He said nought at all, but sat looking and wondering what land it might be; but the big man said: "O tomb of warriors, is it not as if the blueness of the deep sea had heaved itself up aloft, and turned from coloured air into rock and stone, so wondrous blue it is?
But that is because those crags and mountains are so far away, and as we draw nigher to them, thou shalt see them as they verily are, that they are coal-black; and yonder land is an isle, and is called the Isle of Ransom.

Therein shall be the market for thee where thou mayst cheapen thy betrothed.

There mayst thou take her by the hand and lead her away thence, when thou hast dealt with the chapman of maidens and hast pledged thee by the fowl of battle, and the edge of the fallow blade to pay that which he will have of thee." As the big man spoke there was a mocking in his voice and his face and in his whole huge body, which made the sword of Hallblithe uneasy in his scabbard; but he refrained his wrath, and said: "Big man, the longer I look, the less I can think how we are to come up on to yonder island; for I can see nought but a huge cliff, and great mountains rising beyond it." "Thou shalt the more wonder," said the alien, "the nigher thou drawest thereto; for it is not because we are far away that thou canst see no beach or strand, or sloping of the land seaward, but because there is nought of all these things.

Yet fear not! am I not with thee?
thou shalt come ashore on the Isle of Ransom." Then Hallblithe held his peace, and the other spake not for a while, but gave a short laugh once or twice; and said at last in a big voice, "Little Carrion-biter, why dost thou not ask me of my name ?" Now Hallblithe was a tall man and a fell fighter; but he said: "Because I was thinking of other things and not of thee." "Well," said the big man, in a voice still louder, "when I am at home men call me the Puny Fox." Then Hallblithe said: "Art thou a Fox?
It may well be that thou shalt beguile me as such beasts will but look to it, that if thou dost I shall know how to avenge me." Then rose up the big man from the helm, and straddled wide in the boat, and cried out in a great roaring voice: "Crag-nester, I am one of seven brethren, and the smallest and weakest of them.

Art thou not afraid ?" "No," said Hallblithe, "for the six others are not here.