The Roots of the Mountains Read online

  CHAPTER XXII. FACE-OF-GOD COMETH HOME TO BURGSTEAD.

  BUT Face-of-god with Bow-may and Wood-wise fared over the waste, going atfirst alongside the cliffs of the Shivering Flood, and then afterwardsturning somewhat to the west. They soon had to climb a very high andsteep bent going up to a mountain-neck; and the way over the neck wasrough indeed when they were on it, and they toiled out of it into abarren valley, and out of the valley again on to a rough neck; andsuch-like their journey the day long, for they were going athwart allthose great dykes that went from the ice-mountains toward the lower daleslike the outspread fingers of a hand or the roots of a great tree. Andthe ice-mountains they had on their left hands and whiles at their backs.

  They went very warily, with their bows bended and spear in hand, but sawno man, good or bad, and but few living things. At noon they rested in avalley where was a stream, but no grass, nought but stones and sand; butwhere they were at least sheltered from the wind, which was mostly verygreat in these high wastes; and there Bow-may drew meat and wine from awallet she bore, and they ate and drank, and were merry enough; andBow-may said:

  ‘I would I were going all the way with thee, Gold-mane; for I long soreto let my eyes rest a while on the land where I shall one day live.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Face-of-god, ‘art thou minded to dwell there? We shall beglad of that.’

  ‘Whither are thy wits straying?’ said she; ‘whether I am minded to it ornot, I shall dwell there.’

  And Wood-wise nodded a yea to her. But Face-of-god said:

  ‘Good will be thy dwelling; but wherefore must it be so?’

  Then Wood-wise laughed and said: ‘I shall tell thee in fewer words thanshe will, and time presses now: Wood-father and Wood-mother, and I and mytwo brethren and this woman have ever been about and anigh the Sun-beam;and we deem that war and other troubles have made us of closer kin to herthan we were born, whether ye call it brotherhood or what not, and nevershall we sunder from her in life or in death. So when thou goest toBurgdale with her, there shall we be.’

  Then was Face-of-god glad when he found that they deemed his wedding sosettled and sure; but Wood-wise fell to making ready for the road. AndFace-of-god said to him:

  ‘Tell me one thing, Wood-wise; that whoop that thou gavest forth when wewere at handy-strokes e’en now—is it but a cry of thine own or is it ofthy Folk, and shall I hear it again?’

  ‘Thou may’st look to hear it many a time,’ said Wood-wise, ‘for it is thecry of the Wolf. Seldom indeed hath battle been joined where men of ourblood are, but that cry is given forth. Come now, to the road!’

  So they went their ways and the road worsened upon them, and toilsome wasthe climbing up steep bents and the scaling of doubtful paths in thecliff-sides, so that the journey, though the distance of it were not solong to the fowl flying, was much eked out for them, and it was not tillnear nightfall that they came on the ghyll of the Weltering Water somesix miles above Burgstead. Forsooth Wood-wise said that the way might bemade less toilsome though far longer by turning back eastward a littlepast the vale where they had rested at midday; and that seemed good toGold-mane, in case they should be wending hereafter in a great companybetween Burgdale and Shadowy Vale.

  But now those two went with Face-of-god down a path in the side of thecliff whereby him-seemed he had gone before; and they came down into theghyll and sat down together on a stone by the water-side, and Face-of-godspake to them kindly, for he deemed them good and trusty faring-fellows.

  ‘Bow-may,’ said he, ‘thou saidst a while ago that thou wouldst be fain tolook on Burgdale; and indeed it is fair and lovely, and ye may soon be init if ye will. Ye shall both be more than welcome to the house of myfather, and heartily I bid you thither. For night is on us, and the wayback is long and toilsome and beset with peril. Sister Bow-may, thouwottest that it would be a sore grief to me if thou camest to any harm,and thou also, fellow Wood-wise. Daylight is a good faring-fellow overthe waste.’

  Said Bow-may: ‘Thou art kind, Gold-mane, and that is thy wont, I know;and fain were I to-night of the candles in thine hall. But we may nottarry; for thou wottest how busy we be at home; and Sun-beam needeth me,if it were only to make her sure that no Dusky Man is bearing off thinehead by its lovely locks. Neither shall we journey in the mirk night;for look you, the moon yonder.’

  ‘Well,’ said Face-of-god, ‘parting is ill at the best, and I would Icould give you twain a gift, and especially to thee, my sister Bow-may.’

  Said Wood-wise: ‘Thou may’st well do that; or at least promise the gift;and that is all one as if we held it in our hands.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Bow-may, ‘Wood-wise and I have been thinking in one waybelike; and I was at point to ask a gift of thee.’

  ‘What is it?’ said Gold-mane. ‘Surely it is thine, if it were but aguerdon for thy good shooting.’

  She laughed and handled the skirts of his hauberk as she said:

  ‘Show us the dint in thine helm that the steel axe made this morning.’

  ‘There is no such great dint,’ said he; ‘my father forged that helm, andhis work is better than good.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Bow-may, ‘and might I have hauberk and helm of his handiwork,and Wood-wise a good sword of the same, then were I a glad woman, andthis man a happy carle.’

  Said Gold-mane: ‘I am well pleased at thine asking, and so shallIron-face be when he heareth of thine archery; and how that Hall-facewere now his only son but for thy close shooting. But now must I to theway; for my heart tells me that there may have been tidings in Burgsteadthis while I have been aloof.’

  So they rose all three, and Bow-may said:

  ‘Thou art a kind brother, and soon shall we meet again; and that will bewell.’

  Then he put his hands on her shoulders and kissed both her cheeks; and hekissed Wood-wise, and turned and went his ways, threading the stonytangle about the Weltering Water, which was now at middle height, andrunning clear and strong; so turning once he beheld Wood-wise and Bow-mayclimbing the path up the side of the ghyll, and Bow-may turned to himalso and waved her bow as token of farewell. Then he went upon his way,which was rough enough to follow by night, though the moon was shiningbrightly high aloft. Yet as he knew his road he made but little of itall, and in somewhat more than an hour and a half was come out of thepass into the broken ground at the head of the Dale, and began to makehis way speedily under the bright moonlight toward the Gate, still goingclose by the water. But as he went he heard of a sudden cries and rumournot far from him, unwonted in that place, where none dwelt, and where theonly folk he might look to see were those who cast an angle into thepools and eddies of the Water. Moreover, he saw about the place whencecame the cries torches moving swiftly hither and thither; so that helooked to hear of new tidings, and stayed his feet and looked keenlyabout him on every side; and just then, between his rough path and theshimmer of the dancing moonlit water, he saw the moon smite on somethinggleaming; so, as quietly as he could, he got his target on his arm, andshortened his spear in his right hand, and then turned sharply towardthat gleam. Even therewith up sprang a man on his right hand, and thenanother in front of him just betwixt him and the water; an axe gleamedbright in the moon, and he caught a great stroke on his target, andtherewith drave his left shoulder straight forward, so that the manbefore him fell over into the water with a mighty splash; for they wereat the very edge of the deepest eddy of the Water. Then he spun round onhis heel, heeding not that another stroke had fallen on his rightshoulder, yet ill-aimed, and not with the full edge, so that it ran downhis byrny and rent it not. So he sent the thrust of his spear crashingthrough the face and skull of the smiter, and looked not to him as hefell, but stood still, brandishing his spear and crying out, ‘For theBurg and the Face! For the Burg and the Face!’

  No other foe came against him, but like to the echo of his cry rose aclear shout not far aloof, ‘For the Face, for the Face! For the Burg andthe Face!’ He muttered, ‘So ends the day as it begun,’ a
nd shouted loudagain, ‘For the Burg and the Face!’ And in a minute more came breakingforth from the stone-heaps into the moonlit space before the water thetall shapes of the men of Burgstead, the red torchlight and the moonlightflashing back from their war-gear and weapons; for every man had hissword or spear in hand.

  Hall-face was the first of them, and he threw his arms about his brotherand said: ‘Well met, Gold-mane, though thou comest amongst us likeStone-fist of the Mountain. Art thou hurt? With whom hast thou dealt?Where be they? Whence comest thou?’

  ‘Nay, I am not hurt,’ said Face-of-god. ‘Stint thy questions then, tillthou hast told me whom thou seekest with spear and sword and candle.’

  ‘Two felons were they,’ said Hall-face, ‘even such as ye saw lying deadat Wood-grey’s the other day.’

  ‘Then may ye sheathe your swords and go home,’ said Gold-mane, ‘for onelieth at the bottom of the eddy, and the other, thy feet are well-nightreading on him, Hall-face.’

  Then arose a rumour of praise and victory, and they brought the torchesnigh and looked at the fallen man, and found that he was stark dead; sothey even let him lie there till the morrow, and all turned about towardthe Thorp; and many looked on Face-of-god and wondered concerning him,whence he was and what had befallen him. Indeed, they would have askedhim thereof, but could not get at him to ask; but whoso could, went asnigh to Hall-face and him as they might, to hearken to the talk betweenthe brothers.

  So as they went along Hall-face did verily ask him whence he came: ‘Forwas it not so,’ said he, ‘that thou didst enter into the wood seekingsome adventure early in the morning the day before yesterday?’

  ‘Sooth is that,’ said Face-of-god, ‘and I came to Shadowy Vale, andthence am I come this morning.’

  Said Hall-face: ‘I know not Shadowy Vale, nor doth any of us. This is anew word. How say ye, friends, doth any man here know of Shadowy Vale?’

  They all said, ‘Nay.’

  Then said Hall-face: ‘Hast thou been amongst mere ghosts and marvels,brother, or cometh this tale of thy minstrelsy?’

  ‘For all your words,’ said Gold-mane, ‘to that Vale have I been; and, tospeak shortly (for I desire to have your tale, and am waiting for it), Iwill tell thee that I found there no marvels or strange wights, but afolk of valiant men; a folk small in numbers, but great of heart; a folkcome, as we be, from the Fathers and the Gods. And this, moreover, is tobe said of them, that they are the foes of these felons of whom ye werechasing these twain. And these same Dusky Men of Silver-dale would slaythem every man if they might; and if we look not to it they will soon bedoing the same by us; for they are many, and as venomous as adders, asfierce as bears, and as foul as swine. But these valiant men, who bearon their banner the image of the Wolf, should be our fellows in arms, andthey have good will thereto; and they shall show us the way toSilver-dale by blind paths, so that we may fall upon these felons whilethey dwell there tormenting the poor people of the land, and thus may wedestroy them as lads a hornet’s nest. Or else the days shall be hard forus.’

  The men who hung about them drank in his words greedily. But Hall-facewas silent a little while, and then he said: ‘Brother Gold-mane, these begreat tidings. Time was when we might have deemed them but a minstrel’stale; for Silver-dale we know not, of which thou speakest so glibly, northe Dusky Men, any more than the Shadowy Vale. Howbeit, things havebefallen these two last days so strange and new, that putting themtogether with the murder at Wood-grey’s, and thy words which seemsomewhat wild, it may well seem to us that tidings unlooked for arecoming our way.’

  ‘Come, then,’ said Face-of-god, ‘give me what thou hast in thy scrip, andtrust me, I shall not jeer at thy tale.’

  Said Hall-face: ‘I also will be short with the tale; and that the more,as meseemeth it is not yet done, and that thou thyself shalt share in theending of it. It was the day before yesterday, that is the day when thoudepartedst into the woods on that adventure whereof thou shalt one daytell me more, wilt thou not?’

  ‘Yea, in good time,’ said Face-of-god.

  ‘Well,’ quoth Hall-face, ‘we went into the woods that day and in themorning, but after sunrise, to the number of a score: we looked to meet abear and a she-bear with cubs in a certain place; for one of theWoodlanders, a keen hunter, had told us of their lair. Also we werewishful to slay some of the wild-swine, the yearlings, if we might.Therefore, though we had no helms or shields or coats of fence, we hadbowshot a plenty, and good store of casting-weapons, besides ourwood-knives and an axe or so; and some of us, of whom I was one, bore ourbattle-swords, as we are wont ever to do, be the foe beast or man.

  ‘Thus armed we went up Wildlake’s Way and came to Carlstead, wherehalf-a-score Woodlanders joined themselves to us, so that we became aband. We went up the half-cleared places past Carlstead for a mile, andthen turned east into the wood, and went I know not how far, for theWoodlanders led us by crooked paths, but two hours wore away in ourgoing, till we came to the place where they looked to find the bears. Itis a place that may well be noted, for it is unlike the wood round about.There is a close thicket some two furlongs about of thorn and briar andill-grown ash and oak and other trees, planted by the birds belike; andit stands as it were in an island amidst of a wide-spreading woodlawn offine turf, set about in the most goodly fashion with great tallstraight-boled oak-trees, that seem to have been planted of set purposeby man’s hand. Yea, dost thou know the place?’

  ‘Methinks I do,’ said Gold-mane, ‘and I seem to have heard theWoodlanders give it a name and call it Boars-bait.’

  ‘That may be,’ said Hall-face. ‘Well, there we were, the dogs and themen, and we drew nigh the thicket and beset it, and doubted not to findprey therein: but when we would set the dogs at the thicket to enter it,they were uneasy, and would not take up the slot, but growled and turnedabout this way and that, so that we deemed that they winded some fiercebeast at our flanks or backs.

  ‘Even so it was, and fierce enough and deadly was the beast; for suddenlywe heard bow-strings twang, and shafts came flying; and Iron-shield ofthe Upper Dale, who was close beside me, leapt up into the air and felldown dead with an arrow through his back. Then I bethought me in thetwinkling of an eye, and I cried out, “The foe are on us! take the coverof the tree-boles and be wary! For the Burg and the Face! For the Burgand the Face!”

  ‘So we scattered and covered ourselves with the oak-boles, but besidesIron-shield, who was slain outright, two goodmen were sorely hurt, to witBald-face, a man of our house, and Stonyford of the Lower Dale.

  ‘I looked from behind my tree-bole, a great one; and far off down theglades I saw men moving, clad in gay raiment; but nearer to me, not ahundred yards from my cover, I saw an arm clad in scarlet come out frombehind a tree-bole, so I loosed at it, and missed not; for straight theretottered out from behind the tree one of those dusky foul-favoured menlike to those that were slain by Wood-grey. I had another shaft readynotched, so I loosed and set the shaft in his throat, and he fell.

  ‘Straightway was a yelling and howling about us like the cries of scaldedcurs, and the oak-wood swarmed thick with these felons rushing on us; forit seems that the man whom I had slain was a chief amongst them, or wejudged so by his goodly raiment.

  ‘Methought then our last day was come. What could we do but run togetheragain after we had loosed at a venture, and so withstand them sword andspear in hand? Some fell beneath our shot, but not many, for they cameon very swiftly.

  ‘So they fell on us; but for all their fierceness and their numbers theymight not break our array, and we slew four and hurt many by sword-hewingand spear-casting and push of spear; and five of us were hurt and oneslain by their dart-casting. So they drew off from us a little, andstrove to spread out and fall to shooting at us again; but this we wouldnot suffer, but pushed on as they fell back, keeping as close together aswe might for the trees. For we said that we would all die together ifneeds must; and verily the stour was hard.

  ‘Yet hearken! In
that nick of time rose up a strange cry not far fromus, Ha! ha! ha! ha! How-ow-ow! ending like the howl of a wolf, and thenanother and another and another, till the whole wood rang again.

  ‘At first we deemed that here were come fresh foemen, and that we wereundone indeed; but when they heard it, the foe-men before us faltered andgave way, and at last turned their backs and fled, and we followed,keeping well together still: thereby the more part of these men escapedus, for they fled wildly here and there from those who bore that cry withthem; so we knew that our work was being done for us; therefore we stood,and saw tall men clad in sheep-brown weed running through the gladespursuing those felons and smiting them down, till both fleers andpursuers passed out of our sight like men in a dream, or as when ye rollup a pictured cloth to lay it in the coffer.

  ‘But to Stone-face’s mind those brown-clad men were the Wights of theWood that be of the Fathers’ blood, and our very friends; and when someof us would yet have gone forward and foregathered with them, andfollowed the chase along with them, Stone-face gainsaid it, bidding usnot to run into the arms of a second death, when we had but just escapedfrom the first. Sooth to say, moreover, we had divers hurt men thatneeded looking to.

  ‘So what with one thing, what with another, we turned back: butWar-cliff’s brother, a tall man, had felled two of those felons with anoak sapling which he had torn from the thicket; but he had not slainthem, and by now they were just awakening from their swoon, and weresitting up looking round them with fierce rolling eyes, expecting thestroke, for Raven of Longscree was standing over them with a nakedwar-sword in his hand. But now that our blood was cool, we were loth toslay them as they lay in our hands; so we bound them and brought themaway with us; and our own dead we carried also on such biers as we mightlightly make there, and with them three that were so grievously hurt thatthey might not go afoot, these we left at Carlstead: they were Tardy theSon of the Untamed, and Swan of Bull-meadow, both of the Lower Dale, anda Woodlander, Undoomed to wit. But the dead were Iron-shield aforesaid,and Wool-sark, and the Hewer, a Woodlander.

  ‘So came we sadly at eventide to Burgstead with the two dead Burgdalers,and the captive felons, and the wounded of us that might go afoot; and yemay judge that they of Burgdale and our father deemed these tidings greatenough, and wotted not what next should befall. Stone-face would havehad those two felons slain there and then; for no true tale could we getout of them, nor indeed any word at all. But the Alderman would not haveit so; and he deemed they might serve our turn as hostages if any of ourfolk should be taken: for one and all we deemed, and still deem, that waris on us and that new folk have gathered on our skirts.

  ‘So the captives were shut up in the red out-bower of our house; and ourfather was minded that thou mightest tell us somewhat of them when thouwert come home. But about dusk to-day the word went that they had brokenout and gotten them weapons and fled up the Dale; and so it was.

  ‘But to-morrow morning will a Gate-thing be holden, and there it will belooked for of thee that thou tell us a true tale of thy goings. For itis deemed, and it is my deeming especially, that thou may’st tell us moreof these men than thou hast yet told us. Is it not so?’

  ‘Yea, surely,’ said Gold-mane, ‘I can make as many words as ye will aboutit; yet when all is said, it will come to much the same tale as I havealready told thee. Yet belike, if ye are minded to take up the sword todefend you, I may tell you in what wise to lay hold on the hilts.’

  ‘And that is well,’ said Hall-face, ‘and no less do I look for of thee.But lo! here are we come to the Gate of the Burg that abideth battle.’