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.Some of the guardshad taken shifts to watch from the fort and make patrols, and both the slaves and theguards had sometimes left their tents to piss or shit on the rocks, but nobody had noticedthe four almost-motionless men inching closer and closer all night.The rest of Halfdan's war-band had spent the night approaching the foe from adifferent direction.If all had gone according to Halfdan's orders, they would now behiding a distance down-hill from the half-built fort.They would be watching uphill and,at the first sign of action near the beacon, would burst out of hiding and charge up theopen slope.Their first job was to kill the horseman if he tried to ride away to bring awarning to Eid.Their next job was to charge uphill to the beacon-fort, hopefully in timeto rescue Halfdan's group.Halfdan's advance group's task was to stop the beacon from being lit.To stop awarning-signal reaching Eid.At sunrise, Halfdan and his three hidden companions watched the guards andslaves crawl out of their tents.After a breakfast of cold oatmeal for the slaves, and meatand beer for the guards, the same sort of construction work as yesterday began.Slaves cutstone into blocks and other slaves lifted the blocks to the half-built beacon-fort, othersputting the blocks into place.From his hiding-place, Halfdan could hear some of the mentalking.The slaves mostly worked in silence, with an occasional comment to anotherslave about the work; the guards with shields and spears often joked or gossiped to eachother, or shouted threats at slaves.Listening, Halfdan learned that the slaves were to stay up here until the job wasdone, but that the guards would be going back to Eid tomorrow, being replaced by otherfighters.These guards were all from Førde; they had switched allegiance to King Njalrecently, after their King Gunvald was killed.They complained about how the Førde-menhad to work up in the mountain with slaves, sleeping in fart-filled tents while the Sogn-fighters got better jobs near the town.Halfdan could not see inside the circular fort from his hiding-place.The half-builtwalls were high enough to block any view of the inside.He thought that he had heard thevoices of guards from there, but was not sure.It made sense to have guards by the beaconto light it in an emergency -- but how many?Halfdan slowly moved his head around to check that the others were in position.They were.Covered with rock-dust, lying still in the shadows of avalanche-chunks, theylooked like natural parts of the mountain.Halfdan made eye-contact with each one of them in turn -- good, none was asleep-- then nodded and jumped to his feet and yanked out his sword.The other three youngmen also jumped to their feet and unsheathed their sharp iron.All of them ran, as quietlyas they could, uphill towards the half-built fort.Overhead, two ravens flapped by, and a pale, low sun stared down.Nobody noticed them at first.The four Os-men were running uphill in a group when Halfdan stepped into a pileof horse-shit and slipped.He fell back and landed on his ass.He quickly scrambled backto his feet and sprinted after the others.But the younger men were faster and reached thelow wall at the tip of the peak before him.55 Still, nobody had noticed them.Fisk was the first one to grab the top of the low wall and vault himself over.Amoment later, there was a loud clash of metal hitting metal inside.A shaven-headed slave carrying rock on his back, standing just outside the fort,heard the noise and looked around.He saw the next two Os-fighters reach the fort-walland vault over it after Fisk.This slave stared at Halfdan running after them.But he didnot yell or do anything.Halfdan reached the wall and jumped up.Unlike the others, hedid not go right over it and inside; Halfdan hopped onto the half-built wall, crouching ontop for a moment, looking inside.He saw the beacon -- a man-high pile of oil-soaked wood, stuffed with bundles ofbirch-bark -- in the middle of the round room.A guard wearing body-armour and ahelmet, not carrying a weapon, was standing by the beacon with his back to Halfdan,banging a piece of iron onto a piece of flint.Orange sparks rained onto the pile of woodand birch-bark.Halfdan next saw, closer to where he was crouching on the wall, two guardsstanding over three dust-grey men lying on the ground; the guards were stabbing downwith spears."Fisk!"Halfdan ducked his head just as a guard inside, whom Halfdan had not until thennoticed, stabbed a spear at Halfdan's face.The iron tip scraped the top of his helmet.Halfdan whipped forward his free hand and grabbed the shaft of the foe's spear to yankthe foe closer.In one motion, Halfdan dropped from the wall down into the fort andswung his sword.The good iron chopped through both the spear-shaft and the guard'sarm.The spear-shaft and part of an arm fell to the ground; the guard took one swayingstep backwards, eyes wide at the sight of the stump of his arm and its bright-red fountain.From the side of his eye, Halfdan saw a weak smudge of smoke twisting up.Was the beacon lit?Halfdan hit the ground inside the fort rolling, bouncing fast up to his feet.Warmblood from the collapsing, stump-clutching guard showered Halfdan's face, half-blindinghim.Wiping the wetness away with his free hand, he moved fast towards the two guardswith shields and spears standing over Halfdan's fighters.Two of them were dead.The other, Fisk, was lying on his side, his bodypunctured by spear-stabs, but still alive.When he saw Halfdan approaching, Fisk twistedhis bleeding body around and grabbed the foot of the distracted guard standing over him.Fisk yanked the man's foot towards his own face and bit onto the pant-cloth over theguard's ankle.Shouting in pain, the guard looked away from Halfdan and lifted his spear,its tip pointing down at Halfdan's cousin.The guard plunged the spear down into Fisk'sneck.Even in death, Fisk's jaws stayed clamped tight on the ankle, and the guard had tospend a few moments kicking his leg free
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Tematy
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Roberts Nora Saga rodu Concannonów 03 Zrodzona ze wstydu
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Jordan Penny Saga rodu Crightonów 01 Doskonały plan
Carey Mike Felix Castor Tom 2 Błędny krąg
Keira i Adrian 01 Pierwszy dzień Levy Marc
Darwin Karol O pows awaniu gatunków drogą doboru naturalnego