“Two,” Eyvind said.

“What will you say to Somerled when he asks you where you have been all this time?”

Eyvind had been pondering this earlier as he walked. “I can’t remember anything at all since the day I left there—since Ramsbeck. It is all gone from my mind.”

Tadhg gave a nod of approval. “I’ve heard a blow on the head can do that. Now let me give you some advice, and then I too must be gone. I’m to meet Brother Lorcan not far from here and go on to the safe harbor. We’ve a chapel there and a small house where three of my brothers dwell. It looks across the water to High Island. Eyvind, if you have friends you can trust among your own people, make use of them now. If there is any way I can aid you, tell me. We both seek truth. We both seek to avoid the dark path that lies before all of us if Somerled proceeds unchecked.”

Eyvind looked at him. There had been a great deal unspoken. Still, the priest knew, as Somerled would know by now, that it was in a sacred place of the Folk that the ghost of Eyvind and his spectral hound had manifested themselves. And Tadhg, it seemed to him, was the sort of man who worked things out rather quickly.

“I…there is one thing,” he said with some hesitation. “My brother Eirik—you said you were going south? Will you be close to Hafnarvagr?”

“Indeed I will. Our little church and cottage are a short walk along the shore from that settlement. You want me to find Eirik? Will he listen to me?”

“I must speak openly, I think, and hope I can trust you.”

Tadhg waited.

“My brother should be told that I am safe and well; my disappearance will have caused him some grief. But any messenger could bear him that news. It is for another reason that I ask you to seek him out. I intend to lay the truth about…certain matters…before Somerled today, as soon as I reach his hall and can speak to him in private. I have a piece of evidence that may surprise him. But I know he is clever, and highly skilled in matters of law; I know he has many supporters. It would be useful if…it would strengthen my case if—”

“I understand. It’s highly unusual for a crime of this kind to have no witnesses at all, Eyvind. Your brother, placed as he is among the remnants of those men who sailed to High Island, might be in a position to gather information for you.”

“It must be quick, I think. Who knows how soon spring will be here? But I don’t want to put Eirik at any risk. Getting home safe to his woman and children in Rogaland is his first wish.”

“Then I will simply lay things before him as best I can and leave the choice in his own hands,” Tadhg said quietly.