THE KING OF ELFLAND’S DAUGHTER
“He follows the quest,” he said.
Whither?” they asked.
“To the North,” he said. “He seeks for Elfland still.”
“Why have you left him?” they asked.
“I lost the hope,” he said.
They questioned him no more then, for all men knew that to seek for Elfland one needed a strong hope, and without it one saw no gleam of the Elfin Mountains, serene with unchanging blue. And then the mother of Niv came running up. “Is it indeed Vand?” she said. And they all said “Yes, it is Vand.”
And while they murmured together about Vand, and of how years and wandering had changed him, she said to him, “Tell me of my son.” And Vand replied “He leads the quest. There is none whom my master trusts more.” And they all wondered, and yet they had no cause for wonder, for it was a mad quest.
But Niv’s mother alone did not wonder. “I knew he would,” she said. “I knew he would.” And she was filled with a great content.
There are events and seasons to suit the mood of every man, though few indeed could have suited the crazed mood of Niv, yet there came Alveric’s quest of Elfland, and so Niv found his work.
And talking in the late evening with Vand the folk of Erl heard tales of many camps, many marches, a
