Rewards and Fairies | Page 9

about here wrapped in his flaming discontents. There was flash on flash against the clouds, and rush on rush of shadows down the valley till the shaws were full of his hounds giving tongue, and the woodways were packed with his knights in armour riding down into the water-mists - all his own Magic, of course. Behind them you could see great castles lifting slow and splendid on arches of moonshine, with maidens waving their hands at the windows, which all turned into roaring rivers; and then would come the darkness of his own young heart wiping out the whole slateful. But boy's Magic doesn't trouble me - or Merlin's either for that matter. I followed the Boy by the flashes and the whirling wildfire of his discontent, and oh, but I grieved for him! Oh, but I grieved for him! He pounded back and forth like a bullock in a strange pasture - sometimes alone - sometimes waist-deep among his shadow- hounds - sometimes leading his shadow-knights on a hawk- winged horse to rescue his shadow-girls. I never guessed he had such Magic at his command; but it's often that way with boys.
'Just when the owl comes home for the second time, I saw Sir Huon and the Lady ride down my Hill, where there's not much Magic allowed except mine. They were very pleased at the Boy's Magic - the valley flared with it - and I heard them settling his splendid fortune when they should find it in their hearts to let him go to act and influence among folk in housen. Sir Huon was for making him a great King somewhere or other, and the Lady was for making him a marvellous wise man whom all should praise for his skill and kindness. She was very kind-hearted.
'Of a sudden we saw the flashes of his discontents turned back on the clouds, and his shadow-hounds stopped baying.
'"There's Magic fighting Magic over yonder," the Lady Esclairmonde cried, reigning up. "Who is against him?"
'I could have told her, but I did not count it any of my business to speak of Asa Thor's comings and goings.
'How did you know?'said Una.
'A slow North-East wind blew up, sawing and fretting through the oaks in a way I remembered. The wildfire roared up, one last time in one sheet, and snuffed out like a rushlight, and a bucketful of stinging hail fell. We heard the Boy walking in the Long Slip - where I first met you.
'"Here, oh, come here!" said the Lady Esclairmonde, and stretched out her arms in the dark.
'He was coming slowly, but he stumbled in the footpath, being, of course, mortal man.
'"Why, what's this?" he said to himself. We three heard him.
'"Hold, lad, hold! 'Ware Cold Iron!" said Sir Huon, and they two swept down like nightjars, crying as they rode.
'I ran at their stirrups, but it was too late. We felt that the Boy had touched Cold Iron somewhere in the dark, for the Horses of the Hill shied off, and whipped round, snorting.
'Then I judged it was time for me to show myself in my own shape; so I did.
'"Whatever it is," I said, "he has taken hold of it. Now we must find out whatever it is that he has taken hold of, for that will be his fortune."
'"Come here, Robin," the Boy shouted, as soon as he heard my voice. "I don't know what I've hold of."
'"It is in your hands," I called back. "Tell us if it is hard and cold, with jewels atop. For that will be a King's Sceptre. "
'"Not by a furrow-long," he said, and stooped and tugged in the dark. We heard him. '"Has it a handle and two cutting edges?" I called. "For that'll be a Knight's Sword."
'"No, it hasn't," he says. "It's neither ploughshare, whittle, hook, nor crook, nor aught I've yet seen men handle." By this time he was scratting in the dirt to prise it up.
'"Whatever it is, you know who put it there, Robin," said Sir Huon to me, "or you would not ask those questions. You should have told me as soon as you knew."
'"What could you or I have done against the Smith that made it and laid it for him to find?" I said, and I whispered Sir Huon what I had seen at the Forge on Thor's Day, when the babe was first brought to the Hill.
'"Oh, good-bye, our dreams!" said Sir Huon. "It's neither sceptre, sword, nor plough! Maybe yet it's a bookful of learning, bound with iron clasps. There's a chance for a splendid fortune in that sometimes."
'But we knew we were only speaking to comfort ourselves, and the Lady Esclairmonde, having been a woman, said so.
'"Thur aie! Thor help us!" the Boy called. "It is round, without