Her face was slowly relaxing when, a second time, memory
betrayed her. Just so, she recollected, Leofwine's son was lying, not a
hundred yards away. Through the trees, the glow of the King's fire came
distinctly; gazing toward it, she could almost convince herself that she could
see the murderer, peaceful, secure. She ground her teeth in a sudden spasm of
rage. Would that some of those weak-witted thanes would prove the mettle of
the knives he was daring!
The next instant, she had thrown herself down with terror-widened eyes, and
was trying to bury her face in the leaves, while the tongueless mouth of every
shadowy shape seemed to shriek above her,--
"Odin sends you revenge!"--"It is the will of Odin that has drawn you
together!"--" Strange and wonderful is the way in which you are hesitating!" -
-"Would you become like the girl with the necklace?"--"Are you a coward, that
you do not prefer to die in good repute rather than live in the shame of
neglecting your duty?"
She flung up her haggard face in appeal. "No, no, I am not a coward," her
spirit cried within her. "I was brave in the battle. It is not death I fear;
but I cannot kill! Odin, have mercy on me! I cannot kill. I have tried to be
brave, but I am really a woman; it is not possible for me to have a man's
heart."
The grinning shadows mouthed at her. "You have not dared to be a woman," they
mocked.
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