But he laughed back at them in triumph,
and set his foot on the step, and let Sleep-thorn's point go into the
throat of a Dusky lord, and thrust amongst them, hewing right and
left, and tumbling men over the edge of the stair, which was to them
as the narrow path along the cliff-side that hangeth over the
unfathomed sea. They hewed and thrust at him in turn; but so close
were they packed that their weapons crossed about him, and one
shielded him from the other, and they swayed staggering on that
fearful verge, while the Sleep-thorn crept here and there amongst
them, lulling their hot fury. For, as desperate as they were, and
fighting for death and not for life, they had a horror of him and of
the sea of hatred below them, and feared where to set their feet, and
he feared nought at all, but from feet to sword-point was but an
engine of slaughter, while the heart within him throbbed with fury
long held back as he thought upon the Bride and her wounding, and all
the wrongs of his people since their Great Undoing.
So he smote and thrust, till him-seemed the throng of foes thinned
before him: with his sword-pommel he smote a lord of the Dusky Ones
in the face, so that he fell over the edge amongst the spears of the
kindred; then he thrust the point of Sleep-thorn towards the Hall-
door through the breast of another, and then it seemed to him that he
had but one before him; so he hove up the edges to cleave him down,
but ere the stroke fell, close to his ears exceeding loud rang out
the cry, 'For the Burg and the Face! for the Face, for the Face!' and
he drew aback a little, and his eyes cleared, and lo! it was Hall-
face the tall, his long sword all reddened with battle; and beside
him stood Face-of-god, silent and panting, his face pale with the
fierce anger of the fight, and the weariness which was now at last
gaining upon him.
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