Inside, the place was dark and small, and crammed with objects strange and wonderful, bizarre and magical. Masks hung on the walls: faces that were beautiful, wild, blank-eyed, dangerous. The bones of a long, thin creature were laid out neatly on a stone shelf; an iron pot steamed on the central hearth. There was an odd, pungent smell—not unpleasant exactly, just the sort of odor that renders one suddenly, sharply awake. Somerled came in behind him, and stopped.

“We’ve brought some butter and a few eggs,” Eyvind said politely. “My mother sent them. Ingi, that is.”

In the shadows beyond the fire, the cat woman stirred. She rose to her feet and moved forward until the light from the smoke hole fell on her face, a face remarkably unlined for one so old. Her skin was very white, as white as the long hair that fell unbound below the strange cap she wore, which seemed made of dark skin on the outside and pale fur inside. Her eyes were like fine blue glass; around her neck she had a string of beads that almost matched them. As she moved, her gown made a faint tinkling sound, as if it were hung with tiny bells.

“Perhaps you don’t want the eggs, though,” Eyvind added. “I see you have your own chickens.”

“Gifts are welcome,” said the cat woman, motioning to a dresser of stone slabs by the far wall. “You can set them there, if you will. Your mother is a kind woman. Your brothers came here. I remember them.”

Eyvind smiled, hoping he did not appear too nervous.

“I hear you tell fortunes. I want you to tell mine,” Somerled said abruptly. “I hope you do not lie, or invent tales when your skills desert you. It is a calling that attracts cheats.”

“Somerled—” Eyvind hissed, seeing the change come over the old woman’s features. One did not offend a seer. Surely even Somerled knew that.

“I do not perform at folk’s beck and call, like some fairground creature,” said the cat woman quietly. She turned to Eyvind. “This is no brother,” she observed.

“I’m sorry. His name is Somerled. He is my friend, who comes to stay with us sometimes. We were hoping…that is—”

The cat woman gave a faint smile. “I have told their future, the warrior and the farmer, and I will do no less for you. But I owe your friend nothing.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Eyvind saw Somerled’s mouth tighten.