The slack wind did not help the monotony of a long sea voyage. At times like these, Bárid mac Iarnkné tended to drift away from his companions into an isolated world of thoughts. As his ship dealt with the four intermingled currents that assailed any vessel entering the Irish Sea—a stretch of water known and universally respected by the hardiest of mariners—Bárid dwelt on the not-so-distant past. His mind returned to the expulsion from Áth Cliath, where he was content with life in a settled home—since then, only a few months in the longphort on the Derwent had restored a little of that serenity. Not that he disliked the Viking lifestyle that he and his stalwart crew had plunged into, raiding along the rivers of Frankia. How strange, he had often thought, that they had not come across his
