The Last Guardian of Everness (War of the Dreaming 1) by John C. Wright Page B
Authors: John C. Wright
Ads: Link
from whence no man returns sane.
At once he found himself ashore, with the retreating waves slithering around him. Before him, in tall cliffs, rose the roots of the foundations of the earth. To either side were flotillas of Black Ships resting at anchor, rank on rank of wide black sails now furled. The dunes beneath his seal’s belly were yellow and pale powder, mixed with sharp fragments of bone, scattered teeth, and here and there a skeletal fragment of a hand, or the grinning roundness of a skull. In the gloom, it seemed as if the bones were piled and wind tossed into long dunes or ranks, with deeper black shadows hunched between.
Galen pulled himself on his flippers higher on the beach, and, as he didso, the sea behind him disappeared. The beach now simply was the brink of a long fall into darkness. There was no possibility now of swimming up against the tides of night to reach the upper world again; to leave the beach was to plunge immediately into the nether gulf; he was trapped.
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he began to see that, near the base of a giant stalagmite of the cliffs before him, three crowned women in robes of white and red and black were bound in postures of submission; hands tied to ankles, chains from iron collars looped about their knees.
There were other figures here as well. Not human figures: in the black shadows of the dunes, he saw now, hunched, black, furred, rounded shapes, like fat and cat-faced men might look with arms and legs lopped off.
These were the selkie. They lay, like him, on their bellies on the beach, or, if they moved, did so with a painful lumpish wallowing. Some few, he saw, were about his size; the rest were giant bulks, from whom deep breathing sounded like the hiss of winds from underground caverns.
But it was not hissing, he realized. In the gloom, lying at their ease among countless crushed human bones, the selkie were singing:
We wait, we wait to rise again,
Fain for the flesh of living men;
No force or fear shall cow us then,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
When that day of doom arrives,
We’ll take their shapes and steal their lives;
With gentle rapes we’ll take their wives,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
Walking masked among mankind
Of human face, inhuman mind;
ļnside best friends worst foes to find,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
Galen listened in growing disquiet. He began humping his way across the sand toward the distant captives, then stopped when he noticed the dark glitter of many eyes watching him from the forward blunt ends of the hulking seal shapes strewn along the beach.
It was with a feeling of almost giddy relief that he noticed one of the giant seals near him was a dappled albino. When that huge seal turned toward him, its seal head fell backward furtively, and a human head peered out from a small opening in the neck. It was a silver-haired man with a salt-and- pepper-beard.
The seal’s right paw suddenly flopped bonelessly; and out from a slit opening in the seal’s belly, a human hand appeared and gestured impatiently, beckoning with a furtive motion.
On the hand Galen saw a silver ring bearing the moonstone crest of the house of Njord.
Galen, careful not to disturb his seal-face, tried to work his hand free of the coat; his human hand came out from under the round bulk of his belly, holding the marble in his fist. Galen clutched it tightly, fearful lest any sliver of light escape between his fingers and shine in the gloom.
The chorus of the song suddenly rang out, a loud and joyous crescendo:
Acheron below us waits,
To rise, and draw men to their fates
When sunless towers gape sunken gates,
Will darkness, darkness conquer all!
And as exemplar of our might,
We’ll spill the Sun and spoil his light,
That men be blind and without sight
When darkness, darkness, smothers all!
The giant form of Dylan reared back and raised his seal snout high and sang in a clear, happy
At once he found himself ashore, with the retreating waves slithering around him. Before him, in tall cliffs, rose the roots of the foundations of the earth. To either side were flotillas of Black Ships resting at anchor, rank on rank of wide black sails now furled. The dunes beneath his seal’s belly were yellow and pale powder, mixed with sharp fragments of bone, scattered teeth, and here and there a skeletal fragment of a hand, or the grinning roundness of a skull. In the gloom, it seemed as if the bones were piled and wind tossed into long dunes or ranks, with deeper black shadows hunched between.
Galen pulled himself on his flippers higher on the beach, and, as he didso, the sea behind him disappeared. The beach now simply was the brink of a long fall into darkness. There was no possibility now of swimming up against the tides of night to reach the upper world again; to leave the beach was to plunge immediately into the nether gulf; he was trapped.
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he began to see that, near the base of a giant stalagmite of the cliffs before him, three crowned women in robes of white and red and black were bound in postures of submission; hands tied to ankles, chains from iron collars looped about their knees.
There were other figures here as well. Not human figures: in the black shadows of the dunes, he saw now, hunched, black, furred, rounded shapes, like fat and cat-faced men might look with arms and legs lopped off.
These were the selkie. They lay, like him, on their bellies on the beach, or, if they moved, did so with a painful lumpish wallowing. Some few, he saw, were about his size; the rest were giant bulks, from whom deep breathing sounded like the hiss of winds from underground caverns.
But it was not hissing, he realized. In the gloom, lying at their ease among countless crushed human bones, the selkie were singing:
We wait, we wait to rise again,
Fain for the flesh of living men;
No force or fear shall cow us then,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
When that day of doom arrives,
We’ll take their shapes and steal their lives;
With gentle rapes we’ll take their wives,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
Walking masked among mankind
Of human face, inhuman mind;
ļnside best friends worst foes to find,
When darkness, darkness covers all.
Galen listened in growing disquiet. He began humping his way across the sand toward the distant captives, then stopped when he noticed the dark glitter of many eyes watching him from the forward blunt ends of the hulking seal shapes strewn along the beach.
It was with a feeling of almost giddy relief that he noticed one of the giant seals near him was a dappled albino. When that huge seal turned toward him, its seal head fell backward furtively, and a human head peered out from a small opening in the neck. It was a silver-haired man with a salt-and- pepper-beard.
The seal’s right paw suddenly flopped bonelessly; and out from a slit opening in the seal’s belly, a human hand appeared and gestured impatiently, beckoning with a furtive motion.
On the hand Galen saw a silver ring bearing the moonstone crest of the house of Njord.
Galen, careful not to disturb his seal-face, tried to work his hand free of the coat; his human hand came out from under the round bulk of his belly, holding the marble in his fist. Galen clutched it tightly, fearful lest any sliver of light escape between his fingers and shine in the gloom.
The chorus of the song suddenly rang out, a loud and joyous crescendo:
Acheron below us waits,
To rise, and draw men to their fates
When sunless towers gape sunken gates,
Will darkness, darkness conquer all!
And as exemplar of our might,
We’ll spill the Sun and spoil his light,
That men be blind and without sight
When darkness, darkness, smothers all!
The giant form of Dylan reared back and raised his seal snout high and sang in a clear, happy
Similar Books
