a bargain with Edric Jarl, who is dissatisfied with his
king, that we are to support each other in the game. There it is all
open to you. Leofwinesson is the man of Edric. Until such time as I
get the kingship firmly in my hands, it would be unadvisable for me to
reckon with him though he had slain my foster-brother. You see? It is
the way the Fates order things. I must submit to them, though I am a
king. Can you not, then, bend your head without shame, and wait with
me?"

Reasoning was lost on Randalin. The bitterness of failure had swept over
her and maddened her. Was she mistaken, then, about everything? Could
those trembling old women behind the broken wall read the world like
witches? Was everyone false or a beast? Oh, how her father had been
wronged! She shook off the King's hand and faced him with blazing eyes,
seeking for words that should bite like her thoughts. Then she became
conscious that a word would precipitate a flood of hysterical tears, to
the eternal disgrace of her warrior kin. All that was left for her was
to get away without speaking. Out in the woods there would be no one to
see; and the grass would hide the quivering of her lips. She put up her
hand now to hide it and, struggling to her feet, began groping toward
the door.

She did not stop when Canute's voice called after her,--not until she
had reached the entrance, and the rattle of crossing spears, without,
had told her that her way was barred. Then she whirled back with a sharp
cry.

"Let me go! I hate you! Let me go!"

He did not bid his guards kill her, as she half expected. Instead, he
said patiently, "I foresaw that you would take it ill; there is the
greatest excuse for you. In your place I should be equally unruly.
Indeed, there is a likeness about our luck, which causes my heart to go
out to you as it has done to no one else. I will grant your boon in time
to come; so sure as I live, I will. And until then, since all your stock
has been cut off, I will be your guardian and you shall be my ward, as
though you were my own brother. Come, sit here, and I will tell you."

She repulsed him sharply. "No, no, you shall do nothing for me! I am
going back. I ask you to let me go."

"Let you go, to starve under a hedge?"

"I shall not starve; Avalcomb is mine."

"What food will that put in your mouth, since Leofwinesson has conquered
it and driven out your servants and set his own in their place?"

Her heart sickened within her. Once