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Bjarni smiled despite himself, holding the weapon out at arm?s-length, ru
He hesitated.?We hold a rite after. A divination. You?re welcome to attend, or not as it pleases you.?
Heidhveig spoke:?I will sit in the seidhjallr and speak this Yule,? she said.?I think that questions of weight will be asked. But not today. Tomorrow, when Thorlind and I are fully rested and we have sought out the landwights.?
Rudi Mackenzie inclined his head respectfully; Bjarni murmured in his ear. Heidhveig sometimes wondered if the young man realized her ears hadn?t lost much sharpness, unlike the way it had gone with his own father in the days of his age. She heard clearly, however softly he spoke: ?She does you honor. Heidhveig is the greatest of our wisewomen; my father was her friend from the land-taking and had good redes of her many a time. She came here from someplace far to the west just before the Change and taught us the old magic. She speaks to spirits, journeys between the worlds. We always have a seidh session at Yule-it?s a good time for divination, but Heidhveig doesn?t sit in the seidhjallr herself often these days.? ?My thanks, lady!? Rudi exclaimed.?Wisdom is the greatest of all gifts!?
He smiled again, and Heidhveig?s mouth turned up in response.
How this one must charm the women! she thought wryly, looking into the sparkling gaze and hearing a few sighs from around her.
Then something moved in her mind, uncoiling from the depths.
Yes, she thought-and knew with a sharp weight of certainty. Yes. This is the one sent to me. ? Par dieu, by Mary Mother and the merciful Saints, I thought I?d never be warm again,? Odard Liu said.
Rudi gri
Odard cocked one black brow without opening his eyes, leaning back with his arms along the front of the bench above. The wintertide journey had thi
Odard?s voice grew dreamy:?Bored? I?ll spend my time lying in a hammock under blossoming peach trees or a pergola of roses, looking out over the vineyards, and giving my loyal peasants an encouraging twiddle of my fingers now and then. And eating pineapple pyo
Ingolf took up the bundle of birch twigs, dipped it into the bucket and flicked water onto the stones. Steam billowed up with a sharp hsssssss, and someone on the upper tier groaned in pleasure-Rudi thought it was Father Ignatius, and nobody could say he wasn?t a hardy man. He?d certainly done a full share of the work, and more than his share of scouting on the long rearguard. ?We?ve got saunas like this in Richland, too,? Ingolf said. With a grin at Odard:?After you boil for a while and feel just like a ham, you run out and roll in the snow, or jump into a hole cut in the ice over the river.?
The baron of Gervais shuddered theatrically.?Saints have mercy! Even the Bearkillers don?t do that.? ?No, really, it feels good,? Ingolf said.?You just don?t stay out long enough for your body to lose the heat that?s soaked in.? ?That?s what you do, perhaps,? Odard said.? I do not. I?m saving up the heat to hoard like a Corvallis moneylender?s gold in a vault.?
Fred Thurston had been sitting silent, like a statue of old bronze sheen ing with a thin film of oil. Now he stirred: ?These people are Asatruar, aren?t they?? he said
Mary and Ritva could tell him what they?d learned in their mother?s household, and they?d been able to find him a few books along the way, but he was anxious for the reality of the tales that spoke to his heart. You couldn?t learn much of a faith until you saw how it shaped the souls of those who followed it. ?Yes,? Rudi said.
Someone sighed; definitely Father Ignatius this time. Since Fred had been a nominal Methodist originally, the Mackenzie didn?t think the priest had much ground for complaint, and went on: ?So I?d judge from what we?ve seen and heard. Probably it spread here the way the Old Religion did from Dun Juniper, because the ones who brought them through the Change followed it.?
Which to be sure is also why nearly everyone around Mt. Angel is a Christian of the Roman rite, he thought. Or why most are in the lands the Association rules. Sigh as you will, Father, but turn about is fair play. Aloud he went on: ?And hospitality is sacred to them as well, of which I?m glad. I was worried to death about Epona, that I was. She?s a little old for travel like this, which would be hard on a horse of half her years. But they?re treating our beasts right royally, as they are us; nice tight barn, blankets, warm mash, clean water and straw, fodder of the best.?
Fred nodded agreement.?They seem like… solid people,? he said.?Indeed, the which is what I?d expect. What those Gods they follow value in a man is courage and loyalty, and above all the hardihood of soul to stand and endure and strive, never flinching. Nor would they have come so well through such years-and in a hard place like this-unless they had those things in truth.?
Odard shuddered.?Oh, the ancestral virtues! Next you?ll say they venerate clean living and hard work.? ?As a matter of fact…? Rudi replied.
Fred snorted, and said:?How long do you think we?ll stay? I?d like to… learn a bit.? ?A week or two at least. We have to learn the lay of the land here, and the road to the coast, and where we can hope to find a vessel, one willing to carry us in this bleak season. And to tell the truth I?d like to leave our horses and a couple of our wounded here, if we can arrange that. Then a dash to the sea, a dash to Nantucket, and back. Though how by the brazen gates of Anwyn we?re to return through that mess we left behind us…? ?These folk keep the twelve days of Yule, don?t they?? Edain said. ?Twelve days of feasting… after the trip we?ve had, that would be just about what I could use, so! And we?d not lose much time. We were slowing that last week or so because we were worn, ourselves and our beasts both.? ?It?s lucky we ran into someplace that could put us all up in midwinter,? Ingolf said thoughtfully.?As well as being well disposed, I mean. We?ve had to move quick a lot to keep from eating people bare. Of course, we?re supposed to be moving quickly.?
They all laughed; quickly was for short trips. When you had a three-thousand-mile journey one way and the prospect of three thousand miles back, haste lost all meaning. Even for a small picked band a journey of that distance could only be made at walking speed, fifteen miles a day averaged out over the whole, and you?d count yourself lucky to maintain that. They had been lucky, since their stay at the Valley of the Sun had been the only time they?d been stuck in one spot for many months by illness, wounds or weather.