Maskull that his new organs had no of their
own, but only and his other senses. When he used his
eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him,
but his them was different. Previously all external
things had for him; now he for them. According to
whether they his purpose or were in with his nature, or
otherwise, they had been or painful. Now these “pleasure”
and “pain” had no meaning.
The other two him, while he was making himself with
his new outlook. He at them.
“You were right, Tydomin,” he said, in a bold, voice. “We
have been fools. So near the light all the time, and we guessed
it. Always in the past or future—systematically the
present—and now it out that from the present we have no life
at all.”
“Thank Spadevil for it,” she answered, more than usual.
Maskull looked at the man’s dark, form. “Spadevil, now I mean
to you to the end. I can do nothing less.”
The no of gratification—not a relaxed.
“Watch that you don’t your gift,” he said gruffly.
Tydomin spoke. “You promised that I should enter Sant with you.”
“Attach to the truth, not to me. For I may die you, but
the truth will you to your death. However, now let us journey
together, all three of us.”
The had not left his mouth he put his against the
fine, snow, and pressed toward his destination. He walked
with a long stride; Tydomin was to in order to keep up
with him. The three abreast; Spadevil in the middle. The fog
was so that it was to see a hundred yards ahead. The
ground was by the green snow. The wind in from the
Sant and was cold.
“Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?” asked Maskull.
“He that is not more than a man is nothing.”
“Where have you now come from?”
“From brooding, Maskull. Out of no other mother can truth be born. I
have brooded, and rejected; and I have again. Now, after many
months’ from Sant, the truth at last for me in its
simple splendour, like an diamond.”
“I see its shining,” said Maskull. “But how much it to ancient
Hator?”
“Knowledge has its seasons. The was to Hator, the fruit is to
me. Hator also was a brooder—but now his do not brood. In Sant
all is selfishness, a death. They pleasure, and this
hatred is the to them.”
“But in what way have they off from Hator’s doctrines?”
“For him, in his purity of nature, all the world was a snare, a
limed twig. Knowing that was everywhere, a fierce, mocking
enemy, and waiting at every of the road of life, in
order to kill with its sweet the of the soul, he
shielded himself pain. This also his do, but they do
not do it for the of the soul, but for the of and
pride.”
“What is the Trifork?”
“The stem, Maskull, is of pleasure. The is
disentanglement from the of the world. The second is
power over those who still in the of illusion. The third
fork is the healthy of one who steps into ice-cold water.”
“From what land did Hator come?”
“It is not said. He in Ifdawn for a while. There are many legends
told of him while there.”
“We have a long way to go,” said Tydomin. “Relate some of these legends,
Spadevil.”
The had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell like a
phantom sun, but of wind still over the plain.
“In those days,” said Spadevil, “there in Ifdawn a mountain
island by wide from the land around it. A handsome
girl, who sorcery, a to be across which
men and might pass to it. Having by a false Hator on to
this rock, she pushed at the with her until it into
the below. ‘You and I, Hator, are now together, and there is no
means of separating. I wish to see how long the famous man can
withstand the breath, and perfume of a girl.’ Hator said no word,
either then or all that day. He till like a tree trunk, and
thought of other things. Then the girl passionate, and her
curls. She rose from where she was she looked at him, and
touched his arm; but he did not see her. She looked at him, so that all
the was in her eyes; and then she dead. Hator from
his thoughts, and saw her lying, still warm, at his feet, a corpse. He
passed to the mainland; but how, it is not related.”
Tydomin shuddered. “You too have met your woman, Spadevil; but
your method is a one.”
“Don’t other women,” said Spadevil, “but love the right. Hator also
once with Shaping.”
“With the Maker of the World?” said Maskull thoughtfully.
“With the Maker of Pleasure. It is told how Shaping his world,
and to Hator to and joy. But Hator,
answering all his speeches in a concise, iron words,
showed how this and was but another name for the bestiality
of in luxury and sloth. Shaping smiled, and said, ‘How
comes it that your is than that of the Master of wisdom?’
Hator said, ‘My not come from you, from your world, but
from that other world, which you, Shaping, have to
imitate.’ Shaping replied, ‘What, then, do you do in my world?’ Hator
said, ‘I am here falsely, and therefore I am to your false
pleasures. But I myself in pain—not it is good, but because
I wish to keep myself as from you as possible. For pain is not
yours, neither it to the other world, but it is the shadow
cast by your false pleasures.’ Shaping then said, ‘What is this faraway
other world of which you say “This is so—this is not so?” How it
that you alone of all my have knowledge of it?’ But Hator spat
at his feet, and said, ‘You lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You,
with your toys, alone it from our view.’ Shaping asked,
‘What, then, am I?’ Hator answered, ‘You are the of impossible
dreams.’ And then the goes that Shaping departed, pleased with
what had been said.”
“What other world did Hator to?” asked Maskull.
“One where reigns, Maskull, just as here.”
“Whether or pleasure, it makes no difference,” said Maskull.
“The that and to live is and
corrupt-natured.”
“Guard you your pride!” returned Spadevil. “Do not make law for the
universe and for all time, but for and for this small, false
life of yours.”
“In what shape did death come to that hard, man?” asked
Tydomin.
“He to be old, but and free-limbed to his last hour.
When he saw that death not be off longer he to
destroy himself. He his friends around him; not from vanity,
but that they might see to what lengths the can go in its
perpetual with the body. Standing erect, without
support, he died by his breath.”
A followed, which for an hour. Their minds
refused to the winds, but the of their thoughts
became frozen.
When Branchspell, however, out again, though with power,
Maskull’s rose once more. “Your countrymen, then,
Spadevil, are with self-love?”
“The men of other countries,” said Spadevil, “are the of pleasure
and desire, it. But the men of my country are the of
pleasure and desire, not it.”
“And yet that proud pleasure, which in self-torture, has
something in it.”
“He who himself at all is ignoble. Only by as
well as can a man enter into true life.”
“On what do they reject women?”
“Inasmuch as a woman has love, and cannot live for herself. Love
for another is for the loved one, and therefore to
him.”
“A of false ideas is waiting for your axe,” said Maskull. “But
will they allow it?”
“Spadevil knows, Maskull,” said Tydomin, “that be it today or be it
tomorrow, love can’t be out of a land, by the of
Hator.”
“Beware of love—beware of emotion!” Spadevil. “Love is but
pleasure once removed. Think not of others, but of serving
them.”
“Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.”
“Right has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you that you are a
woman, so long you will not enter into of soul.”
“But where there are no women, there are no children,” said Maskull.
“How came there to be all these of Hator men?”
“Life passion, suffering, the
yearning for from suffering. Men to Sant from all parts,
in order to have the of their healed.”
“In place of of pleasure, which all can understand, what simple
formula do you offer?”
“Iron to duty,” answered Spadevil.
“And if they ask ‘How is this with of pleasure?’
what will your pronouncement be?”
“I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the question.
Hatred is passion, and all from the dark of self.
Do not at all, but pass it by on one side, and
undisturbed.”
“What is the of pleasure? How can we always it, in
order to avoid it?”
“Rigidly duty, and such questions will not arise.”
Later in the afternoon, Tydomin her on Spadevil’s
arm.
“Fearful are in my mind,” she said. “This to Sant may
turn out badly. I have a of you, Spadevil, and myself lying
dead and in blood, but Maskull was not there.”
“We may the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others will
raise it.”
“Show me a that you are not as other men—so that I may know that
our blood will not be wasted.”
Spadevil her sternly. “I am not a magician. I don’t persuade
the senses, but the soul. Does your call you to Sant, Tydomin? Then
go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther. Is not this
simple? What are necessary?”
“Did I not see you those of lightning? No common man could
have done that.”
“Who what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man can
do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their
eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary my life. Will
you not still me?”
“Yes,” said Tydomin, “I will you to the end. It is all the more
essential, I keep on you with my remarks, and that
means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.”
“Do not be humble, for is only self-judgment, and while we are
thinking of self, we must be some action we be planning
or in our mind.”
Tydomin to be and preoccupied.
“Why was Maskull not in the picture?” she asked.
“You on this you it is tragical. There
is nothing in death, Tydomin, in life. There is only right
and wrong. What from right or action not matter. We
are not gods, a world, but men and women, doing our
immediate duty. We may die in Sant—so you have it; but the truth
will go on living.”
“Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?” asked Maskull.
“These men with ideas to me the least likely of any to follow
a new light.”
“Where a tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no tree
at all can be found, nothing will grow.”
“I you,” said Maskull. “Here we are going to
martyrdom, but we should men to cattle.”
Shortly they at the of the plain,
above which the black of the Sant Levels. A dizzy,
artificially staircase, of more than a thousand steps of
varying depth, and in order to to the of
the precipices, to the world overhead. In the place where they stood
they were from the winds. Branchspell, radiantly
shining at last, but on the point of sinking, the cloudy sky with
violent, colors, some of the of which were new to
Maskull. The circle of the was so gigantic, that had he been
suddenly to Earth, he would by have fancied
himself to be moving the of some little, closed-in
cathedral. He that he was on a planet. But he was not
stirred or by the knowledge; he was only of moral
ideas. Looking backward, he saw the plain, which for miles past
had been without vegetation, away to Disscourn. So
regular had been the ascent, and so great was the distance, that the
huge looked nothing more than a on the of
the earth.
Spadevil stopped, and over the in silence. In the
evening his looked more dense, dark, and than ever
before. His were set hard in grimness.
He around to his companions. “What is the wonder, in all
this scene?” he demanded.
“Acquaint us,” said Maskull.
“All that you see is from pleasure, and moves on, from to
pleasure. Nowhere is right to be found. It is Shaping’s world.”
“There is another wonder,” said Tydomin, and she pointed her finger
toward the sky overhead.
A small cloud, so low that it was not more than five
hundred above them, was along in of the dark of
cliff. It was in the exact shape of an open hand, with downward-
pointing fingers. It was by the sun; and one or two tiny
cloudlets the looked like of blood.
“Who can now that our death is close at hand?” said Tydomin. “I
have been close to death twice today. The time I was ready, but
now I am more ready, for I shall die by with the man who has
given me my happiness.”
“Do not think of death, but of right persistence,” Spadevil. “I
am not here to Shaping’s portents; but to men from
him.”
He at once to lead the way up the staircase. Tydomin gazed
upward after him for a moment, with an odd, light in her
eyes. Then she him, the second of the party. Maskull climbed
last. He was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but his was
at peace. As they the almost stairs, the
sun got higher in the sky. Its light their a gold.
They the top. There they in of them, as far
as the see, a of white sand, here and
there by large, of black rock. Tracts of the were
reddened by the sun. The of sky was by evil-
shaped clouds and wild colors. The wind, across the
desert, the of against their faces.
“Where now do you take us?” asked Maskull.
“He who the old of Sant must give up that to me,
that I may it. What he says, others will say. I go to find
Maulger.”
“And where will you him, in this country?”
Spadevil off toward the north unhesitatingly.
“It is not so far,” he said. “It is his to be in that part where
Sant the Wombflash Forest. Perhaps he will be there, but I
cannot say.”
Maskull toward Tydomin. Her cheeks, and the dark circles
beneath her told of her weariness.
“The woman is tired, Spadevil,” he said.
She smiled. “It’s but another step into the land of death. I can manage
it. Give me your arm, Maskull.”
He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
“The sun is now sinking,” said Maskull. “Will we there dark?”
“Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is up the in
your nature. The road you are walking cannot unwalked. We shall
arrive dark.”
The sun then the far-distant that the
western of the Ifdawn Marest. The sky up into more vivid
colors. The wind colder.
They passed some of water, the banks of
which were planted fruit trees. Maskull ate some of the fruit. It was
hard, bitter, and astringent; he not of the taste, but he
felt and by the downward-flowing juices. No other
trees or were to be anywhere. No animals appeared, no birds
or insects. It was a land.
A mile or two passed, when they again approached the of the
plateau. Far down, their feet, the great Wombflash Forest began.
But had there; Maskull’s rested only on a vague
darkness. He what like the of
innumerable treetops.
In the twilight, they came on a man. He was
standing in a pool, on one leg. A of had him from
their view. The water came as up as his calf. A trifork, to
the one Maskull had on Disscourn, but smaller, had been in
the close by his hand.
They stopped by the of the pond, and waited. Immediately he became
aware of their presence, the man set his other leg, and out
of the water toward them, up his in doing so.
“This is not Maulger, but Catice,” said Spadevil.
“Maulger is dead,” said Catice, speaking the same as Spadevil,
but with an accent, so that the of Maskull’s ear
was painfully.
The saw him a bowed, powerful individual, in
years. He nothing but a loincloth. His was long and
heavy, but his were short. His was beardless, lemon-
coloured, and anxious-looking. It was by a number of
longitudinal ruts, a of an deep, the of which
seemed with dirt. The of his was black and
sparse. Instead of the organs of Spadevil, he possessed
but one; and this was in the centre of his brow.
Spadevil’s dark, solid person out from the like a reality
among dreams.
“Has the passed to you?” he demanded.
“Yes. Why have you this woman to Sant?”
“I have another thing to Sant. I have the new faith.”
Catice motionless, and looked troubled. “State it.”
“Shall I speak with many words, or words?”
“If you wish to say what is not, many will not suffice. If you
wish to say what is, a will be enough.”
Spadevil frowned.
“To with it. Pride is a pleasure. To kill
pleasure, we must ourselves to duty. While the mind is planning
right action, it has no time to think of pleasure.”
“Is that the whole?” asked Catice.
“The truth is simple, for the man.”
“Do you Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?”
“I nature, and set up law.”
A long followed.
“My is double,” said Spadevil. “Suffer me to yours, and you
will see as I see.”
“Come you here, you big man!” said Catice to Maskull. Maskull a
step closer.
“Do you Spadevil in his new faith?”
“As as death,” Maskull.
Catice up a flint. “With this I out one of your two
probes. When you have but one, you will see with me, and you will
recollect with Spadevil. Choose you then the faith, and I shall
obey your choice.”
“Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the of men,” said
Spadevil.
“The pain is nothing,” Maskull, “but I the result.”
“Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,” said
Tydomin, out her hand.
He at it with the flint, and it from to
thumb; the blood up. “What this kiss-lover
to Sant?” he said. “How she to make the of life for
the sons of Hator?”
She her lip, and back. “Well then, Maskull, accept! I
certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you can.”
“If he me, I must do it,” said Maskull. “But who what will
come of it?”
Spadevil spoke. “Of all the of Hator, Catice is the most
wholehearted and sincere. He will my truth underfoot, thinking
me a sent by Shaping, to the work of this land. But a seed
will escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will wash it. Then men
will know that my is their good. But none here
will live to see that.”
Maskull now close to Catice, and offered his head. Catice
raised his hand, and after the for a moment,
brought it with and upon the left-hand probe.
Maskull out with the pain. The blood down, and the
function of the organ was destroyed.
There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to the
blood.
“What now do you feel, Maskull? What do you see?” Tydomin
anxiously.
He stopped, and hard at her. “I now see straight,” he said
slowly.
“What that mean?”
He to the blood from his forehead. He looked troubled.
“Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall with my nature, and
refuse to pleasure. And I you to do the same.”
Spadevil at him sternly. “Do you my teaching?”
Maskull, however, returned the without dismay. Spadevil’s image-
like of had for him; his he knew
to be the of a weak and intellect.
“It is false.”
“Is it false to for another?” Tydomin.
“I can’t argue as yet,” said Maskull. “At this moment the world with its
sweetness to me a of house. I a for
everything in it, myself. I know no more.”
“Is there no duty?” asked Spadevil, in a tone.
“It to me but a under which we the of other
people.”
Tydomin at Spadevil’s arm. “Maskull has you, as he has
so many others. Let us go.”
He fast. “You have quickly, Maskull.”
Maskull, without him, to Catice. “Why do men go on
living in this soft, world, when they can kill themselves?”
“Pain is the native air of Surtur’s children. To what other air do you
wish to escape?”
“Surtur’s children? Is not Surtur Shaping?”
“It is the of lies. It is Shaping’s masterpiece.”
“Answer, Maskull!” said Spadevil. “Do you right action?”
“Leave me alone. Go back! I am not of you, and your ideas. I
wish you no harm.”
The came on fast. There was another silence.
Catice away the flint, and up his staff. “The woman must
return home,” he said.
“She was here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil, must
die—backslider as you are!”
Tydomin said quietly, “He has no power to this. Are you going to
allow the truth to to the ground, Spadevil?”
“It will not by my death, but by my to from death.
Catice, I accept your judgment.”
Tydomin smiled. “For my part, I am too to walk today, so I
shall die with him.”
Catice said to Maskull, “Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his
mistress, according to the laws of Hator.”
“I can’t do that. I have in with them.”
“You duty; and now you must do your duty,” said Spadevil, calmly
stroking his beard. “Whatever law you accept, you must obey, without
turning to right or left. Your law that we must be stoned; and
it will soon be dark.”
“Have you not this amount of manhood?” Tydomin.
Maskull moved heavily. “Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was forced
on me.”
“Hator is looking on, and approving,” Catice.
Maskull then to the of by the of
the pool. He about him, and two large of
rock, the that he he carry. With these in his
arms, he back.
He them on the ground, and stood, his breath. When he
could speak again, he said, “I have a for the business. Is
there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning
go to where you have come from. No one shall you.”
Spadevil’s was in the gloom.
“Shall I again, Maskull, for still another year, and after that
come to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose the
heavier for me, for I am than Tydomin.”
Maskull one of the rocks, and out four full paces.
Spadevil him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
The through the air. Its looked like a dark
shadow. It Spadevil full in the face, his features, and
breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.
Tydomin looked away from the man.
“Be very quick, Maskull, and don’t let me keep him waiting.”
He panted, and the second stone. She herself in of
Spadevil’s body, and there, and cold.
The her and chin, and she fell. Maskull went
to her, and, on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There
she out her last sighs.
After that, he her again, and rested on his hands,
while he into the face. The from its heroic,
spiritual to the and of Crystalman came
like a flash; but he saw it.
He up in the darkness, and Catice toward him.
“Is that the true of Shaping?”
“It is Shaping of illusion.”
“How comes this world to exist?”
Catice did not answer.
“Who is Surtur?”
“You will nearer to him tomorrow; but not here.”
“I am through too much blood,” said Maskull. “Nothing good can
come of it.”
“Do not and destruction; but and joy.”
Maskull meditated.
“Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to Spadevil, would you really
have his faith?”
“He was a great-souled man,” Catice. “I see that the of
our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure. Tomorrow I too shall
leave Sant, to on all this.”
Maskull shuddered. “Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but a
crime!”
“His part was played and the woman would have down
his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty. Regret nothing, stranger, but
go away at once out of the land.”
“Tonight? Where shall I go?”
“To Wombflash, where you will meet the minds. I will put you on
the way.”
He his arm in Maskull’s, and they walked away into the night. For
a mile or more they the of the precipice. The wind was
searching, and into their faces. Through the of the
clouds, stars, and brilliant, appeared. Maskull saw no familiar
constellations. He if the sun of earth was visible, and if so
which one it was.
They came to the of a staircase, leading the cliffside.
It the one by which he had come up; but this to the
Wombflash Forest.
“That is your path,” said Catice, “and I shall not come any farther.”
Maskull him. “Say just this, we part company—why does
pleasure appear so to us?”
“Because in pleasure, we our home.”
“And that is—”
“Muspel,” answered Catice.
Having this reply, he himself, and, his back,
disappeared into the darkness.
Maskull the as best he could. He was tired, but
contemptuous of his pains. His to discharge
matter. He himself from step to step what an
interminable time. The and of the trees louder as
he approached the bottom; the air still and warm. Inky blackness
was all around him.
*****
He at last level ground. Still attempting to proceed, he began
to over roots, and to with tree trunks. After this had
happened a times, he to go no that night. He
heaped together some for a pillow, and flung
himself to sleep. Deep and him almost
instantly.
