“Ah.Yes.I forgetsometimes—forgive me.But that reminds me.That old woman Danan—yousaid you know her.”
“Yes.I’m a kind ofphysician at Fara.Not much of one, but…”
“She has told me you arevery good.A healer by spirit as well as by skill.”
“Really?”For a moment Caiwas distracted.She’d called him a hit-and-miss quack last timethey’d talked about his medical skills.“Yes, I know her.Shetrades me the herbs I need for my work.”
“Take care of her.Itmatters little really—she’d be back with the corn in spring—but Iwouldn’t wish her to die that way.”Addy shivered.“How strange,that the word of God should be put into practice so!No, not thatway.Keep watch, Cai.Look out for her.”
The incoming tide ran strongly, but itwas still a long haul from the island of Fara to shore.The sun haddriven off the ghostly fret and was making the sea dance insapphire and green before Fen called a halt.They had passed ahalfway point.Cai, glad enough to take his cue from so superior anoarsman, stopped rowing and rested his oar.Fen had pulledrhythmically all the way out, patterns of purposeful muscle risingto meet each stroke.He hadn’t so much as broken a sweat, and nowhe was looking at Cai as if in surprise that he wastired.
“I’m not,” Cai saiddefensively, trying to hide the tremor in his arms.“Who the hellcould keep up with a Viking, though?”
They were side by side on the boat’swooden bench.“Only another Viking,” Fen admitted easily.“Maybeit’s best you don’t try.I can take her from here.”
“What?No.I just need arest.”
“At risk of wounding you, Imay be better on my own.A second oar who isn’t quiteas…”
Cai broke into reluctant laughter.“Oh, God.Don’t start worrying about my feelings now.”
“Very well.A weak secondoar can unbalance a strong one, make his job harder.Just go andsit in the prow.”
Cai got up, still smiling.“Are yousaying I’ve been holding you back?Let me see your wound before youtake over this longship.You can… You can just lift up your jerkinfor me this time.”
Their eyes met in burning recognitionof what Cai’s routine check had unleashed yesterday.Fen did as hewas told, and Cai crouched in front of him long enough to ascertainthat the vigorous rowing hadn’t done any damage.No—the muscle wasrepairing itself, smoothing out.“You’re fine,” he said, glad hisrecent exertions allowed him to sound breathless.“You can coverup.We’d better not rock the boat.”
He went to sit.Fen watched himclosely.“I was afraid,” he said, “that you wouldn’t wish it.Tolie with me anymore, I mean—knowing what I am.”
Cai glanced up in surprise.“Idon’tknow what you are.I only know what you did.Theo used tosay that was what mattered—what we did, not what we’d thought aboutdoing.”
“That’s good.Because if weare judged on our wicked thoughts, I am headed fast for Aelfric’shell.”
“With me right behindyou.”Andyes, I would lie with you there, though you were the devilhimself.Caicouldn’t say it, but he held Fen’s gaze until he was sure themessage had got through.
“I feel as if I know yourTheo.Through you, and everything you’ve said about him.Maybethat’s what the old man meant when he told you there was no need togrieve.”
Cai shifted in the prow.He dipped hisfingers into the water, thoughtfully fretting its surface.It waslovely here.Fen picked up the oars, and Cai almost put out a handto stop him.What was it all about—this effort to get back to ashore, a home, where he had lost all sense of belonging?Whatawaited him at Fara?“I’m beginning to think,” he said slowly,“that my poor abbot—though I loved him, Fen, and I alwayswill—might not have been sane when he died.”
“Well—for what it’s worth,I too am losing certainties.I believed in the legend of theamulet, the treasure.But perhaps it was only an excuse for rapine.Our prophet did come up with Fara this year.The year before, hewas just as convinced it was White Bay.”
A helpless chuckle shook Cai.“Really?He said a different place…”
“Every year.Yes.”
Their laughter rang out across thewater, scaring up a piebald cloud of Addy ducks.“Oh, God,” Caimanaged at length, wiping his eyes.“Have we both been such fools?And as for that old lunatic in his cave, with his seals and hiseagle…”
“Cai.Hush.”
Cai frowned, leaning forwards.Hecould hear something.Was it the echoes of their own voices off thedistant rocks?No—more musical than that, familiar to Cai and yetstrangely altered.He shaded his eyes against the sun.
The seals were hauling out onto therocks.They had come in their droves, the light striking off theirsleek fur.Instead of tussling for the sunniest places on therocks, flopping and jousting with one another on the way, theyseemed to be moving as one.
Their focus was the old man standingon the rocks at the top of the beach.He was only a skeletaloutline at this distance, but Cai could make out that his handswere extended, as if in benediction.“He said… He said the sealscame to sing to him.”
“Which would be madness,except…”
Except that they were singing.It wasa music Cai couldn’t have imagined in this world.Their eeriebarking stretched out and clashed in wild harmonics, as if thegreat North Sea itself had found a voice.Cai got up, making theboat lurch wildly beneath him.He pointed, unable to get a wordout, and Fen stood beside him, grabbing his arm.They were just intime to see a vast sea-eagle sail out of the dawn, golden talonswrapped around a fish.
