There
was a little village also, and a hut or two had been burnt.
"Our doing," said Asbiorn. "Forgive us, Queen Gerda."
"You at least had no part therein," she said gently. "The rest is
forgotten. Now we have no long way to go before I am again at
home."
Now the land rose again from the level of the Jederen marshes we
had passed, and we had high black cliffs to port and ahead of us.
Along their feet the great rollers of the open sea broke,
thundering, even in this quiet weather, and the spray shot up and
fell in white clouds unceasingly. It was wonderful even now, and
what it would be like in a day of gale and heavy seas might be
guessed. And still we held on, with Asbiorn at the helm, though I
could see as yet no opening in the mighty walls that barred our way
onward. Gerda at my side laughed at me, in all pride in her
homecoming, and in the wild coast at which I was wondering.
The cliffs seemed to part us as we neared those before us, and I
saw a deep and narrow cleft between them into which we steered. The
sail was lowered now, and the oars manned, and so we passed from
the open into the shadow of the mighty cliffs which rose higher and
higher as we rowed between them. For half a mile the swell of the
sea came with us, and then it died away, and we were on still, deep
water, clear as glass, but black in the shadow of the grim and
sheer rock walls.
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