The Night Land, a Story Retold by James Stoddard

Author:James Stoddard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780615508818
Publisher: Ransom House
Published: 2011-07-22T07:00:00+00:00

XI

THE DARKNESS ONCE MORE

The shadows fell upon both my body and soul, filling me with fright. Odd how the land of light made me fear the

dark! My chest felt hollow as I glanced back down the gorge to the dwindling illumination from the Country of the Seas. I turned and began to walk, not daring to look back for a long time. When I finally did glance behind me again, the light was gone. Despite my fright, I trudged forward at a steady, stumbling pace for six hours.

It felt as if I had returned to the Night Land, for fire-holes pocked the face of the gorge, shedding a dull crimson glare upon the black sides of the passage. Their light often revealed the lowest parts of both sides of the ravine, though its heights, which seemed to climb upward forever, remained obscured. Enormous serpents and scorpions large as my head often clustered around the fires, and though I tried to avoid the flames, the narrowness of the gorge made it difficult for me to keep my distance. Other creatures moved among the rocks as well, and I kept my diskos ready.

The gorge became steeper the farther I went, as if I climbed a gargantuan hill. This made the going tiresome, but I hurried as fast as I could, propelled by the hope of reaching the Lesser Redoubt. But every moment I feared the passage would abruptly end.

At the beginning of the seventh hour I found myself stumbling not from lack of sight, but from fatigue. I started looking for a place to sleep and soon discovered a narrow ledge a few feet up the rock face. It proved difficult to reach, but I finally crawled over its lip and concealed myself in the shadow of the rock. I wasted no time making my meal, and was soon fast asleep, for twenty-three hours had passed since my uncomfortable slumber in the trees.

The next day proved much as the last, except that toward its end I thought I sensed the weak beating of the Master Word. I listened anxiously for a long time, but when I did not hear it again, thought I must have imagined it. An image arose in my mind of the Lesser Redoubt overwhelmed by monsters and Naani fleeing through the darkness, alone and unaided. Though I told myself it was only a fancy, it disturbed me so much I could not rest at the proper time, but hurried on through the thirtieth hour.

Finally, when I could no longer walk, I found a small cave nearly twenty feet from the bottom of the right side of the gorge. I climbed up to it, wary of an inhabitant, but the light of the diskos showed it to be clean and empty. I ate four tablets and fell asleep, thinking of nothing but Naani. Only one thought comforted me: if she and I had both been given this gift of a second life, surely it would not be in vain, surely we would find one another in all that dark world.

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