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"To the Orkney Vikings all men are foes," replied Estein. "Ay," said Thorkel with a laugh, "particularly when they are but two to ten." By this time the strangers were within hailing distance, and in the leading ship a man in a red cloak came from the poop and stood before the others in the bow.
Witches, too, and warlocks dwell in the isles, men say, and it were well to rid the land of such." At this last speech Estein first frowned and flushed, and then meeting his foster-brother's look, all outward gaiety and lurking mirth, he laughed defiantly, and exclaimed, "It may be so, Helgi. Everything I do is ordained already, and it matters not whither I turn the prow of my ship or what I plan.
Estein told her of the storm at sea and the fight with the Vikings; how they had fallen man by man, and how he too would have been numbered amongst the dead but for the tideway and the rocks. As she listened, her eyes betrayed her interest in the tale, and when he had finished, she said, "I have heard of Liot and Osmund. They are the most pitiless of all the robbers in these seas.
Then raising his voice till it rang through the night, he cried, "But now, King Estein, the ship has crossed the seas!" There was a minute's silence after he had finished, and then the king took Osla by the hand and drew her towards the door, saying, "I wish them to see my queen to-night." "Let me come to-morrow," she whispered.
Helgi for the time had charge of the tiller, while Estein leant against the weather bulwark, busy with his new resolves. "A ship must cross the sea again," he repeated to himself. "The time for action is at hand, and we shall see what new freak fortune will play with me.
"Did not her eyes sparkle and her trouble seem to leave her when she heard the king's foster-brother was here?" asked Helgi. "I shall press his claims myself," said Estein, rising from his seat. "Will you see her then?" asked the earl. "Why not?" replied Estein. "Perchance she brings tidings of importance." "If you rise at every strange woman's bidding you will have many suitors," said the earl.
"Right glad I am to see this victory, Ketill, and gallantly you must have fought, but when has it become our custom to slay our prisoners?" "Ay," answered Helgi, "we could well have missed this part." "Know you not that the Jemtlanders slew the twenty who followed you to King Bue?" answered the black-bearded captain. "They slew them like cattle, Estein; and shall we spare the murderers now?
"Go in, Osla," said her uncle, "I bid thee," and so she went in with Estein to the hall. As he led her up to the high seat, dead silence fell on the guests, and all men gazed in growing wonder. Opposite Earl Sigvald he stopped, and throwing back her hood, cried, "You will live to see me married yet, jarl. My southern voyage shall be changed into my wedding feast. Behold Osla, Queen of Sogn!"
As he spoke he went up to one prisoner who was lying on his side, with his face pressed down into the snow, like one sorely wounded, and in no gentle fashion turned him over with his foot. "Can you not let me die?" said the man, looking up coldly and proudly at his captors, though he was evidently at death's door. "It will not take long now." "Thorar!" exclaimed Estein.
"It will take us full two hours to reach the bay where Liot dwells, and the feast, I fear, will have ended even now, for the hour is late." Helgi's face fell, and he muttered a deep imprecation as he turned to Estein. "What think you?" he asked; "shall we run for some distant bay, and return to-morrow night?"
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