265.

266.

THE SILVER SUN.

adorned her head and Hal's. Petals sprinkled them from head to foot. Alan had fallen back a few paces, grinning;

great chains of flowers draped his neck and Alfie's. Rate and his soldiers, Robin and Cory, Craig and his men-all were beset by swarms of happy folk, and those who could not reach them threw their bouquets into their path or pelted them with the blossoms- Hal and Alan were amazed to see many whom they knew, peasants and cot- tagers whom they had aided or who had aided them. In the center of town they met Roran and his company. He embraced Robin, and the crowd cheered them; the noise was deafening.

At last they all came to the castle. The courtyard was filled with servitors and guards, and hundreds of towns- people thronged in as well. The air trembled with their happy chatter. But when Hal ascended to the platform and turned to greet his people, one voice cut through them all, clear as a trumpet call. "See where he stands, the King of Isle!" Alan knelt with hand raised in salute.

Rosemary, and all of Hal's men, and hundreds more knelt before him and joined Alan's salute with a great shout. Hal was speechless.

Rosemary gazed at him with smiling, adoring eyes.

Alan faced him tenderly but almost defiantly. "I told you once," he said, "that I would kneel before you someday, and you would know why. Do you?"

Hal looked deeply into Alan's eyes, and saw shame there, along with a glimmer of the love he had missed for so long. "Ay," he said roughly, "I know. So much for it.

Now will you get up!"

He took Alan and Rosemary each by one hand, and urged them to their feet. Wordlessly he presented them to the multitude in the courtyard; then he turned and led them into his castle.

That afternoon, Alan once more tried to make oc- casion to speak with Hal, but he was missing. The old nurse Nana had taken him aside. "I have something for you," she told him, "something your mother left you." She led Hal to a sealed and forgotten garret where there stood a small chest. He was startled to see, emblazoned on its lid, the emblem of the half-sun. "I do not know what is in it," the old woman said as she handed him the key. "I confess I tried to open it once, but it stung my fingers. Yet I know your mother opened it often. She was always

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careful to keep it from the King and from you, so I have done the same until I was certain you were quite grown.

It came from Welas, with your uncle Gildur," Nana added.

"Gildur!"

"Ay. He stayed here in great secrecy for almost a year and a half after the capture of Weldon. He whiled away the hours by teaching music to your mother. 'Tis a strange thing, but I could almost swear that your instrument is the one he played. ... In the end, of course, the King caught wind of him, and he had to flee. This was all be- fore your birth." The ancient woman paused thoughtfully.

"There is a great deal I should explain to you, my child, now that you are King, But perhaps something in that chest will tell it better than I can. I shall leave you with it now. But if you wish to speak with me, call me back."

He did call her back after several hours, and sent her out again after a long talk. Alan and Rosemary grew anxious when he missed the evening meal, and went to wait for him on the garret steps. It was almost dark when he emerged, but they could see that his face was pale and distraught. "Alan," he said abruptly, "will you ride with me in the morning? Rosemary, love, I need time to be alone and think. Do not be troubled for me. I shall see you tomorrow." He strode off into the twilight, leaving them puzzled and worried-

The next day, Hal and Alan rode at random over the rolling wealds that surrounded Nemeton. Hal seemed to be in no hurry to reveal his concern, and Alan had de- cided to postpone his own difficulty until Hal's was done.

Their talk was as wandering as their track. They spoke of people they had known, of fun they had shared in the years past, and of the troubles they bad shared, too. But those hard days were over now; the goal was attained.

They felt a vague sorrow, and did not know how to com- fort each other.

In time, the talk turned to Blain. "I was blood-blind and crazed with rage," Alan said. "But when my fury calmed, I was full of doubt. I knew what I had to do, and yet I felt like a murderer."

"You did me a great service," Hal told him, "which I might not have had the strength to do for myself."

"I did not feel strong, but weak and helpless," Alan

268 THE SILVER SUN.

muttered. "My bloodthirst is cured, Hal. Never again will I reproach you for squeamishness."

Hal startled Arundel by banging his fist into the saddle, gesticulating wildly. "Mother of mercy, Alan!" he cried, ''you did not have to say that! Tune was, when . . ." He choked back his words.

"When a glance would have been enough." Alan fin- ished the thought with his heart in his voice, and looked up with aching eyes. "Hal-"

How he had longed for that warmth. But Hal could not yet bear to hear what Alan had to say. Staring straight ahead, he cut him off with a crisp statement. "Alan, we leave for Laueroc on the morrow. For the wedding and coronation."

"Laueroct" gasped Alan, startled. "But why?"

*Ten hundred years ago, the Very King Bevan took his beloved that way, and perhaps wedded her on a Mid- summer's Eve, as I will mine. Folk will be there from throughout the realm." His hesitation was barely percep- tible, but Alan, who knew him well, sensed it at once.

"The elves will meet us there, though I would never ask them to come all the way to Nemeton. Adaoun is per- forming the ceremonies." Hal looked at his gaping brother in carefully affected anxiety. "You do not begrudge me the use of your town, I hope?"

But Alan was not fooled. "You have laid a trap for me," he said, and his voice was low and dangerous.

"Destiny is no trap, but most often a blessing," Hal replied. "The course of our lives was set, Alan, long be- fore either of us was born."

"Destiny be damned!" Alan shouted. "I will not got"

"You shall go!" Hal commanded icily. He faced Alan with gray eyes gone cold and hard, gleaming eerily with elfin power. Alan's blue eyes blazed Just as bright with mortal wrath, and did not waver for an instant. For a full minute the two wills clashed with all the force of physical combat. On a hilltop the horses stood rigid as statues, the young men sitting them silent as the wealds all around;

but legend was to remember the flash of bright metal and the ring of steel in the air.

Slowly, like the soft dusk of dawn, Hal smiled, and the shining steel of his gaze turned to glowing love, a love welling up from so deep in his soul that Alan continued

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to stare, lost in a trance of astonishment. "Your power is the equal of mine," Hai murmured. "It is well."

"Name of Aene," Alan whispered. Suddenly he real- ized that Hal was aged beyond his years, battered and agonized by the death he had dealt, tired and sad; yet his back was straight and his face filled with honest joy.

"It is well," he repeated. "Alan, if you love me-"

"Hal!" pleaded Alan wretchedly.

"Nay," he continued, as if agreeing with something Alan had said, "you are right. I will not do that. Once you made me swear an oath that nearly tore my heart to shreds, for my own sake. But I will bind you by no such oath. I know you, Alan of Laueroc, and I know that you do not need my bidding to keep the law that springs from love. Farewell, Alan. Let your heart guide you well." He wheeled Arundel and sped away toward Nemeton.

"Hal!" Alan called after him. "Hal! Wait-" But Hal had disappeared over a rise of the rolling wealds, and Alan got no answer except the lonesome cries of straying sea birds.

Chapter Foar.

"He was not back all night," Rate told Hal the next morning.

"I expected as much," he answered. "Well, let us go."

It did not take them long to make ready, for they were all accustomed to traveling light. For the first time since Rosemary had known him, however, Hal needed a pack horse to carry something he wished to take along.

They were all saddled and waiting when Cory ap- peared, looking distressed. "I cannot find Alan any- where!" he exclaimed.

"Alan will be coming later, I dare say," Hal replied.

"We must go on without him."