Part 19 (1/2)
THE MAGICIAN.
As he said the last words Atli stooped, and lifting two large logs cast them on the fire. For a minute he watched them crackle and spit sparks, bending his brows as he deliberated how he should begin.
Then he turned to Estein and said,--
”When I saw thee by the sh.o.r.e at Hernersfiord, now some two years gone, didst thou think then that Atli was a stranger?”
”I thought so indeed,” replied Estein, ”though some words you let fall pointed otherwise.”
”Yet, Estein,” the old man said, ”when thou wert no higher than that bench whereon thou sittest, I dandled thee in mine arms, and those fingers that now clasp a sword hilt, and, if men say true, clasp it right firmly, played once with my beard. Less snow had fallen on it then, Estein. Thou canst not remember me?”
Estein looked at him closely before replying.
”Nay, Atli, my memory carries me not so far back.”
”So it was,” Atli continued; ”but chiefly was I the friend of thine ill-fated brother Olaf.”
”Of Olaf?” exclaimed Estein, with a slight start.
”Ay, of Olaf. Often have I fought by his side on sea and sh.o.r.e, and dearly, more dearly than I ever loved man or woman since, I loved the youth. Thou even as a child wert strangely like him in features, and as I look upon thee now, there comes back memories of blither days. Wonder not then that I long was fain to see thee.”
”Then why came you not to my father's house?” said Estein. ”A friend of his son's would ever be welcome.”
”Thy father and I fell out,” replied Atli, ”the wherefore I must still keep behind the shrouding-curtain, but for my present purpose it matters little. I could not visit Hakonstad; I could not even stay in the land of my birth. Olaf fell.”
His voice trembled a little, and he paused. Estein said nothing, but waited for him to go on. Then in a brisker tone he continued,- -
”For some years I sailed the west seas; but I was growing old and my strength was wearing away with the wet work and the fighting, so I hied me home again.”
”And my father?” asked Estein. ”Knew not of my coming,” Atli replied. ”Of friends and kinsmen I had few left in the land, but I had long had other thoughts for myself than the tilling of fields and the emptying of horns at Yule. Often at night had I sat out.
[Footnote: To ”sit out” was a method of reading the future practised by sorcerers, in which the magician spent the night under the open sky, and summoned the dead to converse with him.] I had read the stars, and talked with divers magicians and men skilled in the wisdom of things unseen. I wandered for long among the Finns, I dwelt with the Lapps, and learned the lore of those folks. Then I came to Jemtland, where cunning men were said to live.”
”Cunning!” exclaimed Estein furiously; ”treacherous hounds call them.”
”Cunning, indeed, they are,” said the old man, ”but not wise.
This Jomar here is held a spaeman by the people.”
He glanced contemptuously at the sleeping figure on the floor.
”Since I came,” he went on, ”I have taught him more than he could have learned in a lifetime here and now, as thou hast seen, he fears and obeys me as a master. With him I took up my abode, living in a spot known only to few. Yet my thoughts turned continually to Norway, and chiefly flew to thee, Estein. I dreamt of thee often, and at last a voice”--his own sank almost to a whisper as he spoke--”a voice bade me seek thee. How I fared thou knowest.”
”I would that I had given more heed to your warning,” said Estein gloomily.
”It all came true then?” cried Atli. ”Nay, there is no need to answer. Truth I tell, and truth must happen.”
”Have you, then, further rede to give me?”
”Ay, I have heard of this spell and the sore change that has befallen thee, and in my dreams and outsittings I have seen many things--an old man habited in a strange garb, and a maid by his side. Ha! flew the shaft true?”
So carried away was Estein by the seer's earnestness, and so suddenly did his last words strike home, that the thought never occurred to him that this might only be the gossip of his followers come in time to Atli's ears. It seemed to him an inspired insight into his past, and he started suddenly, and then said slowly,--