hey were atop of the scree
it was harder yet to get them down, for on that side it was steeper;
but at last they brought it about, and came down into a little grassy
plain or isle in the rock sea, which narrowed toward the eastern end,
and the rocks on either side were smooth and glossy, as if the heat had
gone out of them suddenly, when the earth-fires had ceased in the
mountains.

Now the Sage showed them on a certain rock a sign cut, whereof they had
learned in the book aforesaid, to wit, a sword crossed by a
three-leaved bough; and they knew by the book that they should press on
through the rock-sea nowhere, either going or returning, save where
they should see this token.

Now when they came to the narrow end of the plain they found still a
wide way between the rock-walls, that whiles widened out, and whiles
drew in again. Whiles withal were screes across the path, and little
waters that ran out of the lava and into it again, and great blocks of
fallen stone, sometimes as big as a husbandman's cot, that wind and
weather had rent from the rocks; and all these things stayed them
somewhat. But they went on merrily, albeit their road winded so much,
that the Sage told them, when evening was, that for their diligence
they had but come a few short miles as the crow flies.

Many wild things there were, both beast and fowl, in these islands and
bridges of the rock-sea, hares and conies to wit, a many, and
heathfowl, and here and there a red fox lurking about the crannies of
the rock-wall. Ralph shot a brace of conies with his Turk bow, and
whereas there were bushes growing in the chinks, and no lack of whin
and ling, they had firing enough, and supped off this venison of the
rocks.

So passed that day and two days more, and naught befell, save that on
the midnight of the first day of their wending the rock-sea, Ralph
awoke and saw the sky all ablaze with other light than that of the
moon; so he arose and went hastily to the Sage, and took him by the
shoulder, and bid him awake; "For meseems the sky is afire, and
perchance the foe is upon us."

The Sage awoke and opened his eyes, and rose on his elbow and looked
around sleepily; then he said laughing: "It is naught, fair lord, thou
mayst lie down and sleep out the remnant of the night, and thou also,
maiden: this is but an earth-fire breaking out on the flank of the
mountains; it may be far away hence. Now ye see that he may not scale
the rocks about us here wit