‘He was, and I was sufficiently intrigued to ask him to show me what he was talking about.’
I waited for Osric to continue. His slim brown fingers were untying the knots in the silk cord. Slipping off the binding, he set the package on the table and gently unrolled the square of velvet to display what it contained.
A complete unicorn horn.
I felt something tighten in my chest, and for several moments was lost for words. The horn was exactly as depicted on the brow of the unicorn in Carolus’s bestiary. Two inches thick at the base, it was the length of my outstretched arm and tapered to a fine point, the twisting spiral impossible to mistake.
My hand shook as I reached forward and picked it up. It was a little lighter than I would have expected, and the same faded yellowish-creamy colour as on the haft of Ingvar’s knife.
‘Where did the slaver get it?’ I asked, my voice husky with shock. The material felt more like ivory than horn.
‘He wouldn’t tell me directly, only that it was in trade. I suspect that he was lying. Slavers will raid remote villages to grab their victims, and they take the chance to pillage the settlements. I think this is plunder.’
I ran my fingers along the length of the horn, feeling the twist of the spiral glide beneath my touch. ‘Why would it be of value to a doctor?’
‘Items of great rarity are often considered to have medical value. For example, pearls are ground to powder and taken with a herbal infusion as a treatment for convulsions.’
‘Did the Khazar know that it is a unicorn’s horn?’
‘He wasn’t sure what it was. Only that it was something very unusual.’
I passed the horn back to my friend. ‘What did you tell him it was worth?’
‘I tried to avoid giving a value, but then he said he was thinking of offering it to one of Kaupang’s dealers in precious stones and jewellery.’
‘So you bought it.’
My friend treated me to one of his thin-lipped smiles. ‘It was expensive – twelve hundred silver denarii.’
‘The cost is not important,’ I assured him. ‘It would have been a disaster if we had lost the horn. Besides, by the time Redwald has finished haggling with Ohthere and Gorm over the price of the bears and the falcons, he’ll have saved us at least that much.’
‘The Khazar insisted on being paid at once,’ Osric explained. ‘I had to use our coins from the Aachen mint. That’s how the slaver worked out that we must be agents for Carolus himself. He as much as told me so.’
He began to roll the horn back inside the velvet cover. ‘The Khazars know we’ve purchased white bears, and are buying up any white gyrfalcons that are for sale. They’ll be wondering what Carolus wants these animals for. If they also know that white is the imperial colour in Baghdad, they’ll be stupid not to have made the connection between Carolus and the caliph.’
I was so elated at having proof of the unicorn’s existence that only now I thought to ask Osric what he had meant when he said the unused portion of our silver hoard was in safe keeping.
‘I handed the last few coin bags over to Redwald,’ he answered calmly. ‘He’s put them in that secret cubby hole aboard his ship.’
I stared at him. ‘Was that wise?’
Osric was unperturbed. ‘Ohthere was pressing to be paid for the ice bears, and by the time he had a down payment and the Khazar got his coin, less than a third remains.’
A faint shadow of doubt clouded my satisfaction. I wondered if we were putting too much trust in the shipmaster. Even a third of Carolus’s original funds was a temptation for someone sufficiently unscrupulous.
*
Freed of the necessity to mount guard over our silver hoard, Osric and I redoubled our efforts to obtain clues as to where the unicorn itself might be found. We could not interrogate the Khazars because they packed up and left Kaupang abruptly, less than a day after selling the unicorn horn to Osric. So instead we split up and worked the market, asking traders and their customers, sailors down by the landing place; anyone who looked as though they might provide us with information. We were met with blank looks, humorous and sometimes ribald inventions and – as often as not – outright laughter. If we had picked up the slightest hint about where the unicorn lived we would have travelled there immediately, but with each passing day there were fewer people to answer our questions. Midsummer’s day was the highpoint of Kaupang’s annual market and soon afterwards a number of traders began shutting up shop and heading home. The fine weather also left us. Mornings that dawned full of bright sunny promise turned into afternoons when masses of close-packed clouds sailed overhead and a chill west wind rattled the canvas covers on the remaining stalls. The gusts brought sudden, heavy showers. When it rained, Walo usually stayed with his ice bears, and Osric and I would take shelter in the building where Redwald had rented rooms.