I racked my brains trying to understand how the Greeks could have known why Carolus had sent me to Kaupang. The Khazars could not yet have carried back their report to Constantinople. Then I recalled Osric’s other warning: the Greeks have their spies everywhere. Their sources at Carolus’s court could have alerted the basileus even before Osric and I left Aachen.
*
Redwald lost no time in preparing for us to leave Kaupang. He sold off the rest of his wine cheaply and arranged for the remaining quern stones to be left with a local factor. On the morning before the cog was due to set sail, I went with Walo to fetch the three white gyrfalcons and the eagle. They had been left in the care of Gorm, and the bird dealer’s son had already picked the stitches from the eyelids of the more recently captured birds so that they could see, and had been gentling them so that they were easy to handle.
Gorm himself helped us carry the birds down to the cog where she lay against the jetty. Climbing down into the ship’s hold, we found two of Redwald’s sailors slinging a long wooden bar by ropes from the deck beams. It was a travelling perch.
While Gorm and I looked on, Walo wrapped sacking around the wooden bar so that the falcons’ talons could get a firm grip.
‘Here, you can’t do that!’ shouted one of the sailors. Walo had picked up a length of light rope, and was hacking it into short lengths with the knife he used for cutting up the ice bears’ food.
‘Let him be,’ said Gorm sharply. ‘He knows what he’s doing.’
Walo had begun rigging the lengths of cord so that they dangled beside the perch.
‘What are those for?’ I asked the bird dealer.
‘So the birds can reach out and get a grip on the cords with their beaks when the ship rolls,’ Gorm explained. He turned to Walo. ‘How about you staying on in Kaupang? I could use a really good assistant.’
To my alarm Walo’s moon face went pale, and his half-closed eyes began to glisten with tears. He shook his head violently and looked at me pleadingly. He was frightened of being abandoned.
‘That’s all right, Walo,’ I reassured him. ‘I need you to look after the ice bears. You can remain with Osric and me.’
Walo mumbled something, and I had to ask him to repeat what he had said. ‘The bears have no names,’ he muttered.
Gorm hastened to make up for his blunder. ‘Sigwulf, I think that Walo believes that you were going to leave the ice bears behind because you hadn’t given them any names.’
My mind went blank and I looked at the bird dealer. ‘What do you suggest?’
He chuckled. ‘My son has been calling them Modi and Madi these past few days. Maybe that fits.’
‘Why’s that?’ I had never heard either name.
‘They’re gods, sons of Thor. Modi means “angry”, Madi means “strong”.’
I looked across at Walo. ‘Will those names suit?’ I asked.
He brightened and gave me a shy nod.
‘Then it’s time we got Modi and Madi down to the ship,’ I told him.
He reached inside his shirt and pulled out his deerhorn pipe that hung on a leather thong around his neck. ‘They will follow me here,’ he said.
I was lost for words. The two animals were no longer the feeble, sickly creatures that had arrived in Kaupang. They were larger and heavier, active and quick, and they enjoyed mock fighting. Rearing up on their hind legs, they battled and growled, seizing their opponent’s neck or limb in their formidable jaws and twisting and tugging. It required little imagination to picture the danger if they ever got loose.
Gorm came to my rescue. ‘I’ve got a better idea, Walo. We’ll bring them to the ship on a sledge.’
And that was how it was accomplished. Redwald’s sailors built a double-size sledge on top of which they constructed a sturdy cage. It had to be large enough to contain both bears at the same time because Walo assured us that the animals would become distressed and unpredictable if separated. He himself sat inside the cage with the bears while they were moved in case they needed calming. After much coaxing we harnessed four terrified horses to the sledge. Then all of us – Gorm and his son, Redwald, Osric, Ingvar the bird catcher, Osric and myself – hauled on drag ropes and we set out for the dock. Our progress along Kaupang’s rutted and pot-holed street, even with the bears securely caged, caused uproar. Merchants shuttered their shops while we passed, stallholders evacuated their stands, and only the most curious of their customers remained to gawk at us. Every step of the way we were accompanied by a horde of wildly excited dogs, snapping, snarling and barking.
We reached the jetty where Redwald’s crew waited until the top of the tide, then slid the entire contraption across and onto the cog’s deck where it was fastened down with strong ropes. While this was being done, I was concluding a last-minute purchase with Ingvar’s help. Among the pack of curs attracted by the commotion of our departure were several dogs with short fox-like faces beneath high-set triangular ears. Of medium size, they were stocky and active and had curly tails. They gave an impression of sharp intelligence and it occurred to me that if their thick coats of short dense fur were washed and cleaned, they would be off-white. Like everything else in Kaupang, they were for sale.