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At the mouth of the cave he stood awhile, stamping his feet that he might be heard. But there was no response. He drew aside the stiff hide curtain and looked within. All was black, cold desolation. "Aasta? Aasta?" he called. But no voice answered him. He went inside the cave and felt about for the place where he had seen Elspeth leave the flint and steel.
Suddenly she halted and drew back a few paces, then crouched upon the ground, bidding Allan do likewise. Thus she crept to the brink of the cliff that stands frowning above the bay of Stravannan. The light of dawn had by this time chased away the shadows of night, and headlands and rocks stood out clear against the gray sky. Aasta pointed down to the stony beach below.
"And now you say that Roderic is in Bute?" "He is here with intent to slay you, Earl Kenric, in some such subtle way as he slew your good father. But I have told you where he will be at midnight. Go thither, I charge you, and take the Thirsty Sword that Aasta gave you. And may the blood of our enemy Roderic be the last that it will drink."
"Alas! and I thought him dead. Who told you this thing?" "A fisherman of Gigha," said Allan. "But I understood him ill. Methinks we had better inquire of the maid Aasta the Fair, for the fisher spoke with her, and well I wot he told her all." "Doubtless," said Kenric. "And on the morrow I will even seek Aasta and learn from her if this be true.
"What means all this, William MacAlpin?" asked Aasta, kneeling by his side; "and wherefore come you back to Bute thus covered with bleeding wounds?" The man pointed westward, and with his dying breath said: "Run you to Castle Rothesay, I beseech you; run and tell my lord Kenric that the Norsemen with their hosts have landed on Gigha, and have wrested the island from us.
She waited for Aasta to return, intending to send the maid at once to Rothesay to warn Earl Kenric that his outlawed uncle was in the island. But as Aasta did not appear before midday, Elspeth took her cloak and staff and prepared to go herself to the castle. She was putting some new fuel upon the fire, when the curtain at the cave's entrance was drawn aside, and there she saw Kenric himself.
"I will come back, Aasta. And now, a truce to all fear. Let me now meet this man and slay him, for there is no one who can now mourn for his death. It is right that he should die, for the hour of retribution has surely come!" Not long was Kenric in covering the few miles between Loch Ascog and Garroch Head. He feared to be too late, for it was already but one short hour before midnight.
He was very weary, for he had had a long day's fighting, and no sleep had he known since the night of his adventure in Gigha. He was thinking now of all that had passed, and of the many men, his companions and faithful vassals, who now lay dead. Also he was wondering what had become of the wild girl Aasta. She had done many things for which he owed her deep gratitude.
"It was," Kenric replied. "And how happens it that she sent not the maid Aasta?" "'Twas beyond her power, Earl Roderic," answered Kenric in a quivering voice. "What?" cried Roderic surlily, "beyond her power? Tell me no lies. The old crone is but playing some witch's trick upon me. Where is my daughter, I say? where is my child?"
The imprisoned image seemed to melt away. Yet Kenric knew that what he had seen was no illusion, but that Aasta the Fair lay lifeless in her frost-bound tomb. Then Kenric thought of his enemy who was surely Aasta's enemy even more than his own and he gripped his sword. "I will come back," he murmured sadly as he cast once more a lingering glance upon the now indistinct figure beneath the ice.
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