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"For your courtesy I thank you," he said. "But tell me, I pray you, where is Dame Elspeth gone, and where may I find her? For my mother, the Lady Adela, is passing ill." "The Lady Adela ill!" echoed Aasta. "Alas! alas!" "Elspeth has gone these two hours past towards Dunagoil," said Lulach. "So please you, my lord, I will run after her and bid her hasten to my lady's aid."
Blane's; but he thought he had yet time to run down and warn old Elspeth Blackfell, who had steadfastly refused to take the protection offered her in the chapel vaults, saying that she had a safe refuge of her own though where that refuge was none sought to know. Lulach followed her down to the little point of land that juts out into St. Ninian's Bay.
"I know the place," said Kenric; "'twas there that Aasta " "'Twas there that Rapp the Icelander found Earl Roderic's bairns, and from thence he carried them off. Those bairns, my lord, were Aasta the Fair and the boy Lulach." "Aasta? Lulach?" cried Kenric in astonishment, as he rose and began to pace the rocky floor. "And they were brother and sister?
He was glad that he had given her freedom from her thralldom. And now he thought of how she had bestowed upon him the great sword of his noble ancestor, and reflected that king Somerled was in truth Aasta's ancestor no less than his own. How sweet it was to think of the journey he had gone with her over to Gigha, the home from which as a child she had been carried off with Lulach!
"Ah! a magpie, and alone!" cried Kenric, seeing the bird in his path. "That is ill luck indeed! Give me some salt from your wallet, Lulach, for if this sign reads true then it were unwise in me to go farther without some salt in my pocket." "Alas!" said Lulach, "I have none. My wallet is empty!"
And Lulach the herd boy, having overcome his fears, crept nearer and stood apart. Roderic paused at seeing the old crone, and his face grew pale. "Unworthy son of Bute!" said Elspeth, pointing her thin finger at the island king, "you have heard this good maiden's curse. Even so do all the dwellers in Bute curse you at this hour.
"Long years ago, my lord, when he was but a child, and at the time when you were roving the seas in pursuit of Rapp the Icelander. Had you, instead of following your life of plundering, but come as a friend and brother to Earl Hamish, it may be that you might have found your boy. 'Twas not for me to seek you out, or to send Lulach to the home of a father who was no better than a murdering pirate.
It was even the man of whom we heard speech in Gigha, Rudri the Rover." "Since Lulach is dead, what boots it who slew him, Aasta? 'Tis but the misfortune of war," said Kenric, turning away. "Wait, my lord," said she, holding him back. "Methinks you do not know this Rudri. But Elspeth Blackfell took little time to discover that much.
"It is," said she, "that your isle of Gigha has been invaded and conquered by the Norsemen, and that your kinsman William MacAlpin has but now given up his life in telling me the tale." Kenric stood in troubled thought, a cloud upon his brow. "Where is Lulach?" he presently asked. "Over at Inch Marnock," she said, "and ill with his foot that he hurt in climbing the rocks two days since.
Catching Lulach by the long hair he speedily slew him. "'Tis done!" said Rudri when he saw that the lad was dead. "And now have we forestalled our enemies and assured to ourselves the victory. "On, on, my men!" he cried, turning to his followers. "The first blood of our enemies hath been spilled! On! on! the victory is sure!"
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