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blood. The knife sawed through the rope, and my hands were free. My torn wrists throbbed painfully. They were smeared with blood, and I had no idea whether it was mine or Svanson’s.
    ‘Here,’ said the dark-eyed slave, holding out the knife to me. ‘Will you free me now?’ he asked.
    I hesitated only for a moment, then cut at his bonds until they fell away and he too was free. I heard his sharp intake of breath at the mixture of pain and relief the sudden freedom gave. The slave rose unsteadily to his feet and staggered a little. He wiped his brow on his sleeve, inadvertently smearing his face with Svanson’s blood.
    ‘I’ve never killed a man before,’ he said. He coughed, and I wondered if he would be sick, as I had been earlier, but he seemed to recover himself. He wiped his hands on the grass and tried to clean his knife. I looked into the slave’s bruised and bloody face as he knelt beside me. It still had that edge of familiarity, but the memory eluded me.
    ‘What do we do now?’ I asked. I felt quite lost in the enormity of what had happened.
    ‘There’s no “we”,’ he replied, getting to his feet. ‘Svanson kidnapped you, but now you are free to return home. I’ll have to flee. They would put me to death for far less than this.’ He indicated Svanson’s body with a sweep of his hand, and then paused and met my eyes again, his own wondering.
    ‘You knew,’ he said quietly. ‘Didn’t you? You knew that I was going to kill him. You described it before it happened.’
    I swallowed painfully. My mouth and throat were parched and sore.
    ‘I didn’t know it was you,’ I whispered. ‘But I saw his death, yes.’
    ‘I have heard of such things,’ he said. He stood up and went to where the saddle lay upon the ground next to Svanson. He untied the saddlebag that was fastened there and rifled through it. My own bag was in there, and he put it aside for me. He found bread and cheese and a flask of some strong drink. There were also two purses full of heavy coins. He weighed them in his hand, and put one into my bag. I said nothing. I felt nothing. I was numb with exhaustion and shock. I watched him tie the other purse around his neck.
    ‘You take the horse,’ he said. ‘I must go. Before I’m seen.’
    ‘Wait!’ I exclaimed. ‘Don’t you know that his kin will hunt you down? How will you escape them?’
    I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to be left alone with Svanson’s body.
    ‘I think they are going to have their hands full with the king’s army for some time to come,’ replied the slave drily. ‘They won’t have time to trouble themselves over me.’
    ‘You know the army are coming then?’ I asked.
    ‘I heard about it when Svanson did.’ The slave hesitated a moment and then he turned back and offered me his hand to pull me to my feet. It was still stained with blood, but I took it. And it happened again. The vision was not so blindingly vivid this time. But there was no mistaking it.
    The slave standing in the prow of a magnificent ship, his dark hair streaming back from his sun-weathered face. He’s looking eagerly ahead at a wide, empty bay. A place unlike anywhere I’ve ever seen before. I’m standing beside him.
    ‘Do you do this all the time?’ I heard the man ask me. His voice sounded distant. ‘It must be very disconcerting for your kin.’
    Now I remember your face. I’ve seen it before, but only in my visions. This is the face that’s bound up in my own future.
    I released his hand, and reeled back from him, gasping. Sitting down in the grass, I put my head in my hands, sick and dizzy. I was shaking uncontrollably. My fate was tied up with that of a slave? It wasn’t what I’d expected, but I didn’t doubt it for a second.
    The slave was standing watching me. I took a breath and gathered my scattered wits.
    ‘I’m exhausted and fasting,’ I told him. ‘It makes the future clearer. I saw us sailing together in Svanson’s ship. It’s our destiny