Time and the Gods
Page 11
NIGHT AND MORNING
Once in an arbour of the gods above the fields of twilight Nightwandering alone came suddenly on Morning. Then Night drew from his facehis cloak of dark grey mists and said: "See, I am Night," and they twositting in that arbour of the gods, Night told wondrous stories of oldmysterious happenings in the dark. And Morning sat and wondered, gazinginto the face of Night and at his wreath of stars. And Morning told howthe rains of Snamarthis smoked in the plain, but Night told howSnamarthis held riot in the dark, with revelry and drinking and talestold by kings, till all the hosts of Meenath crept against it and thelights went out and there arose the din of arms or ever Morning came.And Night told how Sindana the beggar had dreamed that he was a King,and Morning told how she had seen Sindana find suddenly an army in theplain, and how he had gone to it thinking he was King and the army hadbelieved him, and Sindana now ruled over Marthis and Targadrides,Dynath, Zahn, and Tumeida. And most Night loved to tell of Assarnees,whose ruins are scant memories on the desert's edge, but Morning toldof the twin cities of Nardis and Timaut that lorded over the plain. AndNight told terribly of what Mynandes found when he walked through hisown city in the dark. And ever at the elbow of regal Night whispersarose saying: "Tell Morning _this_."
And ever Night told and ever Morning wondered. And Night spake on, andtold what the dead had done when they came in the darkness on the Kingthat had led them into battle once. And Night knew who slew Darnex andhow it was done. Moreover, he told why the seven Kings torturedSydatheris and what Sydatheris said just at the last, and how the Kingswent forth and took their lives.
And Night told whose blood had stained the marble steps that lead tothe temple in Ozahn, and why the skull within it wears a golden crown,and whose soul is in the wolf that howls in the dark against the city.And Night knew whither the tigers go out of the Irasian desert and theplace where they meet together, and who speaks to them and what shesays and why. And he told why human teeth had bitten the iron hinge inthe great gate that swings in the walls of Mondas, and who came up outof the marsh alone in the darktime and demanded audience of the Kingand told the King a lie, and how the King, believing it, went down intothe vaults of his palace and found only toads and snakes, who slew theKing. And he told of ventures in palace towers in the quiet, and knewthe spell whereby a man might send the light of the moon right into thesoul of his foe. And Night spoke of the forest and the stirring ofshadows and soft feet pattering and peering eyes, and of the fear thatsits behind the trees taking to itself the shape of something crouchedto spring.
But far under that arbour of the gods down on the earth the mountainpeak Mondana looked Morning in the eyes and forsook his allegiance toNight, and one by one the lesser hills about Mondana's knees greetedthe Morning. And all the while in the plains the shapes of cities camelooming out of the dusk. And Kongros stood forth with all herpinnacles, and the winged figure of Poesy carved upon the easternportal of her gate, and the squat figure of Avarice carved facing itupon the west; and the bat began to tire of going up and down herstreets, and already the owl was home. And the dark lions went up outof the plain back to their caves again. Not as yet shone any dew uponthe spider's snare nor came the sound of any insects stirring or birdof the day, and full allegiance all the valleys owned still to theirLord the Night. Yet earth was preparing for another ruler, and kingdomby kingdom she stole away from Night, and there marched through thedreams of men a million heralds that cried with the voice of the cock:"Lo! Morning come behind us." But in that arbour of the gods above thefields of twilight the star wreath was paling about the head of Night,and ever more wonderful on Morning's brow appeared the mark of power.And at the moment when the camp fires pale and the smoke goes grey tothe sky, and camels sniff the dawn, suddenly Morning forgot Night. Andout of that arbour of the gods, and away to the haunts of the dark,Night with his swart cloak slunk away; and Morning placed her hand uponthe mists and drew them upward and revealed the earth, and drove theshadows before her, and they followed Night. And suddenly the mysteryquitted haunting shapes, and an old glamour was gone, and far and wideover the fields of earth a new splendour arose.