I slept naked, covered with mud. It kept me almost snug. But the mud dried overnight, and I have to crack my way out now. I plunge into the stream and scrub myself clean. My clothes are stretched out over a bush. I washed them last night. They’re slightly damp still, but that’ll do. I run my fingers through my wet, curling hair and sit a moment to dry off.
Across the stream a hare nibbles in the weeds. For the first time in days, I am glad Ástríd is not near. She is expert at killing hares with a cast stone. Though a hare is delicious, this one seems slow and silly, and so I feel protective toward it.
From nowhere a polecat races out and bites the hare in the head. He drags it back where he came from. I see the burrow opening now. He dumps the hare inside. One back leg of the hare twitches. It’s alive still! But crippled. The polecat pushes it with his snout till it’s hidden. Then he races back to the stream for a swim. I understand now: He’s storing that hare alive, for later. It’s a brutal way to make sure your meat doesn’t rot.
Shaken, I put on my clothes and tie my pouch to one of the brooches on my shoulder straps. I was hungry when I woke up, but that polecat put my appetite off.
I walk to the road, which curves as it approaches both the town and the sea, flanked by pastures with cattle, horses, sheep, goats. A round and small stone fort sits atop a hill outside the ditch that precedes the town ramparts. Beside the fort is a slim stone tower. I pass by the fort and tower and keep my eyes on the sea. There’s an otter out there. What I thought was a seal a couple of days ago must have really been an otter. There’s another one.
I’m smiling as I walk the plank over the ditch and through the town gates with nothing more than a wave of greeting from the guards, though I had prepared a whole story to tell if need be. I didn’t live with a skald for years without learning how to tell tales. Still, I’m glad I wasn’t put to the test. And I’m glad my smile is genuine. I love otters.
I keep walking steadily, so as not to give anyone the impression that I’m lost, or worse, on my own. Though Heiðabý is huge, I feel sure the inhabitants recognize one another, or at least have something in common that allows them to distinguish their own townsfolk from outsiders. People will sense I’m not one of them. But this is a trading town—the biggest trading town in the northern world, if Beorn is right—so they must be accustomed to strangers. They shouldn’t bother me if I look like I know what I’m doing.
The ramparts I passed between circle the town, but for the edge on the sea. A stream cuts right through the center of it all. The houses have funny big supports on the outsides, as though the walls might buckle without them. The thatched gables face onto wood-paved streets that run diagonal to the stream, and most houses, no matter how small, have a fence around a plot in front or behind them. The side edges of the roofs nearly touch, so there are no side yards. If anyone keeps animals in town, I can’t see them. More’s the pity, since helping with animals would have been my most natural way of finding employment.
There are shops, though. Plenty. All on a wide street. Shops always need help.
There’s a shop of men working leather. I’m good at sewing shoes, and it would be fun to learn to make horse harnesses, but I hate the stench of tanneries, so I hurry past.
Five men work at the smithy, slick with sweat, wearing nothing but trousers. Iron tongs, hammers, files, swords, spears, shears, harness buckles, ax heads—all are laid out front for inspection. Even spurs—which I’m proud to recognize. I’m a child of Eire, which has no spurs, but a child of Jutland, too. I know the Norse world.
I’d like to tell Egill that. I’m not just where I came from—I’m how I live day by day.
I have lost two families now. My skin goes gooseflesh at the thought. I am in trouble. But Egill’s wrong: I will never be anyone’s slave. And with any bit of luck, Mel will soon not be either. I touch my pouch—silver coins.
I pass a woodworking shop, with planes, gauges, bores. And men. Only men.
I turn up a road and pass a home with a porch out front and an open door. Inside women weave at two giant looms. Children play around their feet. The hearth is on the far wall. Beside the hearth is a huge soapstone pot with iron handles, and I can smell the porridge from here. It’s funny that the big room of this house is at the end instead of the center. It’s funny too that the hearth is on a wall instead of in the middle of the room. But maybe that’s how it’s done here. That’s fine. Anything’s fine with me. Anything will do.
Except I’m terrible at weaving.
I go back to the main road. Across from the smithy is a moneyer. I watch through the door. A man taps a die onto a strip of silver. He lifts the die and looks at me with a wink. Why, the imprint is the very ship with shields and fish on some of my coins! The man makes imprints all along the silver strip. Then he splits the coins off and uses a different die to imprint the other side. On the flip side of my Heiðabý coins is a deer flanked by a snake on the left, and a man on the right. But I don’t stay to see what this man imprints on the flip side of the coins he’s making, for it occurs to me that if this man makes the same kinds of coins I have in my pouch, someone could think I stole them from him. I hurry on.
I pass by the shop where men make quern stones for grinding grain. We use those in Ribe, but they were made somewhere else. Now I know where.
I hesitate by the potter’s shop. I’ve never made pottery. Ástríd’s always made our family’s, and she loves doing it. So it can’t be too boring. And even though the shops in Ribe employ only men to make ceramics, there’s no reason why a girl couldn’t work here.
“You could use a comb, pretty one.”
I turn and look at the man in front of the next shop. He’s Beorn’s age and size, but his hair is trimmed neatly and his beard is cut in a smooth, careful curve along the jaw. Black makeup is smeared under his eyes as though he’s dressed up for a celebration, but this is just an ordinary day. And he smells strongly—I can smell him from here—pungent but nice. He’s wearing an oil I don’t recognize. Maybe he needs a worker in his shop. I wonder what he makes.
“What else do you sell?” I ask.
“This is a specialty shop. Fine things. Come inside. Take a look.” He steps to the side.
I walk past him into a tiny courtyard with an entrance mat, and from there into the shop. He’s arranged a bench to catch light from the door, the courtyard, and a hole in the roof. A cloth hangs over the bench, with little grooming objects and jewelry displayed on it.
He lifts a necklace and holds it to the light. “Red glass beads. Manufactured right in town. They’d look perfect on you.”
I hardly glance at the beads. There’s nothing in this store that I could help make. Still, maybe he needs an assistant to sell things when he takes a break. I try to look agreeable. “You said you have a comb?”
He reaches under the cloth and brings out a bone-white object, the length of my hand, rectangular and slim, incised with reddish-brown diamond shapes. He hands it to me. It has a hole at one end with a strand of red thread attached to another object shaped like a key without any notches.
I look at him inquisitively.
“A nail pick. Of course.”
At home— at Beorn’s home—we pick our nails with green sticks. But I keep my face impassive. I want to ask how this rectangle can comb hair, when I see there’s a separation down the front of it. I jiggle it. The separation grows. I stick in my thumbnail and push it apart. It’s like a puzzle: The comb slides out. How delightful.
“Clever, don’t you think? Antler, from our own Jutland deer. The miniature kind that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Does he know I’m gratified he’s recognized me by my speech as living in Jutland? Am I that transparent? But I don’t care what he thinks. He can’t hurt me.
“Do you happen to need an assistant in the shop?” I ask. “Someone to mind things when you have errands?”
“Ah! Looking for a job, are you?” He shakes his head. “We shopkeepers help one another.” He holds out his hand for the comb.
Too bad. But I’m running my finger along the teeth of the comb and thinking of Ástríd now. The night of the storm last autumn, when we waited to see if Beorn would ever make it home again, her long hair blanketed her arm all the way to the wrist. I’d love to give Ástríd a comb—this comb. And I certainly have far more money than I need, given that hoard. But I could never find a way to get the comb delivered all the way to Ribe. Still, my insides have gone warm and fluttery now. I really want this gift for her. “How much is it?”
The man purses his lips and scrutinizes me. “The only things on you of value are the tortoiseshell-shaped brooches that hold up your outer shift. And now that I see them up close, I don’t fancy them; they aren’t fine quality. We make better ones of tin and bronze here in town.”
“I have . . . a coin.”
“It would take more than one Heiðabý coin to buy this comb. You’d need a coin plus a bit more silver, and you don’t even have an arm ring to hack silver from.”
“What about two coins?”
“For two coins you could have it, plus”—he takes a pair of copper tweezers off the bench—“these.” He looks at me and blinks. His eyes settle on my pouch.
“I’ll be back.” I quickly walk out and then lean back through the door. “Two coins.” I rush away down a side street. It’s dangerous to open my pouch in front of anyone. But I don’t see a place to be private anywhere. Except an outhouse. I go to the house with the weavers. “Please.” I stand in the open doorway. “Please, may I relieve myself out back?”
A woman comes toward me so quickly, I fear at first that she’ll knock me down. But she stops short and sniffs the air. “You’re not bleeding, are you?”
“No.”
She looks at me hard. “All right, then.”
I go through the narrow passage between the houses and around to the outhouse and slip two coins from my pouch in the dark. I tuck them in the side of one shoe. Then I hang the pouch so it falls inside my shift instead of outside.
I go back to the house. “Thank you.”
They all look at me.
A boy child says, “Why are you still standing there?”
“Might you have some task I could do, in exchange for a bowl of that porridge?”
“Can you weave?” asks one woman.
“Badly.”
“A ship can founder because of a sail that’s badly woven. So, what can you do?”
“Farm. Take care of animals.”
“That’s boys’ work.”
“I could work on a boat—help out.”
They all laugh. The woman who let me use the outhouse fills a bowl with porridge and hands it to me. “At least you have a sense of humor. This is payment for the laugh. Eat and be on your way.”
I eat and give my thanks and return to the fine goods shop. The man stands outside, trying to lure a customer. I walk past them to the inside and dig the coins out of my shoe.
The shopkeeper follows me in. “An uncomfortable place to carry one’s money.” He holds out his hand. I drop in the coins. The shopkeeper stares. He hands me back a coin. “Keep this one. It’s from Heiðabý. This other is Arab. It’s worth much more. I’ll keep the Arab coin. You can have the toilet set for just this one.” He smiles and gives me the set.
“And what else will you give me?” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“The Arab coin should buy more.” The quickness of his smile told that.
“Come.” He walks to the rear of the shop. On a workbench he’s set up a clamp that holds a small bit of antler. It’s carved in the shape of a tiny spoon. He picks up an iron pin and makes punch marks in a curving pattern all up the spoon handle. The work is precise and slow. He unclamps it and hands it to me. “A perfect ear spoon.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Lucky for you that you said that. I’m pleased you appreciate my work. It’s delicate work; it takes skill. So you get a prize.” He puts the string of red glass beads over my head.
Probably the Arab coin paid for the beads, too. But that’s all right. I’m happy. “Thank you. Tell me, why is an Arab coin worth more than a Heiðabý coin?”
“The whole world accepts Arab coins. But only the north countries accept Heiðabý ones. Don’t let that discourage you, though. Heiðabý coins are the only Norse coins, and there’s prestige in that.” He looks at me thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t you want this carnelian pin? I’d give it to you for that Heiðabý coin.” He holds out a reddish-brown stone with a fish carved on it. A coin with a fish, for a stone with a fish. This town likes fish.
“No, thank you.” I make a show of slipping the Heiðabý coin into my shoe. Let him think that’s the only place I carry money. Then I pull out my pouch and slide in the toilet set and put the pouch back inside my shift. I go out into the street again.
As quickly as my happiness came, it disappears. I’ve acted like a child, buying something frivolous. And I have no idea what to do next. In this town the best jobs are taken by boys. I turn around and re-enter the fine goods shop.
The shopkeeper is already positioning an antler in the clamp. He frowns. “You got your money’s worth.”
“Who gathers the antlers for you?”
“What?”
“Who goes around collecting the antlers when the deer shed them?”
“No one in particular. When boys bring them to me, I buy them.”
“What if I supplied you with antlers? Would you give me a place to sleep?”
“Are you an orphan?”
“And food? Would you feed me?”
“If you’re an orphan, where did you get those coins?”
“It was just a question. It meant nothing.” I back fast out the door and race up a street, turn a corner, and keep running and turning corners until I’m sure he hasn’t followed. I stop to let my heart quiet. Everything is wrong. It was a mistake to come here. And I haven’t seen a marketplace yet. But Heiðabý is supposed to have huge marketplaces. Heiðabý has the biggest slave market in the Norse world. That’s why I came.
Across the road is a sprawling building—like the others around it in most ways, but far larger. Larger than the king’s house in Ribe. In the fenced-in area in front, a small child sits digging in the dirt. He’s older than Alof, perhaps even older than Búri, though Búri is taller and more robust. Crawling toward him is a long gray thing; black zigzags cross its skin. It has a wide head and big red eyes with vertical black centers, like a goat. I’ve never seen a live snake before, but I know at once that’s what this is.