“Naught, I told you!” Tauno snapped, and turned to go.
“Hold,” the selkie called out. Tauno did.
“Is it that there’s nae wench for ye, when Niels and I hae ‘em?”
Hauau probed. “I believe Ingeborg wad mak’ ye welcome, and sure I’d na begrudge ye the pleasure.”
“D0 you imagine she-“ Tauno broke off. This time he did leave.
Dusk was thickening outside. A dim shape slid down a shroud and reached deck with a thump. Tauno trod close. Niels must strain to see, but the halfling easily recognized confusion upon the other.
“What were you doing there?” he demanded.
“Why, why, Eyjan has the crow’s nest, you know,” Niels
replied in a voice that trembled the least bit. “We were talking till she warned I’d better leave while I can make out what’s around me.”
Tauno nodded. “Yes, you’d miss no chance of her company, would you?”
He stared onward. Niels caught him by the wrist. “Tauno . . . sir. . . I pray you, hear me,” the youth pleaded.
The Liri prince halted. “Well?” he said after a partial minute.
Niels swallowed. “You’ve grown aloof. Cold to me-to every-
body, it seems, but most to me. Why? Have I wronged you in any way’? I’d not do that for the world, Tauno.”
“What makes you suppose you could do me harm, landling?”
“Well, your sister-your sister and I-“
“Huh! She’s a free being. I’m not such a fool as to judge her.”
Niels reached out in the gloaming that separated him from
Tauno. “I love her,” he said.
“How can you? We’re soulless, she and I, remember?”
“You can’t be! She… she’s so wonderful, so wonderful. I
want to marry her.. .if not in sight of man, then sight of God . . . abide with her, cherish her, till death comes for me. Tauno, I’d be a good husband. I’d provide well for her, and the children. My share of the gold, I know how to make that fruit-ful-Will you speak to her, Tauno? She’ll not let me talk of it, but will you, for my sake-and hers? Why, she could be saved, even-“ The babble strangled as the halfling took Niels by the arms and shook him, back and forth till teeth rattled. “Hold your mouth,” Tauno snarled. “Not another word, or I’ll smite you flat. Enjoy your little romp while it lasts. That’s what it is to her, you un-derstand, a romp, the latest of dozens. Naught else. Be glad for what she has a whim to lend you, and pester us not with your whining. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, forgive me, I’m sorry,” sobbed Niels. When Tauno let go, he sank to the deck.
The merman’s son loomed above him for a span, though it was aloft that his glance sought. Nothing stirred yonder save a wind-tossed lock of hair. He opened his lips to form speech in the Liri tongue, but closed them.
Slow resolve came over him. “Stay topside, Niels, till I say you may come below,” he ordered.
Swiftly, then, he sought a hatch. He did not trouble to put cover on coaming, which would have muffled sounds. Straight to Ingeborg’s pallet he went and roused her.
Rain blew soft from Ireland and blurred the world into dove color. It whispered louder than the breeze as it struck the waves and dimpled them. Through coolness and damp, each breath one drew carried a ghost of green fields.
A masthead lookout being useless, Tauno and Eyjan swam ahead, scouts. The cog was dim in their sight; they were together by themselves for the first time in a long stretch. At the pace of sailing today, they moved easily, well able to converse.
“You were cruel to Niels,” she said.
He chopped a splash out of the water. “You heard us?”
“Of course.”
“What have you told him?”
“That you were in a bad mood and he must not take it to heart.
He was grieving. Speak kindly to him, Tauno. He worships you.”
“And adores you. Young dolt!”
“Well, I am his first, his very first, did you know?” Eyjan
smiled. “He leams quickly and well. Let him gladden many more in his life after we’ve parted.”