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Updated: May 14, 2025
Kenric turned this question over in his mind, wondering if Aasta would blame him if it should be that he brought her father to his death without first allowing her to speak with him, and for this reason he was ill at ease.
And I had nearly slain you!" "Listen, Allan Redmain; and, I beg you, make no noise," said Aasta, drawing nearer. "Listen if you hear not footsteps on the moor yonder." Allan held in his breath for a moment, and in the stillness he heard indeed the pat, pat of a pair of feet hurrying away. "Well," he said, "I do in truth hear footsteps. But what of that?
Men named this wondrous maiden Aasta the Fair. Earl Roderic started back at sight of her great beauty as she stood before him in her gray and ragged garments, for she was but a poor thrall who worked upon the lands of Kilmory, minding the goats upon the hills or mending the fishermen's nets down on the shore.
He was not afraid; but the deadly silence, the wan light of the moon, the piercing cold, his lonely situation upon that shining stretch of ice, and his knowledge that he would soon be engaged in a mortal combat, whose results must determine so much for himself and for his people, oppressed his mind very strangely; nor could he dismiss from his thoughts the surprising things that he had heard that day concerning Aasta the Fair.
"And is the young Kenric again in possession of my castle of Rothesay?" "The castle of Rothesay was never yours, Earl Roderic, and never shall be," returned Aasta firmly. "His Majesty of Scots hath given us full protection, and for you to seek to remove Earl Kenric from his rightful lordship were vain. If you value your life, my lord, go not near to Rothesay."
But by reason of the desire for vengeance that is now upon me, gladly would I know where that sword is to be found, that it may be ready when the time comes to drink the blood of the falsest heart that ever beat, and that is the heart of Earl Roderic of Gigha." "Then, methinks it will not be long ere you have that weapon in your hand, my lord," said Aasta, quickening her steps.
"Your warnings are useless, bold maiden," said Roderic with a sneer. "To Rothesay I will surely go, and Kenric, were he the strongest man in all the isles, shall not prevent me from taking my own. I have sworn to bring that whelp to his death, and by St. Olaf he shall die this very night!" Aasta drew nearer until she stood close enough to touch him.
The sight of so vast an armament appalled him. How it happened that these foreign ships were riding at anchor off his own island was a thing that passed his comprehension. Aasta was the first to break the silence of wonderment. "My lord," said she, "there is more in this than the dying words of your kinsman William foretold. And right wise were you to bid me put on this fisher maid's disguise.
It was his purpose, had not these misfortunes befallen your house, to have sued with my lord your father that I might be freed from the bondage of my thralldom, and if that boon had been denied him, he would even have purchased my liberty, that I might thus have been more worthy to become his wedded wife." "Aasta," said Kenric, "I sought not to draw these secrets from your heart.
Roderic staggered back a pace, wildly. He tugged at the neck of his cloak as though it were stifling him. "Ah, God forgive me!" he wailed. "Alas, 'twas she 'twas then my own child who so wildly attacked me yesternight! 'Twas my own Aasta who so boldly fought against me at Largs. 'Twas she whom I took captive in my ship from Rothesay.
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