‘They don’t look that dangerous,’ I said, still gazing at the bears. They were both slumped on the ground. The two black eyes had closed.
‘That’s because they’re half-starved.’
‘How did you get them?’ I asked. I was utterly disappointed. I had expected to see a wonderful white creature like the one drawn in the bestiary. Instead, these two creatures looked sick and feeble, and their dirty fur was the colour of urine. They also smelled of piss. I wondered what impression such dejected and mangy animals would make on the caliph of Baghdad in return for his gift of a white elephant to Carolus.
‘The Finna traded them to me,’ Ohthere replied. ‘They had killed the mother bear. They let me have her skin as well. I’ve already sold it.’
‘Who are the Finna?’ I was already wondering if I should travel onwards and contact these people in my quest.
‘They roam the mountains and wastelands near my farm. A native people and always on the move. They come to me, asking to trade metal in exchange for feathers, horse whale teeth and skin rope. You never know when they will turn up or what they will bring for barter. This year they produced two bears.’
Ohthere stared in at the two animals. ‘It’s been impossible to get them to eat properly. They’ll eat a couple of mouthfuls and leave the rest. I’ve tried seal blubber, mutton fat, chicken, milk. I’d say they’re pining for their mother.’
One of the young ice bears had risen to its feet. It was somewhat bigger than I had imagined, the size of a large mastiff. It padded slowly towards the far side of the pen. The gait was strange, sinuous and soft.
‘How big will they grow?’ I enquired.
‘If they live, they’ll be as big as their mother, and her pelt was two fathoms from nose to tail.’
‘They don’t look very dangerous.’ A dog had poked its muzzle between the wooden bars and was barking shrilly at the moving bear. Scarcely were the words out of my mouth than the bear made a sudden pounce, lashing out with its paw. The movement was almost too quick to see. The claws raked the face of the cur. The dog screamed and fled, blood spraying from the wound.
‘You see my problem,’ said Ohthere. ‘You don’t want to get too close when you’re trying to coax them into feeding.’
‘I thought ice bears are white?’
‘In winter the fur is the same colour as the snow and ice. If they were healthy they would not look so shabby.’
‘Are they for sale?’ I asked, turning to look at him.
‘Why else would I have brought them to Scringes Heal?’ he said ruefully. ‘I was hoping that they would regain their appetites, but it seems I was wrong.’
‘I’ll make you an offer,’ I said.
Ohthere looked at me in surprise. ‘What would you want with them?’
‘I’m collecting white animals for King Carolus.’
A smile split the heavy black beard. ‘I can see you are no trader. You would not have been so honest about the identity of your client.’
He frowned at the cage. ‘Come back tomorrow at about this same time. By then I’ll have had time to think about a price. Mind you, I don’t suppose that these two bears will survive much longer. You could finish up delivering only their skins to Carolus.’
As Osric and I walked back towards our ship, I brooded on the discouraging start to our visit to Kaupang. We had found only one white gyrfalcon for sale, and though we were lucky to have come across a pair of ice bears, the two animals were so sickly that it was virtually certain they would die long before they could be brought all the way to far Baghdad. As for a unicorn, the mere mention of such a creature made people burst into mocking laughter.
Chapter Five
When we got back to the harbour, Redwald’s cog was already tied against the jetty. A gang of local men was helping his crew unload the cargo. There was no sign of the knorr so she must have sailed for Dunwich. Redwald himself was at the foot of the gangplank, deep in conversation with a tall, bony man whose face seemed vaguely familiar.
‘Find any of the animals you were looking for, Sigwulf?’ the shipmaster asked me cheerfully. Clearly he was in a good humour.
‘A single white gyrfalcon, and two young ice bears.’
‘Gorm tells me he’s hopeful of having a second white gyrfalcon for sale, but someone will have to go and collect it from the trapper.’
The tall man was a dealer in hunting birds, and now I saw his resemblance to the skinny lad who had tended the agitated gyrfalcon. They were probably father and son.
‘Unfortunately, the two ice bears aren’t at all healthy. Their owner fears that they will soon die,’ I said.
‘That’ll be Ohthere,’ said the bird dealer.
‘He’s a farmer who got the bears as cubs from some people he called the Finna,’ I explained.
Redwald laughed. ‘Some farmer! Ohthere’s farm is as far north as anyone has dared to settle, and he explored and cleared the land himself. He’s as hard as nails.’
Clearly he already knew Ohthere well, and I made a mental note to be vigilant in my dealings with regular visitors to Kaupang market. They seemed to form a close-knit circle and were likely to serve their own interests when it came to setting prices and negotiating deals.
‘I’ve offered to buy the bears and he’s thinking about the price. I’m going back to see him tomorrow,’ I told the shipmaster.
Redwald watched as a porter balanced his way down the unsteady gangplank with several bottles of my Rhenish wine cradled in his arms. ‘Then I’ll come with you. I’ve got my own business in town that needs attention,’ he said.
‘There’s something else I need to discuss with you before then,’ I told him, with a sideways glance at Osric.
Redwald was quick on the uptake. He turned to the bird dealer. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Gorm, at your place.’
As Gorm walked off along the jetty, Osric and I followed the shipmaster up the gangplank. When we were out of earshot of the crew, I asked Redwald to be more discreet in his market dealings. ‘I would prefer that as few people as possible know why I’ve come to Kaupang,’ I told him.
He shrugged dismissively, then shocked me by saying, ‘It’s about time we discussed just how you’re going to pay for the goods.’
‘What do you mean?’ I demanded sharply.
‘Come with me and I’ll show you,’ he grunted.
He escorted us down the ladder into the hold, almost empty now except for a few remaining sacks and packing cases. Walo was seated on a sack, guarding our precious saddlebags with the silver coin.
‘I presume those bags contain your funds,’ Redwald announced bluntly.
There was no point in denying it. I nodded.
‘Mind if I take a look?’
‘As you wish,’ I said, though I felt a stab of suspicion.
I asked Walo to bring one of the bags across and he handed it to Redwald.
The shipmaster hefted one of them approvingly. ‘Carolus’s denarii?’ he asked me, raising an eyebrow.
‘Fresh from the Aachen mint.’
Redwald unlaced the saddlebag’s flap and picked out one of the silver coins. He held it up to the light falling in through the open hatch. ‘The Aachen stamp has been changed,’ he announced. ‘The cross in the centre is different, more ornate than before. Mind if I use this coin as a sample?’
‘A sample for what?’ I asked, my suspicions now thoroughly aroused.
‘I’ll show you.’
Keeping the coin, he handed the saddlebag back to Walo and then made his way into the gloomy shadows beneath the overhang of the deck. Rolls of spare sailcloth lay on a shelf built into the stern. Pushing them aside, he reached his arm into the space, felt around for a moment, tugged, and there was a soft thump as something shifted. It was too dark to see what he was doing, but when he turned to face us he was holding a bundle wrapped in oilcloth.
‘Tools of my other trade,’ he announced cryptically. From the package he extracted a set of small weighing scales, their weights, a soft leather pouch fastened with a drawstring, a tiny flask and a fist-sized object wrapped in a cloth bandage. Unwinding the bandage, he produced a flat stone, smooth and black, and laid it on top of a packing case. He unstoppered the tiny flask, dripped a small amount of oil on the surface of the stone, then wiped it. With quick, firm strokes he rubbed Carolus’s coin up and down on the stone, leaving a thin silver streak.