"In what lies ahead for you in life I see three things, boy," she said suddenly, as if her alleged vision was pushing forward despite Arn's lack of interest. "I see two shields; would you like to know what I see?" she went on, squeezing both eyes shut as if to look inside herself. Arn's curiosity was already aroused, and maybe she saw that too behind her closed eyelids.

   "What shields do you see?" he asked, sure that she would now say something foolish.

   "One shield has three golden crowns against the sky and the other shield has a lion," she replied in a new singsong tone, her eyes still shut.

   Arn was dumbstruck. He couldn't conceive of how a solitary old woman far out in the wilderness could have the slightest idea of such things, and even less that she could know who he was, or had been able to guess anything by looking at his clothes. He remembered a story to which he had given little credence, a story told to him by Knut, who said that his father Erik Jedvardsson, out on a crusade, had received a prophecy about the three crowns. But that had happened far away, on the other side of the Eastern Sea.

   "What is the third thing you see?" he asked cautiously.

   "I see a cross and I hear words with the cross, and what I hear are the words 'In this sign shalt thou conquer,'" she continued in her singsong way, without any expression on her face or opening her eyes.

   Arn thought first that she must have been more sharp-eyed than he realized and read the Latin inscription on the hilt of his sword.

   "You mean, 'In hoc signo vinces'?" he asked to test her. But she merely shook her head as if the Latin words meant nothing to her.

   "Do you see a woman in my future?" he asked with some trepidation, which could probably be heard in his voice.

   "You will get your woman!" she shrieked in a shrill voice and opened her eyes, staring wildly at him. "But nothing will be as you think, nothing!"

   She laughed at him in her hoarse, cackling voice, but it was as if her mood had been broken and he could no longer get a sensible word out of her. Soon he gave up and lay down to sleep on the bunk where he'd tossed his sword. He wrapped his mantle around him, turned to the wall, and closed his eyes, but he couldn't fall asleep. He tossed and turned for a while, thinking of what the old woman had said, and found that it was both true and meager. The fact that she could see the Folkung and Erik clans inside him was strange, he had to admit. But she hadn't said anything that he didn't know for himself. That he would have Cecilia back was reassuring, and that was what he believed. At last he must have fallen asleep.

   When he awoke at dawn she was gone, but Shimal was in his place out in the little stable and neighed a welcome as if nothing had happened.

   It was after midday when he rode in through the gate of Varnhem cloister, and all the familiar smells washed over him from the gardens and Brother Rugiero's cookhouse. His arrival was expected but it also aroused some commotion, and two brothers ran to meet him; one led Shimal away and the other escorted him in silence to the lavatorium and then pointed to his clothes. When Arn did not understand, the brother said peevishly that since he was excommunicated he could not be spoken to before he at least washed up a bit. After that he would be given a lay brother's clothing.

   Arn washed himself long and thoroughly and trimmed his long hair as he said the appropriate prayers. In his lay brother's attire, which felt oddly familiar, he then reported to Father Henri at his favorite place in the arcade. Father Henri looked at him with much sternness but also love. Then he sighed heavily and took out his prayer stole and motioned for Arn to prepare himself for his confession. Arn fell to his knees and prayed to Holy Saint Bernard to give him the strength and honesty to perform this confession, which would not be easy to make.

King Knut Eriksson arrived at Arnäs with a royal retinue and Birger Brosa. They were many men and it would take some time to see to it that they were all properly quartered. But they were expected, and it was said in the nearest village that the many hungry and weary men would be received well.

   Birger Brosa was impatient for them to hold a council as soon as possible instead of pouring ale into themselves first. Even with King Knut present, arrangements were made immediately as Birger Brosa desired, and those involved with the matter gathered in the hall of the longhouse with only a little ale in their bodies.

   They prayed first for the Lord to bless this meeting, and that wise words would be spoken here and not foolish ones. Those phrases sounded so awkward and almost simpleminded that Arn's absence was felt like a gust of wind passing through the entire hall. But the question of Arn was only one of the many topics they had to discuss.

   Birger Brosa was the one who took the floor when they had settled down to begin the council, and he believed that the first concern had to be the landsting in Western Götaland, since much depended on Knut obtaining his second crown, and the sooner the better. No one was opposed.

   They then spent a good while deliberating what messages should be sent and how knowledge of the ting should be disseminated best and as rapidly as possible. Since nothing that was said on this matter was either new or unfamiliar, this question was also swiftly resolved.

   According to Birger Brosa, the next item involved the best way for Knut, once he was elected king, to proceed in order to lift the shame that had befallen the Folkungs with an excommunicated member of the clan. This, said Birger Brosa, was a matter that Knut himself must address.

   Knut Eriksson began by assuring them that Arn, as they all knew, was his dearest friend, and that Arn had also done him very great services that had to be reciprocated. In addition, all the good that the Eriks and the Folkungs could do each other had to take precedence above all else. After saying this and more in the same vein, he got to the heart of the matter.

   As far as he understood it, an archbishop could without difficulty annul the excommunication ordered by Bishop Bengt in Skara. The problem was that the archbishop had left his see and no one knew where he was. At least he was not in Linköping, and it would be unfortunate if he had been seized by the Sverker clan, but he was not in Svealand either. Knut's informants would have heard of this, because an archbishop was not that easy to hide.

   Now, these men of God could sometimes prove obstinate. So even if they got hold of the missing archbishop, it was not easy to predict how things would turn out if his king required a decision on matters over which the church claimed authority. Priests could always be threatened, that was clear. The clergy were cov etous and jealous of their lands, and they strove to gain new gifts of property, which could sometimes make them soft in negotiations. Yet it was impossible to say anything more about this before two things had occurred. First, Knut had to be elected king in Western Götaland as well, just as his dear kinsman and wise adviser Birger Brosa had said. Then he could negotiate from a position of strength with the archbishop. Besides, the prelate must be fished out from his hiding place before they would have a sense of what stand he might take.