“I come from out the air; I am Viscol.[5] Wilt thou be mine, for I am thine equal?”
“Yea,” answered the maiden, as though in a dream. “I will be thine, for all time.”
But King Briar frowned, saying:
“And dost thou, indeed, love him already, my child? Have a care; for thou wilt not find happiness at his side, and he is not fitted for our people; he will ever be ranging far away over the skies and leaving thee alone, till thy men will refuse to serve thee. Child, child, it will come to a bad end, and thou wilt not be happy!”
“Happy or not, it is all alike to me, father. I cannot live without him; and I would rather be miserable with him than happy with another!”
With a deep sigh, the old King consented to her wish; but he cut short the promises and protestations of the youth with an impatient gesture of the hand.
“I will judge thee by thine actions,” he said curtly.
At first all went merrily enough; now Vijelia would ride through the heavens upon a cloud, and again, her husband would go forth with the flying stags. But the King often heard his men complain that there was much unrest in the land, and that the stranger had better never have come.
Presently, however, Vijelia began to stay much at home with her father, while her husband went rushing over the world. She spoke very little, and looked far sadder than she had done upon the day of her stoning. When she was asked where her husband was, she would hang her head and answer, “I know not;” or again, if inquiry were made when he was coming back, or when he would carry her forth with him upon the clouds, still the answer was, “I know not.”
And when he did return he was rough and violent, and the more humbly and quietly his young wife behaved, the more hardly he treated her.