The Worm Ouroboros (66 page)

Juss said, "Are the walls thrown down? Or is not the great round tower south-westward thrown down in ruin athwart the walls?"

She said, "All is whole and sound as the walls of thine own castle, my lord."

Juss said, "Turn the crystal, O Queen, that thou mayest see within the walls if any persons be therein, and tell us their shape and seeming."

The Queen was silent for a space, gazing earnestly in the crystal. Then she said, "I see a banquet hall with walls of dark green jasper speckled with red, and a massy cornice borne up by giants three-headed carved in black serpentine; and each giant is bowed beneath the weight of a huge crab-fish. The hall is sevensided. Two long tables there be and a cross-bench. There be iron braziers in the midst of the hall and flamboys burning in silver stands, and revellers quaffing at the long tables. Some dark young men black of brow and great of jaw, most soldier-like, brothers mayhap. Another with them, ruddy of countenance and kindlier to look on, with long brown moustachios. Another that weareth a brazen byrny and sea-green kirtle; an old man he, with sparse gray whiskers and flabby cheeks; fat and unwieldy; not a comely old man to look upon."

She ceased speaking, and Juss said, "Whom seest thou else in the banquet hall, O Queen?"

She said, "The flare of the flamboys hideth the cross-bench. I will turn the crystal again. Now I behold two diverting themselves with dice at the table before the cross-bench. One is well-looking enough, well knit, of a noble port, with curly brown hair and beard and keen eyes like a sailor. The other seemeth younger in years, younger than any of you, my lords. He is smooth shaved, of a fresh complexion and fair curling hair, and his brow is wreathed with a festal garland. A most big broad strong and seemly young man. Yet is there a somewhat maketh me ill at ease beholding him; and for all his fair countenance and royal bearing he seemeth displeasing in mine eyes.

"There is a damosel there too, watching them while they play. Showily dressed she is, and hath some beauty. Yet scarce can I commend her-" and, ill at ease on a sudden, the Queen suddenly put down the crystal.

The eye of Lord Brandoch Daha twinkled, but he kept silence. Lord Juss said, "More, I entreat thee, O Queen, ere the reek be gone and the vision fade. If this be all within the banquet hall, seest thou nought without?"

Queen Sophonisba looked again, and in a while said, "There is a terrace facing to the west under the inner wall of that fortress of old night, and walking on it in the torchlight a man crowned like a King. Very tall he is: lean of body, and long of limb. He weareth a black doublet bedizened o'er with diamonds, and his crown is in the figure of a crab-fish, and the jewels thereof out-face the sun in splendour. But scarce may I mark his apparel for looking on the face of him, which is more terrible than the face of any man that ever I saw. And the whole aspect of the man is full of darkness and power and terror and stern command, that spirits from below earth must tremble at and do his bidding."

Juss said, "Heaven forfend that this should prove but a sweet and golden dream, and we wake to-morrow to find it flown."

"There walketh with him," said the Queen, "in intimate converse, as of a servant talking to his lord, one with a long black beard curly as the sheep's wool and glossy as the raven's wing. Pale he is as the moon in daylight hours, slender, with fine-cut features and great dark eyes, and his nose hooked like a reaping-hook; gentlelooking and melancholy-looking, yet noble."

Lord Brandoch Daha said, "Seest thou none, O Queen, in the lodgings that be in the eastern gallery above the inner court of the palace?"

The Queen answered, "I see a lofty bed-chamber hung with arras. It is dark, save for two branching candlesticks of lights burning before a great mirror. I see a lady standing before the mirror, crowned with a queen's crown of purple amethysts on her deep hair that hath the colour of the tipmost tongues of a flame. A man cometh through the door behind her, parting the heavy hangings left and right. A big man he is, and looketh like a king, in his great wolf-skin mantle and his kirtle of russet velvet with ornaments of gold. His bald head set about with grizzled curls and his bushy beard flecked with gray speak him something past his prime; but the light of youth burns in his eager eyes and the vigour of youth is in his tread. She turneth to greet him. Tall she is, and young she is, and beautiful, and proud-faced, and sweet-faced, and most gallanthearted too, and merry of heart too, if her looks belie her not."

Queen Sophonisba covered her eyes, saying, "My lords, I see no more. The crystal curdles within like foam in a whirlpool under a high force in rainy weather. Mine eyes grow sore with watching. Let us row back, for the night is far spent and I am weary."

But Juss stayed her and said, "Let me dream yet awhile. The double pillar of the world, that member thereof which we, blind instruments of inscrutable Heaven, did shatter, restored again? From this time forth to maintain, I and he, his and mine, ageless and deathless for ever, for ever our high contention whether he or we should be great masters of all the earth? If this be but phantoms, O Queen, thou'st 'ticed us to the very heart of bitterness. This we could have missed, unseen and unimagined: but not now. Yet how were it possible the Gods should relent and the years return?"

But the Queen spake, and her voice was like the falling shades of evening, pulsing with hidden splendour, as of a sense of wakening starlight alive behind the fading blue. "This King," she said, "in the wickedness of his impious pride did wear on his thumb the likeness of that worm Ouroboros, as much as to say his kingdom should never end. Yet was he, when the appointed hour did come, thundered down into the depths of Hell. And if now he be raised again and his days continued, 'tis not for his virtue but for your sake, my lords, whom the Almighty Gods do love. Therefore I pray you possess your hearts awhile with humility before the most high Gods, and speak no unprofitable words. Let us row back."

Dawn came golden-fingered, but the lords of Demonland lay along abed after their watch in the night. About the third hour before noon, the presence was filled in the high presence chamber, and the three brethren sat upon their thrones, as four years ago they sat, between the golden hippogriffs, and beside them were thrones set for Queen Sophonisba and Lord Brandoch Daha. All else of beauty and splendour in Galing Castle had the Queen beheld, but not till now this presence chamber; and much she marvelled at its matchless beauties and rarities, the hangings and the carvings on the walls, the fair pictures, the lamps of moonstone and escarbuncle self-effulgent, the monsters on the four-andtwenty pillars, carved in precious stones so great that two men might scarce circle them with their arms, and the constellations burning in that firmament of lapis lazuli below the golden canopy. And when they drank unto Lord Juss the cup of glory to be, wishing him long years and joy and greatness for ever more, the Queen took a little cithern saying, "O my lord, I will sing a sonnet to thee and to you my lords and to sea-girt Demonland." So saying, she smote the strings, and sang in that crystal voice of hers, so true and delicate that all that were in that hail were ravished by its beauty:

Shall I compare thee to a Sommers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie.

And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.

And often is his gold complexion dimn'd:

And every faire from faire some-time declines.

By chance or natures changing course untrim'd;

But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade

Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wandr'st in his shade.

When in eternall lines to time thou grow'st:

So long as men can breath, or eyes can see.

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

When she had done, Lord Juss rose up very nobly and kissed her hand, saying, "O Queen Sophonisba, fostering of the Gods, shame us not with praises that be too high for mortal men. For well thou knowest what thing alone might bring us content. And 'tis not to be thought that that which was seen at Moonmere Head last night was very truth indeed, but rather the dream of a night vision."

But Queen Sophonisba answered and said, "My Lord Juss, blaspheme not the bounty of the blessed Gods, lest They be angry and withdraw it, Who have granted unto you of Demonland from this day forth youth everlasting and unwaning strength and skill in arms, and-but hark!" she said, for a trumpet sounded at the gate, three strident blasts.

At the sound of that trumpet blown, the lords Goldry and Spitfire sprang from their seats, clapping hand to sword. Lord Juss stood like a stag at gaze. Lord Brandoch Daha sat still in his golden chair, scarce changing his pose of easeful grace. But all his frame seemed alight with action near to birth, as the active principle of light pulses and grows in the sky at sunrise. He looked at the Queen, his eyes filled with a wild surmise. A serving man, obedient to Juss's nod, hastened from the chamber.

No sound was there in that high presence chamber in Galing till in a minute's space the serving man returned with startled countenance, and, bowing before Lord Juss, said, "Lord, it is an Ambassador from Witchland and his train. He craveth present audience."

[Dates
Anno Carces Conditae
. The action of the story covers exactly four years; from the 22nd April 399 to 22nd April 403 A.C.C.]

171 Queen Sophonisba born in Morna Moruna.

187 Gorice III. eat up with mantichores beyond the Bhavinan.

188 Morna Moruna sacked by Gorice IV. Queen Sophonisba lodged by divine agency in Koshtra Belorn.

337 Gorice VII., conjuring in Carcë, slain by evil spirits.

341 Birth of Zeldornius.

344 Birth of Corsus in Tenemos.

353 Corund born in Carcë.

354 Birth of Zenambria, duchess to Corsus.

357 Birth of Helteranius.

360 Voile born at Darklairstead in Demonland.

361 Birth of Jalcanaius Fostus.

363 Birth of Vizz at Darklairstead.

364 Gro born in Goblinland at the court of Zajл Zaculo, the foster- brother of Gaslark the King. Gaslark born in Zajл Zaculo.

366 Laxus, high Admiral of Witchland and after king of Pixyland, born in Estremerine.

367 Birth of Gallandus in Buteny.

369 Zigg born at Many Bushes in Amadardale.

370 Juss born at Galing.

371 Goldry Bluszco born in Galing. Dekalajus, eldest of the sons of Corsus, born in Witchland.

372 Spitfire born in Galing. Brandoch Daha born in Krothering.

374 La Fireez born in Norvasp of Pixyland. Gorius, second of Corsus's sons, born in Witchland.

375 Corinius born in Carcë.

376 Prezmyra, sister to the Prince La Fireez, second wife to Corund, and after Queen of Impland, born in Norvasp.

379 Birth of Hacmon, eldest of the sons of Corund. Mevrian, sister to Lord Brandoch Daha, born in Krothering.

380 Heming born, second of Corund's sons.

381 Dormanes born, third of Corund's sons.

382 Birth of Viglus, Corund's fourth son, in Carcë. Recedor, King of Goblinland, privily poisoned by Corsus: Gaslark reigns in his stead in Zajл Zaculo. Sriva, daughter to Corsus and Zenambria, born in Carcë.

383 Armelline, cousin-german to King Gaslark, after betrothed and wed to Goldry Bluszco, born in Carcë.

384 Cargo, youngest of the sons of Corund, born in Carcë.

388 Goblinland invaded by the Ghouls: the flight out of Zajл Zaculo: Tenemos burnt: the power of the Ghouls crushed by Corsus.

389 Zeldornius, Helteranius, and Jalcanaius Fostus sent by Gaslark with an armament into Impland, and there ensorcelled.

390 The Witches harry in Goblinland: their defeat by the help of Demonland on Lormeron field: the slaying of Gorice X. by Brandoch Daha: Corsus taken captive and shamed by the Demons: Gro, abandoning the Goblin cause, dwells in exile at the court of Witchland.

393 La Fireez, besieged by Fax Fay Faz at Lida Nanguna in Outer Impland, delivered by the Demons: Goldry Bluszco repulsed by Corsus before Harquem.

395 Corund weds in Norvasp with the Princess Prezmyra.

398 The Ghouls burst forth in unimagined ferocity: their harrying in Demonland and burning of Goldry's house at Drepaby.

399 Holy war of Witchland, Demonland, Goblinland, and other polite nations against the Ghouls: Laxus, with the countenance of his master Gorice XI. and by the counsel of Gro, deserts with all his fleet in the battle off Kartadza (eastern seaboard of Demonland): the Ghouls nevertheless overwhelmed by the Demons in Kartadza Sound, and their whole race exterminated: Gorice XI. demands homage of Demonland, wrastles with Goldry Bluszco, and is in that encounter slain. Gorice XII., renewing with happier fortune the artificial practices of Gorice VII. in Carcë, takes Goldry with a sending magical: Juss and Brandoch Daha, partly straught of their wits, unadvisedly go up with Gaslark against Carcë and are there clapped up: their delivery by the agency of La Fireez, and return to their own country: Juss's dream: the council in Krothering: the first expedition to Impland. The King's revenge on Pixyland executed by Corinius, and La Fireez dispossessed and driven into exile: Corund's great march over Akra Skabranth, sudden irruption into Outer Impland, and conquest of that country: shipwreck of the Demon fleet: carnage at Salapanta: march of the Demons into Upper Impland: amorous commerce of Brandoch Daha with the Lady of Ishnain Nemartra, who lays a weird upon him: Corund besieges and captures Eshgrar Ogo: Juss and Brandoch Daha escape across the Moruna and winter by the Bhavinan.