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'Well, said Face-of-god, 'parting is ill at the best, and I would I could give you twain a gift, and especially to thee, my sister Bow- may. Said Wood-wise: 'Thou may'st well do that; or at least promise the gift; and that is all one as if we held it in our hands. 'Yea, said Bow-may, 'Wood-wise and I have been thinking in one way belike; and I was at point to ask a gift of thee.
Sister Bow-may, thou wottest that it would be a sore grief to me if thou camest to any harm, and thou also, fellow Wood-wise. Daylight is a good faring-fellow over the waste. Said Bow-may: 'Thou art kind, Gold-mane, and that is thy wont, I know; and fain were I to-night of the candles in thine hall.
So Face-of-god leapt up and went forth from the Hall, and Wood-wise led to where was a pool in the river with steps cut down to it in the rocky bank. 'This, said Wood-wise, 'is the Carle's Bath; but the Queen's is lower down, where the water is wider and shallower below the little mid-dale force.
Therewith came up Wood-wise, and fell to talk with them; and his mind it was that these foemen were but a band of strayers, and had had no inkling of Shadowy Vale till they had heard them talking together as they came up the path from the Vale, and that then they had made that ambush behind the Elders' Rocks, so that they might slay the men, and then bear off the woman.
Then Wood-wise laughed and said: 'I shall tell thee in fewer words than she will, and time presses now: Wood-father and Wood-mother, and I and my two brethren and this woman have ever been about and anigh the Sun-beam; and we deem that war and other troubles have made us of closer kin to her than we were born, whether ye call it brotherhood or what not, and never shall we sunder from her in life or in death.
'Yea, said Face-of-god, 'art thou minded to dwell there? We shall be glad of that. 'Whither are thy wits straying? said she; 'whether I am minded to it or not, I shall dwell there. And Wood-wise nodded a yea to her. But Face-of-god said: 'Good will be thy dwelling; but wherefore must it be so?
'Yea, that will I, said Folk-might, and turned to Wood-wise, and said: 'Wood-wise, get ye down the slope, and loose on these felons, who have a murder on hand, if so be ye have a chance to do it wisely. But in any case come ye all back; for all shall be needed yet to-day. So flee if they pursue, for ye shall have us to flee to.
'Yea, said Bow-may, 'and might I have hauberk and helm of his handiwork, and Wood-wise a good sword of the same, then were I a glad woman, and this man a happy carle. Said Gold-mane: 'I am well pleased at thine asking, and so shall Iron-face be when he heareth of thine archery; and how that Hall-face were now his only son but for thy close shooting.
Forsooth Wood-wise said that the way might be made less toilsome though far longer by turning back eastward a little past the vale where they had rested at midday; and that seemed good to Gold-mane, in case they should be wending hereafter in a great company between Burgdale and Shadowy Vale.
But ere he had taken three steps down the hall, Face-of-god prevented him and said: 'Kinsman, if thou hast anywhere a hauberk somewhat better than folk are wont to bear, such as thine own hand fashioneth, and a sword of the like stuff, I would have thee give them, the sword to my brother- in-arms Wood-wise here, and the war-coat to my sister Bow-may, who shooteth so well in the bow that none may shoot closer, and very few as close; and her shaft it was that delivered me when my skull was amongst the axes of the Dusky Men: else had I not been here.
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