"It is a splendid bowl, Gunnar. But I cannot take it. Karin would be delighted with a bowl like this. You must give it to her instead."
"Nay, nay," he said. "That one is for you, Aeddan. We have six more just like it."
We parted then, and I promised to come down to the ship to see them away. "Sit at table with us tonight," Gunnar invited. "We will drink together one last time."
"Tonight then," I agreed.
But I did not sit with them that night. Everywhere around me, the life I had known was ending; all were going their own way now, and I could not prevent that, nor would I have wished to-far from it! I was relieved that the tribulation was over. Still, I could not find it in me to sit with them and raise cups in honour of a friendship that was, like everything else around me, dying.
The next morning, Jarl Harald bade Lord Sadiq and Faysal farewell. "If you should come north to Skania," Harald said, speaking through me, "you will be welcome in my hall. We will sit together and feast like kings."
"And should you ever venture south again," the amir replied, "you have but to speak my name to anyone, and you will be brought at once to my palace where you will be welcomed as a noble friend."
They embraced one another then, and Harald took his leave. I walked with the Danes down the steep narrow streets to the wharf; Dugal came as well, but kept to himself and said nothing along the way. Since our talk in the courtyard, he and the others had not had much to say to me. I did not know if they were shunning me, or if they were merely uncertain about how things stood and did not wish to make matters worse between us.
In their eagerness to go home, the Danes made for the ships and scrambled aboard the moment we reached the harbour. Some paused long enough to call a parting word-even Hnefi bade me a breezy farewell.
A fair few, toiling under the weight of newly-acquired treasures, required the aid of their comrades to get aboard, but all three ships were ready to up sails in a surprisingly short time.
Thorkel was first to take his leave. He called from his place at the tiller, saying, "Perhaps we meet again one day, Aeddan, heya?"
"Farewell, Thorkel! See that you keep a steady course now."
"Never fear! I have my map!" he replied with a wave, then turned his attention to the sail.
Gunnar and Tolar came to where Dugal and I stood watching. "You are a good fellow," Gunnar told me. Tolar echoed the sentiment: "Heya," he said.
"I owe you a great debt, Aeddan," Gunnar continued, regarding me with sad eyes. "I shall be very sorry if I do not find a way to make good my reckoning." To which Tolar added, "Indeed."
"You owe me nothing," I replied lightly. "Go home to your wife and son. And if you think of me at all, remember also your promise not to go a-viking anymore. It would please me to think of you enjoying your wealth-instead of skinning poor pilgrims for plunder."
Gunnar became contrite. "We are done with that, by Odin." Tolar nodded and spat.
"Then I am glad."
Gunnar gathered me in an enormous, bone-cracking embrace. "Farewell, Aeddan…" he whispered, and then turned away quickly.
Tolar, against all nature, also embraced me, then stepped away with a smile. "You are not so bad, I think," he said meaningfully.
"You are not so bad, either," I told him, and watched him redden with embarrassment. "Go in peace, Tolar-and see you keep an eye on Gunnar."
"That will not be hard, for I am buying a holding next to his that we might be wealthy farmers together," he said, speaking more words than I had ever heard him utter in a single breath.
King Harald was the last to take his leave. He came to where I stood, and presented the small man I had seen him speaking with the previous day. "This man is master of the Venetian ship," he told me, pointing to the yellow-sailed vessel. "He has agreed to take you and your brother priests home to Irlandia. I have paid him to do this, and he has promised to make an easy sailing for you, and to feed you well."
Harald indicated the man, and made a presenting motion with his hands. The fellow glanced at the big Dane uncertainly, and then turned to me and said, "I give you good greeting, my friends. I am Pietro. You are, I believe, to accompany me on my return voyage. That, at least, is my understanding." He spoke fine Latin with a refined, yet easy intonation.
"So it would appear," I confirmed. "Forgive me if I seem doubtful, but I knew nothing about this until now."
"Worry for nothing," Pietro said. "My ship I place at your service." Glancing once more at Harald, who stood beaming at the both of us, he said, "I leave you to your farewells, but come to me when you are finished and we will make our plans."
