22 Fourth DayThe dawn of the fourth day found the three wanderers well into Icenian territory. Now the oak forests had given way for the time being to undulating wold country, where the hawk hovered above the limestone outcrops that jutted, here and there, like the teeth of a lichened monster, and the wolf howled distantly from hidden caves.
Gemellus, unused to riding, walked ahead, leading the horse on which Eithne rode, mourning her brother. Duatha rode behind, his knees drawn up, his head bent. Dagda and Aba Garim had been his companions since he first took command of the troop of horse, and now they were gone, finished; he would see them no more.
Gemellus had lost no one; yet his grief was the most piercing of all, for he thought not of one person but of all the world. If these men o
