The Long Ships (69 page)

They sailed down the river, past fishermen’s shacks and beavers’ huts and dams, rejoicing that the going was now light. The river ran black and shining between broad-leaved trees, rich with foliage, and the men thought that the fish from this river tasted more wholesome than those they had caught in the Dvina. Only a few men were needed at the oars; the rest sat in peace and contentment, telling one another stories and wondering whether the whole voyage might not be completed without any fighting.

The river broadened more and more, and at last they came out into the Dnieper. Orm and Toke agreed that even the biggest rivers in Andalusia could not be compared with this; and Olof Summerbird said that, of all the rivers in the world, only the Danube was greater. But Spof thought that the Volga was the biggest of them all, and had many stories to tell of the voyages he had made on its waters.

They met four ships laboring upstream, heavy-laden, and spoke with them. They were manned by merchants from Birka, who were on their way home from Krim. They were very tired, and said that trade had been good but the homeward journey bad. They had been engaged in fighting at the weirs and had lost many men; for the Patzinaks had come west, waging war against all men, and were trying to stop all traffic on the river. It would be unwise, they said, for anyone to travel beyond Kiev before the Patzinaks had left the river and returned again to their eastern grazing-grounds.

This news gave Orm much to think about, and when they had parted from the merchants he sat for a long time pondering deeply.

1.
Balagard; that is, the southern coast of Finland.

2.
Loki was the spirit of evil and mischief in Norse mythology; it was he who contrived the death of Balder.

3.
The Caspian Sea.

THAT evening they went ashore for the night close to a village, where they found both sheep and mead for sale. After they had eaten, Orm sat in counsel with Toke and Olof over the news they had just heard, to decide what course they would be best advised to take now that they were approaching their goal. They went out to the empty ship, to be able to speak without fear of disturbance or of being overheard; and there they sat together in the evening stillness, while dragonflies played over the surface of the water, and the river chuckled slowly around the ship.

Orm thought that he had many difficult problems to decide.

“Such is our present situation,” he said, “that we must plan wisely if we are to bring this voyage to a successful conclusion. Nobody knows anything about the treasure except you two and myself, and the two boys, who know how to keep their mouths shut; no one else. All that the men have been told is that we are going to Kiev to collect an inheritance, and I have not revealed our true purpose even to Spof. But we shall soon have to tell them that we are going beyond to the weirs, and that my inheritance lies hidden there. If we tell them this, though, it is certain that the whole of Kiev will also know of it a short while after we have come to the town; for men who drink in a good harbor cannot keep such a secret longer than the time it takes to drink three cups of ale, even if they know they will lose their heads for it. And if the purpose of our journey comes to the ears of the great Prince and his men, it will be a sad piece of ill luck for us, for then there will be many who will wish to share our silver and gold with us, if not to kill us and keep the lot for themselves. In addition to all this, we now have these Patzinaks to think about, who will be lurking in wait for us at the weirs.”

Olof and Toke agreed that there was much here for a man to scratch his head about. Toke asked how far it might be from Kiev to the weirs, and whether they would be able to find food on the river once they had passed beyond the city.

“From Kiev to the weirs is, I think, nine days’ hard rowing,” said Olof, “though Spof will be able to tell you more accurately than I. The time I voyaged there we bought food from the herdsmen on the banks, and also took much from a rich village of the Severians. But things may be different now that it is no longer peaceful on the river.”

“It would be foolish of us to come to Kiev without first telling the men that we intend to proceed,” said Toke. “For there is much that will tempt them in the city, and it may be that many of them will refuse to go farther, pleading that we misled them.”

“A worse danger,” said Olof, “is that the great Prince himself will immediately conscript many if not all of us into his service. I have served the great Prince Vladimir and know how things are in Kiev. He has always given good pay, and if he now has trouble on his hands, he will be offering more than before. It is so with him that he can never have enough Northmen in his bodyguard; for he holds us to be the boldest and most loyal of men, as indeed we are, and loves us dearly, having done so ever since the Swedes helped him to his throne when he was a young man. He himself is of Swedish blood. He knows many ways to tempt Northmen to remain in Kiev, even if his gold should fail to seduce them.”

Orm nodded and sat pondering, staring down into the water.

“There is much to be said against our visiting the great Prince Vladimir,” he said, “though his fame is so great and his wisdom so renowned that it would be a pity to pass through his town without seeing him. It is said that, now that he is old, men worship him as holy, though it has taken him a long time to attain to that condition. He must be nearly as great a king as King Harald was. But that which is most important must come first. We have come on a particular errand, to collect the gold; then, when we have found it, we shall have another errand—namely, to carry it quickly and safely home again. I think we are all agreed that it would be wisest to proceed directly to the weirs.”

“That is so,” said Toke. “None the less, I think we would do well to take Spof’s counsel on the matter. He knows the route better than we do and, perchance, knows these Patzinaks better also.”

The others nodded, and Orm summoned Spof to him from the bank. When he had climbed aboard, Orm told him about the gold.

“I said nothing of this to you when I engaged you,” he concluded, “because I was not yet sure of you. But now I know you to be a good man, and honest.”

“This is to be a longer journey than I had bargained for,” said Spof, “and more dangerous. The price I asked for my services you found dear, but I must tell you that if I had known we were going to the weirs, it would have been dearer still.”

“You need have no worry on that score,” said Orm. “For this voyage to the weirs you may name your own price. And I promise you, and Toke Gray-Gullsson and Olof Styrsson will be your witnesses, that you shall have your share of the treasure, too, if we find it and bring it safely home. And it shall be a full helmsman’s share.”

“Then I am content to go with you,” said Spof. “We Gothlanders are happiest when we know that our services will be well rewarded.”

When he had reflected on the matter, Spof said that he, too, thought that they would do best to proceed directly to the weirs.

“There will be no difficulty about procuring food,” he said. “It is cheap and easy to find farther down the river; I have known men get five fat pigs for a single broadax, with a sack of oats thrown in. We have rich villages ahead of us now, both on this side of Kiev and beyond, and shall be able to get enough food to last us to the weirs and back again. But it would be best if you could pay for it, as you have done hitherto, if your silver will stretch to it, for it is unwise to take things by force on an outward voyage when one intends to return by the same route.”

Orm replied that he still had a little silver to jingle, though most of it had gone by now.

“Our chief problem will be the Patzinaks,” continued Spof. “We may find ourselves forced to buy a safe-conduct from them. It is possible, though, that they will not let us through at any price. It would be good if you could tell me off which bank the treasure lies, and between which weirs.”

“It lies off the eastern bank,” said Orm, “between the second and third weir, reckoning from the south. But the hiding-place itself I shall reveal to no man until we have reached it.”

“Then it lies a good way from where we shall have to beach the ship for the portage,” said Spof. “It would be best if we could go there by night. It would have been a good thing if we could have brought someone with us who understands the language of the Patzinaks, in case we should find them unwilling to talk peaceably with us. But that cannot be helped now.”

“That difficulty we can overcome,” said Toke, “by taking Faste’s scribe with us. He can do his business at Kiev on the way back. Nobody will complain of his lateness, for nobody will know when he started. If we should speak with the Patzinaks, there is sure to be someone among them who will understand his language, even if he cannot understand theirs.”

With that, their conference ended. The next morning, before they continued with their journey, Orm spoke to the men. He told them that they were going beyond Kiev, to a place where his inheritance from his brother lay hidden.

“There may well be fighting there,” he added, “and if you prove yourselves bold men, so that I win my inheritance safely, it may be that each of you will receive a share of it, besides the good money that you have already been promised for your hire.”

The men had little complaint to make, save Sone’s sons, who were heard to mumble among themselves that two of them would surely die there and that they needed ale rather than the sweet drink which was all that this land had to offer them, if they were to fight with their full strength.

They landed several times during their passage down the river, to visit the villages of the Poljans, where wealth abounded. There Orm bought food and drink, so that they were as well furnished as when they had started. Then, late one evening, when a fog lay over the river, they rowed past Kiev, unable to discern much of the city.

Faste’s scribe grew uneasy when he found that they did not intend to put him ashore here.

“I have an important message for the great Prince,” he said, “as you all know.”

“It has been decided that you shall accompany us to the weirs,” said Orm. “You are clever at speaking with all kinds of men and may prove useful to us there. You will be put ashore here on our way back.”

At this the scribe showed great alarm; however, when he had prevailed upon Orm to swear an oath by the Holy Trinity and St. Cyril that he would neither force him to row nor sell him to the Patzinaks, he calmed himself and said that the great Prince would have to wait.

Soon the villages along the bank began to grow fewer, until at last they ceased altogether and were replaced by unending grassland, where the Patzinaks held sway. From the ship they could sometimes see herds of sheep and horses at their watering-places, tended by men on horseback wearing tall skin caps and carrying long spears. Spof said that it was a good thing that they saw such herds only on the left bank of the river and never on the right bank. The reason for this, he explained, was that there was a high tide on the river which prevented the Patzinaks from bringing their herds across to the right bank; if they attempted to do this, they would lose many animals at the fords. Henceforth, therefore, they always beached the ship on the safe bank, though they did not relax the sharp watch they kept each night.

When they had come to within three day’s rowing of the weirs, they became yet more cautious and rowed only by night. By day they kept the ship hidden among tall reeds in creeks in the right bank. On the last day they anchored within hearing distance of the weirs and, when darkness fell, rowed over to the left bank, where the dragging-tracks began.

It had been decided that twenty men should remain in the ship. They had drawn lots to determine which these should be, and Toke found himself among them. They were to row the ship out into the center of the stream and lie there at anchor during the night until they heard voices calling them from the land. Toke was reluctant to sit idle in the ship, but had to obey when the lot went against him. Orm would have liked to leave Blackhair with him, but in that matter he was unable to have his way.

Orm and Olof Summerbird now set off with the rest of their band up the long dragging-track, taking Spof with them as guide. All the men were armed with swords and bows. Spof had come this way several times before. He explained that the place to which they were going lay beyond the seventh weir, reckoning from the north. This would be three hours’ brisk marching, so that, allowing for the time it would take to find and raise the treasure, they would be hard put to get back before it began to grow light. They had with them the wagon that they had used at the great portage, to put the treasure in, and also the scribe, though he was not greatly pleased at having to accompany them. They began their march in pitch-darkness; but they knew that the moon would soon rise and, despite the added dangers that this would bring, Orm was glad that it was to be so, since otherwise he feared he might be unable to find the spot where the treasure lay.

But when the moon rose, it straightway brought them trouble, for the first object upon which its rays shone was a rider in a pointed hat and a long coat standing motionless on a hill ahead of them. At the sight of him, they at once halted and stood silent. It was still dark in the hollow where they were, but the horseman seemed, they thought, to be peering in their direction, as though their footsteps or the creak of the wagon might have come to his ears.

One of Sone’s sons touched Orm with his bow.

“It is a long carry,” he muttered, “and moonlight is deceptive to shoot in; but we think we could mark him so that he will stay where he is, if you so wish it.”

Orm hesitated for a moment; then he muttered that hostilities were not to be opened from his side.

The horseman on the hill uttered a whistle, like a pewit’s call, and another horseman appeared beside him. The first horseman stretched out his arm and said something. They both sat still for a few moments; then they suddenly wheeled their horses, rode off, and disappeared.