Chapter 20. BAREY
The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskullawoke from his miserable sleep. He sat up and yawned feebly. The air wascool and sweet. Far away down the landslip a bird was singing; the songconsisted of only two notes, but it was so plaintive and heartbreakingthat he scarcely knew how to endure it.
The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band ofchocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The atmosphere was blue-tinted, mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash nor Adage was visible.
The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had descendedthat distance overnight. The landslip continued downward, like a hugeflying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay perhapsfifteen hundred feet beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and theangle was excessively steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mileacross. On each side of it, east and west, the dark walls of the ridgedescended sheer. At the point where the pass sprang outward they weretwo thousand feet from top to bottom, but as the ridge went upward, onthe one hand toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attainedalmost unbelievable heights. Despite the great breadth and solidity ofthe pass, Maskull felt as though he were suspended in midair.
The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away markedSullenbode’s grave. He had interred her by the light of the moon, with along, flat stone for a spade. A little lower down, the white steam of ahot spring was curling about in the twilight. From where he sat he wasunable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately flowed, but itwas in that pool that he had last night washed first of all the deadgirl’s body, and then his own.
He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him dully.For a long time he eyed the grave. The half-darkness changed byimperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear. The skywas nearly cloudless. The whole wonderful extent of the mighty ridgebehind him began to emerge from the morning mist... there was a part ofSarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic Adage itself, which hecould only take in by throwing his head right back.
He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul. All hisdesires were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do nothing.He thought he would go to Barey.
He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sittingbeside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
Maskull thought that he was dreaming. The man was clothed in a skinshirt and breeches. His face was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyedMaskull without smiling or getting up.
“Where in the devil’s name have you come from, Krag?”
“The great point is, I am here.”
“Where’s Nightspore?”
“Not far away.”
“It seems a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two leave me insuch a damnable fashion?”
“You were strong enough to get through alone.”
“So it turned out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you’ve timed itwell. It seems I am to die today.”
Krag scowled. “You will die this morning.”
“If I am to, I shall. But where have you heard it from?”
“You are ripe for it. You have run through the gamut. What else is thereto live for?”
“Nothing,” said Maskull, uttering a short laugh. “I am quite ready. Ihave failed in everything. I only wondered how you knew.... So nowyou’ve come to rejoin me. Where are we going?”
“Through Barey.”
“And what about Nightspore?”
Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility. “We won’t wait for him.He’ll be there as soon as we shall.”
“Where?”
“At our destination.... Come! The sun’s rising.”
*****
As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell, hugeand white, leaped fiercely into the sky. All the delicacy of the dawnvanished, and another vulgar day began. They passed some trees andplants, the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in sleep.
Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
“How is it the sunshine doesn’t open them?”
“Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.”
“How long will it be before that sun rises?”
“Some time yet.”
“Shall I live to see it, do you think?”
“Do you want to?”
“At one time I did, but now I’m indifferent.”
“Keep in that humour, and you’ll do well. Once for all, there’s nothingworth seeing on Tormance.”
After a few minutes Maskull said, “Why did we come here, then?”
“To follow Surtur.”
“True. But where is he?”
“Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.”
“Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?... There issupernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehowconnected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what isSurtur?”
“Don’t disturb yourself about that. You will never know.”
“Do you know?”
“I know,” snarled Krag.
“The devil here is called Krag,” went on Maskull, peering into his face.
“As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.”
“Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I tobelieve of you?”
“Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman.”
They continued descending the landslip. The sun’s rays had growninsufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they weretravelling toward a lake district.
“What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,Krag? What happened to the torpedo?”
“You’re just about on the same mental level as a man who sees a brand-new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding.”
“What palace have you been building, then?”
“We have not been idle,” said Krag. “While you have been murdering andlovemaking, we have had our work.”
“And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?”
“Oh, you’re an open book. Now you’ve got a mortal heart wound on accountof a woman you knew for six hours.”
Maskull turned pale. “Sneer away, Krag! If you lived with a woman forsix hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your leatherheart. You haven’t even the feelings of an insect.”
“Behold the child defending its toys!” said Krag, grinning faintly.
Maskull stopped short. “What do you want with me, and why did you bringme here?”
“It’s no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect,” saidKrag, pulling him into motion again. “The distance has got to becovered, however often we pull up.”
When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through hisheart.
“I can’t go on regarding you as a man, Krag. You’re something more thana man—whether good or evil, I can’t say.”
Krag looked yellow and formidable. He did not reply to Maskull’s remark,but after a pause said, “So you’ve been trying to find Surtur on yourown account, during the intervals between killing and fondling?”
“What was that drumming?” demanded Maskull.
“You needn’t look so important. We know you had your ear to the keyhole.But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing for you, myfriend.”
Maskull smiled rather bitterly. “At all events, I listen through no morekeyholes. I have finished with life. I belong to nobody and nothing anymore, from this time forward.”
“Brave words, brave words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will makeone more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.”
“Now I don’t understand you.”
“You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don’t you? Well, that mayprove to be the last and strongest illusion of all.”
The conversation
ceased. They reached the foot of the landslip an hourlater. Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky. It wasapproaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not itwould clear its peak. The heat was sweltering. The long, massive,saucer-shaped ridge behind them, with its terrific precipices, wasglowing with bright morning colours. Adage, towering up many thousandsof feet higher still, guarded the end of it like a lonely Colossus. Infront of them, starting from where they stood, was a cool and enchantingwilderness of little lakes and forests. The water of the lakes was darkgreen; the forests were asleep, waiting for the rising of Alppain.
“Are we now in Barey?” asked Maskull.
“Yes—and there is one of the natives.”
There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskulldid not see it.
A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees,apparently waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, andbeardless, and was still in early manhood. He was clothed in a darkblue, loosely flowing robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat. Hisface, which was not disfigured by any special organs, was pale, earnest,and grave, yet somehow remarkably pleasing.
Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull’s hand, but evenwhile he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag. Thelatter responded with a scowling grin.
When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating baritone,but it was at the same time strangely womanish in its modulations andvariety of tone.
“I’ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,” he said. “Welcome toBarey, Maskull! Let’s hope you’ll forget your sorrows here, you over-tested man.”
Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. “What made you expectme, and how do you know my name?”
The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. “I’m Gangnet. Iknow most things.”
“Haven’t you a greeting for me too—Gangnet?” asked Krag, thrusting hisforbidding features almost into the other’s face.
“I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome.”
“And I know you, Gangnet—you man-woman.... Well, we are here together,and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the Ocean.”
The smile faded from Gangnet’s face. “I can’t drive you away, Krag—but Ican make you the unwelcome third.”
Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. “That bargainsuits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have theshadow, and much good may it do you.”
“Now that it’s all arranged so satisfactorily,” said Maskull, with ahard smile, “permit me to say that I don’t desire any society at all atpresent.... You take too much for granted, Krag. You have played thefalse friend once already.... I presume I’m a free agent?”
“To be a free man, one must have a universe of one’s own,” said Krag,with a jeering look. “What do you say, Gangnet—is this a free world?”
“Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man’s privilege,”returned Gangnet tranquilly. “Maskull is quite within his rights, and ifyou’ll engage to leave him I’ll do the same.”
“Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won’t get rid ofme so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.”
“It doesn’t matter,” muttered Maskull. “Let everyone join in theprocession. In a few hours I shall finally be free, anyhow, if what theysay is true.”
“I’ll lead the way,” said Gangnet. “You don’t know this country, ofcourse, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some miles farther down,we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must walk, Ifear.”
“Yes, you fear—you fear!” broke out Krag, in a highpitched, scrapingvoice. “You eternal loller!”
Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed tobe a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimateprevious acquaintance.
They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for amile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowedbeside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves wereall folded. There was no underbrush—they walked on clean, brown earth, Adistant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air waspleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lakeoutside looked cool and poetic.
Gangnet pressed Maskull’s arm affectionately. “If the bringing of youfrom your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would havebrought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escapedthe dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.”
“And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all thesame.”
“You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference whetherone sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the shadows.”
“A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatlyprefer to know it as it really is.”
“The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman’sthoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty andPleasantness. Even Krag won’t have the effrontery to deny that.”
“It’s very nice here,” said Krag, looking around him malignantly. “Oneonly wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to complete it.”
Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. “Last night, when I wasstruggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight—then I thought theworld beautiful.”
“Poor Sullenbode!” said Gangnet, sighing.
“What! You knew her?”
“I know her through you. By mourning for a noble woman, you show yourown nobility. I think all women are noble.”
“There may be millions of noble women, but there’s only one Sullenbode.”
“If Sullenbode can exist,” said Gangnet, “the world cannot be a badplace.”
“Change the subject.... The world’s hard and cruel, and I am thankful tobe leaving it.”
“On one point, though, you both agree,” said Krag, smiling evilly.“Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad.”
Gangnet glanced at him coldly. “We know your peculiar theories, Krag.You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could notgo on being, without pleasure.”
“So Gangnet thinks!” jeered Krag.
They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking alittle cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh seriesof lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountainslope, built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border theyhad been travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to thelower level in half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white andthrowing off spray. The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men foundit easy to negotiate.
At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and theyhad nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through theheart of it; they followed its bank.
“It has occurred to me,” said Maskull, addressing Gangnet, “that Alppainmay be my death. Is that so?”
“These trees don’t fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is awonderful, life-bringing sun.”
“The reason I ask is—I’ve seen its afterglow, and it produced suchviolent sensations that a very little more would have proved too much.”
“Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain itself,it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of willsinside you.”
“And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,” said Krag, grinning, “isCrystalman’s trump card.”
“How do you mean?”
“You’ll see. You’ll renounce the world so eagerly that you’ll want tostay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations.”
Gangnet smiled. “Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neitherenjoy, nor renounce. What are you to do?”
Maskull turned toward Krag. “It’s very odd, but I don’t understand yourcreed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?”
Krag s
eemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. “What,because they have left off stroking you?” he exclaimed, laughing andshowing his discoloured teeth.
“Whoever you are, and whatever you want,” said Maskull, “you seem verycertain of yourself.”
“Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn’t you!That would be an excellent way of destroying lies.”
Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped andpicked up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
“To eat?” asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
“Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one mustn’tinsult Krag by offering him a pleasure—especially such a low pleasure.”
Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the liquidcontents. They tasted rather alcoholic. Krag snatched the remaining eggout of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk, where it broke andstuck, a splash of slime.
“I don’t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a filthier sightthan a smashed pleasure?”
Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull’s arm.
After they had alternately walked through forests and descended cliffsand slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered. A steepmountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of miles,during which space the land must have dropped nearly four thousand feet,at a practically uniform gradient. Maskull had seen nothing like thisimmense slide of country anywhere. The hill slope carried an enormousforest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those theyhad hitherto passed through. The leaves of the trees were curled insleep, but the boughs were so close and numerous that, but for the factthat they were translucent, the rays of the sun would have beencompletely intercepted. As it was, the whole forest was flooded withlight, and this light, being tinged with the colour of the branches, wasa soft and lovely rose. So gay, feminine, and dawnlike was theillumination, that Maskull’s spirits immediately started to rise,although he did not wish it.
He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
“What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!” raspedKrag mockingly. “Why isn’t Sullenbode here?”
Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree. Kragrecovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a whitdiscomposed.
“Still what I said—was it true or untrue?”
Maskull gazed at him sternly. “You seem to regard yourself as anecessary evil. I’m under no obligation to go on with you any farther. Ithink we had better part.”
Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
“What do you say—do we part when Maskull pleases, or when I please?”
“Keep your temper, Maskull,” said Gangnet, showing Krag his back. “Iknow the man better than you do. Now that he has fastened onto youthere’s only one way of making him lose his hold, by ignoring him.Despise him—say nothing to him, don’t answer his questions. If yourefuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not here.”
“I’m beginning to be tired of it all,” said Maskull. “It seems as if Ishall add one more to my murders, before I have finished.”
“I smell murder in the air,” exclaimed Krag, pretending to sniff. “Butwhose?”
“Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on fire.”
“I’ll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this accursedforest?”
“It’s some way yet, but when we’re once out we can take to the water,and you will be able to rest, and think.”
“And brood comfortably over your sufferings,” added Krag.
None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into theopen day. The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced torun, rather than walk, and this would have prevented any conversation,even if they had otherwise felt inclined toward it. In less than half anhour they were through. A flat, open landscape lay stretched in front ofthem as far as they could see.
Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water. It was asuccession of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of tree-covered land. The lake immediately before them had its small end to theforest. It was there about a third of a mile wide. The water at thesides and end was shallow, and choked with dolm-colored rushes; but inthe middle, beginning a few yards from the shore, there was aperceptible current away from them. In view of this current, it wasdifficult to decide whether it was a lake or a river. Some littlefloating islands were in the shallows.
“Is it here that we take to the water?” inquired Maskull.
“Yes, here,” answered Gangnet.
“But how?”
“One of those islands will serve. It only needs to move it into thestream.”
Maskull frowned. “Where will it carry us to?”
“Come, get on, get on!” said Krag, laughing uncouthly. “The morning’swearing away, and you have to die before noon. We are going to theOcean.”
“If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?”
“Gangnet will murder you.”
“You lie!” said Gangnet. “I wish Maskull nothing but good.”
“At all events, he will be the cause of your death. But what does itmatter? The great point is you are quitting this futile world.... Well,Gangnet, I see you’re as slack as ever. I suppose I must do the work.”
He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was upto his thighs. The island was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feetfrom end to end. It was composed of a sort of light brown peat; therewas no form of living vegetation on its surface. Krag went behind it,and started shoving it toward the current, apparently without havingunduly to exert himself. When it was within the influence of the streamthe others waded out to him, and all three climbed on.
The voyage began. The current was not travelling at more than two milesan hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and there wasno shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the edge, andperiodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunchesnext to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick steps, like ananimal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more, and the width ofthe stream increased in proportion, until they seemed to themselves tobe floating on the bosom of some broad, flowing estuary.
Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet’s hat, crushing ittogether in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
“Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?” he asked with a harshguffaw—“Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has seen it somewhere.”
Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom. Hisdark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and noble,and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man that wasstrangely appealing to the feelings.
“Let Maskull judge,” he said with proud composure, “whether I haveanything to be ashamed of.”
“There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,” mutteredMaskull, staring hard at him.
“A capital valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happenswhen poets try to carry through practical enterprises?”
“What enterprises?” asked Maskull, in astonishment.
“What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.”
“There are two forms of practical activity,” replied Gangnet calmly.“One may either build up, or destroy.”
“No, there’s a third species. One may steal—and not even know one isstealing. One may take the purse and leave the money.”
Maskull raised his eyebrows. “Where have you two met before?”
“I’m paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull, but once upon a time Gangnetpaid me a visit.”
“Where?”
“In my home—whatever that is. Gangnet is a common thief.”
“You are speaking in riddles, and I don’t understa
nd you. I don’t knoweither of you, but it’s clear that if Gangnet is a poet, you’re abuffoon. Must you go on talking? I want to be quiet.”
Krag laughed, but said no more. Presently he lay down at full length,with his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, andsnoring disagreeably. Maskull kept glancing over at his yellow,repulsive face with strong disfavour.
Two hours passed. The land on either side was more than a mile distant.In front of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the LichstormMountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had gatheredtogether. The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of astrange colour. It was an intense jale-blue. The whole northernatmosphere was stained with ulfire.
Maskull’s mind grew disturbed. “Alppain is rising, Gangnet.”
Gangnet smiled wistfully. “It begins to trouble you?”
“It is so solemn—tragical, almost—yet it recalls me to Earth. Life wasno longer important—but this is important.”
“Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you willbe like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day. Thenyou will ask yourself how you could have been blind.”
The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in thenorth, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinarycolours, among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principalcharacter of an ordinary dawn is mystery, the outstanding character ofthis dawn was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but theheart. Maskull felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate thesunrise, and make it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormentedhim, like the opening bars of a supernatural symphony.
When he looked back to the south, Branchspell’s day had lost its glare,and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. Heinstinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness tolight.
“If those were Crystalman’s thoughts that you showed me before, Gangnet,these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I am feeling now,he must have felt before me.”
“He is all feeling, Maskull—don’t you understand that?”
Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did notreply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with thebeginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obviousthat Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had bythis time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides theywere surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out allsight of land. Krag was still sleeping—an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.
Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its darkgreen colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
“Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?”
“Yes.”
“Then nothing remains except my death.”
“Don’t think of death, but life.”
“It’s growing brighter—at the same time, more sombre. Krag seems to befading away....”
“There is Alppain!” said Gangnet, touching his arm.
The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea. Maskull wasstruck to silence. He was hardly so much looking, as feeling. Hisemotions were unutterable. His soul seemed too strong for his body. Thegreat blue orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an awful eye watchinghim.... it shot above the sea with a bound, and Alppain’s day commenced.
“What do you feel?” Gangnet still held his arm.
“I have set myself against the Infinite,” muttered Maskull.
Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful ideaswept through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
“Why, Gangnet—I am nothing.”
“No, you are nothing.”
The mist closed in all around them. Nothing was visible except the twosuns, and a few feet of sea. The shadows of the three men cast byAlppain were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
“Then nothing can hurt me,” said Maskull with a peculiar smile.
Gangnet smiled too. “How could it?”
“I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scrapedaway, leaving me clean and free.”
“Do you now understand life, Maskull?”
Gangnet’s face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual beauty;he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
“I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more. But this islife.”
“Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?” said a jeering voiceabove them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his feet.
They both rose. At the same moment the gathering mist began to obscureAlppain’s disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
“What do you want with us, Krag?” asked Maskull with simple composure.
Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds. The water lapped aroundthem.
“Don’t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?”
Maskull made no response. Krag rested an arm lightly on his shoulder,and suddenly he felt sick and faint. He sank to the ground, near theedge of the island raft. His heart was thumping heavily and queerly; itsbeating reminded him of the drum taps. He gazed languidly at therippling water, and it seemed to him as if he could see right throughit... away, away down... to a strange fire....
The water disappeared. The two suns were extinguished. The island wastransformed into a cloud, and Maskull—alone on it—was floating throughthe atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire—the fire of Muspel. Thelight mounted higher and higher, until it filled the whole world....
He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, withouttop or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was dealingterrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer. The rhythmical,clanging sounds were hideous.
Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drumbeats. “What are you doing, Krag?” he asked.
Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
“Beating on your heart, Maskull,” was his grinning response.
*****
The cliff and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in theair—but it was not Gangnet—it was Crystalman. He seemed to be trying toescape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and licking him,whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire caught him. Heshrieked horribly. Maskull caught one glimpse of a vulgar, slobberingface—and then that too disappeared.
*****
He opened his eyes. The floating island was still faintly illuminated byAlppain. Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
“What is this Ocean called?” asked Maskull, bringing out the words withdifficulty.
“Surtur’s Ocean.”
Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time. He rested his face on hisarm. “Where’s Nightspore?” he asked suddenly.
Krag bent over him with a grave expression. “You are Nightspore.”
The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,“Who are you?”
Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull’s heart, andhe died immediately.
Krag turned his head around. “The night is really past at last,Nightspore.... The day is here.”
Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull’s body. “Why was all thisnecessary?”
“Ask Crystalman,” replied Krag sternly. “His world is no joke. He has astrong clutch—but I have a stronger... Maskull was his, but Nightsporeis mine.”