Eira had fourteen winters and hands that smelled of tar, fish and salt. Her family built drakkars, and she dreamed of her own voyage one day. The fjord smoked at dawn, as if the water breathed along with the mountains around it. Jarl Suni had the boat ready, for the iron moon was to rise that night. It was said that with such a sign, the waves carried unexpected news always from the deep. Shields hung on the palisade, still wet from the fresh painting of red runes. Dogs barked in the harbour and seagulls circled above the workshop, waiting for the refuse. Eira climbed under the dragon's prow and touched the board with her knife carefully. The resin flashed, revealing a thin line, as if a hidden letter from the old secret runes. She dragged the blade once more and saw a mark resembling a deer's horn doubled on the bow. Then she heard a whisper, though there were carpenters working around her, loud and fast strangely. The whisper spoke her name, draughty, like the wind pushing through the cracks. It sounded young and old at once, like a song remembered but long unheard. Eira glanced out over the water, seeing only upturned stars and glowing plankton. In the evening, Eira carried the sign to the skald Armod, learning the song before the expedition. The old man looked sharply and pressed a trembling line on the drawing lightly with his finger. This is the horn of Rán, he whispered, it does not bow to uninvited sailors ever. And if he bows, she asked, feeling a chill in the back of her neck despite the fire. Armod did not answer as the horn of alarm sounded from the bay. A crowd had gathered on the shore, and the jarl gave orders quick as sparks. The moon rose red, spilling over the water like heated iron now. The waves rippled strangely, falling and returning, as if the fjord breathed with a deeper rhythm. Eira slipped the drawing into her pocket and ran towards the drakkar's moorings. Beneath the dragon's bow she heard the whisper again, this time clear as a shriek. The whisper repeated two words whose meaning she did not know, but which promised passage. The planks trembled, the boat lifted suddenly, and a shadow floated straight out of the darkness of the silent fjord.