The Lad of the Gad by Alan Garner Read Free Book Online Page B

Warrior in the Wet Cloak, sprang towards him, and did not see the hole, and he went down into it to the covering of his britches.
    Then the Warrior of the Red Shield reached to him and threw off his head. He put his hand in the pouch, and he found the king’s three teeth in it, and he took them with him and returned to the castle.
    â€œMake a way for me for the leaving of this island,” he said to his three true foster-brothers, “as soon as you can.”
    â€œWe have no way by which you can leave,” they said. “Stay with us for ever, and you shall not want for meat and drink.”
    â€œUnless you make a way for me to go,” he said, “I shall take the heads and necks out of you.”
    â€œA coracle is here,” they said, “and we shall send it with you.”
    â€œHow shall I go in it?” he said.
    â€œThe side that you set the prow to, there it willgo,” they said, “and the coracle will come back here of itself. And there are three pigeons for you, to keep you company: and they, too, will return.”
    He set the coracle out beyond the flames of the island, turned the prow to the known, the stern to the unknown, and made no stay till he came again to his own shore.
    And if the coracle was quick in coming, it was quicker in going, and he set free the three pigeons as he left the strange country: and he was sorry that he had let them away, for the music that they had was beautiful.
    There was now a great river between the Warrior of the Red Shield and the king’s house.
    When he reached the bank, he saw an old man.
    â€œOh, sir, stay where you are,” said the old man, “until I take you over on my back, for fear the river should wet you.”
    â€œAre you the porter on the river?” said the Warrior of the Red Shield.
    â€œI am,” said the old man.
    â€œWho set you here?”
    â€œI shall tell you,” said the old man. “A warrior struck a fist on the king and drove out three teeth, and his two sons went to take vengeance. There went with them a foolish lad, a little young boy, that was son to me. And when they went to manhood, he went to faintness. It was a sorry thing for them to make me porter on the river for the sake of that.”
    â€œPoor man,” said the Warrior of the Red Shield, “that is no reproach. I myself was a lad before now. I shall not leave this town until you have justice.”
    The Warrior of the Red Shield seized and lifted the old man and set him sitting in the chair against the king’s shoulder.
    â€œAre you not silly?” said the Prince of Cairns. “To come to the town and to set that old wretch sitting at my father’s shoulder?”
    The Warrior of the Red Shield threw the Prince of Cairns against the earth and bound him straitly, painfully, and kicked him over the seven highest rafters that were in the hall, under the dripping of the torches and under the feet of dogs. And he did the same to the Prince of Blades.
    A treasure of a woman, seated by the king, gave a laugh.
    â€œDeath wrappings upon you,” said the king. “My two sons saved you from the island of fire, and you have been meat and drink companion to me for a year, and I never saw smile or laugh from you till now, when my sons are being disgraced.”
    â€œKing,” she said, “I have knowledge of my own.”
    â€œKing,” said the Warrior of the Red Shield, “what is the screech of a scream that I have heard ever since I came to the town?”
    â€œMy sons brought back three teeth,” said the king, “and they have been driving them into my head with a hammer every day for a year, until myhead has gone through other with heartbreak and torture and pain. I think that they are the teeth of a horse.”
    â€œWhat would you give to a man that would put your own teeth into your head without hurt and without pain?” said the Warrior of the Red Shield.
    â€œHalf my