The Roots of the Mountains Part 43

But Face-of-G.o.d swept round the great sword and plunged into that sea of turmoil and noise and evil sights and savours, and even therewith he heard clearly a voice that said: 'Goldring, I am hurt; take my bow a while!' and knew it for Bow-may's; but it came to his ears like the song of a bird without meaning; for it was as if his life were changed at once; and in a minute or two he had cut thrice with the edge and thrust twice with the point, eager, but clear-eyed and deft; and he saw as in a picture the foe before him, and the grey roofs of Silver-stead, and through the gap in them the tops of the blue ridges far aloof. And now had three fallen before him, and they feared him, and turned on him, and smote so many together that their strokes crossed each other, and one warded him from the other; and he laughed aloud and shielded himself, and drave the point of Dale-warden amidst the tangle of weapons through the open mouth of a captain of the Felons, and slashed a cheek with a back-stroke, and swept round the edge to his right hand and smote off a blue-eyed snub-nosed head; and therewith a pole-axe smote him on the left side of his helm, so that he tottered; but he swung himself round, and stood stark and upright, and gave a short hack with the edge, keeping Dale-warden well in hand, and a gold-clad felon, a champion of them, and their tallest on the ground, fell aback, his throat gaping more than the mouth of him.

Then Face-of-G.o.d shouted and waved Dale-warden aloft to the Banner of the Wolf that floated behind and above him, and he cried out: 'As I have promised so have I done!' And he looked about, and beheld how valiantly his fellows had been doing; for before him now was a s.p.a.ce of earth with no man standing on his feet thereon, like the swathe of the mowers of June; and beyond that was the crowd of the Dusky Men wavering like the tall gra.s.s abiding the scythe.

But a minute, and they fell to casting at Face-of-G.o.d and his fellows spears and knives and shields and whatsoever would fly; and a spear smote him on the breast, but entered not; and a bossed shield fell over his face withal, and a plummet of sling-lead smote his helm, and he fell to earth; but leapt up again straightway, and heard as he arose a great shout close to him, and a shrill cry, and lo! at his left side Bow-may, her sword in her hand, and the hand red with blood from a shaft-graze on her wrist, and a white cloth stained with blood about her neck; and on his right side Wood-wise bearing the banner and crying the Wolf-whoop; for the whole company was come down from the slope and stood around him.

Then for a little while was there such a stilling of the tumult about him there, that he heard great and glad cries from the Road of the South of 'The Burg and the Steer! The Dale and the Bridge! The Dale and the Bull!' And thereafter a terrible great shrieking cry, and a huge voice that cried: 'Death, death, death to the Dusky Men!' And thereafter again fierce cries and great tumult of the battle.

Then Face-of-G.o.d shook Dale-warden in the air, and strode forward fiercely, but not speedily, and the whole company went foot for foot along with him; and as he went, would he or would he not, song came into his mouth, a song of the meadows of the Dale, even such as this:

The wheat is done blooming and rust's on the sickle, And green are the meadows grown after the scythe.

Come, hands for the dance! For the toil hath been mickle, And 'twixt haysel and harvest 'tis time to be blithe.

And what shall the tale be now dancing is over, And kind on the meadow sits maiden by man, And the old man bethinks him of days of the lover, And the warrior remembers the field that he wan?

Shall we tell of the dear days wherein we are dwelling, The best days of our Mother, the cherishing Dale, When all round about us the summer is telling, To ears that may hearken, the heart of the tale?

Shall we sing of these hands and these lips that caress us, And the limbs that sun-dappled lie light here beside, When still in the morning they rise but to bless us, And oft in the midnight our footsteps abide?

O nay, but to tell of the fathers were better, And of how we were fashioned from out of the earth; Of how the once lowly spurned strong at the fetter; Of the days of the deeds and beginning of mirth.

And then when the feast-tide is done in the morning, Shall we whet the grey sickle that bideth the wheat, Till wan grow the edges, and gleam forth a warning Of the field and the fallow where edges shall meet.

And when cometh the harvest, and hook upon shoulder We enter the red wheat from out of the road, We shall sing, as we wend, of the bold and the bolder, And the Burg of their building, the beauteous abode.

As smiteth the sickle amid the sun's burning We shall sing how the sun saw the token unfurled, When forth fared the Folk, with no thought of returning, In the days when the Banner went wide in the world.

Many saw that he was singing, but heard not the words of his mouth, for great was the noise and clamour. But he heard Bow-may, how she laughed by his side, and cried out:

'Gold-mane, dear-heart, now art thou merry indeed; and glad am I, though they told me that I am hurt.--Ah! now beware, beware!'

For indeed the Dusky Men, seeing the wall of steel rolling down on them, and cooped up by the houses, so that they scarce knew how to flee, turned in the face of death, the foremost of them, and rushed furiously on the array of the Woodlanders, and all those behind pressed on them like the big wave of the ebbing sea when the gust of the wind driveth it landward.

The Woodlanders met them, shouting out: 'The Greenwood and the Wolf, the Greenwood and the Wolf!' But not a few of them fell there, though they gave not back a foot; for so fierce now were the Dusky Men, that hewing and thrusting at them availed nought, unless they were slain outright or stunned; and even if they fell they rolled themselves up against their tall foe-men, heeding not death or wounds if they might but slay or wound. There then fell War-grove and ten others of the Woodlanders, and four men of the Wolf, but none before he had slain his foeman; and as each man fell or was hurt grievously, another took his place.

Now a felon leapt up and caught Gold-ring by the neck and drew him down, while another strove to smite his head off; but the stout carle drave a wood-knife into the side of the first felon, and drew it out speedily and smote the other, the smiter, in the face with the same knife, and therewith they all three rolled together on the earth amongst the feet of men. Even so did another felon by Bow-may, and dragged her down to the ground, and smote her with a long knife as she tumbled down; and this was a feat of theirs, for they were long- armed like apes.

But as to this felon, Dale-warden's edge split his skull, and Face- of-G.o.d gathered his might together and bestrode Bow-may, till he had hewed a s.p.a.ce round about him with great two-handed strokes; and yet the blade brake not. Then he caught up Bow-may from the earth, and the felon's knife had not pierced her hauberk, but she was astonied, and might not stand upon her feet; and Face-of-G.o.d turned aside a little with her, and half bore her, half thrust her through the throng to the rearward of his folk, and left her there with two carlines of the Wolf who followed the host for leechcraft's sake, and then turned back shouting: 'For the Face, for the Face!' and there followed him back to the battle, a band of those who were fresh as yet, and their blades unbloodied, the young men of the Woodlands.

The wearier fighters made way for them as they came on shouting, and Face-of-G.o.d was ahead of them all, and leapt at the foemen as a man unwearied and striking his first stroke, so wondrous hale he was; and they drave a wedge amidst of the Dusky Men, and then turned about and stood back to back hewing at all that drifted on them. But as Face- of-G.o.d cleared a s.p.a.ce about him, lo! almost within reach of his sword-point up rose a grim shape from the earth, tall, grey-haired, and b.l.o.o.d.y-faced, who uttered the Wolf-whoop from amidst the terror of his visage, and turned and swung round his head an axe of the Dusky Men, and fell to smiting them with their own weapon. The Dusky Men shrieked in answer to his whoop, and all shrunk from him and Face-of-G.o.d; but a cry of joy went up from the kindred, for they knew Gold-ring, whom they deemed had been slain. So they all pressed on together, smiting down the foe before them, and the Dusky Men, some turned their backs and drave those behind them, till they too turned and were strained through the pa.s.sages and courts of the houses, and some were overthrown and trodden down as they strove to hold face to the Woodlanders, and some were hewn down where they stood; but the whole throng of those that were on their feet drifted toward the Market-place, the Woodlanders following them ever with point and edge, till betwixt the bent and the houses no foeman stood up against them.

Then they stood together, and raised the whoop of victory, and blew their horns long and loud in token of their joy, and the Woodland men lifted up their voices and sang:

Now far, far aloof Standeth lintel and roof, The dwelling of days Of the Woodland ways: Now nought wendeth there Save the wolf and the bear, And the fox of the waste Faring soft without haste.

No carle the axe whetteth on oak-laden hill; No shaft the hart letteth to wend at his will; None heedeth the thunder-clap over the glade, And the wind-storm thereunder makes no man afraid.

Is it thus then that endeth man's days on Mid-earth, For no man there wendeth in sorrow or mirth?

Nay, look down on the road From the ancient abode!

Betwixt acre and field Shineth helm, shineth shield.

And high over the heath Fares the bane in his sheath; For the wise men and bold Go their ways o'er the wold.

Now the Warrior hath given them heart and fair day, Unbidden, undriven, they fare to the fray.

By the rock and the river the banners they bear, And their battle-staves quiver 'neath halbert and spear; On the hill's brow they gather, and hang o'er the Dale As the clouds of the Father hang, laden with bale.

Down shineth the sun On the war-deed half done; All the fore-doomed to die, In the pale dust they lie.

There they leapt, there they fell, And their tale shall we tell; But we, e'en in the gate Of the war-garth we wait, Till the drift of war-weather shall whistle us on, And we tread all together the way to be won, To the dear land, the dwelling for whose sake we came To do deeds for the telling of song-becrowned fame.

Settle helm on the head then! Heave sword for the Dale!

Nor be mocked of the dead men for deedless and pale.

CHAPTER XLVI. MEN MEET IN THE MARKET OF SILVER-STEAD

So sang they; but Face-of-G.o.d went with Red-wolf, who was hurt sorely, but not deadly, and led him back toward the place just under the break of the bent; and there he found Bow-may in the hands of the women who were tending her hurts. She smiled on him from a pale face as he drew nigh, and he looked kindly at her, but he might not abide there, for haste was in his feet. He left Red-wolf to the tending of the women, and clomb the bent hastily, and when he deemed he was high enough, he looked about him; and somewhat more than half an hour had worn since Bow-may had sped the first shaft against the Dusky Men.

He looked down into the Market-stead, and deemed he could see that nigh the Mote-house the Dusky Men were gathering into some better order; but they were no longer drifting toward the southern bents, but were standing round about the altar as men abiding somewhat; and he deemed that they had gotten more bowshot than before, and that most of them bare bows. Though so many had been slain in the battles of the southern bents, yet was the Market-stead full of them, so to say, for others had come thereto in place of those that had fallen.

But now as he looked arose mighty clamour amongst them; and a little west of the Altar was a stir and a hurrying onward and around as in the eddies of a swift stream. Face-of-G.o.d wotted not what was betiding there, but he deemed that they were now ware of the onfall of Folk-might and Hall-face and the men of Burgdale, for their faces were all turned to where that was to be looked for.

So he turned and looked on the road to the east of him, where had been the battle of the Steer, but now it was all gone down toward the Market-place, and he could but hear the clamour of it; but nought he saw thereof, because of the houses that hid it.

Then he cast his eyes on the road that entered the Market-stead from the north, and he saw thereon many men gathered; and he wotted not what they were; for though there were weapons amongst them, yet were they not all weaponed, as far as he could see.

Now as he looked this way and that, and deemed that he must tarry no longer, but must enter into the courts of the houses before him and make his way into the Market-stead, lo! a change in the throng of Dusky Warriors nigh the Mote-house, and the ordered bands about the Altar fell to drifting toward the western way with one accord, with great noise and hurry and fierce cries of wrath. Then made Face-of- G.o.d no delay, but ran down the bent at once, and at the break of it came upon Bow-may standing upright and sword in hand; and as he pa.s.sed, she joined herself to him, and said: 'What new tidings now, Gold-mane?'

'Tidings of battle!' he cried; 'tidings of victory! Folk-might hath fallen on, and the Dusky Men run hastily to meet him. Hark, hark!'

For as he spoke came a great noise of horns, and Bow-may said: 'What horn is that blowing?'

He stayed not, but shouted aloud: 'For the Face, for the Face! Now will we fall upon their backs!'

Therewith was he come to his company, and he cried out to them: 'Heard ye the horn, heard ye the horn? Now follow me into the Market-place; much is yet to do!'

Even therewith came the sound of other horns, and all men were silent a moment, and then shouted all together, for the Wood-landers knew it for the horn of the Shepherds coming on by the eastward way.

But Face-of-G.o.d waved his sword aloft and set on at once, and they followed and gat them through the courts of the houses and their pa.s.sages into the Market-place. There they found more room than they looked to find; for the foemen had drawn away on the left hand toward the battle of Folk-might, and on the right hand toward the battle of the Steer; and great was the noise and cry that came thence.

Now stood Face-of-G.o.d under the two banners of the Wolf in the Market-place of Silver-stead, and scarce had he time to be high- hearted, for needs must he ponder in his mind what thing were best to do. For on the left hand he deemed the foe was the strongest and best ordered; but there also were the kindreds the doughtiest, and it was little like that the felons should overcome the spear-casters of the Face and the glaive-bearers of the Sickle, and the bowmen of the Vine: there also were the wisest leaders, as the stark elder Stone- face, and the tall Hall-face, and his father of the unshaken heart, and above all Folk-might, fierce in his wrath, but his anger burning steady and clear, like the oaken b.u.t.t on the hearth of the hall.

Then as his mind pictured him amongst the foe, it made therewith another picture of the slender warrior Sun-beam caught in the tangle of battle, and longing for him and calling for him amidst the hard hand-play. And thereat his face flushed, and all his body waxed hot, and he was on the very point of leading the onset against the foe on the left. But therewith he bethought him of the bold men of the Steer and the Bridge and the Bull weary with much fighting; and he remembered also that the Bride was amongst them and fighting, it might be, amidst the foremost, and if she were slain how should he ever hold up his head again. He bethought him also that the Shepherds, who had fallen on by the eastern road, valiant as they were, were scarce so well armed or so well led as the others.

Therewithal he bethought him (and again it came like a picture into his mind) of falling on the foemen by whom the southern battle was beset, and then the twain of them meeting the Shepherds, and lastly, all those three companies joined together clearing the Market-place, and meeting the men under Folk-might in the midst thereof.

Therefore, scant had he been pondering these things in his mind for a minute ere he cried out: 'Blow up horns, blow up! forward banners, and follow me, O valiant men! to the helping of the Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull; deep have they thrust into the Dusky Throng, and belike are hard pressed. Hark how the clamour ariseth from their besetters! On now, on!'

Therewith hung a star of sunlight on his sword as he raised it aloft, and the Wolf-whoop rang out terribly in the Market-place, for now had the Woodlanders also learned it, and the hearts of the foemen sank as they heard the might and the ma.s.s thereof. Then the battle of the Woodlanders swept round and fell upon the flank of them who were besetting the kindreds, as an iron bar smiteth the soft fir-wood; and they of the kindreds heard their cry, but faintly and confusedly, so great was the turmoil of battle about them.