The Author's Notebook, VG Ch.2
VESTMEN'S GALE, Chapter Two - Vestmen's Gale
Synopsis, Chapter Two
Refresh your memory…
Michael falls into the Viking longship, though he senses he was pulled into the empty vessel. New sounds and scents flood his awareness, and he realizes he is in a different world. Rowers appear along both sides of the boat now, rowing in unison to outrun the fast-approaching storm.
Halfdan, the pilot of the vessel, is introduced. He lifts Michael from the bilge and beats him for not rowing. Michael realizes he is now in the same geographic location, but a much earlier time, and that this is not a reproduction vessel, but an authentic Viking longboat. Michael discovers he is not in his body, but the body of a Norseman called Matok, and some of that this body’s instincts still reside within.
Little Finger, a rower and friend, is introduced, and reminds Michael that Halfdan is looking for an excuse to kill him. Halfdan steers to beach the vessel so the crew can weather the storm beneath shields, but Michael, recognizing their location, advises them to continue south to the shelter of a cliff-faced peninsula. Halfdan reluctantly obliges, they moor on the lee side next to the cliff, sheltering their vessel as the storm rages by. Once it passes, Michael (now Matok) catches a glimpse of his dead sister atop the cliff.
Teaser, Chapter Three
Deck boards rattled as Halfdan pounded toward the front of the ship. Toward me. He smiled, but his gait was even heavier than Dad’s when he’d picked me out of the back of Sheriff Jacobs’s cruiser after he’d clocked me thirty miles per hour over the limit. This gorilla-sized man stopped in front of me, one foot on a plank, the other against the gunwale. His fist flew in an uppercut that caught me below my sternum and lifted me from my feet. My legs slipped between boards, and I dropped onto an oak plank at the end of my bench. I’d tensed my stomach at the last second, but now it cramped and I struggled to draw a breath. Couldn’t this guy say anything without hitting me first?
“That’s for calling me useless as pearls on a boar!” he shouted.
I hunched, arms crossed over my belly, trying to inhale. He lifted me by the hair, just as he had before. That’s it. I’m shaving my head. He plopped me next to him and I braced for another blow. Both his arms wrapped around my back and he raised me in a bear hug, squeezing until my spine popped. “And that’s for saving our boat.”
Continued on Tuesday. Subscribe so you don’t miss a chapter!
