Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  II

  Niafer

  The first thing of all that Manuel did, was to fill a knapsack withsimple and nutritious food, and then he went to the gray mountain calledVraidex, upon the remote and cloud-wrapped summit of which dread MiramonLluagor dwelt, in a doubtful palace wherein the lord of the nine sleepscontrived illusions and designed the dreams of men. When Manuel hadpassed under some very old maple-trees, and was beginning the ascent, hefound a smallish, flat-faced, dark-haired boy going up before him.

  "Hail, snip," says Manuel, "and whatever are you doing in this perilousplace?"

  "Why, I am going," the dark-haired boy replied, "to find out how theLady Gisele d'Arnaye is faring on the tall top of this mountain."

  "Oho, then we will undertake this adventure together, for that is myerrand too. And when the adventure is fulfilled, we will fight together,and the survivor will have the wealth and broad lands and the Count'sdaughter to sit on his knee. What do they call you, friend?"

  "I am called Niafer. But I believe that the Lady Gisele is alreadymarried, to Miramon Lluagor. At least, I sincerely hope she is marriedto this great magician, for otherwise it would not be respectable forher to be living with him at the top of this gray mountain."

  "Fluff and puff! what does that matter?" says Manuel. "There is no lawagainst a widow's remarrying forthwith: and widows are quickly made byany champion about whom the wise Norns are already talking. But I mustnot tell you about that, Niafer, because I do not wish to appearboastful. So I must simply say to you, Niafer, that I am called Manuel,and have no other title as yet, being not yet even a baron."

  "Come now," says Niafer, "but you are rather sure of yourself for ayoung boy!"

  "Why, of what may I be sure in this shifting world if not of myself?"

  "Our elders, Manuel, declare that such self-conceit is a fault, and ourelders, they say, are wiser than we."

  "Our elders, Niafer, have long had the management of this world'saffairs, and you can see for yourself what they have made of theseaffairs. What sort of a world is it, I ask you, in which time peculatesthe gold from hair and the crimson from all lips, and the north windcarries away the glow and glory and contentment of October, and adriveling old magician steals a lovely girl? Why, such maraudings areout of reason, and show plainly that our elders have no notion how tomanage things."

  "Eh, Manuel, and will you re-model the world?"

  "Who knows?" says Manuel, in the high pride of his youth. "At allevents, I do not mean to leave it unaltered."

  Then Niafer, a more prosaic person, gave him a long look compoundedequally of admiration and pity, but Niafer did not dispute the matter.Instead, these two pledged constant fealty until they should haverescued Madame Gisele.

  "Then we will fight for her," says Manuel, again.

  "First, Manuel, let me see her face, and then let me see her state ofmind, and afterward I will see about fighting you. Meanwhile, this is avery tall mountain, and the climbing of it will require all the breathwhich we are wasting here."

  So the two began the ascent of Vraidex, by the winding road upon whichthe dreams traveled when they were sent down to men by the lord of theseven madnesses. All gray rock was the way at first. But they soonreached the gnawed bones of those who had ascended before them,scattered about a small plain that was overgrown with ironweed: andthrough and over the tall purple blossoms came to destroy the boys theSerpent of the East, a very dreadful design with which Miramon afflictedthe sleep of Lithuanians and Tartars. The snake rode on a black horse, ablack falcon perched on his head, and a black hound followed him. Thehorse stumbled, the falcon clamored, the hound howled.

  Then said the snake: "My steed, why do you stumble? my hound, why do youhowl? and, my falcon, why do you clamor? For these three doings foresaysome ill to me."

  "Oh, a great ill!" replies Manuel, with his charmed sword already halfout of the scabbard.

  But Niafer cried: "An endless ill is foresaid by these doings. For Ihave been to the Island of the Oaks: and under the twelfth oak was acopper casket, and in the casket was a purple duck, and in the duck wasan egg: and in the egg, O Norka, was and is your death."

  "It is true that my death is in such an egg," said the Serpent of theEast, "but nobody will ever find that egg, and therefore I am resistlessand immortal."

  "To the contrary, the egg, as you can perceive, is in my hand; and whenI break this egg you will die, and it is smaller worms than you thatwill be thanking me for their supper this night."

  The serpent looked at the poised egg, and he trembled and writhed sothat his black scales scattered everywhither scintillations of reflectedsunlight. He cried, "Give me the egg, and I will permit you two toascend unmolested, to a more terrible destruction."

  Niafer was not eager to do this, but Manuel thought it best, and so atlast Niafer consented to the bargain, for the sake of the serpent'schildren. Then the two lads went upward, while the serpent bandaged theeyes of his horse and of his hound, and hooded his falcon, and creptgingerly away to hide the egg in an unmentionable place.

  "But how in the devil," says Manuel, "did you manage to come by thatinvaluable egg?"

  "It is a quite ordinary duck egg, Manuel. But the Serpent of the Easthas no way of discovering the fact unless he breaks the egg: and that isthe one thing the serpent will never do, because he thinks it is themagic egg which contains his death."

  "Come, Niafer, you are not handsome to look at, but you are far clevererthan I thought you!"

  Now, as Manuel clapped Niafer on the shoulder, the forest beside theroadway was agitated, and the underbrush crackled, and the tallbeech-trees crashed and snapped and tumbled helter-skelter. The crust ofthe earth was thus broken through by the Serpent of the North. Only thehead and throat of this design of Miramon's was lifted from the jumbledtrees, for it was requisite of course that the serpent's lower coilsshould never loose their grip upon the foundations of Norroway. All ofthe design that showed was overgrown with seaweed and barnacles.

  "It is the will of Miramon Lluagor that I forthwith demolish you both,"says this serpent, yawning with a mouth like a fanged cave.

  Once more young Manuel had reached for his charmed sword Flamberge, butit was Niafer who spoke.

  "No, for before you can destroy me," says Niafer, "I shall have castthis bridle over your head."

  "What sort of bridle is that?" inquired the great snake scornfully.

  "And are those goggling flaming eyes not big enough and bright enough tosee that this is the soft bridle called Gleipnir, which is made of thebreath of fish and of the spittle of birds and of the footfall of acat?"

  "Now, although certainly such a bridle was foretold," the snakeconceded, a little uneasily, "how can I make sure that you speak thetruth when you say this particular bridle is Gleipnir?"

  "Why, in this way: I will cast the bridle over your head, and then youwill see for yourself that the old prophecy will be fulfilled, and thatall power and all life will go out of you, and that the Northmen willdream no more."

  "No, do you keep that thing away from me, you little fool! No, no: wewill not test your truthfulness in that way. Instead, do you twocontinue your ascent, to a more terrible destruction, and to facebarbaric dooms coming from the West. And do you give me the bridle todemolish in place of you. And then, if I live forever I shall know thatthis is indeed Gleipnir, and that you have spoken the truth."

  So Niafer consented to this testing of his veracity, rather than permitthis snake to die, and the foundations of Norroway (in which kingdom,Niafer confessed, he had an aunt then living) thus to be dissolved bythe loosening of the dying serpent's grip upon Middlegarth. The bridlewas yielded, and Niafer and Manuel went upward.

  Manuel asked, "Snip, was that in truth the bridle called Gleipnir?"

  "No, Manuel, it is an ordinary bridle. But this Serpent of the North hasno way of discovering this fact except by fitting the bridle over hishead: and this one thing the serpent will never do, because he knowsthat then, if my bridle proved to be Gleipnir,
all power and all lifewould go out of him."

  "O subtle, ugly little snip!" says Manuel: and again he patted Niafer onthe shoulder. Then Manuel spoke very highly in praise of cleverness, andsaid that, for one, he had never objected to it in its place.