“Thou saidst seven days,” said Juss. “Snap thy fingers and call up thy armies. I’ll delay thee not an hour.”
“Ay, but I mean to Carcë,” said he.
“To Carcë, whither else?” said Juss. “But I’ll take my brother Goldry with us.”
“But I mean first to Carcë,” said Brandoch Daha. “Let my opinion sway thee once. Why, a schoolboy should tell thee, clear thy flank and rear ere thou go forward.”
Juss smiled. “I love this new garb of caution, cousin,” said he; “it doth most prettily become thee. I question though whether this be not the true cause: that Corinius took not up thy challenge last summer, but let it lie, and that hath left thee hungry still.”
Brandoch Daha looked him sidelong in the eye, and laughed. “O Juss,” he said, “thou hast touched me near. But ’tis not that. That was in the weird that bright lady laid on me, in the sparrow-hawk castle in Impland forlorn: that he I held most in hate should ruin my fair lordship, and that to my hand should vengeance be denied. That I e’en must brook. O no. Think only, delays are dangerous. Come, be advised. Be not mulish.”
But the Lord Juss’s face was grave. “Urge me no more, dear friend,” said he. “Thou sleep’st soft. But to me, when I am cast in my first sleep, cometh many a time the likeness of Goldry Bluszco, held by a maleficial charm on the mountain top of Zora Rach, that standeth apart, out of the sunlight, out of all sound or warmth of life. Long ago I made vow to turn neither to the right nor to the left, until I set him free.”
“He is thy brother,” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “Also is he mine own familiar friend, whom I love scarce less than thee. But when thou speakest of oaths, remember there’s La Fireez too. What shall he think on us after our oaths to him three years ago, that night in Carcë? Yet this one blow should right him too.”
“He will understand,” said Juss.
“He is to come with Gaslark, and thou told’st me thou dost e’en now expect them,” said Brandoch Daha. “I’ll leave you. I cannot for shame say to him, ‘Patience, friend, truly ’tis not to-day convenient. Thou shalt be paid in time.’ By heavens, I’d scorn to entreat my mantle-maker so. And this our friend that lost all and languisheth in exile because he saved our lives.”