The Worm Ouroboros, Eric Rücker Eddison [epub ebook reader txt] 📗

are about this charmed Lake of

Ravary. And here I hid it, being taught by the Gods what thing I had

found and knowing what was foreordained, that certain of earth should

come at last to Koshtra Belorn. Thinking in my heart that he that

should come might be of those who bare some great unfulfilled desire,

and might be of such might as could ride to his desire on such a

steed.”

 

They abode, talking little, by the charmed lake’s shore till evening.

Then they arose, and went with her to a pavilion by the lake, built in

a grove of flowering trees. Ere they went to rest, she brought them

the hippogriff’s egg, great as a man’s body, yet light of weight,

rough and coloured like gold. And she said, “Which of you, my lords?”

 

Juss answered, “He, if might and a high heart should only count; but

I, because my brother it is that we must free from his dismal place.”

 

So the Queen gave the egg to Lord Juss; and he, bearing it in his

arms, bade her goodnight, saying, “I need no other laudanum than this

to make me sleep.”

 

And the ambrosial might came down. And gentle sleep, softer than sleep

is on earth, closed their eyes in that pavilion beside the enchanted

lake.

 

Mivarsh slept not. Small joy had he of that Lake of Ravary, caring for

none of its beauties but mindful still of certain lewd bulks he had

seen basking by its shores all through the golden afternoon. He had

questioned one of the Queen’s martlets concerning them, who laughed at

him and let him know that these were crocodiles, wardens of the lake,

tame and gentle toward the heroes of bliss who resorted thither to

bathe and disport themselves. “But should such am one as thou,” she

said, “adventure there, they would chop thee up at a mouthful.” This

saddened him. And indeed, little ease of heart had he since he came

out of Impland, and dearly he desired his home, though it were sacked

and burnt, and the men of his own blood, though they should prove his

foes. And well he thought that if Juss should fly with Brandoch Daha

mounted on hippogriff to that cold mountain top where souls of the

great were held in bondage, he should never win back alone to the

world of men, past the frozen mountains, and the mantichores, and past

the crocodile that dwelt beside Bhavimam.

 

He lay awake an hour or twain, weeping quietly, until out of the giant

heart of midnight came to him with fiery clearness the words of the

Queen, saying that by the heat of great longing in his heart that

claspeth it must that egg be hatched, and that that man should then

mount and ride on the wind unto his heart’s desire. Therewith Mivarsh

sat up, his hands clammy with mixed fear and longing. It seemed to

him, awake and alone among the sleepers in that breathless night, that

no longing could be greater than his longing. He said in his heart, “I

will arise, and take the egg privily from the devil tramsmarine and

clasp it myself. I do him no wrong thereby, for said she not it was

perilous? Also every man raketh the embers to his own cake.”

 

So he arose, and came secretly to Juss where he lay with his strong

arms circling the egg. A beam of the moon came in by a window, shining

on the face of Juss, that was as the face of a God. Mivarsh bent over

him and teased the egg gently from his embrace, praying fervently the

while. And, for Juss was in a profound slumber, his soul mounting in

vision far from earth, far from that shore divine, to lone regions

where Goldry watched still in frozen mournful patience on the heights

of Zora, at last Mivarsh gat the egg and bare it to his bed. Very warm

it was, crackling to his ear as he embraced it, as of a power moving

from withinwards.

 

In such wise Mivarsh fell asleep, clasping the egg as a man should

clasp his dearest. And a little before dawn it hatched in his arms and

fell asunder, and he started awake, his arms about the neck of a

strange steed. It went forth into the pale light before the sunrise,

and he with it, holding it fast. The sheen of its hair was like the

peacock’s neck; its eyes like the changing fires of a star of a windy

night. Its nostrils widened to the breath of the dawn. Its wings

unfolded and grew stiff, their feathers like the tail-feathers of the

peacock pheasant, white with purple eyes, and hard to the touch as

iron blades. Mivarsh was mounted on its back, seizing the shining mane

with both hands, trembling. And now was he fain to descend, but the

hippogriff snorted and reared, and he, fearing a great fall, clung

closer. It stamped with its silver hoofs, flapping its wings, ramping

like a lioness, tearing up the grass with its claws. Mivarsh screamed,

torn between hope and fear. It plunged forward and leaped into the air

and flew.

 

The Demons, waked by the whirring of wings, rushed from the pavilion,

to behold that marvel flown against the obscure west. Wild was its

flight, like a snipe dipping and plunging. And while they looked, they

saw the rider flung from his seat and heard, some moments after, a

dull flop and splash of a body fallen in the lake.

 

The wild steed vanished, winging toward the upper air. Rings ran

outward from the splash, troubling the surface of the lake, marring

the dark reflection of Zora Rach mirrored in the sleeping waters.

 

“Poor Mivarsh!” cried Lord Brandoch Daha. “After all the weary leagues

I made him go with me.” And he threw off his cloak, took a dagger in

his teeth, and swam with great overarm strokes out to the spot where

Mivarsh fell. But nought he found of Mivarsh. Only he saw near by on

am island beach a crocodile, big and bloated, that eyed him guiltily

and stayed not for his coming, but lumbering into the water dived and

disappeared. So Brandoch Daha turned and swam ashore again.

 

Lord Juss stood as a man stricken to stone. As one despaired he turned

to the Queen, who now came forth to them wrapped in a mantle of

swansdowm; yet high he held his head. “O Queen Sophonisba, here is

that secret glome or bottom of our days, come when we sniffed the

sweetness of the morning.”

 

“My lord,” said she, “the flies hemerae take life with the sun and die

with the dew. But thou, if thou be truly great, join not hands with

desperation. Let the sad ending of this poor servant of thine be to

thee a monument against such folly. Earth is not ruined for a single

shower. Come back with me to Koshtra Belorn.”

 

He looked at the grand peak of Zora, dark against the wakening east.

“Madam,” he said, “thou hast little more than half my years, and yet

by another computation thou art seven times mine age. I am not light

of will, nor thou shalt not find me a fool to thee. Let us go back to

Koshtra Belorn.”

 

They brake their fast quietly and returned by the way they came. And

the Queen said, “My lords Juss and Brandoch Daha, there be few steeds

of such a kind to carry you to Zora Rach mam Psarrion, and not ye,

though ye be beyond the half-gods in your might and virtue, might have

power to ride them but if ye take them from the egg. So high they fly,

so shy they are, ye should not catch them though ye waited ten men’s

lifetimes. I will send my martlets to see if there be another egg in

the world.”

 

So she despatched them, north and west and south and east. And in due

time those little birds returned on weary wing, all save one, without

tidings.

 

“All have come back to me,” said the Queen, “save Arabella alone.

Dangers attend them in the world: birds of prey, men that slay little

birds for their sport. Yet hope with me that she may come back at

last.”

 

But the Lord Juss spake and said, “O Queen Sophonisba, to hope and

wait lieth not in my mature, but to be swift, resolute, and exact

whensoever I see my way before me. This have I ever approved, that the

strawberry groweth underneath the nettle still. I will assay the

ascent of Zora.”

 

Nor might all her prayers turn him from this rashness, wherein the

Lord Brandoch Daha besides did most eagerly second him.

 

Two nights and two days they were gone, and the Queen abode them in

great trouble of heart in her pavilion by the enchanted lake. The

third evening came Brandoch Daha back to the pavilion, bringing with

him Juss that was like a man at point of death, and himself besides

deadly sick.

 

“Tell me not anything,” said the Queen. “Forgetfulness is the only

sovran remedy, which with all my art I will strive to induce in thy

mind and in his. Surely I despaired ever to see you in life again, so

rashly entered into those regions forbid.”

 

Brandoch Daha smiled, but his look was ghastly. “Blame us not

overmuch, dear Queen. Who shoots at the mid-day sum, though he be sure

he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher

than who aims but at a bush.” His voice broke in his throat; the

whites of his eyes rolled up; he caught at the Queen’s hand like a

frightened child. Then with a mighty effort mastering himself, “I pray

bear with me a little,” he said. “After a little good meats and drinks

taken ‘twill pass. I pray look to Juss: is a dead, think you?”

 

Days passed, and months, and the Lord Juss lay yet as it were in the

article of death tended by his friend and by the Queen in that

pavilion by the lake. At length when winter was gone in middle earth,

and the spring far spent, back came that last little martlet on weary

wing, she they had long given up for lost. She sank in her mistress’s

bosom, almost dead indeed for weariness. But the Queen cherished her,

and gave her nectar, so that she gathered strength and said, “O Queen

Sophonisba, fosterling of the Gods, I flew for thee east and south and

west and north, by sea and by land, in heat and frost, unto the frozen

poles, about and about. And at the last came to Demonland, to the

range of Neverdale. There is a tarn among the mountains, that men call

Dule Tarn. Very deep it is, and men that live by bread do hold it for

bottomless. Yet hath it a bottom, and on the bottom lieth an

hippogriff’s egg, seen by me, for I flew at a great height above it.”

 

“In Demonland!” said the Queen. And she said to Lord Brandoch Daha,

“It is the only one. Ye must go home to fetch it.”

 

Brandoch Daha said, “Home to Demonland? After we spent our powers and

crossed the world to find the way?”

 

But when Lord Juss knew of it, straightway with hope so renewed began

his sickness to depart from him, so that he was in a few weeks’ space

very well recovered.

 

And it was now a full year gone by since first the Demons came up into

Koshtra Belorn.

XV QUEEN PREZMYRA

How the Lady Prezmyra discovered to Lord Gro

what she would