When they stood next to each other with their bows ready, Arn still didn't seem to have any desire for the game. So Knut took him by the shoulders, embraced him, and said the following words, which he had thought out carefully:

   "Now, my dearest childhood friend, you shall shoot to win against your king and nothing less, as if everything depended on these arrows. Imagine that it's about Cecilia; yes, I know all about you and her. Imagine that I am your king and can give her to you but only if you defeat me. Look, now I'll shoot first. Don't answer me now, just shoot well."

   While Arn, shaken by these words, composed himself so he might do his best, Knut shot his ten arrows and aroused great admiration, for no one knew that he was such a good shot.

   Then Arn shot, with a cold expression and a great silence inside, as if everything really did depend on these arrows. Afterward all could see that there was a great difference between the two, and that Arn was the better archer.

   Now Knut grabbed Arn again and embraced him, saying that it might well be that Arn had just shot his way to making Cecilia Algotsdotter his wife. Then they left the courtyard and went alone to the tower. There Knut asked to have ale brought up to them.

   When they were alone, Knut did not wait for the ale before he began to explain the entire situation to Arn. The time had now arrived. For himself it was a matter of the crown, and for Arn it was Cecilia. Knut Eriksson had many informants around the country, which is how he knew everything that was important to know, and also some things that to many might seem less important, such as this matter with Arn and Cecilia.

   Arn replied morosely that he could well understand that many sorts of skills were required for someone who strove to win a king's crown, but he didn't understand the intention behind this game with bow and arrow that they had just played. Why stage this contest when a prospective king took a great risk of losing and thus being talked about as the loser?

   Just then the house thralls arrived with ale, and Knut smiled broadly at this interruption, because he seemed to understand Arn's impatience and puzzlement. They politely drank a skål to each other first, as custom demanded, and Knut saw in Arn's eyes the burning impatience that insisted on an immediate response. And yet he gave no answer, but began speaking of his father, Holy Saint Erik, who had been good to everyone, who had demanded nothing for himself, who had preferred his hair shirt and longs hours of prayer to courtly life, who had helped the weak and stood up to the strong, and who had died like a saint at the hands of an outlaw. Perhaps Arn had heard much of this story before, but there was one more thing to add.

   Erik Jedvardsson's father was Jedvard of Orkney, who had sailed with Sigurd Jorsalafar to the Holy Land and there performed great services for the Norwegian king. In gratitude for this Christian help, King Sigurd had granted Jedvard of Orkney two small splinters of the Holy Cross on which Our Savior was tortured and died. King Sigurd had been given a piece of the holy wood from King Baldwin of Outremer, or the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

   Here Knut paused in his story and asked Arn whether he had heard of Outremer, and Arn's happy laugh and eager nod made him quickly understand that he had.

   Well, these two splinters from the Holy Cross had been inherited by Knut's father, Erik Jedvardsson, and he'd had them cast inside a gold cross that he always wore around his neck. When Emund One-Hand chopped off his head, the holy relic fell to the ground and was conveyed by a wily man to the one who stood behind the murder, the man now called King Karl Sverkersson. So he was not only a king-killer but also an outlaw who had violated a holy relic of God. The gold cross containing the wooden splinters from Our Savior's Cross inside was now worn by Karl Sverkersson himself around his neck, and this had to be a constant abomination in God's eyes. Surely there could be no doubt about that.

   Arn at once agreed that this must be abominable in God's eyes, and he added that everything must be done to right this wrong.

   Then Knut Eriksson smiled at Arn and repeated quietly that now the hour was upon them. But to reach the place where God's holy relic might now be found, they would need a select few men who could tolerate cold and were able to sail well, who were skilled with a bow and could defend themselves better with a sword than any other men.

   That was why they had staged this contest, Knut went on. There were men who could shoot well in a contest but could not do the same in battle, when their heads were full of anger and fear. Such had been the case for Arn when asked to shoot and simultaneously think about Cecilia, but Arn had acquitted himself well.

   Now, not later, was when they must do what had to be done, Knut continued. Then a bit hesitantly and with an assurance that when he became king he would be the first to bless a wedding ale between Arn and Cecilia, Knut asked whether Arn wished to join this expedition as one of only eight men.

   This was the third time that someone had told Arn he would never have Cecilia as long as Karl Sverkersson was alive. If he had hesitated the first two times, he did not do so now.

When they arrived at Forsvik by the shore of Lake Vättern, they found that Eyvind Jonsson, Jon Mickelsen, and Egil Olafsen of Ulateig had built a small but elegant ship that was broad in the beam, had a shallow draft, and could be rowed with three pairs of oars. The Norwegian retainers apologized for not adorning the ship with the runes required to finish it completely, but seaworthiness had been foremost on their minds because the ice would soon begin to thaw. This small ship, which was built like a Norse longship, could be sailed faster than other ships of the day, especially in Western Götaland; it could be rowed faster than any other, especially with Norwegian oarsmen; and it could be dragged easily over ice. Knut was very pleased with what he saw and explained everything to Arn, who hadn't had as much to do with Norway as others in his clan.

   After three days of waiting it was time to set out. They first celebrated a mass, which Arn, to lend the words greater power, held in church language. After the mass Knut Eriksson spoke to them and spurred them on. Their strength lay in the fact that they were eight good men who would cross Lake Vättern when no one believed it was possible. Out there on the southern tip of the island of Visingö sat the king-killer Karl Sverkersson with his retainers, assuming he was safe. But God would not stand by the man who had murdered a saint for his own gain. When they had won what now had to be won, each and every one of them would be rewarded according to his merits.

   More was not said. The ship was pulled by horses up from the hole in the ice by the shore where it had lain so that the water would make the planking swell and grow tight. The horses were stabled, and then they finished loading the ship. Each of the men grabbed the end of a rope for the hard task of dragging the ship out to open water. But the broad-beamed vessel was easy to drag on the ice, and eight men were not too few.