we came to your island, o king (said bird-of-gold, continuing her story), but no sooner did we step from the ship to the landing stones than we suffered a loss. the ring that was around my wrist broke and fell into the sea, and thereafter we had no sign that would show how close zabulun was in pursuit of us.
we set off for that part of the land that merlin’s island comes near to. one day our way was through a dark valley and we lay down there to sleep. i awakened after some hours of slumber, and i looked toward eean, and i saw that he was still sleeping. i left him to his sleep, but when hours passed i went over to awaken him. but i could not awaken him from that slumber, do what i would. for three days and three nights he slept in that valley while i watched beside him.
[pg 123]
at last he awoke saying, “what day is this, and how near is zabulun to us?” i told him that we were two days from the mid day of summer, and that we had no sign now to show us how close the enchanter might be. we were greatly troubled, o king, for we knew not how we might come to merlin’s island by the mid day of summer.
it was then that we heard of your horses, king manus. we were told of their swiftness, and we said to each other, “only by the speed of these horses can we reach the place that merlin’s island comes near, and by merlin’s aid save ourselves from the power of zabulun, the wrong-doing enchanter.”
at nightfall we came before your palace and your stable. now it was not hard for us to open the doors of your stable. your watchers drank of a drug that i made, o king. eean brought a cup to them, and they, thinking the drink had been sent to them from your supper table, drank it. at once they fell into a slumber. then we opened the four locks of the iron door with the keys that[pg 124] were in their belts. eean went within the stable while i kept watch at the gate of the orchard.
alas, eean was taken before he could mount the white horse, and before i went to take the bridle of the red one. i saw him being brought within the palace, and i saw two new watchers take their places beside the door.
for a long time i stood in the shadow of the orchard gate not knowing what to do. then i thought that i should still take one of the horses and go to the place where merlin might be spoken to, and so win aid for eean, my beloved companion. i made another drug, and i put it into a drink, and i brought the cup to those who were at the stable door. these, too, were unsuspecting; they thought i had brought it from the supper table, and they drank, and they, too, lost their senses.
then i opened the iron door of the stable the way we had opened it before and i went within. i saw the red horse in his stall and i put my hand upon his neck. as i did this the black horse broke loose, and he plunged at me, and he caught[pg 125] me by the flesh of the shoulders and he flung me down. he reared above me, and was about to bring his hoofs crashing down upon me. then indeed i should have been trampled to death but that you and your men came in, o king.
you came with torches and you drove that fierce black horse away from my body. never was i in such danger of death as i was in then. i do not think i am now in such danger as when i lay under the feet of that fierce black horse. but it is for you to judge, o king.
bird-of-gold finished her story, and, closing her eyes, she laid her head upon her hands. all at that supper table looked toward king manus. eean seemed to hear nothing of her story, for all the time his eyes were upon the king’s face.
said king manus, “she has been in danger as great as the danger she is in now, for verily, that black horse of mine is a manslayer. the girl, too, shall go free.”
then the king drank another cup of wine and was silent for a while. then he said, speaking[pg 126] again: “they have fled a great way, these two. i should not be glad if they lost the match with this zabulun. by the open hand of my father, they may take my two horses, the white one and the red one, and ride to that part of the western island that merlin’s island comes near. for payment to me, let them ask merlin the enchanter what moves i should make in that game of chess that, for half my lifetime, i have been playing with king connal.”
when king manus said this the last binding was taken off eean and off bird-of-gold, and they went to him and they kissed his hands. eean promised that they would bring the horses back to the stable, and he promised, too, that he would ask merlin about the moves in the game of chess, and would bring back the answer to the king.
in the middle of it all, one of the stewards came to the king, and said there was one in the palace who knew the youth eean and who could not be withheld from coming to him. as they were speaking about him, he came into the supper room, an old man, whom they all recognized as the one[pg 127] who watched before the door of the king’s chamber, to prevent those who came with requests that might not be granted being brought before the king.
he went straight to where eean stood, and holding up a torch he looked upon him. he no sooner looked than he cried out, “it is he—indeed, indeed it is he!” and eean, his hands grasping the old man, said, “it is anluan! it is my father!”
then it was told to eean how anluan had left the nets of a fisherman after his son had gone with zabulun as his apprentice; and it was told, too, how he had come to the palace, and how he had been made the officer at the king’s doorway on account of his extraordinary patience, a patience that he had learned when he handled the net, and that wore out the most insistent of those who came with requests to the king.
there was much rejoicing over the meeting between eean and his father anluan. then anluan turned to her whose hand eean held, to bird-of-gold, and having wept over her he began to ques[pg 128]tion her about her accomplishments. it was at this point that the stewards took anluan away, for the pair had now to make ready for their ride to that part of the western island that merlin’s island came near to on the mid day of summer which would be the morrow of that very night. refreshments were given them at the king’s table, the newest of meats and the oldest of wines, and they went out of the hall, and they mounted the horses that the grooms of king manus now brought out for them, eean taking the white horse, and bird-of-gold the red horse. a bound and a bound, and the white and the red started off, spurning the cobblestones of the courtyard, riding toward their meeting with that enchanter who would give them freedom from zabulun, merlin, the enchanter of the isle of britain.
