once easily carried us both now feel weak and leaden, as if poison is slowly creeping into them. They can no longer bear the weight of two.
I feel a warm arm about me, and Valdis’s weight is lifted from my arm. Ari is walking next to her, helping me to hold up the sagging body. It takes courage to embrace a corpse, and a good measure of kindness too.
We find Marcos towards the bottom of the slope or rather he finds us, by the stones we dislodge as we scramble down. He seems unharmed, though no doubt bruised, but judging from his heavy tread, and the sagging of his shoulders, he does not rejoice that he is alive. He barely glances up as he approaches us.
‘Marcos?’ Isabela steps out from behind Fannar.
Marcos’s head jerks up and he gapes at her open-mouthed, as if her ghost has just risen up from the ground. He stands transfixed for a moment, then he rushes at her, his arms wide as if he is going to hug her. But at the last moment he lets them fall, and stands mumbling something, staring at his hands.
Fannar leads us through the pass into a high valley. We rest then, making a hasty meal of some dried meat he has also stolen, holding the fragments in our mouths, sucking them until they are moistened enough to chew. Above us tiny clouds are drifting away as if on a tide and the bright white stars prickle above us in the dark sky. I marvel at them once more. I had forgotten how many there are up there, like a black pool teeming with shoals of little silver fish. The stars blur into one as tears swim in my eyes. I wish Valdis had lived to see them too, just one last time.
‘It’s not safe to trust to the deep caves while the mountains are stirring,’ Fannar says at length, ‘but there is an old abandoned farmstead I know of, a day’s journey from here. Most of it is in ruins, but the badstofa was built far back into the hillside and the floor dug deep. If we can get in through the entrance, the hall should be sound enough to shelter us, and if the place seems ruined, so much the better. As long as we are careful with the fire, we should be able to hide there for the winter at least.’
‘But how will we feed the children?’ Unnur wails. ‘Everything we put down for winter is gone, the beasts too.’
Fannar squeezes his wife’s shoulder. ‘First we find shelter, then we worry about food. I am becoming an expert thief, though it is not a skill I ever thought to master, and I was good at catching birds when I was a boy, no doubt I can do it again. There’ll be a place of honour at our fireside for you, Eydis, of course, and the foreigners too.’
‘You are a good man, Fannar,’ I tell him. ‘But I will not be coming with you. We must part now. My sister is dead, and I swore I would lay her to rest at the river of blue ice. I must find it. I have been away from it for so long. I was only a child when I was brought into the cave, but the mountains don’t change. I will find the way again. As for Isabela, she seeks the white falcons. She must not rest until she finds them, for the lives of many depend upon it. She has done all I have asked of her, and with courage. Without her, the draugr could not have been defeated, and no man, woman or child on this isle would be safe. I vowed that I would help her find what she seeks and I will not break my oath to her.’
Ari nods gravely, then turns to Fannar, biting his lip.
‘Fannar, I’m bound to you for the season, but I beg you to release me from that, or at least give me leave to depart for a while. I’ll guide Eydis to the blue river and then help the girl catch the white falcon. She can’t do it alone, and Eydis …’ He breaks off awkwardly. I know he is thinking that I will be of little use when it comes to climbing cliffs.
I smile. ‘No, lad,’ I say. ‘Fannar needs you now more than ever. It will take both your strengths to see this family safe through winter,