Part 26 (1/2)
CHAPTER XVII.
THE END OF THE STORY.
”A boon! a boon!” exclaimed Helgi. ”Kari seeks a boon. A wife, or a farm, or a pair of pigskin trousers; which is it, Kari? Before you win it you must sing us a stave. Strike up, man!”
”No boon I seek,” replied Kari. ”A maiden stands without who seeks King Estein, and will not come inside.”
”Aha!” laughed Helgi. ”Blows the wind that way?”
”What does she want?” asked Estein.
”I know not; she would not tell.”
”Tell her to come in,” said Earl Sigvald. ”Do you think it is fitting that the king should go out at every woman's pleasure?”
”That is what I told her, but she said she would see the king outside or go away.”
”Bid her come in or go away!” cried the earl.
”Nay, rather ask her what her errand is about,” said Estein.
”And tell her,” added Helgi as the bird-man turned away, ”that here sits the king's foster-brother, a most proper person at all times to hear a maiden's tale, and now most persuasively charged with ale.”
The man went down the hall again, and Earl Sigvald exclaimed testily,--
”Some thrall's sweetheart doubtless, come to babble her complaints.”
”Or perhaps the bride come to claim King Estein's hand,” suggested his son. In a minute Kari returned.
”She will not tell her business,” he said, ”but begs earnestly to see the king.”
”Bid her begone!” cried the earl. ”The king is feasting with his guests.”
”Did not her eyes sparkle and her trouble seem to leave her when she heard the king's foster-brother was here?” asked Helgi.
”I shall press his claims myself,” said Estein, rising from his seat.
”Will you see her then?” asked the earl.
”Why not?” replied Estein. ”Perchance she brings tidings of importance.”
”If you rise at every strange woman's bidding you will have many suitors,” said the earl.
”That is the lot of a king,” replied Estein, with a smile.
The smile died quickly from his face as he walked down the hall, and men noticed that he looked grave and preoccupied again. It was not that his thoughts were running on this unusual summons; as he pa.s.sed through the dark vestibule he felt only a little curiosity, and at the door he paused and looked out idly enough.
It was a fine starlight night, and down below he could see the glimmer of the sea, and across the fiord the black outline of the hills, and nearer at hand he heard the sough of the night breeze in the pines. Close outside, the tall, hooded figure of a woman stood clearly outlined, while he himself was obscured in shadow.
At the second glance, something in the pose of his strange visitor struck his memory sharply. She seemed at first afraid to speak, and, with rising interest, he said courteously,--