North Child (31 page)

At dawn I offered to take over the steering oar, but Thor refused, though he reeked of drink and his movements were clumsy. I was the first to spy what looked to be a thin white finger of land. I pointed it out to Thor. He grunted and poured more ale.

The wind had weakened and shifted to the south, so it took a long time to tack towards land. To make matters worse, an icy sleet had begun to fall.

By the time I could make out features of the land, Thor was roaring drunk. He was zigzagging sloppily through the water and finally stopped steering altogether, slumping sideways on the bench, singing under his breath a song about “journeying on to Vinland”. I suddenly saw that we were bearing down on a snow-covered headland, and I hastily squeezed in next to Thor and took the steering oar in hand.

I managed to avoid the boulders sticking up out of the water, but with a sinking feeling I saw that there were many of them. It did not look like a promising spot for me to try to land the
knorr,
inexperienced as I was. Because the wind was coming from the south, I steered a northerly course, hoping to find a better landing place.

With no one to secure the rigging, the sail flapped. I silently cursed Thor. Why had he chosen this of all times to drink himself into a stupor? And just what was that land? I bound the steering oar in place with a strap of leather and went to find my pack, pulling out the map that Sofi had given me.

I scrutinized it. Based on the shortening days, Thor had said he believed we were at least as far north as Suroy, perhaps farther, but he had no idea how far west we had been driven by the storm. Then the land could be Iseland, or…it could even be the desolate land called Gronland.

And then I remembered.

Not long before I'd spotted the white bird, and during one of Thor's rare sober spells, he had told me about the death of his wife and son. Thor had been working for a prosperous merchant seaman but had hopes of one day owning his own ship. Then he was offered a place on a vessel that was going to Gronland, a place the Vikings had first settled but long ago abandoned. There was said to be good whale hunting off the coast of Gronland. Because the profits promised were large, and because of his great admiration for his Viking forebears, Thor leaped at the opportunity.

The voyage had not been a success, due to bad weather and an outbreak of sickness. In fact, the ship did not even reach Gronland before it had to turn back. Thor returned home to find that in his absence his wife and son had been killed by thieves. The next few years he was lost in barrels of ale, followed by several more years spent in gaol for killing a man he had mistakenly thought to be one of the killers.

After he got out of gaol, Thor worked a series of odd jobs, eventually scraping together enough money to buy himself a very old, decrepit Viking
knorr,
which he rebuilt. He set himself up in business as a merchant seaman and, for the past dozen years, had been able to make a living.

As I remembered all of this, I realized that the prospect of our coming to Gronland had brought back memories of Thor's failed voyage – and of all he had lost.

I felt pity for him then, but I was angry as well. I would never be able to land the
knorr
on my own; certainly not along such a rocky coast. My only hope lay in finding some kind of natural harbour.

The sun had set by then and I managed to steer the ship through the night. The moon shone inconstantly, moving in and out of cloud cover, and I could only occasionally make out a dim outline of the land we glided past. Finally I decided to drop anchor, thinking to wait until morning to try to find a place to land. Shivering, I covered the snoring Thor, noting that he had almost completely emptied an entire barrel. I burrowed under my own layers of cloth and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

I awoke to find snow falling, and a good two inches of it already accumulated on the cloths covering me. There was a trace of light from the predawn sun.

Dusting the snow off, I got up and stretched. Thor was still passed out, his mouth hanging open and his breathing loud. I gazed towards land and in the grey light could just make out what looked to be a slim outcropping a little to the north. I wondered if there might be a harbour of sorts within it.

After attempting in vain to awaken Thor, I raised the sail and steered the
knorr
towards land. As I went closer I saw that the arm of land did provide protection for a cove of sorts. Suddenly all I wanted was the feel of land under my feet, and I recklessly pointed the bow towards shore. The light was so dim that I could barely tell where the sea ended and the shore began, but I didn't care.

The water was fairly calm in this natural harbour, and the
knorr
glided through the grey waves, snow still lightly falling. My eyes straining, I thought I saw a cluster of shapes on the beach ahead that from such a distance looked like standing stones.

All was silent; even the slapping of water against the hull seemed muffled by the falling snow. Somehow I managed to avoid the rocks. There was a grinding sound as the prow of the
knorr
slid up onto the snowy beach and came to a stop.

I sat for a moment, unnerved by the lack of motion. Thor let out a grunt and shifted on the bench, still passed out. I stood and made my way forwards to the prow. The sun had not yet risen and the light was the same dim grey. Despite my many layers of clothing, I was shivering again. I lowered a plank from the side of the
knorr.
Using it as a bridge I descended to the beach.

I stood by the hull for a moment, swaying dizzily after such a long time at sea. But then I heard a noise coming from the beach. I turned and saw the strange shapes I had thought to be stones moving across the beach towards me, their feet making quiet crunching sounds in the snow. The one closest to me raised a hand and all the others stopped, but the small figure with the raised hand kept moving towards me. I stayed very still, my heart beating fast.

It was a woman with dark, creased skin and narrow bright-black eyes. She was dressed from head to toe in various animal skins. She wore a hood with silver-grey fur around her face. The fur obscured her features, save for those penetrating black eyes.

She stepped forwards until our noses were almost touching, and stared directly into my eyes. I stared back, which turned out to be the right thing to do, for I found out later that she was the local shaman and was then reading my soul with her eyes. Had I looked down or away from her, the shaman would have deemed that I had things to hide – and I most likely would have been killed.

As it was, the shaman apparently found my soul to be satisfactory, or at least harmless, for she smiled at me and then spoke. I didn't understand her, though the language was vaguely familiar to me, with a faint echo of Njorden.

I said, “I am from Njord.”

“Ah, Njord.” She nodded, then gestured at the
knorr,
taking several steps towards it.

Assuming that meant she wished to board the ship, I led her to the makeshift gangplank. She followed me aboard and slowly made her way from fore to aft, her eyes sweeping the battered
knorr.
She came to a stop in front of Thor, who was still sprawled in a drunken stupor. Leaning over his prostrate body, she reached out and held up the tarnished hammer necklace he wore, inspecting it closely. Then she took her thumb and raised his eyelid, revealing the bloodshot white of one eye.

Looking at me she said something that sounded like the Njorden word for
illness.
I shook my head and pantomimed drinking a mug of ale.

A slow smile creased her face and she nodded in understanding. Then she crossed to the prow and called out to the figures standing on the shore.

They responded by gathering around the
knorr
and pulling the vessel far up onto the beach. I clung to the mast to keep my footing.

The woman gestured for me to follow her as she disembarked. “I am Malmo,” she said as she stood facing me on the beach.

“My name is Rose,” I replied, wondering if we should shake hands. But she did not offer her hand.

Instead she said, “You will come with Malmo.” She then set out across the beach, away from the
knorr.

“But my friend…”

“We bring him, too,” Malmo said.

And I followed her. For some reason I trusted Malmo. Perhaps I had inadvertently looked into her soul as she was inspecting mine; I sensed that she meant me no harm.

She led me away from the water until we came to a cluster of stone buildings. Malmo directed me to one of the larger buildings and opened the flap of animal skin that served as a door, gesturing for me to enter.

“Malmo home,” the shaman said by way of explanation. The building was a small structure made of stone, clay, and dried grass. It had two rooms, both small; one was for cooking and eating, the other for sleeping.

Malmo gestured for me to sit, handing me a fur-skin for warmth. Then she went outside again, leaving me alone briefly. She soon reappeared with several of her people, who were carrying Thor. He was still unconscious and they laid him on a raised sleeping platform, then covered him with fur-skins.

Two women entered the home, bearing bowls of stew and steaming cups of mead. Malmo smiled at me, saying, “Eat, rest.” And once again she departed.

Hungrily I ate, then bundled myself into the furs. I sat there, Thor snoring softly nearby, and thought about all that had happened since I'd left the castle. And for the first time I found I could think about the white bear with some kind of hope. I was getting close to where he was. Warmed by those thoughts, and by the stew and hot mead in my belly, I drifted into sleep.

We had come to the village of Neyak on the northeastern coast of Gronland. Malmo showed it to me on the map. She and her people were Inuit and had lived on that land since Sedna, the Mother of Sea Beasts, came to guard the oceans. Malmo knew the Njorden language because whale hunters from Njord had come to their land before. She had nothing good to say about them, though. Her opinion of the Vikings was even lower. They had been the first to come in their longboats – with their hammers of the thunder god Thor around their necks – bringing devastation and fear to the Inuit, whom the Vikings called Skraelings, or “the ugly ones”. It had taken the Inuit years to get rid of the marauding invaders, and there remained a distrust that had been passed down through the generations. Still, it was clear that my particular “Viking”, with his broken limbs and giant hangover, did not exactly inspire fear.

Thor remained in his ale-induced sleep while Malmo and I talked. She knew enough Njorden that we were able to understand each other fairly well. I told her of the deadly storm we had encountered and of the loss of Gest and Goran. She asked where I was bound.

“North,” I said. “Can you tell me about the lands that lie north of here?”

Malmo nodded gravely. “There is a land north of Gronland that forms the ice sky of the earth. There are tales from Inuit who lived long ago about an ice bridge that connects Gronland to the ice sky, but there is no one living now who has found the ice bridge – or at least who has returned to tell the tale.”

“I will find it,” I said.

“You? Find the ice bridge?” She chuckled, eyeing my clothing.

Pulling my cloak tighter around me, for I was cold even inside Malmo's home, I replied with a rueful look, “I know. But I am set on travelling north. I will do whatever I must.”

“Why?” Malmo asked.

And I told her the entire story, just as I had told it to Thor – and to Sofi and Estelle before him.

She listened closely, her bright eyes intent on my face.

“
Seku nanoa
,” she said, with a note of reverence in her voice. She took a stick from the fire and, using only a few strokes, deftly drew the exact likeness of a white bear.

Then she looked at Thor in his near comatose state. “What will you do with the Viking?”

I was silent. I was ashamed to realize I hadn't thought about Thor at all, not when it came to my journey north. I gazed sideways at him, his beard and hair matted and wild, an arm and leg still wrapped in cloth that was stained with seawater, blood, and ale. And his ship was in little better shape than he.