The Story of the Glittering Plain: Which Has Been Also Called the Land of Living Men or the Acre of the UndyingMorris, William
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The Story of the Glittering Plain: Which Has Been Also Called the Land of Living Men or the Acre of the Undying
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction, English
When he awoke he felt well and strong again, and he leapt to his feet and
looked about him, and saw the three seekers stirring, and he deemed by
the sun that it was early morning. The sad man brought forth bread and
water and wine, and they broke their fast; and when they had done he
spake and said: "Abideth now in wallet and bottle but one more full meal
for us, and then no more save a few crumbs and a drop or two of wine if
we husband it well."
Said the second elder: "Get we to the road, then, and make haste. I have
been seeking, and meseemeth, though the way be long, it is not utterly
blind for us. Or look thou, Raven-son, is there not a path yonder that
leadeth onward up to the brow of the ghyll again? and as I have seen, it
leadeth on again down from the said brow."
Forsooth there was a track that led through the stony tangle of the
wilderness; so they took to the road with a good heart, and went all day,
and saw no living thing, and not a blade of grass or a trickle of water:
nought save the wan rocks under the sun; and though they trusted in their
road that it led them aright, they saw no other glimpse of the Glittering
Plain, because there rose a great ridge like a wall on the north side,
and they went as it were down along a trench of the rocks, albeit it was
whiles broken across by ghylls, and knolls, and reefs.
So at sunset they rested and ate their victual, for they were very weary;
and thereafter they lay down, and slept as soundly as if they were in the
best of the halls of men. On the morrow betimes they arose soberly and
went their ways with few words, and, as they deemed, the path still led
them onward. And now the great ridge on the north rose steeper and
steeper, and their crossing it seemed not to be thought of; but their
half-blind track failed them not. They rested at even, and ate and drank
what little they had left, save a mouthful or two of wine, and then went
on again by the light of the moon, which was so bright that they still
saw their way. And it happened to Hallblithe, as mostly it does with men
very travel-worn, that he went on and on scarce remembering where he was,
or who his fellows were, or that he had any fellows.
So at midnight they lay down in the wilderness again, hungry and weary.
They rose at dawn and went forward with waning hope: for now the mountain
ridge on the north was close to their path, rising up along a sheer wall
of pale stone over which nothing might go save the fowl flying; so that
at first on that morning they looked for nothing save to lay their bones
in that grievous desert where no man should find them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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