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noises, though to be sure he saw better). The reek here was worse. He must cough ere he could speak.
Ingeborg held him, wordlessly. She was short and buxom, snub-nosed, freckled, with a big gentle
mouth. Her hair and eyes were dark brown, her voice high but sweet. There have been princesses less
well-favored than Cod-Ingeborg. He did not like the smell of old sweat in her gown, any more than he
liked any of the stenches of humankind; but underneath it he caught a sunny odor of woman, :
 I hoped . . she breathed at last,, I hoped. . 
He shoved her arms away, stood back, glared, and hefted the
spear,  Where is my sister? he snapped,
 Oh. She is is well, Tauno. None will harm her. None would
dare, Ingeborg tried to draw him from the door.  Come, my
unhappy dear, sit, have a stoup, be at ease with me,
 First they reaved from her everything that was her life-
Tauno must stop anew to cough, Ingeborg took the word.  It
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had to be, she said,  Christian folk could not let her dwell un-christened among them, You can t blame
them, not even the priests. A higher might than theirs has been in this, She shrugged, with her oft-seen
one-sided grin.  For the price of her past, and of growing old, ugly, dead in less than a hundred years,
she gains eternity in Paradise. You may live a long while, but when you die you ll be done, a blown-out
candle flame. Myself, I ll live beyond my body, most likely in Hell. Which of us three is the luckiest?
Still grim but somewhat calmed, Tauno leaned his weapon and sat down on the dais. The straw ticking
rustled beneath him. The peat fire sputtered with small blue and yellow dancers; its smoke would have
been pleasant if less thick. Shadows crouched in cor-Ilers and under the roof, and leaped about,
misshapen, on the log walls. The cold and dankness did not trouble him, unclad though he was. Ingeborg
shivered where she stood.
He peered at her through the murk,  I know that much, he said.  There s a young fellow in the hamlet
that they hope to make a priest of, So he could tell my sister Eyjan about it when she Found him alone,
His chuckle rattled.  She says he s not bad to lie with, save that the open air gives him sneezing fits,
Harshly igain:  Well, if that s the way the world swims, naught can we jo but give room. However .
yestre en Kennin and I went in search of Yria, to make sure she wasn t being mistreated. Ugh, the mud
and filth in those wallows you call streets! Up and down we went, to every house, yes, to church and
graveyard. We had IlOt spied her from afar, do you see, not for days, And we d have known were she
inside anything, be it cabin or coffin, She may be mortal now, our little Yria, but her body is still half her
father s, and that last night on the strand it had not lost its smell like daylit waves. Fist thudded on knee.
 Kennin and Eyjan raged, would have stonned shore and asked at harpoon point. I told them we d only
risk death, and how can the dead help Yria? Yet it was hard to wait till sunset, when I knew you d be
here, Ingeborg.
She sat down against him, an arm around his waist, a hand on his thigh, cheek on shoulder.  I know,
she said most softly.
He remained unbending.  Well? What s happened, then?
 Why, the provost took her off with him to Viborg town-
Wait! No harm is meant. How could they dare harm a chalice of Heavenly grace? Ingeborg said that
matter-of-factly, and after-ward she fleered.  You ve come to the right place, Tauno. The provost had a
scribe with him, and that one was here and I asked him about any plans for keeping our miracle fed.
They re not unkindly in Als, I told him, but neither are they rich. She has no more yarns to spin from
undersea for their pleasure. Who wants a girl that must be taught afresh like a babe? Who wants a
foster-daughter to find a dowry for? Oh, she could get something-pauper s work, marriage to a
deckhand, or that which I chose but was this right for a miracle? The cleric said no, nor was it
intended. They would bring her back with them and put her in Asmild Cloister near Viborg.
 What s that? Tauno inquired.
Ingeborg did her best to explain. In the end she could say:
 They ll house Margrete and teach her. When she s of the right age, she ll take her vows. Then she ll
live there in purity, no doubt widely reverenced, till she dies, no doubt in an odor of sanctity. Or do you
believe that the corpse of a saint does not stink as yours and mine will?
Aghast, Tauno exclaimed,  But this is frightful!
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 Oh? Many would count it glorious good fortune.
His eyes stabbed at hers.  Would you?
 Well...no.
 Locked among walls for all her days; shorn, heavily clad, ill-
fed, droning through her nose at God while letting wither what
God put between her legs; never to know love, children about her,
the growth of home and kin, or even wanderings under apple trees
in blossom time 
 Tauno, it is the way to eternal bliss.
 Hm. Rather would I have my bliss now, and then the dark.
You too-in your heart-not so?-whether or not you ve said you mean to repent on your deathbed. Your
Christian Heaven seems to me a shabby place to spend forever.
 Margrete may think otherwise.
 Mar-aah. Yria. He brooded a while, chin on fist, lips taut,
breathing noisily in the smoke.  Well, he said,  if that is what she truly wants, so be it. Yet how can we
know? How can she know? Will they let her imagine anything is real and right beyond their gloomy
cloi-cloister? I would not see my little sister cheated, Ingeborg.
 You sent her ashore because you would not see her eaten by eels. Now what choice is there?
 None?
The despair of him who had always been strong was like a knife to her.  My dear, my dear. She held
him close. But instead of tears, the old fisher hardheadedness rose in her.
 One thing among men opens every road save to Heaven, she said,  and that it does not necessarily
bar. Money.
A word in the mer-tongue burst from him.  Go on! he said in Danish, and clutched her arm with
bruising fingers.  To put it simplest: gold, Ingeborg told him, not trying to break free.  Or whatever can [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]