Free They Came On Viking Ships by Jackie French

on top of her.
    Hekja gasped, though even that hurt. She rolled out from under Snarf to see Freydis still holding the hem of her dress. She must have grabbed it, Hekja realised, and kept hold while Hekja sank in the waves. Even now, amidst the wind and waves, Freydis was laughing, as though the storm and all its fury was an enemy she had conquered.
    ‘A mermaid!’ she cried. ‘And a hairy fish!’ Hekja reached for Snarf, just as he coughed and tried to struggle to his feet. Hekja grabbed him again, but her hands felt cold and weak.
    ‘Thorvard!’ yelled Freydis. ‘We need rope! Bring it here!’
    Thorvard clambered across the ship. Even in this weather his step was firm, as though his body moved with the ship. ‘Tie the girl to the mast, and the dog as well,’ Freydis shouted.
    ‘The dog?’
    ‘I didn’t fish him out to lose him overboard again!’ yelled Freydis.
    Thorvard grinned. His beard was flecked with foam. He grabbed Snarf by the scruff of the neck and dragged him over to the mast. Snarf whined and tried to get away. But at least, thought Hekja, he was still alive.
    She tried to stand, then crawled instead through the water at the bottom of the ship, till she reached the mast too. It was a relief to feel the rope about her waist, tying her securely. Snarf was already tied about his neck and chest.
    ‘Bail!’ yelled Thorvard, forcing a bucket into Hekja’s limp hands.
    Hekja bailed. Her throat hurt, her body ached. It even hurt to breathe. But if bailing helped them survive then she’d keep on going. Half the time it seemed the waves just lashed the water back. But at least a little reached over the rail.
    Waves, and more waves, and waves again, some so high it seemed the ship could never climb them, or would be crashed to pieces by their weight. In between the crash of waves Hekja could see Thorvard at the rudder, forcing the ship through the storm. Even Freydis worked with the rowers now, heaving the great oars back and forth to give the ship what little power they could to ride the waves.
    No, it would never end, thought Hekja. Then suddenly she thought, the wind was worse than this a while ago. And slowly the wind died down, and the rain stopped. But the seas stayed as high as ever.
    The waves crashed around them all that night, and no one slept. Black sky, black air, black sea. Only thefrothing wave tops showed any white at all. But with the first grey light of dawn the worst was over.
    Hekja hung limply from the rope, asleep from sheer exhaustion. When she woke the sea was calm, and men were yelling, trying to find the ships that had accompanied them before. But there was no answer except the lap of waves, and everything was white.

Chapter 14
THE ICEBERG
    She had seen fog before, of course. Snarf had fought the wolf in fog. But even then the world’s smells had been the same, the mountain grass, the cows. This was a world that smelt of salt and ice, and fog so dense she couldn’t see the ends of the ship.
    ‘Arf,’ Snarf barked beside her, as though there was a monster that only he could see.
    Then someone screamed out, ‘Berg!’
    Something loomed beside them, tall as a hill and gleaming, even though there was no sun to light it. The men scrambled to their rowlocks and heaved with their whole bodies at the oars. 13
    It was as though the iceberg breathed out cold. The air about it was thick with cold. The hair on Hekja’s neck rose at its strangeness, gliding so silently through the water.
    Hekja scrabbled at the rope that still held her to the mast and half slid, half staggered over to Hikki. ‘What’s happening?’ she cried.
    Hikki’s fingers were white where he clung onto the side of the ship. He shook his head. Terror had stoppedhis tongue. His face was almost as white as the fog. ‘It is the end of the world,’ he muttered, through chattering teeth.
    Freydis glanced at them, then strode across the ship. She lifted Hekja’s chin with her fingers. ‘You were brave enough last