Chapter 133
"Are you ready in there?" asked Karl, knocking on the wood of the wagon.
"Yes! I'm on it" Reidar said.
His voice could hardly be heard, the wood of the wagon was very st.u.r.dy.
"There, I see the three guards" Dag said, pulling the reins of the horses, moving the wagon slightly to the left, toward the coast.
Reidar's observation was correct, the closer you got to the sea, the more the slope of the ground increased and the third guard was right there, guarding that side of the village.
Dag continued to move the horses, turning his head occasionally towards Karl, pretending to talk to him.
Karl stayed at the game and talked to Dag with a laugh, touching his shoulder.
The wagon approached the bandit on guard, who stood still and watched Dag and Karl.
Karl began to sweat from his forehead due to tension.
Dag stood turned towards him, turning his back on the guard, who finally recognized the wagon and said nothing.
He turned to the other side and began whistling as if nothing had happened.
Dag closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Get ready, Karl... now comes the hardest part" he whispered to his partner, ensuring that also Reidar understood that the checkpoint had been pa.s.sed smoothly.
With their heads down, they entered the palisade, pa.s.sing a large wooden door already open.
In front of him, Dag immediately tried to locate the stone warehouse of which the lumberjack spoke.
There was a big hut from which people came in and out all the time and another smaller one, next to the first one.
The smaller hut had a stone fireplace on the roof, from which white smoke came out, similar to that of burning wood.
Dag continued to move the horses in that direction, though he did not yet see the stone warehouse.
"I hope that
As the wagon pa.s.sed in front of the larger hut, Dag saw bandits talking to a taller and robust man, who giggled with his arms folded.
From his expression of superiority to the other men, who seemed submissive, that man must have been Kjetil.
Dag immediately turned his head forward, laying low.
Two men pa.s.sed by the wagon, talking to each other.
"Your idea of moving north is good! There are many more villages to be plundered in that direction... let's propose it to Kjetil!" said one of them.
Finally, after pa.s.sing the first and second huts, Dag was able to see the stone warehouse, realizing that the lumberjack had not lied.
He stopped the wagon before it.
He and Karl went down, and they went into the warehouse.
It was a small stone structure, a few meters wide with a ceiling of about 2 and a half meters high.
"Stay here, I'll be back soon" Dag said, approaching the wagon again.
A man walked right there, in front of the warehouse, probably headed for Kjetil's hut.
"Hey you, brother! Could you tell Kjetil to join us at the warehouse for a moment? We found something very interesting as we collected the wood" Dag said in a firm voice, as he pretended to fasten the bridles of the horses pulling the wagon, his head turned towards them.
"Uhm... yes, I'll tell him right away" said the man, who looked confused.
"Thank you, brother!" replied Dag, who turned to the man when he was far enough away.
He went into the warehouse again.
"Karl, now you're going to sit back where we were before. After we set our trap, everyone will attack us, and I need you to throw my hammer and take your weapons. Do you understand?" asked Dag, making sure Karl didn't panic.
"Yes, yes. All clear, I'll wait for your signal" he said, climbing back onto the wagon, with the horse's bridles in his hand.
Dag approached the wagon and said softly: "I think it worked. Maybe I'll open the doors of the wagon, be careful".
Reidar said nothing, but Dag a.s.sumed he understood.
After a few minutes, Kjetil came out of the larger hut with four men around him.
All five were armed: the four men escorting Kjetil had sword and s.h.i.+eld, while he had a longbow behind his back.
It looked like a high-quality weapon and caught Dag's attention, but he tried to stay focused on the plan.
"Then? What's this about? Speak!" said Kjetil.
"Chief, you have to see with your own eyes... we found a beautiful woman in the woods where we usually go to get wood and we managed to catch her. She's beautiful and young, the most beautiful I've ever seen!" Dag answered.
"What? A young woman? Hahhaha! Finally! The G.o.ds must have listened to my prayers!" chuckled Kjetil, rubbing his hands, antic.i.p.ating his prize.
"Just be careful, okay? We managed to tie her up, but I'm afraid she broke free" Dag said, approaching the chariot doors and unhooking the opening, trying to make his story more convincing
Then he approached the ear to the door and pretended to listen.
"She's right behind here, I can feel her breath!" he continued, trying to intrigue Kjetil even more, taking advantage of his weakness.
"Wait! Get out of the way, I'll do it! I'm sure she won't run anywhere! Hahah!" replied the leader of the bandits, sure of himself.
He moved to the wagon and approached his ears at the doors.
"Hahaha! Yes! I can hear someone moving in there!" he continued, resting his big hands on the two metal handles of the wagon doors.
"Chief... the two lumberjacks who left the village this morning were different from these two... they seemed more… grown-up" said one of the bandits behind Kjetil.