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Prince Holgar did continue his translation of the runic inscriptions.

"Then, did the Templar commander of the besieging force ride forward, under flag of truce, to demand our unconditional surrender. Queen Kara's only reply was to cast aspersions on their parentage (or lack of same)!"

"Moments later, the attack came."

"A troop of turcopoles rode forward; shielded from our own arrows by accompanying Templars. Likewise, the torch-bearing evzones who followed them. And, when all three contingents had come within range of the main gate, the turcopoles did let fly a volley of shafts. The arrowheads of which had been lit by the torches. And, upon striking the main gate?

"They did thunderously explode on impact!"

"T'was much later that the 'fortunate' survivors of the massacre did learn the truth. While the turcopoles had fletched them with real feathers, those particular shafts had been naught but hollow tubes made of Venetian glass. And, contained within said tubes?"

"The unholy liquid referred to, in Constantinople, as...Greek fire."

"Two more such flights were loosed towards the main gate. And, within half a score of minutes, the latter had been reduced to smouldering charcoal. Whereupon, more evzones did run forward. Each one carrying a basket full of powder-ground serpentine, which they did throw on the charcoal to cool it further. Whereupon, the invaders did charge forward!"

"Now, did the turcopoles use wooden shafts! While the Templars did skewer with their lances and cleave with their swords. And, the evzones did dismember with their battle-adzes. Those people of Jomsborg who could not wield weapons, for any reason, did try to flee through the rear gate of the city to the woodlands nearby."

"Only to find another body of Templars waiting in reserve! And, those who did not die fighting (like Queen Kara and her shield-maidens), did ultimately find themselves enchained and herded southward to slavery."

"All, that is, save two."

"In the months between Svyatogor's departure and the perfidious siege, it did become obvious that the jarl's last night with his wife had borne fruit. The stress of the two-day siege, however, did cause her to belabour, prematurely. So that, what had been done to the mother of Julius Caesar, had need to be repeated with Queen Kara!"

"Thus, two days into the forced march, Vulda the shamaness did shrink the infant (a girl-child dubbed Svipul) to the size of a mouse. Followed by her own transformation into a fox! Whereupon, Vulda did flee with her shrunken charge to the land of the Sudovians. A northern-dwelling sub-tribe of the Prussian Balts."

"There, she did learn of a childless couple who dwelt among the Sudovians. One Dobryna Nikitch (a bogatyr from Rostov-on-Don); and his Cuman-Kipchak wife, Nastasia Polyanitsa."

"These two great warriors did love adventuring as much as they loved each other. Yet, while the former had earned them countless minstrel-sung praises (most especially, for aiding the Balts against their oppressors, the Livonian Brethren of the Sword), not once had the latter ever blessed them with any progeny."

"Thus, did Vulda take pity on them. Re-enlarging the infant Svipul, to normal size, before placing her upon a bed of sweet-violas next to the couple's hut. And, upon finding the child, through her cries, they thought not twice about adopting her and raising her as their own."

"Consequently, they did name her...Violka Dobrynovna."

tbc
Chapter End Notes:
Special note: serpentine is the obsolescent term for asbestos, in its raw mineral form.
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