Geirrod was awoken by the sound of the alarm bells. First the general warning, telling every warrior in the city to grab their spear and prepare for battle, and then the higher pitched ringing of smaller bells warning that enemies had breached the town's defences and were inside the dyke.

  Beside him, Aegaeon, his father, was also jumping out of his sleeping furs. "Madness!" he exclaimed as he grabbed his spear. "Why would bandits attack now with so many warriors here to fight them?"

  "How did they get inside the dyke?" asked Geirrod..

  He threw open the door flap, but before he could go charging out to defend the city Aegaeon grabbed his shoulder to stop him. "Protect Daphnis," he commanded. "She must be kept safe."

  Geirrod nodded. He glanced towards his sister's sleeping blankets and gave a gasp of alarm when he saw that they were empty. "She's not here," he cried.

  "Find her," Aegaeon commanded. "And protect her."

  His son nodded again, and the two men ran out into the night. Geirrod went straight to the sanitary hut, but there was nothing in it but a foul smell rising from the round hole in the septic tank's plethin lid. He ran out again to find naked warriors running in all directions looking for someone to fight.

  He grabbed a man by the shoulder. "Where are they?" he asked.

  "Don't know," the man replied before running off again.

  He saw one of the townswomen running past, looking for a safe place to hide, and he grabbed her arm to stop her. "Have you seen Daphnis?" he asked.

  "In her hut if she's got any sense," the woman replied before pulling herself free.

  A chilling fear for his sister rose within him. Was shs even now being carried off by bandits? He headed for the closest section of the inner dyke, thinking that someone there must surely know what was going on.

  He arrived to find warriors crowding the walkway at the top of the dyke, staring out over the fence. Some of the town's warriors were out there, he saw. Barely visible by the light of the oil lamps that bad been lit on the outer dyke. "Have they been driven off already?" he asked the man beside him.

  "Don't know," he replied. "I only just got here."

  "Just testing our defences maybe," another man suggested. "A few bandits came up, threw a few sling stones and ran off, just to see how alert we were."

  Geirrod nodded. It sounded plausible. "The high bells rang, though," he said.

  "Some poor sod made a mistake," the other man suggested. "Thought they'd gotten in when they hadn't. I'm going back to my hut. There's nothing happening here and it's too cold to be standing around in our bare skins."

  Geirrod nodded, but he couldn't go back yet. He still had a sister to find. He climbed back down from the dyke, therefore, took down an oil lamp from its pole and wandered the town, using the lamp's light to examine the faces of everyone he passed. He also looked into every hut he passed, occasionally bringing cries of fear from the women and children inside. One woman attacked him with a meat knife, coming close to taking out one of his eyes before seeing that he wasn't a bandit.

  Thinking that she might have returned to their hut he went back to it, only to find that it was still empty. Where else could she be? He went back out to continue searching, now almost in a panic of fear.

  Gradually the city calmed down as people realised there were no bandits attacking. Geirrod found himself close to the Great Hall, where he heard angry voices coming from inside. "Who sounded the alarm?" someone asked. He recognised the voice of Gunnlod, the chief of the Robin Hood clan.

  "Two men were seen running from the inner dyke," another man was replying as Geirrod went in. "They killed Aegir and took his clothes."

  "Bandits," said Aegaeon. All the clan chiefs were there, Geirrod saw, as was Bergelmir the Mayor. "They tried sneaking in instead of a full on assault."

  "No, just one man," said Palliaq, Chief of the Merlin Clan. "Came sneaking in to steal a wife. That's why he stole Aegir's clothes. He hoped we would think it was just two men taking the night air."

  Aegaeon nodded. "Probably a Forlorn Hope mission," he said. "He did something to dishonour himself, but was given a chance to redeem himself. Go steal a wife from Festival city during a meeting of the chiefs. If he succeeds in carrying out the almost suicidal task, he regains his honour."

  "Gather all the women," Gunnlod commanded. "See if any of them are missing."

  "I haven't been able to find Daphnis," said Geirrod, shivering as an awful possibility came to him.

  Aegaeon stared at him. "You don't think..."

  "There are hundreds of women in this town," said Palliaq reasonably. "The chances that she was the one taken..."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "Unless she was targeted," said Bergelmir, looking around at the others. "The greatest Forlorn Hope of them all. Take the daughter of a Chief during a gathering of the Chiefs."

  "He can't have gotten far," said Geirrod. "And he'll have a captive slowing him down. We can catch him if we're fast."

  "I'll come with you," said Tarvos, following as the other man hurried towards the door. "My betrothed..."

  "Not so fast," said Gunnlod, though, moving to block their way. "You won't accomplished anything just running off into the night. As you say, he's being slowed down by having to take a captive and the nearest bandit camp is four days walk away."

  "There could be a bandit war party just out of sight in the grass," protested Geirrod.

  "It wasn't a bandit," said Gunnlod, though. "It was Skoll. I'd bet my trophy necklace on it."

  "Skoll!" Swore Tarvos. "Of course! He swore vengeance against us. What better way."

  "Which means he's alone," his father added. "We've got time to organise a proper rescue party. A dozen men, not just you two idiots. Now go back to your huts and gather your travel gear. You might be several days outside the safety of the city."

  "He could be.." began Geirrod almost tearfully. "He could be making her his wife right now, while we stand here gossiping like women."

  "I'm afraid there's almost no chance of getting her back before that happens," his father said gently. "I don't like it any more than you do, but if we organise ourselves properly we'll get her back with nothing worse than chafed wrists and some bad memories."

  "And she'll be a widow when I kill Skoll," said Tarvos grimly. "I can still marry her."

  "We don't know for certain that it was Daphnis be took," Bergelmir reminded them. "We may still find her safe and sound with some of her woman friends."

  "Skoll still took someone," said Gunnlod, though. "The stealing of a woman from Festival City during a gathering of the Chiefs is a shame on all of us. We must rescue the woman and kill the criminal who took her to regain our honour. So go prepare yourself for a long absence from the city while the Chiefs pick ten men to go with you. You leave at dawn."

  Geirrod and Tarvos nodded to their fathers and then hurried out the door.

  ☆☆☆

  The twelve warriors assembled at the city gates as the sun was peeping above the Eastern horizon.

  Three of them, Tarvos, Fornjot and Alvaldi, were of the Robin Hood clan and another three, including Geirrod, were of the William Tell clan, since those two clans were the most deeply insulted by the abduction. All six clans had been responsible for the defence of the city, though, and had been equally dishonoured, and so the other four clans would also be represented. Even the Hercules clan, despite the fact that their quarry, if it had indeed been Skoll, had been a member of their clan.

  "I will not have it said that the Hercules Clan is a den of thieves and murderers," the man said, defiantly meeting the sceptical gazes of the other hunters. "If you think I will side with Skoll when we run him down, you are wrong. I will deal the death blow myself to remove the stain upon our honour that his actions have caused."

  "No-one doubts your honour, Hyrrokkin," said Bergelmir, staring meaningfully at the other hunters. "We know that you will be loyal and faithful."

  He ended by catching Geirrod's eye and holding it, making sure that the William Tell clansman understood. Geirrod nodded back to him, and then turned to the Hercules clansman. "I'm glad you're here, Hyrrokkin," he said, holding out his arm. "With you with us, our chances of success have surely doubled." The Hercules clansman took his hand and gave a grateful nod as he gave it a firm grip.

  "I'm also glad you're with us," said Tarvos, also offering his hand. "With you with us, my betrothed will soon be back in my arms."

  "Good," said Gunnlod, arriving to join them. "I have grim news, though. All the women in the city are present and accounted for, except Daphnis. It's certain now that she was the one taken."

  Tarvos's hands clenched into fists, and he couldn't help but glance towards Hyrrokkin. He tore his gaze away, but not before the other man had noticed.

  "Also, Skoll killed four men last night," Gunnlod added. "In addition to Aegir and Hati, whose body remains undiscovered, two men of Palliaq's clan were killed when they caught up with him outside he city. He dispatched them without effort, butchering them like gooths. That is the quality of the man you will be pursuing. That is why there are twelve of you. Do not try to fight him one on one. The world has not known a greater warrior since the days of the First Fathers."

  Again, all eyes turned against their will to Hyrrokkin, who was trying to keep a smile of pride from appearing on his face. Tarvos saw the effort it cost him to replace it with a scowl of determination.

  "And now you must go," Gunnlod concluded. "Skoll gains on you with every moment that passes. The bandit camp lies to the west, so that is the direction you must go."

  "There may be other bandit camps that we don't know about," pointed out Thrymr of the John Henry clan. "Camps that are closer to us."

  "Maybe," Gunnlod replied, "but if we don't know about them, then Skoll won't either. He'll be heading for the one we do know about. The one our scouts discovered two weeks ago."

  "If it's still there," said Albiorix of the William Tell clan. "They may have broken camp and moved off. They must also be planning to move north as the summer heat approaches."

  "Skoll knows no more than we do whether they have moved off," said Gunnlod, looking annoyed at having to make the same point again. "He knows that not even a warrior of his prowess can survive for long alone in the wilderness. He can only survive by joining another clan, so he must go to the closest one he knows about. He knows that there was a bandit camp beside the blood river two weeks ago, so that is where he has to go, which means that that is where you have to go."

  The other side of the Spine," said Fornjot, his eyes widening.

  "I've been across the Spine many times," said Alvaldi. "It's not as bad as the stories say."

  "Then let's go without any more waste of time," said Tarvos impatiently, his hand tightening on his spear. "Open the gates."

  "Take care, my son," said Gunnlod, putting a hand on Tarvos's shoulder. "Whether you return with Daphnis and Skoll's finger or not, make sure you return."

  "I won't return until I have both Daphnis and Skoll's finger," his son replied. "And I will return. Be sure of that,"

  Gunnlod nodded soberly and patted his shoulder, letting his son feel his love for him in the weight of his hand. Then he waved to the gate guards, who responded by pulling the locking bar, the largest single piece of plethin in the Six Clans, out from its holding straps. When it was free they pushed the doors outwards, the wheels on which it rested squeaking as they rolled through the curved tracks they'd made in the ground.

  So eager were Tarvos and Geirrod to begin the pursuit that they squeezed through the gap the moment it was wide enough, followed by the others, and Gunnlod watched as they trotted off across the strip of cleared ground that surrounded the city. He stood there until they passed out of sight in the sea of tall grass and then, with a sigh, he turned and headed back to the Great Hall. He and the other Chiefs still had a lot of business to discuss.