unfolded his arms to fling them
out in angry rejection.

"This is useful to learn!" he sneered. "Do you think I could not guess
that you had no need to put your desire into words after you had shown
Edric by your actions that your mind and his are one, after you had
admitted by your bond with him that you hold the same curious belief
about honor?"

This time it was Randalin who clutched the English girl. "Oh!" she
gasped.

For Canute's eyes were less like eyes than holes through which light was
pouring, while his fingers opened and shut as though he had forgotten
his sword and would leap upon the scoffer with bare hands. Thorkel left
off laughing to grasp the Jotun's arm and try to drag him backwards.

"Do you want to drive it from his mind that he has loved you? Go hide
yourself in Fenrir's mouth!"

But the King did not spring upon his foster-brother. Even as they
looked, the fire went out in his eyes, spark by spark, until they were
lustreless as ashes, and at last he put up his hand and wiped great
drops from his forehead. "Never had you the keenness to father that
judgment," he said in a strangely dull voice. "It must be that a god
spoke through your mouth." Leaving them, he moved forward to the well
and stood gazing into it, his fingers mechanically raking together and
crushing the dead leaves that had fluttered down upon the curbing.

Dearwyn's pretty lips began to quiver with approaching tears. "Randalin,
I am miserably terrified. The air feels as though awful things were
about to happen."

"It seems that the world has begun to fall to pieces everywhere,"
Randalin said wearily. The momentary forgetfulness which the happenings
around her had created was beginning to give way before the weight in
her breast. She drew herself up listlessly. "Is it of any use to remain
up here, Dearwyn?"

But Dearwyn's grasp had tightened. "See! the King is beginning to
speak."

Whom he was addressing was not quite clear even though he had turned
back to the group of nobles, for his eyes still gazed into space, but
his words sounded distinctly: "Heavy is it to lose faith in others, but
heavier still to lose faith in one's self... I know that no word of mine
urged Edric to this deed, but what my eyes may have said, or some trick
of my voice or my face, is not so sure... It may be that I wanted this
thing to happen without knowing it. When I see what it has brought me,
I cannot understand how I could help wanting it... It