Then said the Friend: ‘She shall have the token that she craveth, and it is I that shall give it to her.’
Therewith she took from her finger a ring wherein was set a very fair changeful mountain-stone, and gave it to him, and said:
‘Thou shalt give her this and tell her whence thou hadst it; and tell her that I bid her remember that To-morrow is a new day.’
CHAPTER XX. THOSE TWO TOGETHER HOLD THE RING OF THE EARTH-GOD.
And now they fell silent both of them, and sat hearkening the sounds of the Dale, from the whistle of the plover down by the water-side to the far-off voices of the children and maidens about the kine in the lower meadows. At last Gold-mane took up the word and said:
‘Sweet friend, tell me the uttermost of what thou would’st have of me. Is it not that I should stand by thee and thine in the Folk-mote of the Dalesmen, and speak for you when ye pray us for help against your foemen; and then again that I do my best when ye and we are arrayed for battle against the Dusky Men? This is easy to do, and great is the reward thou offerest me.’
‘I look for this service of thee,’ she said, ‘and none other.’
‘And when I go down to the battle,’ said he, ‘shalt thou be sorry for our sundering?’
She said: ‘There shall be no sundering; I shall wend with thee.’
Said he: ‘And if I were slain in the battle, would’st thou lament me?’