He took her back to his own Kingdom, and there, as King and Queen they still live. But the name she bears is not Sheen or Storm now. Two sons more were born to her. But her seven brothers are still seven wild geese, and the Queen has found no trace of her first-born son. But the Spae-Woman has had a dream, and the dream has revealed this to her: the Son that Sheen lost is in the world, and if the maiden who will come to love him, will give seven drops of her heart’s blood, the Queen’s seven brothers will regain their human forms.
“So that is the Unique Tale,” said the Old Woman of Beare. “If you ever find out what went before it and what comes after it come back here and tell it to me. But I don’t think you’ll get the rest of it,” said she, “seeing that the two of you weren’t able to count the horns outside.” She went on talking and talking, Gilly and the King’s Son hearing what she said when she spoke in a sudden high voice, and not hearing when she murmured on as if talking to the ashes or to the pot or to the corncrake, the cuckoo or the swallow that were picking grains off the floor. “If you see Laheen the Eagle again, or Blackfoot the Elk or the Crow of Achill tell them to come and visit me sometime. I’m all alone here except for my swallow and cuckoo and corncrake. And mind you, great Kings and Princes used to come to see me.” So she went on talking in low tones and in sudden high tones.
“You must come with me and help me to get the rest of the Unique Tale,” said the King of Ireland’s Son. “That I’ll do,” said Gilly of the Goatskin. “But I must get a name first.
“Old Mother,” said he, to the Old Woman of Beare. “You must now give me a name.”
“I’ll give you a name,” said the Old Woman of Beare, “but you must stand before me and strip off the goatskin that covers you.”
Gilly pulled at the strings and the goatskin fell on the ground. The Old Woman of Beare nodded her head. “You have the stars on your breast that denote the Son of a King,” she said.
“The Son of a King—me!” said Gilly of the Goatskin. “You have the stars on your breast,” said the Old Woman of Beare.
Gilly looked at himself and saw the three stars on his breast. “If I am the Son of a King I never knew it until now,” he said.
“You are the son of a King,” said the Old Woman of Beare, “and I will give you a name when you come back to me. But I want you, first of all, to find out what happened to the Crystal Egg.”
“The Crystal Egg!” said Gilly in great surprise.