CHAPTER XXX. HALL-FACE GOETH TOWARD ROSE-DALE.
ON the morrow Face-of-god took counsel with Hall-face and Stone-face asto what were best to be done, and they sat on the daïs in the Hall totalk it over.
Short was the time that had worn since that day in Shadowy Vale, for itwas but eight days since then; yet so many things had befallen in thattime, and, to speak shortly, the outlook for the Burgdalers had changedso much, that the time seemed long to all the three, and especially toFace-of-god.
It was yet twenty days till the Great Folk-mote should beholden, and toHall-face the time seemed long enough to do somewhat, and he deemed itwere good to gather force and fall on the Dusky Men in Rose-dale, sincenow they had gotten men who could lead them the nighest way and by thesafest passes, and who knew all the ways of the foemen. But toStone-face this rede seemed not so good; for they would have to go andcome back, and fight and conquer, in less time than twenty days, or bebelated of the Folk-mote, and meanwhile much might happen.
‘For,’ said Stone-face, ‘we may deem the fighting-men of Rose-dale to belittle less than one thousand, and however we fall on them, even if it beunawares at first, they shall fight stubbornly; so that we may not sendagainst them many less than they be, and that shall strip Burgdale of itsfighting-men, so that whatever befalls, we that be left shall have tobide at home.’
Now was Face-of-god of the same mind as Stone-face; and he said moreover:‘When we go to Rose-dale we must abide there a while unless we beoverthrown. For if ye conquer it and come away at once, presently shallthe tidings come to the ears of the Dusky Men in Silver-dale, and theyshall join themselves to those of Rose-dale who have fled before you, andbetween them they shall destroy the unhappy people therein; for ye cannottake them all away with you: and that shall they do all the more now,when they look to have new thralls in Burgdale, both men and women. Andthis we may not suffer, but must abide till we have met all our foemenand have overcome them, so that the poor folk there shall be safe fromthem till they have learned how to defend their dale. Now my rede is,that we send out the War-arrow at once up and down the Dale, and to theShepherds and Woodlanders, and appoint a day for the Muster andWeapon-show of all our Folk, and that day to be the day before the SpringMarket, that is to say, four days before the Great Folk-mote, andmeantime that we keep sure watch about the border of the wood, and nowand again scour the wood, so as to clear the Dale of their wanderingbands.’
‘Yea,’ said Hall-face; ‘and I pray thee, brother, let me have an hundredof men and thy Dallach, and let us go somewhat deep into the wood towardsRose-dale, and see what we may come across; peradventure it might besomething better than hart or wild-swine.’
Said Face-of-god: ‘I see no harm therein, if Dallach goeth with theefreely; for I will have no force put on him or any other of the Runaways.Yet meseemeth it were not ill for thee to find the road to Rose-dale; forI have it in my mind to send a company thither to give those Rose-daleman-quellers somewhat to do at home when we fall upon Silver-dale.Therefore go find Dallach, and get thy men together at once; for thesooner thou art gone on thy way the better. But this I bid thee, go nofurther than three days out, that ye may be back home betimes.’
At this word Hall-face’s eyes gleamed with joy, and he went out from theHall straightway and sought Dallach, and found him at the Gate.Iron-face had given him a new sword, a good one, and had bidden him callit Thicket-clearer, and he would not leave it any moment of the day ornight, but would lay it under his pillow at night as a child does with anew toy; and now he was leaning against a buttress and drawing the saidsword half out of the scabbard and poring over its blade, which wasindeed fair enough, being wrought with dark grey waving lines like theeddies of the Weltering Water.
So Hall-face greeted him, and smiled and said:
‘Guest, if thou wilt, thou may’st take that new blade of my father’s workwhich thou lovest so, a journey which shall rejoice it.’
‘Yea,’ said Dallach, ‘I suppose that thou wouldest fare on thy brother’sfootsteps, and deemest that I am the man to lead thee on the road, andeven farther than he went; and though it might be thought by some that Ihave seen enough of Rose-dale and the parts thereabout for one while, yetwill I go with thee; for now am I a man again, body and soul.’
And therewith he drew Thicket-clearer right out of his sheath and wavedhim in the air. And Hall-face was glad of him and said he was well apaidof his help. So they went away together to gather men, and on the morrowHall-face departed and went into the Wild-wood with Dallach and anhundred and two score men.
But as for Face-of-god, he fared up and down the Dale following theWar-arrow, and went into all houses, and talked with the folk, both youngand old, men and women, and told them closely all that had betid and allthat was like to betide; and he was well pleased with that which he sawand heard; for all took his words well, and were nought afeard ordismayed by the tidings; and he saw that they would not hang aback.Meantime the days wore, and Hall-face came not back till the seventh day,and he brought with him twelve more Runaways, of whom five were women.But he had lost four men, and had with him Dallach and five others of theDalesmen borne upon litters sore hurt; and this was his story:
They got to the Burg of the Runaways on the forenoon of the third day,and thereby came on five carles of the Runaways—men who had missedmeeting Dallach that other day, but knew what had been done; for one ofthem had been sick and could not come with him, and he had told theothers: so now they were hanging about the Burg of the Runaways hopingsomewhat that he might come again; and they met the Burgdalers full ofjoy, and brought them trouts that they had caught in the river.
As for the other runaways, namely, five women and two more carles—theyhad gotten them close to the entrance into Silver-dale, where by nightand cloud they came on a campment of the Dusky Men, who were leading homethese seven poor wretches, runaways whom they had caught, that they mightslay them most evilly in Rose-stead. So Hall-face fell on the Dusky Men,and delivered their captives, but slew not all the foe, and they thatfled brought pursuers on them who came up with them the next day, so nearwas Rose-dale, though they made all diligence homeward. The Burgdalersmust needs turn and fight with those pursuers, and at last they dravethem aback so that they might go on their ways home. They let not thegrass grow beneath their feet thereafter, till they were assured bymeeting a band of the Woodlanders, who had gone forth to help them, andwith whom they rested a little. But neither so were they quite done withthe foemen, who came upon them next day a very many: these however theyand the Woodlanders, who were all fresh and unwounded and very valiant,speedily put to the worse; and so they came on to Burgstead, leavingthose of them who were sorest hurt to be tended by the Woodlanders atCarlstead, who, as might be looked for, deal with them very lovingly.
It was in the first fight that they suffered that loss of slain andwounded; and therein the newly delivered thralls fought valiantly againsttheir masters: as for Dallach, it was no marvel, said Hall-face, that hewas hurt; but rather a marvel that he was not slain, so little he reckedof point and edge, if he might but slay the foemen.
Such was Hall-face’s-tale; and Face-of-god deemed that he had doneunwisely to let him go that journey; for the slaying of a few Dusky Menwas but a light gain to set against the loss of so many Burgdalers; yetwas he glad of the deliverance of those Runaways, and deemed it a gainindeed. But henceforth would he hold all still till he should havetidings of Folk-might; so nought was done thereafter save the warding ofthe Dale, from the country of the Shepherds to the Waste above theEastern passes.
But Face-of-god himself went up amongst the Shepherds, and abode with agoodman hight Hound-under-Greenbury, who gathered to him the folk fromthe country-side, and they went up on to Greenbury, and sat on the greengrass while he spoke with them and told them, as he had told the others,what had been done and what should be done. And they heard him gladly,and he deemed that there would be no blenching in them, for they were allin one tale to live and die with thei
r friends of Burgdale, and they saidthat they would have no other word save that to bear to the GreatFolk-mote.
So he went away well-pleased, and he fared on thence to the Woodlanders,and guested at the house of a valiant man hight Wargrove, who on themorrow morn called the folk together to a green lawn of the Wild-wood, sothat there was scarce a soul of them that was not there. Then he laidthe whole matter before them; and if the Dalesmen had been merry andready, and the Shepherds stout-hearted and friendly, yet were theWood-landers more eager still, so that every hour seemed long to themtill they stood in their war-gear; and they told him that now at last wasthe hour drawing nigh which they had dreamed of, but had scarce dared tohope for, when the lost way should be found, and the crooked madestraight, and that which had been broken should be mended; that theirmeat and drink, and sleeping and waking, and all that they did were nowbecome to them but the means of living till the day was come whereon thetwo remnants of the children of the Wolf should meet and become one Folkto live or die together.
Then went Face-of-god back to Burgstead again, and as he stood anigh theThing-stead once more, and looked down on the Dale as he had beheld itlast autumn, he bethought him that with all that had been done and allthat had been promised, the earth was clearing of her trouble, and thatnow there was nought betwixt him and the happy days of life which theDale should give to the dwellers therein, save the gathering hosts of thebattle-field and the day when the last word should be spoken and thefirst stroke smitten. So he went down on to the Portway well content.
Thereafter till the day of the Weapon-show there is nought to tell of,save that Dallach and the other wounded men began to grow whole again;and all men sat at home, or went on the woodland ward, expecting greattidings after the holding of the Folk-mote.