My sister looked straight across the chamber at Knut, her neat features calm and composed as always. “The vision, as Sibeal recounted it, was completely consistent with the story Felix has just told,” Muirrin said. “Freyja driven toward the lonely isle, the narrow gap through which they reached the bay, the appearance of the monster, which killed a crewman and ate him. A man—Paul, Sibeal thought—rallying the crew and bidding them row for shore. That was all she saw. Afterward, Sibeal told us, she and Svala enacted the scene again, using objects at hand, so that Sibeal could be sure her own vision matched with Svala’s. Sibeal told us she believes Svala is desperate to return to that place. The message she was conveying was Home. Go there, go home.”

Kalev’s murmured translation came to an end. There was utter silence.

“Once, earlier, Svala made a sea monster on the beach, using sand and shells,” I said. “A creature somewhat like the one Felix described, and very like the one in my vision, with a long tail and fearsome teeth. She tried to tell me something about it, using gestures, and grew very frustrated when I didn’t understand. She kept pointing out to sea. Home. I want to go home. I sensed the longing in her, and the grief. Clodagh was there, too—she can confirm that part of my story.” I would not tell of our encounter on the cliff path, and Svala naked in the place of Rodan’s fall.

“A concocted story,” Knut said. “Who is to say she and Felix did not invent this long ago?”

“I’d swear the lad only regained the last part of his memory tonight.” Gull’s voice was deep and sure. “I saw that in his eyes, when he came to after knocking his head. I heard it in his voice. We left them behind, he said. I’ll never forget the sound of that.” He turned toward Knut. “You’d be far better to give us the truth,” he said, not unkindly. “The longer you leave it, the harder the consequences will be. I know how much you want to stay here. If you lie to Johnny, there is no way he will keep you on Inis Eala.”

Nor, I thought, would he keep a man who tried to kill another to prevent him from telling the truth, a truth that would make Knut look less than admirable in this place where he had become the friend of so many men. So the Norseman wanted badly to stay on Inis Eala. Was he afraid to go back to Ulfricsfjord and account for himself?