As Shef walked away one of his mates said to him in an undertone, “You chanced it there, Svipdag.”
Svipdag turned to him, eyes wide. Tried to speak. Tried again, and again. Nothing came out but a low gargling. Men saw the terror in Svipdag’s eyes as he realized that he meant to speak, but had been robbed of the ability as if a cord had been tied round his windpipe.
The other prisoners looked after Shef’s retreating back. They had heard stories of him, of the death of Ivar, of Halvdan, of how King Olaf had handed over all his luck and his family’s into this man’s keeping. They knew he bore the sign of some unknown god round his neck, his father, some had heard.
“He said, ‘do not speak’,” one of the Vikings muttered. “And now he can’t!”
“I’m telling you, he called the whales in too,” said another.
“And the Hidden Folk come to his help.”
“If I’d known all that, Ragnhild could have whistled herself hoarse before I came on this gods-forsaken trip.”
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” said Brand when Shef told him of his decision. “We’ll think of something. Get those greedy louts from the Crane out of the way, things’ll look better. We can send some lads south in the dories, maybe buy a boatload of food in Trondhjem, and a boat to put it in. You don’t have to walk off into the snow, even if someone else does.”
“That’s what I’m going to do anyway,” said Shef.
Brand hesitated, embarrassed. He felt he had spoken too gloomily earlier, provoked this insane decision. He remembered when he had first taken Shef under his protection, after they had put his eye out. He had taught him Norse, taught him how to use a sword properly, taught him the way of the drengr, the professional marching warrior. And Shef had taught him much too. Raised him to glory, and to riches—for the crisis now was one of food and fuel and ships, not of money.
“Look, no-one I know of has ever been deep into those mountains and come back, let alone come out the other side, Maybe the Finns do, but they’re different. It’s wolves and bears and cold. And where are you if you get through? Sweden! Or Swedish Finnmark, or somewhere. I can’t see why you’re doing this.”
Shef thought for a few moments before replying. “I think I have two reasons,” he said. “One is this. Ever since I went to the cathedral this spring, saw Alfred and—and Godive marry, I’ve felt that things were getting out of my hand. People pushed me, and I went along. I did what I had to. From the sandbank to the slave-market to Kaupang to the queen. Across the Upland and up to here. Chased by the Ragnarssons and Ragnhild and even by the whales. Now I think I’ve retreated as far as I mean to. From now on I’m going to go back. I have been deep into the darkness, into the smokehouse of the Hidden Folk, even. Now I have to get into the light. And I don’t mean to go back the way I came.”
Brand waited. Like most of the men of the North, he believed deeply in luck. What Shef was saying was that he meant to change his luck. Or maybe that his luck had turned. Some people would say that the young man had luck and to spare. But no man could judge of another’s luck, that was clear. “The other reason?” he prompted. Shef pulled his pole-ladder pendant forward from his chest. “I don’t know if you think this means anything,” he said. “Do you think I have a god for a father?”
Brand did not reply. “Well,” Shef went on, “I keep seeing things, as you know. Sometimes asleep, sometimes awake. I know someone is trying to tell me things. Sometimes it’s very easy. When we found Cuthred, I had been shown to look for a man turning a great mill. Or had I heard the mill-wheel creaking already? I don’t know. But then, and the time when Cwicca broke down the wall of the queen’s house to get me out, I had a warning. A warning about something that was happening right then. All that’s easy enough. But I have seen other things that are not so easy. I saw a hero dying, and an old woman. I saw the sun turn into a chariot pursued by wolves, and into a father-god’s face. I saw a hero ride to rescue Balder from Hel, and I saw the White Christ killed by soldiers of the Rome-folk who spoke our own tongue. I saw the heroes in Valhalla, and I saw how those who are not heroes are received there.