Then the women bethought them, and they spake a word or two together, and
then they sundered and went one this way and one that, to gather together
the warriors of the Raven who were a-field, or on the way, nigh unto the
house, that they might follow Hallblithe down to the sea-shore and help
him; 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 a
score gathered in the garth armed and horsed, they rode their ways to the
sea, being minded to thrust a long-ship of the Ravens out over the
Rollers into the sea, and follow the strong-thieves of the waters and
bring a-back the Hostage, so that they might end the sorrow at once, and
establish joy once more in the House of the Raven and the House of the
Rose. But they had with them three lads of fifteen winters or
thereabouts to lead their horses back home again, when they should have
gone up on to the Horse of the Brine.
Thus then they departed, and the maidens stood in the garth-gate till
they lost sight of them behind the sandhills, and then turned back
sorrowfully 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 the
hall one after another from field and fell. But the young men came down
to the sea, and found Hallblithe's black horse straying about amongst the
tamarisk-bushes above the beach; and they looked thence over the sand,
and saw neither Hallblithe nor any man: and they gazed out seaward, and
saw neither ship nor sail on the barren brine. Then they went down on to
the sand, and sundered their fellowship, and went half one way, half the
other, betwixt the sandhills and the surf, where now the tide was
flowing, 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 sun
was within an hour of setting. There and then they laid hand to that
ship which is called the Seamew, and they ran her down over the Rollers
into the waves, and leapt aboard and hoisted sail, and ran out the oars
and put to sea; and a little wind was blowing seaward from the gates of
the 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 wading
moon shone out; and they had seen nothing, neither sail nor ship, nor
aught else on the barren brine, save the washing of waves and the
hovering of sea-fowl. So they lay-to outside the horns of the bay and
awaited the dawning. And when morning was come they made way again, and
searched the sea, and sailed to the out-skerries, and searched them with
care; then they sailed into the main and fared hither and thither and up
and down: and this they did for eight days, and in all that time they saw
no ship nor sail, save three barks of the Fish-biters nigh to the Skerry
which 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 they
deemed that for this time they could do no more in seeking their valiant
kinsman and his fair damsel. And they were very sorry; for these two
were well-beloved of all men. But since they might not amend it, they
abode in peace, awaiting what the change of days might bring them.