“Let us go then,” Soren said, urging his horse forward, down the road toward the Bay of Firth and then west toward Hamnavoe, the harbor town. The first hours passed by in silence.
The winds that shaped Orkney whipped around them as they did most days. Very few stands of trees could survive because of the strength of those winds.
He asked them to ease for now and they did. Ran noticed the change.
“Did you do that?” she asked. He nodded. “What else can you do?”
“I have not tried too many things,” he admitted. “Not knowing if there are limits or an amount of this power, I did not want to use it up.” He slowed his pace. “I can control the winds and clouds and storms. I can make lightning. And I was able to fly with the winds.”
“I would have never imagined speaking of such things in a calm manner, but it is how I feel about what has happened to me,” Ran said. “I thought that the sea was dragging me along with it, somehow keeping me alive and breathing in it. But then, I held up my hand,” she said, doing that. “And I could see through it.”
Her hand, once flesh and bone, now turned again to water in the shape it should be. Just as she’d done when Ander lay unconscious on her lap. She was looking at him and did not even realize it. Soren nodded at it and she followed his gaze.
“Like this!” she said, excited at the sight of it. “How far can that go? When you are not in the sea?”
Soren asked. The sound of a rider approaching stopped them from finding out.
“Do you know who it is?” Ran asked, turning around and shielding her eyes from the sun to see.
“Looks like a boy,” Soren said. As that boy grew closer, he recognized the lad. “A servant in the bishop’s household.”
“Mayhap Father Ander sent him?”
“Most likely,” Soren answered.
It took but a few minutes for the boy to catch up with them. Soren waved to the young servant and called him over.
“Father Ander sent me to find you,” the boy said, out of breath from the riding.
“How did you find us?” Soren asked, waiting for the boy to regain his breath.
“Father sent me to your aunt’s cottage and she said you headed in this direction. Toward the lakes.”
Soren took out the skin holding water and held it out to the boy. “What is your name?”
“Kelsig,” the boy answered before taking a deep pull of the skin.
“Rolf’s son?”
“Aye, Rolf the miller.” A good man and one who wanted his son to succeed in life. Serving in the bishop’s household could lead to an education and training in the Church. Since Bishop Dolgfinnr answered to the Archbishop of Trondheim in Norway, there was travel and many other opportunities for those in his service.
“So Kelsig Rolfson, what message did Father Ander send you to tell me? Or did you bring one?”
“He said he would meet you in two days’ time on the coast. Near the squares. He said you would know what that meant.” Kelsig paused and looked from Soren to Ran and back again. “You do know what that means, do you not?” he asked. When Soren did not respond quickly enough, the boy continued. “Because I do not want to have to come back all this way and tell you.”
Ran burst out laughing at the aggrieved tone and Soren smiled, nodding at Kelsig. “I am glad to tell you that I do understand the message and you will not have to ride to me again.”
And, within minutes of reaching them, young Kelsig Rolfson was riding back to Kirkwall. Once he was out of sight, Soren took out the map and opened it, holding it so Ran could see it.
“I know of nothing on the coast there,” Soren said. “I have been there and passed by the area by boat and nothing is built there.”
“I wonder what the squares are or what they mean?” Ran asked. “If we take this same road north, we will pass between the two lakes and can explore the squares Einar marked there.”
Soren agreed. “I know that this circle is the old burial cairn. Then this one would be the stones near the southern edge of Loch Harray, to the east of Loch Stenness.” Stone circles and burial cairns were scattered across all the islands of Orkney. Sometimes the stones were appropriated away for other needs, but the grave sites, some thought to be haunted, were usually left untouched.
“But those squares make no sense to me,” Ran said. “Unless something has been built there—barns or storage buildings—since I left?”
“Nay,” Soren said. “Well, we will see when we arrive there.”
