Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/126

THE CHILDREN His mind was drowsed, and there was nothing to remind him of his quest. He would listen to the Nixie while she sat before him weaving rushes with her hands. Her words were mocking now, and she had laughter for Valentine. But now and again the memory of the Dark Forest would come back to him, and he would see himself going blindly through it, trying to find a way out of it—he would see himself, but it was as if he looked upon another.

Then, one day, he raised up the green moss, and he found his own bright sword. The thought that he had had in the Wood of Daylight-Gone, when he had held that sword up to the star that dangled in the sky, came back to him—the thought of winning his way through darkness and dangers with that sword in his hand.

He turned back the stone that shut the Chamber of Green Moss out from the water of the Nixie's pool. The water rushed in on him and beat on him until he was senseless almost. He pushed himself through the water and, panting,