To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [205]
‘Help me to warn them,’ Nicholas said.
Glímu-Sveinn said, ‘The Markarfljót valley will flood with torrents of ice. Scalding water will rush through the rivers, molten rock through the fields. All that lives in the sandur will be swept out to sea, and the parboiled bodies of fish and of men will toss through the arks of their houses. Any ships within reach will be swamped.’
‘Help me get there in time,’ Nicholas said, ‘and my ship can save people.’
‘And mine,’ Benecke said. ‘I am coming. So is Katelijne. Sersanders would be with us, but for his injury. He will be taken care of by Glímu-Sveinn’s people; they and Sigfús will see that no harm comes to him now. Are you not proud of us, selfless as we are?’
‘Yes. We need a guide,’ Nicholas said.
‘I will come,’ said Glímu-Sveinn. ‘My uncle will see to the household.’ He looked defiant and uneasy at once. The rest of his family were fishing from Markarfljót. Because a buried man had been found, he was placing his trust in another man’s instincts.
It hurt to smile. Nicholas smiled and said, ‘Let us guide each other. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Lead me to your bliss.’
Chapter 28
DURING THE DAYS of his absence, the caravel of Nicholas de Fleury rocked in the harbour of the Westmann Islands and received, with its fish, those ounces of information which contrived, despite everything, to travel from Hafnarfjördur and Skálholt. As first one day passed, then a second, Father Moriz prevailed upon Crackbene to invite on board Stanislas the lodesman of the Pruss Maiden, and share the news with him.
From Nicholas and Paúel themselves, they knew of the Unicorn’s insolent expedition, and of Sersanders’s intention to rejoin his own ship with his sister at Hafnarfjördur. They knew Nicholas and Paúel had set out to pursue them.
By the second day after their departure, they were receiving further snippets. Faster than anyone expected, the Unicorn had picked up its sulphur and gone, allowing barely enough time for Adorne’s nephew and niece to have joined it.
Later, one of the yoles arrived and delivered a message. Tryggvi and his son had returned, those Icelanders who had escorted Sersanders. Because of a shortage of horses, Sersanders and his sister had been unable to ride on from Skálholt and had thus missed their ship. So far as Tryggvi knew, the pair were at Skálholt still.
‘In the custody of Nicholas and Benecke, by now,’ le Grant said. ‘I’d like to have seen Sersanders’s face when they arrived.’
‘It cannot be easy for his sister,’ said Father Moriz. ‘How strange that Tryggvi was dismissed. And that there should have been no suitable horses.’
‘And that Martin should turn round so quickly. Still,’ said Crackbene. ‘Now de Fleury will bring the young people back. They will start a choir on the way, I shouldn’t wonder.’
John le Grant grunted. He said, ‘You’ve just about got all your fish?’
‘Yes,’ said Crackbene. ‘Stanislas is pleased. We are full, and the Maiden is starting to load. If de Fleury comes back by nightfall tomorrow, we could sail the next day, the quicker the better. There’s word of an incoming ship.’
‘Nicholas could come back faster than he went out,’ said John. ‘I don’t know why he went round by sea, when he only had to cut across a few rivers. He might be coming down the Markarfljót by now, if he’s feeling less timid. He might be arriving today.’
They heard the horn from the hill an hour later; followed at once by the watch with the news. ‘A three-masted ship, Master Crackbene. Some distance off, but the fishermen know it. Sir, it’s the English privateer called the Charity. And it’s under Jonathan Babbe, with his own special crew of Hull men.’
‘Is it, by God,’ said John le Grant. His freckled skin had turned red.
‘They say he drives every other ship off the grounds. They say he came into this harbour last season, and killed every man who didn’t make way fast enough. They say he landed boats wherever he could, and seized the fish