The Long Hunt (The Strongbow Saga) (37 page)

"You father agreed?" I asked. She nodded. "And Sigvald helped him find the men who had killed your mother and brother?" She nodded again.

"He took us on his ship up to where our camp had been. He said that if they had been fishing in these waters that day, sooner or later they would likely come again. For two days he and his men rowed their ship along the shore there. Four times we saw small boats with men in them, fishing, and we approached them, but they were not the ones. But the fifth boat we found, on the second day, held the evil men. Sigvald rowed his ship up alongside, and one by one, my father shot them dead with his bow.

"He had never killed a man before. He had thought it would be a good thing, to kill those men. He thought there was, as Sigvald told him, a blood-price they had to pay. But he was never the same after that. And then, later, we learned the true nature of the bargain my father had made. Sigvald and his men were no different than the raiders who had attacked our lands. Although he never talked to me about it, I knew that sometimes, when Sigvald took his ships out to hunt, my father killed other men, too—men who had never done him any wrong. My father was changing—he was no longer the same man he once had been. It was as if something in his spirit had died."

We sat in silence for a while. What Rauna had told me explained many things. But it left me with a problem. There would be no one in Birka who might be able to help her return to her people. I could not leave her there.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. A cold wind began blowing in off of the sea. It carried a mist that hinted of rain soon to come.

"There will be a storm this night," Rauna said, sniffing the wind. She hesitated, then added, "You can sleep in my tent—this night only. Out of the rain. I am not saying you can come to my bed. Do you understand that?"

I nodded.

She stood and walked to her tent, not looking back to see if I would follow. I rose unsteadily to my feet, gathered up the fur coverings that had formed my pallet, and staggered after her.

*   *   *

The following day Hastein again elected, as he had after first leaving Oeland, to sail through the night rather than stop and make camp. We had no way of knowing whether Toke was still at Birka. If good fortune had smiled on him, one or more slavers who traded with the Araby kingdoms had been in Birka when he'd arrived, and Toke was already well on his way to Ireland by now. But Hastein did not want the desire for a hot meal and a good night's sleep ashore to delay us as long as there was still a chance fortune might smile upon us, instead—as long as there was any hope we might catch Toke at Birka.

We reached the broad mouth of the inlet leading to Birka early the following morning. The night of the feast, Nori had told Hastein how to recognize it, for before the pirates had come and burned their ships, the Oelanders had regularly traveled to Birka to trade. It was a good thing that he had spoken to Hastein about it, because the coastline we'd been passing for some time now had been an indistinguishable maze of inlets, bays, and small islands.

"You must watch for an island, located in the center of the mouth of a large bay, that has a steep rocky peak rising out of the sea in front of it, taller than the mast of a ship," he'd said. "On its seaward side, there is a great eye painted in white on the face of the peak. It is painted red in times of war. It represents the eye of Odin, the one-eyed god who sees all. It is said that the kings of the Sveas are descended from him. There is a small temple to Odin on the island behind the rock, which is maintained by the pilots who guide ships to Birka. There are always some of them on the island. You can hire one there."

"Will we need a pilot?" Hastein had asked.

Nori had nodded vigorously. "Oh yes. If you have never been to Birka, it can be a challenge to find. It is quite some distance inland from the sea. There are many small channels leading inland from the bay, but only one leads all the way to where the waters widen into the great lake where the island of Bjorko lies, in its center. Birka is there, on Bjorko. You will need a pilot to find the correct channel. And even if you did manage to find the channel without a pilot, it can be dangerous to travel through without a guide, for in some stretches there are great rocks that lie beneath its surface, that were put there by the Sveas to protect the access from the sea to Birka and the lands beyond. The channel is very narrow where the rocks are, so it can be easily blocked if need be."

The island was as Nori had described it. We had just passed a long, low-lying island when Torvald gave a shout from the stern of the
Serpent
and pointed into a bay that opened up beyond it. In the distance a gray stone pillar jutted up out of the sea. An island lay behind it. On the sheer face of the pillar was the white outline of a giant eye, taller than a man.

We lowered our sails and unshipped our oars as we neared the pillar. The narrow end of the island that lay just behind was split by a long cove that provided a sheltered harbor. At its far end, two small-boats were pulled up on the shore, and a rickety-looking wooden pier jutted out over the water. A low, square wooden building constructed of logs—presumably the temple Nori had spoken of—sat like a crown on the crest of a bald-topped hill that overlooked the cove.

When we entered the cove and rowed toward the pier, five men came out of the temple and stood watching. As we tied up our ships along either side of the pier, two of them headed down the hillside toward us.

While Hastein and Torvald walked to meet the two, the rest of us scrambled ashore to make the most of our brief stop. We were stiff and sore from so many hours aboard the cramped, crowded decks of the
Gull
and
Serpent
.

Rauna and I had spoken but little since she had told me what had happened in Birka. Once ashore, she headed with a quick pace toward a nearby tree line, where the island's forest cover grew close to the water's edge.

"Rauna!" I called. "Wait! I will come with you."

She turned back toward me and frowned. "I do not want you to come. I wish to be alone for a little while."

I understood. There is no privacy aboard a longship. Throughout the day while we were at sea, as they felt the need members of the
Gull
's crew would drop their trousers and relieve themselves over the side or squat over a bucket. I realized how awkward the situation was for Rauna. I would not wish to be the only woman aboard a ship crowded with warriors, and have them all stare at me while I relieved myself.

"You can be alone," I said as I caught up to her. "But we do not know who is on this island. I will just wait nearby. That way you will be safe."

She considered my words for a moment, then nodded. When we reached the trees, she said, "Wait here," and walked to a patch of undergrowth growing between two large oaks, disappearing behind it.

Although my head still had a dull ache, I was feeling more like myself. I had even felt strong enough to man an oar as we'd rowed the
Gull
into the cove, although as I'd done so, Gudfred's warning came back to me, and I'd hoped the effort would not cause me to suddenly fall over dead. It was with a sense of relief that I had shipped my oar when we'd docked.

After Rauna reemerged, we walked slowly back toward the ships. "I have been thinking much about what happened to your family in Birka," I told her. "It is good that you told me. I see now that I cannot leave you there."

"Then where will you leave me?"

"I have lands back in Denmark, on Jutland. They are my family's lands. When this voyage is over, you can come back there. You can live on my lands, and be a part of my household. You will not be back among your own people, but at least you will be safe there." I sighed. This was not a thing I wished to do. I wanted to be free of her, but I could see no other way. She would be helpless, and would soon be preyed upon, if I left her in Birka—or anywhere else, for that matter.

"What will you do with me there?" she asked warily.

Did she think I would make her a slave? Or use her as a concubine?

"Nothing," I answered. "You will be a free woman. There are a number of free men and women in the household." We were nearing the pier now. Gudfred was standing on the shore near its end, talking with Einar. I pointed at him. "Gudfred, there, is one of the carls—one of the free men—from the estate. You will be expected to work, of course. Everyone must work. But that is all."

Perhaps she would catch the eye of someone from the village, and they could take her for their wife. That would be the best solution. A villager would not expect to wed a wife with a dowry. I decided I should try to encourage Bram to get to know her.

My answer did not satisfy her. "Will I have to share your bed? Will others want me to share their beds?"

"You will be a free woman," I said again. "It will be your choice whether you share your bed with anyone. No one will force you."

"My mother was a free woman. All of my people are free. That has not protected us from the men of your kind."

"You will be safe there. I promise it. I can do nothing more for you than this. Do you wish it or not?"

By now we had reached the shore. Rauna did not answer, but put her head down and hurried away, out onto the pier to the
Gull
.

Hastein and Torvald had returned. A short, bald-headed man with a round belly and a white beard was with them. Both Hastein and Torvald had scowls on their faces.

"Reboard the ships!" Torvald called, in a booming voice. "Draw oars, and prepare to get underway. We are leaving."

The short man scampered down the pier and climbed aboard the
Gull
. As the members of our two crews filed down the narrow pier behind him, I pulled Hastein aside. "You and Torvald look angry," I said. "Is there trouble? Do we not have a pilot to show us the way to Birka?"

Torvald answered. "Oh, aye, we have a pilot. It is that fat, greedy little dwarf who just boarded the
Gull
."

"Then what is the problem?" I asked.

"He is charging us ten silver pennies to guide our two ships to Birka! The regular fee the pilots here charge a ship is five pennies. But he is charging us ten, because we have two ships. He is not going to be piloting the
Serpent
! I will just be following the
Gull
."

"There is more to it than that," Hastein added. "The pilot—his name is Alf—is a nosy little man, who asks many questions but gives few answers. Had we been Norse, or Gotars, or even Vends or Franks, I do not think he would have cared. He would have taken his five pennies per ship, shown us the route to Birka, and that would have been that. But he took great interest in the fact that we are Danes. Once he realized that we are, he became very curious—too curious—about us. Where had we sailed from? How long had we been traveling? What was the purpose of our voyage? There is something about him I do not trust. Keep a close watch on him."

*   *   *

Nori had not been exaggerating when he'd told Hastein that Birka was quite some distance inland. The journey there took us the entire remainder of the day. At first the channel we traveled along was fairly broad. Although light, the wind was favorable, so we were at least able to cover most of the distance under sail. But during the final stretch where the channel was quite narrow, the wind shifted, and we were forced to take up our oars. Alf earned his pennies in the narrow channel, for it was there that the hidden rocks lay, and several times, at Alf's direction, we had to cut across it from one side to the other to avoid them.

Hastein had been right. Alf was a nosy little man. Whenever his attention to our course was not needed, he wandered up and down the deck, tugging at the bundles and barrels of our cargo, trying to determine their contents, all the while asking questions. The crew quickly took a dislike to him. Bryngolf snapped at him, ordering him to leave our cargo alone, but Alf merely protested that he was only trying to help us—if he knew what types of goods we had to trade, he could suggest the best merchants in Birka for them.

The light was beginning to fade and the sun was not long from passing out of the sky when we finally emerged from the channel out onto a great lake and saw, in the distance, smoke from numerous fires rising above an island that lay ahead.

Once on the lake, we were able to raise our sail and catch the wind again, heading north. Birka proved to be located toward the far end of the island Nori had called Bjorko—its southern end, facing the channel's mouth, was covered with dense woodlands and, according to Alf, uninhabited.

As we skirted Bjorko's western side, a steep, rocky hill looming over the shoreline came into view ahead. On its crest were the walls of a fortress. Pointing to it, Hastein asked Alf, "Is that part of the town?"

"The fort?" Alf asked, and shook his head. "The king keeps a large garrison at Birka, to protect it and keep the peace. It is their fort. Birka lies below and just beyond it."

After we sailed past the fort, the town came into view. Birka was not as large as Hedeby, though still a sizable town. Buildings crowded down right to the edge of a broad, curved shoreline that formed its harbor. Beyond, on the landward side, an earthen wall topped with a wooden stockade, with wooden watchtowers rising above at regular intervals, surrounded the back side of the town. The harbor itself was protected by a jetty of wooden pilings that curved in a great arc all the way across its face. A gap in the center of the jetty provided the only entrance into the harbor.

Once more lowering our sails, we rowed into Birka harbor, the
Serpent
following the
Gull
. I was at the last oar in the stern, just in front of where Hastein was standing on the raised stern deck at the steer-board. As best I could, I studied the harbor, looking over my shoulder as I rowed. Numerous piers jutted out from the shore. Many had ships tied alongside—mostly knarrs, but there was a scattering of other ships, including a few longships, among them.

By now darkness was falling, though the full blackness of the night had not yet settled upon the island. Hastein called out across the deck to Bjorgolf and Bryngolf, who were rowing the front pair, to light torches and stand in the bow, so he could better see the way. As they shipped their oars and pulled previously prepared torches from underneath the bow deck, he said to me, in a much lower voice, "Is he here? Did you see his ship?"