East

Neddy

I HAD ONCE TOLD ROSE that if she needed me I would go to her, no matter where she was. She needed me, I was sure of it. So I left the reading room and ran all the way to the printing press to find Father. But when I arrived Father was not there, having just left on an errand.

"I must have a ship," I blurted out to Soren.

He could see that I was half out of my mind with worry. He pulled up a chair and calmly beckoned for me to sit. "What has happened, Neddy?"

I poured out the whole tale, of Rose and the white bear and how I felt she was in danger and that I must go to her right away. My sister Sara had told Soren about Rose sometime before, and he was immediately sympathetic.

"Where do you think to go, to find your sister?" he asked, not unreasonably.

"North," I replied without hesitation. Though I had not had a clear view of Rose, I had had a sense of her as being dressed for cold weather in furs and mittens. I knew that feeling may have been just the power of association, given what I had been reading at the time, but nevertheless I was sure she was somewhere in the north.

"North, eh? That covers a lot of territory," Soren said. "Let me make enquiries," he went on. "Your father and I have long thought we ought to do so, but I confess we have both been so wrapped up in this new printing press. At any rate, I understand that the letter you'received from Rose came originally from Tonsberg, via La Rochelle in Fransk. It seems to me that Tonsberg is where we should begin our search, and then move on to La Rochelle."

"That will take too much time," I said impatiently. "I must not delay."

"I understand," replied Soren. "It will only take several days, and that is what we shall need anyway to get a ship outfitted and ready to go."

"Thank you, Soren," I said, clasping his hand in a warm handshake.

Soren waved away my gratitude. "I am tired of being cooped up with this splendid but maddening contraption," he said, gesturing at the printing press. "And I have always wanted an excuse to journey north. It has been little charted and 'twould be a great feather in our cap to do so. Of course, I must be sure to be back in time for my wedding day," he added with a grin.

"Of course," I replied, grinning back.

***

Soren's inquiries proved to be very fruitful, as well as somewhat worrying. We learned that Rose had gone north in a ship—an old knorr—headed for Suroy at the top of Njord, but that the knorr had not reached its destination. And then Soren's enquiry agent made an extremely lucky discovery in Tonsberg. He found a sailor who had actually been on board Rose's ship headed for Suroy.

The sailor's name was Gest, and he said that the knorr had been hit by a mighty storm. He himself had been swept overboard but had managed to survive by grabbing hold of an empty ale cask. He was then rescued by a passing ship that took him back to Tonsberg. He said that his mate, a man named Goran, had drowned but that he did not know what had happened to the captain of the ship and the girl who had been a passenger aboard the knorr. His best guess, as it was of those who knew of the storm in question and which way it had blown, was that if the ship had survived the storm, it was likely to have been driven far west and north, maybe as far as Gronland.

I tendered my resignation to Master Eckstrom, telling him that a family emergency had arisen, and said a fond good-bye to Havamal. As a parting gift, my new friend gave me a manuscript, which he had hand copied, with extensive information about Gronland and the people who lived there, as well as some practical details about traveling by ship into frozen waters.

Father, Soren, and I departed two days later on a ship we had renamed Rose.