Ember of a New World (40 page)

“Ember, w
e-eat food because we no-take?”
Brig'dha
asked
.

“Yes, that-is plan
,”
Ember replied.

“If we-eat, food
still come-with us?”
Brig'dha concluded. Ember stared with a dumbfounded expression. Argh! Brig'dha was correct, she realized. Both women laughed. After days of eating, Ember was looking a little stuffe
d. She laughed at the thought.

“If we-sink, we-sink with-full belly
,”
Ember said shrugging. “Brig'dha, do-you think person could-swim to Inn'bry'th?” Brig'dha shook her head emphatically no. Both women laughed at the thought. The next few days were spent relaxing, singing, and eating the dried deer meat by a roaring camp fire. As they waited, Ember hoped the weather would hold out. A set of four or five clear days during the thawing season was uncommon, but that was what the pra
yers were for, Ember supposed.

A full seven days after they had arrived on the beach, Ember and Brig'dha awoke as early as they could to start their journey. This was to be the day of crossing. Ember had spent a long while staring at the moon each night and was sure this very night would be a full moon. The weather had been a little dreary for a few days, but the night before the weather had cleared. All sign
s pointed to this being the day
and the women were not going to let this day pass. After a quick wash and some food, Ember and Brig'dha stood by the little boat, now missing much of its supplies. The boat had been painted with what Brig'dha had explained
were
magical symbols, using a mixture of fish oil and black soot from the fire. The triple swirl patterns looked stunning, but attracted birds a little mor
e than Ember would have liked.

Ember and Brig'dha had taken the last of a red ocher paint given to them by Eva and Kat'ja and painted their bodies for luck. Ember had covered herself from head to toe in fingertip-sized dots while Brig'dha had chosen swirls around her knees, elbows, stomach, and cheeks. Both women had dressed as
warmly as they could, which hid
most of their paints, but Ember had assured Brig'dha that the Gods could still see the paints. Before leaving, they checked their clothing, ensured the oars were tied to the boat, at Ember's request, and stretched their bodies. After a short while, Ember moved fo
rward and gave Brig'dha a hug.

“Ready?” Ember asked.

“Yes, ready
,”
Brig'dha replied. Both nodded and took off their boots, tossing them i
nto the boat to keep them dry.

The women started pushing the boat into the waves and quickly learned how hard it was to get a boat through the surf. The water buffeted the little boat as
the women tried hard to keep it
straight. The water had risen to their waists when Ember gave the signal to get aboard the craft. Both women tried to climb into the boat through the raging water, waves hitting them hard and water getting in their eyes. Ember hauled herself into the boat, using the waves to help push her over the side. She paused for a moment to catch her breath,
and then
realized that Brig'dha had not made it in. Brig'dha couldn't quite lift herself and was nearly toppling the boat in her struggles. Brig'dha was not used to cold water and was having trouble with the shock of the cold. Ember threw her hand down and grabbed Brig'd
ha's belt, pulling her aboard.

The boat bounced through the wa
ter
slamming hard
into waves
and rocking nearly out of control. Both women knew that turning the same direction as the waves would spell their end as they would capsize. Grabbing their o
ar
s, they pulled and pulled against the strong currents, fighting with all of their strength to keep the boat pointed into the waves. After a short period of intense pulling, the women had moved the boat past the break and into the deeper water away from the shore. While being intense and tiring, the actual voyage through the surf and into the deeper water had not caused too much real damage.

The boat was half full of water and riding very low, but most of the provisions had made it. Both women carefully scooped most of the water from the boat and check
ed
on supplies. They had lashed the limited supplies to the back and front of the boat using their two large deer hides to protect the dried goods. Their water had been placed in pots with thinner necks and leather wrappings had been secured around the necks to keep the water from splashing out. Some water had been lost, but most of their meager supply was still in the jars.

The wind and wetness made both women cold. Quickly, they put on their warm boots and took turns at having a short rest before continuing. There warmer clothing had been secured with the dried goods under
the larger deer skins to keep them
dry until they were in the deeper water. Ember carefully removed her leather shirt and skirt, replacing them with dry clothing and her warm boots. After a short time, she was again warm and dry. Brig'dha had previously done the same thing when her rest time came. Before long, both women were as warm as they could be in the cold waters
of the Greatest River.

Ember had argued that a small fire could be safely lit in the center of the boat, but Brig'd
ha had explained how poorly boa
ts and fires mixed. Additionally, all of the
extra wood would lower the boa
t in the water. Ember had conceded the point after more careful thought. In the end, the women had decided to use body heat and their collection of furs, hides, and clothing to stay warm.

The morning of the first d
ay was full of unexpected events as the women learned how to sail a small river boat in the Greatest River. The water pulled the boat ever so slightly to the south, as best as Ember could tell from watching the shore, but there was little she could do about it. She kept following the sun as it moved across the sky and praying that the Gods showed her mercy.

The ancient mouth of the Rhine was quite wide and full of many tributary waterways which opened into the North Sea. The beaches along the coast were sometimes pebbly, but often sandy. Leaving the river for the wide open ocean could not be understated as a brave act. The waters of the North Sea are cold and unforgiving. Unlike the Rhine, the ocean can swallow entire ships with ease and no one existed to aid those lost at sea. Luckily, the frigid winter winds would have mostly ceased by the time the women arrived at the coastline. At this point, the women are approximately twenty miles south of the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It should be noted that 7,500 years ago, the coast line, water depth, and general orientation of the coast would not be the same as today.

Only a few thousand years before, the island of Britain was connected to mainland Europe. The landmass of Doggerland had only fully disappeared
beneath the waves a mere
five hundred to one thousand
years before. The result of these changes to the ancient English
Channel
and North Sea was
likely
a smoother trip from Europe to Britain. Perhaps the shallower waters of the North Sea and English Channel will afford Embe
r and Brig'dha better fortunes.

For much of the day, the women remained close to the shore, far beyond the surf, and moved west by southwest. Determining the actual heading was very difficult and became more so as the land drifted farther and farther from sight. Brig'dha had explained that the correct way across the Greatest River, according to her late husband, was to travel south west for perhaps a day or more by water. The big worry to both women was the current. Ember was sure it was moving the boat, but she didn't know in which way i
t flowed.

She tried various means to determine the water current using methods that she knew worked on a river. Ember held her fishing spear in the water to feel the current and tossed bits of drift wood upon the water to watch it float. These methods all failed to show Ember any current, and yet she knew the water was moving them far more than the rowing. Ember had wanted to get a better feel for the way the waters worked in the Greatest River before venturing into the unknown of the horizon and the edge of the world, but the timing had just not worked out. From early morning until late night the two women slowly moved south west, or so they reckoned, taking turns rowing and keeping from over exerting themselves. Both women had spent much of their lives in
fields picking plants or harvesting flora from the forests.
As a result, b
oth had the arm strength and endurance to tolerate some e
xtended rowing.

As the night came upon them, Ember started to panic. Cold darkness was rolling in upon them, and no land was in sight. She had long lost sight of the shore and now saw only water. The thought of being alone in a void of endless water frightened Ember. She was acutely aware of the power of water and the spirits which inhabited water. They could flip the boat over and drown them at a whim. Seeing Ember's fear, Brig'dha reassured her that they would be okay. Ember was unsure how drifting at night in a small boat in the middle of the largest river she had
ever imagined would be, “okay.”

With the night coming fully, the women took turns sleeping, always with one awake and keeping the boat moving in what they thought was the correct direction. Ember thanked the Gods for the bright and full moon. It was by the light of the moon that Ember now drew her strength, fear always just below her chest and ready to rise up. She would have to trust Bri
g'dha; what else could she do?

The night passed its
mid-point
, and Ember lay
on her back with her head propped on a deer hide. Brig'dha slept with her head in Ember's lap, allowing the women to stretch out and to help each other remain warm. Ember was glad she had tied the oars to the boat. She had dozed off a few times, by accident, and each time the oar would have slipped into the
night had it not been tied down, due to the waves.
While causing fear, the waves were oddly relaxing
…
, and Ember suddenly shook herself free from a near sleep experience. As she came to, Ember realized that Brig'dha was awake. Brig'dha looked tired from having just awo
ken, but she was also worried.

“What is-wrong
,”
Ember asked.

“Were we
-good to-kill men?”
Brig'dha said. Ember was taken aback by the question, both at how out of place it was and by the fact that she had, until then, kept from thinking deeply about the events of the recent past.
Ember
could still remember watching the life leaving the eyes of each man and how they gasped for air. Ember looked up at the moon for a short
time and then back to Brig'dha.

“I do-not know
,”
Ember said. In fact, she was unsure of herself concerning those events. A flood of emotions and memories came upon her, and Ember
lay
back in the boat and took the time to consider them. She felt an odd sense of guilt, but when she thought about the source of the guilt, she could not pin it down. Taking women in the way those men had was not uncommon and perhaps the deaths had been an accident? No, she kept remembering the way the men had laughed at her and how they had acted. They didn't act like good men who had merely met with an
unfortunate set of experiences.

Why is
it
not
okay to kill to protect others?
Ember wondered to herself.
Who decides who is right and who is wrong? The Gods remain silent on this, so why can't I decide? But if I decide it is okay to kill the men to save
the women, and that is okay, the
n is it not also okay for the men to choose to take the women? What about
their
reasons? If the Gods will not say what is right and wrong, how do I know?

Brig'dha didn't say anything as Ember continued with her deliberations, merely watching the moon as the boat bobbed about in the night. Time went by as Ember mulled the memories of the battle around trying to find where she had gone wrong. No matter how many ways she tried to condemn herself, the faces of the scared women returned to her. She remembered the people on the shores crying and the fear in the eyes of those women, girls really. No, she was sur
e she had done the right thing.

What is good is what is best for people. Killing and steeling women is not the best for most people, so it is more wrong than killing to save the women,
she concluded.

“We-did good. W
e-are good. They-give, they-got
,
”
Ember finally said to Brig'dha. Her next statement was complicated, so she carefully spoke the words and waited
to see if Brig'dha understood.

“Good-people ask if right, bad-
people know right
,”
Ember said, as best as s
he could in the trade language.

If you ask if you are doing the right thing, then you are likely a good person,
she thought,
but
the truly bad people are
often
those who know they are right and without question
. Ember had decided that what really bothered her was the enormity of the encounter. She just could not seem to grasp that she had killed or left for dead four men. Even now, she still could not fully a
ppreciate the severity of this.

Brig'dha listened to Ember's words of wisdom and came to a smile. The more Brig'dha thought about it, the more Ember reminded her of the stories of the fire Goddess Brid'da, her namesake. Brig'dha sat back and considered how the Elders of her tribe might view her musings. Brig'dha whispered a chant to Brid'da
, softly in her native tongue.

“Fire, burn away all the old and kindle the new
.”
Ember didn't notice as she had drifted off to sleep
a few moments after speaking.

Ember awoke to a clearing sky and a partially blocked sun. A light rain earlier in the morning had
replenished some of their water;
the Great River was undrinkable, having a salty taste. The taste was incredible to Ember, but Brig'dha explained that drinking it would soon lead to death. Ember was unsure how too much salt was bad, but she supposed it would make you thirsty. She continued to poke her fingers into the water and lick the salt off of them, until Brig'dha described how the Greatest River was filled with large and powerful monsters which could swallow a boat whole. Since that moment, Ember had kept all of her body firmly in the boat.

Water was not the only problem, for Ember was growing concerned about the quickly dwindling food supply. Long
period
s of handling the boat and rowing required plenty of food
,
and the stores were falling quickly. Normally, fish could be caught and, technically, eaten raw if needed. Ember watched the surface of the water for long periods of time hoping to see a fish, but Brig'dha explained that most of the fish in the Greatest River swam very deep and were very large. Ember continued to keep her eyes open glancing into the water now and then hoping to spot a fish. She was unsu
re how deep the water was at that
point, but it had to be at least as deep as two men, for she could not see the bottom.

While looking at the water carefully trying to see the bottom, Ember caught sight of a rough and gray form moving below. At first, she reckoned that she had caught a glimpse of the bottom. She was about to turn and poke Brig'dha to share her discovery when the shape suddenly rose from the depths and arched out of the water less than the length of a man from Ember! She nearly fell out of the boat with shock as the back of a whale came into view, blowing water and air from
its back into the air as a jet!
All around the boat more whales emerged to vent their breath and dive again. Ember was suddenly surrounded by sea monsters, each many times larger than the boat!

Ember sat back, stunned, and watched as a small pointy whale fin passed by the boat. The whales all finished breathing and dove quietly below the surface of the water. Ember could not find words to describe what she had just seen. It was both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. For a long time
,
she just sat and watched the water. Brig'dha waited for a while before explaining to Ember what a whale was. She barely knew herself, but her people had seen whales before off of the coast and they were commonly known
to live in the Greatest River.

This river has some really big catfish
, Ember thought.

As the second day on the water progressed, the two women became more worried. The course of the boat had been difficult to determine, and Ember could only assume that the Greatest River flowed to the south. Brig'dha explained that the Greatest River flowed both ways, depending on many factors known to the men who crossed it. Brig'dha's explanation turned out to be true when, after the middle of the day, the boat seemed to be moving more north west. Ember hadn't noticed any change in the water, which was very choppy and constantly filled the boat. The day had brought a warmer current of air than was expected, and a light fog had obscured the d
irection forward. The layer of f
og was far ahead, and they were moving closer to it. The sun moved that same way and so the women kept rowing, though fear was
starting to take hold of them.

Ember and Brig'dha were both quite tired after much of the day spent rowing. Suddenly, Ember caught sight of land through the low fog that had rolled in! The fog had been part of the land and had obscured it from their view. She merely pointed and yelled a victorious sound. Brig'dha had traveled this water once before and remembered that seeing land and making it to the land
were different things entirely, but she also felt a sense of hope.

As the sun finished burning away the fog, the vast landscape of Inn'bry'th came into view. Ember and Brig'dha gave each other a hug, in a spooning fashion, and redoubled their efforts to row. The land was still small on the horizon, but vast in width. To Ember, it looked more like the bank of the Greatest River and less like the massive island Brig'dha had made it out to be. She had explained to Ember the layout of the land, from rolling hills in the north to grasslands in the south. Her people were from the very north and might one day return to the north. Ember enjoyed the breaks from rowing while she listened to the stories of the new and amazing lands to the far west.

The rowing was taking its toll as the sun began to vanish behind the land and night set in. Both women were nearly out of strength, having rowed intermittently for two days. Rowing used upper body strength, something women had less
of than men, Ember considered.

Many tough men might be complaining by now
, she mused. With exhaustion slipping in, the women slept for the night, again taking turns keeping the boat in the correct direction, as best as they could tell. Ember and Brig'dha were having troubles keeping from both sleeping at the same time. The water would rock them into sl
eep for short periods of time.