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 B

upright than she had for many hours. The sail, flogging wildly, seemed to be trying to break free. Then the big yard began to slide down the mast as somewhere aft Harald eased the halyard away. When the yard was half way down, Harald held fast and the yard stopped in its quick descent. Eager hands grabbed the sail and yard at the starboard end. They pivoted the long spar, starboard end down, the larboard end going high aloft, and when the starboard end was low enough to swing inboard, clear of the shrouds, they twisted it fore and aft along the centerline of the ship.
      The instant the end of the yard was inside the shrouds Harald began easing the halyard again, a bit quicker than Thorgrim might have liked, but it was crucial to get the sail under control before it beat itself to death. As the heavy spar came down to the deck, men leapt on the flogging sail, bundling it against the long shaft of the yard and lashing it in place.
      Thorgrim turned his attention from the yard to the bow of the ship. He could feel the wind blowing directly on his face. They were pointed right into it like a weather vane but he could not tell if the ship was still turning. If not, if she had stopped, or if she fell back on a starboard tack, they would be in trouble. Thorgrim believed that the windage from the mast and rigging alone would give them sail area enough to steer, but if they did not then the ship would turn sideways to the seas, make one long death roll, and be swallowed up.
      He looked aft. Lightning flashed and he saw that Agnarr had the tiller hard over and was starting to ease it back. He felt the wind and driving rain coming more from his left now. He looked back toward the bow. The wind was most certainly coming over the larboard side. Even as he realized that he felt the ship start to heel to starboard, saw the mounting seas coming in over the larboard bow, the high side now. Which meant the shattered planks were lifted at least part way out of the sea. Which meant they might still have a chance to live through the night.
      The bailers who had been so feverishly working on the larboard side now scrambled over to the starboard and began to bail anew. A man named Godi was among them, a big man who had fought with them at Tara. Thorgrim grabbed him by the arm, pointed toward the starboard rail. “Godi, get that lee cloth down and bring it forward to me!” he shouted.
      Godi nodded and headed for the rail, pulling his dagger as he did. Thorgrim plunged off through the swirl of water toward the bow. The fractured planks were more visible now, being out of the deluge in the bottom of the ship. They were just above the curve of the bilge, at the point where the ship’s bottom became the ship’s side. Thorgrim watched them bulge and withdraw as the ship’s hull twisted in the seas. He braced himself for the sight of them giving way completely and the great inrush of water that would follow.
      Harald came splashing up to him, and Starri as well, and every man not otherwise occupied hung back a ways and watched, waiting to see what Thorgrim would do to save them. Then Godi pushed his way through the press, the lee cloth imperfectly folded under his arms. He held it out like an offering and Thorgrim took it.
      “Harald!” he shouted. “There’s rope under the deck there! Fetch it out!” Harald nodded and dropped to his knees in the water rushing fore and aft, side to side with the bucking of the ship. He pulled up the loose deck plank, felt around until his hand came up with a coil of rope.
       Thorgrim handed an edge of the lee cloth to Godi then took the opposite edge and folded it double, then triple, then pulled his knife and cut off the excess. He plunged his knife through each corner and Harald, who had guessed what Thorgrim was up to, threaded the bitter end of the rope through one of the holes and tied it off, then did the same to the other three corners. When a length of line was made fast to each corner,