“Keep your voice down. You know how dangerous it is for Lady Elspeth right now.”
“I understand the danger,” she said in a raised whisper. “I am more aware than you think.”
Magnus regarded her defiant stance. She was quite vexed about something and he had an inkling what it might be.
“You don’t like that you’re not in control.”
“That’s not true. I have only been trying to help and I do not appreciate being blocked.”
“Has it occurred to you that she might be trying to protect you?”
“Protect me from what? I saw the vision. It was an abandoned tower. I know about it so why can I not know where it is or join you there?”
“Because she believes that you are safer here.”
“And how would she know that?”
“That’s the question isn’t it, Freydis? How do you know any of this is real?”
“I just do.”
“And you cannot accept that perhaps she does as well?”
Freydis folded her arms across her chest. Thor’s teeth, she could be the most stubborn woman.
“What am I to do?”
“You are to do what you said you would from the beginning which is to stay with my sister until she doesn’t need you any longer and then return to Islay. I can say with certainty that you are missed there.”
Her whole demeanour changed. She dropped her arms to her sides and her expression softened. She opened her mouth as if to speak and closed it again. Magnus couldn’t tell her what to do, but she really should return to Islay before the winter. And he understood the need for control. He’d felt it slipping from his grasp at times since he’d met Elspeth. But somehow his course was entangled with hers. Their paths were now linked and he’d had to give up thinking he was in control of any of it. None of them were.
“I came to ask if there was anything I should do for Lady Elspeth should she fall into an episode again.”
“There is nothing you can do, but keep her from walking off the tower’s ledge or into a pool,” she said with a small smile tugging at her lips. “Keep her safe and make sure she feels safe. Talk to her, listen to her. Don’t be afraid of anything she tells you and don’t doubt her. Her gift is powerful and if she fights it, she will be harmed. The forces working through her will not be held at bay. She must embrace all of it and all will be well.”
The thought of some unseen force controlling the will of the woman he—what? Loved? Is that what this was?
“And in Odin’s eyes, you two are already married.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You have been brought together as part of the larger plan for her. There is no shame in your feelings for one another. They are real and they are blessed by the All-Father. I saw it in my runes.”
“What else did you see?”
“Naught that I will discuss with the likes of you,” she said with a broader grin now. “Take care of her, Magnus. She will need your light in the dark days ahead.”
Dark days, indeed. With battle looming and a possible English invasion, Magnus did not envision himself hiding away. But those battle plans would have to be left to his brother, Olaf of Dublin, the Scottish king, and Giric MacDomnail.
“Take this,” she said and handed him a smooth flat stone with a marking on it. She strung a string of leather through the small hole at the top and tied a knot at the end. He bent low so she could place it around his neck. “Algiz will protect you from anything you cannot see with your own eyes.”
He wasn’t sure he was ready to put his faith in a small stone, but because it meant something to Freydis, he would accept it. “Will it protect Elspeth too?”
“She is protected in other ways. The forces working through her will see to her safety in the other realms.”
Magnus didn’t like the sound of that. Other realms held frost giants and fire giants and elves and dwarves. He wasn’t interested in leaving her in any of those places without him being present to defend her.
Without warning, Freydis hugged him. He looked down at the top of her head with his arms held aloft.
