Not Yet The End

Despite her claim, Nemeta was not the last worshiper of the Three. When Gratillonius mobilizes fishermen to fight the Scoti, one of them prays:

" 'Lir, I promise You the best of my every catch for a year...' " (Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf (London, 1989), p. 271).

Such prayers will continue to be uttered at least until the last Ysan survivor who does not convert to Christianity dies but maybe no longer than that. Meanwhile, Nemeta, wanting to help her father, prays not to the Gods but to her dead mother and receives her mother's power to leave her human body and to fare forth in the form of an eagle owl. Dahut the mermaid and Nemeta the owl intervene in the battle between Gratillonius' irregular army and Niall's Scoti.

Meanwhile, another issue awaits resolution. As noted before, Poul Anderson wrote detective fiction and sometimes incorporated elements of such fiction into other works. Nemeta had sacrificed her son and, when the remains were found, had maliciously diverted suspicion onto Gratillonius' son-in-law. Gratillonius, charged by the Bishop to "'...search out the true guilty party...,' " has so far cleared his son-in-law but has not yet sought out any clues to the murderer's identity. (p. 254) Can we expect him to do this? Having read the book at least twice before, I do not remember. Instead, I find that many details are read with surprise as if for the first time. But this time I will indeed notice and remember what becomes of Nemeta.