"We three should do well in the end, if we hold together," Dalfin
said. "But you and I are in less trouble than Malcolm. He has lost
all; while we were both wanderers from home only. My folk will
trouble not at all for me for a year or so, and a shipmaster may be
away as long as he chooses. None will look for you till you return,
I suppose? Well, I came out to find adventures, and on my word, I
am in the way to find them."
"Not a bad beginning," laughed Bertric. "As for me, it is no new
thing that I should be a winter abroad, and my folk have long
ceased to trouble much about me. I am twenty-five, and took to the
sea when I was seventeen. Well, if Heidrek has spoilt this voyage,
we can afford it. Luck has been with me so far. If I win home again
it is but to start fresh with a new ship, or settle down on the old
manors in the way of my forebears."
Now, the remembrance that I had not one who would so much as think
of me took hold of me, for the first time, as these two talked of
their people, and it fell sorely heavily on me. I could say naught,
and turned away from these light-hearted wanderers.
They knew, and left me to myself in all kindness, for there was no
word they could say which would help me. Bertric spoke again to
Dalfin, asking him how it came to pass that he could not swim,
which was as much a wonder to him as it had been to me.
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