The Snow on the Cross (15 page)

Leif seemed unphased by his father’s
agitation.  I had gotten to my feet by this time and, still grasping the cross,
approached the two men.  Although Eirik hadn’t noticed my cross before, now he
saw it and recognized it.  I saw it in his eyes that he knew it was the cross
he had taken from me, and the only way I could have gotten it was to have gone
into his home.

Eirik barked something at his men,
and two impossibly large Vikings came to me and grabbed me, wrenching my hands
up behind me and securing them with rope.  They then shoved me back down to the
ground.  One of them raised an axe, waiting for the signal from Eirik to end my
life.  The rough sand burned cold against me, but I still knew no fear.  I was
ready, seasoned for my passage into God’s good kingdom.  Perhaps I was cut out
to be a martyr after all.

Eirik looked at Leif, daring him to
try to stop the order that would cut me off from this world and send me reeling
into the next.  Leif said nothing, did nothing.  He was as calm as I had ever
seen a man under such conditions.  I glanced over at Malyn who I noticed had
tears dripping down her face.  Sad, poor girl, I remember thinking.  You shall
also die at the hands of this monster who stands before me.  But do not worry;
he will earn his punishment in the fires of hell.

Eirik whistled, and the Viking
brought the axe down.

God was determined to make me live.

Something pushed me aside at the
critical moment, some unseen force perhaps, some angel sent from Heaven.  Malyn
told me later that she saw nothing out of the ordinary, just that I decided to
roll over at just the right time.  Perhaps it was God working through me and
sending me an angel internally.  Whatever it was, the axe did not find a home
in me that day on the beach.  It crashed down into the sand near my head and
sprayed fine grains into my face.  My eyes were scratched and burning from the
sand, but it was certainly better than my head rolling away on its own.

Eirik saw the axe had missed and,
growling, shoved the incompetent Viking aside, seizing his own axe and looking
determined to finish the job himself.  In the meantime, the last ship of Leif’s
fleet had moored itself down the beach a bit.  Leif stepped up and grabbed his
father’s arm, holding him back from swinging the axe.  Eirik winced as if
burned by his son’s touch, and I am convinced Leif would have taken his place
by my side there on the sand waiting for the next axe strike, if he hadn’t
shouted something directly in his father’s ear.  Something that was loud enough
to make Eirik drop the axe and glare frightfully down the beach to where the
last ship had docked.

Leif said a name.  It was one I
recognized.

“Thordhild.”

I think I passed out there in the cold
sand, and I could faintly hear Malyn’s weeping over the hush of the waves. 
Someone doused me with icy seawater that made me jump awake, and I was left
sputtering and spitting saltwater out of my mouth as it pooled around my head. 
I struggled against the ropes binding my hand, and like a turtle flipped over
onto his back, I wiggled there on the sand, trying to get up.  I could raise my
head enough to see the Vikings moving as one down the beach toward the last
ship.  Leif was left standing alone near me as Eirik and his men walked away
from us toward the last ship on the beach.  Leif’s men had since disembarked
from their ships and were securing them so they would not drift away again. 

There was a woman standing there on
the ship, and although she was a great distance away, the form was distinctly
feminine, and the Vikings approached her ship with a sort of reverence.   Eirik
led them, and he was the one I saw step out into the water and extend a hand to
the woman there.

Leif knelt down beside me, and I felt
me hands go free.  He patted me on the shoulder like a prized pet and helped me
to stand.  I brushed the sand off my robes and noticed Malyn had wandered down
to the bottom of the hill, still not knowing if she should dare come out onto
the sand where Leif and I were standing.  I motioned her over, but she shook
her head.  Leif saw what I was doing, then looked at the girl, noticing her for
the first time.  He smiled, as if to tell her it was okay, that he would
protect her, and it was only then did she come out to us.

I saw the look Leif had given to
Malyn, and although I was a man of God I felt something jab at me.  Was it
jealousy?  Resentment?  He kept looking at her, and I kept looking at her
reaction to the way he was looking at her.  He said something to her, and her
only reply was a shy smile.  I then realized what was happening.  I did feel
some anger toward Leif, but I shouldn’t have.  I had taken vows.  I was married
to the church and up to that point, I had not thought of Malyn as anything more
than a daughter.  I was an old man, after all, and thoughts of love and the
jealousy that came with it was forbidden to me.  Still, my mind began to burn
despite my best intentions.  I was only human, full of imperfections and
faults.  I turned away from them, unable to bear seeing them anymore.

Instead, I looked down the beach at
Eirik and his men.  The woman he had lifted off the boat, he now carried
through the water and over the sand, never once letting her feet touch the
ground.  I suppose it was noble gesture, and her arrival might have well saved
my life, but I told myself I had saved Eirik’s life during our reindeer hunt,
and that he should remember that as well. 

Thordhild was a small woman, very
slight and fragile-looking.  Her skin was very brown and made a nice contrast
to her almost-white hair.  Her eyes were very dark, and I do not think she had
any color to them at all.  Just a deep inky blackness that was endless. 
Eirik’s eyes were just the opposite.  They betrayed every emotion that thought
about emerging upon his face, and Thordhild’s eyes were nothing.  Her eyes
reminded me of sleep, and they haunted me.  Thordhild did not even come to
Eirik’s shoulder, but there was a way she carried herself that was within the
realm of a queen.  If she was ever made the queen of the Viking homeland, I
think she would have made a very competent one.

I watched as Eirik left the beach
with her, heading back toward Brattahild.  The incident with Leif was all but
forgotten in Eirik’s rush to take Thordhild back to their home.  The others did
not follow.  I looked back at Malyn, worried now.  She and Leif were talking
quietly in Leif’s language.  If Eirik returned home and found the fires out and
the house cold, would it be Malyn who would bear the Viking’s temper?  I felt I
should warn the girl that if she ran now, she might beat Eirik back to
Brattahild to make preparation for Thordhild’s homecoming. 

“Malyn,” I said.  She stopped
speaking with Leif and looked at me.   I could tell she was falling into the
pit of sin with this seducer, and if nothing else, I had to stop that as well. 
“Eirik is returning home.  I noticed your fires were out.  Will he be upset if
he goes home and finds it?”

Malyn’s eyes widened in total panic. 
She sprinted across the sand and up and over the hill and was gone.  Leif and I
were left watching her as she vanished.

“You speak my language?” Leif asked
me.

“Some,” I replied.  “Malyn taught me
some of your tongue, but I fear I have not mastered it.”

Leif nodded.  “There will be no feasts
tonight with my father.” He sounded a bit sad at the thought.  “But my men and
I will celebrate our homecoming and our safe passage across the sea.  I would
be honored if you would join us.”

An invitation to dine with Leif and
his men was a blessing.  I felt deeply touched and honored, for this was not an
arbitrary invitation, this was a genuine offer of fellowship, and I accepted
with great humbleness.

“I know you are staying in the church
my father built,” said Leif.  “After we have made preparations, I will send for
you, and you can join us.”

I nodded, and tears of gratitude
began to well up.  I brushed them away before Leif could see them.  I excused
myself from Leif’s company and started walking back to the church.

“Bishop Arnald,” Leif called after
me.  “One more thing.”

I stopped.  “What’s that?”

“Bring Malyn with you if my father is
not keeping her busy.”

My feeling of gratitude dissolved. 
Leif had already turned his attention to his men and his ships and unloading
their cargo to stack it in piles along the beach.  I became aware of the true
motive of his invitation, and it left me with a bitter feeling the entire walk
back to my church.  Perhaps Leif had too much of his father in him, after all.

Fellowship

By the time I had walked back to my
church, I noticed smoke sputtering faintly from the chimney of Eirik’s home,
and I hoped that meant Malyn had managed to beat Eirik back and get the fires
started again.   I noticed my rags of venison lying where I had dropped them
near the door, and I crept over, thinking I was going to pick them up and have
a quick meal in the comfort of my church before Leif sent for me.  As I neared
the door to retrieve the meat, I could hear noises coming from within the
house.  I picked up my bundle and, curious, I inched closer to listen to what
was going on.

Eirik’s booming voice was
unmistakable, and it was clear he was angry about something.  I could not hear
what his anger was directed at until I heard the faint voice of Malyn speaking
to him in reply.  There was a hard, slapping sound, and then the sound of a
crash, as the metal bowls and cups exploded against the walls and floor of the
house.  Another voice, unfamiliar.  I assumed it was Thordhild’s.

I could have tried to stop Eirik, I
suppose.  I stood there wrestling with my decision.  How could I stop him?  I
would merely turn his wrath on me, and this time I was sure he would have
killed me.  My good fortune, if you could call it that, would have to run out
eventually.  Still, I could not bear to listen to Malyn’s cries through the
walls.  So I did the only thing I thought I could under the circumstances.

I turned away and walked back to my
church.

If I was guilty of the sin of
indifference, then only God, not you, has the power to judge me.  I knew he
would not kill her because he needed her too much.  He needed her to cook for
him and keep his house in order and to provide for him in the long winter
nights when Thordhild was not there.  I was not blind to Malyn’s condition.  I
knew she may have been a servant in Eirik’s household, but her housekeeping
skills are not what prompted Eirik to kidnap her from her home and keep her
there for two years.  I kept asking myself what could I do?  The answer was
always, nothing.  If I had shown myself to be a man of conviction, then it
would not have taken the order of a king to send me there.  I would have simply
gone on my own.

I trudged back to my church and
noticed my own fires were out.  It was not as cold as it usually was, so I
decided I could do without them for the time being, at least until I could get
Malyn to bring me a brand from Eirik’s fire to start mine again.  I settled
down and chewed on the tough pieces of meat I had taken from Eirik’s home.  The
thick fragments of meat hurt my teeth and made my jaw tired from the effort,
but they had a good flavor, and I kept chewing, trying not to hear the cries of
Malyn as they drifted through the openings in my door and walls.

                                                                           ***

My hunger was satisfied, and I still
had a good supply of venison I had stashed away.  I glanced out my window to
see the sun was nearing the strange position in the sky that told me it was
supposedly nightfall.  I washed my hands and face and sat by the doorway,
waiting.

I looked up at Eirik’s house, and I
noticed the tremendous outpouring of smoke from the chimney, as if Lucifer
himself were lighting fires within.  Good, I thought.  I certainly hope Eirik
is warm enough now.  Two men approached my church, and I knew they were from
Leif’s camp.

I greeted them in their own language, and they seemed
impressed.  They too, had been to
Norway
with Leif, and they told me their entire fleet had converted under
Leif’s urging.

“Then I am to take it Leif is
Norway
’s prime missionary now?” I asked as
we walked back to the beach.

“I wouldn’t say that,” one of the
Vikings told me.  “This visit is just a brief stopover.  Leif is headed further
west, to see if there are any new lands he can call his own.”

It occurred to me that Eirik and his
father had come to
Greenland
, which according to every
cartographer I had spoken to in
France
, was the western boundary of the known world.  Anything past it did not
exist.  If Eirik and Thorvald had the courage to sail this far west, what would
Leif be trying to prove to his father by sailing even further west?

“If God guides you there,” I said. 
“Then I hope He protects you once you find what you are looking for.”

I had forgotten about Malyn, and we
had walked past Eirik’s home until it was out of sight behind us.  I didn’t
know whether or not I should go back and ask for her, especially since I had
heard what had been going on there earlier that afternoon.