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"I think that you do But it doesn’t matter if you swear to the One True God, or to the Allah of the Arabs, to Thor, or even the earth goddess of the pagans who came to this place before us It is the nature of men, and of the world There are forces That no one denies There is thunder, and there is calht, and they find peace There are the innocent, and the evil

You will swear as I tell you, because I need you, and because you must exist, because for every force, there is a counter-force My God would have no use for you if not for the freewill of men, and the compassion within them"

"You are a nor repeated the words the monk demanded

When he had done so, he realized that the monks had coht, he lay in the church in ht, in the darkness of deepto escape

He stood by the doors to the church, and Peter canor cried to him

"You will learn You will learn to harness the pain"

Ragnor did not believe him

At dusk the next day, Nari returned She came to him with bowed head, tears tremulous in her eyes

"Help me, they want to hunt me down, destroy me"

"We should be destroyed"

"Nothey will not harm you Please, let me stay with you If there is a wayIof you"

He had never felt so alone, or so enraged, and above it all, so helpless She knehat he felt And she had discovered the agony within, and the only way to appease it There was a way She would stay with him, she would learn

The monks built them a place to live while they stayed on at the church In tiuish could be appeased

The forest was nearly depleted of deer

The e living; the nor at last asked Peter why it was that he stayed, and what he hoped he would find when he rode The attacks that had come so forcefully had ceased; the creatures hadas you need nor was surprised, because he was certain that the monks would be much safer elsewhere

But Peter would not elaborate

In those days, it didn’t matter There were discoveries he e and awesome power of the hts, with Nari

They had formed a bond Greater than the horror they shared at what they had becoe, the acceptance of what they were She seeht they ran, felt the wind, the darkness, the power They feasted on blood; they ered

At the first light, they slept, and rested

The rew restless He talked to Peter and told hio home, or to the isle he had called home for so many years

Peter studied him carefully "You’re ready"

"I know that I am"

"And Nari?" Peter asked

"She listens to o hoo honor didn’t believe hiers who had survived were rebuilding In tirow Others would coo on

"Return when you feel you should," Peter told Ragnor

He sailed the next day with Nari They returned to the isle where he had settled with sohis brother’s death in battle, every warrior deserved such a saga

He lived with Nari, and again, sailed the seas with his ht theeance

He feasted on the violence that ruled such savage fighting Nari was like a Viking queen, awaiting his return, and sharing with hiain, after e to return to the church where Peter stood guard against the evil he was so certain would co him that there was a reason she must stay A rune-sayer cast the stones, and said that it was fate that she should do so

Ragnor returned to the village with a nagging worry that soe was thriving, though the people still slept in the church by night The fields were rich, the gae by the sea

Ragnor slept alone in the small wooden shelter that had been , learning

Then, at dusk one night, Ragnor found Peter standing on the steps of the church, staring out at the conor asked

Peter looked at hiely "You don’t know? You don’t feel it?"