"It is that he expects to meet Aasta."
"Aasta?"
"Even so, my lord."
"And wherefore should Roderic have aught to do with the maid?"
"You well may ask," said Elspeth, "and it is not willingly that I would have them meet. But 'twas the only plan I could devise for getting him from my presence and bringing him to a place where you, my lord, may encounter him. As to Aasta, of her and of Roderic I have something strange to tell."
Kenric looked up at Elspeth in surprise.
"You are young, my lord," she continued, and you know not the things that have been. But I am old. Not always has it been with me as you see me now. Time was, my lord, when I, who am now a poor infirm woman, decried as a witch, despised of men, was a fair and joyous young maid. My father was a king --"
"A king?" echoed Kenric.
"Even so. And he had his castle under the Black Fell that is in far-off Iceland. Men named me Elspeth White Arm, and my lord and husband was also a king. He was the noblest and truest of all the monarchs of the North, and he was the lord over the Westermann Islands. We had one child, and we named her Sigrid the Fair."
"Elspeth, Elspeth, What is this that you are saying?" cried Kenric, partly guessing what was to come.