Six of the ships slowed and stayed off shore while the seventh beached. To Stefan's amazement, Anundi was the first to jump down off the rim of the ship. At the same time, Stefan dismounted and went to greet him. He was pleased to see his old friend…but he had bad news.
*
There was to be a celebration in the village and everyone was excited - everyone but Agnes. She was taking her walk along the shore, was the first to spot the Vikings and never said a word of warning as she calmly went to her bedchamber to hide. But instead of hiding, she hurried to her window to watch. She heard her husband shout commands, wished he had no voice, saw the Limonds line up on the other side of the river and willed their barge to sink. Left alone to fight seven full ships of able-bodied Vikings, surely the clan would lose and more than anything, she wanted to watch her husband die. Then she spotted her sons running as fast as they could…away from the village.
But the cowardly Vikings turned their ships and went away. Once they were gone, she sat down on her bed and wept. Was she never going to be rid of Macoran? What cruelty was this?
Macoran, on the other hand, decided after losing the last battle, the Vikings were too cowardly to attack and his chest swelled with pride. He promised his own store of wine and mead, and then proclaimed there would be laughter and dancing well into the night.
But Kannak was beside herself with grief. She could no longer see the ships, did not know where Stefan was and although he told her to stay there, he did not say to wait for him there or that he was coming back. Yet all she could do was wait. At length, she found the rock he hid behind when she first saw him and sat down. "I refuse to cry another tear. Only wee bairn cry and I…he has to come back, what will we do without him?" Her heart was slowly breaking and the longer he stayed away, the worse it got until she thought she would go daft. Still he did not come back and before dark, she would be forced to walk down the hill to the village and face her mother and Macoran with the truth.
The truth. For a moment she wondered what the truth was. For most of a year, she and her mother had hidden a Viking and although her father…her real father might not condemn them, the others surely would, especially those who had lost men in the Viking battles. Then what? They would be forced to live with her uncle Greagor in the north, she supposed and that meant she would lose her father all over again. Not only that, she would sorely miss Stefan.