by Alys Clare
Impassable. Could there be, I wondered, a more daunting name?
‘If they managed to do the impossible and come safely through Impassable,’ Freydis continued, ‘still more swirling waterfalls, rapids and unexpected descents awaited them, until they began to fear they had passed unwittingly into some watery hell from which the only escape was death.’
Again, she fell silent, slowly looking round at us all. ‘There was only one way to survive the rapids,’ she said matter-of-factly, ‘and that was to do as they had done between the waters of the northern rivers and carry their craft, around the wild white waves. The prudent followed the portage tracks all the way. The adventurous – some would say the foolhardy – chose only to avoid the hungry maws and the sharp teeth of the waterfalls, opting to shoot their slender ships like arrows down the broiling white water, riding the angry waves like fierce, brave horses.’
I tried to imagine it, but my heart quaked at the very thought. How had they found the courage to risk their ships – the only means by which they could hope one day to return to their distant homes – amid those thundering waters? How could they dare risk their lives?
As if she had picked up my thought, Freydis was nodding. ‘Many perished,’ she said, her voice low. ‘The survivors set up a great stone, on which they marked in runes the names of the dead. That stone,’ she added softly, ‘is still in use today.’
Into my mind flew an image of a bearded giant, wet, spent, knife in hand as he carefully picked out the rune marks that stood for his dead friend. He was muttering under his breath – a prayer, no doubt – and he had tears in his pale blue eyes ...
‘Now, at last, the way became easier,’ Freydis was saying, calling my attention back to her tale, ‘for the river broadened out and slowed its hectic pace, and the sailors could raise their sail and have a rest from the oars. In time, the river emptied into the smaller inland sea, and from there it was an unchallenging trip down the western shore until, finally, the Great City came into view.’
The Great City. I had heard the name: in fact, quite a lot of what Freydis had just recounted seemed vaguely familiar. I closed my eyes – she was now describing the city’s wonders – and let my mind go blank.
Almost instantly, I heard Gurdyman’s voice inside my head as, together, we pored over his map: One such voyage led to their Great City.
Its name, I remembered, was Miklagard.
The frustration bubbled up as, once again, I wondered why Gurdyman had elected to tell me of these matters just before I was abducted and brought here. It surely was not simply coincidence. But how had he known? Had he somehow been preparing me? For what?
Somehow (could it be, was it possible?) he had foretold that this would happen; that I’d be stolen away from my home, my family and my friends and deposited here, far in the north, for reasons I was only starting to understand.
‘Shining stone.’
The words slithered into my awareness like a glittering serpent. Freydis had spoken them. Snapping to attention, I listened.
She was telling the story of a man who had not survived the cataracts; who, alone in his vessel while his companions had portaged their own craft, had risked one too many sets of rapids, and been thrown into the hungry, turbulent water as his frail ship broke up into firewood.
‘His kinsmen mourned him long and deeply,’ she said, sounding now as if she was chanting, ‘for, although his heart had begun to turn to the dark, he had led them well and they trusted him. As they stood around the marker stone on which they had carved his name, they vowed their loyalty, and they swore that they would not rest until he had been avenged.’
Avenged? It sounded as if the man’s kin believed his death had been no accident, unless they were planning vengeance on the very cataracts themselves ...
‘For it was Arnor’s claim that he had been deprived of what was rightfully his by birth,’ Freydis said, very quietly, ‘and both he and his kin believed that it would have protected them all from the dangers of the Perilous Voyage.’
Arnor. I knew I’d heard the name. Arnor ... Yes; he was the younger brother, deemed unsuitable to receive the shining stone. The one who, in Thorfinn’s words, would have turned its dangerous and formidable power to further his own dark ambition. It was as if Thorfinn was repeating his words of earlier, directly into my mind.
So Arnor had not been appointed guardian of his family’s great treasure, because that honour had gone to his sister, I reflected, and he had believed himself robbed of its powers as protective talisman. Yet he had gone on the dangerous voyage anyway, and his life had been lost.
I tried to recall everything that Thorfinn had told me about the stone. I couldn’t actually remember him mentioning it could protect its bearer, but he had said that it allowed the harnessing of the unseen forces of the spirit world. With those at your disposal, I realized, what more protection would you need?
Freydis was winding down to the conclusion of her tale; I was a bard myself, and I recognized the change in her voice, which was gradually turning from stimulating to hypnotic. I felt I could safely miss the end of the story; I had more import-ant things to think about.
I was trying to put it all together: to discover, in truth, what it all had to do with me. Skuli, clearly, wanted to succeed where his grandfather Arnor had failed; this voyage to the Great City must surely be his goal, and he believed that, to make it safely, he needed the shining stone. Yet the Dragon’s side of the family line were equally determined he should not get his hands on the treasure; presumably, they had good reason for not wanting him to reach that goal ...
My head was bursting; I could no longer think straight. It was so hard, I reflected crossly, when they were feeding me information so grudgingly.
Around me, people were standing up, stretching, draining their mugs and heading off for bed. There was nothing else to do but join them. With the fervent hope that I would see more clearly after a night’s rest, I headed for my sheepskins and a well-earned sleep.
TWELVE
I was finishing a tasty breakfast the next morning – fresh-baked bread and a cup of skyr flavoured with honey – and laughing with Thyra as we watched her second-youngest child attempt to lick out his bowl for the last, sweet dregs, when Thorfinn approached.
Dropping a hand on my shoulder, he leaned down and murmured in my ear. ‘Come and walk with me, Lassair.’
He wasn’t someone you disobeyed. In any case, the prospect of another outing with him was appealing. I might well discover the answers to some of the questions that kept tormenting me.
I fetched my shawl, then hurried outside to join him. We set off towards the headland out to the west of the homestead, and, when the time extended and still he did not speak, I glanced at his face and guessed he was deep in thought. We climbed to the top of a low cliff, and suddenly the brilliant blue sea was spread out below us, the early sun sending up dancing sparks of reflected light that dazzled the eyes.
‘It is time for you to go home, child,’ Thorfinn said without preamble. ‘Einar has been watching the weather, and his ship will sail at midday.’
Joy flooded through me. In that first moment, I felt nothing but relief; it was only as the surprising news sank in that other considerations occurred to me.
The first was that, if I was bundled up and dispatched back to my fenland home this very day, then there would be no chance for me to find out what I so desperately wanted to know: why I’d been brought here, and how my family and I were connected with the Dragon and his shining stone. Einar was a taciturn man, and I knew without a doubt that he would be as unforthcoming on the journey home as he had been on the way here.
I looked at Thorfinn, standing still as stone beside me. The second consideration was to do with him; well, it was him. As the prospect of parting from him became a reality, I discovered I’d grown rather fond of him. It was illogical, and I knew it; his son had abducted me, hit me, brought me here, hundreds of miles from my home and without one word of explanat
ion, on Thorfinn’s orders – not the hitting bit, I quickly corrected myself. Thorfinn would never have sanctioned that. Nevertheless, far from being fond of the old man, I should resent and loathe him.
But I didn’t.
He seemed to be expecting some reaction to his announcement. When none came, he turned, looking down at me with a half-smile. ‘Are you not pleased to be going home?’ he asked.
It was a moment where nothing but the truth would serve. ‘Yes, of course. But I don’t want to leave you,’ I added, half under my breath.
He did not reply, and I wondered if he’d heard. He was old, after all, and old people usually get a bit deaf. He cleared his throat a couple of times, and, when he spoke, I still wasn’t entirely sure.
‘Skuli has to be stopped,’ he began, ‘for he is bent on a mission that has already caused death and distress, and many more people will suffer if he succeeds in finding what he seeks.’ I opened my mouth to ask if he meant Skuli’s ruthless hunt for the stone, or the dream of succeeding where his grandfather failed, or perhaps both, but he pressed on, not letting me speak. ‘To this end, I am sending a band of fighting men, including my son Jorund, my daughter’s husband Njal, and others of my close kindred, as well as Einar and his crew.’
‘To stop one man?’ I asked, surprised.
Thorfinn smiled. ‘Skuli is not alone, child. He has his own group of loyal followers, who have sworn in blood to go wherever he leads.’ He sighed deeply, looking suddenly careworn and old. ‘This is a kin feud, Lassair, for it originates with the destructive resentment of a brother for his elder sister; an evil, corrosive emotion that has come down two generations and has descended into malignant hatred.’ He sighed again, slowly shaking his head. ‘The fact remains, however, that Skuli and his headstrong young men are my kinsmen, and, no matter what they have done and intend to do, I am head of the family and they are my concern. If they kill, if they should die, the responsibility is mine.’
No wonder he looked so careworn; Skuli had already slain two defenceless women. My heart went out to him. I guessed he longed to lead his sons and his kinsmen into the fray, as he would have done in his prime.
Maybe he read that thought; I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. For, very quietly, he said, ‘You and I need not yet be parted, child, for I am coming with you.’
The reaction was instinctive. I spun round and flung my arms round him, and, after a moment, he gave a chuckle and hugged me back.
‘There is one more place I would show you, before we return to the farmstead and prepare for departure,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’
He led the way along the low cliff, following a crumbling path that followed the contours of the land. Presently another cove opened up below us, and in it, beached high above the water line, was the skeleton of a long, slender ship. Her mast had gone, leaving a broken stump, and her figurehead was missing, but neither absence marred her beauty.
I knew I’d seen her before, when she was in her prime: she was the ship of my dream vision. I had seen her running before the wind, and I had feared she was coming for me. Why – how – had I had that foreknowledge of her?
It was frightening, and I felt my skin contract into goose bumps. The spirits were near ...
Thorfinn was heading off down the path to the shore, and I hurried after him. Just then I didn’t want to be alone. He strode across the dark sand and gravel of the beach, stopping under the bows of the ship.
‘That is where a proud dragon once reared up,’ he said, pointing up at the prow. ‘A dragon who breathed fire and silver smoke, who always brought the ship safe home to port; whose fearless heart kept the crew from harm, and who struck malice into any foe who dared raise a hand in anger.’
‘A dragon with a long, graceful neck and a snout ended in a curling swirl of fire and smoke,’ I murmured, ‘set high on a proud ship that flew over the waves as if the dragon had spread its wings.’
‘Yes, yes, all of that,’ he said eagerly. He did not ask me how I knew. ‘Fearless, trustworthy, beautiful as the sunrise.’ He paused. ‘This,’ he added in a whisper, ‘was my ship.’
Words were dancing in my head, weaving together to make a new sense. A dragon that exhaled silver smoke. A giant of a man, with a silvery moustache curving like breath. A ship whose figurehead struck malice in the hearts of her foes.
‘This was the original Malice-striker,’ I said very softly. He was called the Silver Dragon, he had once said to me, and this was his land. ‘And you, Thorfinn, are the Dragon.’
In the utter silence, I thought he held his breath.
‘Why didn’t you tell me who you were?’ I asked. ‘Why did both you and Freydis tell the story as if it was about another man? As if the Dragon was some long-gone kinsman, remembered only by his deeds?’
‘Freydis acted on my orders. As for me ...’ He hesitated. ‘The Dragon is no hero of his own tale. He – I – faced the great test, and failed. The shining stone was the rightful inheritance of my line, yet its power was too much for me and I had to give it up.’
‘It was slowly killing you!’ I protested. I heard his voice, speaking, as I now knew, of himself: he fell deep under its enchantment, and it took him on a terrible journey. And, even worse: the Dragon would have torn himself apart. His mind was all but destroyed. ‘You had no choice, and you acted out of pure self-preservation.’
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps. But a better man than I would have found some way to confront the power of the shining stone, as others had done before him.’
‘Maybe – maybe ...’ I tried to think. ‘Maybe they weren’t as sensitive as you.’
He laughed, a short, bitter laugh. ‘Sensitivity is not a quality much prized in a fighting man.’
‘I prize it,’ I muttered. Then, turning so that I was looking him in the eye, determined to have an answer, I repeated, ‘Why didn’t you tell me who the Dragon really was? That the beaten, hurt, desperate man who was healed by my mother’s aunt was you?’
His eyes slid away. I knew then that I wasn’t going to get an answer. I was right: he simply said, ‘I had my reasons.’
Then he strode away.
We did not speak on the way back to the homestead. He, I think, was tired after telling his tale. He was, after all, an old man. For my part, I was trying to deal with yet another mystery, and failing as miserably as I was with all the other questions that were perplexing me. It was quite a relief to part from him, and, hurrying to pack up my few belongings and prepare for departure, I was glad to have something to do.
The farewells were accomplished quickly – I supposed that departures and homecomings were a regular occurrence for these people – and I was happily surprised when Thyra, Freydis and even cool, distant Asa came to bid me calm seas, a following wind and safe homecoming. Although everyone must have known the task that the men faced, there was little evident emotion. Some good-hearted ribbing, even the occasional burst of hearty laughter, set the general tone. Perhaps they regarded this as an exciting adventure.
There was one exception. Thorfinn was last to board his son’s ship, and he stood on the jetty, embracing a woman of around his own age whom I had seen in the homestead, although she always kept to the shadows. She was weeping, her poor face turned up to look into his, and the pleading in her eyes was evident even from where I stood, on deck. She clung to him, and in the end he had to gently disentangle himself, patting her on the arm as he did so. ‘I will do all I can, Gytha,’ I heard him say. ‘You have my word.’
She nodded, and I could see the effort it took her to attempt a small, brave smile. Even as Thorfinn paced along the jetty and boarded the ship, she was already turning away and hurrying back towards the farmstead.
Old Olaf was beside me. I heard him give a heavy sigh. ‘What’s the matter with her?’ I whispered.
‘She is Thorfinn’s sister-in-law; the kinswoman of his late wife,’ he whispered back. ‘She is widowed, and alone in the world save for her two sons, and both of them sail with Skuli
.’
I remembered Thorfinn’s bitter words concerning the feud that had split his family. Here it was, translated into human terms, as a mother pleaded for the safe return of the sons she loved; who were, through the evils of that old hatred, now in opposition to the very man she was begging to save them.
It was yet another twisted strand in this unfathomable tangle. Heartsick suddenly, I turned away.
At a word from Einar, the crew set about manoeuvring the ship away from her berth. Their quick efficiency spoke of a task performed a hundred times, and soon we were out of the little bay and heading for open water. Men bent to the oars, and our speed picked up. We rounded a great headland on our port side, and all at once the wind caught us. The big, rectangular sail was unfurled, the oars were laid aside, and Einar took up the wonderful dragon’s head and set it in place on the prow.
Malice-striker was back in her natural element, and the spray from her swift passage was fresh on my face. The wind picked up as we left the shelter of land, and now we were flying.
Putting everything else out of my mind, I settled down in my accustomed place and prepared to enjoy the voyage.
Rollo had reached his destination. In the castle where he had spent most of his childhood, he was enjoying the rare luxury of being spoiled. The castle was still the stronghold he remembered: built for defence, tall and mighty, with no money wasted on such fripperies as comfort or decoration. A few of its residents, however, had begun to tire of life inside a military fortress, and the private quarters of some of the higher-ranking women now showed the civilizing, eastern influence of the island’s previous masters.
Rollo was housed in one such set of apartments. It was separated from the main body of the castle by a narrow courtyard in which shrubs and small trees grew in pots, and a fountain splashed into a blue-tiled pool. Walking from the forcefully masculine fortress into the sweet-smelling, richly furnished rooms was like moving from the grey tones of dusk into brilliant midday. Colour was everywhere, from the silk-covered divans with their jewel-toned cushions to the tray of sapphire-dyed glasses and the crystal jug of sunshine-bright sherbet in which sprigs of fresh, green mint floated.