“Have I offended you?” he asked quietly. “Are you telling me that you are sworn to your gods for life? That you will never lie with a man?”

Suddenly this was becoming much too difficult. Nessa shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She chose the easiest question to answer.

“You haven’t offended me, Eyvi. We are friends. Now listen to me, please. I must go soon, my cousin is waiting. Last night—last night I saw some terrible things. It seems to me we will walk close to a cliff edge, all of us, and that if we slip, the Folk are lost and the islands are lost and we are lost too, Eyvi: you and me and Rona. I want to ask you, will you help me? Will you help me to save the Folk?”

He nodded without hesitation.

“You must fight a battle. The Wolf, that was what I was told, the Wolf must go into battle against an opponent who has all the weapons. But I don’t think it is the sort of fight in which you have excelled in the past. And I must tell you, to do so is to act in peril for your life. I do not…I don’t want to bind you to a promise, Eyvi, only to see you die.”

He gave a mirthless smile. “That’s all I’m good for, I think.”

“Don’t say that!” She swept aside the blanket and rose to stand by the bed, swaying as the cottage walls and floor and roof beams whirled in a circle before her eyes. Eyvind sprang up to support her by the arms; his hands were warm and sure, the same hands that had held hers safe through the dark time of oblivion. “Don’t say it, Eyvi! There is a future here, I will believe it, I will believe we can make things good and bright again, I will not give in to despair! And there are so many things you can do, so much you can give, stop trying to hide behind your helm and your axe and your battle cry! The man inside is kind and sweet and strong. He is the one who will win this fight!” With a considerable effort of will, she stepped away from his touch, though everything in her urged her to move forward, to fling her arms around him and put her head against his breast, and…and there were so many reasons why she could not do that, reasons within reasons. She must indeed be sick and exhausted, to allow such a thought to enter her mind. She found her cloak, her bag. She thrust her feet into the pair of boots someone had set neatly by the bed.