Sword Brothers Read Online Free Page A

challenged him nor did any enemy stir at his approach. From the dead silence he surmised the others of his picked men shared his success.
    He crouched behind a tree, watching the low fires for shadows passing before them. He imagined Finn doing the same only with more grace and skill. His knees throbbed and his leg ached, and he leaned on the tree more for support than cover. His mail coat was no longer a welcoming old friend but a heavy ogre riding his shoulders. He and all the others had selected dark cloaks and rubbed their mail with mud to prevent a gleam from giving them away. Finn had daubed his own face with grime, but Ulfrik thought that was too much. They would be blaring horns, after all, with no chance of remaining hidden after that moment.
    Satisfied no one moved in this section of camp, he crept toward the next tree. His heart throbbed with the excitement of the stealthy work. He had seldom employed the skills he learned infiltrating the Franks years ago, spending the last six years in a shield wall. Tonight he returned to the heady mix of danger and deceit, and he relished the thrill.
    He stepped to the next tree, then a small clearing marked the center of this segment of the camp. Only a few tents marked where the lords slept, and they were billowing masses of gray in the low light. Most of the ground was covered by slumbering men with their cloaks pulled over them. Their snores droned in the night and the odd man shifted in his sleep. He searched for a path through the bodies, but found none. Indeed the Franks had come in the hundreds, and were carefree enough to sleep with enemies nearby.
    Sentries would be close, and he waited until the low orange light of small campfires revealed them to him. One sentry wrapped in a cloak and leaning against a tree resolved into view. He was barely visible, but revealed himself when he wiped at his nose. Ulfrik continued to wait until no other shadows revealed more guards, then he made a careful dash to the next tree all while staring at the sentry.
    He arrived safely, but decided he had to draw the guard away from the edge of his sleeping companions. He tossed a rock to where he had just been, and it thumped against the trunk. The sentry stood straighter and stared at the tree. Ulfrik threw a second stone when the sentry's interest appeared to fade, then the Frank grasped his spear in two hands and approached the tree. He stopped and stared, shook his head then continued. The sentry examined the tree and began to prod the earth with his spear. Ulfrik had no idea what that would do to detect him, but he was already sweeping up behind the guard.
    In the final step he cracked a branch and the sentry whirled, though his spear was not too long for the job. Ulfrik grabbed it with one hand and pulled forward. The guard instinctively tried to hold onto the shaft and thus he fell forward into Ulfrik's waiting dagger. He punched it into the sentry's ribs, then released the spear and clamped his hand over the Frank's mouth. He led him to the ground so the crash would not awaken anyone, then cut the sentry's throat for good measure.
    Again he paused, but no one investigated the brief struggle. Across the camp he saw another form slowly pacing, but the distance was great enough to be of no concern. Stooped as if walking behind a fence, he glided toward the edge of the sparse trees where the sleeping men lay. He pulled out his horn and imagined Finn, Hakon, and a dozen other men waiting for him to sound it. Once he blew the horn, he had moments to unleash chaos and make his escape.
    There would be no turning back and he would be surrounded by alarmed foes.
    The horn pressed against his lips and he drew his sword.
    He blew with all his might and the sound burst over the sleeping men. Unseen sentries standing only a few spear-lengths distant jumped in shock. The sleeping men shot up in confusion. In answer to his horn, all the others sounded. Then from the top of the hill, Hrolf sounded