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"Fear not," she said, "the fire is out. Now to the work." "What must we do, then?" "Thou must do this. Thou must enter and slay Eric." "That I can not that I will not!" said Gizur. She turned and looked at him, and lo! her eyes began to flame again upon his eyes they seemed to burn. "Thou wilt do as I bid thee," she said.
For now all held that Swanhild's was a true tale, and Eric the most shameful of men, and therefore they were willing to stretch the law against him. Also, being absent, he had few friends, and those men of small account; whereas Ospakar, who backed Swanhild's suit, was the most powerful of the northern chiefs, as Gizur was the most skilled lawman in Iceland.
Blacktooth sat in his booth and by him sat Gizur his son the Lawman. When he saw a beauteous lady, very richly clad, enter the booth he did not know who it might be. But Gizur knew her well, for he could never put Swanhild from his mind. "Lo! here comes Swanhild the Fatherless, Atli's widow," said Gizur, flushing red with joy at the sight of her.
On the morrow of these tidings Skallagrim spoke to Eric. "This is my counsel, lord," he said, "that we ride out by night and fall on the folk of Gizur at Coldback, and burn the stead over them, putting them to the sword. I am weary of sitting here like an eagle in a cage." "Such is no counsel of mine, Skallagrim," answered Brighteyes.
Yet they must wait till darkness fell before they dared enter the place, lest they should be seen and notice of their coming should be carried to Gizur and Swanhild. And this came into the mind of Eric, that of all the hours of his life that hour of waiting was the longest.
He stood a moment swaying to and fro, then let his axe drop, threw his arms high above him, and with one loud cry of "Eric!" fell as a rock falls dead upon the dead. But Eric was not yet gone. He opened his eyes and saw the death of Skallagrim and smiled. "Well ended, Lambstail!" he said in a faint voice. "Lo!" cried Gizur, "yon outlawed hound still lives!
Away speeds the great blade, flashing like lightning through the rays of the setting sun, and behold! as men watch it is gone gone in mid-air! Since that day no such sword as Whitefire has been known in Iceland. "Now slay thou me, Gizur," says the dying Eric.
Gizur smites him with his sword, but Eric does not stay, and while men wait and wonder, Brighteyes sweeps him into his great arms ay, sweeps him up, lifts him from the ground and reels on. Eric reels on to the brink of the gulf. Gizur sees his purpose, struggles and shrieks aloud. But the strength of the dying Eric is more than the strength of Gizur.
And he told Eric, who could now walk and grew strong again, that he and Jon had ridden with Gudruda the Fair to Horse-Head Heights, seeing no man, and had left her there to go on with her thralls. He had come back also seeing no one, for the weather was too cold for the men of Gizur to watch the fell in the snows.
Otkell listened in amaze and then answered that he had done so because of the counsel that Gizur himself and Geir the priest had told Skamkell. 'He lied, then, replied Gizur; 'we gave no such counsel; and Gunnar and his friends were called, and Gizur stood forth and bade Gunnar make his own award.
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