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The Jemtlander turned on him savagely and answered, "Think you I have to succour you of my own pleasure? Never had I less joy in doing anything. If your brother be not here now he will never come at all. I was not told to risk my life for him. Come on!" "Go, then," said Estein; "here will I bide." The man stamped his foot wrathfully, and turned sharply away as though he would leave him.
He spoke little, but always courteously, and seemed to treat him at first merely as an addition to the live stock of the island. One night Estein, after the manner of the skalds, sang a poem of his own as they sat round the fire. He called it the "King's War Song."
"Dear was Estein to his father, and dear the old king to his son. Deep and burning, I fear, will his sorrow be," said the earl. "Fain would I comfort him," replied Helgi. "But I know well Estein's humours, and now he is best alone for a time." They walked slowly up to Hakonstad, the old earl leaning upon his son's arm, and as they went Helgi told him the tale of the Jemtland journey.
They could see behind them the flames and smoke rising ever higher from the burning vessels, and as the ale mounted to their heads they shouted derisive defiance across the water. "Where shall we go now?" asked Grim. "Do you know of any uninhabited holm where we could land by daybreak?" said Estein.
Before them stood his son Estein, a tall, auburn-haired, bright-eyed young man, gaily dressed, after the fashion of the times, in red kirtle and cloak, and armed as yet only with a gilded helmet, surmounted with a pair of hawk's wings, and a sword girt to his side.
The ship crept under the cliffs with hardly any way on at all, and Helgi, in despair, saw the golden hour slipping by. "Oh, for two more good ships," he thought: "then we could wait till daylight, and fall upon them when we pleased." Estein had again fallen a prey to his thoughts.
As he stooped a third arrow sang close above his head and sped into the gloaming. Leaning to one side he fired again, and an instant later a fourth shaft rang on his shield. Then came a brief pause in the hostilities, and, looking round the edge of his fort, Estein could see his foe standing motionless close under a tree.
Thorar spoke with dignity and a touch of haughtiness, and Estein replied simply and courteously, "I shall come." He turned to Helgi and said, "No fighting will there be, Helgi; but I have known you welcome even a feast. What say you?" "This snow work and marching call for feasting," replied Helgi, with a laugh.
His exalted tone, the animation of his face, and the flash of his pale eyes, impressed Estein strongly. "By you?" he inquired with some wonder; "what then have you to do with me?" With the same ringing voice the old man went on,
Estein made no reply, but the two foster-brothers fell back, and placing themselves at the head of their twenty followers, entered the little village. They found that it consisted of a few mean houses clustered outside a high wooden stockade. Thorar led them up to a gateway in this fence, and crying, "Welcome, Estein!" stood aside to let the Norsemen file in.
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