Sullenbode’s skin through the darkness, but the
clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull her senseless,
smiling face, and shivered. Strange ran through his body.
Corpang spoke out of the night. “She looks like an filled
with deadliness.”
“It was like lightning.”
“Haunte was with passion.”
“So am I,” said Maskull quietly. “My full of rocks, all
grinding against one another.”
“This is what I was of.”
“It I shall have to her too.”
Corpang his arm. “Have you all manliness?”
But Maskull himself free. He at his
beard, and at Sullenbode. His twitching. After this had
gone on for a minutes, he forward, over the woman, and
lifted her in his arms. Setting her against the rugged
tree trunk, he her.
A cold, passed his frame. He that it was
death, and consciousness.
When his returned, Sullenbode was him by the with
one hand at arm’s length, his with eyes. At first
he failed to her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but
another. Then he that her was with
that which Haunte’s action had called into existence. A great calmness
came upon him; his had disappeared.
Sullenbode was into a soul. Her skin was firm, her
features were strong, her with the of power.
She was tall and slight, but slow in all her and movements. Her
face was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth
crossed the like a of fire. The were as voluptuous
as before. Her were heavy. There was nothing in her—she
looked the of all women. She appeared not more than twenty-
five.
Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little way
and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time her mouth into a
long, smile. “Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?”
Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull himself in a dream.
“My name is Maskull.”
She to him to come a step nearer. “Listen, Maskull. Man after
man has me into the world, but they not keep me there, for I
did not wish it. But now you have me into it for all time, for
good or evil.”
Maskull a hand toward the now corpse, and said
quietly, “What have you to say about him?”
“Who was it?”
“Haunte.”
“So that was Haunte. The news will travel and wide. He was a famous
man.”
“It’s a affair. I can’t think that you killed him
deliberately.”
“We are with terrible power, but it is our only
protection. We do not want these visits; we them.”
“I might have died, too.”
“You came together?”
“There were three of us. Corpang still over there.”
“I see a form. What do you want of me, Corpang?”
“Nothing.”
“Then go away, and me with Maskull.”
“No need, Corpang. I am with you.”
“This is not that pleasure, then?” the low, voice, out
of the darkness.
“No, that has not returned.”
Sullenbode his arm hard. “What are you speaking of?”
“A of love, which I not long ago.”
“But what do you now?”
“Calm and free.”
Sullenbode’s like a mask, a slow, sea
of passions. “I do not know how it will end, Maskull, but we
will still keep together a little. Where are you going?”
“To Adage,” said Corpang, forward.
“But why?”
“We are the steps of Lodd, who there years ago, to find
Muspel-light.”
“What light is that?”
“It’s the light of another world.”
“The is grand. But cannot see that light?”
“On one condition,” said Corpang. “They must their sex. Womanhood
and love to life, while Muspel is above life.”
“I give you all other men,” said Sullenbode. “Maskull is mine.”
“No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to him of the
existence of things.”
“You are a good man. But you two alone will the road to
Adage.”
“Are you with it?”
Again the woman Maskull’s arm. “What is love—which Corpang
despises?”
Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode on, “Love is that
which is perfectly to and nothing, for the sake
of the beloved.”
Corpang his forehead. “A female lover is new in my
experience.”
Maskull put him with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, “Are you
contemplating a sacrifice?”
She at her feet, and smiled. “What it what my thoughts
are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you to first?
It’s a road to Adage.”
“What’s in your mind?” Maskull.
“I will you a little. When we the Sarclash and
Adage, I shall turn back.”
“And then?”
“Then if the moon you will arrive daybreak, but if
it is dark it’s likely.”
“That’s not what I meant. What will of you after we have parted
company?”
“I shall return somewhere—perhaps here.”
Maskull close up to her, in order to study her better. “Shall
you into—the old state?”
“No, Maskull, thank heaven.”
“Then how will you live?”
Sullenbode the hand which he had on her arm. There
was a of in her eyes. “And who said I would go on
living?”
Maskull at her in bewilderment. A moments passed he
spoke again. “You are a lot. You know I can’t leave
you like this.”
Their met. Neither them, and neither embarrassed.
“You will always be the most of men, Maskull. Now let us go....
Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others—who aren’t
so single-minded—can do is to help him to his destination. We mustn’t
inquire the of single-minded men is as a worth
arriving at.”
“If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.”
“Well, no can more than its measure.”
Corpang gave a smile. “During your long sleep you appear to have
picked up wisdom.”
“Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and many minds.”
As they moved off, Maskull Haunte.
“Can we not that fellow?”
“By this time tomorrow we shall need ourselves. But I do not
include Corpang.”
“We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I am
the murderer. I his protecting light.”
“Surely that death is by the life you have me.” They left
the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three men had
arrived. After a steps, they came to green again. At the same
time the ground ended, and they started to a steep,
pathless slope. The and glimmered, their own bodies
shone; otherwise was dark. The around them, but
Maskull had no more nightmares. The was cold, pure, and steady.
They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
fascinating. Corpang came last. His saw nothing ahead but an
alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.
For a long time they the and slope,
maintaining a course. The was so that a
false step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right.
After a while, the on the left hand to level ground,
and they to have joined another of the mountain. The
ascending on the right hand for a hundred yards
more. Then Sullenbode to the left, and they level
ground all around them.
“We are on the ridge,” the woman, halting.
The others came up to her, and at the same the moon burst
through the clouds, the whole scene.
Maskull a cry. The wild, noble, of the view was
quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining
down on them from behind. Straight in front, like an wide,
smoothly road, the great which on to Adage,
though Adage itself was out of sight. It was less than two hundred
yards wide. It was with green snow, in some places entirely, but
in other places the through like black teeth. From
where they they were unable to see the of the ridge, or what
lay underneath. On the right hand, which was north, the was
blurred and indistinct. There were no there; it was the distant,
low-lying land of Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole of
mighty pinnacles, near and far, as as the see in
moonlight. All green, and all the extraordinary
hanging that the Lichstorm range. These were of
fantastic shapes, and each one was different. The directly
opposite them was with mist.
Sarclash was a in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two
ends pointed west, and were from each other by a mile or more
of empty space. The northern end the on which they stood.
The southern end was the long line of on that part of the
mountain where Haunte’s was situated. The was the
steep they had just traversed. One of Sarclash was invisible.
In the south-west many their heads. In addition, a few
summits, which must have been of height, appeared over the
south of the horseshoe.
Maskull to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw
her for the time in moonlight the he had died on his
lips. The mouth no longer her other features, and the
face, as and most shaped, almost
beautiful. The were a long, of rose-red. Her hair
was a dark maroon. Maskull was disturbed; he that she
resembled a spirit, than a woman.
“What puzzles you?” she asked, smiling.
“Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.”
“Perhaps you will.”
“Your life must be most solitary.”
She his with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. “Why do
you to speak your feelings, Maskull?”
“Things to open up me like a sunrise, but what it means I
can’t say.”
Sullenbode laughed outright. “It not the approach of
night.”
Corpang, who had been along the ridge, here abruptly
broke in. “The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I’ll go on
alone.”
“No, we’ll go on together. Sullenbode will us.”
“A little way,” said the woman, “but not to Adage, to my strength
against powers. That light is not for me. I know how to renounce
love, but I will be a to it.”
“Who what we shall on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang is
as as myself.”
Corpang looked him full in the face. “Maskull, you are well aware
that you approach that fire in the of a
beautiful woman.”
Maskull gave an laugh. “What Corpang doesn’t tell you,
Sullenbode, is that I am with Muspel-light than
he, and that, but for a meeting with me, he would still be saying
his prayers in Threal.”
“Still, what he says must be true,” she replied, looking from one to the
other.
“And so I am not to be allowed to—”
“So long as I am with you, I shall you onward, and not backward,
Maskull.”
“We need not yet,” he remarked, with a smile. “No doubt
things will themselves out.”
Sullenbode kicking the about with her foot. “I up
another piece of in my sleep, Corpang.”
“Tell it to me, then.”
“Men who live by laws and are parasites. Others their
strength to these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but
the law-abiders live at their ease—they have nothing for
themselves.”
“It is to some to discover, and to others to and perfect.
You cannot me for Maskull well.”
“No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.”
They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were
abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
The road by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
comparatively smooth. The point higher than on Earth,
for the of through which they almost warm
to their feet. Maskull’s were by now like hides. The
moonlit was green and dazzling. Their slanting, shadows
were defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked on
Sullenbode’s right hand, looked to the left, toward the
galaxy of peaks.
“You cannot to this world,” said the woman. “Men of your stamp
are not to be looked for here.”
“No, I have come here from Earth.”
“Is that larger than our world?”
“Smaller, I think. Small, and with men and women. With all
those people, would result but for laws, and therefore
the laws are of iron. As would be without
encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any of adventure
among the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.”
“Do men there, and men?”
“No, the meeting of the is sweet, though shameful. So is
the that the is ignored, with open eyes.
There is no hatred, or only among a persons.”
“That surely must be the of our Lichstorm passion. But
now say—why did you come here?”
“To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longer
interested me.”
“How long have you been in this world?”
“This is the end of my fourth day.”
“Then tell me what you have and done those four days. You
cannot have been inactive.”
“Great have to me.”
He to relate that had taken place from the
moment of his in the desert. Sullenbode
listened, with half-closed eyes, her from time to time.
Only twice did she him. After his of Tydomin’s
death, she said, speaking in a low voice—“None of us ought by
right of nature to of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one act
of hers, I almost love her, although she to your door.”
Again, speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, “That grand-souled girl I
admire the most of all. She to her voice, and to nothing
else besides. Which of us others is for that?”
When his was over, Sullenbode said, “Does it not you,
Maskull, that these you have met have been than the
men?”
“I that. We men often ourselves, but only for a
substantial cause. For you almost any will serve. You love
the for its own sake, and that is you are naturally
noble.”
Turning her a little, she him a so proud, yet so sweet,
that he was into silence.
They on for some distance, and then he said, “Now you
understand the of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scant
pity for anyone—Oh, it has been a journey!”
She her hand on his arm. “I, for one, would not have it less
rugged.”
“Nothing good can be said of my crimes.”
“To me you like a giant, for you know not what....
The that life holds.... You at least have no to look up
to women.”
“Thanks, Sullenbode!” he responded, with a smile.
“When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is out of your
road. You go on, looking neither to right left.”
“Take that you are not as well,” said Corpang gravely.
“Maskull shall do with me he pleases, old skull! And for
whatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a you have a
bag of dust. Someone has love to you. You have had it
described to you. You have that it is a small, fearful, selfish
joy. It is not that—it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, and
bloody.... How should you know.”
“Selfishness has too many disguises.”
“If a woman to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?”
“Only do not yourself. Act decisively, or will be too swift
for you both.”
Sullenbode him through her lashes. “Do you death—his death
as well as mine?”
“You go too far, Corpang,” said Maskull, a darker. “I
don’t accept you as the of our fortunes.”
“If is to you, let me go on ahead.”
The woman him with her slow, light fingers. “I wish you to stay
with us.”
“Why?”
“I think you may know what you are talking about. I don’t wish to bring
harm to Maskull. Presently I’ll you.”
“That will be best,” said Corpang.
Maskull looked angry. “I shall decide—Sullenbode, you go on, or
back, I with you. My mind is up.”
An of her face, in of her efforts
to it. “Why do you at me, Maskull?”
He returned no answer, but walking with brows.
After a dozen or so, he abruptly. “Wait, Sullenbode!”
The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the woman
smiled. Maskull, without a word, over and her lips. Then he
relinquished her body, and around to Corpang.
“How do you, in your great wisdom, that kiss?”
“It no great to kisses, Maskull.”
“Hereafter, to come us. Sullenbode to me.”
“Then I say no more; but you are a man.”
From that time he spoke not another word to either of the
others.
A appeared in the woman’s eyes. “Now are changed,
Maskull. Where are you taking me?”
“Choose, you.”
“The man I love must complete his journey. I won’t have it otherwise.
You shall not than Corpang.”
“Where you go, I will go.”
“And I—as long as your love endures, I will you—even to
Adage.”
“Do you its lasting?”
“I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I to tell you
before. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love me
no longer, I must die.”
“And why?” asked Maskull slowly.
“Yes, that’s the you when you me for the
first time. I meant to tell you.”
“Do you that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?”
“I have no other life but what you give me.”
He at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowly
placed his arms around her body. During this he very
pale, but Sullenbode as white as chalk.
A minutes later the toward Adage was resumed.
They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky and
nearer the south. They had many hundred feet, and the
character of the to for the worse. The thin snow
disappeared, and gave way to moist, ground. It was all little
grassy and marshes. They to about and become
draggled with mud. Conversation ceased; Sullenbode the way, and the
men in her tracks. The southern of the grew
grander. The light of the moon, on the
multitude of snow-green peaks, it to appear like a spectral
world. Their nearest neighbour high above them on the other side
of the valley, south, some five miles distant. It was a slender,
inaccessible, of black rock, the of which were too
steep to snow. A great upward-curving of out
from its pinnacle. For a long time it their cheif
landmark.
The whole with moisture. The surface
soil was spongy, and rested on rock; it in the damp
mists by night, and them out again by day, under Branchspell’s
rays. The walking unpleasant, then difficult, and finally
dangerous. None of the party ground from bog.
Sullenbode up to her in a of slime; Maskull her,
but after this took the lead himself. Corpang was the next to
meet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he into
liquid up to his shoulders, and a death.
After Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded
once more; but now the from to worse. Each step had
to be weight was put upon it, and so the
test failed. All of them in so often, that in the end
they no longer beings, but walking plastered
from top to toe with black filth. The work to Maskull. He
not only had the of the way, but was continually
called upon to help his out of their difficulties. Without
him they not have got through.
After a patch, they paused to their strength.
Corpang’s was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless, and
depressed.
Maskull at them doubtfully. “Does this continue?” he inquired.
“No. I think,” the woman, “we can’t be from the Mornstab
Pass. After that we shall to climb again, and then the road will
improve perhaps.”
“Can you have been here before?”
“Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so then.”
“You are out, Sullenbode.”
“What of it?” she replied, faintly. “When one has a terrible
lover, one must pay the price.”
“We cannot there tonight, so let us stop at the we
come to.”
“I it to you.”
He up and down, while the others sat. “Do you anything?” he
demanded suddenly.
“No, Maskull, nothing. I nothing.”
“Your are unchanged?”
“Love can’t go back—it can only go on.”
“Yes, on. It is so.”
“No, I don’t that. There is a climax, but when the has been
reached, love if it still wants to must turn to sacrifice.”
“That’s a creed,” he said in a low voice, beneath
his of mud.
“Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don’t know what I
feel.”
In a minutes they were on their again, and the journey
recommenced. Within an hour they had the Mornstab Pass.
The ground here was drier; the land to the north to drain
off the of the soil. Sullenbode them to the northern edge
of the ridge, to them the nature of the country. The pass was
nothing but a on of the ridge, where it was
the above the land. A series of terraces
of earth and toward Barey. They were with
stunted vegetation. It was possible to to the lowlands
that way, but difficult. On either of the landslip, to east
and west, the came in a long line of sheer, cliffs.
A low Barey from view. Complete was in the air,
broken only by the of an waterfall.
Maskull and Sullenbode sat on a boulder, the open country.
The moon was directly them, high up. It was almost as light as an
Earth day.
“Tonight is like life,” said Sullenbode.
“How so?”
“So above and around us, so underfoot.”
Maskull sighed. “Poor girl, you are unhappy.”
“And you—are you happy?”
He a while, and then replied—“No. No, I’m not happy. Love is not
happiness.”
“What is it, Maskull?”
“Restlessness—unshed tears—thoughts too for our to think...”
“Yes,” said Sullenbode.
After a time she asked, “Why were we created, just to live for a few
years and then disappear?”
“We are told that we shall live again.”
“Yes, Maskull?”
“Perhaps in Muspel,” he added thoughtfully.
“What of life will that be?”
“Surely we shall meet again. Love is too and a
thing to uncompleted.”
She gave a shiver, and away from him. “This is
untrue. Love is here.”
“How can that be, when sooner or later it is by
Fate?”
“It is by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be for
us? Can’t we suffer—can’t we go on suffering, and ever? Maskull,
until love our spirit, and without remedy, we don’t
begin to ourselves.”
Maskull at her with a expression. “Can the memory of love
be more than its presence and reality?”
“You don’t understand. Those are more than all the rest
beside.” She at him. “Oh, if you only see my mind,
Maskull! You would see things.... I can’t explain. It is all
confused, to myself.... This love is different from what I
thought.”
He again. “Love is a drink. Perhaps it is too for
human beings. And I think that it our in different
ways.”
They by side, them with
unseeing eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Sullenbode at last, with a smile, up.
“Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come, let us be off!”
Maskull too got up.
“Where’s Corpang?” he asked listlessly.
They looked across the in the direction of Adage. At the
point where they it was nearly a mile wide. It perceptibly
toward the southern edge, all the earth the of a heavy
list. Toward the west the ground level for a thousand yards,
but then a high, sloping, hill right across the from
side to side, like a on the of breaking. It out
all view beyond. The whole of this hill, from one end to
the other, was by a long of posts, shining
brightly in the moonlight against a of dark sky. There were
about thirty in all, and they were at such regular that
there was little that they had been set there by hands. Some
were perpendicular, but others so much that an of extreme
antiquity was to the entire colonnade. Corpang was climbing
the hill, not from the top.
“He to arrive,” said Maskull, the with
a smile.
“The won’t open for Corpang,” returned Sullenbode. “He need not
be in such a hurry.... What do these like to you?”
“They might be the entrance to some temple. Who can have planted
them there?”
She did not answer. They Corpang the of the hill,
and through the line of posts.
Maskull again to Sullenbode. “Now we two are alone in a lonely
world.”
She him steadily. “Our last night on this earth must be a grand
one. I am to go on.”
“I don’t think you are fit to go on. It will be to go the
pass a little, and shelter.”
She smiled. “We won’t study our tonight. I you to
go to Adage, Maskull.”
“Then at all events let us first, for it must be a long, terrible
climb, and who what we shall meet?”
She walked a step or two forward, turned, and out her hand to
him. “Come, Maskull!”
*****
When they had the that them from the
foot of the hill, Maskull the taps. They came from the
hill, and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He at Sullenbode,
but she appeared to nothing. A minute later the whole sky behind
and above the long of on the of the hill began
to be by a radiance. The moonlight in that quarter
faded; the out black on a of fire. It was the
light of Muspel. As the moments passed, it more and more vivid,
peculiar, and awful. It was of no colour, and nothing—it was
supernatural and indescribable. Maskull’s swelled. He fast,
with and terrible eyes.
Sullenbode touched him lightly.
“What do you see, Maskull?”
“Muspel-light.”
“I see nothing.”
The light up, until Maskull where he stood. It burned
with a and than before. He the
existence of Sullenbode. The loud. Each beat
was like a of thunder, through the sky and making
the air tremble. Presently the coalesced, and one continuous
roar of the world. But the persisted—the four
beats, with the third accented, still came through the
atmosphere, only now against a of thunder, and not of
silence.
Maskull’s wildly. His was like a prison. He to
throw it off, to up and with the sublime
universe which was to itself.
Sullenbode him in her arms, and kissed
him—passionately, again and again. He no response; he was unaware
of what she was doing. She him and, with and
streaming eyes, away. She started to go toward the
Mornstab Pass.
A minutes the to fade. The died
down. The moonlight reappeared, the and the were
again bright. In a time the light had entirely
vanished, but the still faintly, a rhythm,
from the hill. Maskull started violently, and around him
like a sleeper.
He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a hundred yards off.
At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, calling
out.... She did not look around. When he had the distance
between them by a half, he saw her and fall. She did
not up again, but where she fell.
He toward her, and over her body. His were
realised. Life had departed.
Beneath its of mud, her the vulgar, Crystalman
grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had appeared so beautiful
to him as at that moment.
*****
He her for a long time, on his knees. He wept—but,
between his of weeping, he his from time to time, and
listened to the beats.
An hour passed—two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west. Maskull
lifted Sullenbode’s on to his shoulders, and started to walk
toward the Pass. He no more for Muspel. He to look for
water in which to wash the of his beloved, and earth in which to
bury her.
When he had the the landslip, on which they
had sat together, he his burden, and, the girl on
the stone, seated himself her for a time, over toward
Barey.
After that, he his of the Mornstab Pass.
