32
THEY WERE SO close to home, so very close, not more than a day away.
Mirana stared at the gathering storm clouds, shivering from the sudden chill wind as she watched them roil overhead, gathering thicker and thicker, knitting the sky into blackness.
The sun had been shining brightly just that morning, not more than two hours before, sparkling off the water in its brightness, the air warm, filled with the tangy sea salt and the scent of the dozen herring the men had caught.
She shivered again, drawing her cloak more closely around her.
It was a queena??s cloak and she hated it.
She fingered the soft royal blue wool, and wished she could throw it over the side of the longboat.
It was the only piece of clothing she had brought with her.
Hormuze had wanted to give her much more, for, hea??d said, the clothes had been made for her, and Sira was too large, after all, but Mirana hadna??t wanted to wear any reminders of her time at Clontarf.
She didna??t want to be reminded of her few hours as the queen of Ireland, a position she prayed Sira would enjoy.
She wondered how Sira had reacted when shea??d awakened and seen Hormuze and her dark brown hair.
Would she believe she looked coarse? That memory made her smile, but just for a moment.
The cloak, despite its black memories, felt quite warm.
She would give it to Entti, she thought, once theya??d returned home.
To Hawkfell Island. She looked toward Rorik, who was speaking to each of his men, then shouting to Hafter, who was captaining the other longboat.
Hea??d told her hea??d brought the flat-bottomed longboats because hea??d known he would need them to navigate on the shallow river Liffey.
The warships were steeper, curving up higher on the sides, and sat deeper in the water.
The warships would have fared much better in the storm that was surely coming.
All the men were readying the longboats and themselves for the storm, their movements efficient, no time wasted in talk.
She saw that Rorik was now frowning. He knew the storm would be bad. She wondered if he would take them ashore for the duration of it even as she remembered her own adventure with Entti when the storm had burst upon them. It seemed a lifetime ago. She said her question aloud to Gunleik.
a??Nay,a?? Gunleik said, shaking his head, even as he spat upon his finger and held it up into the wind.
a??This area is more dangerous than the storm.
There are rocks just below the surface and dangerous currents.
We cannot land here. We must ride out the storm just beyond the breakers.
Rorik is pulling us closer right now, but he must take it slowly.
It is a pity that we are here when the storm will strike, but the gods willed it so.a??
a??I do not approve the godsa?? will in this case,a?? Mirana said tartly. a??I know of no evil wea??ve committed.a??
Indeed, Mirana doubted the gods would waste their time on such a consideration as the exact location of two longboats, but she didna??t remark upon it.
She looked toward the other longboat, just to their stern, not ten feet away.
Einar was still bound, doubtless still lying on the planking.
She wondered, briefly, if he were frightened.
With the storm, he might drown with the water flooding into the longboat, and he must realize that.
She rather hoped he would. She knew and now accepted that Rorik would take Einar back to Norway, to his father, who would call together a meeting of the thing, and that would bring together all the Thanes and lesser nobles, even King Harald, and Einar would be judged.
She knew too that Rorik would demand that he fight Einar to the death.
And thus it would end. She wanted that ending more than anything.
Sometimes she wanted to strike her husband for his endless honor.
She would have preferred sticking a knife in Einara??s ribs.
Rorik had said calmly, though Mirana had heard the banked rage in his voice, a??I should prefer to kill him slowly, with my bare hands, but I should also like to see the man who killed so many of our family and our people stand before us and be judged.
I will kill him, Mirana, but in a fight that will be fair.a??
a??You speak of justice, Rorik, but it is a cold thing, many times a thing apart from men and women. It perhaps satisfies the mind, but never the soul. Thus, my lord, I believe you are really doing this for your father and mother, arena??t you?a??
He was surprised, his eyes narrowing on her face. a??How can you know me so well?a??
a??I pray that I will come to know you in every way a woman can know a man.
Can I not now know some of what is in your mind, in your heart even now?
Aye, I believe you want to help your parents forget their hatred.
You want them to look forward, to recognize and cherish what they still have, what they will have in the future.
You want them to face their enemy and see that Einar is only a man, a cruel man, a man who deserves death for what he did, and he will get it.a??
a??Aye,a?? he said only, and kissed her.
a??I would go with you to this meeting of all the Thanes,a?? she said, but he hadna??t replied, merely kissed her again, and walked to the stern of the longboat to speak to Kron.
She raised her face now to the roiling black clouds overhead. A raindrop hit her forehead. She heard one of the men shout. It was beginning. She huddled in her cloak.
She heard Rorika??s voice over the loud slamming waves against the sides of the longboats, calm and steady, and knew all the men responded to him and were calmed by him. But would it be enough?
All of them were soaked. She had spent the past hours scooping water out of the bottom of the longboat in a leather water pouch, little enough to do when all the men were nearly beyond exhaustion, their minds closed against the growing pain in their bodies.
Gunleik had been seized with violent back spasms that morning and had soon run out his strength, and thus wasna??t at the oars.
He, like Mirana, was trying to scoop water out of the longboat before it swamped.
She felt her stomach rise in her throat when the longboat slammed down into a deep trough, burrowing deep and deeper still, sloughing through it, making it seem as if they would touch the bottom of the sea itself, yet staying intact, a miracle, Mirana thought, and briefly closed her eyes in prayer.
Again and again, the longboats were hurled to the bowels of the sea only to be thrown nearly straight up to catch the peaks of yet another wave, a wave many times as tall as an oak tree.
The sky was dark, but it couldna??t yet be night. She heard a strangled yell, mena??s shouts and curses, and knew one of the men had fallen overboard.
She saw Rorik through a blur of rain hunkered over the side of the longboat, searching for his man, but there was nothing but the frigid water, frothing wildly, drawing back only to surge forward.
It was then they had no choice. They needed another man at the oars.
They released Einar and set him in the lost warriora??s place.
He was strong, shea??d give him that, and he bent to the job, pulling and drawing with all his strength.
She saw that Hafter had tied him loosely to the oar.
Then she saw him no more for the other longboat was lost in a bank of fog and heavy rain.
Time passed. She continued to bail out the water from the bottom of the boat, her movements steady and rhythmic. Still the water covered her feet, and she wondered how much longer the longboats could hold together.
Through her thoughts and her fear, she heard Rorika??s voice, never changing, always encouraging, steady, so very steady.
She focused on his voice and continued her movements, filling up the water skin, lifting it, then dumping it over the side, only to have a wave of frigid water strike her hand and her face.
It seemed for naught, but she had to do something.
Suddenly, it was over. From one moment to the next, the force of the winds died, the slashing rain became a sullen drizzle, and the longboats ceased their endless dipping and dragging.
It was over.
The late afternoon sun came through the quickly dispersing clouds. She heard the men shouting, cries of Odin All-Father and Thor and Frey on their lips.
She merely smiled, knowing that all but one of them had survived the storm. She saw Rorik as he spoke to each of the men, then heard him shout to Hafter in the other longboat, which was rapidly drawing close to theirs once again.
She saw Einar hunched over an oar, his head down.
a??We will land,a?? Rorik called out.
Gunleik, bowed forward from the pain in his back, looked up and nodded.
a??Aye,a?? he said to Mirana. a??It is safe now. There are no treacherous shoals or half-buried rocks hereabouts to tear us apart. The storm pushed us farther east, beyond them. Thank the gods and your husband, wea??ve survived.a??
a??Aye,a?? she said. a??My husband is the best of men. As for you, Gunleik, I will try to find a spirl plant, a??twill help the spasms. It normally grows close to shore.a??
He patted her hand. a??Wea??re alive,a?? he said. a??What is a miserable little back pain?a??
Both longboats headed toward the stretch of beach only some one hundred yards distant.
It had trees growing close to the shore, and this worried Rorik, for trees meant cover for possible enemies, but he knew there was little choice.
The men were exhausted, he felt himself as if he would fall over any moment, his muscles cramped from the hours at the oars, but the longboats had to be inspected for damage.
He scanned the shore for any kind of movement. He saw nothing.