"Why tarry here, O Wulnoth, when all the work is before thee—when the hours pass and are not used? Look up, and rise up, and go forth and begin."
"Yet I know not where to begin," said Wulnoth, and the voices seemed to answer—
"One step at a time, and the longest journey is completed. Rise up and search, for the seeker shall be the finder, if in seeking he weary not."
"Now," thought Wulnoth, "this is surely right, for I do but waste time sitting idle, and even if I seek the masterless men, I shall not find them by staying here."
So Wulnoth rose, and he plucked a stout branch from a tree for a weapon, in case any sought to harm him; and he strode through the forest and came to the road, and then he knew that it was the road he had often walked by the side of Edgiva the Beautiful—the road back to Lethra.
"I will go and see the King's hall," he said. "Perchance some dwell there even now who may tell me of Guthred."
But alas, when he reached the place where Lethra had flourished, all was silence and ashes and desolation. Here stood the blackened walls, and there lay beam and iron, while down at the fiord, the weed-covered wrecks of the long ships could still be seen.
No living thing was there, for the work of the sea-kings had been thorough, and the vengeance of Hungwar and Hubba had been complete, and Lethra was the place of desolation now.
Then a deep anger filled the heart of Wulnoth as he stood surveying the ruins, and he cried aloud—
"I will find these pirates and make them pay for this, and I will find Guthred the Prince and set him back on his throne, and I will find Edgiva the Beautiful, though I have to wander the world o'er to do it."