Thrice they repelled Calsar's forces, and come the winter, they seemed at last to have given up on return.

Sensing a reprieve, Yrnhold gave permission for the lady Oébfinn to go and visit with her family; her escorts were to take the cart and load it with blankets, fur, and healthy grain.

" Bid them trade it for whatever armaments the Cwge can spare," he said. " And tell the lady Aoife to more jealously guard her bridge."

So they went.

After a few weeks passed, before the worst of the snow, they came back. Oébfinn was thinner, but happy; and the cart came back not only with bows and armor, but Brige, wrapped in a winter cloak.

" Why have you come?" Yrnhold asked, puzzled.

" Coven, I have some experience dealing with brigands due to being Lady Aoife's maidservant," she said. " She bid me to come fight alongside you if Calsar's people return."

This sent up a buzz around the village, and at first she was treated as Oébfinn; but no one could argue that the Cwge Brige was any less than a man at hunting or battle, standing tall as one and muscled from how she had laboured through her lady's destitution.

" We can't really allow it," Rágn complained. " Even if she's skilled at hunting, she's still a woman..."

" I see no problem with her," Sif said. " She could probably pick Yrnhold up and carry him if she tried."

Indeed, she could, and so the matter was settled.

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