A Voyage to Arcturus

by David Lindsay

  Chapter 17. CORPANG

  Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre. Leehallfae wasstanding by his side, looking down at him. It was doubtful whether aehad slept at all.

  “What time is it?” Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.

  “The day is passing,” was the vague reply.

  Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff. “Now I’m going toclimb that. No need for both of us to risk our necks, so you wait here,and if I find anything on top I’ll call you.”

  A phaen glanced at him strangely. “There’s nothing up there except abare hillside. I’ve been there often. Have you anything special inmind?”

  “Heights often bring me inspiration. Sit down, and wait.”

  Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of thecliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush. Then it grewprecipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection andintelligence. There were few hand- or footholds: he had to reflectbefore every step. On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was nonovice at the sport. Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that ithalf blinded him with its glittering whiteness.

  After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top. He was hot, sweatingcopiously, and rather dizzy. To reach a ledge he caught hold of twoprojecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time scramblingupward, his legs between the rocks. The left-hand rock, which was thelarger of the two, became dislodged by his weight, and, flying like ahuge, dark shadow past his head, crashed down with a terrifying sound tothe foot of the precipice, followed by an avalanche of smaller stones.Maskull steadied himself as well as he could, but it was some momentsbefore he dared to look down behind him.

  At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae. Then he caught sight oflegs and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom. Heperceived that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was scrutinisingsomething, and waited for aer to reappear.

  Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike voice,“The entrance is here!”

  “I’m coming down!” roared Maskull. “Wait for me!”

  He descended swiftly—without taking too much care, for he thought herecognised his “luck” in this discovery—and within twenty minutes wasstanding beside the phaen.

  “What happened?”

  “The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the spring. Ittore it out of its bed. See—now there’s room for us to get in!”

  “Don’t get excited!” said Maskull. “It’s a remarkable accident, but wehave plenty of time. Let me look.”

  He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big manwithout stooping. Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark, yeta peculiar glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough. A rocktunnel went straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out of sight.The valley brook did not flow along the floor of this tunnel, as he hadexpected, but came up as a spring just inside the entrance.

  “Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh? Still, observe thatyour stream parts company with us here.”

  As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion wastrembling from head to foot.

  “Why, what’s the matter?”

  Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart. “The stream leaves us, but whatmakes the stream what it is continues with us. Faceny is there.”

  “But surely you don’t expect to see him in person? Why are you shaking?”

  “Perhaps it will be too much for me after all.”

  “Why? How is it affecting you?”

  The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm’s length,endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. “Faceny’s thoughts areobscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he grants to youwhat he denies to me.”

  “What does he grant to me?”

  “To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it’s immaterial.Tomorrow both of us will be dead.”

  Maskull impatiently shook himself free. “Your sensations may be reliablein your own case, but how do you know I shall die?”

  “Life is flaming up inside you,” replied Leehallfae, shaking aer head.“But after it has reached its climax—perhaps tonight—it will sinkrapidly and you’ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter Threal I shan’tcome out again. A smell of death is being wafted to me out of thishole.”

  “You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.”

  “I am not frightened,” said Leehallfae quietly—ae had been graduallyrecovering aer tranquillity—“but when one has lived as long as I have,it is a serious matter to die. Every year one puts out new roots.”

  “Decide what you’re going to do,” said Maskull with a touch of contempt,“for I’m going in at once.”

  The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after thatwalked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching hishead, followed close at aer heels.

  The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmospherealtered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear andrefined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. Thedaylight disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that,Maskull could not say where the light came from. The air itself musthave been luminous, for though it was as light as full moon on Earth,neither he nor Leehallfae cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of thelight was that both the walls of the tunnel and their own bodiesappeared colourless. Everything was black and white, like a lunarlandscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal feelings created by theatmosphere.

  After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began towiden out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could havewalked side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae draggedaerself along slowly and painfully, with sunken head.

  Maskull caught hold of aer. “You can’t go on like that. Better let metake you back.”

  The phaen smiled, and staggered. “I’m dying.”

  “Don’t talk like that. It’s only a passing indisposition. Let me takeyou back to the daylight.”

  “No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.”

  “The sick must have their way,” said Maskull. Lifting aer bodily in hisarms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or so. They thenemerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of which he hadnever set eyes upon before.

  “Set me down!” directed Leehallfae feebly. “Here I’ll die.”

  Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground.The phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared withfast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.

  Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain,lighted as if by the moon—but there was of course no moon, and therewere no shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Besidethem were trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, butthe branches also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No otherplants could be seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice.Beyond a mile or two in any direction the light merged into obscurity.At their back a great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was notsquare like a wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indentedline of sea cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight.Here and there a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered,towered aloft into the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof.There were no colours—every detail of the landscape was black, white, orgrey. The scene appeared so still, so solemn and religious, that all hisfeelings quieted down to absolute tranquillity.

  Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, andhelplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like acandle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin ofCrystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen’s dead features.

  While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someonestanding beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not atonce rise.

  “Another phaen dead,” sa
id the newcomer in a grave, toneless, andintellectual voice.

  Maskull got up.

  The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was notdisfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features wereenergetic and rather coarse—yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure,hard life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyescarried a twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem wasapparently in the forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; thehair of his head was short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothedin a black, sleeveless robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. Therewas an air of cleanness and austerity about the whole man that wasattractive.

  He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so,kept passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. “They allfind their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they liveto an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because oftheir spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favouredchildren of Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die atonce.”

  “I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?”

  “I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are youdoing here?”

  “My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe. Asfor what I am doing here—I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen, fromMatterplay.”

  “But a man doesn’t accompany a phaen out of friendship. What do you wantin Threal?”

  “Then this is Threal?”

  “Yes.”

  Maskull remained silent.

  Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. “Are you ignorant, ormerely reticent, Maskull?”

  “I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them.”

  The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred,and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, asthough they were in a cathedral.

  “Then do you want my society, or not?” asked Corpang.

  “Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is—not to talk aboutmyself.”

  “But you must at least tell me where you want to go to.”

  “I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm.”

  “I can guide you through, if that’s all you want. Come, let us start.”

  “First let’s do our duty and bury the dead, if possible.”

  “Turn around,” directed Corpang.

  Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae’s body had disappeared.

  “What does this mean—what has happened?”

  “The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for itto be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required.”

  “Was the phaen an illusion, then?”

  “In no sense.”

  “Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be goingmad.”

  “There’s nothing unintelligible in it, if you’ll only listen calmly. Thephaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible world—to Faceny.This underworld is not Faceny’s world, but Thire’s, and Faceny’screatures cannot breathe its atmosphere. As this applies not only towhole bodies, but even to the last particles of bodies, the phaen hasdissolved into Nothingness.”

  “But don’t you and I belong to the outside world too?”

  “We belong to all three worlds.”

  “What three worlds—what do you mean?”

  “There are three worlds,” said Corpang composedly. “The first isFaceny’s, the second is Amfuse’s, the third is Thire’s. From him Threalgets its name.”

  “But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three worlds?”

  Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. “All this we can discuss aswe go along. It’s a torment to me to be standing still.”

  Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae’s body had lain, quitebewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely tearhimself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpangcalled to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.

  They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, theabsence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out of thejetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathlysilence, the knowledge that he was underground—the combination of allthese things predisposed Maskull’s mind to mysticism, and he preparedhimself with some anxiety to hear Corpang’s explanation of the land andits wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of the outsideworld and the reality of this world were two quite different things.

  “In what sense are there three worlds?” he demanded, repeating hisformer question.

  Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. “First of all,Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it’s mere intellectualcuriosity, tell me, for we mustn’t play with awful matters.”

  “No, it isn’t that,” said Maskull slowly. “I’m not a student. My journeyis no holiday tour.”

  “Isn’t there blood on your soul?” asked Corpang, eying him intently.

  The blood rose steadily to Maskull’s face, but in that light it causedit to appear black.

  “Unfortunately there is, and not a little.”

  The other’s face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.

  “And so you see,” went on Maskull, with a short laugh, “I’m in the verybest condition for receiving your instruction.”

  Corpang still paused. “Underneath your crimes I see a man,” he said,after a few minutes. “On that account, and because we are commanded tohelp one another, I won’t leave you at present, though I little thoughtto be walking with a murderer.... Now to your question.... Whatever aman sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three ways—length, breadth,depth. Length is existence, breadth is relation, depth is feeling.”

  “Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who camefrom Threal.”

  “I don’t know him. What else did he tell you?”

  “He went on to apply it to music. Continue, and pardon theinterruption.”

  “These three states of perception are the three worlds. Existence isFaceny’s world, relation is Amfuse’s world, feeling is Thire’s world.”

  “Can’t we come down to hard facts?” said Maskull, frowning. “Iunderstand no more than I did before what you mean by three worlds.”

  “There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The firstworld is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out ofnothingness, and therefore we call it Existence.”

  “That I understand.”

  “The second world is Love—by which I don’t mean lust. Without love,every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable deliberatelyto act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy—not evenhatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect anddistorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny’s world of Nature,therefore, we have Amfuse’s world of Love, or Relation.”

  “What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world isnot contained in the first?”

  “They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover livesfor others.”

  “It may be so. It’s rather mystical. But go on—who is Thire?”

  “Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and lovewithout feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is theneed of men to stretch out toward their creator.”

  “You mean prayer and worship?”

  “I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in eitherthe first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as depthis the line between object and subject, feeling is the line betweenThire and man.”

  “But what is Thire himself?”

  “Thire is the afterworld.”

  “I still don’t understand,” said Maskull. “Do you believe in threeseparate gods, or are these merely three ways of regarding
one God?”

  “There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic. Yet they aresomehow united.”

  Maskull reflected a while. “How have you arrived at these conclusions?”

  “None other are possible in Threal, Maskull.”

  “Why in Threal—what is there peculiar here?”

  “I will show you presently.”

  They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested whathad been said. When they came to the first trees, which grew along thebanks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang halted.

  “That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,” heremarked.

  Maskull removed it. He found that the line of his brow was smooth anduninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in Tormance.

  “How has this come about—and how did you know it?”

  “They were Faceny’s organs. They have vanished, just as the phaen’s bodyvanished.”

  Maskull kept rubbing his forehead. “I feel more human without them. Butwhy isn’t the rest of my body affected?”

  “Because its living will contains the element of Thire.”

  “Why are we stopping here?”

  Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, andproffered it to him. “Eat this, Maskull.”

  “For food, or something else?”

  “Food for body and soul.”

  Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap wasbleeding. It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a changeof perception. The landscape, without alteration of light or outline,became several degrees more stern and sacred. When he looked at Corpanghe was impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness, but the perplexedexpression was still in his eyes.

  “Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?”

  “Occasionally I go above, but not often.”

  “What fastens you to this gloomy world?”

  “The search for Thire.”

  “Then it’s still a search?”

  “Let us walk on.”

  As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain,the conversation became even more earnest in character than before.“Although I was not born here,” proceeded Corpang, “I’ve lived here fortwenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing nearerto Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it—the firststages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones. Thelonger a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In thebeginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as avoice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, andharsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million milesoff.”

  “How do you explain that?”

  “When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.”

  “But this is troubling you?”

  “My days are spent in torture.”

  “You still persist, though? This day darkness can’t be the ultimatestate?”

  “My questions will be answered.”

  A silence ensued.

  “What do you propose to show me?” asked Maskull.

  “The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three Figures,which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There, we willpray.”

  “And what then?”

  “If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easilyforget.”

  They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between twoparallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hillson either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as itcurved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. Theycame to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed atrickling brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it wasflowing up the valley instead of down. Before long it was joined byother miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sizedstream. Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead.

  “Nature has other laws here, it seems?”

  “Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.”

  “Yet the water is flowing somewhere.”

  “I can’t explain it, but there are three wills in it.”

  “Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?”

  “Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist withoutFaceny.”

  Maskull thought this over for some minutes. “That must be so,” he saidat last. “Without life there can be no love, and without love there canbe no religious feeling.”

  In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing thevalley presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. Thesides were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrowerat every step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural andsepulchral.

  Maskull said, “I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another world.”

  “I still do not know what you are doing here,” answered Corpang.

  “Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.”

  “That name I’ve heard—but under what circumstances?”

  “You forget?”

  Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously troubled.“Who is Surtur?”

  Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.

  The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touchingfingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the rockwalls on either side. It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-sac, butjust when the road seemed least promising, and they were shut in bycliffs on all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought them suddenlyinto the open. They emerged through a mere crack in the line ofprecipices.

  A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to theway they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few hundredyards. Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm withperpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred feet, butits bottom could not be seen. On both sides of the chasm, facing oneanother, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they tooproceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emergedonto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higherthan that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a doubleline of lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.

  The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straightforward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as awaterfall, it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge. It thendisappeared through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.

  To Maskull’s mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnaturalphenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable herethan on the open plain. It made the place look like a hall of phantoms.

  Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left. Whenthey had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred feet.Three large rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they resembled threeupright giants, standing motionless side by side on the extreme edge ofthe chasm. Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and then Maskull saw thatthey were statues. Each was about thirty feet high, and the workmanshipwas of the rudest. They represented naked men, but the limbs and trunkshad been barely chipped into shape—the faces alone had had care bestowedon them, and even these faces were merely generalised. It was obviouslythe work of primitive artists. The statues stood erect with knees closedand arms hanging straight down their sides. All three were exactlyalike.

  As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.

  “Is this a representation of your three Beings?” asked Maskull, awed bythe spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.

  “Ask no questions, but kneel,” replied Corpang. He dropped onto his ownknees, but Maskull remained standing.

  Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently. After a fewminutes the light sensibly faded. Then Maskull knelt as well, but hecontinued lo
oking.

  It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night. Sightand sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.

  Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again. But it hadceased to be a statue—it was a living person. Out of the blackness ofspace a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by a mystic, rosyglow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun. As the light grewstronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent and that the glowcame from within. The limbs of the apparition were wreathed in mist.

  Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly. It was thatof a beardless youth of twenty years. It possessed the beauty of a girland the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic smile. Maskullfelt the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and rapture of one whoawakes from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the gleaming, dark,delicate colours of the half-dawn. The vision smiled, kept still, andlooked beyond him. He began to shudder, with delight—and many emotions.As he gazed, his poetic sensibility acquired such a nervous andindefinable character that he could endure it no more; he burst intotears.

  When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a fewmoments more he was plunged back into total darkness.

  Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared. It too was transfiguredinto a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the details of itsface and body, because of the brightness of the light that radiated fromthem. This light, which started as pale gold, ended as flaming goldenfire. It illumined the whole underground landscape. The rock ledges, thecliffs, himself and Corpang on their knees, the two unlightedstatues—all appeared as if in sunlight, and the shadows were black andstrongly defined. The light carried heat with it, but a singular heat.Maskull was unaware of any rise in temperature, but he felt his heartmelting to womanish softness. His male arrogance and egotism fadedimperceptibly away; his personality seemed to disappear. What was leftbehind was not freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionateand nearly savage mental state of pity and distress. He felt atormenting desire to serve. All this came from the heat of the statue,and was without an object. He glanced anxiously around him, and fastenedhis eyes on Corpang. He put a hand on his shoulder and aroused him fromhis praying.

  “You must know what I am feeling, Corpang.”

  Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.

  “I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?”

  “So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to theinvisible worlds.”

  As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light todie away from the landscape. Maskull’s emotion slowly subsided, but itwas not until he was once more in complete darkness that he becamemaster of himself again. Then he felt ashamed of his boyish exhibitionof enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be something wantingin his character. He got up onto his feet.

  The very moment that he arose, a man’s voice sounded, not a yard fromhis ear. It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could distinguishthat it was not Corpang’s. As he listened he was unable to preventhimself from physically trembling.

  “Maskull, you are to die,” said the unseen speaker.

  “Who is speaking?”

  “You have only a few hours of life left. Don’t trifle the time away.”

  Maskull could bring nothing out.

  “You have despised life,” went on the low-toned voice. “Do you reallyimagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life is a joke?”

  “What must I do?”

  “Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to...”

  The voice died away. Maskull waited in silence for it to speak again.All remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have taken hisdeparture. Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a sort ofcatalepsy.

  At that moment he saw one of the statues fading away, from a pale, whiteglow to darkness. He had not previously seen it shining.

  In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned. Corpang gotup, and shook him out of his trance.

  Maskull looked around, but saw no third person. “Whose statue was thelast?” he demanded.

  “Thire’s.”

  “Did you hear me speaking?”

  “I heard your voice, but no one else’s.”

  “I’ve just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long to live.Leehallfae prophesied the same thing.”

  Corpang shook his head. “What value do you set on life?” he asked.

  “Very little. But it’s a fearful thing all the same.”

  “Your death is?”

  “No, but this warning.”

  They stopped talking. A profound silence reigned. Neither of the two menseemed to know what to do next, or where to go. Then both of them heardthe sound of drumming. It was slow, emphatic, and impressive, a long wayoff and not loud, but against the background of quietness, very marked.It appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of wherethey were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull’s heart beatquickly.

  “What can that sound be?” asked Corpang, peering into the obscurity.

  “It is Surtur.”

  “Once again, who is Surtur?”

  Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiancewas in the air, in the direction of the drumming. It increased inintensity and gradually occupied the whole scene. Things were no longerseen by Their’s light, but by this new light. It cast no shadows.

  Corpang’s nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly. “What fireis that?”

  “It is Muspel-light.”

  They both glanced instinctively at the three statues. In the strangeglow they had undergone a change. The face of each figure was clothed inthe sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.

  Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes. “What can this mean?”he asked a minute later.

  “It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too, whetherhe is one person or three.”

  Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to ashocking sight. “Dare we believe this?”

  “You must,” replied Maskull. “You have always served the highest, andyou must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that Thire is notthe highest.”

  Corpang’s face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. “Life isclearly false—I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now Ifind—this.”

  “You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had eternityto practice his cunning in, so it’s no wonder if a man can’t seestraight, even with the best intentions. What have you decided to do?”

  “The drumming seems to be moving away. Will you follow it, Maskull?”

  “Yes.”

  “But where will it take us?”

  “Perhaps out of Threal altogether.”

  “It sounds to me more real than reality,” said Corpang. “Tell me, who isSurtur?”

  “Surtur’s world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of which thisworld is a distorted copy. Crystalman is life, but Surtur is other thanlife.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “It has sprung together somehow—from inspiration, from experience, fromconversation with the wise men of your planet. Every hour it grows truerfor me and takes a more definite shape.”

  Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution. “I believe you,Maskull. No better proof is required than that. Thire is not thehighest; he is even in a certain sense the lowest. Nothing but thethoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits.... I am comingwith you—but don’t play the traitor. These signs may be for you, and notfor me at all, and if you leave me—”

  “I make no promises. I don’t ask you to come with me. If you prefer tostay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it, you hadbetter not come.”

  “Don’t talk like that. I shall never forget your service
to me... Let usmake haste, or we shall lose the sound.”

  Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull. They walked fast in thedirection of the drumming. For upward of two miles the path went alongthe ledge without any change of level. The mysterious radiance graduallydeparted, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal. The rhythmicalbeats continued, but a very long way ahead—neither was able to diminishthe distance.

  “What kind of man are you?” Corpang suddenly broke out.

  “In what respect?”

  “How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible? How is it thatI’ve never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my never-ending prayers and mortifications? In what way are you superior to me?”

  “To hear voices perhaps can’t be made a profession,” replied Maskull. “Ihave a simple and unoccupied mind—that may be why I sometimes hearthings that up to the present you have not been able to.”

  Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to hispride.

  The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform onthe opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to theright, and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by abridge, coming out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line ofprecipices immediately confronted them. They followed the drumming alongthe base of these heights, but as they were passing the mouth of a largecave the sound came from its recesses, and they turned their stepsinward.

  “This leads to the outer world,” remarked Corpang. “I’ve occasionallybeen there by this passage.”

  “Then that’s where it is taking us, no doubt. I confess I shan’t besorry to see sunlight once more.”

  “Can you find time to think of sunlight?” asked Corpang with a roughsmile.

  “I love the sun, and perhaps I’m rather lacking in the spirit of azealot.”

  “Yet, for all that, you may get there before me.”

  “Don’t be bitter,” said Maskull. “I’ll tell you another thing. Muspelcan’t be willed, for the simple reason that Muspel does not concern thewill. To will is a property of this world.”

  “Then what is your journey for?”

  “It’s one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over the walk,and quite another to run there at top speed.”

  “Perhaps I’m not so easily deceived as you think,” said Corpang withanother smile.

  The light persisted in the cave. The path narrowed and became a steepascent. Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and they had toclimb. The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was reminded of theconfined dreams of his childhood.

  Not long afterward, daylight appeared. They hastened to complete thelast stage. Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and, alldirty and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on ahillside, bathed in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine. Corpangfollowed closely at his heels. He was obliged to shield his eyes withhis hands for a few minutes, so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell’sblinding rays.

  “The drum beats have stopped!” he exclaimed suddenly.

  “You can’t expect music all the time,” answered Maskull dryly. “Wemustn’t be luxurious.”

  “But now we have no guide. We’re no better off than before.”

  “Well, Tormance is a big place. But I have an infallible rule, Corpang.As I come from the south, I always go due north.”

  “That will take us to Lichstorm.”

  Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them. “I sawthese rocks from Matterplay. The mountains look as far off now as theydid then, and there’s not much of the day left. How far is Lichstormfrom here?”

  Corpang looked away to the distant range. “I don’t know, but unless amiracle happens we shan’t get there tonight.”

  “I have a feeling,” said Maskull, “that we shall not only get theretonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my life.”

  And he sat down passively to rest.