgi remained alive, and Helgi and Brian stood arm in arm looking in awe at the damage the two Icelanders had done to them.

Gunnar stopped in the door after the others were safely out, and addressed King Brian. "I am sorry, good king, to have done all this to you, which I know to be damage beyond compensation. You deserved better of me, but who can predict what fate has in store for any man?"

Gunnar always carried a carved hunting horn around his neck, and now he took it and blew it three times. This was the signal for his men to quickly hurry to their long-ship and prepare to sail.

"Now I mean to quickly sail away from here, for I know you will raise a hundred men the second I turn my back, and I can't blame you, since we have robbed you of your lovely daughters and slain fully three dozen of your best men!" Gunnar told the king.

"I should have listened to your warnings many weeks ago, loyal Helgi!" King Brian said. "I cannot yet fully believe all the grief these two Icelanders have caused me! Gunnar and Hakon, you must know that I will seek blood revenge for this, as well as the recovery of my daughters!"

"You will learn to your peril that even fearless Icelanders should think twice before they so dishonor a king they have sworn to serve!" Helgi snarled.

Gunnar sneered at the two men. "If the glorious deeds my kinsman and I have done here are ever to be avenged, it is not likely to be by two such as the likes of you! Helgi brags of bringing King Brian the vengeance he wants, but I have not seem him raise his sword here yet tonight, even though it was his treacherous conspiracy that started all this bloodshed! If you burn so for vengeance, take it now! You are two men there, and we are two here, one against one, even sides, perfectly fair! Let us each take a sword and fight it out, two against two! Do you want to settle it now?"

But neither King Brian nor his kinsman Helgi wanted to fight Hakon or Gunnar.

"We should kill them now," Hakon said, "while we have them in our power, for otherwise they are capable of doing us a lot of mischief in the future!"

"No!" Gunnar said. "I do not think it stains my honor to fight for my life against the men of a king who swears he will not let me live if it is in his power to prevent it, but I would not want it known that I then slew that king when he would not defend himself!"

So Gunnar and Hakon took Astrid and Ingrid down to their ship and sailed off for Iceland. King Brian sent out twenty dragon-ships with thirty men on each ship, and promised to fill with gold the ship that brought him Gunnar's head, but a storm blew up just then and they never found the Icelanders.