"But to none other. They disputed a little, and then all glided away down the river on the ice-shoes. The warriors carried spear and bow, as though they went to the chase."
"The king himself told me of the skating-party; only, one is gone of whom he is not aware. A lucky going for you, Magian! I may yet have time to win; she forgets all else when the ice-blades are on her feet. She may go far before turning. Would that she might never come back! Ai! and why should she? In the bleak forest are my mother's fiends and many hungry mouths!"
The girl turned panting upon the leech, her eyes gleaming green between the narrowed lids, her scarlet lips drawn back from the strong white teeth in a cruel smile.
"Go!" she cried. "Fetch me quickly all you have of that drug which saved you from the wolf-pack in Fulda Wood."
"By the blessed Sun, maiden! what would you do?" gasped the Magian.
"I 'd win for myself power and honors, and for you, gold without stint," rejoined Fastrada, and her face hardened to a still more cruel look. But the leech no longer faltered and cringed. Before his greedy eyes glittered a yellow heap,--gold without stint! gold without stint! Very humbly he salaamed to the witch's daughter, and then, bending to her gesture, limped away on his unholy sending.
An hour or so later, Count Hardrat, chancing to pass along the river-bank, suddenly found himself face to face with Fastrada. It was his first sober day since the Christmas feast, and he shrank from meeting the daughter of Rudulf after his relapse into drunkenness. Greatly to his surprise, she greeted him not only without reproach, but even smilingly, and he readily accepted her proposal that they skate together on the river. The girl's skates already swung at her girdle, and for balancing-staff she carried a pretty silver and ivory dart, with flint tip.
Skates were soon found for Hardrat, and the couple darted out among the ice-skimmers. As they swept in a long loop beyond the regular racing-course, Fastrada drew her companion's attention to the tracks leading down the river, and dared him to attempt the overtaking of the party. Hardrat, who was a skilled skater, accepted the challenge with eagerness, and very shortly the couple were flying past the viking settlement and around the first bend of the river into the black borders of the ancient forest.
For two leagues and more the Thuringian count and the Thuringian maiden raced side by side at utmost speed, each straining with every nerve and muscle to outdo the other. At last the man, weakened by his excesses at wassail, began to lose breath. Heedless of his growing distress, the girl drove on, her eyes fixed on the narrow trail of skate-marks which she followed.
"Stay!" gasped Hardrat at last, as they swept down upon yet another bend of the river. "Slack--your pace, maiden! I can--go--no farther!"