The Night Land

And this, we set assuredly to the failure of the Earth-Current, which

had robbed them of all force and power; so that, in those few weeks all

life and joy of living had left them; and neither hunger nor thirst had

they, much, nor any great desire to live; but yet a new and mighty fear

of death. And this doth seem very strange.

And, as may be thought, all this made the Peoples of the Great Redoubt

think newly of the Earth-Current that issued from the "Crack" beneath

the Pyramid; and of their latter end; so that much was writ in the

Hour-Slips concerning this matter; yet in the main to assure us that we

ourselves might each be free from a disturbed heart; though some went

foolishly to the other event, and spoke of a speedy danger to us,

likewise; as is ever the way. But the truth of our own case lay, maybe,

somewhere between.

And all the Hour-Slips were full also of imaginings of the terror of

those poor humans out in the darkness of the world, facing that end

which must come upon all, even upon our mighty Pyramid; though, as most

would believe, so far away in some future eternity, that we have no

cause to trouble

. And there were sad poems writ to the peoples of that Lesser Redoubt, and

foolish plans set about to rescue them; but none to put them to effect;

and no way by which so great a thing might be done; and doth but show

how loosely people will speak out of an over-security. Yet to me, there

had come a certain knowledge that I must make the adventure, though I

achieved naught save mine own end. Yet, it were better to cease quickly,

than that I should feel, as now I did feel.

That same night, in the Eighteenth Hour, there was a great disturbance

in the aether about the Mighty Pyramid; and I was awakened suddenly by

the Master Monstruwacan; that I might use my gift of the Night-Hearing

to hearken for the throbbing of the Master-Word, which they had thought

to come vaguely through the Instruments; but no one of the Monstruwacans

was sensitive enough of soul to account truly whether this was so.

And lo! as I sat up in the bed, there came the sound of the Master-Word,

beating in the night about the Pyramid. And immediately there was a

crying in the aether all about me

: "We are coming! We are coming!

" And mine inwards leaped and sickened me a moment, so shaken was I with a

sudden belief; for the message seemed some ways to come to me from very

near to the Great Redoubt; as that they who sent it were nigh to hand.