The Roots of the Mountains

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXI. FACE-OF-GOD LOOKETH ON THE DUSKY MEN.

  WHEN he awoke again he saw a man standing over him, and knew him forWood-wise: he was clad in his war-gear, and had his quiver at his backand his bow in his hand, for Wood-father’s children were all good bowmen,though not so sure as Bow-may. He spake to Face-of-god:

  ‘Dawn is in the sky, Dalesman; there is yet time for thee to wash thenight off of thee in our bath of the Shivering Flood and to put thy mouthto the milk-bowl; but time for nought else: for I and Bow-may areappointed thy fellows for the road, and it were well that we were backhome speedily.’

  So Face-of-god leapt up and went forth from the Hall, and Wood-wise ledto where was a pool in the river with steps cut down to it in the rockybank.

  ‘This,’ said Wood-wise, ‘is the Carle’s Bath; but the Queen’s is lowerdown, where the water is wider and shallower below the little mid-daleforce.’

  So Gold-mane stripped off his raiment and leapt into the ice-cold pool;and they had brought his weapons and war-gear with them; so when he cameout he clad and armed himself for the road, and then turned withWood-wise toward the outgate of the Dale; and soon they saw two mencoming from lower down the water in such wise that they would presentlycross their path, and as yet it was little more than twilight, so thatthey saw not at first who they were, but as they drew nearer they knewthem for the Sun-beam and Bow-may. The Sun-beam was clad but in herwhite linen smock and blue gown as he had first seen her, her hair waswet and dripping with the river, her face fresh and rosy: she carried inher two hands a great bowl of milk, and stepped delicately, lest sheshould spill it. But Bow-may was clad in her war-gear with helm andbyrny, and a quiver at her back, and a bended bow in her hand. So theygreeted each other kindly, and the Sun-beam gave the bowl to Face-of-godand said:

  ‘Drink, guest, for thou hast a long and thirsty road before thee.’

  So Face-of-god drank, and gave her the bowl back again, and she smiled onhim and drank, and the others after her till the bowl was empty: thenBow-may put her hand on Wood-wise’s shoulder, and they led on toward theoutgate, while those twain followed them hand in hand. But the Sun-beamsaid:

  ‘This then is the new day I spoke of, and lo! it bringeth our sunderingwith it; yet shall it be no longer than a day when all is said, and newdays shall follow after. And now, my friend, I shall see thee no laterthan the April market; for doubt not that I shall go thither withFolk-might, whether he will or not. Also as I led thee out of the housewhen we last met, so shall I lead thee out of the Dale to-day, and I willgo with thee a little way on the waste; and therefore am I shod thismorning, as thou seest, for the ways on the waste are rough. And now Ibid thee have courage while my hand holdeth thine. For afterwards I neednot bid thee anything; for thou wilt have enough to do when thou comestto thy Folk, and must needs think more of warriors then than of maidens.’

  He looked at her and longed for her, but said soberly: ‘Thou art kind, Ofriend, and thinkest kindly of me ever. But methinks it were not welldone for thee to wend with me over a deal of the waste, and come back bythyself alone, when ye have so many foemen nearby.’

  ‘Nay,’ she said, ‘they be nought so near as that yet, and I wot thatFolk-might hath gone forth toward the north-west, where he looketh tofall in with a company of the foemen. His battle shall be a guard untous.’

  ‘I pray thee turn back at the top of the outgate,’ said he, ‘and be notventuresome. Thou wottest that the pitcher is not broken the first timeit goeth to the well, nor maybe the twentieth, but at last it cometh notback.’

  She said: ‘Nevertheless I shall have my will herein. And it is but alittle way I will wend with thee.’

  Therewith were they come to the scree, and talk fell down between them asthey clomb it; but when they were in the darksome passage of the rocks,and could scarce see one another, Face-of-god said:

  ‘Where then is another outgate from the Dale? Is it not up the water?’

  ‘Yea,’ she said, ‘and there is none other: at the lower end the rocksrise sheer from out the water, and a little further down is a great forcethundering betwixt them; so that by no boat or raft may ye come out ofthe Dale. But the outgate up the water is called the Road of War, asthis is named the Path of Peace. But now are all ways ways of war.’

  ‘There is peace in my heart,’ said Gold-mane.

  She answered not for a while, but pressed his hand, and he felt herbreath on his cheek; and even therewithal they came out of the dark, andGold-mane saw that her cheek was flushed; and now she spake:

  ‘One thing would I say to thee, my friend. Thou hast seen me amongst menof war, amongst outlaws who seek violence; thou hast heard me bid mybrother to count the slain, and I shrinking not; thou knowest (for I havetold thee) how I have schemed and schemed for victorious battle. Yet Iwould not have thee think of me as a Chooser of the Slain, a warriormaiden, or as of one who hath no joy save in the battle whereto shebiddeth others. O friend, the many peaceful hours that I have had on thegrass down yonder, sitting with my rock and spindle in hand, the childrenround about my knees hearkening to some old story so well remembered byme! or the milking of the kine in the dewy summer even, when all wasstill but for the voice of the water and the cries of the happy children,and there round about me were the dear and beauteous maidens with whom Ihad grown up, happy amidst all our troubles, since their life was freeand they knew no guile. In such times my heart was at peace indeed, andit seemed to me as if we had won all we needed; as if war and turmoilwere over, after they had brought about peace and good days for ourlittle folk.

  ‘And as for the days that be, are they not as that rugged pass, full ofbitter winds and the voice of hurrying waters, that leadeth yonder toSilver-dale, as thou hast divined? and there is nought good in it savethat the breath of life is therein, and that it leadeth to pleasantplaces and the peace and plenty of the fair dale.’

  ‘Sweet friend,’ he said, ‘what thou sayest is better than well: for timeshall be, if we come alive out of this pass of battle and bitter strife,when I shall lead thee into Burgdale to dwell there. And thou wottest ofour people that there is little strife and grudging amongst them, andthat they are merry, and fair to look on, both men and women; and no manthere lacketh what the earth may give us, and it is a saying amongst usthat there may a man have that which he desireth save the sun and moon inhis hands to play with: and of this gladness, which is made up of manylittle matters, what story may be told? Yet amongst it shall I live andthou with me; and ill indeed it were if it wearied thee and thou wertever longing for some day of victorious strife, and to behold me comingback from battle high-raised on the shields of men and crowned with bay;if thine ears must ever be tickled with the talk of men and their songsconcerning my warrior deeds. For thus it shall not be. When I drive theherds it shall be at the neighbours’ bidding whereso they will; not necksof men shall I smite, but the stalks of the tall wheat, and the boles ofthe timber-trees which the woodreeve hath marked for felling; the stiltsof the plough rather than the hilts of the sword shall harden my hands;my shafts shall be for the deer, and my spears for the wood-boar, tillwar and sorrow fall upon us, and I fight for the ceasing of war andtrouble. And though I be called a chief and of the blood of chiefs, yetshall I not be masterful to the goodman of the Dale, but rather to myhound; for my chieftainship shall be that I shall be well beloved andtrusted, and that no man shall grudge against me. Canst thou learn tolove such a life, which to me seemeth lovely? And thou? of whom I saythat thou art as if thou wert come down from the golden chairs of theBurg of the Gods.’

  They were well-nigh out of the steep path by now, and the daylight wasbright about them; there she stayed her feet a moment and turned to himand said:

  ‘All this should I love even now, if the grief of our Folk were buthealed, and hereafter shall I learn yet more of thy well-beloved face.’

  Therewith she laid her face to his and kissed him fondly, and put hishand to her side and held it there, saying: ‘Soon shall we be
one in bodyand in soul.’

  And he laughed with joy and pride of life, and took her hand and led heron again, and said:

  ‘Yet feel the cold rings of my hauberk, my friend; look at the spearsthat cumber my hand, and at Dale-warden hanging by my side. Thou shaltyet see me as the Slain’s Chooser would see her speech-friend; for thereis much to do ere we win wheat-harvest in Burgdale.’

  Therewith they stepped together on to the level ground of the waste, andsaw Bow-may sitting on a stone hard by, and Wood-wise standing beside herbending his bow. Bow-may smiled on Gold-mane and rose up, and they allwent on together, turning so that they went nearly alongside the wall ofthe Vale, but westering a little; then the Sun-beam said:

  ‘Many a time have I trodden this heath alongside our rock-wall; for if yewend a little further as our faces are turned, ye come to the crags overthe place where the Shivering Flood goeth out of Shadowy Vale. Therewhen ye have clomb a little may’st thou stand on the edge of therock-wall, and look down and behold the Flood swirling and eddying in theblack gorge of the rocks, and see presently the reek of the force go up,and hear the thunder of the waters as they pour over it: and all thisabout us now is as the garden of our house—is it not so, Bow-may?’

  ‘Yea,’ said she, ‘and there are goodly cluster-berries to be gottenhereabout in the autumn; many a time have the Sun-beam and I reddened ourlips with them. Yet is it best to be wary when war is abroad and hotwithal.’

  ‘Yea,’ said the Sun-beam, ‘and all this place comes into the story of ourHouse: lo! Gold-mane, two score paces before us a little on our righthand those five grey stones. They are called the Rocks of the Elders:for there in the first days of our abiding in Shadowy Vale the Elderswere wont to come together to talk privily upon our matters.’

  Face-of-god looked thither as she spoke, but therewith saw Bow-may, whowent on the left hand of the Sun-beam, as Face-of-god on her right hand,notch a shaft on her bent bow, and Wood-wise, who was on his right hand,saw it also and did the like, and therewithal Face-of-god got his targeton to his arm, and even as he did so Bow-may cried out suddenly:

  ‘Yea, yea! Cast thyself on to the ground, Sun-beam! Gold-mane, targeand spear, targe and spear! For I see steel gleaming yonder out frombehind the Elders’ Rocks.’

  Scarce were the words out of her mouth ere three shafts came flying, andthe bow-strings twanged. Gold-mane felt that one smote his helm andglanced from it. Therewithal he saw the Sun-beam fall to earth, thoughhe knew not if she had but cast herself down as Bow-may bade. Bow-may’sstring twanged at once, and a yell came from the foemen: but Wood-wiseloosed not, but set his hand to his mouth and gave a loud wild cry—Ha!ha! ha! ha! How-ow-ow!—ending in a long and exceeding great whoop likenought but the wolf’s howl. Now Gold-mane thinking swiftly, in a momentof time, as war-meet men do, judged that if the Sun-beam were hurt (andshe had made no cry), it were yet wiser to fall on the foe before turningto tend her, or else all might be lost; so he rushed forward spear inhand and target on arm, and saw, as he opened up the flank of the Elders’Rocks, six men, whereof one leaned aback on the rock with Bow-may’s shaftin his shoulder, and two others were just in act of loosing at him. In amoment, as he rushed at them, one shaft went whistling by him, and theother glanced from off his target; he cast a spear as he bounded on, andsaw it smite one of the shooters full in the naked face, and saw theblood spout out and change his face and the man roll over, and then inanother moment four men were hewing at him with their short steel axes.He thrust out his target against them, and then let the weight of hisbody come on his other spear, and drave it through the second shooter’sthroat, and even therewith was smitten on the helm so hard that, thoughthe Alderman’s work held out, he fell to his knees, holding his targetover his head and striving to draw forth Dale-warden; in that nick oftime a shaft whistled close by his ear, and as he rose to his feet againhe saw his foeman rolling over and over, clutching at the ling with bothhands. Then rang out again the terrible wolf-whoop from Wood-wise’smouth, and both he and Bow-may loosed a shaft, for the two other foes hadturned their backs and were fleeing fast. Again Bow-may hit the clout,and the Dusky Man fell dead at once, but Wood-wise’s arrow flew over thefelon’s shoulder as he ran. Then in a trice was Gold-mane bounding afterhim like the hare just roused from her form; for it came into his headthat these felons had beheld them coming up out of the Vale, and that ifeven this one man escaped, he would bring his company down upon theVale-dwellers.

  Strong and light-foot as any was Face-of-god, and though he was cumberedwith his hauberk, yet was Iron-face’s handiwork far lighter than thewar-coat of the Dusky Man, and the race was soon over. The felon turnedbreathless to meet Gold-mane, who drave his target against him and casthim to earth, and as he strove to rise smote off his head at one stroke;for Dale-warden was a good sword and the Dalesman as fierce of mood asmight be. There he let the felon lie, and, turning, walked back swiftlytoward the Elders’ Rocks, and found there Wood-wise and the dead foemen,for the carle had slain the wounded, and he was now drawing the silverarm-rings off the slain men; for all these Dusky Felons bore silverarm-rings. But Bow-may was walking towards the Sun-beam, and thitherwardfollowed Gold-mane speedily.

  He found her sitting on a tussock of grass close by where she had fallen,her face pale, her eyes eager and gleaming; she looked up at him as hedrew nigher and said:

  ‘Friend, art thou hurt?’

  ‘Nay,’ he said, ‘and thou? Thou art pale.’

  ‘I am not hurt,’ she said. Then she smiled and said again:

  ‘Did I not tell thee that I am no warrior like Bow-may here? Such deedsmake maidens pale.’

  Said Bow-may: ‘If ye will have the truth, Gold-mane, she is not wont togrow pale when battle is nigh her. Look you, she hath had the gift of anew delight, and findeth it sweeter and softer than she had any thoughtof; and now hath she feared lest it should be taken from her.’

  ‘Bow-may saith but the sooth,’ said the Sun-beam simply, ‘and kind it isof her to say it. I saw thee, Bow-may, and good was thy shooting, and Ilove thee for it.’

  Said Bow-may: ‘I never shoot otherwise than well. But those idleshooters of the Dusky Ones, whereabouts nigh to thee went their shafts?’

  Said the Sun-beam: ‘One just lifted the hair by my left ear, and that wasnot so ill-aimed; as for the other, it pierced my raiment by my rightknee, and pinned me to the earth, so that I tottered and fell, and mygown and smock are grievously wounded, both of them.’

  And she took the folds of the garments in her hands to show the rentstherein; and her colour was come again, and she was glad.

  ‘What were best to do now?’ she said.

  Said Face-of-god: ‘Let us tarry a little; for some of thy carles shallsurely come up from the Vale: because they will have heard Wood-wise’swhoop, since the wind sets that way.’

  ‘Yea, they will come,’ said the Sun-beam.

  ‘Good is that,’ said Face-of-god; ‘for they shall take the dead felonsand cast them where they be not seen if perchance any more stray hereby.For if they wind them, they may well happen on the path down to the Vale.Also, my friend, it were well if thou wert to bid a good few of thecarles that are in the Vale to keep watch and ward about here, lest therebe more foemen wandering about the waste.’

  She said: ‘Thou art wise in war, Gold-mane; I will do as thou biddest me.But soothly this is a perilous thing that the Dusky Men are gotten soclose to the Vale.’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘This will Folk-might look to when he cometh home; andit is most like that he will deem it good to fall on them somewhere agood way aloof, so as to draw them off from wandering over the waste.Also I will do my best to busy them when I am home in Burgdale.’

  Therewith came up Wood-wise, and fell to talk with them; and his mind itwas that these foemen were but a band of strayers, and had had no inklingof Shadowy Vale till they had heard them talking together as they came upthe path from the Vale, and that then they had made that ambush behindthe Elders’ Ro
cks, so that they might slay the men, and then bear off thewoman. He said withal that it would be best to carry their corpsesfurther on, so that they might be cast over the cliffs into the fiercestream of the Shivering Flood.

  Amidst this talk came up men from the Vale, a score of them, well armed;and they ran to meet the wayfarers; and when they heard what hadbefallen, they rejoiced exceedingly, and were above all glad thatFace-of-god had shown himself doughty and deft; and they deemed his redewise, to set a watch thereabouts till Folk-might came home, and said thatthey would do even so.

  Then spake the Sun-beam and said:

  ‘Now must ye wayfarers depart; for the road is but rough, and the day notover-long.’

  Then she turned to Face-of-god and put her hand on his shoulder, andbrought her face close to his and spake to him softly:

  ‘Doth this second parting seem at all strange to thee, and that I am nowso familiar to thee, I whom thou didst once deem to be a very goddess?And now thou hast seen me redden before thine eyes because of thee; andthou hast seen me grow pale with fear because of thee; and thou hast feltmy caresses which I might not refrain; even as if I were altogether sucha maiden as ye warriors hang about for a nine days’ wonder, and then allis over save an aching heart—wilt thou do so with me? Tell me, have Inot belittled myself before thee as if I asked thee to scorn me? Forthus desire dealeth both with maid and man.’

  He said: ‘In all this there is but one thing for me to say, and that isthat I love thee; and surely none the less, but rather the more, becausethou lovest me, and art of my kind, and mayest share in my deeds andthink well of them. Now is my heart full of joy, and one thing onlyweigheth on it; and that is that my kinswoman the Bride begrudgeth ourlove together. For this is the thing that of all things most mislikethme, that any should bear a grudge against me.’

  She said: ‘Forget not the token, and my message to her.’

  ‘I will not forget it,’ said he. ‘And now I bid thee to kiss me evenbefore all these that are looking on; for there is nought to belittle ustherein, since we be troth-plight.’

  And indeed those folk stood all round about them gazing on them, but alittle aloof, that they might not hear their words if they were minded totalk privily. For they had long loved the Sun-beam, and now the love ofFace-of-god had begun to spring up in their hearts.

  So the twain embraced and kissed one another, and made no hastethereover; and those men deemed that but meet and right, and clashedtheir weapons on their shields in token of their joy.

  Then Face-of-god turned about and strode out of the ring of men, withBow-may and Wood-wise beside him, and they went on their journey over thenecks towards Burgstead. But the Sun-beam turned slowly from that placetoward the Vale, and two of the stoutest carles went along with her toguard her from harm, and she went down into the Vale pondering all thesethings in her heart.

  Then the other carles dragged off the corpses of the Dusky Men till theyhad brought them to the sheer rocks above the Shivering Flood, and therethey tossed them over into the boiling caldron of the force, and sodeparted taking with them the silver arm-rings of the slain to add to thetale.

  But when they came back into the Vale the Sun-beam duly ordered thatwatch and ward to keep the ingate thereto, and note all that shouldbefall till Folk-might came home.