"Sigrid was a wild and self-willed child," the old woman continued, fixing her blue eyes on Kenric, "but I loved her well. And on a time -- 'tis a full score and four years ago -- she disappeared, and we could find her nowhere, until my lord went out upon his ship and boarded the galley of a bold viking of the south whose name was Rudri Alpinson, or, as the Scots called him, Roderic MacAlpin. On Roderic's galley was Sigrid found; but she would not return, for she loved this man Roderic passing well, knowing little of his evil heart. My lord, in trying to win her back, was slain by Roderic's hand, and thereupon Roderic carried away my child as his willing captive to his island home in Gigha. There he made her his wedded wife. But not long had my lord been dead, not long had his younger brother taken his place as ruler in our land, when my heart so yearned for my fair Sigrid that I took ship and came south in search of her. By chance I landed upon your father's isle of Bute, for it was of Bute that Roderic had spoken as the home of his fathers.
"The ship that brought me hither was the ship of my brother, Rapp the Icelander. Him I bade go over to Gigha and fulfil for me my vengeance upon my enemy Roderic, and rescue my daughter. But the people secretly told him that Roderic had been cruel to Sigrid, and that her love for him had vanished as the morning mist. My child had lost her reason, and in her mad despair she had gone out one day and cast herself from the cliffs into the sea. Now Sigrid had left two children, and it was said that they were unhappy. So Rapp, searching for them, with intent to carry them off and bring them to me that I might be revenged upon their father, found them one day playing in a great rock tunnel in Gigha."
"I know the place," said Kenric; "'twas there that Aasta --"
"'Twas there that Rapp the Icelander found Earl Roderic's bairns, and from thence he carried them off. Those bairns, my lord, were Aasta the Fair and the boy Lulach."
"Aasta? Lulach?" cried Kenric in astonishment, as he rose and began to pace the rocky floor. "And they were brother and sister? And they were the children of Roderic -- my own cousins? This is a strange thing that you are telling me, Elspeth, and I can scarce believe it!"
"'Tis none the less true, my lord," said Elspeth.
"And Lulach -- it was then his own father who slew him! And it was her own father whom Aasta fought against at Largs!"
"Even so. And pity 'tis that she did not kill him."
"Pity indeed," said Kenric. "And now you say that Roderic is in Bute?"
"He is here with intent to slay you, Earl Kenric, in some such subtle way as he slew your good father. But I have told you where he will be at midnight. Go thither, I charge you, and take the Thirsty Sword that Aasta gave you. And may the blood of our enemy Roderic be the last that it will drink."