Wolfspell Read online

  Thora forgot to feel afraid. Without even pausing to think, she dashed forward, brandishing her potion and bandages. At the sight of her, the wolf seemed to find new strength. It sprang to its feet, and bared its fangs.

  ‘It’s all right!’ Oddo called out. ‘Calm down.’ Thora thought he was speaking to her, but then Oddo brushed past her to face the wolf.

  ‘It’s all right,’ he said again. ‘Thora won’t hurt you, Grey Wolf. She’s going to make you better.’

  Thora couldn’t believe her eyes. Oddo held out his hand for the beast to sniff, just as if it were an ordinary dog. And instead of biting his hand off, the wolf lay down and looked at Thora piteously!

  Thora realised she’d been rigid as a lump of ice. She took one cautious step, then another.

  ‘Oddo,’ she said in a hoarse whisper, ‘how are you going to get the arrow out?’

  Rubbing the animal’s belly, and murmuring words of reassurance, Oddo reached across and tugged at the wooden shaft. The wolf jerked in pain, and let out a howl, but the arrow was out. Blood started to trickle from the open wound. Thora tipped up her water bag, and washed away the blood. Working fast, she made a poultice with the bandages and herbs and bound it tightly round the leg.

  ‘Done!’ she announced.

  Grey Wolf twisted round to sniff at the bandages.

  ‘Leave it,’ said Oddo. ‘It will make your leg better.’

  The wolf gave a shudder and clambered to its feet. Thora leaped back in alarm.

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Oddo. And this time he was talking to her.

  The wolf licked Thora’s hand, then turned to limp away.

  ‘He said thank you!’ breathed Thora.

  She looked at Oddo. With his soot-streaked face, tousled hair and wide, toothy grin, he looked rather like a wolf himself.

  ‘Are you going home now?’ she asked.

  The happy look was wiped from his eyes. ‘I’ll have to,’ he groaned.

  As Thora watched his dragging feet turn towards home, she wished she could make a potion that would take away his pain too.

  7

  Oddo alone

  Bolverk strapped on his arsenal of weapons – bow and arrows, dagger, sword, and long-handled fighting axe. Sigrid lowered the lid of the travelling chest.

  ‘Are you going on a hunting expedition or a Viking raid?’ she asked.

  ‘Best to be well armed,’ Bolverk answered.

  ‘And you’re sure you can manage the boat single-handed?’

  ‘Have to, won’t I? Somebody’s got to stay and look after the farm.’

  Oddo hunched on his bed, arms wrapped round Hairydog. He hated his parents speaking as if he didn’t exist. They’d treated him like this ever since he’d ruined the hunt. From the moment he’d slunk back through the door, his father had behaved as if he couldn’t see him.

  What would happen if he leapt up now, and begged Bolverk to take him?

  ‘I could help with the boat!’ he thought.‘I can row!’

  But then, when they got there, he would have to hunt . . . He chewed his lip and frowned.

  ‘Husband, I wish I could go with you.’

  Oddo sat up at Sigrid’s words, his heart pounding.

  ‘Mother,’ he called. ‘Why don’t you go? I can look after the farm!’ He wished his voice didn’t sound so weak and trembly.

  His mother glanced at Bolverk.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘What would you do about food?’

  ‘I can manage,’ said Oddo stoutly. ‘I’m not a baby.’

  His father grunted and Oddo held his breath.

  ‘Don’t be a fusspot, woman!’ Bolverk snapped.‘A boy his age should be capable of looking after himself – and keeping an eye on the place.’ He tapped the handle of his axe. ‘Anyway, if he runs into trouble, Ulf’ll be around.’ He swung towards Oddo and looked him in the eye for the first time in days. ‘So, you really think you can manage, boy?’ His bushy eyebrows lifted questioningly.

  Oddo nodded, hardly believing what was happening.

  ‘We won’t be very long, I suppose,’ murmured Sigrid. ‘We’ll probably be back by the close of the Gula Thing. When that King’s Sheriff returns.’

  ‘What is the Gula Thing?’ asked Oddo.

  ‘The spring law meeting where people with big heads make laws and tell other people what to do,’ growled Bolverk.

  ‘And people with arguments can go to get judgements,’ said Sigrid.

  ‘Or misjudgements.’ Bolverk kicked impatiently at the chest. ‘Well, woman, if you’re coming, let’s go!’

  Sigrid’s cheeks were pink with excitement as she bundled things into the chest and pinned a fur-lined cape around her shoulders. But as she stooped to kiss her son farewell, her brow furrowed.

  ‘Be sure to cook yourself hot meals,’ she whispered anxiously. ‘Don’t just live on cheese! There’s still plenty of salted meat you can boil up. And barley for porridge or bread.’

  Oddo nodded as Sigrid hastened to the door and picked up her end of the chest.

  ‘Remember to keep the barn door shut!’ Bolverk called back over his shoulder. ‘I don’t want your friend the wolf dropping in for a snack!’

  Oddo could hear his mother murmuring a question, and his father’s booming reply. ‘He’ll be fine. He can always use his magic to get himself out of trouble!’

  Then they were out of earshot.

  Hairydog jumped off the bed and began to sniff around, as if this room, without Sigrid or Bolverk, was somewhere new and interesting.

  Oddo let out a long breath. Shakily, he climbed off the bed and stared at the door in disbelief.

  ‘Father’s left me in charge of the farm,’ thought Oddo. ‘He trusts me!’

  He swallowed, trying to quell the frightened feeling squeezing his throat. He tried to feel proud and important.

  ‘I’ll start right now,’ he decided.‘I’ll feed the animals.’

  As he headed for the hayshed, he noticed Grimmr in the distance, standing at the boundary fence, eyeing the paddock between them. Oddo bit his lip. The man was surly and unfriendly and Oddo usually kept out of his way, but today . . .

  ‘I’m in charge of the farm so I ought to be friends with the neighbours,’ he told himself.

  He set off across the paddock.

  ‘Hey!’ he called. ‘Guess what? My parents have gone away and left me in charge!’

  Grimmr didn’t answer. He just gave a snort and walked away.

  ‘What a pig!’ thought Oddo. He stared at the retreating back. ‘Well,’ he called, ‘I’d better get on with my chores, then.’ He waited but there was still no response. ‘Nice talking to you!’ he muttered and turned back to the hayshed.

  It didn’t take long to fill the feed troughs. Oddo dusted off his tunic and grinned with satisfaction.

  ‘Now what?’ he wondered.

  Suddenly, he had an inspiration. With Sigrid and Bolverk away, he had the perfect opportunity to make friends with the Little Folk!

  ‘I’ll set up a banquet for them,’ he thought, ‘with a table and everything. And I’ll make it inside the house!’

  All that day, Oddo worked at his surprise. He managed to split a branch to make a flat top for a very small table, then bored a hole in each corner and pushed in twigs for legs. He told himself he shouldn’t feel guilty as he helped himself to Bolverk’s tools – but he didn’t feel comfortable till he’d finished using them and they were safely back in the tool chest.

  In the wood he picked a few sprays of young green leaves for decorating the table. When he made his evening meal, he broke off a piece of dough, rolled it into tiny lumps and cooked the smallest bread loaves he could manage. He used some of the leaves for plates when he set out the banquet. As well as the tiny golden loaves, there were miniature portions of boiled meat, cheese and even a smudge of butter from the last of their supply.

  ‘And now to make sure they find it!’ thought Oddo.

  He placed an oil lamp on the ground nex
t to the table, stepped outside, and arranged the door hangings so that they hung open a crack. The light beamed out welcomingly and in the middle of the bright triangle stood the tiny table he’d laid.

  ‘It looks like a real banquet!’ he thought proudly.

  A shadow blocked the light.

  ‘No!’ screeched Oddo. He dived back through the doorway, grabbing Hairydog by the scruff of her neck just as she opened her mouth. ‘This is for the Little Folk, not you. Come on, hop into bed with me and we’ll watch.’

  He climbed onto the sleeping bench, hugging Hairydog close. Without the usual snores from his parents’ bed, the room felt strange and empty. A cold wind sneaked past the door hangings, rippling the lamp flame, puffing at the embers of the sinking fire, making all the shadows twitch and dance. Oddo drew the fur blanket up to his chin and fixed his gaze on the dark doorway, watching eagerly for his visitors.

  8

  A mysterious disappearance

  Oddo sat up with a shock. What time was it? How long had he been asleep? He turned to look at the banquet table, and let out a howl of frustration. Every crumb of food had disappeared. He’d missed the Little Folk again!

  Tumbling out of bed, he ran to the doorway and peered out at the grey world. But there was no sign of the Little Folk.

  As he stood there, the sky began to lighten. A single warbler let out a trickle of sound, and all around him other birds took up the early morning song. A ray of sunshine caught the side of the dairy, picking out the arrow marks from Oddo’s target practice and making the turf roof glow a bright yellow-green.

  Oddo took some chumps from the woodpile near the door, and turned back inside to stoke the fire. He needed to warm up! As he blew on the flames, he felt a niggling worry in the back of his mind. Something outside hadn’t looked right, but he couldn’t think what it was. Frowning, he poured some oats and water into a soapstone pot and hung it over the fire to cook.

  ‘Hairydog!’ he called. ‘Come here, girl.’

  Before they even reached the door, Hairydog started yipping frenziedly. She shot from the house and tore across the yard towards the hayshed. With a shock of disbelief Oddo took in the sight of bare floor and an empty space between the posts. The whole pile of hay for the animals had disappeared!

  Oddo could hardly swallow his breakfast. His parents had gone away trusting him to look after the farm. And now, just one day later, he’d managed to lose all the feed for the animals! And he couldn’t even comfort himself with the thought that it wasn’t his fault, for he had an awful suspicion that this was a mischievous trick of the Little Folk’s.

  What could he do? Not a blade of grass was visible in the paddock yet, and none of their neighbours would have any hay to spare. How on earth was he going to feed the animals? Already he could hear them mooing and bleating as they called out for their breakfast. He stared dejectedly at the breadcrumbs he was flicking around the table, and thought of Thora making bread from pine bark. Suddenly, he felt a lurch of excitement. If Thora could find food for her family in the wood, surely he could find something there to feed his cows and sheep?

  He leapt up, ignoring Sigrid’s rule to clean up as soon as they finished eating, and raced out the door. With Hairydog at his heels, he dashed around the wood, searching for something grassy-looking. Not the brown leaves rotting all over the ground. Maybe the pine needles? He was just contemplating a fistful of pine needles when he spied Thora walking between the trees.

  ‘Hey, Thora!’

  She looked startled to see him, and as they drew closer he noticed her red, swollen eyes.

  ‘Thora, what’s the matter?’

  There was no answer for a moment, and he could tell she was struggling not to burst into tears. At last, the words came out in a rush: ‘Everyone in the family’s expecting me to work out a way to pay our taxes!’ she exclaimed. ‘And I can’t!’

  Oddo stood there staring at her in consternation.

  ‘I’ll help you think of a way,’ he said, trying to sound reassuring. But if Thora couldn’t find a solution, it wasn’t likely he would!

  Thora sniffed, and looked at his hands.

  ‘What are you doing with those pine needles?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m looking for something for our cows and sheep to eat,’ said Oddo. ‘Someone stole all our hay!’

  ‘Stole your hay! Who on earth would do that?!’

  Oddo shrugged. He couldn’t say anything about the Little Folk after all her warnings to leave them alone.

  ‘Well, you certainly can’t give the cows pine needles,’ said Thora, sounding more like her usual self. ‘That’ll make them lose their calves. We’ll have to find some of that lichen stuff the reindeers eat . . .’ She bustled off between the trees. ‘Come on, I think there’s some over here.’

  Oddo grinned. Thora always had an answer. But then he remembered her tear-swollen face. The problem of the taxes seemed to be the one thing she couldn’t solve. What would happen to her family if she didn’t find a way to get the taxes? Would they really be thrown out of their home? As Oddo hurried after his friend, he began to wonder if, just for once, there was some way he could help her.

  9

  Grimmr the Greedy

  The brown curly lichen didn’t look a bit like grass or hay.

  ‘It looks like seaweed!’ said Oddo dubiously.‘Are you sure the animals will eat it?’

  He picked a handful, then looked round for somewhere to put it, and realised he’d rushed out without a basket.

  ‘Here, use mine,’ said Thora.

  The basket was brimming over by the time they left the wood. Oddo, hurrying towards the barn, heard Thora calling out behind him. He stopped and looked back. Thora was looking across the paddock towards Grimmr the Greedy’s farm.

  ‘What on earth are they doing?’ she called.

  Grimmr and his servants were walking backwards and forwards between Grimmr’s property and Bolverk’s, carrying lumps of stone. They seemed to be pulling down the fence that divided the two farms, and moving the stones to the middle of Bolverk’s paddock, but that didn’t make sense. That wall was the boundary between the two farms. Then Oddo realised why they were doing it.

  ‘I don’t believe it!’ he said.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Thora. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘That . . . that Grimmr – he’s stealing our land!’

  ‘You can’t steal land!’ said Thora.

  ‘He is. He’s moving the fence. He’s making our land smaller and his land bigger!’ And now Oddo noticed a new shed standing on Grimmr’s land, a shed that hadn’t been there the morning before. A shed that was full of hay . . . ‘And I bet that’s our missing hay!’ he cried. So it wasn’t the Little Folk who’d emptied Bolverk’s hayshed after all. It was that bloated, pig-faced . . . Oddo dumped the basket on the ground and turned to Thora.

  ‘He thinks he can get away with it ’cause I’m a kid,’ Oddo growled. ‘He thinks I can’t do anything to stop him!’

  Boiling with anger and indignation, he strode across the paddock towards the men. Loudly ringing in his head was Bolverk’s scornful criticism of the Jarl: ‘An egg yolk’s got more backbone than he has. Only a coward hands over his realm rather than offering battle!’

  ‘Oddo, what are you going to do?’ called Thora as she trotted behind him.

  ‘I’m offering battle!’

  ‘Oh, Oddo, be careful!’

  Oddo came to a halt in front of the new fenceline. Hairydog stood beside him, growling.

  ‘Excuse me!’ he called. He meant his voice to sound fierce, but it came out in a squeak. ‘I think you’re making a mistake! This is our land.’

  With a grunt, Grimmr dropped the rock he was holding – almost on Oddo’s foot.

  ‘You can’t do this!’ cried Oddo, jumping out of the way.

  ‘And just how are you planning to stop me, you snivelling earwig?’ The man’s voice was so deep it seemed to make the ground vibrate. He towered over Oddo, pulling on his finge
rs so that the knuckles made little explosive snaps. Oddo gulped, and looked back up at him, trying not to show how nervous he felt. From this close, the man looked like an ogre. He was the size of a giant, with a neck as thick as a tree trunk and a gleaming bald head that rose from a vast forest of bushy beard.

  Suddenly, Oddo knew what to do.

  ‘I . . . I summons you to the Gula Thing!’ he said.

  ‘Huh.’ Grimmr regarded Oddo as if he were a pile of rat droppings he’d found in his bag of barley.‘Little boy,’ he rumbled. ‘I shall attend the Gula Thing because it pleases me to do so. There will be fine trading there with people from all over the realm. But as for bothering the Law Speaker with your groundless claim – ha! You’ll be laughed out of court. No one will pay attention to a puny little insect like you.’

  Grimmr lumbered off to fetch more stones. Oddo and Thora watched for a while in disbelieving silence, then turned away. As Oddo bent to retrieve the basket, Thora spoke.

  ‘Will you really go to the Gula Thing?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Oddo firmly. ‘And I’ll make them listen to me.’

  ‘Then I think I’ll go with you,’ said Thora.

  There was a sparkle in her eye and Oddo knew she was having one of her ideas.

  ‘You heard what that horrible man said?’ she exclaimed. ‘About people going to the Gula Thing to trade? Well, that’s what I’ll do! I’ll sell herbal remedies and earn silver, like that time when we went to market! Then I’ll be able to pay our taxes!’ She beamed triumphantly. ‘And I’ll help you make sure those Law Speakers listen! We won’t let that old ogre get away with your father’s land.’

  When Oddo got back to the barn and found that the cows and sheep approved of their new fodder, he began to feel happier. It would be a nuisance going to the wood every day to hunt for lichen, but at least the animals wouldn’t starve. And then he remembered how hard he’d worked to make the hay: the hours he’d spent under the summer sun with that heavy sickle, cutting the long grasses and binding them, the pain in his back and the blisters on his fingers – just for Grimmr the Greedy to sneak in during the night and help himself! He wanted to pick up all the boundary stones and hurl them at Grimmr’s sneering face!