The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rücker Eddison (english readers txt) 📕

a smooth grass-grown saddle less than a stone’s throw in width. Over

that saddle runs the paven way leading from the Brankdale road to the

Lion Gate, and within the gate is that garden of the grass walk

between the yews where Lessingham stood with the martlet nine weeks

before, when first he came to Demonland.

When night fell and supper was done, Juss walked alone on the walls of

his castle, watching the constellations burn in the moonless sky above

the mighty shadows of the mountains, listening to the hooting of the

owls in the woods below and the faint distant tinkle of cow-bells, and

breathing the fragrance borne up from the garden on the night wind

that even in high summer tasted keen of the mountains and the sea.

These sights and scents and voices of the holy night so held him in

thrall that it wanted but an hour of midnight when he left the

battlements, and called the sleepy house-carles to light him to his

chamber in the south tower of Galing.

Wondrous fair was the great four-posted bed of the Lord Juss, builded

of solid gold, and hung with curtains of dark-blue tapestry whereon

were figured sleep-flowers. The canopy above the bed was a mosaic of

tiny stones, jet, serpentine, dark hyacinth, black marble, bloodstone,

and lapis lazuli, so confounded in a maze of altering hue and lustre

that they might mock the palpitating sky of night. And therein was the

likeness of the constellation of Orion, held by Juss for guardian of

his fortunes, the stars whereof, like those beneath the golden canopy

in the presence chamber, were jewels shining of their own light, yet

dead wood glimmering in the dark. For Betelgeuze was a ruby shining,

and a diamond for Rigel, and pale topazes for the other stars. The

four posts of the bed were of the thickness of a man’s arm in their

upper parts, but their lower parts great as his waist and carven in

the image of birds and beasts: at the foot of the bed a lion for

courage and an owl for wisdom, and at the head an alaunt for

faithfulness of heart and a kingfisher for happiness. On the cornice

of the bed and on the panels above the pillow against the wall were

carved Juss’s deeds of derring-do; and the latest carving was of the

sea-fight with the Ghouls. To the right of the bed stood a table with

old books of songs and books of the stars and of herbs and beasts and

travellers’ tales, and there was Juss wont to lay his sword beside him

while he slept. All the walls were panelled with dark sweet-smelling

wood, and armour and weapons hung thereon. Mighty chests and almeries

hasped and bound with gold stood against the wall, wherein he kept his

rich apparel. Windows opened to the west and south, and on each

window-ledge stood a bowl of palest jade filled with white roses; and

the air entering the bedchamber was laden with their scent.

About cock-crow came a dream unto Lord Juss, standing by his head and

touching his eyes so that he seemed to wake and look about the

chamber. And he seemed to behold an evil beast all burning as a drake,

busy in his chamber, with many heads, the most venomous that ever he

the days of his life had seen, and about it its five fawns, like to

itself but smaller. It seemed to Juss that in place of his sword there

lay a great spear of fair workmanship on the table by his bed; and it

seemed to him in his dream that this spear had been his all his life,

and was his greatest treasure, and that with it he might accomplish

all things and without it scarcely aught to his mind. He laboured to

reach out his hand to the spear, but some power withheld him so that

for all his striving he might not stir. But that beast took up the

spear in its jaws, and went with it forth from the chamber. It seemed

to Juss that the power that held him departed with the departing of

the beast, so that he leaped up and snatched down weapons from the

wall and made an onslaught on the fawns of that fell beast that were

tearing down the woven hangings and marring with their fiery breath

the figure of the kingfisher at the head of his bed. All the chamber

was full of the reek of burning, and he thought his friends were with

him in the chamber, Volle and Vizz and Zigg and Spitfire and Brandoch

Daha, fighting with the beasts, and the beasts prevailed against them.

Then it seemed to him that the bedpost carven in the likeness of an

owl spake to him in his dream in human speech; and the owl said, “O

fool, that shalt justly be put in great misery without end, except

thou bring back the spear. Hast thou forgot that this only is thy

greatest treasure and most worthiest thy care?”

Therewith came back that grim and grisful beast into the chamber, and

Juss assailed it, crying to the owl, “Uncivil owl, where then must!

find my spear that this beast hath hidden?”

And it seemed to him that the owl made answer, “Inquire in Koshtra

Belorn.”

So tumultuous was Lord Juss’s dream that he was flung at waking out of

bed on to the deerskin carpets of the floor, and his right hand

clutched the hilt of his great sword where it lay on the table by his

bed, whereas in his dream he had beheld the spear. Mightily moved was

he; and forthwith clothed himself, and faring through the dim

corridors came to Spitfire’s chamber, and sat on the bed and waked

him. And Juss told him his dream, and said, “I hold myself clean of

all blame hereabout, for from that day forth this only hath been my

care, how to find my dear brother and fetch him home, and only then to

wreak myself on the Witches. And what was this spear in my dream if

not Goldry? This vision of the night kindleth for us a beacon fire we

needs must seek to. It bade me inquire in Koshtra Belorn, and till

that be done never will I rest nor so much as think on aught besides.”

Spitfire answered and said, “Thou beest our oldest brother, and I

shall follow and obey thee in all that thou wilt do or shalt ordain

hereof.”

Then fared Juss to the guest-chamber, where Lord Brandoch Daha lay asleeping, and waked him and told him all. Brandoch Daha snuggled him

under the bedclothes and said, “Let me be and let me sleep yet two

hours. Then will I rise and bathe and array myself and eat my morning

meal, and thereafter will I take rede with thee and tell thee somewhat

for thine advantage. I have not slept in a goose-feather bed and

sheets of lawn these many weeks. If thou plague me now, by God, I will

incontinently take horse over the Stile to Krothering, and let thee

and thine affairs go to the devil.”

So Juss laughed and left him in peace. And later when they had eaten

they walked in a plashed alley, where the air was cool and the purple

shadow on the path was dappled with bright flecks of sunshine. Lord

Brandoch Daha said, “Thou knowest that Koshtra Belorn is a great

mountain, beside which our mountains of Demonland would seem but

little hills unremarked, and that it standeth in the uttermost parts

of earth beyond the wastes of Upper Impland, and thou mightest search

a year through all the peopled countries of the world and not find one

living soul who had so much as beheld it from afar.”

“This much I know,” said Lord Juss.

“Is thine heart utterly bent on this journey?” said Brandoch Daha. “Or

is it not preposterous, and a thing to comfort our enemies, that we

should thus at the bidding of a dream fly to far and perilous lands,

rather than pay Witchland presently for the shame he hath done us?”

Juss answered him, “My bed is hallowed by spells of such a virtue that

no naughty dream flown through the ivory gate nor no noisome wizardry

hath power to trouble his sleep who sleepeth there. This dream is

true. For Witchland there is time enow. If thou wilt not go with me to

Koshtra Belorn, I must go without thee.”

“Enough,” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “Thou knowest for thee I tie my

purse with a spider’s thread. Then fare we must to Impland, and herein

may I help thee. For listen while I tell thee a thing. Whenas I slew

Gorice X. in Goblinland, Gaslark gave me along with other good gifts,

a great curiosity: a treatise or book copied out on parchment by

Bhorreon his secretary, wherein it speaketh of all the ways to Impland

and what countries and kingdoms lie next to the Moruna and the fronts

thereof, and the marvels that he found in those lands. And all that is

writ in this book was set down faithfully by Bhorreon after the

telling of Gro, the same which now hath part with the Witchlanders.

Great honour had Gro as then from Gaslark for his far journeyings and

for that which is written in this book of wonders; and this it was

that had first put in Gaslark’s mind to send that expedition into

Impland, which so reduced him and came so wretchedly to nought. If

then thou wilt seek to Koshtra Belorn, come home with me to-day and I

will show thee my book.”

So spake Lord Brandoch Daha, and Lord Juss straightway ordered forth

the horses, and sent messengers to Volle under Kartadza and to Vizz at

Darklairstead bidding them meet him at Krothering with what speed they

might. It was four hours before noon when Juss, Spitfire, and Brandoch

Daha rode down from Galing and through the woods of Moongarth Bottom

at the foot of the lake, taking the main bridle road up Breakingdale,

that runs by the western margin of Moonmere under the buttresses of

the Scarf. They rode slowly, for the sun was strong on their backs.

Glassy was the lake and like a turquoise, and the birch-clad slopes to

the east and north and the bare rugged ridges of Stathfell and

Budrafell beyond were mirrored in its depths. On the left as they

rode, the spurs of the Scarf impended from on high in piled bastions

of black porphyry like giants’ castles; and little valleys choked with

monstrous boulders, among which the silver birches crowding showed

like tiny garden plants, ran steeply back between the spurs. Up those

valleys appeared successively the main summits of the Scarf, savage

and remote, frowning downward as it were between their own knees:

Glaumry Pike, Micklescarf, and Illstack. By noon they had climbed to

the extreme head of Breakingdale, and halted on the Stile, a little

beyond the watershed, under the sheer northern wall of Ill Drennock.

Before them the pass plunged steeply into Amadardale. The lower reach

of Switchwater shone fifteen miles or more to the west, well nigh

hidden in the heat-haze. Nearer at hand in the northwest lay Rammerick

Mere, bosomed among the smooth-backed Kelialand hills and the

easternmost Uplands of Shalgreth Heath, with the sea beyond; and on

the valley floor, near the watersmeet where Transdale runs into

Amadardale, it was possible to descry the roofs of Zigg’s house at

Many Bushes.

When they came down thither, Zigg was out a-hunting. So they left word

with his lady wife and drank a stirrup cup and rode on, up Switchwater

Way, and for twelve miles and more along the