Long, long after Fedelma had been taken by the King of the Land of Mist
the King of Ireland's Son came out of his slumber.
He thought that the Enchanter of the Black Back-Lands had followed them and had taken Fedelma from him. He turned to go toward the Enchanter's country and then he found what Fedelma had written upon the ground in Ogham letters
He did not know what direction to take to get to the
dominion of the King of the Land of Mist. He crossed
the broken ground and he found no trace of Fedelma
nor of him who had taken her. He found himself close
to the Wood of Shadows. He went through it. As he
went on he saw scores and scores of shadows. Nothing
else was in the woodno bird, no squirrel, no cricket.
The shadows had the whole wood to themselves.
He thought he heard them whispering together. Then one little shadow with trailing legs went slowly from tree to tree. The King of Ireland's Son thought he would catch and hold a shadow and make it tell him where he should go to find the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist.
He went after one shadow and another and waited beside a tree for one to come.
Often he thought he saw the small old man with the beard and
the little creature with trailing legs. And then he began to see
other shadowsmen with the heads of rooks and men with
queer heavy swords upon their shoulders. He followed them on and on
through the wood and he heard their whispering becoming louder
He went on and came to a stream within the wood and he went against its flow all night as well as all day, hoping to meet some living thing that would tell him how he might come to the dominion of the King of the Land of Mist. In the forenoon of another day he came to where the wood grew thin and then he went past the last trees.
He saw a horse grazing: he ran up to it and found that it was the Slight Red Steed that had carried Fedelma and himself from the house of the Enchanter. Then as he laid hold of the steed a hound ran up to him and a hawk flew down and he saw that they were the hawk and the hound that used to be with him when he rode abroad from his father's Castle.
He mounted and seeing his hound at his heel and his hawk circling above he felt a longing to go back to his father's Castle which he knew to be near and where he might find out where the King of the Land of Mist had his dominion.
So the King of Ireland's Son rode back to his father's Castle
His hound at his heel,
His hawk on his wrist.