The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbours, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in ArmsMorris, William
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The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbours, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction
He broke off here, for a man fell beside him hurt in the neck, and
Face-of-god took his bow from his hands and shot a shaft, while one of
the women who had been hurt also tended the newly-wounded man. Then
Face-of-god went on speaking:
‘She was unwilling to go, but Folk-might and I constrained her; for we
knew that this is the most perilous place of the battle—hah! see those
three felons, Bow-may! they are aiming hither.’
And again he loosed and Bow-may also, but a shaft rattled on his helm
withal and another smote a Woodlander beside him, and pierced through the
calf of his leg, as he turned and stooped to take fresh arrows from a
sheaf that lay there; but the carle took it by the notch and the point,
and brake it and drew it out, and then stood up and went on shooting.
And Face-of-god spake again:
‘Folk-might skulketh not; nor the Men of the Vine, and the Sickle, and
the Face, nor the Shepherd-Folk: soon shall they be making our work easy
to us, if we can hold our own till then. They are on the other roads
that lead into the square. Now suffer me, and shoot on!’
Therewith he looked round about him, and he saw on the left hand that all
was quiet; and before him was the confused throng of the Dusky Men
trampling their own dead and wounded, and not able as yet to cross that
death-line of the arrow so near to them. But on his right hand he saw
how they of the kindreds held them firm on the way. Then for a moment of
time he considered and thought, till him-seemed he could see the whole
battle yet to be foughten; and his face flushed, and he said sharply:
‘Bow-may, abide here and shoot, and show the others where to shoot, while
the arrows hold out; but we will go further for a while, and ye shall
follow when we have made the rent great enough.’
She turned to him and said: ‘Why art thou not more joyous? thou art like
an host without music or banners.’
‘Nay,’ said he, ‘heed not me, but my bidding!’
She said hastily: ‘I think I shall die here; since for all we have shot
we minish them nowise. Now kiss me this once amidst the battle, and say
farewell.’
He said: ‘Nay, nay; it shall not go thus. Abide a little while, and thou
shalt see all this tangle open, as the sun cleaveth the clouds on the
autumn morning. Yet lo thou! since thou wilt have it so.’
And he bent forward and kissed her face, and now the tears ran over it,
and she said smiling somewhat: ‘Now is this more than I looked for,
whatso may betide.’
But while she was yet speaking he cried in a great voice:
‘Ye who have spent your shot, or have nigh spent it, to axe and sword,
and follow me to clear the ground ’twixt the bent and the halls. Let
each help each, but throng not each other. Shoot wisely, ye bowmen, and
keep our backs clear of the foe. On, on! for the Burg and the Face, for
the Burg and the Face!’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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