The Night Land, a Story Retold

by James Stoddard

  "At least the cloak is clean," she said, "though it's soaked. It isn't as cold here, is it?"

  "No. The fires help, but the air is getting warmer."

  As we sat there, I realized how beautiful Naani had looked in the bath, though I had seen her only during a moment of stark panic. Though the image stirred my desire, I felt more than mere lust: I had never known before how a woman could be so beautiful and yet so holy. Even with Mirdath I had not realized this until after she died. Yet love hallows all things.

  Naani brought me from my reverie by wrinkling her nose. "Something smells." She sniffed the air experimentally. "Ah, its you. Your turn. I'll keep watch. Hand me the diskos."

  "Be careful with it," I said, giving it to her grudgingly. "Use it only if you can't get it to me. Remember, it can turn on those other than its master."

  "I remember."

  She helped me undo my armor, then stepped away. As she took the watch, she leaned on the diskos as I had done and cast a roguish glance over her shoulder. She spoke in as deep a voice as she could manage, "You need fear nothing. I am on guard." The oversized cloak and the weapon, which was too large for her, made her look both sweet and ridiculous.

  Not knowing if any other snakes would appear, I did not enter the pool, but cleaned myself by dipping my helmet into the water and pouring it over me. I washed in haste, hating to remain defenseless for long. The water felt soft and filmy beneath my hands, no doubt caused by the minerals within the basin. When I finished, I rinsed my pocket cloth, which was fairly large, then wrung it out and wrapped it about my loins.

  "I'm more or less proper," I said.

  She turned, and I could not help noticing as her eyes ran over my body. She smiled slightly, suppressed it, and turned quite red. To hide her embarrassment, she hurried to kiss me and hand back the diskos. I grinned in response. I have always prided myself on my strength and athletic ability, but to see that pride reflected in her eyes meant a great deal. Having no fear of harming her since I was not wearing my armor, I swept her into my arms and hugged her to my chest. She kissed me once passionately, and then I set her down before I could be overcome by desire.

  To dry ourselves, we stood as close to the fire-hole as we dared, for its flames scorched our faces. I held the diskos and kept watch while she washed first her body vest, then the rest of our few garments. Afterward, she set them to dry upon some hot boulders.

  When all was dry and we were dressed, Naani took my hand and set my arm about her waist. She leaned her head against my breast and demurely raised her lips to me. I kissed her tenderly, and she looked up at me from beneath her long, fine lashes and gave a dainty growl, like a wolf intent on devouring me.

  We laughed together, and I kissed her again. Carrying our gear, we climbed up to the cave. As was our custom, I placed a boulder at the mouth of the opening to warn of intruders. We slept eight good hours, though sometime in the night, through the haze of slumber, I thought I felt Naani kissing my cheeks and forehead. I meant to open my eyes, to catch her at it, but fell back asleep instead.

  ***

  I woke to find the boulder still securely anchored in front of the opening and Naani making breakfast. Seeing me, she grinned, came over, and gave me a kiss. She had managed to arrange her hair somewhat with the comb from my pouch, and though I suppose we both looked ragged, at the time I thought her radiant. When she smiled, she smiled with her whole soul; that was Naani's way.

  "You should have woken me. I could have helped with breakfast."

  She laughed and stuck her tongue out at me. "Such an arduous task. Here is the main course."

  She put her tablets to my lips so I could kiss them, then kissed mine and gave them to me.

  We kept a good schedule throughout the day, stopping to eat and drink at every sixth hour. By the fourteenth hour, despite my walking a little slower than normal, Naani began to stumble as she went. Without speaking, I scooped her into my arms.

  "Andros, don't! We've already had this discussion. I can walk behind you if you're concerned about snakes."

  "I'm not."

  "You'll overexert yourself." She kicked her legs up and down helplessly. "Put me down!"

  "As small as you are, I could carry you for miles. You're worn out and I don't want to stop yet."

  She must have been truly weary, for she quit protesting at once. The truth is I loved to carry her; it cheered me knowing I could cradle her like a child from all the dangers of the night. And I think she loved being in my arms.

  After traveling four hours we spent a peaceful night's slumber on the ledge where I had killed the spider on my first journey.

  The next three days passed without incident. I always carried Naani part of the journey, for her month alone and our continuous traveling took a terrible toll on her endurance. More than anything, my carrying her spared her feet, which were always tormented by blisters. The more I learned about her, the more I loved her; she had the sweetest spirit and the sunniest personality, much like Mirdath but different as well, both more thoughtful and more direct.

  We began encountering scorpions the size of small dogs. Some fled from us, but many were fat and lazy, and rose to bar our path. Their stings could not penetrate my armor, and I kicked a good number of them out of the way, some bursting when I did so.

  We also saw several snakes, but they mostly ignored us, and I picked my path as carefully as I could, avoiding as much as possible the dark places between the boulders where such creatures liked to lie. When I was not carrying Naani, we kept to our plan of my walking in front of her.

  Sometimes, as I carried her, Naani spoke of the ancient days, though we never discussed this as much as might be imagined. Often it was merely because we had to remain vigilant, but it was also because we were creatures of that future age, and our memories of our previous lives were like the memories of childhood, or the dream of a paradise where the sun shone in the sky and wind and rain were the friends of humankind. Though we knew the truth of it, it seemed distant and a little unreal. When we did speak of it, it was sweet to our souls, holy and far off, like a mist shining on golden lights, full of pleasure and bittersweet pain.

  Once, when Naani spoke of her life in the Lesser Redoubt she grew somber, curled her head on my shoulder, and wept. I said nothing, but held her close, knowing how natural such grief was for one who had lost her whole world. That, I understood quite well.

  When I could recognize them, I pointed out the caves and crannies where I had slept on my original journey. This fascinated her, as if I spoke of deeds done ages before.

  We often caught glimpses of strange things lurking among the boulders. None approached us, but I knew where my diskos was at every moment. I remained constantly alert, though the monotony of the journey sometimes made it difficult.

  During that time, we often passed fire-holes and fire-pits, and the flames sputtered at random along the gorge, making the walls leap into sight for an instant, only to fall back into shadow. Sometimes we walked among the muttering of the fire-pits, sometimes among the silence.

  The air gradually grew warmer and more thick, and it took time for us to adjust to it. We had to learn, as I had the first time, not to put as much powder into the cup to keep the water from foaming over the lip.

  I began to tell her of the Country of the Seas. She listened with fascination, the way a child listens who has never seen the ocean, and she asked many questions about it. Most of my answers were undoubtedly incorrect, for like herself I knew more of pyramids and metal halls than of seas and volcanoes.

  In the sixth hour of the fourth day I showed her the ledge where I had slept when I first entered the gorge, and in the eleventh hour, after traveling through a deep gloom, we perceived a distant shining.

  "Look," I told her, pointing. "We've reached it. It's down there."

  With a burst of laughter, she suddenly sprinted toward the glow. At first, I was anxious for her safety, but I soon caught up with her, and we ran together, occasionally stumblin
g but never halting, like two mad children, rushing for the light.

  XV

  THE ANCIENT WOODS

  We halted our headlong flight between the base of the mountains, just beyond the mouth of the Upward Gorge. Naani looked all around her, her eyes bright with wonder, her breathing rapid, but as she glanced back into the entrance to the gorge, her expression filled with such fear that I whirled around, thinking something approached from behind. Though I saw nothing, I understood her dread, for the maw of the ravine loomed so black and foreboding it seemed impossible for us to have won our way through it.

  "Come away," Naani said, taking my hand.

  Together we trotted farther into the warm glow of the Country of the Seas, then paused again. Naani glanced back only once more, her face suffused with awe and relief, before turning to inspect the new land. Her eyes darted this way and that, her breathing came labored, heavy in the thick air.

  "Oh, Andros. I never knew there could be so much light! And the distances! I can see so far. Would my voice carry all that way?" To my astonishment she suddenly shouted with all her might, "Hello! We are here!"

  After so much time spent whispering in the dark, she could hardly be blamed for wanting to yell, yet it startled me terribly. Our upbringing in the pyramids generally made us soft-spoken, and her outburst seemed out of character. I certainly did not want to alert the land to our presence. Before I could hush her, an echo resounded from the dark mountains to our backs, causing us to whirl around in alarm. Having so little experience with reverberations, the sound of Naani's returning voice dismayed us. Her face turned pale and she clamped her hands over her mouth.

  "Let's get out of the open," I said.

  We hurried down the slope, away from the gaping gorge, and climbed breathlessly onto a flat rock rising a few feet off the ground to rest and eat. I kept a sharp lookout for almost half an hour, to insure Naani's shout had not roused an enemy, but when nothing dangerous appeared, we relaxed a little and sat close together, enjoying seeing one another in such radiance.

  She asked many questions about the country which I could not answer, and she pointed out many curious objects roundabout. But her eyes turned more and more to the fiery illumination of the sea to our left, and she soon grew uneasy.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "I remember—" she began, but her voice failed. I took her hand and she continued. "I remember moonlight on the ocean, like shining silver, the surf washing against the rocks, the cries of gulls. I remember tremendous trees, their leaves spreading overhead while I lay in tall grass, the scent of clover all around. I remember—" Again she hesitated, then threw herself against my armored shoulder, weeping while I stroked her hair.

  "Oh, Andros, it's all gone! It was so beautiful! Could there ever have been such a world? Am I mad to believe it?"

  "Not unless we both are." Her words filled me with the full loss of that former life, and we held each other in silence.

  Finally, Naani spoke. "But why us? Out of all the millions who have ever lived, why should we be given another chance?"

  "I don’t know. Perhaps because we weren't finished. Whatever the cause, it is a tremendous gift, to be able to see you again." Tears sprang to my eyes.

  "But to be here, when we could be there! Mirdath and Andrew lived in such a beautiful world. It was paradise. If only we could go back."

  "I don't want to go back," I said firmly, a lump rising in my throat. "I don't ever want to go back, because you aren't there any more. When you . . . died, everything ended. I was so lonely. Once it might have been paradise, but it became a torment for me."

  I broke down then. "Oh, Mirdath! I have missed you so."

  So we wept together, and I am not ashamed of weeping, for if a man cannot mourn such a loss, what sort of man is he? Afterward, we held each other close and talked for a long time, trying to recall all we could of that previous existence.

  ***

  Beyond the mountain to our left, beside the shore of the sea, rose the steaming mist I had passed through on my outward journey. We set out for it along the base of the mountains with the intention of eating and resting before crossing. Our way seemed effortless compared to the gorge, and we kept a good pace. After six hours, while still some distance from the beginning of the mist, we stopped, having journeyed almost eighteen hours. We camped on a tall, flat rock with a twelve foot radius; the climb proved steeper than I anticipated, but Naani handled it bravely. We ate, drank, and fell quickly asleep, for we were both exhausted from travel and excitement. Because the country was so warm, we slept with the cloak beneath us.

  Seven hours later we woke, still delighted at the sheer amount of light. Naani came into my arms and we kissed. I loved her so desperately. "I wish I had a breast pocket big enough to put you in," I said, "to keep you close to my heart."

  She laughed mischievously. "If you did, I would tickle you until you couldn't stand me."

  We kissed again, and she retrieved the comb from my pouch. She arranged her hair while we talked, and though I kept a careful watch, I felt light-hearted as a child. I still feared the Humped Men and other dangers, but I did not believe any Evil Forces lived in the Country of the Seas.

  When Naani finished combing her hair, she started to tie it up on her head, but I told her how pretty I thought it was lying on her shoulders, so she left it down. We ate a leisurely breakfast, but ended up hurrying to pack our gear out of guilt at our dawdling. As we prepared to descend from the rock, we looked out at the mountains surrounding the Upward Gorge. From this distance, we could see their true enormity, monstrous walls rising beyond the volcanic light into the dark night of the deadly upper world.

  I experienced Naani's amazement with her, for though I had seen all these wonders during my original journey, my mind had been focused on my quest to the exclusion of all else.

  "The world is a mysterious place," she said at last. "I wonder which is more alien, the sunlight and forests of the past, or these stark walls of stone?"

  We descended the rock easily enough and were soon on our way. After traveling only a brief while, we heard the far hissing of steam and the eruptions of the geysers, sounds that frightened Naani until I explained what they were. We soon entered the clouds of steam, where we traveled more than three hours. I kept my love behind me to prevent her from stepping into a boiling pool, and we tried to steer by keeping the seashore to our left. This proved difficult since we could only see about a dozen feet in any direction and were often confused by the innumerable, scattered pools.

  The shrieks and whistles of the geysers startled us constantly, for they sounded like leviathans rising from the depths, and the earth often quaked beneath us, only to subside to a deathly hush. The steam rolled all around like ghosts of the dead.

  Finally, the air cleared and we left the roaring waters behind. The gargantuan trees of the great forest sprawled to our right, and Naani clapped her hands in admiration.

  "I was wrong," she said. "The trees aren't all gone. Can I pluck a leaf?"

  "Who am I to say?" I laughed. "Help yourself."

  Hand in hand we walked into the forest, and for an instant Naani's smile was so much like Mirdath's it took my breath away.

  "They aren't the same as the old ones," she said wistfully, "but they are still trees." She went to the nearest trunk, put her head among the leaves, and smelled them.

  "I don't know," she said. "I can't remember, but the scent seems right."

  She led me from tree to tree, until she had collected a leaf from every type we saw, of which there were at least a dozen.

  "They're giants," she said. "Like guardians of the earth. Were they always so tall?"

  "I think so, though I can't remember clearly. I have forgotten so much. But I miss them."

  ***

  At the sixth hour we ate and rested. Naani washed in a warm pool while I stood guard, then we traded places. One of the most wonderful things about that Country was that we could keep clean while we traveled.

/>   Afterward, we walked until we drew opposite the volcanic island I had watched while sleeping in a tree during my original trip. Naani and I traveled much slower than I had then, partially because of our fatigue from the journey down the gorge, partially because this land seemed a paradise to us. When I told her of sleeping in the trees, she insisted we climb one to eat our meal.

  "I haven't climbed a tree in a million years," she said.

  "Perhaps longer, but what about your fear of heights?"

  "After all the climbing I've done lately, I won't let it stop me."

  Nor did she. Perhaps our frantic flight from the slug gave her new confidence, but she made a graceful ascent to the lowest branches. We ate sitting in a forking of four boughs, I slightly below Naani, looking up at her. For a moment, it seemed as if sunlight gleamed off her hair, though it was only the volcanoes’ glow. When we finished eating, she drew her knife, cut a small portion of the bark, and put it in my pouch.

  "A keepsake, and a memento to show your people," she said. "At one time I wanted to be a gardener in the Underground Fields."

  "What changed your mind?"

  "Once we learned I had the Night Hearing, my father said I had a higher calling to work in the Tower of Observation. He was right, of course."

  "Did you like it?"

  "At times. It was an important position and everyone said how lucky I was. I still went down to the Underground Fields and worked, to get the earth between my hands. I could think there."

  Her face turned bleak. "I suppose it will all die without the Earth Current. All the flowers." She looked around at the branches. "We should get down. We need to be on our way."

  As we went, I talked about my original journey to take her mind off her grief, and she began to ask questions. Her inquiries made me realize that though it seemed a lifetime ago, only seventeen days had passed since I had first crossed this country.