The United States of Vinland: The Landing (The Markland Trilogy) (15 page)

“He
said you are nearby, at Godsland he called it, across the water.”

“Yes.”

“We
are harvesting timber and furs, but will soon leave for home to winter.”

“You
would be welcome to visit our hall if you come in peace, but not Thoromr or
Trion, although their thralls we would be glad to see.”

“The
skraeling?”

Ballr
frowned. “There are two, sisters.”

“One
died, Trion’s, he killed her in a rage. Only one now remains; pregnant, and
with two babes to care for.”

Ballr
shook his head. “I’m sad to hear of it.”

“Why,
what do you care?”

“Their
cousins, two sisters, also live with us.”

“Skraelings?”

“They
are good people.”

The
Greenlander thought on that a moment. “We may visit to see what you have built.
If we do, it will be only for the day, before we head on to our own home, as we
are already late in leaving and winter here is a vicious beast.”

“If
you come as friends, you would be welcomed.”

The
Greenlander nodded. “It is a new world. In such a place, our kind needs
friends.”

Ballr
agreed.

The
Greenlander slowly stepped closer, keeping his hands in view, including the new
axe taken from Ari. “What of Thoromr? Will you kill him?”

“No,
our leader is not one for blood or revenge. He thinks we need to work together
to make this place a land fit for Odin’s people.”

“A
wise man.”

“Your
name, friend?”

“Faraldr
of Greenland.”

“And
Ari is dead?”

“Thoromr
put his axe into the back of his skull. I doubt your friend would have felt the
blow. I followed Thoromr here; he heard your axe. I saw, from a distance, his
attack on Ari. We were checking snares down in the next vale.”

Ballr
was saddened to hear of such a cowardly attack. He looked down at Thoromr and
pondered running the axe along the bastard’s throat.

Faraldr
dropped the new axe Alfvin had forged into the leaves between them and folded
his arms. “You could do it; I would not stop you. You were right when you said
he is an angry man.”

Ballr
shook his head. “Our landings were hard; the sea stole his mother and dreams
away; what came next cost him his father, Thrainn. That loss fires Thoromr’s
anger. I will not kill him in cold blood, but I doubt he will survive his
wounds.”

Faraldr
stepped closer, but stopped short, making sure Ballr was comfortable with his
approach. He peered at Thoromr; the big man had not moved. He noticed the blood
on his face and in his hair.

Ballr
stepped back, letting Faraldr get closer. The Greenlander knelt beside the
fallen man. “He has lost an eye.”

“It
looks so.”

Faraldr
turned to Ballr. “If he survives, he will not be the same threat.”

“That
is what I was thinking.”

“Leave
him then. I will get him back to our hall. For now though, let me help you with
the body of your friend.”

“That
would be good of you.”

Faraldr
nodded, rose, and then turned his back on Ballr as he began to climb the
hillside, heading back to the body of Ari.

––––––––

B
allr
brought his boat to the gravel beach by the Godsland hall. He had left the load
of timber behind, after Faraldr had waved him off, instead carrying Ari’s body
as his only cargo.

Wearing
two axes and an extra blade on his belt, his arrival, as the lone figure in a
boat that should have carried two, caused a stir. By the time he reached the
shore, Gudrid, Frae and Halla had gathered with Steinarr and Alfvin. Ballr
scanned the pale faces, the closest having already seen that Ari was not down
injured, but bloodied and dead.

Movement
by the hall caught his gaze.

Seta.

She
came walking out from where they had been stockpiling cut firewood. She saw the
gathering at the beach and began to slow, searching amongst those who stood
there. As soon as the boat was beached, Gudrid ducked down to check on Ari,
drawing Seta’s eyes to his still form.

She
began to run.

Frae
let out a stifled cry as she took in the truth of what Ballr had brought home.
She then turned to see her sister running down the worn path to the shore.

Seta
began to wail. A moment later, she arrived to push past the others and dropped
to the gravel beside the boat, looking to Ari’s waxen face that sat over the
bloody ruin of the back of his head. Her arms stretched out across his chest.

She
called out loudly, before falling into deep sobs.

Gudrid
and Halla looked to Ballr. Frae also sought some kind of explanation as she
dropped to her knees beside her sister and put her arms around her.

Ballr
gazed on the shocked faces around him as mourning took root. He cleared his
throat and said, “Thoromr killed him.”

Alfvin
frowned, his fury firing to burn deep. “What happened?”

“We
were taking turns using the new axe, so while Ari worked to bring down a young
pine, I was going to get another we had already felled to the water so we could
bring them back. The sound of axe-work stopped, so I wondered what had
happened. Fearing things were amiss, I tried to make my way, unseen, back up
the slope. That was when I walked into Thoromr. He had been coming down the
hill, with a bloody axe, to find me. He accused us of stealing his timber.”

“Did
you fight him?” Gudrid asked, her face pale, her eyes glistening with held-back
tears.

“No,
he was not alone. He had a Greenlander with him. I was cornered, so when a
great crack of thunder sounded to startle us, I pushed a branch into him and
fled downhill.”

Halla
clasped her hands to her heart. “Thanks be to Freya! Then what happened?”

"I
ran. The way was so steep that it almost became a fall. The Greenlander slowed,
not holding his footing well, but Thoromr lost it, tumbled down the hill and
cracked his head on a rock. I went to him and took his axe.”

Seta
looked up, suddenly fierce, “Did you take his head?”

“No.”

Seta
glared at him.

Ballr
could not hold her gaze, but went on. “The branch I pushed into him tore up his
face and put out one of his eyes.”

Seta
was not pleased, but turned her attention back to Ari.

“The
Greenlander and I spoke; he then helped me with Ari’s body so I could bring him
home.”

Gudrid
shook her head. “We will need to bury him.”

Alfvin
stepped up behind Frae and put a gentle hand on her shoulder as she worked to
comfort her sister. He looked down with sympathy in his eyes. “Let us lift Ari
free and bring him ashore.”

Frae’s
own tears ran, but something shone in her eyes at his open and comforting
touch. The others noticed the gesture.

She,
Gudrid and Halla helped Seta up while the men lifted Ari off the boat and
brought him onto the autumn-faded pastures outside the hall.

––––––––

B
y
the last light of the afternoon, they had raised a cairn over Ari, setting his
body to rest in a small gully beyond the hall, on the hill’s far side. Not long
after, as the women stood by it, comforting Seta, Eskil returned with Torrador
on the hall’s newest boat.

Alfvin
and Ballr went to meet them and tell them what had happened as their fellows
put the final touches on the cairn.

Ballr
told the tale, as he had been there, and he used the ambiguity of the shore’s
distance from Lakeland Hall as an excuse to land and claim the driftwood, a
timber of unknown source.

Eskil,
trying to hide both his frustration and disappointment, had only one answer for
Ballr. “Your daring is what placed Ari in harm’s way. Although, I suppose, you
are not alone in that guilt if he also wanted to test his fate.”

“I
am sorry Eskil, but the timber was too great a temptation. In truth, it
probably lay closer to our hall than Thoromr’s.”

Eskil
frowned and let out a deep sigh. “You knew the land was in dispute. In the end,
the result is that Ari is dead and we have no path for justice, because of that
dispute.”

Ballr
looked to the cairn and Seta, who was sullen and marked by tears. “He cannot
claim all of Markland on his side of the fjord and farther south.”

“I
agree that it is a foolish claim, but he has made and now defended it.” Eskil
shook his head. “Ballr, you are a friend and also a man I trust, but in this
you have erred. Thoromr may be a brute like his father, but we cannot blame him
for defending what he sees as his, regardless of our disagreement. If we want
to challenge his claim, we cannot do it by stealing timber or landing there to
take what we will. We need to either get him to agree to a change in borders or
we go to war with him.”

“You
mean to do nothing?”

“There
is nothing we can do, not as the weather turns toward winter. I will not waste
any more blood on an unnecessary argument. There are too few of us as it is.”

Ballr
nodded, sombre.

“Next
spring we shall look at the matter, but not tempt fate with rash acts. If we
can get Thoromr to agree to a compromise or a deal, we shall pursue that...if he
survives the wounds you gave him.”

Ballr
agreed.

“Come,
let us attend Ari’s burial.”

With
Alfvin, the two men turned to go to the cairn.

––––––––

F
ollowing
the burial, the night began with a subdued meal of hare and nut bread, eaten by
all around the fire pit. When most were finished, Alfvin stood, rising from
where he sat beside Frae and Seta. In response, all the Godslanders stopped
their own eating and conversations.

Lit
by the light of the flames and watched by all in the hall, he first looked down
at Frae and smiled, before turning self-consciously to face Eskil sitting on
the other side of the fire.

Eskil
had a hopeful inkling of what might be on Alfvin’s mind. He asked him, “Alfvin,
do you have something to say?”

Alfvin
gave a nod and licked his lips, his skin paling. “I have a question for the
head of the Godsland Hall.”

Eskil
stood. “Ask it then.”

“I
wish to give voice to a matter long on my mind.”

Eskil
nodded.

“I
wish to free Frae of the thraldom that binds her to me and, with your blessing,
I wish to marry her.”

Frae’s
eyes went wide as she looked up to him, her expression falling from surprise to
joy.

The
hall was silent, aside from the crackle of the fire.

All
eyes went to Eskil, the women’s gaze intense, almost as much as Alfvin’s.

Eskil
was silent, his face unreadable, framed by his blonde hair and beard. He stood
at the same fire pit where he had founded a hall for his people, nursed newborn
babes, slain Thrainn, and welcomed Alfvin and the skraelings, Frae and Seta. He
finally smiled. “Her freedom is yours to return to her, and giving my blessing
for the two of you to marry is an act I would very much like to do.”

Relieved,
Alfvin turned to look down at Frae. He offered her his hand.

She
took it.

He
helped her up and said, “You have your freedom, and if you will marry me, you
can have mine.”

With
tears beginning to run, she said, “Alfvin, I only want to be with you.”

He
smiled and took her into his arms.

The
Godslanders cheered them, the women with great enthusiasm.

After
these congratulations, Eskil cleared his throat and made it clear he had more
to say. “Alfvin, you arrived in our hall with Frae and Seta, both taken into
thraldom in Lakeland. If you are to free Frae, what of Seta, as Ari is no
longer here to speak for her?”

Alfvin
and Frae turned to look down as Seta, who gazed up at them in surprise.

The
former Lakelander nodded and offered her his hand.

Unsure,
she reached out hesitantly, but then took it.

Alfvin
helped her stand, and Frae reached across to aid him.

“Seta,
I give you your freedom and hope you choose to remain with us.”

Dumbfounded,
she looked about at the Godslanders as they cheered her. A disbelieving but
tired smile slowly came to her face, one built on a day of contrasts and
emotions.

––––––––

A
lfvin
and Frae became husband and wife, now in an open and straightforward way. Seta
also received her freedom – to her surprise – and elected to stay, at least for
the coming winter.

As
autumn deepened, the people of Godsland toiled closer to home, gathering and
finishing the last of what they would need to survive the snows ahead. They
harvested what they could from the gardens and gathered seed from the best
plants left to set. They also brought in fodder for the sheep, the bulk of it
being hay and leaves. They added to the stores of dried fish and cured meats.
And lastly, despite the long and tall stack of firewood built up to line the
hall’s main wall, they kept adding to it, layer by layer, day by day, as they
cut the timber collected into smaller sections.

But
one day such labours were interrupted.

Gudrid
gazed out into the water of the fjord, looking to the channel before it found
the open sea. Something caught her eyes, making her search the vista edged by
distant coastal headlands and dotted with the rock and green of the windswept
islands.

A
bird’s wing or a wave’s white cap was enough to grab attention, but she was
certain she had seen something more. Whatever it was had passed behind some
rocks, leaving her to wait to see what emerged from the other side.

She
was sure it was bigger than a bird and glimpsed it in white and red.

Had
it been a sail?

Gudrid
held her breath, watching as the swell moved along the channel and past the
rocks that hid her find. She waited, growing anxious.

Where
was it?