After a while, they managed to close the gap between the two vessels by a small distance and Hakon was able to identify it as being the one he had seen leaving the steading’s bay. Its carved stern was distinctive enough to assure the trio that they were following the right ship. So far, the warriors ahead of them had not paid too much notice to the small fishing boat following behind them but then, why would they?
Sarah yet again wished she could send some sort of message to Harald or Ralph telling them to hang in there. Sitting on the bare boards at the bottom of the boat, she closed her eyes and feeling for the amulet brought it out from under her tunic and held it in her palm, her thumb gently following the pattern until it came to rest on the moonstone at its centre. Gradually the sounds of the boat and the sea began to fade away and she found herself staring down at the children as they huddled together in the middle of the warrior’s ship.
Her hand reached out to touch Harald, her heart breaking to see her favourite little ‘brother’ so frightened. Her hand went through Harald’s shoulder, she was at best a ghost to him, a ghost he could not see, or could he? He was looking right at her, his eyes wide as saucers, so putting a finger to her mouth she looked over her shoulder and pointed at the little sail that could be seen in the far distance and then pointed at her insubstantial self.
Harald’s eyes followed her finger and frowning, his mouth opened as if to say something but then, remembering to be quiet, he closed it again. He gave her a tentative smile and nodded, he had understood. Sarah felt the pull of the other place and with a loud whooshing noise found herself back in her body of flesh and bone.
Opening her eyes, everything about her felt strangely heavy but after a few deep breaths to control her rolling stomach, her eyes opened. There was Leif sitting at the prow staring at her, a confused fear in his eyes.
“What did you see?” she asked in a whisper.
“I dunno. You went all still and then a bit pale, no, more like, see through, I could see the mast through you”, his voice mimicking her whisper.
“Did Hakon see?”
“No”
“Are you going to tell him?”
There was a pause, “No”.
“Leif, it is a gift I have, please don’t tell Hakon, he’s only just stopped scowling at me. I visited the children and Harald saw me, he knows we are behind him. I think it will help if they know we are here and someone is coming to rescue them” said Sarah. Leif still had the appearance of a rabbit in headlights.
“Are you a witch?”
Sarah had a feeling that depending on the answer, he was fully prepared to jump over board.
“No I am not a witch, I’m just me, I can do some stuff but I don’t ever do it to hurt people, just to help” she said.
“I don’t like keeping secrets from Hakon”
“I know, I’m sorry, please…” she didn’t know what else to say to him.
Shaking his head and looking very unhappy, he turned to face Sarah, “I will keep your secret, there is a lot I don’t get about you but…but I think…well, I don’t know what I think,” with fists clenching and unclenching he turned and smacked the edge of the prow in frustration.
Sarah flinched, what could she say? Hello, my name is Sarah and I’m from the future, the far future. Like that would help. Sarah remained silent, eyes downcast. Leif had been her ally and friend, goodness knows she needed friends.
Suddenly her throat went all dry and her eyes filled as the enormity of everything threatened to overwhelm her once again. Leif had turned his attention back to the horizon, watching the sail in the distance. What did that tatty old poster in Nan’s kitchen say?
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step”
Sighing she wished, not for the first time, that Nan was here, but even so she knew what she would say, take it one step at a time, crossed each bridge as you get to it and don’t stress the what ifs. Smiling to herself Sarah wiped her eyes and turned to watch the horizon too.
It was not long until they sighted land off to the left of their vessel, but the warrior ship did not change course. Neither Hakon nor Leif had ever travelled this far before and so could not tell Sarah what land it was, although Hakon did hazard a guess that it was the land of the Geats. From what Sarah understood, modern Sweden was at this time divided into three; Lund, under control of the Danish king, the land of the Geats and the land of the Svears. She had always thought modern history was complicated but it was nothing compared to this time. It wasn’t long before the land of the Geats disappeared and they realised that their course had changed slightly.
“I think we should be passing the southern tip of Gotland soon,” said Hakon.
Sarah looked at Hakon and smiled mischievously, “How do you know that?”
“Yeah alright, I get it. Not because I feel the need to explain myself but Father has a map of the inner sea. It’s very old and of great value, one day he unrolled it to show me how far he had travelled I wasn’t allowed to touch it but I remember seeing an island in the middle of the sea which he said was the island of Gotland. It must be the same one the swords for hire mentioned.”
Sarah searched her memory for more information and vaguely remembered an island too.
“I wonder where they will land. Are the people here friendly?” she asked.
Hakon shrugged, “from what I can remember, this island is inhabited by mostly farmers or traders. So who knows,” he said.
It wasn’t long before Leif shouted that he could see land, the warrior ship changed their course once more but this time they were headed towards the land. Staying a safe distance from the warrior ship the trio followed them as they rounded the tip of land and continued along the eastern side of the island. Hakon had made the decision to stay some distance from the shore but what they could see was a land of flat grasslands defined by woodland and a low rocky foreshore.
Occasionally, they would see thin columns of smoke rising into the air indicating a settlement; every now and again the flat pasture would be broken up by a slight rise or an even flatter area of marshland. Silently, they continued to shadow the other vessel. Sarah wondered out loud why they did not see any actual people.
Leif, who had finally decided to talk to her again, pointed out that the presence of a warship on their coast had probably sent many of the locals into hiding. No doubt word was spreading and a group of local warriors were shadowing the ship on land, in case of trouble. The thought sent a shiver up Sarah’s spine and although she could not see the woodland clearly she imagined eyes watching their every move.
“It’s okay, they won’t be much interested in us, we are not on a warship” said Leif trying to reassure her and himself.
Sarah looked at the sky noticing that it was beginning to darken; surely they must be landing soon she thought, not relishing the idea of another night on the sea.
“Look Hakon, they are taking down their sail,” said Leif pointing.
Sarah peered into the gloom, “Are they going to land?” she asked, rather unnecessarily.
“It certainly looks that way. We will go a little way further than them, then we will head into the shore, take the sail down and row until we find a safe landing some distance from them,” Hakon explained.
Sarah was glad he had a plan because she was beginning to think that maybe she should have stayed at the hall. In fact maybe I should have stayed at school and then I wouldn’t be traipsing after heavily armed Viking warriors on some crazy quest to rescue a bunch of kids who are already dead in my time. As soon as she thought it, she regretted it. The faces of the children, especially Harald, loomed into her mind and she knew that she would see this through to the end.
Slowly, their little vessel glided past the spot where the warriors had gone ashore. From their position they could see a cluster of buildings and beside the recently arrived warship there were a couple of other smaller boats sitting on the beach. From across the still water Sarah could hear dogs b
arking and the loud laughter of men greeting each other. It seemed that whoever lived there knew these warriors.
As she was staring intently at the distant settlement, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she got goose bumps all over. Pulling her cloak tighter around her, she saw a man standing apart from warriors, staring intently back. Eventually he turned and walked away disappearing behind the buildings. Sarah said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever gods were watching over them, although she was not sure why she felt such relief.
Flopping onto the deck of the boat, with the near darkness descending on the trio, Sarah exclaimed “It’s no use, we can’t see a thing, and how are we going to find a safe landing?” This time it was her who thumped the boat in frustration. With his eyes firmly on the passing landscape, Leif quietly asked, “Can your, ah, gift help?” With a slap to her forehead, Sarah nodded.
“I’ll try, but can you sit on the other side of me just in case Hakon looks my way?”
Quickly Leif moved to shield her from his brother. Settling herself Sarah took out the amulet and this time just holding it in her hand, closing her eyes she imagines the children on the warship. Once more she felt the world dropping away but this time the feeling was less intense and the rolling stomach became a mere gurgle. Opening her eyes, she found the children, standing in tight group on the beach, looking cold and miserable but otherwise well.
Knowing that she only had a little time she quickly looked around. Desperately she silently wished she had a bird’s eye view. Suddenly and without warning the ground rushed away from her and she found herself floating high above the warship and beach. (Note to self, do not make random wishes). Once her stomach stopped flopping around she turned and searched for the boat where Hakon, Leif and her more substantial self were. Floating away from the children (which apparently needed just a bit of thought, literally) but not losing sight of them, Sarah spotted their own little craft, casting around she saw what she was looking for, just as the whooshing feeling of returning to her body descends.
Opening her eyes, she found herself looking into those clear blue eyes of Hakon’s. Leif was nowhere to be seen. So much for Leif shielding me. Swallowing, she opened her mouth to say something but Hakon put an imperious hand up to stop her.
“Did you see a safe place for us to land?” he asked.
“It’s all pretty flat with hardly any cover but if we go just a bit further there is a spit of land and we could put in on the other side of it. There also seemed to be a largish harbour with many boats on the opposite side of the bay,” Sarah replied wondering how she was ever going to explain that knowledge.
“Normally I would want to know how you know that, but we don’t have time and I am not really sure if I want to know, so we will leave it for now and I will just accept that you are not a normal girl and these are not normal times,” said Hakon standing up and pulling Sarah with him. Fine, if that’s the way he wants to play it, suits me.
“Leif, turn her towards the shore, we are going to land, no need to row, the wind has decided to favour us” shouted Hakon.
Hakon moved away to help Leif steer their way onto the shore, leaving Sarah standing there feeling somewhat at a loss. In the end she plonked herself back down and wondered if either of the boys had a plan, then decided that maybe she should think of one.
After several scenarios had run their course in her head (all of which ended in their bloody deaths) she heard Leif run up the side of the boat and watched as he launched himself feet first over the side. Springing up in fright she looked over the edge and realised that he was guiding the boat into shore.
“Want some help?” she whispered to him.
“Not at the moment” he whispered back.
“Here Sarah, help me with the sail,” said Hakon as he was untying the ropes which secured the sail. No sooner had they finished dealing with the sail the boat came to a sudden halt.
“Can’t go any further, you two will have to get your feet wet and help me drag her up the beach,” called Leif from the front of the boat. Once the boat was out of the water, Sarah began packing some supplies into their packs. Hakon looked up from what he was doing and saw Sarah winding a rope across her body, mountain climber fashion.
“What are you doing with that rope?”
“Well, you never know do you? Might come in handy” replied Sarah as she continued to wind it around body, Hakon just shrugged his shoulders and carried on helping Leif stow the sail and dismantle the mast.
“What happens if we need to get away quickly, surely you should leave the mast and sail in place,” said Sarah watching the boys with concern.
“Yes and what happens if we do that only to find that someone else has found the boat and taken it? This way the boat is low and can be easily hidden. Besides we can still row if needs be,” said Leif. Not having an answer for that Sarah copied Hakon and just shrugged her shoulders.
Although Sarah knew that it never got truly dark in the Baltic during summer she was thankful for the burgeoning darkness of the season’s end. They were on the outer edge of large sized bay that was well protected from the vagaries of the sea and on the opposite shore the trio could make out what seemed to be a decent sized settlement.
“Well?” asked Leif looking at Sarah.
“They are over that way” said Sarah, pointing behind them. “It’s a small settlement, no more than three or four buildings”.
Without a word the three checked their weapons. Hakon touched his Thor amulet, Leif double checked he had Gunnar’s sceax and Sarah sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening as she patted her little throwing knives with one hand and with the other felt for the amulet, warm against her skin. Then, as one, they turned and set off to confront whatever the fates had in store for them.
Chapter Twelve