will be his part to lead the launchings and the seafarings and be first
when blows are going. Do ye accept him, people of Hightown?"

There was a swelling cry of assent and a beating of hafts on shields.
Biorn's heart was lifted with pride, but out of a corner of his eye he saw
his father's face. It was very grave, and his gaze was on vacancy.

Though it was a time of bustle, there was no joy in it, as there had been
at other hostings. The folk were too hungry, the need was too desperate,
and there was something else, a shadow of fate, which lay over Hightown. In
the dark of night men had seen the bale-fires burning on the Howe of the
Dead. A grey seal had been heard speaking with tongues off Siggness, and
speaking ill words, said the fishermen who saw the beast. A white reindeer
had appeared on Sunfell, and the hunter who followed it had not been seen
again. By day, too, there was a brooding of hawks on the tide's edge, which
was strange at that season. Worst portent of all, the floods of August were
followed by high north-east winds that swept the clouds before them, so
that all day the sky was a scurrying sea of vapour, and at night the moon
showed wild grey shapes moving ever to the west. The dullest could not
mistake their meaning; these were the dark horses, and their riders, the
Helmed Maidens, mustering for the battle to which Hightown was faring.

As Biorn stared one night at the thronged heavens, he found Leif by his
elbow. In front of the dark company of the sky a white cloud was scudding,
tinged with the pale moon. Leif quoted from the speech of the Giant-wife
Rimegerd to Helgi in the song:

"Three nines of maiden, ride,
But one rides before them,
A white maid helmed: