She told him as coherently as she could, but as with many of her visions, what she had seen became less clear when she tried to put it into words.
“Be extra vigilant,” Tormod ordered the warriors. “I will keep you safe,” Tormod assured her.
She clung to him. A deep sorrow welled up from inside her, but she refused to let the tears fall. Not over a dream. She heard a now familiar croak and looked up. “The ravens,” she said, gesturing towards the mast where they sat.
“If only they could talk,” Tormod replied. “Or maybe it is they who speak through you.”
“Perhaps.” She made her way to the prow of the boat and grabbed on to the side, staring at the place where they would land. It would be hard work pulling the boats across even though it wasn’t far, but it would be worth it. Before, she had worried about how she would react to her father and stepmother, but now a much greater danger faced them. An enemy waited for them. An enemy far more powerful than her father. She was sure of it. As sure of it as she was sure her father was dead.
She closed her eyes, trying to make sense of all her visions. The bear and the wolf and the hawk. The sound of thunder. Thatsound filled her, reverberated through her very being. It wasn’t fear it made her feel, but peace. She smiled to herself. All along it had been Tormod. Why were her visions so slippery? Why could they not just be clear? Or perhaps it was the lack of clarity that mattered. She didn’t actually see the future, since the future could always be changed by her actions, the actions of others. Nothing was set in stone. Yet.
For a moment, she nurtured an ember of hope her father still lived. Then it sputtered and died. She knew in her heart he was dead. Betrayed.
The boat’s prow scraped against shingle. She opened her eyes as Tormod picked her up and lifted her onto the shore. When he put her down, he didn’t let go straight away, but held onto her and kissed her thoroughly until Björn nudged him.
“Just because you have a woman,” his cousin grumbled.
Tormod let her go and laughed. “You have Ylva.”
Björn gave him a dark look. “No one has Ylva. Ylva does what she pleases.”
“Then maybe it is time someone tried harder to please her,” Tormod said.
Björn’s expression grew darker, and he turned away.
Aoife crossed to where the few other women who had accompanied them waited, ready to assist if necessary. As a group, they made their way across the narrow stretch of land separating the two lochs at the isthmus. The men dragged the boats up a narrow stream and then finally across bare land, using tree trunks hewn for the purpose where necessary, until they reached the edge of Loch Llumonwy.
“My lady,” Tormod said as he lifted her again. He splashed through the shallow water with her in his arms and set her down in the longship, then climbed aboard himself.
“I could have walked,” she said.
“I know. But I don’t want your father to think you have become a barbarian. You should arrive looking like a lady.”
Aoife said nothing. She felt little need to turn up looking for anyone’s approval. She stared down the loch, seeing the familiar landscape, albeit from a different angle. Once this had been her home, and yet it had been a long, long time since the word had meant what she believed it should.
“How does it feel to be going home?” Tormod asked.
“I was just thinking…” She stopped, looked up at him and tried to smile. “Car Cadell has not felt like home for a very long time, not since my mother died. And yet…”
“And yet?”
“And yet in so many ways it is home. Or was.”
“Was?”
“My home is with you now,” she explained, frowning at him.
He stared at her for a moment, then reached for her hands and held them in his own. A simple gesture and yet it made tears spring to her eyes. “We will be there soon. And once things are settled, we will go home, together.”
They stood side by side as they journeyed down the loch. The winds were with them and it would take less than an hour to get there. Aoife wondered how long it would be until they saw movement on the shore.
When they were more than halfway to the fort and had seen no signs of life, she turned to Tormod. “Do you not think it is odd?”
“The stillness?”
She nodded. There was barely even a sound of nature beyond their boats.
“Silence!” Tormod ordered.
