Bjarte had decided to work with the powder, calcium phosphate by name, by himself. As the fire burned down he laid out his work suit: a pair of leather gauntlets, knee-high boots, a pair of wool trousers, and his monk’s robes.
Bjarte sat down, he drifted off to sleep. He woke with a stiff neck. The fire was out. The first rays of dawn lit up the sky. Bjarte tried to stand. His legs were numb. It took a few minutes of massaging to get the feeling back.
Bjarte removed the light robe he wore. He pulled on the trousers. He pulled on the boots then laced them up. The heavy robes came next. Bjarte wrapped the billowing material of the hood around his face, covering his mouth and nose.
Bjarte carefully scooped and poured cupful’s of powdered lime for two turns of the hourglass. He was not done yet. The powder left over from the fire had to be cut with fresh water. This step would be tricky. The powder and water would have to be mixed with the least amount of disturbance. The addition of water would stabilize the quicklime. Without the water the quicklime would soon lose the property that gave the burning resin the power to set fire to anything it touched.
When he was done mixing the slaked quick lime with the pine resin, Bjarte returned to the Ormr in langi.
“You have the mix?” Leif asked when he saw the sealed bucket Bjarte carried with two hands.
“Yes,” Bjarte answered. “We can pour the mixture into the kettle, seal it, and set the heat when ready.”
“Bjarte, can you make use of some shields?” Leif asked.
Bjarte set the bucket gently on the deck. He looked around. In a few moments he said, “The shields can be used to cover the area where the fire throwing engine is placed. It will serve two purposes: one, if the engine explodes it will contain most of the flames. Two, if flames from the nozzle blow back toward the ship the shields will provide some level of protection.”
“Who will need protection?” Leif asked.
“The man working the pump and valves on the engine.”
Leif hesitated.
“Oh,” Bjarte said. “The man working the pump and valve will be me,” he nodded. Leif hadn’t said anything but he was right. It would be dangerous to train another crewman to work the engine, whether Bjarte liked it or not, he was the man for the job. The suit may prove to be useful again.
■ ■ ■ ■
Chief Sakawaduit’s log boat approached. “Sakawaduit says Skipper Leif’s boat has changed,” Draskawindit said when the Beothuk oarsmen tied off to the Ormr in langi.
“The dragon has been readied to breathe fire,” Leif said. He barely understood how the fire throwing engine worked. He didn’t think he could explain it to Sakawaduit.
Sakawaduit winced when Draskawindit passed Leif’s words on. He said a few words to Draskawindit. “Sakawaduit says the great lizard bird looks like it’s still sleeping.” Draskawindit passed it on.
“For now, yes,” Leif said. “When we summon him he’ll awake.”
Sakawaduit went on in the tongue of the Beothuk for a while. When he finished, Draskawindit said, “Chief Sakawaduit is happy. He will live to see the men of the sea bring forth the great lizard to fight with his tribe. His dream of killing his sworn enemy Unkwadayat and his tribe will come to pass.”
“Sakawaduit and this chief must have a blood feud going back a long way,” Leif muttered. He wondered if Draskawindit had heard what he’d said.
Sure enough, Draskawindit’s sharp ears had caught Leif’s words. She passed them on. Sakawaduit finished. “The hot blood between Sakawaduit and Unkwadayat goes back to the womb of our mother. Beothuk men born of the same women that carry the same face must kill each other. Two men cannot be as one. The spirit of the sky says it is so.”
Seventeen
Sakawaduit’s Victory
ONCE the bow and stern anchors were hoisted to the deck, the oarsmen dug in. Ulf turned the tiller to point the bow up the northern coastline. Beothuk war adothes, filled with warriors, flanked the ship. A line from the stern hauled Sakawaduit’s war adothe. Draskawindit, the chief’s mates, and his guard stood on deck.
“A strange fleet indeed,” Leif muttered to himself as he stood on the top deck of the pilot house.
At mid-morning Sakawaduit hailed two warriors in a nearby adothes. The warriors broke away from the main body of adothes flanking the starboard side of the ship. Two more adothes joined the first adothe. They made their way ahead of the rest of the party.
Close to mid-day, smoke could be seen up ahead. At noon the party stopped and went ashore. The warriors that had been sent ahead had hunted and killed two of the big deer the Beothuk called osweet. The party feasted on roasted meat.
When the evening meal of fresh fish and osweet was finished, Sakawaduit’s people started to make camp. “Ask Sakawaduit what he’s doing,” Leif said to Draskawindit.
“The chief is making camp,” Draskawindit replied.
“We are not making camp, we are going to keep moving,” Leif insisted.
“The men are weary, they need sleep,” Draskawindit said to Leif.
Viking oarsmen pulled all night if they had to. The men would sleep in staggered shifts if no breeze filled the sails.
“Tell Sakawaduit this: he will get to kill his twin sooner if he pushes his people to continue on.”
Two days later, Sakawaduit sent ten adothes filled with warriors ahead. The scouting parties returned at mid-day. Draskawindit said to Leif, “Unkwadayatt’s village is not far ahead.”
“How much time?” Leif asked. “One sun, two suns,” he shrugged.
“We are moving at night and there is no moon. We don’t know how much water we’ve put under our adothes.”
“Night and day are equal in the time they take to pass. If we think of one sun as one day and night we can get a clearer understanding of time and leagues traveled.”
Draskawindit thought for a few moments. She tried to combine the Beothuk’s use of landmarks and signs of nature like the sun and the moon with the Viking’s method of precise navigation using direction and speed. “Unkwadayatt’s village is half a sun,” she said.
Leif thought about this; half a sun meant a full day of travel from dawn to dusk. It would be a good idea to rest tonight and travel in the morning. It would be better to attack Unkwadayatt’s village when darkness was about to fall. The fire coming out of the dragon’s mouth would be brighter when the light was low.
That night Leif, Bjarte, Sakawaduit, and Draskawindit met in the chief’s lodge. Leif stood. “Tomorrow we reach the village of Unkwadayatt,” he said. He waited for the murmuring of Draskawindit passing on the message to die down. “How will we know when we are close?”
“Beyond where the tongue of the land reaches out into the water lies the village of Unkwadayatt.”
Leif turned to Bjarte. “She must mean there is a point ahead with a bay beyond that.”
“Indeed,” Bjarte nodded. “Perhaps we could use this to our advantage.”
“How so?”
“If the chief sends a group of adothes ahead to attack then withdraw with the enemy in pursuit we can bring the ship around the point and counterattack.”
“Tell that to Draskawindit,” Leif said. “She will tell Sakawaduit.”
While the others hammered out the plan of attack, Leif returned to the ship. “Tomorrow we attack the chief’s brother,” Leif said to Ulf.
“Is there anything you need from me, skipper?”
“Well ...” Leif thought about this then said, “Ask Logi to keep the flames of the fire throwing engine off of this ship.” Whether or not this would help was hard to tell. He would ask Bjarte to ask the god he prayed to. Just to be sure he’d ask Draskawindit to ask the Earth mother or Sky father or whatever member of the spirit family was in command of the element of fire.
■ ■ ■ ■
By late afternoon of the next day a dark object broke the horizon. It became a land mass as the ship drew nearer.
“That must be the tongue of the land Draskawindit spoke
of,” Leif said to Bjarte. Ulf gave the order to ship oars. On a word from Sakawaduit, ten adothes, filled with Beothuk warriors broke away from the main fleet and paddled toward the point.
By early evening the Ormr in langi lay on the south side of the point where it reached the farthest into the water. They heard the sound of voices. It must be Sakawaduit’s men fleeing from Unkwadayatt’s men.
The Ormr in langi rounded the point under full sail. This was more for show, there was not enough wind to move the ship. That’s when they saw Sakawaduit’s men paddling their adothes in their direction. Sakawaduit’s men struggled to stay just out of range of the arrows loosed from the bows of Unkwadayatt’s warriors.
Unkwadayatt’s warriors slowed their adothes when they saw the Ormr in langi approaching. The last arrow splashed onto the surface of the water when Sakawaduit’s adothes flanking the ship surged forward. Warriors with drawn bows loosed a shower of arrows at Unkwadayatt’s men. Being attacked drew Unkwadayatt’s warrior’s attention away from the Ormr in langi.
On the bow, crouched under a canopy of shields, Bjarte held his fingers on the lever of the valve. The resin had been heated and sat under pressure. Leif lifted his right hand. When he dropped it Bjarte moved the lever on the valve to the open position.
From where he stood under the shields Bjarte heard a rushing sound. From where Leif stood he saw a bright light and rising black smoke in front of the ship. From their vantage point on the water, Unkwadayatt’s warriors saw a stream of fire pouring out of a serpent’s mouth. A roaring noise filled the air. Clouds of greasy black smoke billowed off the flames. The fire kept burning when it touched water.
Eighteen
On to the Ice Caves
UNKWADAYATT’S stunned warriors had little time to react before Sakawaduit’s warriors moved in closer. They knocked arrows on the recursive bows used for close-in fighting between adothes. The warriors took aim, bows bending at different angles. They released, arrows flying into a blur off the drawstrings. Unkwadayatt’s warriors, sitting still in the water, made easy targets for Sakawaduit’s bowmen approaching dead on. Adothes capsized as enemy warriors, impaled on sharpened obsidian war tips, toppled over the side into the water.
The deadly hail of arrows continued as Sakawaduit’s men broke into a semicircle and surrounded the enemy adothes. Unkwadayatt’s men tossed short bows, long bows, spears, and knives into the water.
“They are giving up,” Bjarte said to Leif as they stood on the deck of the pilot house watching the battle.
“Indeed,” Leif sighed. The thought, If only to keep death away a little while longer, ran through his mind. He wondered what would be worse: falling into the water and drowning with a razor sharp arrow head embedded in his gut, or having his skin peeled off in strips while being slow roasted over a pit. Better to die a quick death in battle than a long one on a torture rack.
Chief Sakawaduit’s adothe pulled up alongside the Ormr in langi. Draskawindit spoke: “Skipper Leif, the breath of the mighty Viking lizard has given me my wish, soon, my brother and the men of his tribe will be a fading memory.”
“What does Chief Sakawaduit plan to do with the warriors who stopped fighting?” Leif asked.
Draskawindit turned to pass the message on. Sakawaduit listened then spoke. Draskawindit passed it on: “The custom says Chief Sakawaduit must kill every male old enough to fight against him. Women and children will be allowed to live and brought to stay in his village.”
“When does the killing of Unkwadayatt’s warriors begin?” Leif asked.
Draskawindit knew the answer to this question, she said to Leif, “Sakawaduit will take the lives of the men once the women and children are on their way back to our village.”
“Sakawaduit will slay all these men with his own hands?” Leif was puzzled. So far, he’d never seen the chief do much of anything.
“That is the way of the Sky Father,” Draskawindit said.
■ ■ ■ ■
When the last adothes carrying the women and children from Unkwadayatt’s tribe disappeared around the point, Sakawaduit and his party prepared for the slaughter. Members of the personal guard used torches to touch off fires throughout the lodges of the enemy village. The male warriors not killed in the battle had been tied to rough cut logs found lying around loose. These were used for replacing damaged sections of lodges. The timber was going to be put to use in a different way now.
Sakawaduit stepped onto the beach while his mates chanted. He stripped naked. His first mate stepped forward and handed him something. It glinted in the light from the burning lodges and the torches on the beach. It was a knife. He held the knife at his side; the tip of the blade reached well past his knee. The mates stopped chanting. Sakawaduit walked toward the prisoners.
Bjarte looked away. Leif saw Draskawindit standing on the shore. If she had to see this then he would to. Sakawaduit lifted the knife. He brought it down and plunged it into the first victim. Leif could see the man’s back arching away from the log. The victim went limp after a few cuts and slashes. Sakawaduit reached down. He buried his hand into a gaping hole in the man’s chest. Sakawaduit held a still beating heart high then bit into it. Blood rolled down his chin and onto his chest as he ripped a piece off with his teeth. He chewed and swallowed.
Sakawaduit continued the grisly feast through the night. He cut different organs from each man and ate a piece of each one.
“It takes bronze balls to do that,” Ulf commented. “I guess that’s why he’s chief.”
“Is the savage done with his unholy act?” Bjarte asked.
“So far,” Leif answered. “Who knows what else the custom calls for, though,” he shrugged.
■ ■ ■ ■
The Ormr in langi got underway again, leaving the scene of the massacre behind. Draskawindit and Nogwinto, the guide, had joined the crew. The ship made its way north. Dense forests lined the shore and reached as far back as the eye could see.
Two days of day and night rowing brought the ship to a wide inlet. “What do we do here?” Leif asked Draskawindit.
Draskawindit spoke to Nogwinto. “Nogwinto says to follow the tongue of water that reaches into the land.”
Ulf turned the tiller to port. The ship angled into the mouth of the inlet. Rocky cliffs towered above the inlet on both sides. A thick forest of tall trees towered above the cliffs.
As the ship continued the high cliffs shrank. The tall trees dwindled into patches of shrubbery that dotted the landscape.
One morning, the daylight showed the inlet that had been carving through the shore spread out into mudflats stretching to the horizon. A half a day later, the Ormr in langi beached herself.
“Is this the end of the water deep enough to carry the ship?” Leif asked Draskawindit.
“Yes, the tongue of water doesn’t rise with the moon and sun in this land. Rain or melting ice and snow would make it deeper.”
“How far to the ice caves of the white bear-man?” Leif asked. He wasn’t going to wait around for thunder storms or runoff. He needed to move forward.
Draskawindit spoke to Nogwinto then answered, “Three suns.” She counted her fingers. With the same fingers she made a walking motion. She wasn’t able to put forth the Beothuk word for walking into the Norse tongue. “Across the land of grass and water,” she finished, gesturing to the expansive flats on either side of the ship.
Leif would have to get with Ulf to decide which members of the crew would be a part of the journey to the ice caves.
Nineteen
Expedition
DRASKAWINDIT spoke to Nogwinto. When Nogwinto answered she said, “Nogwinto says their are many types of fish, plants, and animals in the land of grass and water. One hunter could find enough food to feed —” Draskawindit trailed off and held up four fingers twice.
A party of eight, supported by one hunter to cross the flats, Leif reasoned. How was he going to work this? Ulf, as second in command would remain with the Ormr in langi. If something ha
ppened to Leif and he didn’t return from the journey to the Ice Caves, Ulf, knowing how the ship had reached where it was now, would be able to get the crew and ship back the way that it had come.
Leif could account for four of the eight overland travelers and why they were needed immediately: one, himself — it was his choice as captain, that was reason enough — two, Draskawindit — skills as a talker of Norse and Beothuk tongues were needed — three, Bjarte — map making and drawing — and four — Nogwinto — he knew the way and he was a hunter.
Leif decided to call a meeting with the Beothuk members of the crew. He got together with Draskawindit and Nogwinto. He thought hard about what he was going to say next: “Does Nogwinto think he can find enough food to keep eight people fed?”
Draskawindit passed the question on. Nogwinto listened then spoke back. When he finished Draskawindit said, “Nogwinto says he has never gone hungry in the land of water and grass during this season. He knows the ways of the fish and animals.”
“I don’t doubt that Nogwinto is a mighty hunter,” Leif answered. “I want to know if he thinks he can find enough food to feed eight people on the journey across the flats?”
“If Skipper Leif needs to make sure his people have enough food, he should carry some with him,” Draskawindit nodded as she passed Nogwinto’s words on to Leif.
This was exactly what Leif was looking for. He needed at least one member of the crew strong enough to carry his own pack and provisions as well. He made a mental note of this.
There was something else Leif needed to know: “When we reach the Ice Wall will we need a man to help Nogwinto in climbing?”
“Nogwinto answers yes,” Draskawindit said. “He will need ice knives.”
“What are these … ice knives?” Leif asked.
After draskawindit passed the message, Nogwinto reached into his pack and handed Leif a shining blade that had been worked into a circle on the back end. Leather straps wrapped the handle. From the name of the tool — ice knife — Leif had a fairly good idea as to how they worked. He wanted to hear it from Nogwinto through Draskawindit.
Leif Erikson and the Frost Giant Page 6