The Night Land

And then did I, with something of a tremble in my spirit, ask Naani to

tell me what she remembered of the writing of that big, sorrowful

stranger. And, in a little moment, her far voice said these words all

about me: "Dearest, thine own feet tread the world at night--"

But no more had she memory of. Yet it was a sufficiency, and I, maybe

with a mad, strange triumph in my soul, said unto her with my

brain-elements that which remained of those words. And my spirit felt

them strike upon the spirit of Naani, and awake her memory, as with the

violence of a blow. And for a little while she stumbled, dumb before so

much newness and certainly. And her spirit then to waken, and she near

wept with the fright and the sudden, new wonder of this thing.

And immediately, all about me there came her voice thrilling, and the

voice was the voice of Mirdath, and the voice of Naani; and I heard the

tears of her spirit make pure and wonderful the bewildered and growing

gladness of her far voice. And she asked me, as one who had suddenly

opened the Gates of Memory, whether she might be truly Mirdath. And I,

utter weak and shaken strangely because of this splendour of fulfilment,

could make no instant answer. And she asked again, but using mine old

love-name, and with a sureness in her far voice. And still I was so

strangely dumb, and the blood to thud peculiar in mine ears; and this to

pass; and speech to come swift. And this way to be that meeting of our spirits, across all the

everlasting night.

And you shall have for a memory-picture, how that Naani stood there in

the world in that far eternity, and, with her spirit having speech with

mine, looked back through the part-opened gates of her memory, into the

past of this our life and Age. Yet more than this she saw, and more than

was given to me in that Age; for she had memory now and sight of other

instances, and of other comings together, which had some confusion and

but half-meanings to me. Yet of this our present Age and life, we spoke

as of some yesterday; but very hallowed.

Now, as may be conceived, the wonder of this surety which had come into

my life stirred me fiercely to its completion; for all my heart and

spirit cried out to be with that one who was Mirdath, and now spoke with

the voice of Naani.

Yet, how should this be won; for none among all the learned men of that

Mighty Pyramid knew the position of the Lesser Redoubt; neither could

the Records and Histories of the World give us that knowledge; only that

there was a general thought among the Students and the Monstruwacans

that it lay between the North-West and the North-East. But no man had

any surety; neither could any conceive of the distance from us of that

Refuge. And counting all this, there was yet the incredible danger and peril of

the Night Land, and the hunger and desolation of the Outer Lands, which

were sometimes named the Unknown Lands.