The Night Land

And Aschoff ran in through the great doorway of silence, and they that

followed. And they nevermore came out or were seen by any human.

And it must be known that the Mothers and the Fathers of those Youths

looked out into the Night Land, and saw that thing which came to pass.

And all the people were silent; but some said presently that the Youths

would come forth again; yet the people knew in their hearts that the

young men had gone in to Destruction; for, in truth, there was that in

the night which spoke horror to the souls of all, and a sudden utter

quiet in all the Land.

But unto me (that had the Night-Hearing) there came a great Fear of that

which might be whispered into my spirit, out of the Quietness of the

night--of the agony of those young men. Yet there came no sound, to the

hearing of the soul; neither then nor in all the years that were to

come; for, in verity, had those Youths passed into a Silence of which

the heart cannot think.

And here will I tell how that the strange Quiet which did fill all the

Land, seeming to brood within the night, was horrid beyond all the

roarings which had passed over the darkness in the time that went

before; so that it had given my spirit some rest and assurance to hear

but the far-echoing, low thunder of the Great Laughter, or the whining

which was used at times to sound in the night from the South-East, where

were the Silver-fire Holes that opened before the Thing that Nods. Or

the Baying of the Hounds, or the Roaring of the Giants, or any of those

dreadful sounds that did often pass through the night. For they could

not have offended me as did that time of silence; and so shall you judge

how dreadful was that quiet, which did hold so much of horror.

And surely it will be known that none had thinkings now, even in idle

speech, that any should have power to succour the Peoples of the Lesser

Redoubt. Neither, as I have said, had any the knowledge of the place

where it did stand. And so was it made plain that those Peoples must suffer and come

unhelped and alone to their end; which was a sad and dreadful thought to

any. Yet had those within the Great Pyramid come already to much sorrow

and calamity because that some had made attempt in this matter. And

there had been for gain, only failure, and the sorrow of Mothers, and

the loneliness of Wives, and of kin. And now this dread horror upon us,

which concerned those lost Youths.