The Roots of the Mountains Read online

  CHAPTER XXVIII. THE MEN OF BURGDALE MEET THE RUNAWAYS.

  NOW ere the night was far spent, Dallach arose and said:

  ‘Kind folk, ye will presently be sleeping; but I bid you keep a goodwatch, and if ye will be ruled by me, ye will kindle no fire on themorrow, for the smoke riseth thick in the morning air, and is as abeacon. As for me, I shall leave you here to rest, and I myself willfare on mine errand.’

  They bade him sleep and rest him after so many toils and hardships,saying that they were not tied to an hour to be back in Burgdale; but hesaid: ‘Nay, the moon is high, and it is as good as daylight to me, whocould find my way even by starlight; and your tarrying here is nowisesafe. Moreover, if I could find those folk and bring them part of theway by night and cloud it were well; for if we were taken again, burningquick would be the best death by which we should die. As for me, now amI strong with meat and drink and hope; and when I come to Burgdale therewill be time enough for resting and slumber.’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘Shall I not wend with thee to see these people and thelairs wherein they hide?’

  The man smiled: ‘Nay, earl,’ said he, ‘that shall not be. For wot yewhat? If they were to see me in company of a man-at-arms they would deemthat I was bringing the foe upon them, and would flee, or mayhappen wouldfall upon us. For as for me, when I saw thee, thou wert close anigh me,so I knew thee to be no Dusky Man; but they would see the glitter ofthine arms from afar, and to them all weaponed men are foemen. Thou,lord, knowest not the heart of a thrall, nor the fear and doubt that isin it. Nay, I myself must cast off these clothes that ye have given me,and fare naked, lest they mistrust me. Only I will take a spear in myhand, and sling a knife round my neck, if ye will give them to me; for ifthe worst happen, I will not be taken alive.’

  Therewith he cast off his raiment, and they gave him the weapons andwished him good speed, and he went his way twixt moonlight and shadow;but the Burgdalers went to sleep when they had set a watch.

  Early in the morning they awoke, and the sun was shining and the thrushessinging in the thorn-brake, and all seemed fair and peaceful, and alittle haze still hung about the face of the burg over the river. Sothey went down to the water and washed the night from off them; andthence the most part of them went back to their lair among thethorn-bushes: but four of them went up the dale into the oak-wood toshoot a buck, and five more they sent out to watch their skirts aroundthem; and Face-of-god with old Stone-face went over a ford of the stream,and came on to the lower slope of the burg, and so went up it to the top.Thence they looked about to see if aught were stirring, but they sawlittle save the waste and the wood, which on the north-east was thick ofbig trees stretching out a long way. Their own lair was clear to seeover its bank and the bushes thereof, and that misliked Face-of-god, lestany foe should climb the burg that day. The morning was clear, andFace-of-god looking north-and-by-west deemed he saw smoke rising into theair over the tree-covered ridges that hid the further distance towardthat aírt, though further east uphove the black shoulders of the Greatthat Waste and the snowy peaks behind them. The said smoke was not suchas cometh from one great fire, but was like a thin veil staining the paleblue sky, as when men are burning ling on the heath-side and it is seenaloof.

  He showed that smoke to Stone-face, who smiled and said:

  ‘Now will they be lighting the cooking fires in Rose-dale: would I werethere with a few hundreds of axes and staves at my back!’

  ‘Yea,’ said Face-of-god, smiling in his face, ‘but where I pray thee arethese elves and wood-wights, that we meet them not? Grim things thereare in the woods, and things fair enough also: but meseemeth that thetrolls and the elves of thy young years have been frighted away.’

  Said Stone-face: ‘Maybe, foster-son; that hath been seen ere now, thatwhen one race of man overrunneth the land inhabited by another, thewights and elves that love the vanquished are seen no more, or get themaway far off into the outermost wilds, where few men ever come.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Face-of-god, ‘that may well be. But deemest thou by thattoken that we shall be vanquished?’

  ‘As for us, I know not,’ said Stone-face; ‘but thy friends of ShadowyVale have been vanquished. Moreover, concerning these felons whom now weare hunting, are we all so sure that they be men? Certain it is, thatwhen I go into battle with them, I shall smite with no more pity than mysword, as if I were smiting things that may not feel the woes of man.’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘Yea, even so shall it be with me. But what thinkestthou of these runaways? Shall we have tidings of them, or shall Dallachbring the foe upon us? It was for the sake of that question that I haveclomb the burg: and that we might watch the land about us.’

  ‘Nay,’ said Stone-face, ‘I have seen many men, and I deem of Dallach thathe is a true man. I deem we shall soon have tidings of his fellows; andthey may have seen the elves and wood-wights: I would fain ask themthereof, and am eager to see them.’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘And I somewhat dread to see them, and their rags andtheir misery and the weals of their stripes. It irked me to see Dallachwhen he first fell to his meat last night, how he ate like a dog for fearand famine. How shall it be, moreover, when we have them in the Dale,and they fall to the deed of kind there, as they needs must. Will theynot bear us evil and thrall-like men?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Stone-face, ‘and maybe not; for they have been thralls butfor a little while: and I deem that in no long time shall ye see themmuch bettered by plenteous meat and rest. And after all is said, thisDallach bore him like a valiant man; also it was valiant of him to flee;and of the others may ye say the like. But look you! there are men goingdown yonder towards our lair: belike those shall be our guests, and therebe no Dusky Men amongst them. Come, let us home!’

  So Face-of-god looked and beheld from the height of the burg shapes ofmen grey and colourless creeping toward the lair from sunshine to shadow,like wild creatures shy and fearful of the hunter, or so he deemed ofthem.

  So he turned away, angry and sad of heart, and the twain went down theburg and across the water to their camp, having seen little to tell offrom the height.

  When they came to their campment there were their folk standing in a ringround about Dallach and the other runaways. They made way for theWar-leader and Stone-face, who came amongst them and beheld the Runaways,that they were many more than they looked to see; for they were of carlesone score and three, and of women eighteen, all told save Dallach. Whenthey saw those twain come through the ring of men and perceived that theywere chieftains, some of them fell down on their knees before them andheld out their joined hands to them, and kissed the Burgdalers’ feet andthe hems of their garments, while the tears streamed out of their eyes:some stood moving little and staring before them stupidly: and some keptglancing from face to face of the well-liking happy Burgdale carles,though for a while even their faces were sad and downcast at the sight ofthe poor men: some also kept murmuring one or two words in their countrytongue, and Dallach told Face-of-god that these were crying out forvictual.

  It must be said of these poor folk that they were of divers conditions,and chiefly of three: and first there were seven of Rose-dale and five ofSilver-dale late come to the wood (of these Silver-dalers Dallach hadtold but of two, for the other three were but just come). Of thesetwelve were seven women, and all, save two of the women, were clad in onescanty kirtle or shirt only; for such was the wont of the Dusky Men withtheir thralls. They had brought away weapons, and had amongst them sixaxes and a spear, and a sword, and five knives, and one man had a shield.

  Yet though these were clad and armed, yet in some wise were they theworst of all; they were so timorous and cringing, and most of themheavy-eyed and sullen and down-looking. Many of them had been grievouslymishandled: one man had had his left hand smitten off; another was dockedof three of his toes, and the gristle of his nose slit up; one was halt,and four had been ear-cropped, nor did any lack weals of whipping. Ofthe Silver-dale new-comers the three men we
re the worst of all theRunaways, with wild wandering eyes, but sullen also, and cringing if anydrew nigh, and would not look anyone in the face, save presentlyFace-of-god, on whom they were soon fond to fawn, as a dog on his master.But the women who were with them, and who were well-nigh as timorous asthe men, were those two gaily-dad ones, and they were soft-handed andwhite-skinned, save for the last days of weather in the wood; for theyhad been bed-thralls of the Dusky Men.

  Such were the new-comers to the wood. But others had been, like Dallach,months therein; it may be said that there were eighteen of these, carlesand queens together. Little raiment they had amongst them, and some wereall but stark naked, so that on these might well be seen as on Dallachthe marks of old stripes, and of these also were there men who had beenshorn of some member or other, and they were all burnt and blackened bythe weather of the woodland; yet for all their nakedness, they borethemselves bolder and more manlike than the later comers, nor did theyaltogether lack weapons taken from their foemen, and most of them hadsome edge-tool or another. Of these folk were four from Silver-dale,though Dallach knew it not.

  Besides these were a half score and one who had been years in the woodinstead of months; weather-beaten indeed were these, shaggy andrough-skinned like wild men of kind. Some of them had made themselvesskin breeches or clouts, some went stark naked; of weapons of the Dalehad they few, but they bore bows of hazel or wych-elm strung withdeer-gut, and shafts headed with flint stones; staves also of the samefashion, and great clubs of oak or holly: some of them also had made themtargets of skin and willow-twigs, for these were the warriors of theRunaways: they had a few steel knives amongst them, but had mostlylearned the craft of using sharp flints for knives: but four of thesewere women.

  Three of these men were of the kindreds of the Wolf from Silver-dale, andhad been in the wood for hard upon ten years, and wild as they were, andwithout hope of meeting their fellows again, they went proudly and boldlyamongst the others, overtopping them by the head and more. For thegreater part of these men were somewhat short of stature, though bynature strong and stout of body.

  It must be told that though Dallach had thus gotten all these manyRunaways together, yet had they not been dwelling together as one folk;for they durst not, lest the Dusky Men should hear thereof and fall uponthem, but they had kept themselves as best they could in caves and inbrakes three together or two, or even faring alone as Dallach did: onlyas he was a strong and stout-hearted man, he went to and fro and wanderedabout more than the others, so that he foregathered with most of them andknew them. He said also that he doubted not but that there were moreRunaways in the wood, but these were all he could come at. Divers whohad fled had died from time to time, and some had been caught and cruellyslain by their masters. They were none of them old; the oldest, saidDallach, scant of forty winters, though many from their aspect might havebeen old enough.

  So Face-of-god looked and beheld all these poor people; and said tohimself, that he might well have dreaded that sight. For here was hebrought face to face with the Sorrow of the Earth, whereof he had knownnought heretofore, save it might be as a tale in a minstrel’s song. Andwhen he thought of the minutes that had made the hours, and the hoursthat had made the days that these men had passed through, his heartfailed him, and he was dumb and might not speak, though he perceived thatthe men of Burgdale looked for speech from him; but he waved his hand tohis folk, and they understood him, for they had heard Dallach say thatsome of them were crying for victual. So they set to work and dightedfor them such meat as they had, and they set them down on the grass andmade themselves their carvers and serving-men, and bade them eat whatthey would of such as there was. Yet, indeed, it grieved the Burgdalersagain to note how these folk were driven to eat; for they themselves,though they were merry folk, were exceeding courteous at table, and ofgreat observance of manners: whereas these poor Runaways ate, some ofthem like hungry dogs, and some hiding their meat as if they feared itshould be taken from them, and some cowering over it like falcons, andscarce any with a manlike pleasure in their meal. And, their eatingover, the more part of them sat dull and mopish, and as if all thingswere forgotten for the time present.

  Albeit presently Dallach bestirred him and said to Face-of-god: ‘Lord ofthe Earl-folk, if I might give thee rede, it were best to turn your facesto Burgdale without more tarrying. For we are over-nigh to Rose-dale,being but thus many in company. But when we come to our nextresting-place, then shall bring thee to speech with the last-comers fromSilver-dale; for there they talk with the tongue of the kindreds; but weof Rose-dale for the more part talk otherwise; though in my house it camedown from father to son.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Face-of-god, gazing still on that unhappy folk, as they sator lay upon the grass at rest for a little while: but him-seemed as hegazed that some memories of past time stirred in some of them; for some,they hung their heads and the tears stole out of their eyes and rolleddown their cheeks. But those older Runaways of Silver-dale were notcrouched down like most of the others, but strode up and down like beastsin a den; yet were the tears on the face of one of these. ThenFace-of-god constrained himself, and spake to the folk, and said: ‘We arenow over-nigh to our foes of Rose-dale to lie here any longer, being toofew to fall upon them. We will come hither again with a host when wehave duly questioned these men who have sought refuge with us: and let uscall yonder height the Burg of the Runaways, and it shall be a landmarkfor us when we are on the road to Rose-dale.’

  Then the Burgdalers bade the Runaways courteously and kindly to arise andtake the road with them; and by that time were their men all come in; andfour of them had venison with them, which was needful, if they were toeat that night or the morrow, as the guests had eaten them to the bone.

  So they tarried no more, but set out on the homeward way; and Face-of-godbade Dallach walk beside him, and asked him such concerning Rose-dale andits Dusky Men. Dallach told him that these were not so many as they weremasterful, not being above eight hundreds of men, all fighting-men. Asto women, they had none of their own race, but lay with the Daleswomen attheir will, and begat children of them; and all or most of the saidchildren favoured the race of their begetters. Of the men-children theyreared most, but the women-children they slew at once; for they valuednot women of their own blood: but besides the women of the Dale, theywould go at whiles in bands to the edges of the Plain and beguilewayfarers, and bring back with them thence women to be their bed-thralls;albeit some of these were bought with a price from the Westland men.

  As to the number of the folk of Rose-dale, its own folk, he said theywould number some five thousand souls, one with another; of whom somethousand might be fit to bear arms if they had the heart thereto, as theyhad none. Yet being closely questioned, he deemed that they might fallon their masters from behind, if battle were joined.

  He said that the folk of Rose-dale had been a goodly folk before theywere enthralled, and peaceable with one another, but that now it was asport of the Dusky Men to set a match between their thralls to fight itout with sword and buckler or otherwise; and the vanquished man, if hewere not sore hurt, they would scourge, or shear some member from him, oreven slay him outright, if the match between the owners were so made.And many other sad and grievous tales he told to Face-of-god, more thanneed be told again; so that the War-leader went along sorry and angry,with his teeth set, and his hand on the sword-hilt.

  Thus they went till night fell on them, and they could scarce see thesigns they had made on their outward journey. Then they made stay in alittle valley, having set a watch duly; and since they were by this timefar from Rose-dale, and were a great company as regarded scattered bandsof the foe, they lighted their fires and cooked their venison, and madegood cheer to the Runaways, and so went to sleep in the wild-wood.

  When morning was come they gat them at once to the road; and if theBurgdalers were eager to be out of the wood, their eagerness was asnought to the eagerness of the Runaways, most of whom could not be easynow, and deemed every
minute lost unless they were wending on to theDale; so that this day they were willing to get over the more ground,whereas they had not set out on their road till afternoon yesterday.

  Howsoever, they rested at noontide, and Face-of-god bade Dallach bringhim to speech with others of the Runaways, and first that he might talkwith those three men of the kindreds who had fled from Silver-dale inearly days. So Dallach brought them to him; but he found that thoughthey spake the tongue, they were so few-spoken from wildness andloneliness, at least at first, that nought could come from them that wasnot dragged from them.

  These men said that they had been in the wood more than nine years, sothat they knew but little of the conditions of the Dale in that presentday. However, as to what Dallach had said concerning the Dusky Men, theystrengthened his words; and they said that the Dusky Men took no delightsave in beholding torments and misery, and that they doubted if they weremen or trolls. They said that since they had dwelt in the wood they hadslain not a few of the foemen, waylaying them as occasion served, butthat in this warfare they had lost two of their fellows. WhenFace-of-god asked them of their deeming of the numbers of the Dusky Men,they said that before those bands had broken into Rose-dale, they countedthem, as far as they could call to mind, at about three thousand men, allwarriors; and that somewhat less than one thousand had gone up intoRose-dale, and some had died, and many had been cast away in thewild-wood, their fellows knew not how. Yet had not their numbers inSilver-dale diminished; because two years after they (the speakers) hadfled, came three more Dusky Companies or Tribes into Silver-dale, andeach of these tribes was of three long hundreds; and with their cominghad the cruelty and misery much increased in the Dale, so that thethralls began to die fast; and that drave the Dusky Men beyond theborders of Silver-dale, so that they fell upon Rose-dale. When asked howmany of the kindreds might yet be abiding in Silver-dale, their facesclouded, and they seemed exceeding wroth, and answered, that they wouldwillingly hope that most of those that had not been slain at the time ofthe overthrow were now dead, yet indeed they feared there were yet somealive, and mayhappen not a few women.

  By then must they get on foot again, and so the talk fell between them;but when they made stay for the night, after they had done their meat,Face-of-god prayed Dallach bring to him some of the latest-come folk fromSilver-dale, and he brought to him the man and the woman who had been inthe Dale within that moon. As to the man, if those of the Earl-folk hadbeen few-spoken from fierceness and wildness, he was no less so from meredulness and weariness of misery; but the woman’s tongue went gliblyenough, and it seemed to pleasure her to talk about her past miseries.As aforesaid, she was better clad than most of those of Rose-dale, andindeed might be called gaily clad, and where her raiment was befouled orrent, it was from the roughness of the wood and its weather, and not fromthe thralldom. She was a young and fair woman, black-haired andgrey-eyed. She had washed herself that day in a woodland stream whichthey had crossed on the road, and had arrayed her garments as trimly asshe might, and had plucked some fumitory, wherewith she had made agarland for her head. She sat down on the grass in front of Face-of-god,while the man her mate stood leaning against a tree and looked on hergreedily. The Burgdale carles drew near to her to hearken her story, andlooked kindly on the twain. She smiled on them, but especially onFace-of-god, and said:

  ‘Thou hast sent for me, lord, and I wot well thou wouldst hear my taleshortly, for it would be long to tell if I were to tell it fully, andbring into it all that I have endured, which has been bitter enough, forall that ye see me smooth of skin and well-liking of body. I have beenthe bed-thrall of one of the chieftains of the Dusky Men, at whose housemany of their great men would assemble, so that ye may ask me whatso yewill; as I have heard much talk and may call it to mind. Now if ye askme whether I have fled because of the shame that I, a free woman come offree folk, should be a mere thrall in the bed of the foes of my kin, andwith no price paid for me, I must needs say it is not so; since over longhave we of the Dale been thralls to be ashamed of such a matter. Andagain, if ye deem that I have fled because I have been burdened withgrievous toil and been driven thereto by the whip, ye may look on myhands and my body and ye will see that I have toiled little therewith:nor again did I flee because I could not endure a few stripes now andagain; for such usage do thralls look for, even when they are delicatelykept for the sake of the fairness of their bodies, and this they may wellendure; yea also, and the mere fear of death by torment now and again.But before me lay death both assured and horrible; so I took mine owncounsel, and told none for fear of bewrayal, save him who guarded me; andthat was this man; who fled not from fear, but from love of me, and tohim I have given all that I might give. So we got out of the house anddown the Dale by night and cloud, and hid for one whole day in the Daleitself, where I trembled and feared, so that I deemed I should die offear; but this man was well pleased with my company, and with the lack oftoil and beating even for the day. And in the night again we fled andreached the wild-wood before dawn, and well-nigh fell into the hands ofthose who were hunting us, and had outgone us the day before, as we layhid. Well, what is to say? They saw us not, else had we not been here,but scattered piece-meal over the land. This carle knew the passes ofthe wood, because he had followed his master therein, who was a greathunter in the wastes, contrary to the wont of these men, and he had laina night on the burg yonder; therefore he brought me thither, because heknew that thereabout was plenty of prey easy to take, and he had a bowwith him; and there we fell in with others of our folk who had fledbefore, and with Dallach; who e’en now told us what was hard to believe,that there was a fair young man like one of the Gods leading a band ofgoodly warriors, and seeking for us to bring us into a peaceful and happyland; and this man would not have gone with him because he feared that hemight fall into thralldom of other folk, who would take me away from him;but for me, I said I would go in any case, for I was weary of the woodand its roughness and toil, and that if I had a new master he wouldscarcely be worse than my old one was at his best, and him I couldendure. So I went, and glad and glad I am, whatever ye will do with me.And now will I answer whatso ye may ask of me.’

  She laid her limbs together daintily and looked fondly on Face-of-god,and the carle scowled at her somewhat at first, but presently, as hewatched her, his face smoothed itself out of its wrinkles.

  But Face-of-god pondered a little while, and then asked the woman if shehad heard any words to remember of late days concerning the affairs ofthe Dusky Men and their intent; and he said:

  ‘I pray thee, sister, be truthful in thine answer, for somewhat lieth onit.’

  She said: ‘How could I speak aught but the sooth to thee, O lovely lord?The last word spoken hereof I mind me well: for my master had beenmishandling me, and I was sullen to him after the smart, and he mockedand jeered me, and said: Ye women deem we cannot do without you, but yeare fools, and know nothing; we are going to conquer a new land where thewomen are plenty, and far fairer than ye be; and we shall leave you tofare afield like the other thralls, or work in the digging of silver; andbelike ye wot what that meaneth. Also he said that they would leave usto the new tribe of their folk, far wilder than they, whom they lookedfor in the Dale in about a moon’s wearing; so that they needs must seekto other lands. Also this same talk would we hear whenever it pleasedany of them to mock us their bed-thralls. Now, my sweet lord, this isnought but the very sooth.’

  Again spake Face-of-god after a while:

  ‘Tell me, sister, hast thou heard of any of the Dusky Men being slain inthe wood?’

  ‘Yea,’ she said, and turned pale therewith and caught her breath as onechoking; but said in a little while:

  ‘This alone was it hard for me to tell thee amongst all the I griefs Ihave borne, whereof I might have told thee many tales, and will do oneday if thou wilt suffer it; but fear makes this hard for me. For in verysooth this was the cause of my fleeing, that my master was brought inslain by an arrow in the wood; and he was to
be borne to bale and burnedin three days’ wearing; and we three bed-thralls of his, and three of thebest of the men-thralls, were to be burned quick on his bale-fire aftersore torments; therefore I fled, and hid a knife in my bosom, that Imight not be taken alive; but sweet was life to me, and belike I shouldnot have smitten myself.’

  And she wept sore for pity of herself before them all. But Face-of-godsaid:

  ‘Knowest thou, sister, by whom the man was slain?’

  ‘Nay,’ she said, still sobbing; ‘but I heard nought thereof, nor had Inoted it in my terror. The death of others, who were slain before him,and the loss of many, we knew not how, made them more bitterly cruel withus.’

  And again was she weeping; but Face-of-god said kindly to her: ‘Weep nomore, sister, for now shall all thy troubles be over; I feel in my heartthat we shall overcome these felons, and make an end of them, and therethen is Burgdale for thee in its length and breadth, or thine own Dale todwell in freely.’

  ‘Nay,’ she said, ‘never will I go back thither!’ and she turned round tohim and kissed his feet, and then arose and turned a little toward hermate; and the carle caught her by the hand and led her away, and seemedglad so to do.

  So once again they fell asleep in the woods, and again the next morningfared on their way early that they might come into Burgdale beforenightfall. When they stayed a while at noontide and ate, Face-of-godagain had talk with the Runaways, and this time with those of Rose-dale,and he heard much the same story from them that he had heard before, toldin divers ways, till his heart was sick with the hearing of it.

  On this last day Face-of-god led his men well athwart the wood, so thathe hit Wildlake’s Way without coming to Carl-stead; and he came down intothe Dale some four hours after noon on a bright day of latter March. Atthe ingate to the Dale he found watches set, the men whereof told himthat the tidings were not right great. Hall-face’s company had fallen inwith a band of the Felons three score in number in the oak-wood nigh toBoars-bait, and had slain some and chased the rest, since they found ithard to follow them home as they ran for the tangled thicket: of theBurgdalers had two been slain and five hurt in this battle.

  As for Red-coat’s company, they had fallen in with no foemen.