Chapter LI.
OF TWO CITIES THAT WERE BUILDED DIVERSELY, AND HOW YWAIN AND AITHNE HEARD A HORN BLOWN OVERSEA FOR BATTLE.

THEN said Ywain: Doubtless your saying is true, and well have I proved the gift: yet I marvel notwithstanding, for a man may wonder in despite of knowledge. And there is one matter concerning which I am still perplexed. And Aithne said to him: Say on. And he said to her: I am perplexed between two verities: for there is one truth of Paladore and another of Aladore, and though they be diverse yet they both have by seeming the nature of truth veritable. And many times my mind is in doubt concerning them: for in our life that now is we come and go between two realms, and I would that I might know which of them shall outdure other.

And Aithne asked him: After what manner seem these verities to you? And he answered: O beloved, now am I with you in Aladore, and all things else and all men and all places are but as shadows cast by this our life, and we move them as we will, and as we will we take away their being. But when I am alone and dwelling yonder among men, then have those shadows truth of substance and of touch, and the life of Aladore becomes an image in the mind, as it was aforetime when I saw it as a cloud in heaven.

Then Aithne was silent a space, and fear came into her eyes: and afterwards she spoke suddenly and said: O my beloved, keep innocency, for to a child these things are plain. And you were a child this moment past, and I with you: and wherefore now should we cloud our wisdom with a doubt? And she rose up and said to him: Let us play a game together, as children that play upon the shore. For here is sand enough, and loneliness, and the tide returning: and we will build us two cities, and see which of the two shall best endure. And you shall build your city with your hands, and name it Paladore: and you shall make it in all things like to the city that you know, with a High Steep seaward, and a wall, and a gateway and towers thereon. And I also will make a city and name it Aladore, and I will make it after the same fashion, but not of the same substance: for I will not build it with hands but with a power of the spirit.

So Ywain took of the wet sand and of the dry, and he built him a great mound after the manner of children. And when he had made it strong then he carved it into the likeness of a city, with a high steep and a wall and towers thereon: and it stood upon the shore and looked out seaward, and he named it Paladore, for it was fashioned in no other wise, and the tide came running toward the edges of the steep.

Then Ywain said to Aithne: This is my city, O my playfellow, and I marvel that yours is not yet a-building. But Aithne answered him not, for she was singing a song of witchery: and she sang in a low voice and sweet, and as she sang she weaved a witchknot upon the air with both her hands. And immediately there came a little mist upon the shore, and the mist drew upward from the sand and hung in one place upon the air like smoke: and so it continued the while Aithne sang her song. And when she had ceased from her singing then Ywain saw the mist no more, for it was clean vanished and in the place thereof was another mound and another city, in semblance like unto the first, and those two cities were nigh together upon the shore and the tide came about them both by little and little.

And Ywain and Aithne stood still and looked upon the tide: and it came running and lapping more fiercely, and the froth of it began to foam upon the edges of the mounds. And the water gnawed upon the sand of the one city, and that was Ywain’s: and the walls and towers of it began to crumble and to crack, and at the last they were perished wholly as by ruin of time, and the tide flowed over them and they were gone. But with Aithne’s city it was not so, for the sea bit not upon it nor overflowed it, but it stood above the water until the turning of the tide. And Ywain came near to touch it, but he could not, for it was but mist between his fingers. And he left it alone and stood and looked upon it again: and it endured as rock, notwithstanding it was builded of a song.

Then he said to Aithne: The game is nought, for you have played it by no fair hazard but by enchantment. And she answered him: Not so, for by this same enchantment is Aladore upbuilded and sustained, and that is the truth of it. And she looked into his eyes and her spirit entered into him, and they twain were one spirit. And the dusk began to fall about them and peace therewith, for they were in their own place beyond time and tide. But in that moment came change upon Ywain, for a sound was in his ears: and the sound was the sound of a horn blown over sea, and in the hearing of it all the blood of his body leapt furiously up to battle.