lames dazzled
and smoke dazed her. But the figure before her went straight on and
Sheen went straight on too.

The forest ended on a cliff. Below was the sea. The figure before her
dived down and Sheen dived too. The cold chilled her to the marrow. She
thought the chill would drive the life out of her. But she saw the head
of one swimming before her and she swam on.

And then they were on land again. "Fair Maid," said the corpse of the
Hunter-King, "put your hands on my shoulders again." She put her hands
on his shoulders. A storm came and swept them away. They were driven
through the roof of the neighbor-woman's house. The candle-wicks
fluttered and light came on them again. She saw the hound standing in
the middle of the floor. She saw the corpse sitting where it had been
laid and the eyes were now open.

"Fair Maid," said the voice of the Hunter-King, "you have brought me
back to life. I am a man under enchantment. There is a witch-woman in
the wood that I gave my love to. She enchanted me so that the soul was
out of my body, and wandering away. It was my soul you followed. And the
enchantment was to be broken when I found a heart so faithful that it
would follow my soul over the Quaking Bog, through the Burning Forest
and across the Icy Sea. You have brought my soul and my life back to
me."

Then she ran out of the neighbor's house. The night after, in the
Spae-Woman's house she finished weaving the threads that were on the
loom. The next night she stitched the cloth and made the sixth shirt.
The day after she went into the bog to gather the bog-down for the
seventh shirt. She had gathered her basketful and was going through the
wood about the hour of sunset. At the edge of the thin wood she saw the
Hunter-King standing. He took her hands and his were warm hands. His
brown face and his gentian-blue eyes were high and noble. And Sheen
felt a joy like the sharpness of a sword when he sang to her about the
brightness of her hair and the blue of her eyes. "O Maid," said he,
"is there anything that binds you to this place?" Sheen showed him the
bog-down in the basket and the woven thread that was round her neck.
"Come with me to my kingdom," said he, "and you shall be my wife and the
love of my heart." The next evening Sheen went with him. She took the
six shirts she had spun and woven and stitched. The Hunter-King lifted
her before him on a black horse and they rode into his Kingdom.

And now Sheen was the wife