"No, Doom," she would answer to his pleadings. "This is not a task for you. You are to stay here and guard me, and look after the cattle and be my man."
Then, Doom would hug and kiss her, while Raymond went out to walk in the moonlight with Walling and the hounds till his heart beat more slowly and the blood desire left him; for lull well he realized the thing that must be done and eager he was to do it, knowing he would never rest till it was done.
Thus the twinlings came to their manhood, but Doom remained small, like a little child. That winter Walling, the house carl, came to his ending and Raymond laid him in a dry cave, setting at his feet a jug of wine. Within a few weeks the woman said to her giant son, "The time that your father and I dreamed of years ago has come."
"I cannot leave you in your sickness and age," he demurred.
Doom heard them talking. That night, after she slept, he crept to her couch, kissed her hand gently, and went out into the night. All that night he walked slowly, guided by the light of the moon; when morning. came he paused on the heather to eat bread and cheese. There he was joined by a little dark man. "My little lad, what is your name and what brings you out on these mountains all alone?" he asked.
"I am not a little lad," replied Doom, "for I am now of age and therefore a man. My name is Doom, son of Raymond the Golden of the House of Hubtlaires, and I am going to avenge the murder of my father and his people, who were so foully put to death by the Rathlings before I was born."
“How can you do that? There are so many of them and you are but one."
“That is true, yet I am the only one to do it. There are but three of us, my mother, and my brother Raymond, and me. Brother had to stay with Mother, for she is not strong and needs his care, so I left them. Though I am only one, somehow I will find a way to accomplish that which must be done."
"Since you are so determined," the little man replied, “I will help you. There are other ways of fighting than with the sword or battle axe." Then very slowly he explained how Doom, though small, could accomplish that which he desired. After saying his say, he vanished.
Raymond was puzzled by the absence of his brother but nourished his failing mother, tended the fire and cared for the cattle. She now spent all her days before the fire, never speaking of the desire that was uppermost in her heart. In a few weeks she slept away and her son placed her by the side of Walling. At her feet he placed some golden curls that she, cherishing, had cared for during many weary years. Then he loosed the cattle, put his harness on, with sword in belt, and started on the path to do that which needed to be done.
Biding time, as the moon was not yet full, he stopped at the place where the Hubelaires had died and, gathering the bones, piled them before the altar and covered them with rocks. All that day he went foodless, praying to the only gods he wot of. Then by night, calm and certain of the ending of this adventure, he went to the great house and hid on the thatched roof, parting the rushes so he could overlook the hall and the banquet table, and here he stayed.
Once again, at the Spring Festival, the Rathlings were gathered in the great hall, and counting all, from Sardain the King down to the newest suckling, there were few over two hundred souls; and. there were no more, for lacking other enemies they had fought now and then, these twenty-two years, among themselves. This week they were at peace and all gathered for three days of feasting and drinking. Carefully through the years they had saved three firkins of wine, grown old in the cellars of the house.
After much drinking the first night many of the men and all the women and younglings were drunk, so Raymond bit his thumb and waited. Early on the second night Sardain commanded that the three old firkins be brought from the wine vault and that all should drink from them. He said that it was the wine of their enemies, and he boasted that he had combined with it the blood of Raymond the Golden, who, dying, had been bled like a pig. Hubelaire wine savored by rich red blood of the last of their enemeis! And once again he commanded that all should drink and that wine should be poured into the mouths of even the smallest ones. This was done as he had ordered, and soon most of the Rathlings tell asleep.
Then the yellow-haired giant on the roof knew that his hour had come. Sliding to the ground he entered the Great Hall, and none stopped him or gave him pause. He walked to the throne of King Sardain. The King looked from him to the skull from which he had just drunk, and so great a fear overcame him that he died.
Inside the hall all was quiet, while outside a wolfhound whined and ran from that place with terror at his haunches.
Then, from the shadows, came a little twisted shape and slipping quietly toward the golden-haired man, fell at his feet with arms around his legs and cried. Raymond picked up the little one and held him close as a mother would her babe. "Oh, Doom, where have you been and what have you done?” he asked.
"Oh, Raymond, my twinling, I feared for you," the little one spoke between sobs. "And one against so many was not right. He was my father, Raymond, as well as yours. If anything happened to me I could be spared better than you, and you had to stay and care for Mother. So I came here, to do that which had to be done."
Raymond but held him tighter, as he crooned over him. "Oh, Doom, my little, gentle brother! How could you be so brave and how came you all the way, over the mountain and through the Mist? What did you do? For it seems to me they are all dead. Even the babies have fallen to the floor. Oh, Mother! I did not know it would be like this when I swore! What did you do, Doom? What did you do?"
The little one made no answer but pleaded to be carried from that place of death. Raymond took up his father's skull and wrapped it in the gown that the damsel had worn that night a golden lad had sung to her, and placed it carefully in his wallet. Carrying the little one in one arm and his naked sword in his right hand he walked around the great hall, but there was no need of the sword, for Death had breathed on all the Rathlings.
Raymond carried the sleeping Doom into the pure air and went his way back to Mistland. After resting and caring for the cattle, he took the gown and what was wrapped in it and laid it at the feet of his sleeping mother.
Then he built a currach in which he determined to sail across the Hungry Sea to Cornwall and recover the treasures of his family, long hid in the Castle of the Hubelaires. He had the parchment showing where it was secreted, and remembered well all that Walling had told him concerning these weapons used by the great Hubelaires in past years. But when he and Doom eased the currach from the shore, a strong wind blew from the north and after some days they landed on the cost of Armorica. Then Raymond knew that the gods bad decreed that this adventure was not tor him but that some other Hubelaire would, in the years to come, sail to Cornwall and recover the treasure.
In Armorica Raymond became great and married the daughter of a Prince and established a little principality in the dark forest; and this land he called Walling, in memory of the house carl. Babies were born to Raymond and his lovely wile and they were cared tor and loved by little, twisted Doom.
Raymond locked the Book in a wooden chest.
Many years passed. Then one night Lord Raymond, beset by memories and compulsion, took the Book from out the chest. Never once had be opened it since his mother had dosed it, but now he could no longer withhold the story from his grandchildren.