The Roots of the Mountains Page 15
CHAPTER XIV. CONCERNING FACE-OF-GOD AND THE MOUNTAIN.
BUT it must be told of Gold-mane that what had befallen him was in thiswise. His skid-strap brake in good sooth, and he stayed to mend it; butwhen he had done what was needful, he looked up and saw no man nigh, whatfor the drift, and that they had gone on somewhat; so he rose to hisfeet, and without more delay, instead of keeping on toward the elk-groundand the way his face had been set, he turned himself north-and-by-east,and went his ways swiftly towards that aírt, because he deemed that itmight lead him to the Mountain-hall where he had guested. He abode notfor the storm to clear, but swept off through the thick of it; and indeedthe wind was somewhat at his back, so that he went the swiftlier. Butwhen the drift was gotten to its very worst, he sheltered himself for alittle in a hollow behind a thorn-bush he stumbled upon. As soon as itbegan to abate he went on again, and at last when it was quite clear, andthe sun shone out, he found himself on a long slope of the fells covereddeep with smooth white snow, and at the higher end a great crag risingbare fifty feet above the snow, and more rocks, but none so great, andbroken ground as he judged (the snow being deep) about it on the hitherside; and on the further, three great pine-trees all bent down andmingled together by their load of snow.
Thitherward he made, as a man might, seeing nothing else to note beforehim; but he had not made many strides when forth from behind the crag bythe pine-trees came a man; and at first Face-of-god thought it might beone of his hunting-fellows gone astray, and he hailed him in a loudvoice, but as he looked he saw the sun flash back from a bright helm onthe new-comer’s head; albeit he kept on his way till there was but aspace of two hundred yards between them; when lo! the helm-bearer notcheda shaft to his bent bow and loosed at Face-of-god, and the arrow camewhistling and passed six inches by his right ear. Then Face-of-godstopped perplexed with his case; for he was on the deep snow in hisskids, with his bow unbent, and he knew not how to bend it speedily. Hewas loth to turn his back and flee, and indeed he scarce deemed that itwould help him. Meanwhile of his tarrying the archer loosed again athim, and this time the shaft flew close to his left ear. ThenFace-of-god thought to cast himself down into the snow, but he wasashamed; till there came a third shaft which flew over his head amidmostand close to it. ‘Good shooting on the Mountain!’ muttered he; ‘the nextshaft will be amidst my breast, and who knows whether the Alderman’shandiwork will keep it out.’
So he cried aloud: ‘Thou shootest well, brother; but art thou a foe? Ifthou art, I have a sword by my side, and so hast thou; come hither to me,and let us fight it out friendly if we must needs fight.’
A laugh came down the wind to him clear but somewhat shrill, and thearcher came swiftly towards him on his skids with no weapon in his handsave his bow; so that Face-of-god did not draw his sword, but stoodwondering.
As they drew nearer he beheld the face of the new-comer, and deemed thathe had seen it before; and soon, for all that it was hooded close by theill-weather raiment, he perceived it to be the face of Bow-may, ruddy andsmiling.
She laughed out loud again, as she stopped herself within three feet ofhim, and said:
‘Yea, friend Yellow-hair, we heard of the elks and looked to see theehereabouts, and I knew thee at once when I came out from behind the cragand saw thee stand bewildered.’
Said Gold-mane: ‘Hail to thee, Bow-may! and glad am I to see thee. Butthou liest in saying that thou knewest me; else why didst thou shootthose three shafts at me? Surely thou art not so quick as that with allthy friends: these be sharp greetings of you Mountain-folk.’
‘Thou lad with the sweet mouth,’ she said, ‘I like to see thee and hearthee talk, but now must I hasten thy departure; so stand we here nolonger. Let us get down into the wood where we can do off our skids andsit down, and then will I tell thee the tidings. Come on!’
And she caught his hand in hers, and they went speedily down the slopestoward the great oak-wood, the wind whistling past their ears.
‘Whither are we going?’ said he.
Said she: ‘I am to show thee the way back home, which thou wilt not knowsurely amidst this snow. Come, no words! thou shalt not have my talefrom me till we are in the wood: so the sooner we are there the soonershalt thou be pleased.’
So Face-of-god held his peace, and they went on swiftly side by side.But it was not Bow-may’s wont to be silent for long, so presently shesaid:
‘Thou art good so do as I bid thee; but see thou, sweet playmate, for allthou art a chieftain’s son, thou wert but feather-brained to ask me why Ishot at thee. I shoot at thee! that were a fine tale to tell her thiseven! Or dost thou think that I could shoot at a big man on the snow attwo hundred paces and miss him three times? Unless I aimed to miss.’
‘Yea, Bow-may,’ said he, ‘art thou so deft a Bow-may? Thou shalt be inmy company whenso I fare to battle.’
‘Indeed,’ she said, ‘therein thou sayest but the bare truth: nowhere elseshall I be, and thou shalt find my bow no worse than a good shield.’
He laughed somewhat lightly; but she looked on him soberly and said:‘Laugh in that fashion on the day of battle, and we shall be well contentwith thee!’
So on they sped very swiftly, for their way was mostly down hill, so thatthey were soon amongst the outskirting trees of the wood, and presentlyafter reached the edge of the thicket, beyond which the ground was butthinly covered with snow.
There they took off their skids, and went into the thick wood and satdown under a hornbeam tree; and ere Gold-mane could open his mouth tospeak Bow-may began and said:
‘Well it was that I fell in with thee, Dalesman, else had there beenmurders of men to tell of; but ever she ordereth all things wisely,though unwisely hast thou done to seek to her. Hearken! dost thou thinkthat thou hast done well that thou hast me here with my tale? Well,hadst thou busied thyself with the slaying of elks, or with sittingquietly at home, yet shouldest thou have heard my tale, and thoushouldest have seen me in Burgstead in a day or two to tell theeconcerning the flitting of the token. And ill it is that I have missedit, for fain had I been to behold the House of the Face, and to have seenthee sitting there in thy dignity amidst the kindred of chieftains.’
And she sighed therewith. But he said: ‘Hold up thine heart, Bow-may!On the word of a true man that shall befall thee one day. But come,playmate, give me thy tale!’
‘Yea,’ she said, ‘I must now tell thee in the wild-wood what else I hadtold thee in the Hall. Hearken closely, for this is the message:
‘_Seek not to me again till thou hast the token_; _else assuredly wiltthou be slain_, _and I shall be sorry for many a day_. _Thereof as now Imay not tell thee more_. _Now as to the token_: _When March is worn twoweeks fail not to go to and fro on the place of the Maiden Ward for anhour before sunrise every day till thou hear tidings_.’
‘Now,’ quoth Bow-may, ‘hast thou hearkened and understood?’
‘Yea,’ said he.
She said: ‘Then tell me the words of my message concerning the token.’And he did so word for word. Then she said:
‘It is well, there is no more to say. Now must I lead thee till thouknowest the wood; and then mayst thou get on to the smooth snow again,and so home merrily. Yet, thou grey-eyed fellow, I will have my pay ofthee before I do that last work.’
Therewith she turned about to him and took his head between her hands,and kissed him well favouredly both cheeks and mouth; and she laughed,albeit the tears stood in her eyes as she said: ‘Now smelleth the woodsweeter, and summer will come back again. And even thus will I do oncemore when we stand side by side in battle array.’
He smiled kindly on her and nodded as they both rose up from the earth:she had taken off her foul-weather gloves while they spake, and he kissedher hand, which was shapely of fashion albeit somewhat brown, and hard ofpalm, and he said in friendly wise:
‘Thou art a merry faring-fellow, Bow-may, and belike shalt be withal atrue fighting-fellow. Come now, thou shalt be my sister and I thybro
ther, in despite of those three shafts across the snow.’
He laughed therewith; she laughed not, but seemed glad, and said soberly:
‘Yea, I may well be thy sister; for belike I also am of the people of theGods, who have come into these Dales by many far ways. I am of the Houseof the Ragged Sword of the Kindred of the Wolf. Come, brother, let ustoward Wildlake’s Way.’
Therewith she went before him and led through the thicket as by anassured and wonted path, and he followed hard at heel; but his thoughtwent from her for a while; for those words of brother and sister that hehad spoken called to his mind the Bride, and their kindness of littlechildren, and the days when they seemed to have nought to do but to makethe sun brighter, and the flowers fairer, and the grass greener, and thebirds happier each for the other; and a hard and evil thing it seemed tohim that now he should be making all these things nought and dreary toher, now when he had become a man and deeds lay before him. Yet againwas he solaced by what Bow-may had said concerning battle to come; for hedeemed that she must have had this from the Friend’s foreseeing; and helonged sore for deeds to do, wherein all these things might be cleared upand washen clean as it were.
So passed they through the wood a long way, and it was getting darktherein, and Gold-mane said:
‘Hold now, Bow-may, for I am at home here.’
She looked around and said: ‘Yea, so it is: I was thinking of manythings. Farewell and live merrily till March comes and the token!’
Therewith she turned and went her ways and was soon out of sight, and hewent lightly through the wood, and then on skids over the hard snow alongthe Dale’s edge till he was come to the watch-tower, when the moon wasbright in heaven.
Thus was he at Burgstead and the House of the Face betimes, and beforethe hunters were gotten back.