The Lord of Vik-Lo: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland (The Norsemen Saga Book 3) by James L. Nelson Read Free Book Online Page A

Not a leaking seam or a weak spot on the hull but three planks stove in, a wound four feet long and bulging inward with the seas pounding the other side.
      Far Voyager had hit the trunk a solid blow, that was clear, the planks cracked almost clean through with only their jagged, broken edges holding them together. They groaned and shifted as the ship was hit by the lashing sea, and water spouted through the gaps that opened up with the flexing of the hull. Much more of that, Thorgrim knew, and the planks would lose their precarious hold. One solid blow from a cresting wave would knock the broken wood clean out, and in its wake would be a hole big enough for a man to crawl through. When that happened, it would be minutes, no more, before the ship was consumed by the sea.
      “We must come about!” Thorgrim shouted. They had to get the shattered planks out of the water, had to get them on the windward side where the pressure from the seas would not be so great. Thorgrim understood this even without thinking about it. He understood that doing so might win them a few more minutes, enough, perhaps, to save themselves.
      He looked aft. Agnarr was at the tiller. He was as good a helmsman as any aboard, perhaps the best with the exception of Thorgrim himself. He could remain where he was.
      “Harald!” Thorgrim shouted. “Go aft and tell Agnarr we must come about and stow the sail! When he deems it right, he’s to tack the ship! You stay aft and man the halyard! When we come up into the wind and the sail luffs, you lower the yard! You know what to do!”
      Harald nodded, the water running in streams down his smooth face. He took one useless wipe and yelled, “Yes, father!” Then he turned and raced aft. Thorgrim could only marvel at the speed and agility with which he moved. It was not quite the fluid, deer-like grace that Starri exhibited; Harald was more stoutly built than Starri and would be stronger than him when he reached full manhood, but he still moved with great speed, leaping over the sea chests, dodging the men in the way, grabbing the bar-taut weather shrouds and slingshotting off them as he charged aft.
      Thorgrim pulled his eyes from his son. He loved to watch the boy, but now he was more concerned with preventing his untimely death and that of every man aboard.
      “You that are bailing, keep bailing, fast as ever you can!” The impact with the waterlogged tree had done wonders to motivate the men, and they were flinging water overboard with a vigor and enthusiasm they had not previously exhibited. They wielded buckets, bailers and helmets as if they were swords and axes in a shieldwall. Sheets of water flew off downwind as they scooped and tossed. It seemed to make no difference whatsoever.
      “The rest of you, make ready to dip this yard and gasket the sail!” Thorgrim shouted. The men huddling under the lee cloth stood and staggered amidships, lining up, steadying themselves as best they could on the wildly pitching deck.
      Thorgrim looked astern. In the flashes of lightning he could see Harald at the halyard, the rope in his hand. Agnarr was at the tiller, peering forward, wiping rain and spray from his eyes. Thorgrim could sense the tension in his body, like the string of a drawn bow. If he mistimed the moment when he swung Far Voyager ’s bow through the wind, the seas could catch her broadside and roll her clean over. It would have been a tricky thing in daylight. At night, blind to the coming waves, it was as much in the gods’ hands as Agnarr’s.
      Once again the ship’s bow rose to the sea and Thorgrim thought, Now, Agnarr, now! And just as the words raced through his mind he felt Far Voyager begin to turn, felt the angle of the wind on his face start to shift, right to left. Forward, the leading edge of the square sail began to curl and the sail began to shiver as if it, too, was susceptible to the cold and wet.
      The ship’s bow swung into the wind and the ship stood more