"Silver sunset, golden dawn Bid the fiend from Isle begone.

Silver steed and golden bay Bring to Welas brighter day.

Two that from Cair Indel ride Very Kings of both shall bide."

Hal smiled crookedly at Alan. "I should think Torre might have warned us."

"He knew just what he was doing!" Alan averred.

The lowland lordsmen also took note of their passing.

Several times they outran groups of armed men, and twice they had to cut their way to freedom. Their new equipment stood them in good stead, for neither took any wounds. So they wore the gear when they forded the Gleaming River, wore it while they fought and fled and dared their way across Isle, and wore it still when, in early summer, they entered the southern Forest.

Deep within its green belly, they rode down a leafy corridor just wide enough for the horses to go abreast.

For no reason Alaa could discern, Hal stopped, signaling Alan to halt as well. Hal listened intently, and a slow smile spread on his face. He gave a chirping call,

A little way ahead of them, a man dropped from a tree to the center of the path, facing them with nocked arrow.

At once other outlaws dropped to both sides of the path, until an even dozen stood poised for combat. The first man, a tanned, country fellow of middle age, knitted his brows in consternation. Hal's grin broadened even as his eyes grew damp.

"Trigg," he chided, "don't you know me?"

The man's jaw dropped and his bow clattered to the ground. In an instant Hal was off of Arun, and the two friends were hugging and pommeling each other's backs.

Trigg's cheeks were wet.

"Dear Hal!" he gasped. "Who would ha* thought it!"

"If you could not recognize me," Hal teased, "I should think at least you might have known Arundel!"

"Ye've both grown," Trigg marveled, "but ye the most.

182 THE SILVER SUN.

A warrior knight, in mail and all, with the muscles of one of them whatchacallums-dragon slayersi Y'know, ye were scarce more'n a lad when I last saw ye, though mighty enough e*en then-"

"Spare my blushes, TriggI" Hal protested, iaughing.

"This is Alan, my brother in blood."

Trigg gripped Alan's hand and scanned his face under the helm with an intensity strange in one so slow seem- ing. "I'd scarce ha' thought there could be more'n one,"

he murmured.

"There is not," Alan answered. "Are you not the friend who gave Hal his sword? Where did you get it?"

"No credit t'me," Trigg shrugged. "A minstrel fellow traded it fr food, said he'd no use fr it-but I thought 'twas a pretty thing."

"It is, indeed." Hal raised the shining weapon.

"He would not give it up even for a king's brand,"

Alan said, and Trigg's eyes sparkled with pleasure.

He directed them to the outlaws' base camp, where they found Craig the Grim sitting at the entrance of his hut, apparently watching the trees grow. He was a hatchet-faced man, worn and honed by weather and enemies. His eyes were sharp as flint, but subtle neverthe- less. Craig greeted Hal with composure, but Alan could see his pleasure, warm like a bidden fire behind the mask of his face.

Hal and Alan stayed three days, spending most of the time in close talk with Craig, catching up on the events of two years, laying plans, setting up signals. Alan soon found that, unless he had reason to be otherwise, Craig was as shelly and inscrutable as an oyster. When he chose to command, his men obeyed him implicitly. Alan was glad he was on their side.

"I have heard news of you now and then, Hal, since you left us," he remarked on the third day. A hint of a smile showed at the corners of his straight mouth as he watched their surprise.

"News came to us from Ket'a camp by the woodland ways, so that I knew you had found a friend in Alan here. Then rumor came of a handsome reward offeree by Gar of Whitewater for a couple of rogues so bold I knew they could only be you two. Again, the Forest ways brought me news from the Gypsy camps. But after that, all is confused. From all quarters, vague rumors came of

The Dark Twer 183

two noble youths, poorly clad, but mounted, and armed with swords and skill, who fought the armed henchmen of the rich oppressors for the sake of common folk. There were tales of kindness, of healing herbs and strength- giving meat. And lately there are whispers that the Very King had returned, a King that the Speaking Stone would have proclaimed, before it cracked, ages gone by, and was destroyed by the invaders."

"Then how has it been proclaimed, now?" Alan asked.

Hal looked too thunderstruck to speak.

"Why, your shields, to be sure! All parts of you, in- deed. . . ." Craig showed scarcely a hint of a smile.

"There are many old Jingies, and stories, and all of them have to do with rising sun and setting sun, silver and gold, and many other omens besides. The peasants hum old singsongs that a year ago were thought fit only for chil- dren, and every time you're seen the word runs like fire.

All over Isle you are said to have traveled, fearlessly, like living legends, and wherever you went the oppressors were foiled and the poor folk blessed. So you see," Craig concluded, "I was not entirely surprised when you came here."

"It is all nonsense!" Hal sputtered. "We left Welas only two months ago, and we have traveled no farther than here. We helped a lass with her cow, once, and once we saved a fellow from a scourging by happening past. . . . And there was that sick child near the Western Way, and that burning cottage at Lee; we had to fight a few lordsmen there. But that is all. We are not legends;

only men trying to do what we must."

"It is of such men that legends are made," replied Craig gravely. "And I think it is not all nonsense." He ran his appraising eyes over them both.

"I do not wear this shield in policy, Craig," Hal told him sharply. "It was given to me."

"I did not think otherwise," Craig declared.

An old woman stumbled along a Forest track, her eyes dull and vacant, her mouth hanging slack. Fearful of outlaws, she hastened her plodding feet. But when a golden steed stepped from the underbrush to block her path, she could only gasp. Her eyes traveled upward from the horse's hooves to a shield with a sunburst design, and then to blue eyes beneath a golden helm. The eyes were 184 THE SILVER SUN.

kind, and reminded her of some she had once known.

Speechlessly she allowed Alan to place her in the saddle, and he took her through the leafy Forest wall. In a cool space under a giant silver beech, a silver-gray horse grazed by a still figure with eyes of gray, Hal waited to welcome the dear nurse of his childhood.

"Oh, Halsey! Oh, my poor little princeling!" she wept as she flung her arms around this broad-shouldered war- rior; her head scarcely reached his chest. Alan had to grin. Still, he swallowed hard as Hal bent to kiss her.

"Strange chance, Nana," Hal marveled, "that sent you our way. It was merest luck that we saw you."

"Strange chance, indeed," she faltered, wiping her face, "for I have not been out of Nemeton in many years.

1 have been to see my cousin. . . . But you do not need that news."

"You speak wisely, as ever." Hal helped her to a seat on the ground. "Rest awhile, Nana. Eat with us and tell me what I must know. How is the health of the King?"

"He is a sick man, though he manages to present an appearance of health. I believe be will not last longer than a year."

She went on, acquainting Hal with circumstances at court. Alan was startled by the change in her manner.

Her eyes were now bright and clear, her words rapid and to the point, her movements sure and purposeful. He be- gan to realize that her doddering stupidity was only a pro- tective device. How else could she, formerly the Queen's favorite, have survived so long in the hostile court? Her repulsive senility placed her beyond suspicion. She went everywhere and saw everything, but none of the great ones noticed or cared.

"I have nosed about these three long years," she ex- plained, "trying to find out what had become of you, my poppet. But nary a sign of you couid I spy, and I did not know what to think."

"I knew you would be hunting and grieving, Nana," Hal said regretfully. "And now I must ask you to labor for me."

"Willingly! Since I have seen you, my heart is as light as if I were a girl again."