Then the fog turned
dusky and gray again, and the ship alongside us was gone as it
came, suddenly, and in silence, and Bertric came back to us.
Gerda's faintness was passing, for she was but overwrought, though
she still leaned against me.
"What is it?" she asked. "What does it mean?"
"There is no harm in it, lady," answered Bertric. "I have seen it
once or twice before, and naught came thereof."
"It is the ship of ghosts," said Dalfin. "I have heard tell of it.
It comes from the blessed isles which holy Brendan sought."
"Nay," said Gerda; "it is Aegir's ship, and it came for my
grandsire."
"Maybe," answered Dalfin. "I ken not who Aegir is of whom you
speak. But the ship may indeed have come for Thorwald to take him
to some land, like those isles, beyond our ken."
"Aye, to Valhalla," said Gerda. "Take me to my place now, for I am
weary, and would be alone. I have no fear of aught more."
I helped her forward, and she thanked me, saying that now she would
be at rest in her mind. And, indeed, so were we all, for that
penthouse, and its awesome tenant, had weighed on us more than we
had cared to say. We would clear the decks of it all in the
morning.
All that night long we floated on a windless sea, and the fog
hemmed us round until it began to thin and lift with the first rays
of the rising sun.
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