A Voyage to Arcturus
during the night. His fleshy breve was altered into an eyelike sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third arm, springing from the breast
s understanding, the upper one his will. That is to say, with the lower eyes he saw things in clear detail, but without personal inter
had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she were still on
tastic clouds filled the sky. They looked like animals, and were always changing shape. The ground, as well as the leaves and branches of the forest trees, stil
tellated line seemed like the walls of a magic city. The cliffs fronting him were composed of gaudy rocks - vermilion, emerald, yellow, ulfire, and black. As he gazed at them, his heart began to beat like
he was reclothing himself, O
genuine representative of a strange planet. Her frame also had something curious about it. The curves were womanly, the bones were characteristically female - yet all seemed somehow to expres
rom top to toe. "Now you are built more like a
t was successful," he a
m over. "Did some woman giv
s smile - "but I saw nothing ridiculous i
'd look be
xchange garments. He obeyed, rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed exchange was in fact more appro
e gifts at all from other w
What can I
er voice was retarded, scornful, viola-like. She sat
what
is question, but began to p
you were so
always walk through the world w
skull's turn
ts, as I suppose you have, you c
ing his eyes wide. "Granted that you are a bea
to her feet. "It doesn
in my society. I have no objection - in fact I shall be
o think me
what that has to do with my feelings. Bring it to an end, Oc
Do you imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for
rry the temptation no farther - for it is a temptation, w
g so very hateful, am I? W
hind his back. "I repeat
o is you
rtur, and from toda
with him?" she
d
e what
s beauty was more tormenting than yours, Oceaxe,
forbid you t
h a manly sport, then? I shou
t always be so boyish. But d
ing else - and, above all
ng, that he grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her
demanded, scowling not at her
rs? And yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly awa
credit you with a secon
ll think twice and three times before throwing me a
Maskull th
food in the same
food i
rom the
romise to Joiwind. At the
e nothin
l the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked at, and not l
," he returned, pul
ly her look became tense and concentrated; she dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little monster. It was more like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates
he scales and entrails. During this operation, her hands
she said, with a lazy smi
and feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it. Oceaxe placed it
this blood away, which frightens you so
stics in her person. Her bold, masterful, masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous wi
ere is an act of will called
her draperies, and uttered a delicious, c
my que
ull - to the marrowbone. But that's no
at mean
skull. A wider range of pass
s - But for
their experiences. Probably unhappiness of
laimed, regarding her gloomily. "One
sense of the word - are walking about with foreign wills inside them. You may be as moral as you like, M
ights count
up over her shoulder to answer his remark. "They do count. But we only regar
toward his companion. Whether it was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long abstention, he did not
said Oceaxe. "On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Mas
they moved faster. They climbed the river in this way for several miles. The exercise gradually improved the circulation of Maskull's blood, and he began to look at things in a far more way. The hot su
t at the same time very supernatural. If one could see the portrait of a ghost, painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial
most extraordinary shapes. All the lines are st
ce him. "That's typical of Ifdawn. Nature is all
but I don't u
or rushing up. Trees grow fast. Women and men don't think twice
sed. "A fresh, wil
e you come from
undred years to move a foot of solid land. Men and an
re women
nd not very dif
hey l
has changed the dress, speech,
are more beau
nk not," s
long silence, as they tra
ss in Ifdawn?" deman
at it's possible to have an aim right in front
quisitive look at hi
oral
sing to set th
nothing - I
for time doesn't wait
ill happen,"
e. "So you have no special
permit me, I will c
"That's what I have been offering all the time. Of cour
that name bef
r, as you would
mprove matters,
where they were. We me
said Maskull, quite startled. "Do you by any cha
your will. But you have pro
you remove husb
u or I mus
nute. "Now we are passing
the too-sad truth. And when you have
ppen, and where the very laws of morality may be different. Still as far as I am concerned, murder is m
cked?" demanded
ma
tter leave me, M
y wh
all other mad and wicked people as well. Th
wned, but s
ed Oceaxe, wit
nd I'll see Crimtyphon
ether at the image conjured up by Maskull's last words, or fro
he river made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no l
climb for a
a smooth flat island of black rock, standing up
owever, standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward
w saw a large bird detach itself from the top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down towa
e they?"
ey were not birds, but creatures with long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating in fins which acted as wings. The bodies were of bright blue, the legs and
us. First of all their spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are really suckers, will drain us dry of b
roid," said Maskull dryly, "I tak
t on to his feet and failed. A new form o
to get up?" aske
ng me down to the rock with their wills. May I ask if
Instead of talking and asking questions, you ha
ve no will, u
s I must play the man, and you the woman. I expected better things of your big body. Why, my husband would send those creatures dancing all around the
ey produced in Maskull the same sensation of loathing as insects did. He instinctively understood
he said shortly. "They are
as it is presumably the most
sters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost toward the earth, one after the other. He watched them crash on the ground, and then lie motio
site their island rock. Its vast bulk lay there extended,
g, slippery, and leathery; a mane of black hair covered its long neck. Its face was awesome and unnatural, with
patting the creature's flank. "As I
. Between her and the fin there was just room for Maskull. He grasped the two flanks with his outer hands; his thir
en tricked, and that this ride had been planne
longer pure and noble - it was boiling, passionate, and torturing. He gritted his teeth, and kept quiet, but Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious o
said nothing. He dare
ying, rocking, and sickening; the contact of the brute's slimy skin was disgusting. All this, however, was merely, background to Maskull, as he sat there with closed eyes, holdin
ing, the country was a high tableland, fissured everywhere by narrow and apparently bottomless cracks. These cracks were in some cases like canals, in others like lakes, in others merely holes in the ground, closed in all round. The perpendicular sides of the islands - that is, the upper, visible parts of the innumerable cliff
the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely. Yet he experienced no aesthetic sensations - he felt nothing but an intense longing for action and possession. When he looked at anything, he immediately wanted to deal with it. The atmo
axe turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied
so quickly
still looking over the side. "It's extr
h to tak
to get
to go yet. . . . So yo
you talking about?" said Mask
trange if we couldn't make a man of
e turned her b
nd; but now, when a new line of towering cliffs confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast upward, but caused it to enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the mountains like a channel. They were instantly plunged into deep shad
the bottom
, if you go to
n, is there any kind
of," said Oceaxe, "but of co
there is life," he
ed out of the gloom. "Sh
d that a
big stranger with the beard, who is so keen
en to be the only thing in Torman
am a novel
rough the belly of the mountain, and a
re," said Maskull, who, since he had no longer anyt
matter wit
tinguish of you now; tha
r - don't I sp
enough, but - it
propr
g or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest and strangest instr
my nature doesn
off by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising up from th
rising under us
we es
ises filled the air, growing louder and louder each second - splitting, hissing, cracking, grinding, booming, exploding, roaring. When they had still fifty feet or so to go, to reach the top, a sort of dark, indefinite sea of broken rocks and soil appeared under their feet, ascending rapidly, with irresistible might, accompanied by the most horrible noises. The canal w
ed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher than the old. Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as if by magic; not a rock moved. Oc
," said Maskull, flickin
ut on her chin with
it's bad enough to come up, but it's death
s you to live in
t, I suppose. I have often t
pend your life in a place like this, where one is
y degrees," she a
e monster, and it got
ted, climbing back to her perch. "
n again to his thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into his brain. His will became so rest
skull!" said Oceaxe quietl
ts - what d
inside you. Now I think it wouldn't be ami
"I've far too many problems in my head alrea
of singular shape. It was an enormous natural quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terrac
ain is that
he highest po
going
ur while to pay a visit to the top. It commands the whole land as far as the Si
mean to see before
ut her hand on his wrist. "Stay with me, a
ed unint
t of forest not far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful roar and crashed down into an invisible
emained
had somewhat recovered himself. "A man would need nerves of steel. .
lied Oceaxe, with composure. "We are more or less clever a
ter teach me
ong them, I expect, will be whether we are to stay
ar is
said Oceaxe, pointing with he
ides rose sheer out of a lake of air, the bottom of which was invisible; its fourth was a bottleneck, joining it to the mainland. It was overgrown with bright vegetation,
e," remarked Oceaxe. "Can I see
something,"
ifty feet. The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth on the mainland, exactl
waiting for a suggestion, she patted its hideous face wit
few yards, rose awkwardly into the air, and paddled away in the same direction from which they had com
and there the golden chalky soil - and occasionally a glittering, white metallic boulder. Everything looked extraordinary and barbaric. Maskull was at last walking in the weird Ifdawn Marest which had created such strange feelings in him when seen
ce - perhaps the roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed off the smaller fry all around it. By the side of the tree sparkled a little, bubbling fountain, whose water was iron-re
thing, to fall on the two men who
h form was clad in a rough skin, leaving his limbs naked. Maskull could not tell from his face whether he were a young boy or a grown man. The features were smooth, soft, and childish, their expression was seraphically tranquil; but his violet upper eye was sinister and adult. His skin was of the colour of yellow ivory. His long, cur
and lazily up to the outermost shadows o
t," she remarked carelessl
r, but sai
ing for an answer, she sat down on the ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and p
silence fo
ess, Sature?" said the boy on th
in a strangled tone, "I am getting on very well, Oceaxe. The
rfectly aware that although these words were utte
I shall set to work to convert his arms into branches, and his fingers into leaves. It will take longer to transform his head into a crown, but stil
he concluded, putting out his hand
e," said Maskull, t
reply, but Maskull felt as if he were being t
ently, I expect, so you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for your roots. Never forget - however fresh an
way, across the isthmus, o
, as if against a wall. "Are y
or that epithet of yours, I will
s beard wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with whom he had to deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull staggered. He gathered together all the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight continued his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch
we and wonder came into his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon's face had undergone a startling and even shoc
e brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face of t