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Updated: June 18, 2025
Then he pointed to Fergus, who could be seen on board the ship, and they grew more satisfied. At last he told them that they must fetch Dalfin the Prince as soon as possible, for that we of the ship, or some of us, were those who had brought him back.
I can leave no one to say that I am collecting goods from this shore." "Kill me, then," said Dalfin, while I made no answer. Two of our men cried that they would join him, and their bonds were cut by Heidrek's followers. One of them set himself by my side and spoke to me at once. "There are worse things than going on the Viking path, Malcolm, son of my jarl," he said earnestly. "Blame me not."
"Nay," said Dalfin; "death is a lesser evil than that." "A man may make shift to escape from slavery," answered the other, and both were silent. Then for a moment I had half a hope that help was at hand for us, if too late. Round the westward point crept two longships under their broad, brown sails, making for our haven. But a second glance told me that they were the ships belonging to this crew.
But always the sisters had the favoured place, because we willed it, and should be unhappy if it were otherwise. There were some favours which they held as their unspoken right. "Is not that so in your land, Bertric the Thane, and in yours, friend Malcolm the Jarl?" Truly this Dalfin knew how to set things in the right way, for even I, who had no sisters, was not left out of that answer.
So we slept a great sleep, and it was not until near sunset that Dalfin roused us. "There is somewhat like a sail on the skyline to the eastward," he said. "I have watched it this half hour, and it grows bigger fast. I took it for a bird at first and would not wake you." That brought us to our feet in a moment, and we looked in the direction he gave us. "A sail," said Bertric.
"Dalfin," I said, with a great chill on me, "ask if they know the name of the leader of these men." He changed colour, for I think that the knowledge of what I feared came to him in a flash. He asked, and the man at his feet muttered what was meant for the name of Heidrek. He said it once or twice, stammering, but I knew it, and Bertric caught it also.
It was enough for us to rejoice in the feel of firm planks under our feet once more, and to find naught terrible, but promise of all we needed, while the strain of the longboat voyage with its ever-present peril was over. Dalfin broke that first short silence. "I am desperately hungry," he said. "Surely there will be food on board?"
Heidrek's ships were swift when before the wind, and these great vessels might not overhaul them until they had reached some shallow waters in the river mouth which Heidrek had already entered. But there waited Dalfin and the Irish levies, who would be gathered by this time in force. Mayhap Heidrek would not chance being pent between two foes.
So an hour passed, and then the hapless Danes were driven down in a string to the water's edge, and we sent a boat for them. One had a hasty message from Dalfin to say that in no wise were we to wait for aught else. The Dane told me that there was strife up at the camp, and the young prince had had difficulty in getting them away.
Then as we looked at one another, there came to me as it were a breath from my lost home in far-off Caithness, for a whiff of peat smoke hung round us and was gone so quickly that I thought it almost fancy. But Dalfin had smelt it also. "There is a fire alight on board," he said. "I smelt the smoke. That means food, and someone on board after all." With that he shouted, but there was no answer.
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