After a while Atra lifted up her head, and thus she
spake: I hate thee not, Birdalone; nor doth
one say such things to a foe. Yea, furthermore,
I will crave somewhat of thee. If ever there
come a time when thou mayst do something for me, thou
wilt know it belike without my telling thee.
In that day and in that hour I bid thee remember
how we stood together erst at the stair-foot of the
Wailing Tower in the Isle of Increase Unsought, and
thou naked and fearful and quaking, and what I did
to thee that tide to comfort thee and help and save
thee. And then when thou hast called it to mind,
do thou for me what thou canst do. Wilt thou
promise this? Yea, yea, said Birdalone; and
with all the better will, that oft and over again
have I called it to mind. Wherefore I behight
thee to let me serve thee if I may whenso the occasion
cometh, even if it be to my own pain and grief; for
this I know thou meanest.
See thou to this then, said Atra coldly; and thou
shalt be the better for it in the long run belike:
for thou art a happy woman.
She arose as she spake, and said: Hist! here
come the lords from the murder-council; and lo, now
that he cometh, my heart groweth evil toward thee
again, and well-nigh biddeth me wish that thou wert
naked and helpless before me again. Lo my unhap!
that he should mark my face that it shows as if I
were fain to do thee a mischief. And nought
of that would I do; for how should it avail me, and
thou my fellow and the faithful messenger of the Quest?
Now little of her last words did Birdalone meet, as
into the hall came Hugh and Arthur; and though she
strove to sober her mind and think of her she-friend
and her unhappiness, yet she could not choose but
to be full of joy in her inmost heart now she knew
without doubt that she was so well-beloved of her
beloved: and she deemed that Atra was in the
right indeed to call her a happy woman.
So now they all went into the solar together, and
sat them down with the two others; and Hugh did them
to wit, how they had ordered all the matter of the
messengers who were to summon the knights and chiefs
of thereabouts, and the aldermen of Greenford, to meet
at the Castle of the Quest, that they might set afoot
the hosting to go against the Red Hold.
CHAPTER IX. HUGH TELLS THE STORY OF THE QUEST’S ENDING.
When this was said, and there had been silence a while,
Birdalone took up the word, and spake meekly and sweetly,
saying: Dear friends, how it fared with you
on the isle from the time of my leaving you, and how
with you, true knights, from the time of your departure,
I both were fain to know for the tale’s sake,
and also I would take the telling thereof as a sign
of your forgiveness of my transgression; so I would
crave the same of you but if it weary you overmuch.
