s of yours shall answer for the safety of one of us."
A gesture of her hand included Thorkel the Tall, the two Northern jarls,
and the King's foster-brother.

"And is it your belief that a man can at the same time chase a boar
and talk fine words to a woman?" Canute demanded between amusement and
impatience. "Call it a ride, if you will, but leave the boar out for
reason's sake, as he would leave us out ere we were so much as on his
track."

She gave him a sidelong glimpse of her wonderful eyes, and drooped her
head like a lily grown heavy on its stem. "Would that be so great
a misfortune then?" she murmured. "Do you think it unpleasant to be
passing your time at my side?"

Smiling, he watched the play of her long silken lashes, yet shook his
head. "Nay, when I hunt, I hunt," he said. "I would have idled in your
bower if you had chosen it, but you urged me to this, and now if it
happens that you cannot keep up, you must bear your deed."

As one casts aside an ill-fitting glove, she threw aside her pouts,
looking up at him with a flash of dainty mimicry. "Hear the fiery Thor!
Take notice that I shall bear all down before me like a man mowing
ripe corn. You cannot guess how much warlikeness I have caught from
my Valkyria." She glanced back where the girl in the short tunic stood
drawing on her gloves, a picture of stormy beauty.

Amused, the King's eyes followed hers, then lighted with sudden purpose.
"As you will," he laughed, "and I will give your Valkyria a steed that
shall match her appearance." Advancing again, he spoke to a groom; and
the signal set the whole party in motion.

Randalin heard his words, but at the moment she was too deep in angry
embarrassment to heed them. It seemed to her that every eye in the
throng was fastened upon her as she walked forward, that every mouth
buzzed comment behind her. It was not until she was in the saddle that
his intention reached her understanding.

The powerful black charger, which a groom led toward her, had been
pawing and arching his glossy neck impatiently since the first horn set
his blood-drops dancing; at the touch of her foot upon the stirrup, he
snorted satisfaction through his wide-flaring nostrils and would have
leaped forward like a stone from a sling, if the man had not hung
himself upon the bit. The girl awoke to surprise as she barely managed
to reach her seat by the most agile of springs.

"This is not the horse I ride, Dudda! He must belong to one o