And the men of Arn lit fires, and sudden shadows arose and leaped
fantastically away. And the night-wind blew, arising like a ghost, and
passed between the tree-trunks, and slipped down shimmering glades, and
waked the prowling beasts still dreaming of day, and drifted nocturnal
birds afield to menace timorous things, and beat the roses against
cottagers’ panes, and whispered news of the befriending night, and
wafted to the ears of wandering men the sound of a maiden’s song, and
gave a glamour to the lutanist’s tune played in his loneliness on
distant hills; and the deep eyes of moths glowed like a galleon’s lamps,
and they spread their wings and sailed their familiar sea. Upon this
night-wind also the dreams of Camorak’s men floated to Carcassonne.
All the next morning they marched, and all the evening, and knew they
were nearing now the deeps of the forest. And the citizens of Arn kept
close together and close behind the warriors. For the deeps of the
forest were all unknown to travellers, but not unknown to those tales of
fear that men tell at evening to their friends, in the comfort and the
safety of their hearths. Then night appeared, and an enormous moon. And
the men of Camorak slept. Sometimes they woke, and went to sleep again;
and those that stayed awake for long and listened heard heavy two-footed
creatures pad through the night on paws.
As soon as it was light the unarmed men of Arn began to slip away, and
went back by bands through the forest. When darkness came they did not
stop to sleep, but continued their flight straight on until they came to
Arn, and added there by the tales they told to the terror of the forest.
But the warriors feasted, and afterwards Arleon rose, and played his
harp, and led them on again; and a few faithful servants stayed with
them still. And they marched all day through a gloom that was as old as
night, but Arleon’s inspiration burned in his mind like a star. And he
led them till the birds began to drop into the tree-tops, and it was
evening and they all encamped. They had only one pavilion left to them
now, and near it they lit a fire, and Camorak posted a sentry with drawn
sword just beyond the glow of the firelight. Some of the warriors slept
in the pavilion and others round about it.
When dawn came something terrible had killed and eaten the sentry. But
the splendour of the rumours of Carcassonne and Fate’s decree that they
should never come there, and the inspiration of Arleon and his harp, all
urged the warriors on; and they marched deeper and deeper all day into
the forest.
Once they saw a dragon that had caught a bear and was playing with it,
letting it run a little way and overtaking it with a paw.
They came at last to a clear space in the forest just before nightfall.
An odour of flowers arose from it like a mist, and every drop of dew
interpreted heaven unto itself.
It was the hour when twilight kisses Earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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