A Voyage to Arcturus
nd soft, that it scarcely looked skin at all - it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh, extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the artificially
His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was still a young man, but so stern were his featur
tant. She put him in her husband's arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and smiling. Maskull felt rather emba
r is red-blo
anquil, but its tranquillity seemed in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of
a tongue you have never hea
ly speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are
anawe is wiser than I a
name?" asked
sku
n, thought is a strange thing. I connect
scover," s
le something from the Maker of the universe
yth, The hero's na
my mind with that action - but wha
for Panawe never lies, and
re heights beyond me," said Maskull ca
o you co
of a distant su
at
y. He intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyag
awe. "And what's more, it may be true,
true," said Maskull, staring at
uttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds showed themselves here and there through t
Perhaps you don't know th
antly started to slip about - nevertheless the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by watching and imita
l and sure than those of either of the men. Her slight, draped form - dipping, bending, rising, swaying, t
visible, descending several hundred feet. The surface of the lake grew disturbed - so much so that Maskull had difficulty in keeping his balance. He therefore
the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was working convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his hand to his mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured pebble. He looked at
g for permission, he picked it up. It was a deli
come from?" he
iwind answered for him. "I
, but I couldn't belie
ther name or use. It is mere
aut
e as the husband, and Panawe as the wife, Ma
l refl
ts, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and out of them again. Th
Panawe, and, taking the crystal out of
ll help, and was in fact still the nimbler of the two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet thoughts. The rock was sound, and did not crumble under
uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of the cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills varied in height. The cup-shaped
d upward. "Here you have the highest peak in the whole
a momentary unaccountable sensation of wild
t to climb. Halfway up, however, it grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growt
They cast no shadows from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and branches were fantastically shaped. What surpri
f his difficulty?" said Joiwi
planet, Maskull, is necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is still fluid - no
t what I don't grasp is this - if living creatures here sport so energetically,
"All creatures that resemble Shaping m
he blind will to be
act
en the brotherhood of man is not a fable
nd changed colour. Panaw
which with his breve he could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, "To me To me!" While he looked, a flying wor
y. A fringe of trees partly intercepted the view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this mountain la
full length, and peered into the depths. It was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance, without arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out of reach of his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very fa
as mystical, dreamlike, and unbelievable - the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality. It resemb
n, whose dimensions could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he could not make out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of transparent glass, but it did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in it could be distinguished, except a rolling river in
in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the heavens. It seemed more
ore he gazed, the more restles
s that
m. "It is Alppain - our second sun," he replied. "Those hills
I really being affected
t natures, are drawing you at the same time? Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itsel
ou say 'l
sing forces would perhaps be more than
on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and waiting. Panawe gave him a friendly
sly sprinkled the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent light gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, a
He bathed her face, put drink to her lips, energised her with his magn, and finally laid her dow
been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will lighte
so far in a morning," said Maskull,
instead of blood, and th
he gave me
couldn't even
never for
rn, the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, in
sturb her i
N
w do yo
r something about your new life. It's not all as innocent and idyllic as this
rrange - shall I put questions, or will yo
e of ferns, and at the same time reclined himse
e. You will begin to learn from them
" said Maskull, prepa
d then started his narrative in tranq
WE'S
. This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable. On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered on the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water that will not bear a man's weight, and as these light parts don't differ in appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed out a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone's Island. Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest, surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a hundred and twenty of ou
man and woman among us is a walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the female who was born i
e end it?' as
the scene of the combat, and it w
be a man, don't you?' said
ing your daughter, and
tone attracted Br
fore the male must have spoken it, and you need not troubl
very low before Broodviol for about ten minutes, a
came into that land for a few hours da
I have come to the conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in one body, there never was any
ow never to eat or destroy anything that co
ely, and I hated the associations of the land. I therefore made up my mind to travel into
either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley on my right hand was plunged in shadow - that on my left was sparkling with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland, connecting the
could very well pass. However, I went slowly on, and presently we drew near enough together for me to recognise the walker. It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had never met him before, but I knew him by his peculiarities of person. He was of a bright gamboge colour and possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a useful organ, but did not add to his
ced one another, ab
elf, but, to my young nature, terrible with hidden terrors. I smiled at him, but did not
than Pleasure?'
emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to
d, 'for pain driv
greater
use we will accept our lo
reater than Lov
ing, S
hat is
ou must
ove, and gets his rewards. But there's another world - not Shaping's and there all this is unknown, a
was a
'that you are good at gro
organ tells me the same story. I
say, that your wisdom f
e you had it from did not add that they h
aid I sententiously, '
will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful face. Yo
wn into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum toward the
this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide. Whichever it might be, since then
ross the third extraordinary personage of my experience - the grim Muremaker. It was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff
am sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like this. While the strength of his wi
ell known to me as one who passed his whole existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbin
lked together for a month, and by that time we
topped s
Maskull. "Now I begin to know my way a
t's
d arts, and have no civilisation, and yet contrive to
our world you have fewer sense organs, and to make up for the deficiency you have been obligMaskull, "but I see I have
gradually fell asleep. Joiwind opened her eye