They reached the high-water mark. All at once Hadding spun on his heel and took a long sidewise step. He smote again at Tosti’s knee. The outlaw swung around barely fast enough. Now it was he who faced the sea. And now Hadding bore in on him with storm fierceness. His sword whirred, ring, pounded, bit. Tosti pulled farther back. Surely the old man would soon wear himself out.

Tosti betrod the dry sand. It crunched, slithered, gave-beneath his feet, not much but he lurched a little. His shield, half splintered away, wavered in his grasp. Snake-swift, Hadding struck at his neck. Blood geysered.

For a while, then, the king stood over the deathling and struggled for breath. The ships lay lean on the sea, too far off for anyone to see what had happened. As he rowed out to his, belike the vikings would turn tail. He would not give chase. Without Tosti’s baneful will to bind them, they would soon scatter, some maybe again to England, some maybe slinking forlornly about till the warders of the Danish waters caught and killed them.

“Yes,” he murmured, “I am old.”

He looked aloft. Clouds scudded from the west, their white going gray, rain on their heels. “I wanted one last victory that was wholly mine, as a man among men,” he said into the loudening wind. “But what has this been? I knew how it would go. He who called himself Gangleri told me I can die only by my own hand. I did not understand what he meant, and I do not, but now it comes back to haunt me. Do you hear me, you up yonder? What is it that you want of me?”

XXX

Uproariously though his men cheered him, ringingly though the skalds chanted his praises, the king’s mood stayed dark. “Better would it be were Frodi with us,” he said once.

A guardsman who heard blurted in astonishment, “But, lord, none could know when Tosti would come or by what sea lane. Watchmen had to lie in wait from here to Haven, and all down the Great Belt.”

“Frodi would not take a share in that,” Hadding answered.

His foremost son had snapped, “Should I sit the whole summer yawning till my jaw falls off, with an ant-small likelihood of getting anything to do? No, I’ve already told my friends I’ll lead them where fame and riches can be had.”

“You should have spoken with me first,” said Hadding. His voice fell dull.

Frodi tossed his handsome head. “Younger were you when you fared forth than I was when I first did on my own. Nor were you ever much for letting anybody’s wish rein you in.”