Chapter 67 War Prince
The eastern fortress on the border of the Northern Province of the kingdom.
The warriors who lived in this area were part of tribes loyal to Pavel the Wolverine. Pavel was the cousin of Arkady the Bear and was a warrior driven by ambition and power. In a field north of the fortress, Pavel was surrounded by the bonfires of the chiefs of the tribes loyal to him and of some of the tribes from outside the kingdom. Pavel had sent out messengers to every nearby tribe, including those who had sworn war against the kingdom.
Pavel spoke in a loud hoarse voice: We have followed Arkady for many years. Little by little, he has been giving the king more power. He says the tribes under his rule were better off. He even started minting coins, just like the king. But the horse warriors of the king have killed the children of two strong tribes, as well as the women, the elderly, and the animals. They burned food. They took all survivors as slaves.
Many voices did imitations of various predators to support the words.
Pavel with derision in his voice: If a chief needs revenge on another chief, he speaks to Arkady and a southern captain. Slaves are not captured according to our traditions. They are given away like the ritual doll a chief would give to a girl after her first bleeding. A chief asks for scraps from the table of Arkady instead of showing his strength in battle.
Many tribal women whistled to show support for their men.
Pavel shouted: The destroyed tribes preserved ancestral traditions. They believed in strength, hunting, and living like their ancestors. What are we? Castrated dogs sleeping at the feet of the king. We have been driven further and further north, fighting against tribes that still remember how we all want to love. Free, strong, fearless.
Seven Chiefs imitated the noises of wolves. Twelve, the growls of wolverines. No none made sounds of the bear. Many were on his side and some were willing to listen.
Pavel paced around to look at their faces as he spoke: If we march throughout this day and tonight, we can attack the fortress of Arkady and his husband, the captain.
Many laughed.
He continued: The southern soldiers are wounded. Many of the warriors loyal to the Bear have been killed or wounded fighting against our people. His tribe is weak. Without the support of the royal army, the other fort will not stay loyal to him. There is no need to wait for spring. We can be strong again. In spring, we can attack the southern houses for slaves, animals, anything that will give us strength. We can be as our grandfathers were.
Four voices sounded like wolves. Seventeen imitated the wolverine. Three were silent.
Pavel walked to the center. With the shaft of a spear, he traced a circle around his feet. He planted the spearhead deep in the ground and he smeared the wood with whale oil using a cloth. Pavel light a torch from a bonfire and knelt before the spear. He took off a necklace of wolverine claws and used one to cut a diagonal line from his right nipple to the top of his deerskin pants. He did the same with the other nipple to form a shallow X on his body. When the blood began to flow, he raised the torch and lit the oil on the spear. The flames licked upward until the wooden shaft was bathed in flickering flames.
Pavel shouted even louder: I demand the ritual of the Prince of War. If you wish to fight for me, swear your oath before the light of the wargod. If you do not wish to fight for me, leave this fire and this land as my enemies forever more. When the spear has finished burning, if there is not enough support for the attack, I will fall upon this spear to return to our mother in the flames of your fires.
He drew his axe and placed it on the ground in front of him and did the same with his sword. The weapons formed an X that mirrored the bloody X on his chest. After a few seconds, a Chief stood up, approached Pavel, and knelt down. He placed his axe and sword in an X on the ground.
Chief: By my axe, by my sword, by my blood. I will be free again. I will be strong again. I have eighty warriors. they are yours.
A second one knelt beside the first. And a third. When the fire of the spear finally died out, twenty-two chiefs surrounded the Prince of War. Two had fled north with every person from their tribe. They would be left in peace as long as they never entered any land under the rule of Pavel the War Prince.
Pavel controlled more than three thousand five hundred warriors. Every tribe gathered supplies and readied their weapons. In the middle of the night, they began the long march to war against two thousand tribal warriors and three hundred and fifty soldiers from the south.
Snow began to fall on the wide plains and small hills that made up the great northern land. Each tribe worked as a group to traverse the shallow valleys rapidly. Animals pulled sleds, men walked ahead to hunt any game that could feed them. Women foraged for wood and any plant of value. The mass of people became a moving organism.
Central fort of the Northern Province.
Arkady the Bear and his people began returning the dead to Mother Earth with a burial in the still workable soil or to Father Sky with a funeral pire. Each family decided how their kin would rejoin the gods. For those who had no one left to speak for them, Arkady or another chief spoke for them. Wounded were tended in the fort and in the tribal villages that surrounded it. They began to prepare for the onset of the long and bitter winter of the north. The dead king and the politics of the south were unknown and unimportant to these tribes.