Everworld 01 - Search For Senna by Applegate K. A

Author:Applegate, K. A.
Language: eng
Format: epub

XVIII

There was more to the village than I’d thought. The architecture wasn’t grand or imposing, except for a sort of town hall kind of place that had been built out of whole logs and rose above all the surrounding buildings.

Three piers extended out into the water, with a wharf built of tarred, split logs. Longshoremen off-loaded bundles from wide-hulled merchant ships. The longshoremen must have been slaves. They were a motley bunch, ranging from the blond, blue-eyed Viking look to smaller, olive-complected men and women to black people, but all with shaved heads. I saw no whipping going on, but a couple of big, old Vikings were roaring away, giving mostly superfluous orders and pushing people around.

Beyond the primitive dock sat warehouses that also looked like they were built of Lincoln Logs. They’d have been right at home in the old West.

Just beyond the far pier and curving away inland was the defensive wall I’d glimpsed earlier, logs set vertically and cut into sharp points. I guessed that it ringed the entire village, but I couldn’t see it. I did see a tower, again like something out of an old cavalry movie. Except instead of bluecoats carrying Winchesters, there were bowmen pacing around a parapet and looking pretty alert.

We headed uphill to the tow proper. Here the population became more noticeable. We saw a lot of people. More people than could possibly have fit into the twenty or thirty buildings that comprised the village.

And surely this village could not have supported the fleet of ships in its harbor. It was a forest of masts. I counted to thirty and still had only counted a fraction of the ships.

For the most part the men seemed to be engaged in swaggering around, talking in loud voices, and clapping one another on the back. Most were armed. But not all were armed alike. Or dressed alike. After a while you could start to make out differences between what had to be officers and ordinary soldiers.

The officers often wore chain-mail shirts. They carried swords with jeweled hilts or gold-scrolled scabbards. Some carried battle-axes with carved handles and elaborate heads. They had tall leather boots, more luxuriant furs, better-sewn pants.

They had attendants, helpers, whatever you call them, who carried their helmets and axes. Squires.

The common soldiers wore simpler clothing and carried simpler weapons. No chain mail. No gold. No engraving. Axes that looked like they came from K-mart instead of a jewelry store. Helmets that could have been banged together out of recycled soup cans.

But even the common soldiers were a loud, swaggering, boisterous bunch. No cringing. No saluting. No groveling. None of what my dad would have delicately called “military chicken product.”

I began to notice something else, too. Not all of these Vikings were quite what you’d think of as Norsemen. Yes, the big, blond type predominated heavily, but there were Vikings who looked like they’d just come in from South America, Africa, or China. And a lot who looked less easily identifiable: mixes of Nordic and Asian, Nordic and African.

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