mainly because the older lads had left him to scramble up
the roughest way. But as he rounded one pinnacle he for-
got the sheep he sought and those waiting below.
Like a sleepwalker he veered to the right where there
was a small opening, hardly large enough for his small,
wiry body to wedge into. The fall of rock which had half
sealed the cave had occurred not too long ago, but it was
an effective screen and Myrddin might not have discov-
ered the crevice at all if that sudden compulsion had not
taken charge of his mind, drawn his body toward it.
He wriggled through the hole to find himself in a much
larger passage whose outer limits were dim, because the
only light came from the crack through which he had
20 Andre Norton
squirmed. No sense of fear touched him; he was filled in-
stead with a strange and growing excitement, as if some-
thing wonderful lay fust beyond, meant only for him.
So he marched on into the dark unafraid, only impatient
to find what he knew must lie there. But, as he drew away
from the entrance, he was surprised to discover that
there was a pale sort of radiance around him, stretching
three or four of his short strides ahead, as if he were
wearing a giant cloak of light. Nor did that discovery
seem in the least strange. Something deep in his mind wel-
comed it as a nearly forgotten bit of knowledge.
He knew the tale about him, that his father was of the
Sky People. And from Lugaid he had learned more, that
far, far back in time men had often come from the sky
and the women of earth had borne sons and daughters to
them. Those sons and daughters had had certain gifts and
knowledge which men had never had and which had been
forgotten when the Sky People came no more and their
blood thinned through earth interbreeding. Few men be-
lieved in them anymore, and Lugaid had cautioned
Myrddin that this was a story which he must keep to him-
self, until by his deeds he could indeed prove his heritage.
Lugaid also said that unless the boy could leam by himself
what the Old Ones knew he would be helpless, for
nowhere on earth was there now any teacher of more
than vague shadows of this forgotten lore.
There remained a part of Myrddin that was of Brigitta's
giving and that shrank within him, lonely and lost, unable
to make contact with those about him. He thought a lot
