Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle

Chapter 20

“No.”

Ragnarok almost smiled at Bjarni’s curt assessment of the course he had just indicated on the map. The wind was blowing steadily out of the southeast and the sail was tacked to allow them to take full advantage. The islands that lay off the southwest tip of England had passed by off their starboard side an hour ago and they were now south of Eire Land.

He had Tam Nok’s two maps- paper and metal- laid out on the rear-most rowing seat. He tapped the metal one at the spot Tam Nok had said they had to get to. “We have to get there.”

“The currents will be against us,” Bjarni amplified his answer. “We cannot go to the southwest directly. You know that.” The old man leaned over. “The sea comes this way-” his gnarled finger traced a path in the opposite direction that Ragnarok had indicated. “Even if the wind is with us- which it won’t be- we could not fight the sea. We would, at best, sit still in the same place, at worst be pushed back. Even now-” he gestured at the sea around them- “we are being pushed to the north even though our dragon head faces due west.”

“There has to a be a way,” Ragnarok argued. Tam Nok was still sleeping in the forward part of the boat and Ragnarok saw no reason to waste any time- he wanted to head in the right direction immediately.

Bjarni sighed and knelt down next to the maps, Ragnarok joining them. He was simply glad to be back on his ship. Hrolf and the ship had been waiting as promised at the same point on the beach the previous evening. Ragnarok and Tam Nok had boarded without incident and they’d immediately set sail and continued through the night, putting distance between themselves and the land of the Saxons.

With the light of day, it was time to make a decision and Ragnarok knew that was not going to be as easy as Tam Nok would like.

“The only way we could get there-” Bjarni stabbed the map with his finger- “is to travel in a large circle this way.” He traced a route to the south of Iceland, beneath Greenland and along the coast of the large land that lay to the west. “Then we can catch the current and ride into the center of the ocean to the place you wish to go,” Bjarni concluded.

“How long would that take?”

“A year. Maybe less if all goes well,” the helmsman said. “But we would be traveling where no one has ever gone. Strange waters are dangerous waters. And we would have to winter somewhere along this coast,” he indicated the large continent. “And stop often for resupply. No one I know has ever made a journey that far.”

“Remember what Lailoken said,” Tam Nok was standing over the two of them. “He said the shortest distance would not a be straight line.”

“But going all the way around in almost a circle is certainly not the shortest distance either,” Ragnarok said.

Bjarni had picked up the metal plate and was studying it.

“He also said something about a short cut,” Tam Nok said.

“How can there be a short-cut?” Ragnarok argued. “We know where we are and we know where we wish to go. We cannot go in a straight line and any other route would take too much time.”

“There is a tunnel,” Tam Nok said. She took the map from Bjarni and pointed to a spot off the northern coast of Iceland.

“A what?” Ragnarok looked where she was pointing.

“It says here, these runes, that there is a tunnel,” Tam Nok said.

“You can read the markings?” Ragnarok asked.

“It is a language from the Greeks,” the priestess replied. “I learned some in my travels. I do not understand much, but this word here, it is the word for tunnel. And this thin line goes from there to here, which is where I wish to go. I believe the line is the tunnel.”

“This place,” Ragnarok said, “off the coast of Iceland, is where Ginnungagap, the great chasm ice and fire that separates the Gods is reported to be. I have heard stories of the sea opening up, of monsters climbing out of the depths. A tunnel in the great chasm would not be strange. The legends say the gods can travel through the underworld.”

Hrolf had been hovering in the background and now he added his opinion. “I do not wish to travel through the underworld.”

“We do not even know for sure if there is a tunnel there,” Ragnarok said.

“Monsters and demonesses who fly-” Hrolf spit. “We are intruding in things beyond us.”

“It may be beyond us,” Tam Nok agreed, “but it affects us.”

“How?” Hrolf demanded. “All we have heard are your stories. You talk of a threat to the world, but I see no threat except when we stick our noses where they should not be.”

“My people were-” Tam Nok began, but Hrolf interrupted.

“Your people. Not my people.”

“All people have been affected by the Shadow,” Tam Nok said. “Where do you think you come from?”

“Not from the same place as you,” Hrolf said. He held out his arm and placed it next to her’s. “We are very different.”

Tam Nok shook her head. “That is just skin color. I live in a hot, sunny place. My people have been there for many generations just as yours have lived in a cold, dark place for many generations. We adapt to where we live. In my journey here I have seen many different types of people. The ones who built the Great Wall that I passed through. With eyes like mine but their skin was more yellow. The riders of the steppes. All different but all the same. Not here-” she rubbed her hand along her arm- “but here.” Tam Nok pressed her hand against her chest over her heart. “And here.” She pointed at her head.

“The stories, the legends, are different in detail but the same in meaning and depth. All speak of a great flood long ago. They give different reasons for it, but all knew of it. Even those who live in the very high mountains far from the ocean, who would not have even seen the flood. How do they know of it? Because their ancestors came on the flood. All our ancestors did.

“The battles between gods- all have different names for their gods, but there is much that is the same in the way the gods act, the way they fight. Even this tunnel under the Earth- every culture I have passed through speaks of an underworld.”

Tam Nok reached out and placed her hands on Hrolf’s chest. “This Shadow destroyed our ancestors and scattered them so far around the world that you stand here now and don’t believe we are kin. But we are. And it will happen again, except this time there will be no one left. Unless we stop it.”

All activity had ceased on the ship. Other than Tam Nok speaking there was only the sound of the sail snapping in the wind and the water passing by the hull. Every Viking was staring at the small, brown woman, listening to her words.

Hrolf looked down at her hands on his chest, then reached up and placed his old, worn ones over her’s. “I do not know of these things you speak. I would like to believe we are all one people. Then maybe we would stop killing each other and hating so much.” The old man’s eyes lifted to Ragnarok’s. “I will go where my captain commands.”

“We have to go northwest anyway,” Ragnarok said.

Tam Nok nodded. “We will go that way. I know it is the right way.”

Bjarni stood and relieved the man on the rudder. He pushed on the tiller and the dragon’s head swung around to the northwest.