CHAPTER XVIII. FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE FRIEND IN SHADOWY VALE.
IT was now about two hours after noon, and a broad band of sunlight layupon the grass of the vale below Gold-mane’s feet; he went lightly downthe scree, and strode forward over the level grass toward the Doom-ring,his helm and war-gear glittering bright in the sun. He must needs gothrough the Doom-ring to come to the Hall, and as he stepped out frombehind the last of the big upright-stones, he saw a woman standing on thethreshold of the Hall-door, which was but some score of paces from him,and knew her at once for the Friend.
She was clad like himself in a green kirtle gaily embroidered and fittingclose to her body, and had no gown or cloak over it; she had a goldenfillet on her head beset with blue mountain stones, and her hair hungloose behind her.
Her beauty was so exceeding, and so far beyond all memory of her that hismind had held, that once more fear of her fell upon Face-of-god, and hestood still with beating heart till she should speak to him. But shecame forward swiftly with both her hands held out, smiling andhappy-faced, and looking very kindly on him, and she took his hands andsaid to him:
‘Now welcome, Gold-mane, welcome, Face-of-god! and twice welcome art thouand threefold. Lo! this is the day that thou asked for: art thou happyin it?’
He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them timorously, but saidnought; and therewithal Sure-foot came running forth from the Hall, andfell to bounding round about them, barking noisily after the manner ofdogs who have met their masters again; and still she held his hands andbeheld him kindly. Then she called the hound to her, and patted him onthe neck and quieted him, and then turned to Face-of-god and laughedhappily and said:
‘I do not bid thee hold thy peace; yet thou sayest nought. Is well withthee?’
‘Yea,’ he said, ‘and more than well.’
‘Thou seemest to me a goodly warrior,’ she said; ‘hast thou met anyfoemen yesterday or this morning?’
‘Nay,’ said he, ‘none hindered me; thou hast made the ways easy to me.’
She said soberly, ‘Such as I might do, I did. But we may not wieldeverything, for our foes are many, and I feared for thee. But come thouinto our house, which is ours, and far more ours than the booth beforethe pine-wood.’
She took his hand again and led him toward the door, but Face-of-godlooked up, and above the lintel he saw carved on the dark stone thatimage of the Wolf, even as he had seen it carved on Wood-grey’s tie-beam;and therewith such thoughts came into his mind that he stopped to look,pressing the Friend’s hand hard as though bidding her note it. The stonewherein the image was carved was darker than the other building stones,and might be called black; the jaws of the wood-beast were open andgaping, and had been painted with cinnabar, but wind and weather had wornaway the most of the colour.
Spake the Friend: ‘So it is: thou beholdest the token of the God andFather of out Fathers, that telleth the tale of so many days, that thedays which now pass by us be to them but as the drop in the sea ofwaters. Thou beholdest the sign of our sorrow, the memory of our wrong;yet is it also the token of our hope. Maybe it shall lead thee far.’
‘Whither?’ said he. But she answered not a great while, and he looked ather as she stood a-gazing on the image, and saw how the tears stole outof her eyes and ran adown her cheeks. Then again came the thought to himof Wood-grey’s hall, and the women of the kindred standing before theWolf and singing of him; and though there was little comeliness in themand she was so exceeding beauteous, he could not but deem that they wereakin to her.
But after a while she wiped the tears from her face and turned to him andsaid: ‘My friend, the Wolf shall lead thee no-whither but where I alsoshall be, whatsoever peril or grief may beset the road or lurk at theending thereof. Thou shalt be no thrall, to labour while I look on.’
His heart swelled within him as she spoke, and he was at point to beseechher love that moment; but now her face had grown gay and bright again,and she said while he was gathering words to speak withal:
‘Come in, Gold-mane, come into our house; for I have many things to sayto thee. And moreover thou art so hushed, and so fearsome in thy mail,that I think thou yet deemest me to be a Wight of the Waste, such asStone-face thy Fosterer told thee tales of, and forewarned thee. Sowould I eat before thee, and sign the meat with the sign of theEarth-god’s Hammer, to show thee that he is in error concerning me, andthat I am a very woman flesh and fell, as my kindred were before me.’
He laughed and was exceeding glad, and said: ‘Tell me now, kind friend,dost thou deem that Stone-face’s tales are mere mockery of his dreams,and that he is beguiled by empty semblances or less? Or are there suchWights in the Waste.’
‘Nay,’ she said, ‘the man is a true man; and of these things are theremany ancient tales which we may not doubt. Yet so it is that such wightshave I never yet seen, nor aught to scare me save evil men: belike it isthat I have been over-much busied in dealing with sorrow and ruin to lookafter them: or it may be that they feared me and the wrath-breeding griefof the kindred.’
He looked at her earnestly, and the wisdom of her heart seemed to enterinto his; but she said: ‘It is of men we must talk, and of me and thee.Come with me, my friend.’
And she stepped lightly over the threshold and drew him in. The Hall wasstern and grim and somewhat dusky, for its windows were but small: it wasall of stone, both walls and roof. There was no timber-work therein savethe benches and chairs, a little about the doors at the lower end thatled to the buttery and out-bowers; and this seemed to have been wroughtof late years; yea, the chairs against the gable on the daïs were ofstone built into the wall, adorned with carving somewhat sparingly, theimage of the Wolf being done over the midmost of them. He looked up anddown the Hall, and deemed it some seventy feet over all from end to end;and he could see in the dimness those same goodly hangings on the wallwhich he had seen in the woodland booth.
She led him up to the daïs, and stood there leaning up against the arm ofone of those stone seats silent for a while; then she turned and lookedat him, and said:
‘Yea, thou lookest a goodly warrior; yet am I glad that thou camesthither without battle. Tell me, Gold-mane,’ she said, taking one of hisspears from his hand, ‘art thou deft with the spear?’
‘I have been called so,’ said he.
She looked at him sweetly and said: ‘Canst thou show me the feat ofspear-throwing in this Hall, or shall we wend outside presently that Imay see thee throw?’
‘The Hall sufficeth,’ he said. ‘Shall I set this steel in the lintel ofthe buttery door yonder?’
‘Yea, if thou canst,’ she said.
He smiled and took the spear from her, and poised it and shook it till itquivered again, then suddenly drew back his arm and cast, and the shaftsped whistling down the dim hall, and smote the aforesaid door-lintel andstuck there quivering: then he sprang down from the daïs, and ran downthe hall, and put forth his hand and pulled it forth from the wood, andwas on the daïs again in a trice, and cast again, and the second time setthe spear in the same place, and then took his other spear from the boardand cast it, and there stood the two staves in the wood side by side;then he went soberly down the hall and drew them both out of the wood andcame back to her, while she stood watching him, her cheek flushed, herlips a little parted.
She said: ‘Good spear-casting, forsooth! and far above what our folk cando, who be no great throwers of the spear.’
Gold-mane laughed: ‘Sooth is that,’ said he, ‘or hardly were I here toteach thee spear-throwing.’
‘Wilt thou _never_ be paid for that simple onslaught?’ she said.
‘Have I been paid then?’ said he.
She reddened, for she remembered her word to him on the mountain; and heput his hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek, but timorously; nordid she withstand him or shrink aback, but said soberly:
‘Good indeed is thy spear-throwing, and meseems my brother will love theewhen he hath seen thee strike a stroke or t
wo in wrath. But, fairwarrior, there be no foemen here: so get thee to the lower end of theHall, and in the bower beyond shalt thou find fresh water; there wash thewaste from off thee, and do off thine helm and hauberk, and come backspeedily and eat with me; for I hunger, and so dost thou.’
He did as she bade him, and came back presently bearing in his hand bothhelm and hauberk, and he looked light-limbed and trim and lissome, anexceeding goodly man.