by Tanith Lee
Birds sing in the warm avenues of sky. The westering sun flies against a dome of glass, piercing it with a brilliant nail.
Having space, and peace, the young priest makes a detour and climbs the steps, and so concludes the monument is a tomb. Marble and granite, like a fist it grips an egg of sheer transparency. And in this oval mirror a woman lies composed, robed in creamy white, coifed like a nun, a circlet of gold binding her forehead. There is not a mark on her face. She would seem to be a girl. This aspect will be eternal. The sarcophagus has shut her fast in a vacuum, where no atmosphere can enter to corrupt. She will, therefore, never grow old. She will never decay. Always her bones will be decently clad, until the Final Judgement.
The young man gazes in at the dead, seemingly sleeping girl. A kiss might awaken her.
It comes to him, how the Devil left him in the likeness of a black wolf, running off briskly along the roads of slumber. Of what is this dead girl dreaming, this white queen, as she lies in her shell of crystal for ever?
On the other side of the tomb, a blonde dwarf lady is seated at an aesthetic angle, but she too has gone to sleep. In a basket at her side are apples and peaches, one with a chunk bitten out of it.
Above, beyond, meadows, hillside, the winking of water, a wood where rhododendrons are flowering, some hint of towers or roofs.
A nonsensical beast like a large brown cat, or possibly a tabby fox, is eating poppies in the meadow-grass.
The priest walks on, leaving the tomb of glass for the sunset and the night.
Heracty’s Omission of a Further Interview with His Grandmother
On the rim of the fountain, the seventh dwarf balances in the afterglow of summer sunfall, diving his hand into the water, making believe it is a fish. Then, removing his hand and knowing it again as the hand of an elf.
The creatures of the fountain loom over him, still tanned with pink day; great heat stays cosy in the stone. Roses have burst across the lawn.
Although she will never any more glide down the stair, cross this terrace, go by him sightlessly, sinking through the Palace, even so, sometimes he waits for her.
Heracty does not anticipate Innocin’s ghost. A ghost cannot become a ghost. When a ghost dies, it springs to life.
It is years now since he went to call on his grandmother, but Heracty does think of her, for that old witch is waiting for him with malicious hope, but he will never go near her again. Her vigil is accordingly as pointless as this one he keeps on the fountain terrace.
Something stirs among the roses, and a shower of petals snows the dusk.
The moon is rising like a coin of breath, and the gulon, early, starts to yowl. The heart or soul of the gulon is rushing at liberty through a forest. And somewhere else, Heracty is a man with lion’s hair, over six feet tall, his shoulders filling a doorway. Heracty knows this other life of his goes on. It is just there, or there — beneath an arch, behind a door. It takes only the brush of a feather to dislodge the barrier of iron between. He believes this, and knows this, and how simple it would be to do it. Heracty is puzzled, less dismayed than nonplussed, that he has never found the way.
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Also by Tanith Lee
Birthgrave
The Birthgrave (1975)
Vazkor, Son of Vazkor (1977) (aka Shadowfire)
Quest for the White Witch (1978)
Novels Of Vis
The Storm Lord (1976)
Anackire (1983)
The White Serpent (1988)
Four-BEE
Don’t Bite the Sun (1976)
Drinking Sapphire Wine (1977)
Silver Metal Lover
The Silver Metal Lover (1981)
Metallic Love (2005)
Tanaquil
Black Unicorn (1989)
Gold Unicorn (1994)
Red Unicorn (1997)
Blood Opera
Dark Dance (1992)
Personal Darkness (1993)
Darkness, I (1994)
Lionwolf
Cast a Bright Shadow (2004)
Here in Cold Hell (2005)
No Flame But Mine (2007)
Other Novels
Volkhavaar (1977)
Electric Forest (1979)
Day by Night (1980)
Lycanthia (1981) (aka The Children of Wolves)
Sung in Shadow (1983)
Days of Grass (1985)
A Heroine of the World (1989)
The Blood of Roses (1990)
Heart-Beast (1992)
Elephantasm (1993)
Eva Fairdeath (1994)
Vivia (1995)
When the Lights Go Out (1995)
Reigning Cats and Dogs (1995)
White as Snow (2000)
L’Amber (2006)
Greyglass (2011)
Collections
Cyrion (1982)
Tamastara (1984) (aka The Indian Nights)
The Gorgon: And Other Beastly Tales (1985)
Women as Demons (1985)
Dreams of Dark and Light (1986)
Forests of the Night (1989)
Nightshades: Thirteen Journeys into Shadow (1993)
Tanith Lee (1947-2015)
Tanith Lee was born in London in 1947. She is the author of more than 70 novels and almost 300 short stories, and has also written radio plays for the BBC and two scripts for the cult television series Blake’s 7. Her first short story, ‘Eustace’, was published in 1968, and her first children’s novel The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971. In 1975 her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave was published to international acclaim, and Lee maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing throughout her life. She twice won the World Fantasy Award, and was a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror, and in 2013 she was given the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Tanith Lee was married to author and artist John Kaiine. She died in May, 2015.
For more information see www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lee_tanith
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Tanith Lee 1989
All rights reserved.
The right of Tanith Lee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 12094 5
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
www.orionbooks.co.uk
* Pelican Lodge Archives, limited press edition, 2052
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