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wish, Solfinna." snapped Kildas. "A pool of tears as deep as the sea will not change the future."
     
    Solfinna started, as if that voice, whip-sharp, was indeed a thong laid about her hunched shoulders. And I think that Kildas then took shame, for she said in a softer voice:
     
    "Thank you-this was a free choice for you. Thus are you the greater than the rest of us. And since you believe in prayer, do you not also believe that right and good come to just rewards, even if there must be a time of waiting?"
     
    "You choose to come?" I asked.
     
    "It-it was a way to help." Solfinna paused and then spoke more firmly, "You are right, Kildas. To do a thing because it is right, and then to bewail the doing because one fears, throws away all that one must believe in. Yet I would give much to see my lady mother, and my sisters and Wasscot Keep once again. And never shall I."
     
    "Would that not also be so in regular marriage?" Kildas asked with a gentleness she had not shown before. "If you had been betrothed to lord or Captain of the south Dales, there would have been no returning."
     
    "So do I remember. To that thought I hold." Solfinna said quickly. "We are betrothed, in truth. We go to our weddings. It is as it had been for womenkind for untold years. And for my going so, those left behind gain much. Yet the Riders-"
     
    "Look upon this though, also. Test it in your mind." I said. "These Riders so wanted wives that they set up a war bargain to gain them. And when a man so much wants a thing that he will gamble his life to its gaining, then I think once it is in his hands he will cherish and hold it in no little esteem."
     
    Solfinna turned to look at me more closely. Her red-rimmed eyes blinked as if she would focus them upon me for keener sight. And I heard a little exclamation from Kildas, who urged her mount even closer.
     
    "Who are you?" she demanded with a force which disputed any denial. "You are not that wailing maid they carried from the hall last night!"
     
    Need I try to play the counterfeit with my fellows in the train? There was no great reason for that. Perhaps we were already past the point where Lord Imgry could make adequate protest.
     
    "You are right. I am not Marimme-"
     
    "Then who?" Kildas continued to press, while Solfinna watched me now with eyes rounded by astonishment.
     
    "I am Gillan, one who dwelt at the Abbey for some years. I have no kin and this is my free choice."
     
    "If you have no kin to compel you, nor to profit from your free choice." that was Solfinna her amazement now in her voice, "why do you come?"
     
    "Because, perhaps there are worse things than riding into an unknown future."
     
    "Worse things?" prompted Kildas.
     
    "Facing a future too well known."
     
    Solfinna drew back a little. "You have done that which-"
     
    "Which makes this the lesser choice of ill fate?" I laughed. "No, I leave no crimes behind me. But neither do I have any chance of life outside the Abbey-stead, and I am not of a nature to take veil and coif and be content with such a round, one day so like unto another, so that during the years they become just one endless series of hours none differing from its fore or following companion."
     
    Kildas nodded. "Yes, I think that could be so. But what will chance when he," she nodded towards Lord Imgry, "discovers the truth? He was set upon Marimme because of some project of his own. And he is not a man to be lightly baulked."
     
    "That I know. But there is this drive he has shown, a fear of passing time. He will not be able to return to Norstead and he is honour bound to furnish the full toll of brides."
     
    Again Kildas laughed. "You have a good way of thinking to a purpose, Gillan. I believe that both your weapons against him will serve."
     
    "You-you do not fear the-the wild men? You chose for yourself alone?" Solfinna asked.
     
    "I do not know about future fears. It is best not to see shadows on mountain crests while you still ride the valleys at