The young queen proved tireless, and she had worked on her hands and knees alongside Nyssa and the women of the keep. Konáll had claimed the castle and Olaf Longface had declared a meeting of The Thing on the morrow. Mús had taken his leave of Konáll, but had not said his farewells to Nyssa. She both grieved for him and was enraged he had not faced her before disappearing. Would she ever see her half brother again? Nyssa peered through the arrow slits of the north tower and followed the line of warriors riding through the keep’s inner bailey. When she and Konáll had returned to the castle after making love in the sea, they had found massive chaos. Her relatives had escaped the dungeons and none seemed to know how or who had aided their flight. Konáll, Dráddør, and ThÅrfin had scoured the length and breadth of the island from dusk to dawn for nigh on a sennight searching for any clue as to where the Picts, Ánáton, Maura, and Monette had fled.
