Daughter of Fire and Ice (9 page)

Men creeping along the ground towards us under the cover of the fog, their intentions dark and dishonourable. Closing in on us.

‘What did you say?’ asked Erik, grasping my arm. Shocked from my vision, I focused on his face, blinking.

‘People are coming,’ I whispered fiercely. ‘Be ready with your weapons!’

‘I can’t hear anything,’ Grim objected, but Erik reached for his sword, loosening it in its scabbard. The rain was coming down in bucketfuls, so heavily we could no longer see our ships out in the bay.

Our boat was close, almost within reach, when we heard shouts behind us. All three of us began wading out into the freezing water, but we couldn’t go far as the beach shelved away sharply and the waves dragged strongly at us. I cast an anxious glance back over my shoulder and thought I could make out men running down the hill towards us, blurry through the heavy sheets of rain that were falling.

‘Hurry!’ Erik called to Kai who was rowing. He redoubled his efforts; the boat lifted on an incoming wave and shot towards us. Erik and Grim grabbed it as soon as it came close enough and Erik threw himself over the side, and then reached out a hand to pull me in. Grim pushed us hard away from the beach, jumped in and snatched up the second pair of oars. The mist and rain were so dense now, I could barely make out my companions in the boat, let alone anyone on the shore, but they were closing fast, I could sense them.

‘Pull!’ shouted Grim over the rush of the waves, calling time to Kai, but a wave pushed us sideways, back onto the beach.

I was breathing quickly with anxiety, feeling the presence of strangers close to us, drawing closer with terrifying speed. They’d been watching us all the time. Why had they waited until now? My heart was hammering in my chest in fear of this shadowy, unseen threat. I couldn’t help fearing they were part troll or ogre. We were playing hide-and-seek in the mist with evil spirits.

Suddenly, they were no longer spirits, but men around us in the darkness with clubs and swords in their hands. They were wading out into the water, waist deep, weapons raised. I couldn’t see how many there were.

‘Row!’ I yelled at Grim and Kai.

With a cry of shock, both men threw themselves at their oars and began to pull as though Fenris, the great wolf himself, was after us. But the men were closing in around us. We weren’t going to make it.

Realizing this, Grim shipped his oars and started to pull his sword from his scabbard.

‘Take the oars,’ he cried to me.

I flung myself into his seat, grasping the oars. But I couldn’t use them. I didn’t know how. Only Kai was rowing and he made little headway into the waves.

Grim swung his sword clumsily, nearly taking my head off. I ducked. I could see he knew nothing of sword fighting. One of the men in the water hit him a blow on his shoulder with a club and it knocked him right off his feet into the bottom of the boat. Erik snatched up Grim’s long sword and swept it out in a wide arc towards the enemy. The manoeuvre was blessed with beginner’s luck. One opponent fell back with a cry of pain and a splash. His companions rushed to drag him above the waves. In those few vital instants, Kai pulled on his oars and with a few strong strokes, he pulled us beyond their reach.

Grim lay unconscious in the bottom of the boat, but Kai stood and gave a yell of triumph. He stood precariously in the boat shaking his fist into the fog.

‘Misbegotten sons of trolls!’ he shouted.

I handed my oars to Erik who’d sheathed the sword and slid onto the bench beside me. I turned, shifted out of Erik’s way and grasped Kai’s sleeve, pulling him down into his seat.

‘Don’t provoke them!’ I urged. ‘Help Erik row!’

‘We’ve nothing to fear from those cowards,’ Kai scoffed vaingloriously. ‘They’ve lost us now, and they know it.’

I wasn’t so sure. My sense of danger was not lessening as we drew away from the beach. It was growing.

They were waiting between us and our ships. All at once, I knew it as sure as if I could see them with my eyes. I felt my mouth drying with sudden fear. I stared into the greyness of mist and pouring rain and thought I saw a movement. A shadow. I opened my mouth to shout a warning, but it was already too late. Two boats collided with us simultaneously, one from each side. All four of us were knocked completely off balance by the collision. In the ensuing chaos, Kai dropped his sword into the sea and Erik lost his oars. All was a blur of shouts and confusion.

Desperate, I drew out my knife. Our boat lurched wildly as someone leapt into it and I slashed wildly at him. The man drew back warily. He was watching me. I could see his eyes gleaming in the darkness. But before I could do anything else, strong arms grasped me from behind, pinioning my arms to my side. The man in front wrenched my knife painfully from my hand.

‘Bjorn!’ I yelled with all my might. ‘Bjorn, beware!’

A rough hand was clamped tightly over my mouth. It seemed unlikely anyone from our still-distant ships would have heard my desperate cry above the pounding of the sea on the rocks and cliffs around us.

Still struggling uselessly, I saw Erik knocked senseless by a blow to his head. Kai fared worse. Slashing wildly with a knife, he caught a huge man a blow on his arm, opening up a long deep cut. Before he could do more, he was caught and pinioned as I was, by two men. They had no need to hurt him. But the man he’d injured came at him out of the fog and ran him through brutally with his sword. There was a hideous slicing, gurgling sound, and Kai collapsed and fell forward into the water with a splash.

It was over.

The earth was cold and hard, my nose pressed into the dirt. Ropes bit into my wrists and ankles, far too tight to struggle against. The gag in my mouth choked me. I’d lost track of how long I’d lain blindfolded in the darkness. They’d carried me up the hill to the house. That much I knew because I’d recognized the smoke and fish stench. What did they want with me? They must want something or they would have killed me at once. I lay trying to sense something, anything, but my mind wasn’t calm enough. I felt only my own emptiness and despair. Fear was crawling into every part of me. I was afraid for myself, but also for Bjorn and the others.

I could hear distant, muffled voices, and then after an eternity, I heard the sound of shouting. My heart bounded with a mixture of hope and fright. Some sort of altercation was going on. The sounds drew closer. I recognized Bjorn’s voice. My hope seeped away into the cold earth beneath me. What was to become of us if they’d captured him? I lifted my head painfully off the ground, trying to hear what was being said.

‘What have you done with Thora?’

That was Bjorn, loud and clear. And so very close.

I tried to shout but all that came out was a strangled moan that I could hardly hear myself. I fought my bonds, thrashing my whole body from side to side. I strained at the ropes with all my might, but they were strong and I only succeeded in hurting myself. Wherever I was, I was obviously hidden. I couldn’t make my presence known.

‘The woman stole from us,’ I heard a voice answering Bjorn. ‘She took water without payment and stole medicinal plants from our land. She’s a thief and subject to our laws.’

The voice was rough and hoarse. It spoke authoritatively. As though its owner were used to giving orders and having them obeyed. I guessed he was head of the household.

‘I’ve brought you a gift in exchange for the drinking water we took, as I always intended to do,’ Bjorn replied. His voice sounded reasonable. It was clear he hoped to negotiate.

‘A gold bracelet?’ I heard the leader’s voice say scornfully. ‘A paltry trinket. You are a wealthy man—a friend of the king of Norway. You can afford better than that.’

‘I’ll be happy to give you gifts worthy of your generous hospitality … when I have experienced some of it,’ said Bjorn. ‘Instead of welcoming us, you have hidden away like cowards and spied on us. Instead of offering us food and mead, you begrudge us even the water in your streams. You offer us no shelter from wind or rain, but you sneak up on us in the night, kill our men and kidnap one of our womenfolk. Where is the honour in that, that I should reward you with kingly gifts?’

‘How dare you question my honour?’ shouted the islander. ‘We’ll have fair terms. And our terms are that you are free to clear off. And I’ll keep the bracelet, as it’s all you are offering.’

‘And Thora?’ demanded Bjorn.

My heart thumped painfully in my chest.

‘The woman stays,’ growled the leader.

‘That’s out of the question,’ said Bjorn angrily. ‘We’ll not leave her behind. She’s under my protection.’

‘She was,’ sneered the voice. ‘Is she your wife?’

‘No,’ I heard Bjorn answer. ‘She’s not, but … ’

‘Is she the wife of anyone on board your ships?’

‘No, but … ’

‘Then she stays.’

I heard several people jump to their feet and the scraping of steel that told me a sword had been drawn. I held my breath in terror, dreading to hear the noise of battle joined. There was a confused babble of voices and movement nearby. If I could have screamed out in frustration at my blind, mute, and helpless state, I would have done.

Then to my surprise, I heard Thrang’s voice.

‘Let’s all be reasonable. Chieftain, put up your sword. There must be an agreement we can reach.’

‘Get your hands off me, man,’ I heard Bjorn hiss. I guessed that it must have been Bjorn that had drawn his sword and Thrang was restraining him. It was violence that could only end in a bloodbath. I was glad Thrang had stopped him. I was surprised to hear Thrang calling Bjorn chieftain though. He must have decided to throw his lot in with us in good earnest.

There was a long stretch of silence, broken only by heavy breathing. I waited.

‘What do you want?’ Bjorn’s voice spoke next. He sounded resigned. ‘Money? Livestock? Iron? Though we have little to spare if we are to survive in the new country. And it goes against the grain to bargain with kidnappers.’

I thought the Faeroese leader might be angry at being called a kidnapper. But his voice when he replied was a satisfied sneer:

‘You don’t understand. She’s more valuable to us than anything you have aboard that ship.’

I had guessed correctly then. My heart sank as I realized how unlikely it was they would let me go. They wanted me for my skills as a healer.

‘I don’t understand,’ I heard Bjorn say in mock astonishment. ‘Thora is valuable?’

‘Don’t lie,’ said a new voice. ‘We know she’s a healer. We’re very isolated here. We have no one to tend the sick, set bones, or help our women birth.’

‘Thora will treat anyone that needs her services while we are here,’ said Bjorn. ‘She would have done so for the asking. There was no need to attack us. But we won’t leave her behind.’

‘You have no choice.’

‘Thora goes with us,’ Bjorn insisted. ‘We’ll give you a short time to consider this.’

He finished on an implacable note and I heard the sound of departure. I was grateful for his loyalty towards me and for his good sense.

As I lay in a whirlpool of hope and despair, I sensed movement beside me. Fingers tugged at my blindfold, loosening it. I blinked in the sudden light of a small fish-oil lamp. At first it hurt my eyes, but as they adjusted, I could see the face of the girl I’d seen in the house leaning over me, her aura glowing around her. I shivered.

She was loosening my gag now, with difficulty as it was tied cruelly tight. As she removed it, I coughed. I ran my dry, swollen tongue around my bruised mouth. My teeth seemed undamaged, I was relieved to find.

I was lying on bare earth in a passageway. It must be a secret exit from the house, such as many longhouses had. The doorway within the house was no doubt hidden by a hanging or screen.

I turned my attention to the girl who was sitting on the ground beside me. The lamplight flickered, sending shadows across her delicate, pointed face.

‘Are you really worth all this fuss?’ she muttered. ‘I doubt it.’ She stroked my hair back from my face in a gentle gesture, but then twined a strand of it around her finger and tugged it painfully, staring at me all the while. I didn’t flinch.

‘I suppose you’re thirsty,’ the girl commented.

I didn’t reply, wary of provoking her.

The girl dipped a rag into a goblet of water next to her, and squeezed it over my mouth, as I had done for the foal on the ship. The water ran over my sore lips and down my chin. The next time I managed to catch a little in my mouth. It was deliciously cool and soothing, but it ran down my windpipe, making me cough. At once the girl laid the water aside.

‘Please,’ I begged hoarsely. ‘Let me try again.’

But instead of giving me water, she tied the gag back into my mouth, as tight as before. I struggled, but I was at her mercy. She pulled herself to her feet, impeded by her leg. Then, before she left, she bent over me and whispered: ‘You’d better hope your chieftain is reasonable and agrees to our terms. Else it might be a very long time before you get a drink.’ So saying, she dashed the contents of the goblet in my face, took the lamp and left.

‘Did she drink, Ragna?’ I heard another woman’s voice ask, as she passed into the house.

‘She’s had all of it,’ the girl said.

‘Good, because we don’t want her harmed,’ said the voice.

I lay there in the darkness in despair. The water soaked into my hair and tunic, making me wet and cold, while my thirst continued to burn. I feared the islanders would only give me up in exchange for a very heavy ransom indeed. So heavy that we would be unable to make a decent life in Iceland. I should hope for Bjorn’s sake that he would leave me here. I would probably be valued and well treated. As long as I could keep away from that girl. But the thought of staying here and never seeing Bjorn again left me prey to the darkest misery.

I remembered last night on board the ship. I had felt completely safe with Bjorn’s arms around me, as though we would always be together. I ached for that feeling again. I must be in love with him, I thought wonderingly. In just three days, I’d fallen in love.