Two Ravens Read Free Page A

happen according to fate anyway. He was glad that he had named Thor first at the Sacrifice on Midsummer’s Day. The hot water soaked the ache out of his muscles. He sank down entirely under the water and swept his hair back with his hands.
    When he put his head up to the air again, a pebble rattled down the trail behind him. A footstep crunched. He turned and saw Hiyke coming down the steep path toward him.
    She came up to the edge of the spring. “This is a foolish, mad thing Hoskuld is planning. You are a grown man. Can’t you leave home by yourself?”  
    “He wants to go.”
    “Would you change your mind if I told you that he is plotting some wickedness?”
    He frowned at her. “Some wickedness?”
    “He said you would never come back again.”
    She was standing at the foot of the path, her grey shawl over her head and shoulders and the ends crossed over her breast. A silver cross hung around her neck on a chain. Her skin was fine and pale as parchment, her face shaped hollow over the frail bones. He thought over what she had told him.
    “He is a vile man,” he said. “Why do you stay with him?”
    That angered her. She started back up the path, her skirts in her hands. Over her shoulder, she flung words at him.
    “Vile enough to father you, you shiftless lout. Get to the Hebrides in your own way.”
    She went foot above foot up the path. He watched her from the sour water until she disappeared over the hill.
     
    HOSKULD WENT over the mountains to another part of Iceland. Bjarni and Ulf fitted the ship Swan out for the voyage. Throughout two long days of rain Bjarni laid out all the cordage and sails; he worked so hard he did not stop to eat or drink.
    “Why are you in such a hurry?” Ulf said. “We can’t leave until Father comes back.”
    They were stowing away the sails in the bow. The deck awnings were rigged over the beached ship; rain drummed on the canvas. Bjarni shut the sail locker.
    “What if we did?” he said to Ulf.
    His brother’s breath hissed between his teeth. “Go without him. Is that what you mean?”
    “You and I are good sailors. We can take Hoskuld’s maps and sun-wheel.” Crouched down under the awning, Bjarni walked on bent legs back to the waist of the ship, where the awning opened. Ulf followed him. They jumped down to the gravel. The wind swept the long raindrops at them.
    Ulf gripped Bjarni’s arm. His face glowed red with excitement. “You mean to take Father’s ship?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Let’s do it. Oh, let’s do it.”
    They went up the slope toward the farm buildings. The grass was littered with thunderstones thrown out of the volcanoes. The wind keened on them. Bjarni kept his face down out of the rain. He wondered if there was anywhere else in the world like Hrafnfell. Ahead of Ulf he went in the door to the hall and down the three steps.
    The hall was much longer than it was wide. An open hearth ran down the middle of it. Only the logs at the far end were burning, where the table was and the High Seat. Bjarni and Ulf went down the room toward it.
    The High Seat was covered with a bearskin. Hiyke was Christian; she kept the black fur draped over the whole of the double chair, to hide the carvings on it. Jon and Andres were sitting at one side of the table, playing chess. No one else was in the hall. Bjarni put his hands on the table and leaned on his arms, his eyes on his younger half brothers.
    “I am sailing tomorrow in Swan for the Hebrides. Are you coming with me?”
    At once the two young men stood up in their places. Andres said, “Without Papa? What do you mean?” and Jon said at the same time, “Papa would flog us when we came back.”
    The door slammed at the other end of the hall. Bjarni glanced over his shoulder. Down the dark hall Kristjan was coming toward them, Hiyke’s half-grown son.
    Bjarni turned to his half brothers again. “I don’t mean to come back. Hoskuld’s friend in the Hebrides will welcome me much better if I