do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?"

"Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means I
can't say."

Sullenbode laughed outright. "It assuredly does not mean the
approach of night."

Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
broke in. "The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I'll go
on alone."

"No, we'll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us."

"A little way," said the woman, "but not to Adage, to pit my strength
against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know how to
renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it."

"Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang
is as ignorant as myself."

Corpang looked him full in the face. "Maskull, you are quite well
aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of
a beautiful woman."

Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. "What Corpang doesn't tell you,
Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than
he, and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be
saying his prayers in Threal."