Once Upon a Time in the North

by Once Upon a Time in the North (epub)

  ‘Yep, another successful day. But damn, Hester, you don’t hit a drunk man with a stick.’

  ‘Find a bed, Lee. Keep still. Don’t talk to anyone. Think good thoughts. Stay out of trouble.’

  ‘That’s a good idea,’ said Lee.

  A few enquiries brought him to a dingy boarding house near the harbour. He paid the landlady for a week’s room and board and laid his kitbag on the bed before going out to seek a way of earning some money.

  There was a brisk wind snapping in from the sea, and Lee pulled his coat around him and settled his hat more firmly on his head as he came out of a side street on to the harbour front. He found a line of shops facing the water – a ship’s chandler, a clothing store and the like – and a dingy bar or two, and the broad, stone-built headquarters of the Provincial Customs and Revenue Authority, with a navy-and-white flag flying from the roof. From each end of this waterfront a quay stretched out ahead, forming a long sheltered harbour a hundred and fifty yards or so wide. At the far end stood a lighthouse on a headland that curved around from the right.

  Lee looked at the boats in the harbour, taking stock. For a town in the throes of an oil rush, it didn’t seem very busy. There was a coal tanker tied up at the quay on the right, sitting low in the water, so they hadn’t unloaded her yet; and the only crane on that side was a big steam affair that was working to set a new mainmast in a barque, attended by more men than were necessary, each vividly expressing his point of view. It would take all day; the coal would have to wait.

  On the other quay, to the left, there were two smaller anbaric cranes, the first busy loading barrels of fish-oil into the hold of one small steam coaster, the second unloading the timber piled high on the deck of another. Beyond them lay a schooner, at which no activity of any sort was going on, and Lee guessed that to be the unfortunate Captain van Breda’s vessel that couldn’t load her cargo. Lee couldn’t even see anyone on deck. The ship had a forlorn air.

  Running along each quay was a line of stone-built warehouses, and at the near end of the left-hand quay was a cluster of offices including that of the Harbour Master. There was a pilot’s launch tied up at the steps outside it, and a substantial steam tug a little further on; and if neither of those was busy, trade must be slow.

  Lee rang the bell at the Harbour Master’s office and went in, having read the brass plate beside the door.

  ‘Good day to you, Mr Aagaard,’ he said. ‘I’ve come to see whether I can find any work around here. Scoresby is the name, and I have a cargo balloon in storage at the Barents Sea Company Depot. Any likelihood of an aeronaut’s services being in demand, do you suppose?’

  The Harbour Master was an elderly man with a sour and cautious expression. His cat-dæmon opened her eyes briefly and closed them again in disdain.

  ‘Business is slow, Mr Scoresby,’ said the old man. ‘We have four vessels working in the harbour, and when they have gone, I do not expect any more trade for a week. Times are bad.’

  ‘Four vessels?’ said Lee. ‘My eyes must be deceiving me. I saw five.’

  ‘Four.’

  ‘Then my eyes do need fixing. I saw a three-masted hallucination at the end of the east quay.’

  ‘There is no work at the east quay, or at the west. Good day, Mr Scoresby.’

  ‘And good day to you, sir.’

  He and Hester left. Lee rubbed his jaw and looked left, along the quay, to the still schooner.

  ‘I don’t like to see any vessel so quiet,’ he said. ‘She looks like a ghost ship. There ought to be something the crew could be doing. Well, let’s go and see what price they charge for hemp cord.’

  He strolled along to the chandlery, where at least the stink of fish oil and tanning skins gave way to that of clean tarred rope. The man behind the counter was reading a newspaper, and he barely looked up when Lee came in.

  ‘Good day,’ said Lee, to no response.

  He wandered about the shop, looking at everything, and as usual saw plenty he needed and little he could afford. He scratched his head at the prices until he remembered that this place was an ice-bound island for six months of the year, and everything had to be imported.

  ‘How’s the election going?’ he said to the shopkeeper, nodding at his newspaper. ‘Will Mr Poliakov become the new Mayor?’

  ‘You want to buy something?’

  ‘Maybe. Ain’t seen anything I can afford, at your prices.’

  ‘Well, I don’t sell newspapers.’

  ‘Then good day to you,’ said Lee, and left.

  He turned up into the town. The blue sky of morning had gone, and a bitter wind was bringing grey clouds scudding across from the north. There were only three people in sight: two women with shopping baskets and an old man with a stick. A group of bears stopped their rumbling conversation and watched him as he went past before beginning again, their voices so low he almost felt them through the soles of his feet.

  ‘This is the bleakest, smelliest, most unfriendliest damn place we ever set foot in,’ Lee said.

  ‘I wouldn’t argue with you, Lee.’

  ‘Something’ll turn up, though.’

  But nothing turned up that afternoon.

  The evening meal was served in the parlour of the boarding house, which was a dismal place with a small dining table, an iron stove, a shelf of religious books, and a small collection of battered and dusty board games with names like Peril of the Pole, Flippety-Flop, and Animal Misfitz. The meal itself consisted of a mutton stew and an apple pie. The pie was tolerable. Lee’s fellow boarders were a photographer from Oslo, an official from the Institute of Economics in Novgorod, and a young lady called Miss Victoria Lund, who worked in the public library. She was as pretty as a picture, if it was a picture of a high-minded young woman of unyielding rectitude and severity. She was tall, and on the bony side of slim, and her fair hair was tightly pulled back into a bun. Her long-sleeved white blouse was buttoned to the neck. She was the first young woman Lee had spoken to for a month.

  ‘So you’re a librarian, Miss Lund? What kind of books do the people of Novy Odense like to read?’

  ‘Various kinds.’

  ‘I might look in myself tomorrow, see if I can find out some information. There’s a book called The Elements of Aerial Navigation I’d really like to finish reading. Where is your library, Miss Lund?’

  ‘In Aland Square.’

  ‘Right. Aland Square. You been working there long?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I see. So you’re – ah – newly qualified, I guess?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And … Is Novy Odense your home town?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then I guess we’re both strangers here, huh?’

  That brought no response, but her swallow-dæmon looked at Hester from the back of her chair, spread his wings wide, and then closed them again, followed by his eyes.

  But Lee persevered.

  ‘Would you care for some of this pie, Miss Lund?’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You know, right after supper I thought I’d take a stroll along the waterfront and see what the enterprising citizens of Novy Odense have to offer in the way of night-time entertainment. I don’t suppose you’d care to accompany me?’

  ‘No, I would not.’

  Miss Lund left the table immediately the meal was over, and as soon as she was gone the other two men laughed and clapped Lee on the shoulder.

  ‘Fifteen!’ said the photographer.

  ‘I made it fourteen,’ said the economist, ‘but you win.’

  ‘Fourteen what?’ said Lee.

  ‘Words you got out of her,’ said the photographer. ‘I bet you’d get more than ten, and Mikhail here said you wouldn’t.’

  ‘Careful, Lee,’ murmured Hester.

  ‘So you gentlemen are of a sporting persuasion?’ Lee said, taking no notice of her. ‘Best thing I’ve encountered today. What do you say to a game of cards, now this delicious repast is but a fading memory and our fair companion
has withdrawn? Unless you’d like to take a chance on Flippety-Flop?’

  ‘Nothing would please me more,’ said the photographer, ‘but I have an appointment to take a portrait of the local headmaster and his family. I can’t afford to miss it.’

  ‘And as for me, I’m going to a meeting at the town hall,’ said the other man. ‘The mayoral election is hotting up. I need to see which way it’s going to go.’

  ‘Well, this is an exciting town, and no mistake,’ said Lee. ‘I can barely contain my exuberance.’

  ‘Would you care to step along to the town hall and join me in the audience?’ said the economist.

  ‘I believe I would,’ said Lee, and the other man’s robin-dæmon twitched her tail.

  The election meeting was certainly the place to be that evening. Men and women were making their way up the muddy street towards the town hall, which was brilliantly lit with gas lamps, Lee noticed with satisfaction: if there was a source of gas on the island, he’d be able to fill his balloon without too much difficulty – provided he could pay for it, of course. The people were dressed respectably, and so was Lee, to the extent of his one necktie; and they were talking with some animation.

  ‘Is this the way they usually do politics on Novy Odense?’ Lee said to his companion.

  ‘There is a great deal at stake in this election,’ said the economist, whose name, Lee had learned, was Mikhail Ivanovich Vassiliev. ‘In fact it’s the reason I’m here. My academy is very interested in this man Poliakov. He used to be a Senator, but he hates to be reminded of the fact. He had to resign over a financial scandal, and he’s using this mayoral election as a way of rehabilitating himself.’

  ‘Oh, is that so?’ said Lee, watching the crowd on the steps, and noticing the uniformed stewards. ‘I see there’s a lot of Customs men around. Are they expecting a ruckus?’

  ‘Customs men?’

  ‘The bullies in the maroon uniforms.’

  ‘Oh, they’re not Customs. That’s the security arm of Larsen Manganese.’

  ‘I keep hearing that name … Who are they?’

  ‘Very big mining corporation. If Poliakov gets in, they will prosper. Rumour has it that the company has been looking for a confrontation with the Customs; it’s happening elsewhere throughout the north – private companies invading the public sphere. Security, they call it: what they mean is threat. I’ve heard they have a large gun that they’re keeping secret, for example, and they’d love to provoke a riot and bring it into use – That gentleman is hailing you.’

  They were at the top of the steps leading to the main doors, but they couldn’t move any further because of the crush. Lee turned to look where Vassiliev was pointing, and saw the poet Oskar Sigurdsson waving and beckoning.

  Lee waved back, but Sigurdsson beckoned even more urgently.

  ‘Better go see what he wants,’ he said, and made his way through the crowd.

  Sigurdsson’s butterfly-dæmon was fluttering round and round his head, and the poet was beaming with pleasure.

  ‘Mr Scoresby! So glad to see you!’ he said. ‘Miss Poliakova, may I introduce Mr Scoresby, the celebrated aeronaut?’

  ‘Celebrated, my tail,’ muttered Hester, but the young lady at Sigurdsson’s side had Lee’s interest at once. She was about eighteen years old, and a contrast in every way to the starched Miss Lund: her cheeks were rosy, her eyes were large and black, her lips were soft and red, her hair was a mass of dark curls. Her dæmon was a mouse. Lee took her hand with pleasure.

  ‘Delighted to make your acquaintance,’ he said, and swept off his hat as well as he could in the crush.

  Sigurdsson had been saying something.

  ‘I beg your pardon, Mr Sigurdsson,’ Lee said. ‘I was unable to concentrate on your words because of Miss Poliakova’s eyes. I wager you have dozens of young men come from all over the northlands to gaze at your eyes, Miss Poliakova.’

  She let them fall for a moment, as if in modesty, and then gazed up through her lashes. Sigurdsson plucked at Lee’s sleeve.

  ‘Miss Poliakova is the daughter of the distinguished candidate for Mayor,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, is that right? Are we going to hear your father speak tonight, miss?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘he will speak, I think.’

  ‘Who is he up against in the election?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I think two men, or perhaps one.’

  Lee looked at her closely, while trying to muffle Hester’s grumbling from inside his coat. Was this young lady genuinely slow-witted, or just pretending to be? She smiled again. She must be teasing. Good! If she wanted to play, Lee was in the mood for that.

  The obstruction inside the door had been cleared, and the crowd was moving up the steps, marshalled by the Larsen Manganese security men. Miss Poliakova stumbled, and Lee offered his arm, which she took readily. Meanwhile Sigurdsson was pressing close at his other side, saying something that Lee couldn’t quite hear and wasn’t interested in, because the closer he got to Miss Poliakova, the more he was aware of the delicate floral scent she was wearing, or perhaps it was the fragrance of her hair, or perhaps it was just the sweet fact of her young body pressed against his side; anyway, Lee was intoxicated.

  ‘What did you say?’ he said to Sigurdsson, reluctantly.

  The poet had been plucking at his other arm, and was eagerly gesturing for Lee to bend his head as if to receive a confidence.

  ‘I said you might be able to make yourself useful to Olga’s father,’ Sigurdsson murmured as they entered the main hall. The place was set out with wooden chairs, and the platform was decorated with bunting and banners bearing the slogan POLIAKOV FOR PROGRESS AND JUSTICE.

  ‘You don’t say,’ said Lee.

  ‘I’ll introduce you after the meeting.’

  ‘Well … thanks.’

  Lee’s attitude to fathers was that he preferred to keep them at a distance. Fathers did not want their daughters doing what Lee had in mind. But before he could think of an excuse, he found himself in the front row, where all the seats were reserved.

  ‘Oh, I can’t sit here,’ he protested. ‘These seats are for important guests –’

  ‘But you are an important guest!’ said the poet roguishly, and the girl said, ‘Oh, do stay, Mr Scoresby!’

  ‘Damn fool,’ muttered Hester, but only Lee heard her, as she intended.

  They had hardly sat down when a stout official came out on to the stage and announced that they were closing the doors because the great desire of the people to hear the candidate speak meant that the hall was already full beyond its legal capacity, and they couldn’t let anyone else in. Lee looked around and saw people standing three deep at the back and around the sides of the auditorium.

  ‘He’s a popular man, your father, no doubt about that,’ he said to Miss Poliakova. ‘What’s his main policy? What’s he going to do when he gets into office?’

  ‘Bears,’ she said with a delicate shudder, and made a face expressive of polite horror.

  ‘Oh, bears, eh,’ said Lee. ‘He doesn’t like bears?’

  ‘I’m scared of bears,’ she said.

  ‘Well, that’s understandable. They’re – uh – they’re pretty big, after all. I ain’t never dealt with your special Arctic bears, but I was chased by a grizzly once over in the Yukon.’

  ‘Oh, how frightful! Did he catch you?’

  And once again Lee felt as if he’d missed the bottom step in the dark: could she really be this stupid? Was she doing it on purpose?

  ‘Well, he did,’ he said, ‘but it turned out the old feller only wanted to borrow a griddle to cook up a salmon he’d caught. I was agreeable to that, and we sat around yarning over supper. He drank my whisky and smoked my cigars, and we promised to keep in touch. But I lost his address.’

  ‘Oh, that’s a pity,’ she said. ‘But, you know …’

  Lee scratched his head, but he didn’t have to think of anything else to say because at that point a group of three men came on to
the stage and the whole audience stood to applaud and cheer. Lee had to stand as well, or seem conspicuously rude, and he looked around for his boarding-house acquaintance, but among all the faces bright with fervour, the eyes ablaze with enthusiasm, he couldn’t spot him anywhere.

  As they sat down again Sigurdsson said, ‘Wonderful response! Promises very well, wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘Never seen anything like it,’ said Lee.

  He settled back to listen to the speeches.

  And very shortly afterwards, it seemed, he was woken up by a roar from the crowd. Cheers, clapping, shouts of acclamation echoed around the big wooden hall as Lee sat blinking and clapping with the rest.

  On the platform stood Poliakov, black-coated, heavy-bearded, red-cheeked, with one fist on the lectern and the other clenched at his heart. His eyes glared out across the hall, and his dæmon, a kind of hawk that Lee didn’t recognise, sat on the lectern and raised her wings till they were outspread.

  Lee murmured to Hester, tucked into his coat,

  ‘How long have I been asleep?’

  ‘Ain’t been counting.’

  ‘Well, damnit, what’s this diplomat been saying?’

  ‘Ain’t been listening.’

  He stole a glance at Olga, and saw her settled, placid, adoring gaze rest on her father’s face without any change of expression, even when the candidate suddenly banged the lectern with his fist and startled his own dæmon into taking to the air and wheeling around his head before settling on his shoulder – a fine effect, Lee thought, but Hester muttered, ‘How long’d they spend practising that in front of a mirror?’

  ‘Friends,’ Poliakov cried. ‘Friends and citizens, friends and human beings, I don’t need to warn you about this insidious invasion. I don’t need to warn you, because every drop of human blood in your human veins already warns you instinctively that there can be no friendship between humans and bears. And you know precisely what I mean by that, and you know why I have to speak in these terms. There can be no friendship, there should be no friendship, and under my administration I promise you with my hand on my heart there will be no friendship with these inhuman and intolerable …’