The Hound of Ulster by Rosemary Sutcliff

to sit beside my hearth,’ he said.
    And then he turned full southward and looked out beyond, over the wide green plains of Bregia. ‘Tell me the names of all the places that we can see.’
    And Laeg pointed out to him Tara that was empty now ofthe High Kings, and Teltin, and Brugh-Na-Boyna, and the great D Å« n of the Sons of Nechtan.
    â€˜Nechtan,’ Cuchulain said when he heard the name. ‘Are they the Sons of Nechtan of whom it is said that among them they have slain more Ulster men than are now living on the earth?’
    â€˜They are so,’ said Laeg.
    â€˜Then to visit the Sons of Nechtan we will go.’
    Laeg looked at him, frowning his sandy brows. ‘Do not play too rashly with this fire for the furze of Connacht. We are but two, and the Sons of Nechtan are many.’
    â€˜Nevertheless, I have a mind to visit them,’ Cuchulain said, playing a little with the great war spear in his hand.
    And so they drove with the swiftness of a scudding storm down through Murthemney and into Bregia, and it would have been three days’ journey to any horses save those of Cuchulain’s, with any charioteer save Laeg.
    Now before the D Å« n of the Sons of Nechtan was a wide green meadow on which the young men were wont to race their chariots and to practise the arts of war. And in the midst of the meadow stood a tall pillar stone worn smooth by the multitude of weapons that had been sharpened on it, and about the shaft of the stone was a bronze collar on which showed the word-signs of the Ogham script. And when Cuchulain had dismounted from the chariot and gone closer, he found that it set upon any stranger who should read it the geise that he should not depart again without meeting in single combat one of the seven brothers who were the lords of the D Å« n.
    Then he laughed. ‘Surely there is no need of this stone and its message, for it bids me to do the very thing that brought me here!’ and laughing still, he flung his arms round the greatstone and began to wrestle with it as though it were a living thing, heaving it to and fro until it came at last clear out of the earth into his arms. And then he flung it into the river that ran close below the D Å« n.
    Laeg, who had sprung down to stand at the horses’ heads, cried out to him, ‘You fool, Cuchulain! To go seeking adventure is one thing, but to go with both hands open, begging for a violent death, is another; and now you will surely find what you seek!’
    The words were scarce out of his mouth before Foill the eldest son of Nechtan came striding down from the gate, just as he was, in a ram skin buckled with gold about his waist and no weapon in his hand. ‘That was discourteously done!’ he said. ‘For what reason do you throw the pillar stone of my house into the river?’
    â€˜For a challenge, according to the words upon the collar.’
    â€˜All that is needful is to strike with the spear blade upon the stone,’ Foill said with contempt. ‘But I do not slay boys, even boys with the strength and foolishness to overthrow my pillar stone!’
    â€˜No, I know that you kill men—all the men of Ulster whose backs are to your spear! Now go and fetch out your weapons, for
I
slay neither drivers nor messengers nor unarmed men!’
    Then Foill seemed to grow taller, and the brown hairs at his beard curled upward as though each hair had an angry life of its own. ‘For that insult I will indeed fetch out my weapons,’ he said deep in his throat as the snarl of a wolf, and turned and strode back towards the gates of his D Å« n.
    â€˜Now what is to be done?’ Laeg growled when he was gone. ‘Did your nurse never tell you when she danced you on her knee, that Foill Son of Nechtan is proofed by magic spellsagainst the edge or point of any blade? Not Lugh’s bright spear itself can pierce his hide.’
    â€˜But this may,’ Cuchulain said, and he