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All night long to Granger the sky seemed filled with uncouth legendary animals, which trooped across the horizon file on file. Sometimes they were Beorn's camels, sometimes they were timber-wolves or brindled huskies with yellow faces, but more often they were creatures of evil passions, for which there are no names.
He recognised them, but did not go outside to make them welcome, since he had not yet learnt their purpose. The door opened, and Beorn and Eyelids entered. There was nothing altered in Beorn's appearance; but Eyelids looked haggard and fatigued with travel. He came towards Granger with a stealthy tread, yet so slowly that he seemed rather to be drawing back.
One of the officers had ridden with the housecarls, and Beorn had told him to keep by the river-bank, as the men would assuredly make for a ship that was lying somewhere down the river, though whether at a distance of two miles or of twenty he knew not. Long before Beorn's return Wulf's wound had been examined. Unguents had been poured into it and bandages applied.
We don't want a repetition of the surprise we had from the Bretons. It will be but a short night's watch. 'Tis nine now, and by four it will be broad daylight. Beorn's men and ours will march a hundred yards out from the camp. Half can lie down to sleep at once, the other half we can post as sentries and relieve them at half-past twelve.
He was made terribly afraid by the direction they had taken, for he knew that Beorn's trapping grounds had always lain to the northwards, and never around God's Voice; they were still less likely to do so now, since he had quarrelled with the factor. Then why had he gone to the west? He turned to the girl at his side to question her, "Did you know that they were going there?" he said.
He was soon sound asleep, and remained so until Osgod touched him. He sat up in a moment. "By the stars it is past midnight, my lord, and it is time for us to relieve Beorn's party." The men were at once called to their feet, and the relief effected.
So they threw my hunting knife to me, and I girded it on. But Beorn's dagger fell on the floor of the boat, and he paid no heed to it, not even turning his head. Then the earl and three thanes went on board the fishing boat, and Egfrid would fain have come with him.
Then I looked in Beorn's evil face, and I thought that he was dead, but that to me seemed to matter not. Swiftly rose up the coast from out the sea, and I saw that it was like our East Anglian shore, forest covered and dark, but with pine and birch instead of oak and alder.
This experience had served to prove to them that, however much they hated, they were still indispensable to each other's safety, and must hold together. Granger, for his own peace of mind, had sought to find an explanation for this happening. If the beast was indeed Beorn's soul, then why was it exiled there, on the Forbidden River?
"Why, so he cried out as we came," said one of the men when he heard Beorn's words. "Maybe both had a hand in it," the leader said, and so they talked for a little. Then came two of my own serfs, who had followed me to see the sport, I suppose, at a distance, as idle men will sometimes, when hunting is on hand, and with them came Lodbrok's dog, the same that had brought me.
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