The Night Land, a Story Retold

by James Stoddard

  We fell silent again, filled with memories of our previous lives, but still unfamiliar with one another. As she sat before me, I noticed her feet were bare, but before I did anything about that, we ate, drank, and made plans.

  "We've stayed here too long," I told her. "It's a wonder we haven't been found. We need to leave quickly, to return to the Great Pyramid as soon as possible."

  "Can't we do anything for my people?"

  "I don't see how, unless we meet them by chance. The only ones I've heard were being pursued."

  Tears filled her eyes and she took my hand. "Most of those I knew are dead—my father, my friends, but a few might still be alive. How can I desert them?" Her voice rose in anguish, and she began to cry. I held her a time, until she drew a deep breath and sat back on her heels.

  "I'm all right," she said. "You must forgive me."

  "There is nothing to forgive—"

  "I'll be brave. But there is one thing I can do, if you have something to write with."

  "I do. I've kept the hours of my journey on the back pages of Ayleos' Mathematics. We could take a few sheets from there."

  "You brought a mathematics book with you?"

  "Yes."

  She grinned so mischievously I thought I saw Mirdath peering out through her eyes. "Thought you might work a few calculations in your extra time?"

  I laughed, though it also embarrassed me. "No. It's just a hobby."

  "Or a fixation. I have a lot to learn about you, Andros."

  Her delight puzzled me, and I decided to change the subject. "What do you want to write?"

  She became serious once more. "I will leave a note every time we stop at a fire, explaining the way to your country. I will also mention any possible dangers. Perhaps some of my people will read it and follow us to your pyramid."

  I knew Naani's people were mostly unarmed and unarmored, and I saw little chance of any reaching my home, but I did not discourage her, for someone might indeed overcome the odds and find their way to the Last Redoubt. Besides, for the sake of her own soul, she needed to do something to try to help her people. The enormity of an entire nation, as we thought of the Lesser Redoubt, destroyed by the monsters of the night, was too terrible to contemplate. Even though it made me nervous to linger around the fire-pit, I briefly described the way to the Great Pyramid, while Naani wrote my directions down.

  Afterward, I counted the packs of tablets. For the first time, I was glad I had been frugal along the way, for if we made good speed, we had enough for the return trip. As for the water, I still had two full flasks of powder and a third, the one I had used all during my journey, partially full. It never occurred to either of us to slay animals for our food, for our people did not eat meat. If I ever recalled consuming flesh in my past life, I must have looked upon it with disgust. It was a shame, since otherwise we could have kept our bellies full, but though we grumbled, we did not suffer as much as might be expected, since our stomachs had shrunk.

  Before we could leave, we had to find some kind of foot gear for Naani. This puzzled me until I found an extra pair of inner shoes within my pack, designed to go inside my armored boots. I made her sit down while I fitted them on her, and we both laughed when we saw how large they were, as if we were children playing make-believe instead of adults facing terrible dangers. I took her knife and used it to shave a string off the straps of my pouch, which I then used to tie the boots around the tops.

  "How does it feel?" I asked, as she walked around. She looked charming and clumsy all at the same time.

  "Like walking in bags. Can you wrap cords around my feet, to keep the material together?"

  I did as she said, and then she stood and tried to walk again. "This will work, though it's hardly fashionable."

  "Next time I'll bring boots from the Sixty-seventh City, which is famous for its footwear."

  We exchanged smiles and set off.

  Despite my anxiety for Naani's safety, it amazed me how much easier it was to journey with a companion, especially since I no longer traveled on what seemed an almost hopeless mission. We steered across the ancient sea bed toward the blue shining I had first seen from the mouth of the Upward Gorge, stopping only twice to eat and rest. By the thirteenth hour I noticed Naani stumbling as she went, for she had not yet regained her full strength. Without a word I scooped her up and carried her like a baby.

  "Andros, you mustn't!" she cried. "I'm too heavy!"

  I bent down and kissed her lips. "No, you were tall as Mirdath; now you weigh little more than a feather. I could carry you forever."

  "I see." She stopped protesting, but after a time said, "Do you wish I were tall again?"

  I chuckled.

  "Why are you laughing?"

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. You were tall, now you are petite. It's neither better nor worse, only different. I think you're lovely."

  "Oh," she said, laying her head back against my chest. "Andros, what is a feather?"

  "I don't know. The expression just came to me."

  We went on in silence, until a nagging thought made me speak, though I tried not to sound too pathetic. "I don't look the same, either."

  It was her turn to laugh. "You're not entirely different. You were always tall and powerful. You’re a little more lean. Your face and voice have changed. But it's a good face—a handsome face."

  I grinned like a boy. "So you don't think us ill-matched?"

  At this she hugged me tightly around the shoulders and buried her face in my chest. I soon realized she was crying.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  Her voice broke as she said, "You've come for me through all the darkness and dangers, and you ask if we are ill-matched. Oh, Andros!"

  For a time we walked, she softly weeping, I feeling her love surrounding me. It was one of the sweetest moments of my life.

  "Try to sleep," I told her at last. She fell silent, remaining so until the eighteenth hour when we stopped to rest, but she never slept all during that time because she wanted to help me watch for danger. Since she, too, possessed the Night Hearing, she could be as useful at it as I. Without the protection of my body vest the metal armor against my skin made me terribly cold, nor were there any fire-holes in the ancient seabed to warm me. I kept my cloak around Naani as I carried her, taking comfort in her comfort, but when I started to shiver she ignored my protests and wrapped it over my shoulders. I gave in, knowing it would be unwise for either of us to get chilled, though I pulled it forward so it partially covered her, too.

  After we rested, I tried to pick Naani up again, but she refused. "We can make better time if I walk. I'm strong enough now."

  We went side by side once more, sometimes touching one another's hands, though mostly I kept my arms free so I could reach my diskos. We searched diligently for a fire-hole, for the cold seemed especially bitter to both of us, and we continued what I came to call The Battle of the Cloak, I insisting she wear it, she insisting I wear it. At last she threatened to give me my body vest back and don her old rags, which she had brought with her in a bundle that I kept in my pouch. I continued to refuse until she won the struggle by bursting into tears. Few men can withstand this particular weapon, especially when it involves a woman's self-sacrifice, and I would rather have fought a thousand monsters than see her cry.

  I wore the cloak. I did convince her to trade off every hour, so the battle ended diplomatically, although during her turn she asked me the time every fifteen minutes.

  We traveled five more hours, and though she denied it, I realized she was exhausted. Since there were no fire-holes, I looked for a cave. We found a series of cliffs, ancient islands once rising from the dead sea, among which we discovered an entrance about six feet off the ground. While Naani watched, I climbed up to it and triggered my diskos to see if it was safe. It proved to be empty, but as I turned I found her scrambling up the cliff, knife in hand. Being unfamiliar with the power of my weapon, she had mistaken its spinning for the sound of a beast.

&
nbsp; "What a strange device," she said, once she realized what had happened. "I thought a monster had you."

  "Your people didn't carry diskoi?"

  "No. We have nothing like them."

  That seemed odd to me, especially if her ancestors had migrated from the Great Pyramid. Of course, almost anything could have happened in the intervening centuries to deprive them of their weapons.

  I helped her into the cave, then followed after. I was glad to find a shelter, for I knew we both needed to sleep at the same time if we wanted to complete our journey before the food ran out. The interior darkness left us blind, and we made our meal together by touch alone.

  As we ate Naani said, "I just had the strangest thought. When we reach the Great Pyramid I could cook you a meal like in the old days. I use to dismiss the servants and make it with my own hands."

  "Yes," I said, somewhat hesitantly, for her words sparked my memory. "You use to . . . make my meal . . . while I sat by the fire smoking my . . . what was it . . . my pipe?"

  She clapped her hands together, her eyes flashing. "Yes! That was it!"

  "You would work," I said, straining to recall, "while I did nothing."

  We both sat there, puzzled. Finally, Naani said, "Why wouldn't you help me? You weren't injured."

  "I don't know," I said. "Those were strange, barbaric times. Yet there was a certain gracefulness to them as well."

  She patted my arm. "It was so long ago. It's like looking down a long tunnel into the sunlight."

  It had been twenty-six hours since I last slept, and thirty-eight for Naani, so when we finished eating, we were both ready to lie down. As I have written before, our people were modest, and not wanting to dishonor her in any way I had her lie a short distance from me with the cloak over her. But she said, "This is silly, Andros. We were once husband and wife. If we don't sleep close together, we'll both freeze."

  I agreed, though honor required that the suggestion come from her and not me. In many ways, women are more practical than men.

  We slipped into one another's arms beneath the blanket of the cloak. After some debate I removed my armored shirt, so we could share some measure of warmth, but the morals of our people restrained us from becoming more intimate. Beyond mere custom, I respected and revered Naani, even as she did me, for such is the real meaning of love, and I fell asleep, warm for the first time that day, her sweet breath against mine.

  When I woke seven hours later, I slipped from under the cloak and wrapped it gently back around her, leaving her sleeping. She moaned slightly and reached for the place where I had been, but did not wake.

  I watched the night through the cave opening for a long while, making certain nothing stirred, then I searched through my scrip in the darkness until I found two tablets to eat. When I made the water, the fizzing woke Naani, who called to me in a whisper. I answered at once to relieve her of any anxiety.

  "Good morning," she said, for those words of greeting had survived even the ages of darkness. "Where are you?"

  "Here," I answered, reaching to take her hand. She rose and kissed my forehead, then ran her palm along my left arm until she found the cup, which she took from my grasp. When I gave her two tablets she took one of them and held it to my lips in the gloom. "Bless it with your kiss."

  Sorrow and joy froze my heart, for Mirdath had often done the same thing when we ate together. In that moment the walls of eternity rolled away and a thousand memories overwhelmed me, but I kissed the tablet without saying anything.

  Getting our gear together, we set off across the utter silence of the ancient sea bottom. We stopped to eat at the sixth and twelfth hours, and arrived at the long slope of the far side of the sea during the fifteenth hour. After ascending it, we reached higher regions overlooking the entire country.

  XIII

  FORCES

  After the gloom of the ancient sea bottom, the country before us seemed much brighter. We came out in a region of scattered fire-holes west of the place where I had originally descended. Naani and I stood close together, she gazing up at me, our faces lit by the faint red glare of the distant flames. She looked beautiful and noble, but pale with exhaustion, and I mentally scolded myself for overtaxing her. After traveling for so many days I felt strong as iron; sometimes it seemed I could walk forever. I tended to forget that it would take some time for her to reach my level of conditioning.

  I put my arm around her and kissed her. "We have to decide how to get back to the Upward Gorge."

  I pointed to the blue glow blanketing the west. "I don't know what that is, but I don't trust it. We should be able to go to the left of it. We should also avoid that large fire-pit. I've seen giants there. The Upward Gorge is to the south, but it's too far away to see from here."

  "We can't go that way," Naani replied. "See the way the fire-holes glow green? According to our Records, that's a sign of poison gas."

  This caused me some concern, for the emerald-tinged flames stretched in a band all the way to the blue glow. "I wonder how I avoided it on my way to the sea bed?"

  "You must have passed between the poisonous fields and the Red Pit. You were lucky."

  "What do you call the blue light?"

  "The Shine. You're right to fear it. It's one of the most dangerous parts of the country. When the burning mists roll, the Fixed Giants can be seen staring out of it. They're terrible, evil creatures."

  "I saw one. A monstrous face through the smoke."

  Naani shuddered against my arm. "If it had turned its will on you, you would not have survived. They destroy both body and soul."

  "We have similar creatures in the Night Land, called Watchers, but they do not bother to hide themselves."

  "We must avoid them," she said, biting her lip in thought. "I think we should go back down to the seabed and follow the shore southwest past the gas fields, then ascend again. We will have to be careful after that, to avoid the giants of the Red Pit."

  Listening to her think aloud helped me see the way her mind worked, and I liked how quickly she planned our course. Her voice had a slight, pleasant rasp surprising in one so small.

  "Very well," I said. "That's what we will do. You know this country. I don't."

  "I have studied it all my life. I was always drawing maps."

  "So was I. I suppose most children do. We should rest before we go on."

  "How long have we walked?"

  "Seventeen hours."

  She slumped as I said it, as if the information sapped the last of her strength. "That fire-hole is close," she pointed at a flame a little to our right. "Let's find someplace warm."

  A weary hour passed before we reached the flames. It proved farther away than we thought and much larger than we suspected, for it was a fire-pit rather than a fire-hole, its red flames shooting out of a deep hollow. As we approached, I signaled for silence, and holding my diskos in hand, crept on hands and knees to the rim. The light nearly blinded me and I felt the heat on my face even from where I crouched. Though I did not see anything dangerous lurking in the hollow, I grew uneasy, fearing that a fire that large could not help but attract every predator in the country. I wished we had never come.

  I studied the area a long time, torn between our need for warmth and my fear for Naani's safety. While I debated, she startled me by appearing at my elbow. Momentary annoyance crossed my features.

  "You're angry," she whispered.

  "No . . . I . . . We should stay away from the fires; it's too dangerous."

  "We're freezing. We can't survive unless we get warm. Even if we don't sleep here, we have to rest a while."

  I knew she was right; the cold wore on me more than the walking. It may seem strange that we had traveled so far to find the fire only for me to voice such misgivings, but the need to protect Naani lay heavily upon me. I had made decisions easily on my outward journey; now I found my will almost paralyzed. I became like a man trying to hide a valuable jewel, unable to find security anywhere.

  Despite my misgiving
s, we finally descended. I searched the rocky floor and spied three serpents and two enormous scorpions watching me from their dens. These alone convinced me not to sleep there, but I did not mention them to Naani. She had already told me she did not like snakes, and I wanted her to rest comfortably.

  We sat together by the flames. How good it felt to be warm again! I would have given much for another body vest and heavier clothes for Naani. More than once I wished I had packed something of the sort, but I had started my mission with little idea of how it might end, and one can scarcely think of everything.

  When our hands thawed enough so we could open the scrip and pouch, we made our meal and ate it in vigilant silence. As we sat there, it occurred to me that many of the monsters might find the brilliant light of the hollow intolerable, making it safer than I had first suspected.

  As we finished our supper, a serpent slithered across the rocks, startling Naani. "I'm warm enough," she said. "We can go."

  "This isn't as bad as I thought. We might stay, after all. There's a cave along the sides. I'll check to see if it is safe."

  "We don't have to."

  Now that I was warm, I hated to return to the bitter cold. We had no guarantee of safety there or anywhere else, and the deserted condition of the hollow suggested that the monsters avoided it. Indecision struck me again; it suddenly seemed foolish to take Naani away from a safe place, to sleep—perhaps unprotected—in the dark.

  The hollow was large, and the cave stood a hundred feet from the fire and twenty feet above the floor. I clambered up to it, and was able to see by the firelight that it was empty. I hurried to help Naani up, for climbing the rock face made me feel vulnerable. She showed complete confidence in me, a trust I would have relished if not for our danger. We retreated from the cave mouth, out of sight of spying eyes, and slept beneath the cloak as we had done before, except that I left my breastplate on so I could be ready for battle. It had been twenty hours since we last slumbered.

  We woke seven hours later to shouts and shrieks, gripping one another in terror, for the screams were human.