There the Sage bade Ralph and Ursula dismount
(as for him he had been going afoot ever since that first day)
and they led the horses up the said scree, which was a hard business,
as they were no mountain beasts. And when they were atop of the scree
it was harder yet to get them down, for on that side it was steeper;
but at last they brought it about, and came down into a little grassy
plain or isle in the rock sea, which narrowed toward the eastern end,
and the rocks on either side were smooth and glossy, as if the heat
had gone out of them suddenly, when the earth-fires had ceased
in the mountains.
Now the Sage showed them on a certain rock a sign cut, whereof they
had learned in the book aforesaid, to wit, a sword crossed by a
three-leaved bough; and they knew by the book that they should
press on through the rock-sea nowhere, either going or returning,
save where they should see this token.
Now when they came to the narrow end of the plain they found still a wide way
between the rock-walls, that whiles widened out, and whiles drew in again.
Whiles withal were screes across the path, and little waters that ran
out of the lava and into it again, and great blocks of fallen stone,
sometimes as big as a husbandman's cot, that wind and weather had
rent from the rocks; and all these things stayed them somewhat.
But they went on merrily, albeit their road winded so much, that the Sage
told them, when evening was, that for their diligence they had but come
a few short miles as the crow flies.
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