It was even as I thought. There lay in state, as his men had left
him, a wonderful old chief, whose long, white beard swept like a
snowdrift down the crimson cloak in which he was shrouded. They had
set him on just such a low, carved bedstead as that which we had
found outside the house, dressed in his full mail, and helmed, and
with his sword at his side, such a priceless weapon, with
gold-mounted scabbard and jewelled hilt, as men have risked the
terrors of grave mounds to win. His white hand rested on the
pommel, and he was facing forward as if looking toward the far
shore which he was to reach through the flames. But there was
naught terrible in his look, and even my fears passed as I saw the
peacefulness of that last sleep.
The smoke thinned quickly from the chamber; for it had only soaked
into it from the peat against its roughly made walls, over which
the fagots had been piled too heavily and closely for their
purpose. Then we saw that all the deck round the bier was full of
caskets and bales, and that on the far wall hung weapons--swords
and axes, spears, and bows and arrows, and with them mail shirts
and helms and shields, such as the chief himself might wear. And by
the side of the chief, packed carefully in a rushen basket, were
the bowls, one metal, and the rest of black earthenware, which held
the food for the grave, according to our custom. There was a tall
jar of wine also, covered with its little silver drinking cup.
Now we stood for a little while silent, and then Dalfin spoke.
"What is that yonder?" he asked under his breath, and pointing to
the far end of the chamber. "As it were a heap of mail and linen."
I could not see what he meant, for I stood on one side, but Bertric
stepped a pace toward him, and looked more closely past the bier,
which almost hid whatever the pile might be. It seemed the only
thing set carelessly, for all else was in perfect order. Then he
started somewhat, and spoke hurriedly.
"As I live," he cried, but so low that the cry was all but stifled,
"it is a girl! Is she also dead or in a swoon?"
He stooped, after a moment's doubt, and went straight into the
place. It was so low at the sides of the bier which he must pass,
that he was almost double until he reached the foot, and stood up
under the ridge. Then he bent, and lifting his burden brought it
out into the open air, carrying it toward the after deck away from
the penthouse.
Then we saw that it was indeed a girl, tall and pale, with long
tresses of yellow-golden hair plaited and bound with some strange
gold-woven blue band, dressed in white, with a beautiful light coat
of mail over the kirtle.
"She is alive," said Bertric, setting her down very gently. "Either
the smoke in that close chamber--or fear--has overcome her. One of
you get water from the cask forward."
I went hastily; but I had to search for somewhat in which to bring
it, and was a few minutes before I found where the ship's buckets
hung under the gunwale right forward. But meanwhile, Dalfin, with
no fears in him, had gone gently to the penthouse and brought
thence the pitcher of wine and the silver bowl, so that when I came
back those two were trying to get some of the wine between the pale
lips, though without much success. Now we bathed her face with the
cool water, and presently the colour began to come back slowly,
though she did not stir.
"We are rough nurses at best," said Bertric; "but we can do better
than this. Let us get the bedstead that is forward, and set a fold
or two of the awning on it for her to rest on. Better than the hard
deck when she comes to herself, and maybe not so terrifying."
We left Dalfin to tend her, and brought the bedstead and canvas
with all speed, and so lifted her on it. Then Bertric went back
into the house and brought thence a blue cloak which lay where she
had fallen, and covered her with it, for the night was chill now.
It was her own, and with it he brought a light helm made of steel
bands and transparent horn between them, which must have fallen
from her head.
Maybe this maiden was of twenty years, or less, and to me, at
least, who had no sisters as had the others, she seemed beautiful
altogether. I know that had she faced us in life in the entry of
the chamber, clad as she was in her mail and helm, I had been sure
that she was a Valkyria, sent hither by Odin to choose the hero
yonder for his halls.
"She is long in coming round," said Bertric presently. "It may be
as well to close up that chamber before she sees it open, lest she
take us for common robbers, and be terrified."
Dalfin laughed a little.
"Helm and mail and fear should not go together," he said.
"She will wake without thought of what she has tried to be,"
answered Bertric. "Get the place closed, Malcolm, anywise."
Now Dalfin and I went together, and set back the timbers in their
places. But they would not bide there properly, and I took up the
hammer we had used to take them down, and drove one or two of the
upper nails again lightly, Dalfin kneeling and holding the ends
below. Whether the sharp click of the iron roused the girl or not I
cannot say, but I had not driven more than three before I heard a
little cry behind me, and turned to see if there was anything
amiss.
The girl was sitting up, and seeming not to heed Bertric at
all--for he was behind her and supporting her--was looking at us
two with wide eyes of fear and wonder. And when I turned of a
sudden, she set her hands together and held them out toward me as
if she prayed, and cried to me:
"Asa Thor! Asa Thor! will you leave me? Is there no place in
Freya's hall--in Gladsheim--for a maiden, if to Asgard she may not
come?"
I had no answer. For the moment I thought that she saw some vision
of the Asir beyond my ken, and then knew that it was indeed to
myself that she spoke. For I stood at the door of the house of the
dead, with Thor's weapon--the hammer--in my hand, and she wandered
in her mind with the weakness that comes after a swoon.
"Hush, lady, hush," said Bertric in a wonderfully gentle voice. "It
is not Thor whom you see, but only a friend."
But seeing that I made no answer, nor moved, for I was at a loss
altogether, she turned to Dalfin, who still knelt beside me,
watching her in blank amaze. The Norse gods were all but unknown to
him, save perhaps as he had heard their names now and then from the
Irish Danes.
"You must be Freyr, you other of the greeters of the slain. Speak
for me, I pray you, to the hammer bearer, that I may go whither my
grandfather is gone, if so be that I am dead."
"Nay, lady," said Dalfin, with all courtesy, "I do not know him you
mean. I am only Dalfin, Prince of Maghera, of the northern
O'Neills."
Now, at that magnificent "only" I saw Bertric trying to stifle
somewhat like a grin beyond the shoulder of his charge.
"Lady," he said, "we are but mortal men. We are here to help you,
for the ship has not taken fire, and you are safe."
She gave a little gasp and sank back on the roll of canvas we had
set for a pillow, and her eyes closed. I put back the last timber
hastily, and came aft, getting out of sight behind the bedstead,
being in no wise willing to be hailed as Thor again. As for Dalfin,
he poured out another cup of the wine and gave it to Bertric, who
had signed to him for it.
"She will be herself directly," he said sagely. "Who was it that
she took me for?"
"Only a heathen god, and a worthy one," answered the Saxon, setting
the cup to the lips of the girl, and making her drink some of its
contents slowly. "Neither you nor Malcolm will ever be held quite
so highly again. Make the most of it."
I think that he meant the lady to hear him speak thus cheerfully,
and it is certain that she did so. A little wan smile flitted
across her face, and then she flushed red, and opened her eyes. Her
first glance fell on the penthouse, and she shuddered somewhat.
Then she sat up and looked round for us, seeing Bertric for the
first time, as he stood at the head of the rough couch.
"Forgive me, friends," she said quietly. "I think I was not quite
myself. I must have been in a long swoon. There was smoke also
rising round me when last I knew anything."
Now she slipped from the bedstead and set her feet on the deck,
facing us. I saw her look pass quickly over our dress, and minded
that we were in no holiday trim. She saw Bertric in the thrall's
dress, and Dalfin in his torn and scorched and sea-stained green
hunting tunic and leather hose, and myself only in the Norse dress,
and that war torn and grimed with the fight in the hall, which
seemed so many years ago now, and with the long sea struggle that
came thereafter. Yet she did not shrink from us.
"I cannot understand it all," she said. "How comes it that you are
here, and thus? You seem as men who have fought, and are hardly yet
restored after the weariness of fight."
"We have fought, lady, and have fared ill. We were captives and
have escaped; and as we fled by sea we fell in with this ship when
at our wits' end."
So I answered, for my comrades looked at me. The fight was mine, so
to speak.
"It seems well for me," she said, smiling somewhat sadly. "I had no
thought but to be burnt. Now I have escaped that. Tell me how it
may have been."
I did so, wondering all the time how she came to be in that
terrible place, for she spoke of escape. That she would tell us in
her own time, no doubt.
"What can be done now?" she asked, speaking to us as to known
friends, very bravely.
If she had doubts of us, she hid them. Perhaps that we owned to
being escaped captives explained much to her--else she had surely
wondered that the tattered Dalfin claimed to be a prince. Yet he
was princely, both in look and bearing, as he rose up and made
himself known, with a bow which none but a courtier could have
compassed.
"Bertric is shipmaster," I said; "he will answer."
"The ship is yours, lady, and we can but serve you," he answered.
"Now, it depends on the wind when it comes with dawn, as no doubt
it will, what course we can take, for we are too few to work the
ship rightly. We had thought of trying to make the Norway shore at
the nearest point we could reach, and so setting the ship, and the
hero who lies in her, in the hands of those who will do him the
honour that he needs at the last."
At that, to our great surprise, she shook her head.
"That you cannot do; at least, you may not go back to the land
whence he came. Hall and town may be in the hands of our worst foe,
else I had not been here."
"We cannot be sure of making your haven in any case. We should have
sought such haven as we might, had we been alone."
"And you thought nothing of the treasure, which will be surely
taken from you?"
"We had not thought of it, lady. We have been on board the ship but
three hours or so. What thought might have come to us I cannot say.
But it is not ours, and we could not rob the dead."
He said that quite simply, and as the very truth, which must be to
us as a matter of honour.
"Tell me who you are," she said. "The prince I know already.
Dalfin, I think it was, an Irish name."
Dalfin bowed again, well pleased. Then he took on himself to make
us known in turn, as gravely as if in his father's court.
"This is my host, Malcolm, son of the Norse Jarl of Caithness, who
has unfortunately succeeded his brave father after a gallant fight,
in which I was honoured in taking part. This is Bertric the Thane,
of Lyme, in England, a shipmaster of long standing. He joined us
when we two escaped from Heidrek, who calls himself the Seafarer,
and held us captive after burning out my host and his folk."
"Heidrek the Seafarer!" she said, with a sharp sigh, looking up in
wonder at us. "When was it that he did this harm to you?"
"It was three days ago," I answered. "He fell on us at dawn, and by
noon we were at sea with him as captives. That same night we
escaped, thanks to the young chief, Asbiorn."
"Then he came straightway from your home and fell on mine," she
said gravely. "Surely the wrath of the Asir will fall on Heidrek
ere long, if, indeed, the Asir care aught what a warrior does of
wrong."
"Has he burnt you out also, lady?" asked Dalfin.
"That I doubt," she answered shortly. "But it was with his help
that I myself was set afloat to be burned."
Then her strength seemed to give way at last as the fullness of her
trouble came to her, and she turned from us and sank down sideways
on the bed where she sat, and wept silently. It was hard for us to
stand and see this; but we were helpless, not at all knowing what
we could do. I suppose that we could have done nothing, in truth;
but it seemed as if we ought to have been of some help in word, at
least.
At last she ceased, and sat up again, trying to smile.
"Yesterday, I had thought myself far from such foolishness as
this," she said. "Today, I know that this mail and helm of mine and
the sword that lies yonder in the chamber where you found me are
not fitting for me. They are an idle boast and empty. I am only a
weak woman--and alone."
Almost was she to breaking down again, but she was brave. And then
Bertric spoke for the three of us.
"Lady," he said, "we are homeless wanderers, but we would not have
you think yourself altogether alone so long as we can plan for you.
Mayhap we can do no more, but, at least, we shall see. I cannot
think that all hope is lost. See, we have the ship, and it is high
summer. Not one of us can be worse off than we have been of late,
and we may win to comfort once more."
Thereat she looked at the three of us, and rose up and stretched
her hands toward us, as in greeting.
"I will trust you," she said. "I will think of you as friends and
brothers in trouble, and in enmity to Heidrek the evildoer. It must
be that you three have wrought loyally together through the long
storm, and you can never be aught but friends thereafter, for you
have tried one another. Let me be as the fourth of you without
favour."
"Lady," said Dalfin, "I have sisters at home, and they were wont to
share all the sport of myself and my brothers, even as you say, as
of our number without favour. 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 both
said that he was right, and she knew well what we meant, and was
content. Moreover, by naming our titles once again, though they
were barren enough here in all truth, he told her that it was on
our honour to help her.
"I am more than content," she said softly. "I am no longer
friendless. Now I will tell you what befell me, and then you shall
plan what you may, not in anywise thinking too much of me, but for
all four of us."
She set the blue cloak round her as if chill, and was silent,
thinking for a few minutes. Bertric and I leant on the gunwale
close by, and Dalfin set himself on the deck near us. And all the
while she spoke, Bertric was glancing eastward across the still
water for the first sign of the breeze we longed for. I know now
that on him was a dread lest it should bring with it the brown
sails of Heidrek's two ships; but he did not show it. It was likely
that men would have watched for the smoke of the burning ship, and
that when they did not see it, would put out to search, guessing
what had happened.
"Yonder lies my grandfather," the lady said presently. "He was a
king in the old days before Harald made himself the one ruler in
the land who should so call himself. But he cared not at all for
the name, so that he held his own place among his own people, and
therefore let it be, for he was a friend of Harald's and helped him
to the one throne. Whereby we have lived in peace till just now,
when the old chief grew feeble. Then came my far cousin, Arnkel,
and would take first place, for my father, the old man's son, was
dead. That my grandfather would not suffer. He would have me rule,
for I should not be the first woman who had done so in his little
realm. One of my ancestresses fought as a shield maiden--as I
thought myself until today--in the great Bravalla fight long ago.
It is her mail which I have on now. Arnkel pretended to agree to
this, being crafty. It pleased the chief, and deceived me--till
yesterday. Then at last I knew that he did but wait for the death
of my grandfather, Thorwald, and then would get rid of me and my
claims. So Thorwald died, and we would set him in his ship and
build a mound over her in all honour. But to do that must sail her
from up the long fjord, where we have our place, to a low shore
which lies open to the sea near its mouth, for with us is no place
where we may find such a spot as we needed. A little village of
ours is there on the coast, at which we might beach and draw up the
ship; and so we made all ready, even as you see it now, save for
closing the chamber, and sailed thither after the storm had passed,
in the bright night. There we beached the ship, with the rollers
under her, while the people made ready the place for the mound.
"Then suddenly, from over the near hills came Heidrek and his men,
and fell on us as the folk worked. I sat on the deck here alone at
that time, clad thus for the last rites, and saw the warriors swarm
out of a little valley on my folk, and rose up to go to them with
my arms. Then came Arnkel on board in haste, and bade me shelter in
the chamber. The ship was to be set afloat lest the fight should go
against us. But I would not go."
There she stopped, and a look of remembered terror crossed her
face.
"He had two men with him; and all the rest--our courtmen and the
freemen who loved me, as I think--were running to the fight. So
they made no more ado, but carried me thither, bound me that I
might not cry out, and then set up the timbers hastily and fastened
them. So I must lie helpless and hear what went on. They went
ashore, and soon the ship groaned and creaked over the rollers, but
stopped before she was afloat. Men came then and cast things on
board, which were the fagots and the peat for firing; but I could
not cry out, for my head was too closely muffled. I think you would
say that I was gagged. The noise of the fight went on, and seemed
to come nearer. Then the ship took the water. I heard men leap on
board her, and the sail was hoisted. One cried that the chief would
have a fitting funeral after all, Heidrek or no Heidrek; and
another said that the treasure Heidrek sought would be lost to him.
I heard the creak of the yard, and I felt the ship swing to the
wind, and then the men went over the side, and there was silence.
Only from the shore after a little space came a great cry, 'Skoal
to King Thorwald, and farewell!' and with that the war horns blew
fiercely, and the battle cry rang again. Then came the terrible
stifling smoke, and I knew that Arnkel had thus rid himself of me.
"Presently I freed myself from the gag and the bonds, and tried to
beat down the end of the house, but I could not. I took an axe from
the wall, feeling for it in the darkness, but I waxed faint and
breathless, and the roof is low and I could not use it. I mind that
I set it back; and that is all until I woke here to see, as I
thought, Thor with his hammer and Freyr beside him, and so--"
That was all; and it was enough. Only Dalfin had one question to
ask.
"I wonder this evil Arnkel parted with the treasure so lightly."
"My folk would not have let him lay hands on it in any case," she
answered plainly. "And they would keep it from Heidrek."
"That is how the men of Heidrek fell on us," I said. "He must have
landed his men beyond your sight, but not far off."
"There were two ships seen passing north in the storm," she said.
"They will have been his, and he must have berthed them in some
near fjord. There he would hear of this that was to be, and of the
treasure which the old king took with him to his grave."
Then Bertric said thoughtfully enough:
"It may well be that the fight has gone hardly for Heidrek, else I
think that he would have put off to follow the ship before this.
After all, it may be that we can sail back to your fjord and tell
this tale to your folk, and so make an end of Arnkel and his
misdeeds. Now, lady--for as yet we do not know your name--we will
rig the forward awning for you, and there you shall sleep. Here is
this bed, and if there is aught else--"
"My name is Gerda," she answered, smiling. "I forgot that you could
not know it. Yes, I am weary, and what you will do is most kind.
See, there is one chest there which I would have with me. It holds
the gear that was my grandmother's, and I may surely use it in my
need. I had never to ask my grandsire for aught but he would give
it me."
We had all ready in very little time, and there we left her, and
she smiled at us and thanked us again, and so let fall the awning
curtains and was gone. Then we three went aft and sat down and
looked at one another. We had a new care thrust on us, and a heavy
one.