The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 10

  They Come to the Gate of the Mountains

  That day they herded their horses thereabout, and from time to time theSage tried those two if they were perfect in the lore of the road; andhe found that they had missed nothing.

  They lay down in the self-same place again that night, and arosebetimes on the morrow and went their ways over the plain as the Sageled, till it was as if the mountains and their terror hung over theirvery heads, and the hugeness and blackness of them were worse than awall of fire had been. It was still a long way to them, so that it wasnot till noon of the third day from the rock-sea that they came to thevery feet of that fire-scorched ness, and wonderful indeed it seemed tothem that anything save the eagles could have aught to tell of what laybeyond it.

  There were no foothills or downs betwixt the plain and the mountains,naught save a tumble of rocks that had fallen from the cliffs, piled upstrangely, and making a maze through which the Sage led them surely;and at last they were clear even of this, and were underneath the flankof that ness, which was so huge that there seemed that there couldscarce be any more mountain than that. Little of its huge height couldthey see, now they were close to it, for it went up sheer at first andthen beetled over them till they could see no more of its side; as theywound about its flank, and they were long about it, the Sage cried outto those two and stretched out his hand, and behold! the side of theblack cliff plain and smooth and shining as if it had been done by thehand of men or giants, and on this smooth space was carven in theliving rock the image of a warrior in mail and helm of ancient fashion,and holding a sword in his right hand. From head to heel he seemedsome sixty feet high, and the rock was so hard, that he was all cleanand clear to see; and they deemed of him that his face was keen andstern of aspect.

  So there they stood in an awful bight of the mountain, made by thatness, and the main wall from which it thrust out. But after they hadgazed awhile and their hearts were in their mouths, the Sage turned onthose twain and said: "Here then is the end of my journey with you; andye wot all that I can tell you, and I can say no word more save to bidyou cast all fear aside and thrive. Ye have yet for this day's journeycertain hours of such daylight as the mountain pass will give you,which at the best is little better than twilight; therefore redeem yethe time."

  But Ralph got off his horse, and Ursula did in likewise, and they bothkissed and embraced the old man, for their hearts were full and fain.But he drew himself away from them, and turned about with no word more,and went his ways, and presently was hidden from their eyes by therocky maze which lay about the mountain's foot. Then the twain mountedtheir horses again and set forth silently on the road, as they had beenbidden.

  In a little while the rocks of the pass closed about them, leaving buta way so narrow that they could see a glimmer of the stars above themas they rode the twilight; no sight they had of the measureless stonydesert, yet in their hearts they saw it. They seemed to be wending astraight-walled prison without an end, so that they were glad when thedark night came on them.

  Ralph found some shelter in the cleft of a rock above a mound where waslittle grass for the horses. He drew Ursula into it, and they sat downthere on the stones together. So long they sat silent that a greatgloom settled upon Ralph, and he scarce knew whether he were asleep orwaking, alive or dead. But amidst of it fell a sweet voice on hisears, and familiar words asking him of what like were the fields ofUpmeads, and the flowers; and of the fish of its water, and of thefashion of the building of his father's house; and of his brethren, andthe mother that bore him. Then was it to him at first as if a sweetdream had come across the void of his gloom, and then at last the gloomand the dread and the deadness left him, and he knew that his friendand fellow was talking to him, and that he sat by her knee to knee, andthe sweetness of her savoured in his nostrils as she leaned her facetoward him, and he knew himself for what he was; and yet for memory ofthat past horror, and the sweetness of his friend and what not else, hefell a-weeping. But Ursula bestirred herself and brought out food fromher wallet, and sat down beside him again, and he wiped the tears fromhis eyes and laughed, and chid himself for being as a child in thedark, and then they ate and drank together in that dusk nook of thewilderness. And now was he happy and his tongue was loosed, and hefell to telling her many things of Upmeads, and of the tale of hisforefathers, and of his old loves and his friends, till life and deathseemed to him as they had seemed of time past in the merry land of hisbirth. So there anon they fell asleep for weariness, and no dreams ofterror beset their slumbers.