Eodan opened his cloak and let the sword slide to his knees. His left arm was stiff and pained from holding the blade pressed to his ribs, hours at a time. He looked with sullen red eyes at his enemy and said: "No. I will pledge your ghost in your own blood, nothing else." Phryne hugged her knees and stared from a drawn small face. "It is best that Flavius not leave this cabin all the voyage," she said. "He can plead seasickness. Two of us must be with him at any time, awake." "Oh, one will do," said Eodan. His jaws felt rusty. "At least, if the other two are here, asleep but ready to be called." "Bind him," said Hwicca timidly. Flavius raised his brows. "If a sailor should chance to look in upon us and saw me bound--" he murmured. "It is true." Eodan's head drooped. He jerked it back again. "Be as wise in our behalf as you have been, Roman, and you will see Rome again." Flavius poured himself a cup. "Do you think so?" he asked lightly. "I doubt that." "I have promised." "How much will your word be worth to you, once we reach a wild land where you have no further need of me for shield?" Flavius' eyes rested candidly on Hwicca, above the rim of his cup. A slow, deep flush went up her throat and cheeks. She drew herself into a corner, away from them all, but her gaze remained locked with his. "Not that I expect us ever to get that far," went on Flavius. "Your luck has been good until now--" "A Power has been with me," said Eodan, and touched his forehead where the holy triskele lay under a grimy cloth. "So you may think. But what educated man can take seriously those overgrown children on Olympus?" The Roman nodded at Hwicca. "We spoke of this now and then, you and I. Do you remember? There was a time you gathered jasmine blossoms--" "Be still about that or I will forget my word!" roared Eodan in the Cimbric. Hwicca huddled back and lifted an arm, as though to ward off a blow. "As you wish," said Flavius, unruffled. "To continue--" A crash outside, and the sound of swearing and a whip, interrupted him--"I myself do not believe in any Power except chance. There are blind moieties of matter, obeying blind laws; only the idiot hand of chance keeps each cycle of centuries from being the same. Now it is very possible, by chance, to throw the same number at dice several times sequentially. It is not possible forever, my friend. I think you have thrown about as many good numbers as any man in the world ever did. Soon your luck must turn. You shall be found out through some happenstance. You will then try to kill me. One way or another, we shall all die. You and Phryne and Hwicca and myself, all dead--mold in our mouths and our eye sockets empty." Flavius tossed off his wine and poured another cup. "It is inevitable." Eodan snarled, out of a chill, dreary foreboding, "If you say more such unlucky words, I will--no, not kill you--each such word will cost you a tooth. Now hold your mouth!"