The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 9

  They Come Forth From the Rock-Sea

  On the morrow the Sage led them straight into the rock-sea whereas itseemed to them at first that he was but bringing them into a blindalley; but at the end of the bight the rock-wall was broken down into along scree of black stones. There the Sage bade Ralph and Ursuladismount (as for him he had been going afoot ever since that first day)and they led the horses up the said scree, which was a hard business,as they were no mountain beasts. And when they were atop of the screeit was harder yet to get them down, for on that side it was steeper;but at last they brought it about, and came down into a little grassyplain or isle in the rock sea, which narrowed toward the eastern end,and the rocks on either side were smooth and glossy, as if the heat hadgone out of them suddenly, when the earth-fires had ceased in themountains.

  Now the Sage showed them on a certain rock a sign cut, whereof they hadlearned in the book aforesaid, to wit, a sword crossed by athree-leaved bough; and they knew by the book that they should press onthrough the rock-sea nowhere, either going or returning, save wherethey should see this token.

  Now when they came to the narrow end of the plain they found still awide way between the rock-walls, that whiles widened out, and whilesdrew in again. Whiles withal were screes across the path, and littlewaters that ran out of the lava and into it again, and great blocks offallen stone, sometimes as big as a husbandman's cot, that wind andweather had rent from the rocks; and all these things stayed themsomewhat. But they went on merrily, albeit their road winded so much,that the Sage told them, when evening was, that for their diligencethey had but come a few short miles as the crow flies.

  Many wild things there were, both beast and fowl, in these islands andbridges of the rock-sea, hares and conies to wit, a many, andheathfowl, and here and there a red fox lurking about the crannies ofthe rock-wall. Ralph shot a brace of conies with his Turk bow, andwhereas there were bushes growing in the chinks, and no lack of whinand ling, they had firing enough, and supped off this venison of therocks.

  So passed that day and two days more, and naught befell, save that onthe midnight of the first day of their wending the rock-sea, Ralphawoke and saw the sky all ablaze with other light than that of themoon; so he arose and went hastily to the Sage, and took him by theshoulder, and bid him awake; "For meseems the sky is afire, andperchance the foe is upon us."

  The Sage awoke and opened his eyes, and rose on his elbow and lookedaround sleepily; then he said laughing: "It is naught, fair lord, thoumayst lie down and sleep out the remnant of the night, and thou also,maiden: this is but an earth-fire breaking out on the flank of themountains; it may be far away hence. Now ye see that he may not scalethe rocks about us here without toil; but to-morrow night we may climbup somewhere and look on what is toward."

  So Ralph lay down and Ursula also, but Ralph lay long awake watchingthe light above him, which grew fiercer and redder in the hours betwixtmoonset and daybreak, when he fell asleep, and woke not again till thesun was high.

  But on the next day as they went, the aspect of the rock-sea about themchanged: for the rocks were not so smooth and shining and orderly, butrose up in confused heaps all clotted together by the burning, like toclinkers out of some monstrous forge of the earth-giants, so that theirway was naught so clear as it had been, but was rather a maze of jaggedstone. But the Sage led through it all unfumbling, and moreover nowand again they came on that carven token of the sword and the bough.Night fell, and as it grew dark they saw the glaring of the earth-firesagain; and when they were rested, and had done their meat, the Sagesaid: "Come now with me, for hard by is there a place as it were astair that goeth to the top of a great rock, let us climb it and lookabout us."

  So did they, and the head of the rock was higher than the main face ofthe rock-sea, so that they could see afar. Thence they looked northand beheld afar off a very pillar of fire rising up from a ness of themountain wall, and seeming as if it bore up a black roof of smoke; andthe huge wall gleamed grey, because of its light, and it cast a ray oflight across the rock-sea as the moon doth over the waters of the deep:withal there was the noise as of thunder in the air, but afar off:which thunder indeed they had heard oft, as they rode through theafternoon and evening.

  Spake the Sage: "It is far away: yet if the wind were not blowingfrom us, we had smelt the smoke, and the sky had been darkened by it.Now it is naught so far from Utterbol, and it will be for a token tothem there. For that ness is called the Candle of the Giants, and mendeem that the kindling thereof forebodeth ill to the lord who sittethon the throne in the red hall of Utterbol."

  Ralph laid his hand on Ursula's shoulder and said: "May the Sage's sawbe sooth!"

  She put her hand upon the hand and said: "Three months ago I lay on mybed at Bourton Abbas, and all the while here was this huge manlesswaste lying under the bare heavens and threatened by the storehouse ofthe fires of the earth: and I had not seen it, nor thee either, Ofriend; and now it hath become a part of me for ever."

  Then was Ralph exceeding glad of her words, and the Sage laughedinwardly when he beheld them thus.

  So they came adown from the rock and lay down presently under the fieryheavens: and their souls were comforted by the sound of the horsescropping the grass so close to their ears, that it broke the voice ofthe earth-fires' thunder, that ever and anon rolled over the grey seaamidst which they lay.

  On the morrow they still rode the lava like to clinkers, and it rosehigher about them, till suddenly nigh sunset it ended at a turn oftheir winding road, and naught lay betwixt them and that mighty ness ofthe mountains, save a wide grassy plain, here and there swelling intolow wide risings not to be called hills, and besprinkled with copses ofbushes, and with trees neither great nor high. Then spake the Sage:"Here now will we rest, and by my will to-morrow also, that your beastsmay graze their fill of the sweet grass of these unwarded meadows.which feedeth many a herd unowned of man, albeit they pay a quit-rentto wild things that be mightier than they. And now, children, we havepassed over the mighty river that once ran molten betwixt thesemountains and the hills yonder to the west, which we trod the otherday; yet once more, if your hearts fail you, there is yet time to turnback; and no harm shall befall you, but I will be your fellow all theway home to Swevenham if ye will. But if ye still crave the water ofthe Well at the World's End, I will lead you over this green plain, andthen go back home to mine hermitage, and abide there till ye come tome, or I die."

  Ralph smiled and said: "Master, no such sorry story shall I bear backto Upmeads, that after many sorrows borne, and perils overcome, I cameto the Gates of the Mountains, and turned back for fear of that which Ihad not proved."

  So spake he; but Ursula laughed and said: "Yea, then should I deem thyfriendship light if thou leftest me alone and unholpen in the uttermostwilderness; and thy manhood light to turn back from that which did notmake a woman afraid."

  Then the Sage looked kindly on them and said: "Yea, then is the lastword spoken, and the world may yet grow merrier to me. Look you, somethere be who may abuse the gifts of the Well for evil errands, and somewho may use it for good deeds; but I am one who hath not dared to useit lest I should abuse it, I being alone amongst weaklings and fools:but now if ye come back, who knows but that I may fear no longer, butuse my life, and grow to be a mighty man. Come now, let us dight oursupper, and kindle as big a fire as we lightly may; since there is manya prowling beast about, as bear and lynx and lion; for they haunt thisedge of the rock-sea whereto the harts and the wild bulls and the goatsresort for the sweet grass, and the water that floweth forth from thelava."

  So they cut good store of firing, whereas there was a plenty of bushesgrowing in the clefts of the rocks, and they made a big fire andtethered their horses anigh it when they lay down to rest; and in thenight they heard the roaring of wild things round about them, and morethan once or twice, awakening before day, they saw the shape of someterrible creature by the light of the moon mingled with the glare ofthe earth-
fires, but none of these meddled with them, and naught befellthem save the coming of the new day.