Chapter 3

The hall of warriors was larger and longer than the hall of hunters. Apparently, Cogo and his family lived it in, along with his men and their wives and other women. Dogs rolled on the floor, playing with the children, and women trotted back and forth carrying food and running errands. Crushed reeds and wheat chaff was scattered on the floor. Dark wooden beams held the thatched roof overhead, and sooty, smoked stones formed a pair of fire hearths that vented out the roof. The far side of the hall was cordoned off behind a large hide dyed red and painted in black with scenes of battle crudely drawn using earthen pigments. Cogo and Brant along with several of the guards and warriors led Roja to the curtain. Before opening the curtain, Cogo rinsed his face in a bronze basin and then spat on the floor. Brant and the other men did the same. They looked at Roja, who repeated their gestures.

"This is the hall of Monos, he who serves. You know Monos?"

"No, I am from the woods."

Cogo shrugged. "Warriors serve Monos here. If you will be a warrior, you will serve Monos, who serves the village."

"I understand."

Cogo and the men turned away from the curtain. Cogo put a hand on Roja's shoulder. "I will teach you about Monos, and when you are ready, we will make you a warrior. You will learn the mystery and join us. Or maybe you will not live."

Roja nodded. "Yes, I understand."

"Until then, you sleep over there, with the boy children."

Cogo looked at Roja for a moment. "You know that this is not a bad thing, not an insult. It is our way because you are not one of us, yes?"

"Yes."

"Jolo had no family, so his possessions are yours. He had a good bow, three good spears, and his clothes and a roll. He also had some grain and coin."

Roja nodded.

"It is not good to have men fight, you understand? We lose men."

"Yes."

"So, I do not allow men to take everything from the man that they killed. Otherwise, we would have men fighting for women or coins. I cannot allow that."

"Yes."

"You need weapons and clothes. I will give you those from his goods. His clothes won't fit you, but we can give you others that will instead. Your grain and meat will be given to the hall of warriors."

Roja waited.

"Here are his coins." Cogo extended a handful of copper pieces. A pair of bronze slugs were in the mix. "It is not much."

Roja took the coins. "This is fine."

The next morning Roja rolled out of his fur early, pleasantly unaccustomed to the luxury of the straw pallet he'd slept on. A couple of men moved about, making a boiled grain gruel in the pre-dawn darkness. He took a bowl from them and went outside, pulling a wool cloak over his shoulders. The world was dark and cold. Winter snow lay thick on the land. Cold flakes drifted down from the silent vastness above in a steady, slow fall. The gruel steamed in the morning air. He ate quietly, watching the village. He walked about the small village, taking careful note of each house and hall, counting the sheep, the oxen, the cows and horses. He examined the construction of the buildings and how the cobbles in the road were laid.

He heard Cogo approaching.

"Our village is impressive, isn't it?"

"It seems so."

"My father, and his father before him made this place prosperous."

"Then you have done well."

"It is time for you to learn about the god, and how to be a warrior."

"Good, I am ready."

Roja learned about the worship of Monos and the code of conduct of a warrior. Warriors, guards, soldiers were a band of brothers. Worship was forbidden to women, children, and the weak. Monos was the protector of women, children, and the weak, and that was why they could not be worshipers. There were secret rituals to be learned, what to say over the corpse of a man you'd given to Monos, how to consecrate the battle ground, secret signals to give your friends in a battle. Roja and Cogo spent their days together. Roja learned quickly and well. After just a few days, Cogo came to Roja with Brant at his side early one morning as Roja ate outside.

"Roja. Now your time has come. To become a warrior, you can choose the test of vengeance, the test of endurance, or the test of righteousness."

"What are these tests?"

"The test of vengeance demands that you right a wrong done our village by another village. It will mean fighting, and perhaps killing. It is dangerous."

Roja sat on his haunches, listening.

"The test of endurance means that you walk the line of staves, between two rows of warriors. If you are on your feet at the end, you are accepted."

"And righteousness?"

"The test of righteousness is that you spend three days in the cave of the winds and return with a tale of your visions there."

"I see."

"I will give you time to choose."

"No, I have chosen."

"Already? So which will you do? Most men take the path of righteousness."

"I will do all three."

Cogo frowned. "Why would you do that? You will die."

"No, I will not die. I will live."

"But why do all three if you only have to do one?"

Roja turned from Cogo to look at Brant.

"Because this man, Brant, already fears me and secretly plans against me. If I do all three, then the men will admire me when it comes time for me to kill him." Silence hung in the air like the edge of a knife.

Suddenly, Brant laughed, his face turning up in a snarl. He twisted on his heel and walked away, back to the hall.

Cogo took Roja by the shoulder. "Why do you say such things?"

"Because they are true. Brant plans to kill me already, he fears I will replace him. And I will. He is a bully and he is afraid. It twists him inside."

Cogo looked at Roja for a long moment. "You are not a normal man. I think maybe you are god touched."

A few days later, Cogo and a group of men approached Roja as he sat on a stump, listening to a village priest talk to him about Monos. Roja had listened carefully, committing all of the priest's words to memory. He knew they would come in handy later. The group of approaching men carried spears and swords. Some had small brass edged wood and hide shields across their backs. Roja stood to show respect.

Cogo's face was a mask of calm. "Roja. You have said that you will take all three of the tests of a warrior. I have cautioned you not to do this thing. What course will you take?"

"I will do all three, as I said."

Cogo shook his head, glancing at the ground. "Very well."

The men muttered amongst themselves at this development. Brant, near the back, smiled. Cogo rubbed his chin and looked out across the village open. "A farmer named Jramm says that men from the village of Forn have taken his livestock and his daughter. This is not the first time men from Forn have been bold with us, but they are a larger village and have more men. We have swallowed our pride with them for too long."

"What am I to do?"

"The men from Forn have taken a marriageable woman, and they have killed his servants. She is now almost certainly only good for being a servant or concubine. If a man from our village did this, his life would be forfeit. That, or he would have to pay a blood price."

"What blood price?"

"At least ten cows, or fifty pigs. Too much. This will probably lead to war."

"And I should go there and take revenge?"

"Lead these men, take the cattle or pigs, even the score."

"I see."

"You can go in the morning."

"No."

"No?"

"No, I will leave now, and I will go alone."

Cogo's eyes widened and he stared at Roja. "Do not be a fool. You will get killed."

"I will be safer if I do not have to protect these men. They are slow and noisy..." The men muttered at this, but Brant laughed, " ... and I will be burdened if I have to save them."

Cogo looked at the men's dark expressions. He dropped his shoulders. "Oh very well, Roja. But we will not avenge you if you fail."

Most of the men stayed to listen to Cogo and the priest, Nuth by name, tell Roja how to find the other village, what it's defenses were, how many men there were, and other details. Roja asked few questions, and somehow seemed to know things about the other village. Late that afternoon, Roja slung a roll between his shoulder blades, strapped a few spears over his back, grabbed his bow, and jogged out of the village into the gathering dusk, across the hard packed and trodden snow ... and out into the distance. He headed Northwest. No one from the village was on hand to see Roja go from a lope to a long hard run once he was out of sight. Roja navigated the terrain expertly, knowing his route fully. His gait ate up the distance in gulps. He traveled until late in the evening, and then slept in his roll under a tree for a few hours. He woke in the early pre-dawn light and broke his cold camp. As he jogged toward the other village, his body began to warm up. His muscles un-kinked and he smiled at the sensation. He trotted and ran throughout the long day, eating up the miles at a blistering pace. By evening, he was over sixty miles from his village.

The village of Forn was large and prosperous, home to more than two hundred families, perhaps a full hundred farmsteads. His information indicated that there could be as many as forty warriors in the village. He approached the village from the direction of the setting sun, staying low to the ground, making sure he was not seen. Squatting down under a scrubby pine, he wrapped his cloak over himself and dusted it with snow and leaves. He settled in and watched. Forn was, indeed, a large village. Roja thought to himself that it might even have been better to have begun with a village like this one, but he was already started on his path, no need to change it now. Roja had spent many hours working on his weapons of war. He had learned to adapt his aim and strength to the bow he carried, maximizing its usefulness. He had learned the limits of the strength and edge of his spears and sword. Where a normal warrior learned his weapon to improve his skills, Roja had learned these weapons to see where their limits were. He was ready.

Roja watched the wooden wall be consumed by the fog and early dusk. He slept. As the night passed, Roja's mind heard the call of foxes and wolves in the woods, answered by grunts and howls from the dogs in the settlement. He heard women call for their children, men call for their women. As the dark of the night waxed full, Roja was as silent as the night itself. Two hours before first light, when night still ruled the world, Roja's eyes opened. He gathered himself and his roll, and silently loped down the hill into the farmsteads near the wall. He came to a small hall, knowing it to be occupied by only a single man. His breath made a thin fog of the cold air.

Using the blade of his sword, Roja slid the sword between the edge of the rough wooden door and the frame. He felt the bar there, and used the blade to carefully force it to slide, bit by bit. After a long minute, he was able to step inside the door, lowering his head. His vision allowed him to see a hide curtain draped over an arch, leading into a bedchamber off the main room. In the main room, a dog was stirring, readying a cry. With a jump and grab of inhuman speed, Roja grabbed the dog by the throat and choked it into silence. When that threat was silenced, he turned to the curtain and stepped inside. A man lay on a crude wooden pallet, turning fitfully in his sleep at the draft of cold air. Roja reached down and pulled the man off the pallet by the hair. Throwing the man to the floor, he pinned him with a knee in his back and tied the man's hands behind his back with a length of rawhide twine. Turning the man over, he dragged him to his feet and pulled him out of the house.

"Run to the village. Tell the warriors that Roja has come, seeking vengeance. I come from Cogo's village, and I come here to challenge your warriors. Say these things back to me, that I might know you have heard me!"

The man gasped in Roja's grip, and fought. Roja backhanded the man to the ground and then pulled him back in a tight grip.

"I am Roja, from Cogo's village. I am here to challenge your warriors, to right a wrong you have done. Say this back."

"Y ... you are Roja. You challenge our warriors. Y ... you seek vengeance."

"Good." Roja shoved the ill-dressed man towards the stockade, and loped off into the night.

From a hillside break of trees, Roja watched the man stumble to the stockade doors and bawl for entrance. Shouts were exchanged in the pre-dawn cold. The doors were opened and the man was pulled inside. The doors closed. From where he sat, Roja could hear talk and shouting begin. He moved farther back into the woods, away from the village, and waited. Inside the village, a ram's horn was blown. It sounded five long, slow times, and then went quiet. Roja rested.

Later that morning, the gates opened. Five men in partial bronze armor walked out into the snow. They carried spears. One man in front wore a feathered bronze helmet. A man standing to his side carried his spears. The spear carrier cupped his hands and began to shout.

"Roja! Gotta the champion accepts your challenge. He is here to kill you in the honor of our town. He says to tell you that the woman you seek has been the bride of many, and now serves her body to many."

Roja shed his cloak and furs, settling them into a small pile. He worked his way around the woods to his right, hiding his resting spot from where he would be seen. Roja stepped out of the woods and allowed himself to be seen.

"I am Roja. I am here from Cogo's village. You have wronged us, and owe us blood price and honor."

The bronze clad warrior spoke to his spear carrier. The men with him stepped back a few feet. "I am Gotta. Come, bring your sword to me. Let us fight."

"Good." Said Roja, pulling his sword and walking down the path toward the cluster of men.

A couple of the men stepped back when it could be seen just how large Roja was.

Gotta spat in the dirt at Roja's feet. "Roja, you have come here just to die. Your village is weak, and your men are fools. You face me without even any armor. You and your village are poor. Make peace with Monos and die."

Roja just looked at the black haired man's face and waited.

After a moment Gotta said. "So be it." He pulled his sword and with a shout, and leapt for Roja.

Roja instantly spun to his left avoiding Gotta's first blow, then he dropped to one knee and rammed his sword up under Gotta's armored breastplate, through his leather jerkin, and into Gotta's stomach and lungs. Half a second later Roja twisted the sword, leaned to the left, and jumped to his feet as he pulled the blade loose.

Gotta's abdomen opened up like a mouth and his entrails poured out in a rush. Roja took a step backward. Gotta silently looked into Roja's eyes for a moment, and then screamed a high pitched, weak scream and went to his knees. The snow turned a deep red, almost a purple and steam rose in front of him.

With no warning Roja leapt to his right side and took a massive and powerful swing. The warrior standing to Gotta's side suddenly felt a huge and crushing blow, as Roja's sword cut into his leather jerkin, slicing him halfway through. Roja jumped forward, put his foot on the man's chest and wrenched the sword loose. The man's mouth opened and a steady thread of blood poured out as he screamed. Two of the warriors who had come out with Gotta ran toward Roja. Of the remaining two, one man hesitated, and the smaller man in the back turned white and ran for the walls. The spear carrier dropped his burden and ran.

The two men coming at Roja were not trained to fight as a unit, and Roja was able to hurl himself bodily into the first man, knocking him off his feet, and thus block the line of sight of the second. Jumping back Roja smashed the pommel of his sword into the face of his second attacker, and then kicked the man in the groin so hard that the armor bent inward. The man dropped to his knees. Roja turned to find the first warrior trying to rise. Roja drove his sword through the man's chest, into his heart, and twisted as he pulled the sword loose. Stepping to the side, he drove his sword into the face of the second warrior and through his mouth and throat. The point of Roja's sword emerged from the back of the man's neck, and the man shuddered, then went still.