It was an exciting ride for Arbros and Vidnî, who had never travelled further than five miles from Uxul, nor ridden a beast bigger than a donkey. They passed through plains and woods and low hills, and sometimes Rauno told them the names of these places, but it was hard to take it all in. After a few days, they were upon the great eastern road, approaching that great waymark, Mar Ratholmen, carved by the hands of the giants of old. And here they took shelter, for wintry rain had set in. The children marvelled at the great dome above them. Rauno said:
‘We shall abide here a while. It is not very homelike, but we can make a warm camp in one corner. If I mistake not, we shall see friends before many days — and a very dolorous sight.’
Vidnî asked:
‘Are they like you, the friends?’
‘Yes, young lass, I hope we shall see the very Entellári who came to your town, with some more of those maidens, who have been on an errand to my land: they were the ones who sent me to Uxul.’
Arbros asked:
‘And what will be a very dolorous sight?’
‘Father Ingos, the shepherd of the Hyûvandri, has fallen into accursed ice-sleep. The Entelláka maidens will bring him here, and we will go with him on the path to his long home.’
Vidnî said:
‘That sounds very sad.’
‘Yes, lass, sad for all good dwellers in the Midworld. But there is also hope. You are that hope. You were Ilgurath Apsu, the Children of the Well, but now you are Ilgurath Aphtu, the Children of Hope.’
‘We are? How can this be?’
‘We Entellári live no longer in large numbers in the Midworld, in Thrâyeldim, Sorular, Tesdámo, as we call it. But to complete all our past labours we will make a city and a realm for Ingos’s children. And you will be the first to dwell in it.’
The children were astonished, though in truth they could scarcely comprehend this promise.
‘Please tell us about Ingos. Ketumar said that our fathers talked about him, but we had never seen him, and he did not believe that he existed.’
So when they were seated by their camp fire, Rauno began to tell them about the first circle of time when the world was new, of the Doitherúna who came as Guardians, the envy of Negobith who wanted to become the wisest being of all, and his incitement of strife among the Guardians, and how Ingos came at this time to prepare the way for the rest of the Hyûvandri, and of Negobith’s hatred of the Hyûvandri, and how Ingos overcame Negobith and caused him to be bound in Ombros by the Great Runes of Binding until the power and realm of the Giants should end, so that he could meddle no more with the Hyûvandri; but the strife he had sown among Gangri, Kabadri, and the other nyandri continued to fester and to break out; and even the Entellári were now tragically divided, the Elestia in the west from the Hyilavúna in the east, though what was the occasion and effect of this division, Rauno would not say. And he told how from among the Hyûvandri arose the Valkari, the witch-folk of Nanór, and how Negobith came like a Hyûvanya to Murnag ta-Valka, chief woman of the witch-folk, and had by her two sons, Prâmiz and Groiznath; how Prâmiz stole some of the star-fire and was bound by the Entellári, and Groiznath made a surprise assault on the Round Halls of Kapgar Kûm, and how he was captured and enchanted into the shape of a demon haunting the Forest of Farangrim.
And all these tales of bygone times made the children drowsy, and they slept soundly until the next morning.
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