All were dismissed once the gold was gathered and placed back upon the shelves, and because of the late hour Médash and his guests retired for dinner. At table he pondered and discussed what ought to be done, for he was determined to keep his word and to win her hand.
“Rodhél, I am confounded by what I have seen! For I have seated you upon a horse before; by my strength alone have I borne you above the earth. Yet not with ten thousand pounds of gold did I move you today. But fear not; I have a thought that may grant us what we seek.”
That night, when his guests had gone to sleep, Médash met with his head-servant along with fifty of his strongest stonecutters, leading them all far underneath the mountain where many reservoirs of water were kept in the event of drought. Instructing them carefully, Médash guided them in digging two reservoirs adjacent to one another, separated only by a wall as wide as the king’s foot. At the base of this wall, in the center of its length, a hole was made such that water would flow freely between the pools. In six days was this work completed with great precision, and straight lines were cut within the reservoirs that the level of water, once present, would be made known and its rising and falling easily discerned. Then on the seventh was a festival had in which all families where called to bring a vessel of water from their own homes to be poured into the new reservoirs. Within hours the great pools, each seventy strides in length and thirty-five across, were filled and all were present, eagerly awaiting the revelation of the purpose of the marvelous reservoirs of water.
Soon great strong men brought small wooden barges and piled them up neatly along the side of one reservoir. Then, led in by the king, a beautifully carved ship painted all in white with the carved neck and head of an eagle at the fore, large enough to bear but one person, was brought and placed in the water of the opposite pool. Rodhél, dressed splendid all in blue, was carefully lowered into the vessel and pushed out into the middle. Sure enough all beheld the water in both pools rise, though but a little, according to the lines etched upon their walls. A barge was ordered placed in the empty pool and soon wagonloads of gold began to arrive in the vast cavern. The king halted all things that he might speak.
“My people! Behold there upon the waters your future queen, Rodhél, daughter of Drostérn!” They all of them cheered, and the stone of the mountain hummed sympathetically. “Her father has demanded that I give to him my bride’s weight in gold, and to my amaze my great scales could not bear the price! Thus have I made these pools as a scale the like of which none have seen nor will see again: I shall fill the barges yonder with gold until the water in both pools is equal, for I swear to you, as God is King of All, that once I begin to weigh the other barge down with treasure, the water in our lady’s pool shall not rise until I have placed at least ten-thousand pounds; should I be required to go beyond this I fear I shall be undone!” Giving a slight pause for his people to think a moment upon his words, he then said, “Fill the first barge!”
Thus did his people cheer on the servants that began to heap sacks of gold into the first barge, floating there in the great pool as though a leaf on the ocean. Once it looked as though the vessel was about to sink for the weight it bore the king ordered them to cease and to push the barge out. The people were astonished to see that though several thousand pounds of gold pressed upon the water in the further reservoir, the level of water in the lady’s pool had not risen from the place of its starting. Another barge was brought in and filled, and again, and again until the setting of the sun that day and the utter emptying of the treasury of Médash. The pool was one-third covered all in barges heaped to near-floundering and the level of water within had risen considerably, yet the water of the lady’s pool remained still. Such a marvel had never been known under the mountain, and ever since that day, on its anniversary, the story was told anew from father to daughter, mother to son.
That night did Médash remain long awake, not knowing what was to be done. At sunrise he dispatched hawks to every king with whom he was acquainted, begging them to send all treasure that could be spared, for he was in desperate need.
Over the course of two months caravans escorted by armies of powerful men streamed to the mountain like rivers, and within the waters of wagon and beast there flowed gold in such supply that it seemed as though the sun had broken atop Acton and bled upon the earth. Anew was undertaken the great water-scales, again did Rodhél go hence in her fine-crafted boat, and again did the water in her pool not rise a drop though it was that in three days time the pool opposite her was covered all over in barges and small boats laden to nearly sinking with treasure. Even mighty men among those sent to guard the caravans fell to their knees in awe, for they sensed that the Hand of God had moved against the Hand of Gold. Indeed the Golden King was vexed beyond all thought, and in an act of madness he tossed onto the nearest barge the last of his treasure: the signet ring of his kingdom. It landed atop the treasures already assembled with an innocent tinkle of metal upon metal, yet its added weight caused the barge to plunge beneath the surface of the water as though it were swallowed up by a monster, and the waves thus loosed by this motion capsized all the rest, to the horror of all. One-by-one each barge wavered and slid beneath the water, issuing forth a cloud of foam that made it seem as though the whole pool was boiling. Even this, however, did not move the water of the lady’s pool whatsoever, as though it were ice or crystal, and Médash wept.
Too did his entire kingdom weep, for their hearts broke for their king. Bereft of all his treasure, stripped of gold and ring, he had naught left to give. He stood at the edge of the waters, looking down into its depths at the faint shimmering of the vast treasures below, watching as streams of bubbles sprouted up here and there as all things were drowned. Then did he look across the way at his beloved Rodhél, and she returned his look. But something in his face pierced her heart with a dagger of fear and she cried aloud, “Médash!”
