NOW he plodded on steadily, and for a long time the forest changed but
little, and of wild things he saw only a few of those that love the
closest covert. The ground still went up and up, though at whiles were
hollows, and steeper bents out of them again, and the half-blind path or
slot still led past the close thickets and fallen trees, and he made way
without let or hindrance. At last once more the wood began to thin, and
the trees themselves to be smaller and gnarled and ill-grown: therewithal
the day was waning, and the sky was quite clear again as the afternoon
grew into a fair autumn evening.
Now the trees failed altogether, and the slope grown steeper was covered
with heather and ling; and looking up, he saw before him quite near by
seeming in the clear even (though indeed they were yet far away) the
snowy peaks flushed with the sinking sun against the frosty dark-grey
eastern sky; and below them the dark rock-mountains, and below these
again, and nigh to him indeed, the fells covered with pine-woods and
looking like a wall to the heaths he trod.
He stayed a little while and turned his head to look at the way whereby
he had come; but that way a swell of the oak-forest hid everything but
the wood itself, making a wall behind him as the pine-wood made a wall
before. There came across him then a sharp memory of the boding words
which Stone-face had spoken last night, and he felt as if he were now
indeed within the trap. But presently he laughed and said: ‘I am a fool:
this comes of being alone in the dark wood and the dismal waste, after
the merry faces of the Dale had swept away my foolish musings of
yesterday and the day before. Lo! here I stand, a man of the Face, sword
and axe by my side; if death come, it can but come once; and if I fear
not death, what shall make me afraid? The Gods hate me not, and will not
hurt me; and they are not ugly, but beauteous.’
Therewith he strode on again, and soon came to a place where the ground
sank into a shallow valley and the ling gave place to grass for a while,
and there were tall old pines scattered about, and betwixt them grey
rocks; this he passed through, climbing a steep bent out of it, and the
pines were all about him now, though growing wide apart, till at last he
came to where they thickened into a wood, not very close, wherethrough he
went merrily, singing to himself and swinging his spear. He was soon
through this wood, and came on to a wide well-grassed wood-lawn, hedged
by the wood aforesaid on three sides, but sloping up slowly toward the
black wall of the thicker pine-wood on the fourth side, and about half a
furlong overthwart and endlong. The sun had set while he was in the last
wood, but it was still broad daylight on the wood-lawn, and as he stood
there he was ware of a house under the pine-wood on the other side, built
long and low, much like the houses of the Woodland-Carles, but rougher
fashioned and of unhewn trees. He gazed on it, and said aloud to himself
as his wont was:
‘Marvellous! here is a dwelling of man, scarce a day’s journey from
Burgstead; yet have I never heard tell of it: may happen some of the
Woodland-Carles have built it, and are on some errand of hunting peltries
up in the mountains, or maybe are seeking copper and tin among the rocks.
Well, at least let us go see what manner of men dwell there, and if they
are minded for a guest to-night; for fain were I of a bed beneath a roof,
and of a board with strong meat and drink on it.’
Therewith he set forward, not heeding much that the wood he had passed
through was hard on his left hand; but he had gone but twenty paces when
he saw a red thing at the edge of the wood, and then a glitter, and a
spear came whistling forth, and smote his own spear so hard close to the
steel that it flew out of his hand; then came a great shout, and a man
clad in a scarlet kirtle ran forth on him. Face-of-god had his axe in
his hand in a twinkling, and ran at once to meet his foe; but the man had
the hill on his side as he rushed on with a short-sword in his hand. Axe
and sword clashed together for a moment of time, and then both the men
rolled over on the grass together, and Face-of-god as he fell deemed that
he heard the shrill cry of a woman. Now Face-of-god found that he was
the nethermost, for if he was strong, yet was his foe stronger; the axe
had flown out of his hand also, while the strange man still kept a hold
of his short-sword; and presently, though he still struggled all he
could, he saw the man draw back his hand to smite with the said sword;
and at that nick of time the foeman’s knee was on his breast, his left
hand was doubled back behind him, and his right wrist was gripped hard in
the stranger’s left hand. Even therewith his ears, sharpened by the
coming death, heard the sound of footsteps and fluttering raiment drawing
near; something dark came between him and the sky; there was the sound of
a great stroke, and the big man loosened his grip and fell off him to one
side.
Face-of-god leapt up and ran to his axe and got hold of it; but turning
round found himself face to face with a tall woman holding in her hand a
stout staff like the limb of a tree. She was calm and smiling, though
forsooth it was she who had stricken the stroke and stayed the sword from
his throat. His hand and axe dropped down to his side when he saw what
it was that faced him, and that the woman was young and fair; so he spake
to her and said:
‘What aileth, maiden? is this man thy foe? doth he oppress thee? shall I
slay him?’
She laughed and said: ‘Thou art open-handed in thy proffers: he might
have asked the like concerning thee but a minute ago.’
‘Yea, yea,’ said Gold-mane, laughing also, ‘but he asked it not of thee.’
‘That is sooth,’ she said, ‘but since thou hast asked me, I will tell
thee that if thou slay him it will be my harm as well as his; and in my
country a man that taketh a gift is not wont to break the giver’s head
with it straightway. The man is my brother, O stranger, and presently,
if thou wilt, thou mayst be eating at the same board with him. Or if
thou wilt, thou mayst go thy ways unhurt into the wood. But I had liefer
of the twain that thou wert in our house to-night; for thou hast a wrong
against us.’
Her voice was sweet and clear, and she spake the last words kindly, and
drew somewhat nigher to Gold-mane. Therewithal the smitten man sat up,
and put his hand to his head, and quoth he:
‘Angry is my sister! good it is to wear the helm abroad when she shaketh
the nut-trees.’
‘Nay,’ said she, ‘it is thy luck that thou wert bare-headed, else had I
been forced to smite thee on the face. Thou churl, since when hath it
been our wont to thrust knives into a guest, who is come of great kin, a
man of gentle heart and fair face? Come hither and handsel him self-doom
for thy fool’s onset!’
The man rose to his feet and said: ‘Well, sister, least said, soonest
mended. A clout on the head is worse than a woman’s chiding; but since
ye have given me one, ye may forbear the other.’
Therewith he drew near to them. He was a very big-made man, most
stalwarth, with dark red hair and a thin pointed beard; his nose was
straight and fine, his eyes grey and well-opened, but somewhat fierce
withal. Yet was he in nowise evil-looking; he seemed some thirty summers
old. He was clad in a short scarlet kirtle, a goodly garment, with a
hood of like web pulled off his head on to his shoulders: he bore a great
gold ring on his left arm, and a collar of gold came down on to his
breast from under his hood.
As for the woman, she was clad in a long white linen smock, and over it a
short gown of dark blue woollen, and she had skin shoes on her feet.
Now the man came up to Face-of-god, and took his hand and said: ‘I deemed
thee a foe, and I may not have over-many foes alive: but it seems that
thou art to be a friend, and that is well and better; so herewith I
handsel thee self-doom in the matter of the onslaught.’
Then Face-of-god laughed and said: ‘The doom is soon given forth; against
the tumble on the grass I set the clout on the head; there is nought left
over to pay to any man’s son.’
Said the scarlet-clad man: ‘Belike by thine eyes thou art a true man, and
wilt not bewray me. Now is there no foeman here, but rather maybe a
friend both now and in time to come.’ Therewith he cast his arms about
Face-of-god and kissed him. But Face-of-god turned about to the woman
and said: ‘Is the peace wholly made?’
She shook her head and said soberly: ‘Nay, thou art too fair for a woman
to kiss.’
He flushed red, as his wont was when a woman praised him; yet was his
heart full of pleasure and well-liking. But she laid her hand on his
shoulder and said: ‘Now is it for thee to choose betwixt the wild-wood
and the hall, and whether thou wilt be a guest or a wayfarer this night.’
As she touched him there took hold of him a sweetness of pleasure he had
never felt erst, and he answered: ‘I will be thy guest and not thy
stranger.’
‘Come then,’ she said, and took his hand in hers, so that he scarce felt
the earth under his feet, as they went all three together toward the
house in the gathering dusk, while eastward where the peaks of the great
mountains dipped was a light that told of the rising of the moon.