Said Folk-might: “Yea, and that stone hall was our Mote-house when we were lords of the Dale, and thence it was that they who are now thralls of the Dusky Men sent to them their message and token of yielding. And as for that white stone, it is the altar of their god; for they have but one, and he is that same crookbladed sword. And now that I look, I see a great stack of wood amidmost the marketplace, and well I know what that betokeneth.”
“Lo you!” said Face-of-god, “the man with the horn is gone up on to the altar-mound, and meseemeth he is setting the little end of the horn to his mouth.”
“Hearken then!” said Folk-might. And in a moment came the hoarse tuneless sound of the horn down the wind towards them; and Folk-might said:
“I deem I should know what that blast meaneth; and now is it time that the Host drew nigher to set them in array behind these very trees. But if ye will, War-leader, we will abide here and watch the ways of the foemen, and send Dallach with the word to the Host; also I would have thee suffer me to bid hither at once two score and ten of the best of the bowmen of our folk and the Woodlanders, and Wood-wise to lead them, for he knoweth well the land hereabout, and what is good to do.”
“It is good,” said Face-of-god. “Be speedy, Dallach!”
So Dallach departed, running lightly, and the two chiefs abode there; and the horn in Silverstead blew at whiles for a little, and then stayed; and Folk-might said:
“Lo you! they come flockmeal to the Motestead; the Place will be filled ere long.”
Said Face-of-god: “Will they make offerings to their god at the hallowing in of their Folk-mote? Where then are the slaughter-beasts?”
“They shall not long be lacking,” said Folk-might. “See you it is getting thronged about the altar and the Mote-house.”
Now there were four ways into the Marketplace of Silverstead turned toward the four airts, and the midmost of the kindreds’ battle looked right down the southern one, which went up to the wood, but stopped there in a mere woodland path, and the more part of the town lay north and west of this way, albeit there was a way from the east also. But the hillside just below the two captains lay two furlongs west of this southern way; and it went down softly till it was gotten quite near to the backs of the houses on the south side of the Marketplace, and was sprinkled scantly with bushes and trees as aforesaid; but at last were there more bushes, which well-nigh made a hedge across it, reaching from the side of the southern way; and a foot or two beyond these bushes the ground fell by a steep and broken bent down to the level of the Marketplace, and betwixt that fringe of bushes and the backs of the houses on the south side of the Place was less it maybe than a full furlong: but the southern road aforesaid went down softly into the Marketplace, since it had been fashioned so by men.
Now the two chiefs heard a loud blast of horns come up from the town, and lo! a great crowd of men wending their ways down the road from the north, and they came into the marketplace with spears and other weapons tossing in the air, and amidst of these men, who seemed to be all of the warriors, they saw as they drew nigher some two score and ten of men clad in long raiment of yellow and scarlet, with tall spiring hats of strange fashion on their heads, and in their hands long staves with great blades like scythes done on to them; and again, in the midst of these yellow and red glaive-bearers, in the very heart of the throng were some score of naked folk, they deemed both men and women, but were not sure, so close was the throng; nor could they see if they were utterly naked.
“Lo you, brother!” quoth Folk-might, “said I not that the beasts for the hewing should not tarry? Yonder naked folk are even they: and ye may well deem that they are the thralls of the Dusky Men; and meseemeth by the whiteness of their skins they be of the best of them. For these felons, it is like, look to winning great plenty of thralls in Burgdale, and so set the less store on them they have, and may expend them freely.”
As he spake they heard the sound of men marching in the wood behind them, and they turned about and saw that there was come Wood-wise, and with him upwards of two score and ten of the bowmen of the Woodlanders and the Wolf—huntsmen, cragsmen, and scourers of the Waste; men who could shoot the chaffinch on the twig a hundred yards aloof; who could make a hiding-place of the bennets of the wayside grass, or the stem of the slender birch-tree. With these must needs be Bow-may, who was the closest shooter of all the kindreds.
So then Wood-wise told the War-leader that Dallach had given the word to the Host, and that all men were astir and would be there presently in their ordered companies; and Face-of-god spake to Folk-might, and said: “Chief of the Wolf, wilt thou not give command to these bowmen, and set them to the work; for thou wottest thereof.”
“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 today. So flee if
