The Roots of the Mountains Read online

  CHAPTER VII. FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE FRIEND ON THE MOUNTAIN.

  SO now went all men to bed; and Face-to-god’s shut-bed was over againstthe outer door and toward the lower end of the hall, and on the panelabout it hung the weapons and shields of men. Fair was that chamber androomy, and the man was weary despite his eagerness, so that he went tosleep as soon as his head touched the pillow; but within a while (hedeemed about two hours after midnight) he was awaked by the clattering ofthe weapons against the panel, and the sound of men’s hands taking themdown; and when he was fully awake, he heard withal men going up and downthe house as if on errands: but he called to mind what the Friend hadsaid to him, and he did not so much as turn himself toward the hall; forhe said: ‘Belike these men are outlaws and Wolves of the Holy Places, yetby seeming they are good fellows and nought churlish, nor have I to dowith taking up the feud against them. I will abide the morning. Yetmeseemeth that she drew me hither: for what cause?’

  Therewith he fell asleep again, and dreamed no more. But when he awokethe sun was shining broad upon the hall-floor, and he sat up andlistened, but could hear no sound save the moaning of the wind in thepine-boughs and the chatter of the starlings about the gables of thehouse; and the place seemed so exceeding lonely to him that he was in amanner feared by that loneliness.

  Then he arose and clad himself, and went forth into the hall and gazedabout him, and at first he deemed indeed that there was no one therein.But at last he looked and beheld the upper gable and there underneath amost goodly hanging was the glorious shape of a woman sitting on a benchcovered over with a cloth of gold and silver; and he looked and looked tosee if the woman might stir, and if she were alive, and she turned herhead toward him, and lo it was the Friend; and his heart rose to hismouth for wonder and fear and desire. For now he doubted whether theother folk were aught save shows and shadows, and she the Goddess who hadfashioned them out of nothing for his bewilderment, presently to returnto nothing.

  Yet whatever he might fear or doubt, he went up the hall towards her tillhe was quite nigh to her, and there he stood silent, wondering at herbeauty and desiring her kindness.

  Grey-eyed she was like her brother; but her hair the colour of red wheat:her lips full and red, her chin round, her nose fine and straight. Herhands and all her body fashioned exceeding sweetly and delicately; yetnot as if she were an image of which the like might be found if thecraftsman were but deft enough to make a perfect thing, but in such a waythat there was none like to her for those that had eyes to behold her asshe was; and none could ever be made like to her, even by such amaster-craftsman as could fashion a body without a blemish.

  She was clad in a white smock, whose hems were broidered with gold wireand precious gems of the Mountains, and over that a gown woven of goldand silver: scarce hath the world such another. On her head was a filletof gold and gems, and there were wondrous gold rings on her arms: herfeet lay bare on the dark grey wolf-skin that was stretched before her.

  She smiled kindly upon his solemn and troubled face, and her voicesounded strangely familiar to him coming from all that loveliness, as shesaid: ‘Hail, Face-of-god! here am I left alone, although I deemed lastnight that I should be gone with the others. Therefore am I fain to showmyself to thee in fairer array than yesternight; for though we dwell inthe wild-wood, from the solace of folk, yet are we not of thralls’ blood.But come now, I bid thee break thy fast and talk with me a little while;and then shalt thou depart in peace.’

  Spake Face-of-god, and his voice trembled as he spake: ‘What art thou?Last night I deemed at whiles once and again that thou wert of the Gods;and now that I behold thee thus, and it is broad daylight, and of thoseothers is no more to be seen than if they had never lived, I cannot butdeem that it is even so, and that thou comest from the City that shallnever perish. Now if thou be a goddess, I have nought to pray thee, saveto slay me speedily if thou hast a mind for my death. But if thou art awoman—’

  She broke in: ‘Gold-mane, stay thy prayer and hold thy peace for thistime, lest thou repent when repentance availeth not. And this I saybecause I am none of the Gods nor akin to them, save far off through thegenerations, as art thou also, and all men of goodly kindred. Now I bidthee eat thy meat, since ’tis ill talking betwixt a full man and afasting; and I have dight it myself with mine own hands; for Bow-may andthe Wood-mother went away with the rest three hours before dawn. Comesit and eat as thou hast a hardy heart; as forsooth thou shouldest do ifI were a very goddess. Take heed, friend, lest I take thee for somedamsel of the lower Dale arrayed in Earl’s garments.’

  She laughed therewith, and leaned toward him and put forth her hand tohim, and he took it and caressed it; and the exceeding beauty of her bodyand of the raiment which was as it were a part of her and her loveliness,made her laughter and her friendly words strange to him, as if one didnot belong to the other; as in a dream it might be. Nevertheless he didas she bade him, and sat at the board and ate, while she leaned forwardon the arm of her chair and spake to him in friendly wise. And hewondered as she spake that she knew so much of him and his: and he keptsaying to himself: ‘She drew me hither; wherefore did she so?’

  But she said: ‘Gold-mane, how fareth thy father the Alderman? is he asgood a wright as ever?’

  He told her: Yea, that ever was his hammer on the iron, the copper, andthe gold, and that no wright in the Dale was as deft as he.

  Said she: ‘Would he not have had thee seek to the Cities, to see the waysof the outer world?’

  ‘Yea,’ said he.

  She said: ‘Thou wert wise to naysay that offer; thou shalt have enough todo in the Dale and round about it in twelve months’ time.’

  ‘Art thou foresighted?’ said he.

  ‘Folk have called me so,’ she said, ‘but I wot not. But thy brotherHall-face, how fareth he?’

  ‘Well;’ said he, ‘to my deeming he is the Sword of our House, and theWarrior of the Dale, if the days were ready for him.’

  ‘And Stone-face, that stark ancient,’ she said, ‘doth he still love theFolk of the Dale, and hate all other folks?’

  ‘Nay,’ he said, ‘I know not that, but I know that he loveth as, and aboveall me and my father.’

  Again she spake: ‘How fareth the Bride, the fair maid to whom thou artaffianced?’

  As she spake, it was to him as if his heart was stricken cold; but he puta force upon himself, and neither reddened nor whitened, nor changedcountenance in any way; so he answered:

  ‘She was well the eve of yesterday.’ Then he remembered what she was,and her beauty and valour, and he constrained himself to say: ‘Each dayshe groweth fairer; there is no man’s son and no daughter of woman thatdoes not love her; yea, the very beasts of field and fold love her.’

  The Friend looked at him steadily and spake no word, but a red flushmounted to her cheeks and brow and changed her face; and he marvelledthereat; for still he misdoubted that she was a Goddess. But it passedaway in a moment, and she smiled and said:

  ‘Guest, thou seemest to wonder that I know concerning thee and the Daleand thy kindred. But now shalt thou wot that I have been in the Daleonce and again, and my brother oftener still; and that I have seen theebefore yesterday.’

  ‘That is marvellous,’ quoth he, ‘for sure am I that I have not seenthee.’

  ‘Yet thou hast seen me,’ she said; ‘yet not altogether as I am now;’ andtherewith she smiled on him friendly.

  ‘How is this?’ said he; ‘art thou a skin-changer?’

  ‘Yea, in a fashion,’ she said. ‘Hearken! dost thou perchance remember aday of last summer when there was a market holden in Burgstead; and therestood in the way over against the House of the Face a tall old carle whowas trucking deer-skins for diverse gear; and with him was a queen, talland dark-skinned, somewhat well-liking, her hair bound up in a white coifso that none of it could be seen; by the token that she had a large stoneof mountain blue set in silver stuck in the said coif?’

  As she spoke she set h
er hand to her bosom and drew something from it,and held forth her hand to Gold-mane, and lo amidst the palm the greatblue stone set in silver.

  ‘Wondrous as a dream is this,’ said Face-of-god, ‘for these twain Iremember well, and what followed.’

  She said: ‘I will tell thee that. There came a man of the Shepherd-Folk,drunk or foolish, or both, who began to chaffer with the big carle; butever on the queen were his eyes set, and presently he put forth his handto her to clip her, whereon the big carle hove up his fist and smote him,so that he fell to earth noseling. Then ran the folk together to haleoff the stranger and help the shepherd, and it was like that the strangershould be mishandled. Then there thrust through the press a young manwith yellow hair and grey eyes, who cried out, “Fellows, let be! Thestranger had the right of it; this is no matter to make a quarrel or acourt case of. Let the market go on! This man and maid are true folk.”So when the folk heard the young man and his bidding, they forebore andlet the carle and the queen be, and the shepherd went his ways littlehurt. Now then, who was this young man?’

  Quoth Gold-mane: ‘It was even I, and meseemeth it was no great deed todo.’

  ‘Yea,’ she said, ‘and the big carle was my brother, and the tall queen,it was myself.’

  ‘How then,’ said he, ‘for she was as dark-skinned as a dwarf, and thou sobright and fair?’

  She said: ‘Well, if the woods are good for nothing else, yet are theygood for the growing of herbs, and I know the craft of simpling; and withone of these herbs had I stained my skin and my brother’s also. And itshowed the darker beneath the white coif.’

  ‘Yea,’ said he, ‘but why must ye needs fare in feigned shapes? Ye wouldhave been welcome guests in the Dale howsoever ye had come.’

  ‘I may not tell thee hereof as now,’ said she.

  Said Gold-mane: ‘Yet thou mayst belike tell me wherefore was that thybrother desired to slay me yesterday, if he knew me, who I was.’

  ‘Gold-mane,’ she said, ‘thou art not slain, so little story need be madeof that: for the rest, belike he knew thee not at that moment. So itfalls with us, that we look to see foes rather than friends in thewild-woods. Many uncouth things are therein. Moreover, I must tell theeof my brother that whiles he is as the stalled bull late let loose, andnothing is good to him save battle and onset; and then is he blind andknows not friend from foe.’ Said Face-of-god: ‘Thou hast asked of me andmine; wilt thou not tell me of thee and thine?’

  ‘Nay,’ she said, ‘not as now; thou must betake thee to the way. Whitherwert thou wending when thou happenedst upon us?’

  He said: ‘I know not; I was seeking something, but I knew notwhat—meseemeth that now I have found it.’

  ‘Art thou for the great mountains seeking gems?’ she said. ‘Yet go notthither to-day: for who knoweth what thou shalt meet there that shall bethy foe?’

  He said: ‘Nay, nay; I have nought to do but to abide here as long as Imay, looking upon thee and hearkening to thy voice.’

  Her eyes were upon his, but yet she did not seem to see him, and for awhile she answered not; and still he wondered that mere words should comefrom so fair a thing; for whether she moved foot, or hand, or knee, orturned this way or that, each time she stirred it was a caress to hisvery heart.

  He spake again: ‘May I not abide here a while? What scathe may be inthat?’

  ‘It is not so,’ she said; ‘thou must depart, and that straightway: lo,there lieth thy spear which the Wood-mother hath brought in from thewaste. Take thy gear to thee and wend thy ways. Have patience! I willlead thee to the place where we first met and there give thee farewell.’

  Therewith she arose and he also perforce, and when they came to thedoorway she stepped across the threshold and then turned back and gavehim her hand and so led him forth, the sun flashing back from her goldenraiment. Together they went over the short grey grass of that hillsidetill they came to the place where he had arisen from that wrestle withher brother. There she stayed him and said:

  ‘This is the place; here must we part.’

  But his heart failed him and he faltered in his speech as he said:

  ‘When shall I see thee again? Wilt thou slay me if I seek to thee hitheronce more?’

  ‘Hearken,’ she said, ‘autumn is now a-dying into winter: let winter andits snows go past: nor seek to me hither; for me thou should’st not find,but thy death thou mightest well fall in with; and I would not that thoushouldest die. When winter is gone, and spring is on the land, if thouhast not forgotten us thou shalt meet us again. Yet shalt thou gofurther than this Woodland Hall. In Shadowy Vale shalt thou seek to methen, and there will I talk with thee.’

  ‘And where,’ said he, ‘is Shadowy Vale? for thereof have I never heardtell.’

  She said: ‘The token when it cometh to thee shall show thee thereof andthe way thither. Art thou a babbler, Gold-mane?’

  He said: ‘I have won no prize for babbling hitherto.’

  She said: ‘If thou listest to babble concerning what hath befallen theeon the Mountain, so do, and repent it once only, that is, thy life long.’

  ‘Why should I say any word thereof?’ said he. ‘Dost thou not know thesweetness of such a tale untold?’

  He spake as one who is somewhat wrathful, and she answered humbly andkindly:

  ‘Well is that. Bide thou the token that shall lead thee to Shadowy Vale.Farewell now.’

  She drew her hand from his, and turned and went her ways swiftly to thehouse: he could not choose but gaze on her as she went glittering-brightand fair in that grey place of the mountains, till the dark doorwayswallowed up her beauty. Then he turned away and took the path throughthe pine-woods, muttering to himself as he went:

  ‘What thing have I done now that hitherto I had not done? What manner ofman am I to-day other than the man I was yesterday?’