“Uncle!” she cried. “Kinart! Wake up!” For now, as she ran, she looked toward the mainland in the wakening light, and what she saw turned her chill with terror. Armed men were swarming on the point, more men than she had ever seen gathering in one place before. And now there were cries, she heard them, and one warrior was standing there on the causeway, a tall, broad man with a beautiful helm fringed by a curtain of fine metal rings, and a big axe in his hand, and he was facing his own comrades, yelling, brandishing the weapon before him…He was trying to stop them… Around her, Engus’s men began to emerge bleary-eyed from their beds, slow to wake fully, slow to grasp what lay before them. She watched a moment longer, saw Eyvind kick and duck and turn amidst his attackers, saw him felled with a single massive blow. No man could survive such a blow…she felt it like a great wound to her heart. Now Somerled’s warriors began to stream across the causeway, swift-paced for all the forest of spears they bore, the axes, the hammers, the flashing swords. Somewhere beneath that pounding stampede of booted feet lay Eyvind’s body. She heard herself make a strangled sound, half sob, half scream, and then her uncle was there before her, buckling his sword belt, gray-faced, with a look in his eyes she had never seen before.

“Farewell, Nessa,” Engus said. “Go now, quickly. You must not be seen. Our hope rests in you. The future is in your keeping. Go now.” From his finger, he drew the heavy silver ring ornamented with the symbol of twin shields, and placed it in her hand. This was no royal token, but his own personal ring of lineage. It should have gone to his son.

Nessa was wordless, knowing it was the last time she would ever see him: the last time for them all. So quick, so sudden, it snatched the breath from the lips and clutched at the very core of the heart. Down beyond the hall, Kinart was running, spear in hand, desperate to be there when the first of the invaders tried to step onto the Whaleback. His young face was radiant with courage. Nessa stood motionless, her whole body aching with grief.

“Go now,” Engus said again, and bent to kiss her on the brow.

She reached up and gave her uncle a fierce hug, and then, blinking back blinding tears, she ran. This was a promise that must be kept. The dog followed her; she hoped he would remain silent, for she could not row away until the tide came up again.