Beyond a Darkened Shore(42)

Leif shook his head. “She can only see what the gods allow; her answers and power are limited.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste time asking her,” Gunnarr said, almost eagerly. “We should interrogate them ourselves.”

Were all Northmen so eager to die, then? “Still,” I said, “it’s better to find out all we can.”

“Gunnarr, Ciara is right. It’s foolish rushing into a situation we have no knowledge of.”

Gunnarr’s face fell. “Ask the seer, then, but come get me before you do what needs to be done. It’s been ages since I made use of my axe.”

I hid a smile at Gunnarr’s words. He sounded so much like Conall, but my amusement disappeared when I realized who I was comparing my clansman to.

“Where can I find her?” Leif asked.

“Sleeping in one of the rooms above us,” Gunnarr said with a jerk of his chin toward the ceiling. “Where else would she be? She’s as old as Odin.”

“Which room?” I asked.

“First door on your right—just follow the smell of the herbs she always brings along,” he said with a Conall-like lip curl.

Leif walked past us and wrenched open one of the heavy doors. “Let’s see if she will answer.”

“Do you bring old women with you on all your raids?” I asked as I hurried through the doorway—I’d never been so eager to leave a place. With Ulric’s attack and the strange men appearing, the king’s great hall seemed as forbidding as a crypt.

“On quests as important as this one I do.”

We both scanned the dark entryway as the doors slammed shut behind us. The flames of the wall torches flickered and danced, casting ominous shadows, but if there was anyone hiding in the dark, they were utterly silent.

I moved toward the stairs first, and Leif followed, our footsteps muffled by the rugs upon the stone floor.

Trepidation filled me; my every step felt heavy. If those men were truly j?tnar—or in league with them—the whole city could be in danger. The fact that they were here, in King Sigtrygg’s castle, seemed to suggest he wasn’t the ally Leif thought him to be.

If our enemy had already made it to Dubhlinn, where else in éirinn might they be? Were my sisters even still safe at home?

I feared the answers.

The smell of sage was so strong outside the seer’s door that I wondered how I hadn’t noticed it earlier.

Leif knocked once, but the door was ajar just enough that Leif’s fist opened it farther. The smoke from the sage streamed out of the room and wrapped around us, almost choking in its intensity.

“Sigrid?” he called with a cough and a wave of his hand at the smoke.

“Come,” a gravelly voice answered.

Leif crossed the threshold, and I followed him into the darkness. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, for the room was lit by only a single candle, and the seer sat far away from its light. I could make out a woman bent forward with age, clutching a gnarled wooden stick. Gray robes hung from her body, and they rustled as though made from stiff muslin when she gestured for us to sit.

There was only one other armchair and a small bed, so I took the chair while Leif stood beside me. The seer lit another candle at the rickety table beside her. In the flickering light, she appeared even more ancient, her face as weathered as a rock worn by a thousand years of wind and water. Her hair was as gray as her robes, wild and half braided.

“What is it you wish to know?” she asked.

“There are strange men here,” Leif said, his voice low. “Are they in league with the j?tnar?”

The seer watched the flame of the candle for several long moments. “The j?tnar have nearly as much magic as the gods. They can assume many forms.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Leif said, frustration evident in the set of his shoulders.

“Then you didn’t listen.”

“What do you see of the kingdom of Mide?” I asked, my hands gripping the skirt of my gown. “Is my family safe?”

She turned to me, her eyes almost milky with age. “This kingdom you speak of is shrouded by a dark mist that even my eyes cannot penetrate.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a sick anxiety growing with me. “Tell me, are my sisters safe?”

“I tell you again, child. There is something that prevents me from seeing the fate of your kingdom.”

The Morrigan? I thought. My anxiety for my family grew until I feared I’d be sick. The strong smell of the sage and the lingering pounding of my head injury didn’t help. Suddenly, Leif’s warm hand touched my shoulder, and I glanced up to find him watching me with sympathy.

“You have other concerns,” the seer continued. “A new power that frightens you.”

Leaving my own body. I still failed to see how it was a power, but it certainly frightened me. “I need to learn to control it. I need to know what it is.”

“You are too weak now, and you lack the discipline and true desire to master it.”

I leaned closer. “I was told you could help me.” Though that wasn’t strictly true. The Morrigan had never promised the seer could help . . . only told me I should find her.

The seer drew farther into her robes. “You are surrounded by darkness. Your life hangs by a single thread, and I cannot see what the outcome will be.”