Now, though, he needed to question him about where he was going, and when.
Baver caught up with him as the Northman approached his tent, a typical, conical affair about four meters tall and four in diameter, of hides sewn to fit, and laid over slender pine poles. Its door flap was open, and the leather walls glowed faintly; someone had started a fire in the fire pit. Which surprised Baver—the Northman was said to live alone.
“Nils!” Baver said to him, “may I ask you some questions?”
Nils slowed and looked at the ethnologist. He saw a man of ordinary height, soft by Neoviking standards but well proportioned. His skin was brown, his curly brown hair cap-like; he had it cut from time to time with clippers.
“Ask,” Nils said.
“When are you going to leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow! “Where will you go?”
“Eastward.”
“Where eastward?”
Nils ducked in through the door, and Baver followed him. They were met by giggling, and the confused ethnologist looked around. There were two young women there, in their late teens he judged, perhaps local, and he realized what they were there for. Nils was as much a hero among the other clans, or most of them, as in his own. These girls were there to carry off with them some of the giant warrior’s genes, with which to bless their family and clan. And no doubt to enjoy themselves and pleasure him.
Abruptly Baver stepped back into the doorway. “I— I’ve got more questions,” he said. “I’ll come back tomorrow before you leave.” Then he ducked out, his face hot,
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and hurried off toward his own tent. Those are damned good-looking girls, he thought, especially if you like them strong and unwashed. He wished one of them had been waiting for him. When he got to his tent, he laid a fire, lit it with his fire-starter, and when it was burning well, put greenery on it to smoke out the mosquitoes.
He’d neglected to ask Nils when, tomorrow, he’d be leaving. He’d check with him in the morning, to make sure; 0800 would do it, he decided. Meanwhile—he took the radio from his shoulder bag and called Matt and Nikko; perhaps they’d fly back tonight if they knew.
But neither responded, nor did the pinnace itself. He was disappointed, but not surprised. If both were away from the Alpha, they’d leave the force shield on, and if the area wasn’t safe, they’d leave the commast retracted to prevent vandalism; contact would be impossible.
He’d try them again tomorrow, as soon as he got up.
THREE
From—The New School Encyclopedia, copyright A.C. 920, Deep Harbor, New Home.
The Ore Wars, a.d. 2831-2832 (a.c. 779-780)—
Tribal chiefs and feudal lords had fought innumerable small wars since before records began to be kept again (about a.d. 2350). But in post-plague Europe there was no large-scale war until 2831. In that year the Orc Wars began.
It seemed predestined that there would be such wars, given the post-plague return to primitivism, with society organized variously under tribalism, feudalism, and despotism. What actually brought it about was the development of a new imperialism in the Middle East. Its outcome, however, was the result of a folk migration out of Scandinavia, in response to severe climatic cooling, the opening stage of the new, so-called Athabasca-Skanderna glaciation. . . .
. . . .On one side, two powerful military forces were allied, one the so-caiied Orcs, the other of as-
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sorted horse barbarians, united under the command of His Imperial Majesty, Kamal Timur Kazi, known as Kazi the Undying. These met and destroyed a series of European opponents: first the South Ukrainians; next the “North Ukrainians” (more properly Byelorussians); and later a mixed and ill-coordinated army of Poles, Magyars, Saxons, Neo-vikings, and finally migrating Finns, which combined was still much smaller than the imperial forces. The first encounter. . . .
. . . .Thus the Neoviking hero, Nils Järnhann, on the first occasion turned a situation of military overwhelm into the withdrawal of the conquering Orcs into the Balkans, and the dissolution of the horse barbarians into a still dangerous but unled mob of marauders. While on the later occasion, it is Järnhann who must also be credited with converting the terribly vulnerable Neoviking situation into the decimation and collapse of the Orcish army, and its withdrawal from Europe across the Bosporus into Anatolia. . . .