song and in him until there was no Brigitta left, only an-
other one who was fulfilled as 'a field sown with grain is
fulfilled, ready to bring forth an abundant harvest.
In the clan house Lugaid edged back into the shadows.
His body swayed slightly to right and left; his features
were mask-like, without expression. He might have been
concentrating with his whole being on something he heard,
14 Andre Norton
or sensed or imagined. But with -that concentration was a
growing bewilderment. It was as if a man who each day
passed some long-ruined temple of a faceless, forgotten
god, suddenly heard from within that desolate sanctuary a
summons to a worship old beyond the memory of any
man.
Then bewilderment became exultation. The mask of
Lugaid's face broke and he was like one who, after years
of aridity from serving a lost cause, had been proved the
victor in truth. His hands folded over the spiral on his
breast, he whispered words in a tongue not of the tower
town which held him, nor of the Roman state which had
been torn into nothing, but a language far older than either.
La these latter days the words were largely meaningless
even to those very few who still learned them as part of a
discredited ancient belief.
Above, Brigitta smiled, crooned, stretched her arms to
embrace him who stood in her dreams. And over the
chief's hold the flying thing began a slow downward flight.
Swooping through the roof opening, it unerringly found the
inner door of the chamber in which the girl lay.
Within the cave the installations hummed to a high
pitch and then began to sink again, almost drowsily, as
though some beast had used its powers to the uttermost
and must now rest to recoup its strength. But in that other
distant crag there was no ceasing of outward flow. The
beam signal strengthened, searched out farther and far-
ther, a finger crooking into space to draw down aid in the
old, old war.
Lugaid's eyes were open, fixed on the door of Brigitta's
chamber. He could only guess a small portion of what had
happened there this night, and of that he would say noth-
ing until he was sure. But he drew a deep breath of won-
der that such a thing could happen in these troubled days.
The gods had long since withdrawn, yet it would seem
