ns
flew back and attacked them again and the King of Ireland's Son fought
them until his hands were wearied. He mounted the steed again, and they
rode swiftly on. And the ravens came the third time and attacked them
more fiercely than before. The King's Son fought them until he had
killed all but three and until he was covered with their blood and
feathers.

The three that had escaped flew away. "Oh, mount the Slight Red Steed
and let us ride fast," said Fedelma to the King's Son.

"I am filled with weariness," he said. "Bid the steed stay by the rock,
lay my sword at my side, and let me sleep with my head on your lap."

"I fear for us both if you slumber here," said Fedelma.

"I must sleep, and I pray that you let me lay my head on your lap."

"I know not what would awaken you if you slumber here."

"I will awaken," said the King's Son, "but now I must sleep, and I would
slumber with my head on your lap."

She got down from the Slight Red Steed and she bade it stay by a rock;
she put his sword by the place he would sleep and she took his head upon
her lap. The King's Son slept.

As she watched over him a great fear grew in Fedelma. Every hour she
would say to him, "Are you near waking, my dear, my dear?" But no flush
of waking appeared on the face of the King of Ireland's Son.

Then she saw a man coming across the nameless place, across the broken
ground, with its dead grass and black rocks and with its roots and
stumps of trees. The man who came near them was taller than any man she
had seen before--he was tall as a tree. Fedelma knew him from what she
had heard told about him--she knew him to be the King of the Land of
Mist.

The King of the Land of Mist came straight to them. He stood before
Fedelma and he said, "I seek Fedelma, the daughter of the Enchanter of
the Black Back-Lands and the fairest woman within the seas of Eirinn."

"Then go to her father's house and seek Fedelma there," said she to him.

"I have sought her there," said the King of the Land of Mist, "but she
left her father's house to go with the King of Ireland's Son."

"Then seek her in the Castle of the King of Ireland," said Fedelma.

"That I will not. Fedelma is here, and Fedelma will come with me," said
the King of the Land of Mist.

"I will not leave him with whom I am plighted," said Fedelma.

Then the King of the Land of Mist took up the King of Ireland's Son.
High he held him--higher than a tree grows. "I will dash him dow