Suddenly the wraith threw up its arms and seemed to sink beneath the waves, while a sound like that of a great laugh went up from sea to sky.
“Now here is the end!” growled Skallagrim, “For we’ve been lured to our doom!”
Ere ever the words had passed his lips the ship struck, and so fiercely that they were rolled upon the deck. Then suddenly the sky grew clear, the moon shone bright, and before them were tall cliffs and foam-washed rocks, and behind them a great wave rushed in towards them. From the hold of the ship there came a cry, for now their comrades were awake and they knew that death was upon them.
Eric gripped Skallagrim round the middle and looked aft. On rushed the great wave, and when it struck the ‘Gudruda’ burst all asunder. Yet by either the weavings of the Three Nons or Swanhild’s ‘deal with the devil’, Eric Brighteyes and Skallagrim Grimson were lifted on the wave’s foaming crest. Carried landwards, they were dashed about, near drowned until finally they were washed up senseless on Earl Atli’s stony shore.
#
Back in her bower in Atli’s hall, still crouching on the cold stone floor, still in the hideous guise of Toad the Familiar, Swanhild looked upon the visions as they passed before her. Suddenly a woman’s shape — her own shape — was there!
“It is done, Blood-sister,” said a familiar voice, her own voice. “Merrily I walked the waves, and oh, merry was the cry of Eric’s folk when Ran caught them in her cold net! But now thou must be thyself again, Blood-sister. Be as fair without as thou art foul within! So now arise, wake old Earl Atli thy husband, and go down to the southern cliffs — and see what thou shalt see.
But I must go, for now the cock crows heralding in the light of day! We shall meet no more, Blood-sister, till all this game is played out and another one is set — and then we shall part no more,” Then the shade of Swanhild crouched upon the floor before the hag-headed toad muttering “Pass! Pass! Let the glimmers fade, wither, wither and all fall away!”
Then Swanhild felt her flesh come back to her, and as it grew upon her so the shape of the Death-headed toad faded away to nothingness.
“Farewell, Blood-sister!” a voice croaked from the shadows. “Make merry as thou mayest, but merrier still shall be our endless nights together long after your strong, young hero had lost his strength and his golden hair turned to grey. Then we shall meet again, thou and I — and you will pay the price for me helping you to cheat the Fates and snare the love of Eric Brighteyes. Until that far off day, farewell sister!”
And then all was gone and all was still — save the wild beating of Swanhild’s black heart.
The End
