Blackness no longer dwelt under the bow deck: instead, a twilight wherein he could see her clearly, till she cast her body against his and he was caught in the whirlwind of her kiss. Trumpets, drums, and exploding flames burst loose in him. “Get those stupid clothes off,” she soon commanded, and plucked at them herself.
—They lay resting for the next passage. “I love you,” he said into the fragrance of her hair. “With my very soul, I love you.”
“Hush,” she warned. “You’re a man-yes, a man, however young—and christened.”
“I care not!”
“You will. You must.” Eyjan leaned on an elbow to look down at his countenance. Most gently, her free hand descended on his breast. “You have an immortal spirit to ward. Need has made us shipmates, but I’d not be the means of your ruin, darling friend.”
Blinded by sudden anguish, he groped at her bosom and gasped, “I can’t leave you. Never can I. And you-you’d not leave me, would you? Say you won’t!” She calmed him with kisses and embraces till he could listen to her: “We’ll not fret about the morrow, Niels. What can that do save spoil the today that is ours? No more talk of love.” She chuckled. “Rather, good, honest lust. You’re a most rousing fellow, did you know?”
“I, I care for you—”
“And I for you. We’ll share in many ways, at work, at talk, at song, at gaze over sea and sky. . . close comrades. . . .” Again she laughed, deep in her throat. “At this hour, though, we’ve else to do, and I feel that you-how marvelous.”
—In the crow’s nest, Tauno heard the noises they made. His mouth grew tight; he beat fist into palm, over and over.
Easy weather prevailed, and Herning limped south faster than might have been awaited. When she passed near craft plying between England and the Pale, Hauau, clad like a man, shouted in the English language that she was whatever he and Niels deemed would be plausible at a given encounter. Since they were clearly on no mission of war or robbery, that sufficed. Once they did heave to and wait for night in order to steal past a royal ship which Hauau took a near look at in his seal form. She could have stopped them on suspicion of spying or smuggling.
On a cloudy eventide Tauno came back with a fine big salmon in his grip. He swung himself up the rope ladder that trailed from the waist and cast the fish onto the planks. “Ho, ho!” boomed the selkie from the dark in the aftercastle where he steered. “Will ye cut me a chunk o’ that the noo”
Tauno nodded and brought it to him. In the dull light of a lanthom which illuminated the floating compass needle, Hauau bulked less human-looking than by day. He snatched the raw meat and tore at it greedily. The siblings did not care for cooked fish either, and Ingeborg prepared it only for Niels and herself. Yet a touch of disgust passed across Tauno’s face before he could check it.
Hauau noticed. “Wha’ ails ye?” he asked.
Tauno shrugged. “Naught.”
“Nay, summat, and tae do wi’ me, I’m thinking. Spit it oot. We canna afford tae let angers rankle.”
“Why, I’ve no plaint against you.” Tauno’s voice remained sullen. “If you must know my fancy, I’ll say that we were more mannerly about our eating in Liri.” Hauau studied him a moment before he said in chosen words: “Ye’d na let that itch, save tae tak’ your mind off a pain. Wba’s the matter, lad?”
“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 everybody, 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 fruitful-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 understand, 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 windtossed 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.”
Tauno scowled. “I hope he’ll not brood over you till he mislays what wits were ever his. He and Ingeborg-who else have we to deal for us on Yria’s behalf? You and I could scarcely pass ourselves off as earthfolk, let alone Danish subjects.”
“Yes, we’ve spoken about that, he and I.” Eyjan was likewise worried. “At least he knows he must be careful, him a mere sailor finding his way through laws that are meant to bind him fast in his lot.” Earnestly: “I’ve hopes, though’, for he is clever, and with depth in him for growth.” Her tone sank, “On that account, maybe he’ll not ease me out of his breast as he should—” Briskly: