Toward fall they seemed near agreement. Uffi’s last sending was almost friendly. Let Hadding come to Uppsala, where they could speak man to man. If they reached understanding, they would plight fellowship in the grove of offerings, the holiest spot in all the Northern lands. Did the meeting fail, the Danes would go home unharmed, loaded with gifts. But Uffi felt sure it would not. He had said that whoever got Hadding slain should have his lovely daughter Arnborg. Now he took that back. Once peace was made, Hadding himself should have her, to bind their houses together for aye.

“There’s a bid that beckons!” laughed the Dane-king.

Ragnhild bit her lip but said nothing until that night in their shutbed. Then she spoke harshly. “No other woman shall be queen in Denmark while I am here. If you give her such honors, I will go back to my mountains.”

“It’s only kingcraft,” he told her.

She stiffened at his side. “Do you reckon her blood better than mine?”

He thought for a while before he said, “No, surely not. Nor would I throw your father’s friendship away for the sake of a girl. It’s stood me in good stead. But there needs to be some kind of tie between Skjoldungs and Ynglings, or war can too easily break out again, as bootless as ever. She can dwell in Scania, you in these islands, if you feel so strongly about it.’

“I do. Your lemans at least do not have the name of queen. Nonetheless I worry that some by-blow of yours will someday seek to snatch the kingship from my son.”

“From our son.”

“If you will not think ahead, I must.”

“You don’t think much of him who saved you from the giant, do you?” he snapped.

“I will think as well of him as he does of me.”

His mood softened. “That is well indeed.” He laid his arm around her and drew her toward him. She was warm in the dark. Her hair smelled of summer days, the summer that was waning.

“Then do not go.” Her voice shivered. “Only ill can come of it. How can a man set aside a hatred as deep as Uffi’s for you?”

His anger woke afresh. “Am I to show myself afraid of him?”

“No, but neither should you show yourself heedless.”

“I’ll be the deemer of that,” he growled. “Enough, wife.”

Again she stiffened. He took her. She suffered it silently.

In the time that followed she stayed cold to him. He gave it scant thought, being busied with making ready.

Yet on the eve of his leavetaking, Ragnhild got him aside, the two of them alone, and said low, holding both his hands and looking up into his eyes, “Whatever you do yonder, come back. The days and nights here will be hollow until then.”