Free Daughter of Fire and Ice by Marie-Louise Jensen Page A

helped yesterday was lying down again and hadn’t touched the hay we had given him. I went to his head, stroking and petting him. He was damp with sweat again.
    ‘This animal is really sick,’ I told Asgerd.
    ‘Sea sickness,’ she said. ‘Horses get it badly because they can’t be sick. When I was brought across the sea from my home country, we ran into a storm and half the horses died. I heard the master say he’d brought enough horses on board to allow for some losses.’
    ‘We shan’t lose half these horses if I can help it,’ I said with determination. ‘Come and help me get him on his feet again.’
    Between us we coaxed and pulled the foal onto his legs. He stood there trembling and shivering, his eyes dull. He seemed worse, I thought anxiously.
    ‘Would you fetch me some oats?’ I asked Asgerd.
    ‘You’d waste oats on keeping a horse alive?’ she gasped. ‘And what’ll we eat once winter sets in? We can’t eat hay.’
    ‘I only need a few,’ I told her and reluctantly she fetched them. Painstakingly I persuaded the foal to eat a small handful. The other foals butted and nudged me eagerly, trying to get some too. I gently scratched the sick foal’s neck, and spoke coaxingly to him.
    ‘I’ll call you Aki,’ I told him. ‘Perhaps having a name will give you the will to live.’
    ‘Is all well on board the other ship?’ I asked Bjorn when he returned.
    ‘As well as can be expected,’ he said for my ears only. ‘Like here, nearly half of them are women and not pleased at having been made to row. I need to take a party ashore and don’t for the life of me know how to best split the party. If I leave Thrang here, what is to stop him making off with the ships? But if I stay and send others ashore, I can’t be sure they won’t desert and spread unwelcome tales about what has been done here. I need time to win them over.’
    I thought for a few moments.
    ‘I think you can trust Thrang now,’ I said. ‘Especially as we are already too few to row the ships. But if you don’t want to take any risks, I suggest you send me with only those who won’t want to run away. Keep Asgerd and Astrid here and send Erik. Keep Thrang and send his apprentice Stein. Grim won’t run away with Asdis still aboard and Kai won’t disappear while Vigdis is on the ship.’
    Bjorn looked startled.
    ‘You’ve noticed all these relationships already?’ he asked. ‘I’ve barely learned their names as yet.’
    I smiled, knowing that men rarely noticed such subtleties. Besides, I had my aura reading to help me, though I never spoke of this to anyone.
    ‘I’d planned to speak to the people in the dwelling house,’ Bjorn said, his brow still creased with uncertainty. ‘To assure them we mean no harm.’
    ‘I can do that for you,’ I offered.
    ‘You’d be unprotected.’
    ‘But at least I’ll know that no one will make off with the ships leaving me behind if you are on board. Erik can go with me to the longhouse, and Grim too.’ I smiled at Bjorn reassuringly, showing him I was not in the least afraid. At last he nodded.
    ‘Very well. But Erik and Grim will be armed if you are going up there,’ he said. He moved away to give the necessary instructions and then we climbed into the small boat with the water barrels and rowed to the beach.
    I led Erik and Grim up the steep, well-worn path to the longhouse while the others of our party filled the water barrels from the stream nearest the beach. We knocked at the wooden door but there was no reply.
    ‘Hello!’ Erik called. ‘We come in friendship.’
    His words were met by a silence that was broken only by the trickling of water in the streams on the hills above us.
    A sudden squall of wind brought a sheet of heavy rain with it. I shivered. I could see raindrops glistening in Erik’s grizzled hair and knew mine must be as wet. Impatiently, I pushed at the door. It yielded under my hand and swung inwards. Glad to escape the drenching rain, I stepped into the