She gazed at her feet, and smiled. 'What does it matter what my thoughts are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest first? It's a rough road to Adage.'
'What's in your mind?' demanded Maskull.
'I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash and Adage, perhaps I shall turn back.'
'And then?'
'Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak, but if it is dark it's hardly likely.'
'That's not what I meant. What will become of you after we have parted company?'
'I shall return somewhere - perhaps here.'
Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better.
'Shall you sink back into - the old state?'
'No, Maskull, thank heaven.'
'Then how will you live?'
Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. There was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. 'And who said I would go on living?'
Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before he spoke again. 'You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can't leave you like this.'
Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
'You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us go… Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others - who aren't so single-minded - can do is to help him to his destination. We mustn't inquire whether the destination of single-minded men is as a rule worth arriving at.'
'If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.'
'Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.'
Corpang gave a wry smile. 'During your long sleep you appear to have picked up wisdom.'
'Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.'
As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
'Can we not bury that poor fellow?'
'By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not include Corpang.'
'We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I am the real murderer. I stole his protecting light.'
'Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.' They left the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three men had arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep, pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady. They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an alluring girl and a half- infatuated man.
For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope, maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a false step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right. After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground, and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The ascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards more. Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found level ground all around them.
'We are on the ridge,' announced the woman, halting.
The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst through the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining down on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide, smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage, though Adage itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred yards wide. It was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but in other places the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From where they stood they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath. On the right hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct. There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty pinnacles, near and far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight. All glittered green, and all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps that characterised the Lichstorm range. These caps were of fantastic shapes, and each one was different. The valley directly opposite them was filled with rolling mist.
Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or more of empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood. The southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of the mountain where Haunte's cave was situated. The connecting curve was the steep slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.
In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a few summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over the south side of the horseshoe.
Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw her for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on his lips. The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and the face, pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almost beautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hair was a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that she resembled a spirit, rather than a woman.
'What puzzles you?' she asked, smiling.
'Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.'
'Perhaps you never will.'
'Your life must be most solitary.'
She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. 'Why do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?'
'Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means I can't say.'
Sullenbode laughed outright. 'It assuredly does not mean the approach of night.'
Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly broke in. 'The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I'll go on alone.'
'No, we'll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.'
'A little way,' said the woman, 'but not to Adage, to pit my strength against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know how to renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it.'
'Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang is as ignorant as myself.'
Corpang looked him full in the face. 'Maskull, you are quite well aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of a beautiful woman.'
Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. 'What Corpang doesn't tell you, Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than he, and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be saying his prayers in Threal.'
'Still, what he says must be true,' she replied, looking from one to the other.
'And so I am not to be allowed to - '
'So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not backward, Maskull.'
'We need not quarrel yet,' he remarked, with a forced smile. 'No doubt things will straighten themselves out.'
Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. 'I picked up another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.'
'Tell it to me, then.'
'Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed their strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but the law-abiders live at their ease - they have conquered nothing for themselves.'
'It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and perfect. You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.'
'No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.'
They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were abreast, Sullenbode in the
