“Looks risky,” muttered Shef.
“But it isn’t.” Cuthred’s voice had a note of disgust in it. “No more than killing sheep. Those things don’t fight back, I don’t think they have any teeth even. You could get squashed between two of them, but they’re not even trying to hurt each other.”
A group of men had hold of one whale and were running it up the beach as far as they could, seizing it by its fins and by the spears and blades protruding from it. They left it squirming weakly and ran down into the water for another. Already the whole surface of the bay had turned red from the streams of arterial blood pumping into it from the whales’ punctured hearts. From the melee Shef saw a calf whale struggling free, having abandoned its dying mother. Barely six feet long, it floundered out of the shallows and made towards them for the open sea. A boat steered in front of it, a man leapt on to its back, grind-knife flailing. The spurt of blood that rose leapt into the boat, splashing his oar-mates. Shef heard them roar with laughter, saw another group on the shore already starting to flense the blubber from a dying whale, cramming handfuls into their mouths, and shouting with manic glee.
“I think we’ve seen enough of this,” said Cuthred. “Nobody ever called me squeamish, but if I hurt people it’s because I don’t like them. I’ve got nothing against whales. I don’t even like whalemeat.”
He began to pull away from the cove of butchery, with Shef’s silent agreement. The Norsemen, intent on their work, ignored them. By the time Brand thought to look up, they had gone.
Outside the cove, Shef was surprised to see how fat the sun had gone down. At this time of year in a latitude as high as theirs, there could hardly be said to be a nighttime. The sky remained pale continuously. Yet the sun did drop below the horizon for a short while every day. It was now close to it, the low red disc beneath the clouds sending long shadows across a placid sea. Cuthred bent to the oars and urged the boat along what would be a long trip back to a bed and fire. Shef became aware that it was hours since he had eaten or drunk; and he had begun the long boat-ride dehydrated from the steam-bath.
“Have you anything to eat in the boat?” he asked.
Cuthred grunted, “I always keep something in the cuddy there in the stern. Butter and cheese, a crock of milk, fresh water. Let me get us going and we can take turns to row and eat.”
Shef found Cuthred’s provision box in its compartment and hauled it out. It was well stocked, but for the moment Shef was content to drink water, chew on a wrinkled apple stored from the autumn before.
“You know,” he remarked between bites. “This is the place Brand warned you away from. Inside the skerries, north of the island. I guess none of them come here much, from what he said. But with the grind out they wouldn’t take any notice of where they were. And if there was anything dangerous it probably wouldn’t want to mess with the grind boats. Not all of them together, all worked up.”
“But it might just fancy two men on their own with the sun dropping,” concluded Cuthred. His teeth showed in a snarl. “Well, just let it try.”
Shef threw his apple-core overboard, squinted into the long shadows, reached forward and put a hand on Cuthred’s brawny arm. He pointed silently.
Perhaps a quarter of a mile away, a giant fin showed above the water. It seemed almost man high, stuck straight up at right angles to the water. A black back showed beneath it, and then more of them, fins coming up out of the water, backs swirling and then dipping down like the top of enormous wheels.
“Killers,” said Cuthred positively. They had seen several schools of them on the journey north in the Walrus, and each time Brand had gone to the side and regarded them speculatively. “Never heard of them attacking a ship,” he had said. “Never heard of them attacking a boat either. But then, you wouldn’t. If one of them decided to attack a boat there wouldn’t be anyone left to tell about it. Seals are their meat. People must look pretty much like seals to them. I never go in the water if there’s any of them about.”