A Voyage to Arcturus

by David Lindsay

  Chapter 19. SULLENBODE

  Sullenbode’s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but theclothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless,smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body.

  Corpang spoke out of the night. “She looks like an evil spirit filledwith deadliness.”

  “It was like deliberately kissing lightning.”

  “Haunte was insane with passion.”

  “So am I,” said Maskull quietly. “My body seems full of rocks, allgrinding against one another.”

  “This is what I was afraid of.”

  “It appears I shall have to kiss her too.”

  Corpang pulled his arm. “Have you lost all manliness?”

  But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at hisbeard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this hadgone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, andlifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the ruggedtree trunk, he kissed her.

  A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame. He thought that it wasdeath, and lost consciousness.

  When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder withone hand at arm’s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes. At firsthe failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, butanother. Then he gradually realised that her face was identical withthat which Haunte’s action had called into existence. A great calmnesscame upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.

  Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul. Her skin was firm, herfeatures were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements. Herface was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouthcrossed the lower half like a gash of fire. The lips were as voluptuousas before. Her brows were heavy. There was nothing vulgar in her—shelooked the kingliest of all women. She appeared not more than twenty-five.

  Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little wayand allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth into along, bowlike smile. “Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?”

  Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull felt himself in a dream.

  “My name is Maskull.”

  She motioned to him to come a step nearer. “Listen, Maskull. Man afterman has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me there, for Idid not wish it. But now you have drawn me into it for all time, forgood or evil.”

  Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and saidquietly, “What have you to say about him?”

  “Who was it?”

  “Haunte.”

  “So that was Haunte. The news will travel far and wide. He was a famousman.”

  “It’s a horrible affair. I can’t think that you killed himdeliberately.”

  “We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our onlyprotection. We do not want these visits; we loathe them.”

  “I might have died, too.”

  “You came together?”

  “There were three of us. Corpang still stands over there.”

  “I see a faintly glimmering form. What do you want of me, Corpang?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then go away, and leave me with Maskull.”

  “No need, Corpang. I am coming with you.”

  “This is not that pleasure, then?” demanded the low, earnest voice, outof the darkness.

  “No, that pleasure has not returned.”

  Sullenbode gripped his arm hard. “What pleasure are you speaking of?”

  “A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago.”

  “But what do you feel now?”

  “Calm and free.”

  Sullenbode’s face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling seaof elemental passions. “I do not know how it will end, Maskull, but wewill still keep together a little. Where are you going?”

  “To Adage,” said Corpang, stepping forward.

  “But why?”

  “We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to findMuspel-light.”

  “What light is that?”

  “It’s the light of another world.”

  “The quest is grand. But cannot women see that light?”

  “On one condition,” said Corpang. “They must forget their sex. Womanhoodand love belong 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 remind him of theexistence of nobler things.”

  “You are a good man. But you two alone will never strike the road toAdage.”

  “Are you acquainted with it?”

  Again the woman gripped Maskull’s arm. “What is love—which Corpangdespises?”

  Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode went on, “Love is thatwhich is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the sakeof the beloved.”

  Corpang wrinkled his forehead. “A magnanimous female lover is new in myexperience.”

  Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, “Are youcontemplating a sacrifice?”

  She gazed at her feet, and smiled. “What does it matter what my thoughtsare? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest first?It’s a rough road to Adage.”

  “What’s in your mind?” demanded Maskull.

  “I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash andAdage, perhaps I shall turn back.”

  “And then?”

  “Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak, but ifit is dark it’s hardly likely.”

  “That’s not what I meant. What will become of you after we have partedcompany?”

  “I shall return somewhere—perhaps here.”

  Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better. “Shallyou sink back into—the old state?”

  “No, Maskull, thank heaven.”

  “Then how will you live?”

  Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. Therewas a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. “And who said I would go onliving?”

  Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before hespoke again. “You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can’t leaveyou like this.”

  Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.

  “You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us go....Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others—who aren’tso single-minded—can do is to help him to his destination. We mustn’tinquire whether the destination of single-minded men is as a rule wortharriving at.”

  “If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.”

  “Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.”

  Corpang gave a wry smile. “During your long sleep you appear to havepicked up wisdom.”

  “Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.”

  As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.

  “Can we not bury that poor fellow?”

  “By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do notinclude Corpang.”

  “We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I amthe real murderer. I stole his protecting light.”

  “Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.” They leftthe spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three men hadarrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the sametime the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodiesshone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, butMaskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow andfascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but analluring gi
rl and a half-infatuated man.

  For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that afalse step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right.After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground,and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. Theascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred yardsmore. Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found levelground all around them.

  “We are on the ridge,” announced the woman, halting.

  The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burstthrough the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.

  Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view wasquite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shiningdown on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide,smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage,though Adage itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundredyards wide. It was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, butin other places the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. Fromwhere they stood they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or whatlay underneath. On the right hand, which was north, the landscape wasblurred and indistinct. There were no peaks there; it was the distant,low-lying land of Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole forest ofmighty pinnacles, near and far, as far as the eye could see inmoonlight. All glittered green, and all possessed the extraordinaryhanging caps that characterised the Lichstorm range. These caps were offantastic shapes, and each one was different. The valley directlyopposite them was filled with rolling mist.

  Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its twoends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or moreof empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood.The southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of themountain where Haunte’s cave was situated. The connecting curve was thesteep slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.

  In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a fewsummits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over thesouth side of the horseshoe.

  Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he sawher for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on hislips. The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and theface, pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almostbeautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hairwas a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that sheresembled a spirit, rather than a woman.

  “What puzzles you?” she asked, smiling.

  “Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.”

  “Perhaps you never will.”

  “Your life must be most solitary.”

  She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. “Why doyou fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?”

  “Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means Ican’t say.”

  Sullenbode laughed outright. “It assuredly does not mean the approach ofnight.”

  Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptlybroke in. “The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I’ll go onalone.”

  “No, we’ll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.”

  “A little way,” said the woman, “but not to Adage, to pit my strengthagainst unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know how to renouncelove, but I will never be a traitor to it.”

  “Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang isas ignorant as myself.”

  Corpang looked him full in the face. “Maskull, you are quite well awarethat you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of abeautiful woman.”

  Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. “What Corpang doesn’t tell you,Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light thanhe, and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be sayinghis prayers in Threal.”

  “Still, what he says must be true,” she replied, looking from one to theother.

  “And so I am not to be allowed to—”

  “So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not backward,Maskull.”

  “We need not quarrel yet,” he remarked, with a forced smile. “No doubtthings will straighten themselves out.”

  Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. “I picked upanother piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.”

  “Tell it to me, then.”

  “Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed theirstrength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, butthe law-abiders live at their ease—they have conquered nothing forthemselves.”

  “It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and perfect.You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.”

  “No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.”

  They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three wereabreast, Sullenbode in the middle.

  The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distancecomparatively smooth. The freezing point seemed higher than on Earth,for the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt almost warmto their naked feet. Maskull’s soles were by now like tough hides. Themoonlit snow was green and dazzling. Their slanting, abbreviated shadowswere sharply defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked onSullenbode’s right hand, looked constantly to the left, toward thegalaxy of glorious distant peaks.

  “You cannot belong to this world,” said the woman. “Men of your stampare not to be looked for here.”

  “No, I have come here from Earth.”

  “Is that larger than our world?”

  “Smaller, I think. Small, and overcrowded with men and women. With allthose people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and thereforethe laws are of iron. As adventure would be impossible withoutencroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of adventureamong the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.”

  “Do men hate women there, and women men?”

  “No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful. So poignant isthe sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open eyes.There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons.”

  “That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion. Butnow say—why did you come here?”

  “To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longerinterested me.”

  “How long have you been in this world?”

  “This is the end of my fourth day.”

  “Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days. Youcannot have been inactive.”

  “Great misfortunes have happened to me.”

  He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from themoment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert. Sullenbodelistened, with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time.Only twice did she interrupt him. After his description of Tydomin’sdeath, she said, speaking in a low voice—“None of us women ought byright of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one actof hers, I almost love her, although she brought evil to your door.”Again, speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, “That grand-souled girl Iadmire the most of all. She listened to her inner voice, and to nothingelse besides. Which of us others is strong enough for that?”

  When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, “Does it not strike you,Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than themen?”

  “I recognise that. We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for asubstantial cause. For you women almost any cause will serve. You lovethe sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are naturallynoble.”

  Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so sweet,that he was struck into silence.

  They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he
said, “Now youunderstand the sort of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scantpity for anyone—Oh, it has been a bloody journey!”

  She laid her hand on his arm. “I, for one, would not have it lessrugged.”

  “Nothing good can be said of my crimes.”

  “To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not what....The grandest that life holds.... You at least have no cause to look upto women.”

  “Thanks, Sullenbode!” he responded, with a troubled smile.

  “When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is thrown out of yourroad. You go on, looking neither to right nor left.”

  “Take care that you are not thrown as well,” said Corpang gravely.

  “Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull! And forwhatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a heart you have abag of loose dust. Someone has described love to you. You have had itdescribed to you. You have heard that it is a small, fearful, selfishjoy. It is not that—it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, andbloody.... How should you know.”

  “Selfishness has far too many disguises.”

  “If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?”

  “Only do not deceive yourself. Act decisively, or fate will be too swiftfor you both.”

  Sullenbode studied him through her lashes. “Do you mean death—his deathas well as mine?”

  “You go too far, Corpang,” said Maskull, turning a shade darker. “Idon’t accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes.”

  “If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead.”

  The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers. “I wish you to staywith us.”

  “Why?”

  “I think you may know what you are talking about. I don’t wish to bringharm to Maskull. Presently I’ll leave you.”

  “That will be best,” said Corpang.

  Maskull looked angry. “I shall decide—Sullenbode, whether you go on, orback, I stay with you. My mind is made up.”

  An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her effortsto conceal it. “Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?”

  He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered brows.After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly. “Wait, Sullenbode!”

  The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the womansmiled. Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her lips. Then herelinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.

  “How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?”

  “It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull.”

  “Hereafter, never dare to come between us. Sullenbode belongs to me.”

  “Then I say no more; but you are a fated man.”

  From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of theothers.

  A heavy gleam appeared in the woman’s eyes. “Now things 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 stand lower than Corpang.”

  “Where you go, I will go.”

  “And I—as long as your love endures, I will accompany you—even toAdage.”

  “Do you doubt its lasting?”

  “I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I refused to tell youbefore. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love meno longer, I must die.”

  “And why?” asked Maskull slowly.

  “Yes, that’s the responsibility you incurred when you kissed me for thefirst time. I never meant to tell you.”

  “Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?”

  “I have no other life but what you give me.”

  He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowlyplaced his arms around her body. During this embrace he turned verypale, but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.

  A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.

  They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky andnearer the south. They had descended many hundred feet, and thecharacter of the ridge began to alter for the worse. The thin snowdisappeared, and gave way to moist, boggy ground. It was all littlegrassy hillocks and marshes. They began to slip about and becomedraggled with mud. Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and themen followed in her tracks. The southern half of the landscape grewgrander. The greenish light of the brilliant moon, shining on themultitude of snow-green peaks, caused it to appear like a spectralworld. Their nearest neighbour towered high above them on the other sideof the valley, due south, some five miles distant. It was a slender,inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock, the angles of which were toosteep to retain snow. A great upward-curving horn of rock sprang outfrom its topmost pinnacle. For a long time it constituted their cheiflandmark.

  The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture. The surfacesoil was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed in the dampmists by night, and breathed them out again by day, under Branchspell’srays. The walking grew first unpleasant, then difficult, and finallydangerous. None of the party could distinguish firm ground from bog.Sullenbode sank up to her waist in a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her,but after this incident took the lead himself. Corpang was the next tomeet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he tumbled intoliquid mud up to his shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death.After Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceededonce more; but now the scramble changed from bad to worse. Each step hadto be thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so thetest frequently failed. All of them went in so often, that in the endthey no longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plasteredfrom top to toe with black filth. The hardest work fell to Maskull. Henot only had the exhausting task of beating the way, but was continuallycalled upon to help his companions out of their difficulties. Withouthim they could not have got through.

  After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.Corpang’s breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless, anddepressed.

  Maskull gazed at them doubtfully. “Does this continue?” he inquired.

  “No. I think,” replied the woman, “we can’t be far from the MornstabPass. After that we shall begin to climb again, and then the road willimprove perhaps.”

  “Can you have been here before?”

  “Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then.”

  “You are tired out, Sullenbode.”

  “What of it?” she replied, smiling faintly. “When one has a terriblelover, one must pay the price.”

  “We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter wecome to.”

  “I leave it to you.”

  He paced up and down, while the others sat. “Do you regret anything?” hedemanded suddenly.

  “No, Maskull, nothing. I regret nothing.”

  “Your feelings are unchanged?”

  “Love can’t go back—it can only go on.”

  “Yes, eternally on. It is so.”

  “No, I don’t mean that. There is a climax, but when the climax has beenreached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to sacrifice.”

  “That’s a dreadful creed,” he said in a low voice, turning pale beneathhis coating of mud.

  “Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don’t know what Ifeel.”

  In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journeyrecommenced. Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.

  The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to drainoff the moisture of the soil. Sullenbode led them to the northern edgeof the ridge, to show them the nature of the country. The pass wasnothing but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the ridge, where it wasthe lowest above the underlying land. A series of huge broken terracesof earth and rock descended toward Barey. They were overgrown withstunted vegetation. It
was quite possible to get down to the lowlandsthat way, but rather difficult. On either side of the landslip, to eastand west, the ridge came down in a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs.A low haze concealed Barey from view. Complete stillness was in the air,broken only by the distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.

  Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country.The moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as anEarth day.

  “Tonight is like life,” said Sullenbode.

  “How so?”

  “So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.”

  Maskull sighed. “Poor girl, you are unhappy.”

  “And you—are you happy?”

  He thought a while, and then replied—“No. No, I’m not happy. Love is nothappiness.”

  “What is it, Maskull?”

  “Restlessness—unshed tears—thoughts too grand for our soul to think...”

  “Yes,” said Sullenbode.

  After a time she asked, “Why were we created, just to live for a fewyears and then disappear?”

  “We are told that we shall live again.”

  “Yes, Maskull?”

  “Perhaps in Muspel,” he added thoughtfully.

  “What kind of life will that be?”

  “Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious athing to remain uncompleted.”

  She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. “This dream isuntrue. Love is completed here.”

  “How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted byFate?”

  “It is completed by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be enjoyment forus? Can’t we suffer—can’t we go on suffering, forever and ever? Maskull,until love crushes our spirit, finally and without remedy, we don’tbegin to feel ourselves.”

  Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression. “Can the memory of lovebe worth more than its presence and reality?”

  “You don’t understand. Those pangs are more precious than all the restbeside.” She caught at him. “Oh, if you could only see inside my mind,Maskull! You would see strange things.... I can’t explain. It is allconfused, even to myself.... This love is quite different from what Ithought.”

  He sighed again. “Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong forhuman beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in differentways.”

  They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them withunseeing eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Sullenbode at last, with a smile, getting 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 both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage. At thepoint where they stood it was nearly a mile wide. It sloped perceptiblytoward the southern edge, giving all the earth the appearance of a heavylist. Toward the west the ground continued level for a thousand yards,but then a high, sloping, grassy hill went right across the ridge fromside to side, like a vast billow on the verge of breaking. It shut outall further view beyond. The whole crest of this hill, from one end tothe other, was crowned by a long row of enormous stone posts, shiningbrightly in the moonlight against a background of dark sky. There wereabout thirty in all, and they were placed at such regular intervals thatthere was little doubt that they had been set there by human hands. Somewere perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extremeantiquity was given to the entire colonnade. Corpang was seen climbingthe hill, not far from the top.

  “He wishes to arrive,” said Maskull, watching the energetic ascent witha rather cynical smile.

  “The heavens won’t open for Corpang,” returned Sullenbode. “He need notbe in such a hurry.... What do these pillars seem like to you?”

  “They might be the entrance to some mighty temple. Who can have plantedthem there?”

  She did not answer. They watched Corpang gain the summit of the hill,and disappear through the line of posts.

  Maskull turned again to Sullenbode. “Now we two are alone in a lonelyworld.”

  She regarded him steadily. “Our last night on this earth must be a grandone. I am ready to go on.”

  “I don’t think you are fit to go on. It will be better to go down thepass a little, and find shelter.”

  She half smiled. “We won’t study our poor bodies tonight. I mean you togo to Adage, Maskull.”

  “Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long, terribleclimb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?”

  She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand tohim. “Come, Maskull!”

  *****

  When they had covered half the distance that separated them from thefoot of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps. They came from behind thehill, and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He glanced at Sullenbode,but she appeared to hear nothing. A minute later the whole sky behindand above the long chain of stone posts on the crest of the hill beganto be illuminated by a strange radiance. The moonlight in that quarterfaded; the posts stood out black on a background of fire. It was thelight of Muspel. As the moments passed, it grew more and more vivid,peculiar, and awful. It was of no colour, and resembled nothing—it wassupernatural and indescribable. Maskull’s spirit swelled. He stood fast,with expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.

  Sullenbode touched him lightly.

  “What do you see, Maskull?”

  “Muspel-light.”

  “I see nothing.”

  The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood. It burnedwith a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before. He forgot theexistence of Sullenbode. The drum beats grew deafeningly loud. Each beatwas like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the sky and makingthe air tremble. Presently the crashes coalesced, and one continuousroar of thunder rocked the world. But the rhythm persisted—the fourbeats, with the third accented, still came pulsing through theatmosphere, only now against a background of thunder, and not ofsilence.

  Maskull’s heart beat wildly. His body was like a prison. He longed tothrow it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the sublimeuniverse which was beginning to unveil itself.

  Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissedhim—passionately, again and again. He made no response; he was unawareof what she was doing. She unclasped him and, with bent head andstreaming eyes, went noiselessly away. She started to go back toward theMornstab Pass.

  A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade. The thunder dieddown. The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside wereagain bright. In a short time the supernatural light had entirelyvanished, but the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled rhythm,from behind the hill. Maskull started violently, and stared around himlike a suddenly awakened sleeper.

  He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards off.At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, callingout.... She did not look around. When he had lessened the distancebetween them by a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and fall. She didnot get up again, but lay motionless where she fell.

  He flew toward her, and bent over her body. His worst fears wererealised. Life had departed.

  Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly Crystalmangrin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had never appeared so beautifulto him as at that moment.

  *****

  He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees. He wept—but,between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time, andlistened to the distant drum beats.

  An hour passed—two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west. Maskulllifted Sullenbode’s dead body on to his shoulders, and started to walktoward the Pass. He cared no more for Muspel. He intended to look forwater in which to wash the corpse of his beloved, and earth in which tobury her.

  When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which theyhad sat together, he lowered his burden, and,
placing the dead girl onthe stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over towardBarey.

  After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.