Across the Seas

by Griff Hosker

  Walking back told me that the wind had dropped sufficiently. The boys were not back from their foraging. They were exploring. It would not take this long to collect wood. “Padraig, Aed, let us look at the drekar’s sail,”

  I took off my seal skin boots and leather jerkin. With no ship’s boys, the three of us would need to climb the mast and examine the sail on the yard. We pulled on the rope and hoisted the yard and sail. I noticed, immediately, that there were two tears. Each was the length of my arm. Not dangerous now, if we had a storm they might shred and we would lose the sail. “You two fetch the needles. I will climb the mast and examine the yard.”

  It was some years since I had been the ship’s boy working under the watchful eye of Ulf North Star. The lessons I had learned had not been in vain and I scurried up the mast and grabbed the top of the mast. The cords close to the pennant were in good condition. I worked my way along the larboard side and they were also in good condition. It was as I made my way steerboard that I saw one had sheared. It would be easy to repair. I was pleased. The voyage could have been more damaging. It was as I looked up to the north and west that I saw them. There were four canoes and each held six warriors. They were coming around the headland and were less than a mile away.

  Chapter 16

  “Arm! Arm! Skrælings!” I slid down the backstay. “Padraig, they come by sea. Get the women on board the drekar. Aed, fetch my weapons!” My words must have carried for the five boys appeared from the woods. They dropped their kindling by the fire and raced up the gangplank. Rek looked accusingly at Tostig, “Sorry Captain, Tostig wandered off and we had to seek him!”

  “Time for recriminations later. Get your weapons. They come by sea. We cannot defend the camp but we can defend the drekar.”

  Aed ran up the plank encumbered with my bow, two swords, and my arrows. I had more arrows in my chest. Gytha led the women and children on board. I saw that Helga had her sword with her. The boats were now closing with us. Padraig shooed the last four women on board. It was then that the animals began to low. We could not afford for them to be taken.

  “Boys, use your slings and your bows. Discourage them. If they land, we must go to fight them.” I had three warriors and five boys against twenty-four skræling. It would not end well.

  I nocked an arrow. I had metal tips on them. The skrælings had animal skins only. Any warriors I hit would be wounded. I aimed, not at the one at the front of the boat but the one at the back. The last time we had fought them I had noticed that they used no steering board. The one at the back used his paddle to steer. I sent my arrow and it plunged down and struck him on the shoulder. His paddle dropped and the boat slewed around. Arrows and stones were sent from the drekar and the skrælings turned to head towards our camp. I nocked another arrow and sent it into the right side of a warrior. A third arrow hit one in the back and then the boats slid onto the beach. “Folki and Fal, guard the women. The rest of you we go to save our animals. I picked up my sword and grabbed my shield. I had been wrong. I did need it.

  I saw that the first warriors were dragging their boats on to the beach. I reached the sand as they did so. I saw that they wore hide breeks and each carried a stone club and stone tipped spear. I saw two bows. We could not hesitate.

  “Clan of the Fox!” I roared our war cry for I wanted Arne and the hunters to hear it. The others joined in with the shout. The skrælings turned. Eight had landed. Our stones and arrows had accounted for six and two of their boats had yet to land. I did not hesitate.

  I ran at three of them. One sent an arrow my way. It struck my shield and bounced off. A spear was rammed at my head and I blocked it. I swung my sword in a scything motion as the stone club hit my shield. My sword bit into flesh and, as I dragged it, the edge sawed through the man’s guts. I punched blindly with my shield and was rewarded when it hit the club armed warrior in the face. The third rammed his spear at me. I brought down my sword and hacked off the end. He looked down in surprise at the stump he held. He was even more surprised when I pushed my sword up into his guts. Padraig and Aed were good warriors. Armed with a sword and a seax they had already dispatched two when I went to the aid of Fótr and Tostig. The two were brave but they had not yet fought with the swords they carried. Rek had a bow and he sent an arrow into the skræling who had knocked Tostig to the ground.

  The other boats had landed and, although I hacked through the arm of one of those trying to kill my brother and Aed killed the one hit by an arrow, we would soon be overwhelmed. It was then that I heard, from the woods, “Clan of the Fox!” Arne led our warriors who raced from the woods. The surprise was complete. The skrælings were given no opportunity to surrender. They were butchered where they stood.

  I ran to Tostig. The blow he had taken from the stone club had broken his arm. Even as I knelt by him Gytha hurried to his side. “Go, this is my work. You have saved the clan again!”

  Arne wiped his sword on the breeks of a dead warrior. He shook his head, “I am sorry! This is all my fault! Snorri counselled me to come back sooner but the hunting was so good that…”

  Sheathing my sword, I shook my head, “This is wyrd. The Norns were spinning. Tostig was also distracted but all is well. He has a broken arm. The animals are safe as are our women.”

  “If the roles were reversed then I would be angry. Can you not rise to anger?”

  I laughed, “A sailor has to endure much that he cannot help. Perhaps it is in my nature to make the best of what I have.”

  He knelt down and picked up a stone club and a spearhead, “If this is all that they have then we need not fear them.”

  “Yet they broke Tostig’s arm. They are fearless. Even when our weapons cut them down, they kept attacking.” I wandered to the water’s edge. I now saw that their boats were made of bark wrapped around a wooden frame. They were very light but, at the same time, flimsy. I could see why they were just used around their coasts. “We can burn these.”

  “Aye.” He looked north. “I wonder if there are more of them?”

  “We will know tomorrow. It will take until then for them to realize these are not returning. If they have more men then they will all come.”

  “You think they know where we are?”

  “If these were scouts it would have been one boat. You did not see their settlement when you hunted?”

  “No.”

  “Then they saw our drekar when we passed.”

  “Siggi, take half the men and fetch the Butar deer.”

  Siggi waved and left us, “Butar deer?”

  He laughed, “Siggi said they were the ugliest deer he had ever seen. He said they were the Butar Beer Belly of the deer kingdom!” He shrugged, “It honours Butar and is better than calling them deer!”

  It was late in the afternoon when Siggi returned. The hunters had done well. We had ten carcasses to butcher. Even had we wanted to leave we would not be able to until we had dealt with our booty. While the animals were skinned and butchered, I returned to the drekar. The sewing was even more imperative. It was as we stitched that I realized I had lost three arrows for they lay in the bottom of the bay with dead skrælings. Until our forge was lit then I could not replace them. I now saw that I might need to use stone tips as the skrælings did. The metal tips would need to be recovered and that meant just using them on land. I was learning.

  Arne had eight guards watch over us that night. Before I retired, I went to speak with Tostig. He was asleep. Gytha said, “I gave him something to make him sleep. He wished to apologize to you.”

  “He has no reason to.”

  “He has. He went out a boy. He is the same age as Fótr but Fótr is a man. Today my son grew. He ceased to be a boy. A broken left arm is a small price to pay. I would thank you and Rek for you saved his life.”

  “We are too few in number to lose any.”

  For the next two days, we woke to rain, mist, and fog. The air was still warmer than back in the land of ice and fire and even Orkneyjar but it cast a damper on the
mood. We had much to occupy us. The meat had to be dried and salted. Bones were boiled. Marrow was extracted. The hooves were melted down for glue. The hides were tanned. With warriors to protect them foragers collected more honey and greens. Gytha would not be able to make the honey until we landed at our final destination. We began to pack the drekar and the snekke. When we found that there were squirrels which lived close to the camp then the warriors and the boys hunted them. It was not just for the meat, it was for their fur. They were easier to hunt in the rain. After the rain stopped, we had cloudy and dull days. In all, we spent nine days at the camp and then we decided to leave. It was Gytha who determined the time. She woke one morning and said that she had dreamed and her dream disturbed her. That was enough for us. We were all keen to get to the land of the deer, now Butar deer.

  We had barely loaded the last barrel when Rek, who was atop the mast shouted, “Skrælings! Some have bows!”

  I looked to the west and saw ten of the bark boats. With five and six men on each boat, they could have hurt us. Had they caught us on the beach there would have been a battle. I believe we would have won but the cost might have been high. Once more it was the Navigator who commanded. “Cast off. Padraig, follow us. Lower the sail and run out five oars on each side.” My brother looked at me. “Trust me, brother!” The bark boats were less than four hundred paces from us. “Gytha, have the women and children take cover. They have bows with them.”

  “You heard Erik, obey him!”

  “Larboard oars, row!” We began to turn so that we were facing the boats. The wind began to fill the sail. “Steerboard row.” I began to sing and to stamp my foot on the deck. I would give them their rhythm.

  The Clan of the Fox has no king

  We will not bow nor kiss a ring

  We fled our home to start anew

  We are strong in heart though we are few

  The Clan of the Fox has no king

  We will not bow nor kiss a ring

  We fled our home to start anew

  We are strong in heart though we are few

  The drekar surged forward. The skrælings were in for a shock. They had never seen, let alone fought such a ship as our drekar. We had painted ‘Njörðr’ before we had left the land of ice and fire. The god’s red and black face looked terrifying. When we had landed, I had checked the prow and it was undamaged. When I had thought they used wooden boats I had been worried. Now I was not. We ploughed into them. They crunched as they were destroyed and the warriors screamed as the hull rode over them. The bow rode over one boat and sank two more. The oars smashed into the skrælings. The ship’s boys hurled their slings at those in the bark boats which lay further away. I put the steering board over to take us through the three boats to larboard. I would head out to sea where the wind from the west would make us fly. Padraig had taken the snekke to larboard of us. “In oars.” As the wind took us, I looked in our wake and saw that just four bark boats remained afloat. Survivors were being dragged into them. The skrælings would remember the dragon ship and they would fear it.

  We headed south. This time I knew there was land to the south west of us. More importantly so did Rek and the crew of ‘Jötnar’. “Tighten the fore and backstays. Replace the oars on the mast fish.” I opened the chest and took out the hourglass. It was still overcast and we might not need it but I would have it close in any case. Without the sun our course was not as accurate as I would have liked. I erred on the side of caution and headed south and west when I could. The wind was a cool one and came from the north and west. It suited us for it kept us moving steadily down the coast. We could not see the coast but I knew it lay to the west of us. I also knew that there were people there and I wanted to avoid them. I did not know if these skrælings spoke with each other but I did not wish to take a chance. Perhaps they had some means of communication which we did not use. When we had examined the dead warriors before we had let the sea have them, we had seen that they looked nothing like us. They were smaller and the warriors had fewer muscles than we did. Their hair was black. I knew of no Viking with black hair. I knew that we would have to learn to talk to them at some time. That would involve taking a slave. That was how my mother had learned to speak Norse.

  I was also confident that it would take roughly three days to reach our destination. That would allow us two days before we needed to head west. By my reckoning that would bring us close to where we had repaired the snekke. I knew there were people close to the island but there was nothing we could do about it. Sven, Halsten and Eidel joined me at the steering board. Eidel shook his head, “Those skrælings, are they, men? I have seen nothing like them.”

  “I am guessing that they are men. They are just a different type from us.” I took the compass from around my neck. “We sail due south for two days. If you have to err then err to steerboard, always steerboard. There is land there.”

  Sven nodded, “I have seen it, my friends.”

  “We will head for the coast after two days.” They seemed happy. I gave the compass to Sven and then went to my fur which lay on the deck by the steering board. Tostig came to join me along with my little brother, Fótr. Tostig had his left arm in a sling. His mother had splinted it. He had every chance that it would heal and be straight. I had known warriors who had had an arm broken and it had been badly set. They could still hold a shield but that was all.

  “How is the arm?”

  “It aches, Captain, but my mother said I deserved it. She is angry with me.”

  I laughed, “Your mother is not angry. You made a mistake.”

  “But it could have cost the clan dear.”

  “It is part of growing up. You make a mistake and you learn from it. Your brother Siggi fell while climbing a mast on his first voyage. He has never fallen since. It is how we learn and grow. The land we are sailing towards is, like those skrælings we fought, different. It is unlike anything you have seen before.”

  He nodded towards the north, “But I have been on an island like the one we sail to.”

  Fótr shook his head, “It is three or four days south and it is much hotter. The island is smaller too. My brother is right Tostig. He was nearly killed by a bear. There may be other such creatures on the island.”

  He looked at his bandage, “And I have one arm!”

  Fótr said, “Fear not, we are family and we will watch out for you.”

  “And now I will sleep. You two can chat away but Fótr and I have the middle watch again!”

  I slept easily for I knew that the spirits had sent the dream to Gytha. We were meant to go to the island of the deer. What we would do after that I did not know. The Norns were still spinning. Tostig had a broken arm and that was for a reason. Only the Norns knew.

  I put the steering board over two days later. We had lost the clouds and we had sun. The wind veered a little to come from the north and east. We travelled quicker. I did not wish to sail beyond our island. We struck the coast at noon and I turned the steering board to parallel the rock-lined land. Fótr was on the yard and he sought the islands where we had repaired our snekke. I had Fal watching the snekke astern. This was not the time to lose contact. Our people lined the side but they now took it in turns. They had learned.

  Snorri and Arne joined me, “There are enough trees here to build a thousand ships.”

  Snorri looked at my brother, “And we have enough crew for how many more ships?”

  “You are right. I am trying to run. First, we need to walk. Erik, when did you leave the island?”

  I closed my eyes and counted back. “It would be about this time, Skerpla. That is wyrd. Why do you ask?”

  “So that we have a better of what to expect. Were the deer rutting?” I shook my head. “Good. This is a new world and I wondered if their seasons followed our pattern. We have a month to clear some land of trees and stumps and use the new plough to plant our barley and oats. If the deer were not rutting then it is as it was in Larswick. There will be young deer. I have a mind to catch a c
ouple.”

  “Catch wild deer? Why?”

  “It was something Gytha said. She thought we could tame them. Perhaps use them for milk or to breed from. It would save hunting. We could harvest them like our own animals.”

  I was not the only one who had grown and changed.

  Snorri said, “That is a long process. It will not happen overnight.”

  “If my brother is right, and I have no reason to disbelieve him, then we have a whole island to make our own. Unlike the land of ice and fire, there are other islands and lands we can use when we need to. My son is almost two summers old. By the time he has seen ten then we will be ready to take over another island. Perhaps we might risk a war with these skrælings. I saw nothing in them to make me fear that they could hurt us.”

  The Norns were spinning!

  Knowing we were so close to the island of the bear I went without sleep. The light was hung from our stern and I shouted to Padraig to shorten sail. We did the same. The sea was a little lively and I did not want to miss the island. The land was so close that I could smell it. With the wind from the west, it felt as though we were about to crash onto the rocks. We kept a good lookout. Tostig could not race up the sheets but he had two eyes and he used them. When dawn broke, I spied the land to the northwest and the island where we had repaired our snekke just ahead. The journey had taken longer than I had thought but seeing the tiny spit of land told Sven, Fótr and I exactly where we were. I turned and shouted over the stern. “Release your sail. The island should be some miles ahead.”

  Padraig waved and I looked to the land. There was smoke. The skrælings were there. They would see us for whilst the snekke might be hard to see no one could miss a drekar. The dots of land soon clarified into the islands we had used before when we had repaired the snekke. Arne and Siggi became excited when they saw the first island loom up out of the sea. I shook my head, “That is not the Isle of the Bear.”