Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  III

  Ascent of Vraidex

  Now it was evening, and the two sought shelter in a queer windmill bythe roadside, finding there a small wrinkled old man in a patched coat.He gave them lodgings for the night, and honest bread and cheese, butfor his own supper he took frogs out of his bosom, and roasted these inthe coals.

  Then the two boys sat in the doorway, and watched that night's dreamsgoing down from Vraidex to their allotted work in the world of visionarymen, to whom these dreams were passing in the form of incredible whitevapors. Sitting thus, the lads fell to talking of this and the other,and Manuel found that Niafer was a pagan of the old faith: and this,said Manuel, was an excellent thing.

  "For, when we have achieved our adventure," says Manuel, "and must fightagainst each other for the Count's daughter, I shall certainly kill you,dear Niafer. Now if you were a Christian, and died thus unholily intrying to murder me, you would have to go thereafter to the unquenchableflames of purgatory or to even hotter flames: but among the pagans allthat die valiantly in battle go straight to the pagan paradise. Yes,yes, your abominable religion is a great comfort to me."

  "It is a comfort to me also, Manuel. But, as a Christian, you ought notever to have any kind words for heathenry."

  "Ah, but," says Manuel, "while my mother Dorothy of the White Arms wasthe most zealous sort of Christian, my father, you must know, was not acommunicant."

  "Who was your father, Manuel?"

  "No less a person than the Swimmer, Oriander, who is in turn the son ofMimir."

  "Ah, to be sure! and who is Mimir?"

  "Well, Niafer, that is a thing not very generally known, but he is famedfor his wise head."

  "And, Manuel, who, while we speak of it, is Oriander?"

  Said Manuel:

  "Oh, out of the void and the darkness that is peopled by Mimir's brood,from the ultimate silent fastness of the desolate deep-sea gloom, andthe peace of that ageless gloom, blind Oriander came, from Mimir, to beat war with the sea and to jeer at the sea's desire. When tempests areseething and roaring from the Aesir's inverted bowl all seamen haveheard his shouting and the cry that his mirth sends up: when the rim ofthe sea tilts up, and the world's roof wavers down, his face gleamswhite where distraught waves smite the Swimmer they may not tire. Noeyes were allotted this Swimmer, but in blindness, with ceaseless jeers,he battles till time be done with, and the love-songs of earth be sung,and the very last dirge be sung, and a baffled and outworn seabegrudgingly own Oriander alone may mock at the might of its ire."

  "Truly, Manuel, that sounds like a parent to be proud of, and not at alllike a church-going parent, and of course his blindness would accountfor that squint of yours. Yes, certainly it would. So do you tell meabout this blind Oriander, and how he came to meet your mother Dorothyof the White Arms, as I suppose he did somewhere or other."

  "Oh, no," says Manuel, "for Oriander never leaves off swimming, and sohe must stay always in the water. So he never actually met my mother,and she married Emmerick, who was my nominal father. But such and suchthings happened."

  Then Manuel told Niafer all about the circumstances of Manuel's birth ina cave, and about the circumstances of Manuel's upbringing in and nearRathgor and the two boys talked on and on, while the unborn dreams wentdrifting by outside; and within the small wrinkled old man sat listeningwith a very doubtful smile, and saying never a word.

  "And why is your hair cut so queerly, Manuel?"

  "That, Niafer, we need not talk about, in part because it is not goingto be cut that way any longer, and in part because it is time for bed."

  The next morning Manuel and Niafer paid the ancient price which theirhost required. They left him cobbling shoes, and, still ascending,encountered no more bones, for nobody else had climbed so high. Theypresently came to a bridge whereon were eight spears, and the bridge wasguarded by the Serpent of the West. This snake was striped with blue andgold, and wore on his head a great cap of humming-birds' feathers.

  Manuel half drew his sword to attack this serpentine design, with whichMiramon Lluagor made sleeping terrible for the red tribes that hunt andfish behind the Hesperides. But Manuel looked at Niafer.

  And Niafer displayed a drolly marked small turtle, saying, "Maskanako,do you not recognize Tulapin, the turtle that never lies?"

  The serpent howled, as though a thousand dogs had been kickedsimultaneously, and the serpent fled.

  "Why, snip, did he do that?" asked Manuel, smiling sleepily and gravely,as for the third time he found that his charmed sword Flamberge wasunneeded.

  "Truly, Manuel, nobody knows why this serpent dreads the turtle: but ourconcern is less with the cause than with the effect. Meanwhile, thoseeight spears are not to be touched on any account."

  "Is what you have a quite ordinary turtle?" asked Manuel, meekly.

  Niafer said: "Of course it is. Where would I be getting extraordinaryturtles?"

  "I had not previously considered that problem," replied Manuel, "but thequestion is certainly unanswerable."

  They then sat down to lunch, and found the bread and cheese they hadpurchased from the little old man that morning was turned to lumps ofsilver and virgin gold in Manuel's knapsack. "This is very disgusting,"said Manuel, "and I do not wonder my back was near breaking." He flungaway the treasure, and they lunched frugally on blackberries.

  From among the entangled blackberry bushes came the glowing Serpent ofthe South, who was the smallest and loveliest and most poisonous ofMiramon's designs. With this snake Niafer dealt curiously. Niaferemployed three articles in the transaction: two of these things are notto be talked about, but the third was a little figure carved inhazel-wood.

  "Certainly you are very clever," said Manuel, when they had passed thisserpent. "Still, your employment of those first two articles wasunprecedented, and your disposal of the carved figure absolutelyembarrassed me."

  "Before such danger as confronted us, Manuel, it does not pay to besqueamish," replied Niafer, "and my exorcism was good Dirgham."

  And many other adventures and perils they encountered, such as if allwere told would make a long and most improbable history. But they hadclear favorable weather, and they won through each pinch, by one oranother fraud which Niafer evolved the instant that gullery was needed.Manuel was loud in his praises of the surprising cleverness of hisflat-faced dark comrade, and protested that hourly he loved Niafer moreand more: and Manuel said too that he was beginning to think more andmore distastefully of the time when Niafer and Manuel would have tofight for the Count of Arnaye's daughter until one of them had killedthe other.

  Meanwhile the sword Flamberge stayed in its curious blue scabbard.