So I and they all bided still for a little while; and then the courtmen raised their weapons toward me as in salute, and drifted from the deck into the white mists over the water, and were gone.

Then those two mighty brethren of mine smiled on me, with a still smile, and so they, too, were gone, and only my father was left; and he, too, rose up, and stood before me where the brothers had been, and it seemed to me that he spoke to me.
"Now are you the last of our line, the line which goes back to Odin, my son; and on you it lies that no dishonour shall fall on that line, which has never yet been stained.

And we trust you.

So be strong, for there are deeds to be done yet in the days that lie before you." Then he set his hand on my shoulder, and passed to join those others, and how I do not know.

I was alone.
Then a longing to be with them again came over me, and I rose and stretched my hands to the place where I had seen them, but there was nothing--until I turned a little, looking for them; and then I knew that there was one who would speak to me yet.
The penthouse chamber was open, and it seemed to be filled with a white light and soft, and in the doorway stood the old king, beckoning to me, so that, for all my fears, I must needs go to him.
Yet there was naught for me to fear in the look which he turned on me.
"Friend," he said, "the old sea which I love should be my grave.
See to it that so it shall be.