hed and
dark from the hands of many men that had sat at it. Boar spears hung on
the wall, great antlers and boar's tusks and, carved in the oak of the
wall and again on a high, dark chair that stood at the end of the long
table empty, a crown with oak leaves that Rodriguez recognised. It was
the same as the one that was cut on his gold coin, which he had given
no further thought to, riding to Lowlight, and which the face of
Serafina had driven from his mind altogether. "But," he said, and then
was silent, thinking to learn more by watching than by talking. And his
companions of the road came in and all sat down on the benches beside
the ample table, and a brew was brought, a kind of pale mead, that they
called forest water. And all drank; and, sitting at the table, watching
them more closely than he could as he walked in the forest, Rodriguez
saw by the sunlight that streamed in low through one window that on the
copper disks they wore round their necks on green ribbon the design was
again the same. It was much smaller than his on the gold coin but the
same strange leafy crown. "Wear it as you go through Shadow Valley," he
now seemed to remember the man saying to him who put it round his neck.
But why? Clearly because it was the badge of this band of men. And this
other man was one of them.

His eyes strayed back to the great design on the wall. "The crown of
the forest," said Miguel as he saw his eyes wondering at it, "as you
doubtless know, senor."

Why should he know? Of course because he bore the design himself. "Who
wears it?" said Rodriguez.

"The King of Shadow Valley."

Morano was without curiosity; he did not question good drink; he sat at
the table with a cup of horn in his hand, as happy as though he had
come to his master's castle, though that had not yet been won.

The sun sank under the oaks, filling the hall with a ruddy glow,
turning the boar spears scarlet and reddening the red faces of the
merry men of the bow.

A dozen of the men went out; to relieve the guard in the forest, Miguel
explained. And Rodriguez learned that he had come through a line of
sentries without ever seeing one. Presently a dozen others came in from
their posts and unslung their bows and laid them on pegs on the wall
and sat down at the table. Whereat there were whispered words and they
all rose and bowed to Rodriguez. And Rodriguez had caught the words "A
prince of the forest." What did it mean?

Soon the long hall grew d