A Voyage to Arcturus Part 46

The phaen smiled, and staggered. "I'm dying."

"Don't talk like that. It's only a pa.s.sing indisposition. Let me take you back to the daylight."

"No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny."

"The sick must have their way," said Maskull. Lifting aer bodily in his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or so. They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of which he had never set eyes upon before.

"Set me down!" directed Leehallfae feebly. "Here I'll die."

Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground.

The phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.

Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain, lighted as if by the moon--but there was of course no moon, and there were no shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Beside them were trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, but the branches also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No other plants could be seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice.

Beyond a mile or two in any direction the light merged into obscurity.

At their back a great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was not square like a wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indented line of sea cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight.

Here and there a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered, towered aloft into the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof.

There were no colours--every detail of the landscape was black, white, or grey. The scene appeared so still, so solemn and religious, that all his feelings quieted down to absolute tranquillity.

Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, and helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like a candle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin of Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen's dead features.

While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone standing beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not at once rise.

"Another phaen dead," said the newcomer in a grave, toneless, and intellectual voice.

Maskull got up.

The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was not disfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features were energetic and rather coa.r.s.e--yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure, hard life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyes carried a twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem was apparently in the forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; the hair of his head was short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothed in a black, sleeveless robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. There was an air of cleanness and austerity about the whole man that was attractive.

He went on speaking dispa.s.sionately to Maskull, and, while doing so, kept pa.s.sing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. "They all find their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they live to an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because of their spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favoured children of Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die at once."

"I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?"

"I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you doing here?"

"My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe. As for what I am doing here--I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen, from Matterplay."

"But a man doesn't accompany a phaen out of friends.h.i.+p. What do you want in Threal?"

"Then this is Threal?"

"Yes."

Maskull remained silent.

Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. "Are you ignorant, or merely reticent, Maskull?"

"I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them."

The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred, and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, as though they were in a cathedral.

"Then do you want my society, or not?" asked Corpang.

"Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is--not to talk about myself."

"But you must at least tell me where you want to go to."

"I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm."

"I can guide you through, if that's all you want. Come, let us start."

"First let's do our duty and bury the dead, if possible."

"Turn around," directed Corpang.

Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae's body had disappeared.

"What does this mean--what has happened?"

"The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for it to be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required."

"Was the phaen an illusion, then?"

"In no sense."

"Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be going mad."

"There's nothing unintelligible in it, if you'll only listen calmly. The phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible world--to Faceny. This underworld is not Faceny's world, but Thire's, and Faceny's creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere. As this applies not only to whole bodies, but even to the last particles of bodies, the phaen has dissolved into Nothingness."

"But don't you and I belong to the outside world too?"

"We belong to all three worlds."

"What three worlds--what do you mean?"

"There are three worlds," said Corpang composedly. "The first is Faceny's, the second is Amfuse's, the third is Thire's. From him Threal gets it name."

"But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three worlds?"

Corpang pa.s.sed his hand over his forehead. "All this we can discuss as we go along. It's a torment to me to be standing still."

Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae's body had lain, quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely tear himself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpang called to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.

They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain, directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, the absence of shadows, the ma.s.sive shafts, springing grey-white out of the jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathly silence, the knowledge that he was underground--the combination of all these things predisposed Maskull's mind to mysticism, and he prepared himself with some anxiety to hear Corpang's explanation of the land and its wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of the outside world and the reality of this world were two quite different things.

"In what sense are there three worlds?" he demanded, repeating his former question.

Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. "First of all, Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it's mere intellectual curiosity, tell me, for we mustn't play with awful matters."

"No, it isn't that," said Maskull slowly. "I'm not a student. My journey is no holiday tour."