The Memory Painter

All accomplished seamen, the men took action, knowing it was their captain’s final attempt to gain some control of the boat. They managed to lose speed but continued to sail on blindly.

Bjarni fought the wind to reach the tiller and relieved Olvir to man it himself. If any knarr could survive Odin’s storm it would be the Gata. He had built the boat with his own hands ten years ago, guided by his eldest uncle, the finest shipbuilder in all of Iceland. The trees had been carefully chosen from his father’s land and blessed by his mother. And when he and his uncle had split the first piece of wood for the helm, Bjarni had not looked away but had chosen to see the boat’s fate. Few men did.