The Night Land, a Story Retold

by James Stoddard

  In a moment I knew the answer, for enormous Black Mounds rocked and swayed all along the boundary of The Circle. My soul recoiled in horror, for these were living manifestations of Forces of Evil. No one could help me, for the soul of any human venturing outside The Circle would be instantly and utterly lost. Only the hovering halo of light protected Naani and me from destruction.

  The hundred thousand warriors shouted, urging me on. I pressed to within four score paces of the Circle, where a herd of squat, brutish men rushed out of the shadows, creatures no taller than my chest, but powerfully built. They mobbed around us and caught at Naani, trying to tear her from my arms.

  For an instant I was trapped, unable to both guard my love and use the diskos. I kicked with my metal boots, to create a space, then whirled swiftly around and wrenched free. I leapt backward with the brutes after me, but now had room to use my weapon. I rushed among them, striking swiftly to the right and left in a circling motion. The diskos spun and roared, shining its eerie light upon the men's faces, revealing animal eyes and the tusks of pigs.

  I raged through them, laying to every side, while they struck at me with heavy stones, so my armor rang and broke. More than once, the jarring blows nearly overwhelmed me. Naani was spared only because the beast-men were short enough that I carried her above their reach, draped over my shoulder.

  Though I plunged always toward the light of The Circle, my foes' numbers seemed endless. The growls of the beast-men and the fierce shouts of the hundred thousand roared all around me. Many of the warriors tried to reach me, but their comrades held them back from dying a useless death.

  I was less than fifty paces from The Circle, but was so wounded and dazed, so ill with weariness, and the despair and madness of my journey, that I began to stumble. At that moment, all the sleepless miles fell upon me at once. As I dropped to one knee, a single thought swept through my mind: I'm so tired. Soon I will sleep.

  The brutes rushed toward me. I rose and lifted my diskos to give final battle, but oh! how bitter it was, the thought of failing so close to my goal.

  Suddenly, the beasts screamed as lances of flame struck them from behind. Those before me gave back. I looked around. To my astonishment, a wise commander within The Circle had ordered his warriors to hurl their diskoi like spears. Such a plan showed tremendous ingenuity; our weapons were too precious to throw away, so no one had ever used a diskos in such a manner before. Under the onslaught, the herd thinned out in front of me. I gathered my strength and gave a last, despairing charge, striking, never ceasing to strike, leaving dead brutes in my wake. I broke through the herd and stepped over The Circle.

  A hundred hands reached out as if to help me, but none touched me. Rather, the warriors gave back, as if overawed. I stood in their sudden silence, the diskos running blood down its handle. I must have rocked unsteadily, for many raised their hands as if to help, but then drew back again, hushed.

  We stared at one another. With gasping breath I tried to tell them I needed a doctor for Naani.

  "I need . . . I need . . ."

  I heard the sound of giants running in the night. The company began to all speak at once.

  "Call a physician!"

  "Get him inside."

  "Beware the giants!"

  "The Halo has vanished."

  "So have the Black Mounds."

  The Night Land roared its frustration and pain. The Laughter rolled from the east. I heard it all through a haze. At last I became aware of a constant, murmuring from above. As if in a dream, I glanced up, recognizing the shouts of the millions flowing down the lofty miles.

  "A physician," I managed at last to the man nearest me. "She needs a physician."

  The Master of the Diskos, being of the rank we would call a commander in the present age, appeared before me. He made the Salute of Honor with the diskos. "The physicians are coming. They were trapped when the lifts failed, but are on their way. All the power faltered after we used the weapon: the air pumps, the lifts, everything. Let me take her."

  He tried to lift her from my arms, but I clung to her. I said, very slowly. "I need a physician. She is dying. I need a physician."

  Someone tried to reach their hand out to steady me, for I swayed back and forth on my heels, but I glared at them so violently they withdrew, not daring to touch either me or Naani.

  At that moment the warriors parted, opening a lane between myself and The Portal. A team of physicians rushed out, a short fellow, the Master Healer, foremost among them.

  "We need to lay her down," he said.

  Someone produced a cot, and I laid Naani upon it. The Healer made a sign, and the warriors around us turned their backs, forming a protective curtain between ourselves and the others.

  Using his instruments, the healer examined Naani. The whole pyramid fell silent, so only the rumblings of the Night Land were heard.

  The physician looked up, his eyes filled with pity. He shook his head.

  My Naani was dead.

  He bowed his head above her and slowly covered her face with a white cloth. He offered no words of comfort; he knew none would help. He rose quickly from kneeling beside her.

  "Gondril," he said to the Master of the Diskos. "Help Andros into the pyramid. I need six to carry her as well."

  He looked keenly at me, while I fought to breathe, but when the warriors came to help me I waved them off and stood above Naani's body, glaring at them. I must have looked dreadful, with blood running down my face and my armor, for no one dared approach. They looked at the doctor, who said, "Very well. Leave them be."

  I stooped, kissed Naani on the forehead, and lifted her into my arms for our last journey.

  As I passed down the lane of the hundred thousand, all dressed in their gray armor, each gave the silent salute of the reversed diskos, their empathy and anguish burning in their eyes. No one spoke. For myself, I scarcely knew anything except that the world lay quiet and empty. I had failed my task, and my Naani lay dead in my arms.

  A hundred of her sweet acts of love poured through my mind. I suddenly remembered I had never awakened to discover her kissing me in my sleep as I had meant to do. A mad anguish swept through my numb brain; I could scarcely see. I must have faltered, for I suddenly found the Master Healer steadying me, though he released me at once when I straightened and recovered my way.

  As I approached The Portal, the lights flickered, then began burning brighter, as the Earth Current returned to its former levels. The lifts and the air pumps came back on with low hums. The Portal, which had been shut, now rumbled open.

  A number of the Masters of the Great Pyramid came out to greet me, the Master Monstruwacan hurrying before all of them. He did not know of Naani's death until one of the warriors told him, and then he slowed his approach. Seeing the look on my face, he refrained from rushing to embrace me, but stepped back, the other Masters with him, and watched in silence as I went by.

  A continuous murmuring fluttered through the night, as the millions of inhabitants sought news. With the opening of The Portal, the report of Naani's death sped upward through the miles. I felt in my spirit, as if in a dream, the grief of the multitudes as they learned her fate, but this gave me no comfort. Neither could I yet grasp the depth of my loss. I was too stunned.

  As I entered The Portal, I found the Full Watch arrayed in their armor, standing in silent respect, giving the Salute of Honor as I carried my love.

  Those around me guided me to the main lift, while the Masters walked behind me. Once on the lift, Cartesius stood to my left, the Master Healer to my right. I remember the lift passing many staring multitudes, though I paid them no heed. A hush fell upon them as they saw me, so that a silence swept up the pyramid, save for the sounds of weeping.

  Cartesius and the Master Healer exchanged worried glances, and I suddenly realized I was standing in my own blood, which was seeping from dozens of wounds. Still, the physician hesitated to help me. Perhaps, knowing my heart was dead within me, he did not wish to wake me
too quickly to my dreadful pain. When my head began to whirl, he tried to ease Naani from my grasp, but I held her dumbly while my blood spilled to the ground. I looked at Cartesius, who was speaking to me. I could not understand what he said, but it struck me that his face seemed very kind and human. A peculiar humming filled my ears; the Monstruwacan held me up while beckoning to those behind me.

  Just before the blackness took me, gentle arms wrapped themselves around my broken armor.

  ***

  I drifted in silence and half-dreams, where I seemed to be continuously carrying Naani in my arms, though sometimes it was Mirdath. At last I opened my eyes to find Cartesius sitting beside me, holding my hand. We were within a chamber of one of the Health Centers of my own city. For a long time I said nothing, and he watched me in silent concern.

  "She's dead," I finally murmured, feeling the full weight of her loss.

  "Yes," my friend said, "but she died in your arms, rather than in the darkness, alone. Surely your love brought her comfort."

  "I always meant to wake," I said, "to catch her kissing me."

  I began to sob so violently Cartesius feared I would reopen my wounds. A burning pain spread through my chest, and the Master Monstruwacan summoned the healer, who held an elixir under my nose. Eventually, it eased me back into the comfort of sleep, but before I drifted away, I heard Cartesius ask the physician in a low voice, "Is there any hope?"

  "Little, I think. His spirit is strong, but from the moment I saw him carrying her, I knew he would never survive if she died. He bends all his desire toward following her, and his wounds, which should heal, do not. I am nursing his strength, trying to get him through her funeral, but after that . . ."

  His voice fell away and I tumbled into a dreamless sleep.

  I remember waking and slumbering several times, and then waking more fully to find the Master Healer standing before me with two of his assistants.

  "Andros," the physician said, "it is time to send Naani back to the Earth Current."

  One of the assistants, a woman, brought me a loose garment, but I shook my head, dumbly, and looked about in confusion. The healer watched me intently, and then gave one of the men an order, though I did not hear what he said.

  In a few moments my broken armor and a body vest were hurried into the room.

  "Will you wear these?" the healer asked.

  I nodded and rose to a sitting position so they could dress me. Even as they did so, I sensed the grief of the multitudes making their way down toward the Country of Silence.

  After I was dressed, I tried to walk, but the doctor would not allow it. "You need to conserve your strength," he told me gently.

  At that moment Cartesius entered the room, adorned in his own gray armor, carrying his diskos. He took me by the shoulder, squeezing it gently. I had never seen such sorrow in his eyes before.

  "We have to send her off," I finally managed, my tone dull and dead. "It is the last thing to do."

  "Yes, it is. I'll be right there with you."

  They placed me on a sling, and carried me to the main lift, where a bed had been prepared. My old mentor bade me lie down, which I did. I think he and I both knew I would never return in the lift, or need a bed again.

  The pyramid looked deserted, for almost everyone had gone down to the Underground Fields, leaving only the Stress Masters standing guard at the lifts to supervise the movement of the masses. I watched them pass, one by one, as we slipped down the miles to the Country of Silence, lying a hundred miles deep in the world and stretching a hundred miles in every direction, consecrated to silence and the dead.

  The healer's assistants helped me from the lift, but when they tried to use a sling to carry me to The Last Road, I refused. Though trembling from weakness, I stood and held out my hand for my diskos. Cartesius took it from the man who carried it and gave it to me.

  Holding my old, trusty companion gave me strength as I walked steadily down the way leading to The Last Road, the Master Monstruwacan and the physician close behind.

  Surely, all the people in the world stood in that country. They spread across the rolling hills as far as I could see. When they sighted me, the ether stirred with their pity, and a murmur grew, like low, rolling thunder that passed back and forth across the country before dwindling into silence.

  I had been brought to a rise beside the beginning of The Last Road, which wound its way through a white metal gate, down to the vast golden glow of the Dome, the pulsing well of the Earth Current. A slight figure lay before me, dressed in a white robe stitched with all the colors of the sun, the loving work of many women. A white cloth covered her face. I rocked upon my feet, steadying myself with the diskos, and Cartesius grasped my arm to aid me. The healer tried to give me more medicine to breathe, but I refused after the first whiff; I knew I could bear the pain for the short time I had to live, and I wanted to remain alert in the precious moments left for me to be near my love.

  Cartesius and I left the others and walked down to the place where my dear Naani lay. Two maidens, dressed in white, knelt to the right and left of her. These, maidens because they watched over a maiden, represented Faithfulness. Had Naani been wed, they would have been married women. The place at the head of the bier, which represented Love, remained empty. The Master Monstruwacan led me there, then took his own position at Naani's feet, the place representing Honor. He reversed his diskos in silent salute to her. So we assumed the four positions which had been the custom for countless generations. I kept my eyes on Naani's funeral robe, embroidered with what we called yellow Flowers of Weeping, because she had died in love.

  Just then, a faraway sound rose and drew steadily closer, as all the people sang the Calling Song, millions chanting softly to millions, the sound passing toward us, then over us, then onward in hushed breaths, as if all the love in the world called in soft anguish to a lost beloved. The sound passed away over the Country of Silence, leaving only the noise of the weeping multitudes.

  The crowd stirred again, as a strange, low sound rose from beyond the Hills of the Infants, a noise like a wandering wind. This was the Song of Weeping, and it, too, passed around us and fell away into the dim distances.

  Cartesius glanced up at me, for the moment had come when I must part with Naani forever. I held no hope that she and I would ever meet again in this world, nor did I understand why we had been given a second chance at love, only to lose it in the end.

  I gathered my courage and stooped to lay my diskos beside my little darling there upon the Last Rest, and the two maidens drew back the white cloth covering her face. She looked so sweet, as if merely asleep, like a little child, her beautiful red-gold hair lying on her shoulders the way I always liked it. The pain in my heart told me that I died even as I looked. And that was well.

  I laid my head against her shoulder and wept.

  "I will find you," I whispered hoarsely, "if it is allowed. I will find you. Wait for me there."

  The Master Monstruwacan, with tears flowing down his own cheeks, left his place to clasp my shoulder.

  I struggled with myself, not wanting to leave her, but the sympathy of the millions gave me strength, and at last I pulled myself away, and the maidens covered her beautiful face.

  The Master Monstruwacan returned to his place, and raising his reversed diskos, said in a trembling voice, "Naani, last daughter of the Lesser Redoubt, our sister lost to us through all the darkness and ages, I commend your spirit to eternity and the hand of God."

  The Road began to move toward The Gateway, carrying my beloved away. I had to fight to keep breathing, for I did not want to die before she vanished from sight. Blood was running inside my armor; the strain of walking had reopened my wounds. I wondered dimly, after Naani was gone and I died, whether I would return to the empty existence of Andrew Eddins.

  A low moan and a whistling like a dree wind filled the air, as the multitudes wept, for though they guessed only a little of my story, it moved them greatly.

  I stood st
ill, mustering all my remaining strength to finish this last vigil before I died, drawing my breath as evenly as I could, watching the small form now far away, moving along the roadway. I scarcely noticed the Master Monstruwacan and the two maidens as they helped support me. I saw only my own darling, dwindling away.

  The bier reached the place where the Road passed into the luminous vapor surrounding the Earth Current, a faint, shining smoke drifting all around the base of the Dome. When the dead entered it, the light gave them an uncertain quality.

  I stared, holding on to the last, for in a minute she would enter the Current and be gone forever. The shifting vapors clung around her body, making her seem unreal. My eyes grew heavy as she began to fade from sight, and the pain in my chest worsened. I did not expect to survive her disappearance long.

  A strange, hoarse noise rose from those around me. At first, I could make nothing of it, but it grew until all the Country of Silence was filled with a thunder unknown since its inception. I roused myself from my pain and suddenly saw what they saw, for Naani seemed to move.

  "It is only the whirling of the vapors," I muttered, shaking my head. "The vapors."

  But Cartesius ordered the Road halted, and I clearly saw Naani raise herself from the bed.

  My strength returned to me in a rush, and all the power of the rejoicing spirits of the millions filled me with vitality. I sprang onto the migrator and ran like a madman, staggering as I went, shouting Naani's name, while the roof of the Country of Silence boomed with the exclamations of the people. At Cartesius' order, the road rolled back toward me, returning my love.

  Others ran behind me, but despite my wounds, I reached her first. She sat upon the conveyance, holding the face cloth in her hands, her eyes bright with wonder.

  When she saw me, she smiled.

  I fell beside her, then climbed to my hands and knees and raised myself to her side.

  "Andros," she said, her voice weak. "I woke to a golden mist and thought I was in heaven. Isn't that funny? Why is everything so bright?"

  My voice failed, and all I could do was clutch her hand.