The Story of the Glittering Plain Read online

  CHAPTER III: THE WARRIORS OF THE RAVEN SEARCH THE SEAS

  Then the women bethought them, and they spake a word or two together, andthen they sundered and went one this way and one that, to gather togetherthe warriors of the Raven who were a-field, or on the way, nigh unto thehouse, that they might follow Hallblithe down to the sea-shore and helphim; after a while they came back again by one and two and three,bringing with them the wrathful young men; and when there was upward of ascore gathered in the garth armed and horsed, they rode their ways to thesea, being minded to thrust a long-ship of the Ravens out over theRollers into the sea, and follow the strong-thieves of the waters andbring a-back the Hostage, so that they might end the sorrow at once, andestablish joy once more in the House of the Raven and the House of theRose. But they had with them three lads of fifteen winters orthereabouts to lead their horses back home again, when they should havegone up on to the Horse of the Brine.

  Thus then they departed, and the maidens stood in the garth-gate tillthey lost sight of them behind the sandhills, and then turned backsorrowfully into the house, and sat there talking low of their sorrow.And many a time they had to tell their tale anew, as folk came into thehall one after another from field and fell. But the young men came downto the sea, and found Hallblithe's black horse straying about amongst thetamarisk-bushes above the beach; and they looked thence over the sand,and saw neither Hallblithe nor any man: and they gazed out seaward, andsaw neither ship nor sail on the barren brine. Then they went down on tothe sand, and sundered their fellowship, and went half one way, half theother, betwixt the sandhills and the surf, where now the tide wasflowing, till the nesses of the east and the west, the horns of the bay,stayed them. Then they met together again by the Rollers, when the sunwas within an hour of setting. There and then they laid hand to thatship which is called the Seamew, and they ran her down over the Rollersinto the waves, and leapt aboard and hoisted sail, and ran out the oarsand put to sea; and a little wind was blowing seaward from the gates ofthe mountains behind them.

  So they quartered the sea-plain, as the kestrel doth the water-meadows,till the night fell on them, and was cloudy, though whiles the wadingmoon shone out; and they had seen nothing, neither sail nor ship, noraught else on the barren brine, save the washing of waves and thehovering of sea-fowl. So they lay-to outside the horns of the bay andawaited the dawning. And when morning was come they made way again, andsearched the sea, and sailed to the out-skerries, and searched them withcare; then they sailed into the main and fared hither and thither and upand down: and this they did for eight days, and in all that time they sawno ship nor sail, save three barks of the Fish-biters nigh to the Skerrywhich is called Mew-stone.

  So they fared home to the Raven Bay, and laid their keel on the Rollers,and so went their ways sadly, home to the House of the Raven: and theydeemed that for this time they could do no more in seeking their valiantkinsman and his fair damsel. And they were very sorry; for these twowere well-beloved of all men. But since they might not amend it, theyabode in peace, awaiting what the change of days might bring them.