And I turned me then away, and went off into the night, going swift and
cautious, and bearing the Diskos cunningly and almost, as it were, with
a love for that strange and wondrous weapon that had so befriended me,
and slain the foul Grey Man with one stroke. And I had feeling that it
did know me, and had a comradeship for me; and I doubt none will
understand this; save, it might be, they of the olden days that did
carry one strong sword always. Yet was the Diskos more than the sword;
for it did in truth seem to live with the fire and the flame of the
Earth-Current that did beat within it.
And it was well acknowledged within the Great Redoubt, that none might
touch the Diskos of another; for that the thing went crustily, as it
might be said, in the hands of a stranger; and if any made foolishness
of this knowledge, and did persist much to such an handling, or making
to use, the same would presently act clumsy with the weapon, and come to
an hurt; and this was a sure thing, and had been known maybe an hundred
thousand years; or perchance a greater time.
And by this it doth seem wise to believe that there did grow always an
affinity between the nature of the man--which doth, as ever, include the
woman--and the Diskos that he did use in his Practice; and because of
this known thing, and that the place would elsewise be lumbered with
olden weapons of those that did die, it was a Law and Usage that there
was placed with the Dead, the Diskos of the Dead, there upon The Last
Road in the Country Of Silence, and was thus made to give back unto the
Earth-Current, the power that did lie in it. And this doth seem to a
careless thinker, as it were that I told once again those olden customs
of the Ancient Folk; but this is otherwise, and had a sound reason to
it; yet, if you do so believe, I doubt not but that a right human
sentiment was something at the bottom, which is proper; for it is meet
that Love should mate with Wisdom to mother Comfort in our sorrows; and
it is a warm thing to do aught for our dead; and none may say nay to
this.
Now, as I did go onwards into the Night Land, looking ever to this
shadow and to that, it may be conceived how my heart would stir with
swift fear, at this and that; and that my body would oft quiver to leap
aside; and as swift discover that naught assailed.
And so did I go forward, and always with imaginings and wonders
concerning what manner of uncouth Being or Brute might come out of the
darknesses all about. Yet, in all that time, there was a certain
proudness of the heart, that I did come safe out of the power of the
Grey Man, and did surely slay him. But, truly, it were well that the
praise be considered, and not overmuch given unto me; for I had died as
I slept, but that they of the Great Redoubt, had made a watch over me,
and waked me unto my saving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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