They kept on swimming, taking as few breaths as possible, straining their limbs to move faster and their ears to be mindful of the provenance of the shots. They took so many turns and detours that they started fearing they’d lost their way among the maze of islands that protected Stockholm, and when they felt their legs brush against the sea bottom they realized they’d reached an area where the ship could not follow.
Kathrine walked up the shore and let herself collapse in tears. She felt guilty for not hearing the last gasps of her crew, and felt silly for feeling guilty. Leonora crawled beside her and glanced at the sun’s position before hugging Kathrine. “They took an oath. They died for the good of the nation. Now we have to honor their bravery. The king is waiting for us.”
“The king, the king, the king! I’m fed up with all of them. Kings have decided over the lives of common people for all of history. When will something of importance be permitted to happen without those leeches having their hands in it?”
Leonora said nothing; with the family she had, any word of comfort would have sounded insincere. She hadn’t known the crewmen of the Tarasque personally, but they had traveled with Kathrine through blockades and near-misses in the search for clues to Frederik’s misdeeds. It was easy to guess that the attack on them had been ordered by him. She gave Kathrine a moment to herself, until she was able to stand up and refocus on their mission.
Following Leonora’s lead, Kathrine started walking in the direction of the city. If things went their way from that point on, she’d have abundant time to mourn properly, in peace.
Morning, July 20 (Julian), 1651
Stockholm
The guards standing watch at the main gate of the Palace of the Three Crowns refused at first to believe that the two disheveled, muddied visitors asking to be let in could have any business to discuss with the king of Sweden. It was only when Kathrine pointed out that there was a warship nearby and that everyone in the city must have heard the distant echoes of multiple cannon shots that word was sent inside the palace, questions were asked of successively higher-ranked officers, and the order finally came to grant entrance to both women.
They were escorted into a gallery where one of the most luxurious art collections in Europe was slowly being built. King Kristina entered the room shortly after her guests, and even under the abundant illumination of the summer day, she took only the briefest notice of their disordered appearance. “It seems you had difficulties.”
“We were attacked,” said Leonora. “A Danish ship has just sunk ours.”
“Here, in the city?”
Both guests nodded, and Kristina moved toward one of her guards, but Kathrine said, “It’s no use searching for it. Your Majesty’s men will never find the kind of ship that Denmark has.”
“You have a very high opinion of Denmark’s—” Kristina’s eyes narrowed, and she turned to Leonora. “Is the Hafgufu here?”
“Yes.” She hadn’t come with the intention to reveal so much, but their situation had changed too fast for caution. “Let me introduce Kathrine Munk, governor of Nova Dania. She barely made it here alive. She’s risked everything to research what she has come to tell you.”
“Well, you have me here,” said the king. “I’m listening.”
Kathrine looked around the gallery, looking for a tool she could use to demonstrate her message. Curiosities large and small were showcased in no obvious order; her eyes passed over a porcelain teapot, an unreadable papyrus, a jade mask, a marble nymph, a set of black chess pieces, several full armors and an impressively-sized bookcase, until they rested on a globe model of the world. She approached it and motioned for Kristina to join her. “Is this object precious?” she asked, showing her dirty hands.
“Information is worth more,” replied the king.
That made Kathrine feel more at ease, and she rotated the globe until Asia was exposed. “The Canutic Empire has been building strongholds all over the northern coast of Asia,” she began, running her finger over the area.
“That’s to be expected. Denmark uses the Arctic to trade with China.”
“I didn’t say trading posts; I said strongholds. Starting with Mangazeya, Danish rule has been spreading over the northern coast in such a way that it can by now be said this entire region has been added to the Danish crown.”
Kristina looked at the world, making a conscious update of her model of it. “You’re saying that all these places have become… provinces of the Canutic Empire?”
Kathrine nodded, and her hand made a sweeping motion over north Asia. “There are very few natural defenses here. Barely a mountain for thousands of miles. I’ve intercepted reports that describe war plans against the tribal chiefs of the steppes. Frederik wants to rule everything north of China.”
“Does he plan to attack China?”
“That is unlikely. No one has survived land warfare against the Great Ming since the new emperor took charge.”
It didn’t take much intuition to interpret Kristina’s face at that moment. What had started, not without a touch of presumptuousness, to be called the “loss of China” was a topic that caused sadness and anger throughout Christendom, but because it had been the Jesuits who had “lost” China, those feelings were more intense among Catholics. “I see,” she said at last. “So Frederik is staying close to the north coast. Is there any economic reason to want those lands?”
“We’re not sure yet. One never knows where a valuable mine will appear. What we do know is that roughly half of that territory is forest.”
“Inhabited?”
“Very sparsely.”
“What does he want with it?”
“The first reason, and the simplest, is that he’s building a navy. Ships need wood. With that much forest, Denmark could sustain a world-spanning fleet.”
“Let him try,” said the king. The look on Kathrine’s face made her chuckle, and she explained, “Even if what you say is true, Frederik won’t be the first ruler who dreams of taking more than he can control. Ambition of such size always ends in tragedy. Long ago, it happened to Alexander; it will happen to him.”
Leonora intervened. “I’m sorry, but Your Majesty is not seeing the full picture.”
“Is that so? Please enlighten me.”
She took the globe from Kathrine’s hands and tilted it so that all of the Arctic was visible. “Greenland and Iceland are all but Danish colonies. On paper, Scotland is an allied power, but it’s completely dependent on Danish support. And there’s the North American colony, centered on Munkhaven, but the plan is to expand Nova Dania to cover every possible piece of frozen land where the fabled Vinland could have existed. Does Your Majesty see the problem now? Once he’s secured control over both coasts, plus Greenland, the entire Arctic will become an inner sea of the Canutic Empire.”
Leonora was trembling at her own words, but Kristina was still unimpressed. “I fail to see the strategic usefulness of conquering all that ice. You can’t grow crops on ice; you can’t build roads on it; you can’t feed it to cattle. Either your information is mistaken or Frederik is an incapable planner.”
Kathrine pointed at the windows through which the heat of summer inundated the gallery. “Doesn’t Your Majesty think this summer is quite warm?”
The king shrugged. “Yes, summer is warm. Your point?”
“It shouldn’t be this warm, not here in the Nordic countries.”
Kristina considered the idea and said, “Prove it. If you have one of Drebbel’s tubes, show me comparisons from one year to the next.”
Leonora’s heart almost stopped at the mention of Drebbel, but she saw what the king meant. Among Cornelis Drebbel’s many inventions, one of the most famous was a type of thermometer that functioned with tinted water. “We haven’t measured the heat, and maybe we should have. But we have seen the changes that are causing summers to get worse.”