As the first light filtered into Líath Uludhyanedh through the trees high up on the surrounding slopes, Silsawiste and the remaining four Entelláka maidens gently roused the Kabadri. They bade them wash hands and faces and feet in the water of the spring. By daylight the grove, even bare of leaves, was fair and heartening to enter. After that the Entellári brought bread and fruit and wine to the Kabadri. It did not seem much food among so many, but it was sufficient. While they were eating, Silsawiste spoke to them:
You shall go with Entellári to the parting of our roads.
We are hasting on an errand for our Lady Tithiánë
To the King of Hyilavúna out amidst the Eastern Sea.
Shun the Yoke of Negobith, and every wight that bears it.
Shun the servants of the One they call the Master of the Deep.
We shall teach you how to turn them from your way.
This appeal to mother Sápha is the rune that you must say:
Eyvâ kúmi netâri, hlabu-san ta Émarul Sápha!
Know that mother Sápha, Émarul of Entellári
Is a shield to all afflicted by the snares of Negobith.
They then prepared to leave the peaceful dale. Following the Entelláka maidens, the company of Kabadri with their beasts wound its way down into the lowlands and joined a wide path running towards the rising sun. After a few hours’ journey they saw before them a great stone marking the place where the road forked. Then at Silsawiste’s bidding they turned north into the hills. The Entellári bade them farewell and good fortune:
Sathi kailegann! Sahyín verdarnigai! ‘May you fare well! We wish you good fortune!’
As Silsawiste had assured them, they soon came to a place in the hills where they could dwell. They named it Entelláka Kabadkabâ ‘Kabadkabâ of the Entellári’, or Thémi Kabatigna ‘New Dwellings of the Kabadri’. And there they lived in peace for many years.
Now Hannartikhoth recovered slowly from the state of frozen sleep. Though he could now sit up, he was too weak to walk, so his fellows drove him in the wain in which they had conveyed him before. When they arrived in their new home and put up tents and shelters to dwell in, Grekkonanaskhon himself tended Hannartikhoth in his own tent. And soon the day came when Hannartikhoth began to speak of his ordeal. For, he explained, he had not been entirely unconscious during that time of firungamlas or frozen sleep. He had had, as it were, dreams. Or perhaps they were true visions of things happening outside him, conveyed in some way to his frozen mind.
‘On the third day the dreams or visions began. I do not know how I understood that I had been sleeping for three days, but I received that knowledge. And of a sudden, my mind was wakened by a terrible noise that seemed to come from the depths of the earth. Like thunder in the deeps, or the drumming of Slungandi, magnified a hundredfold. As it died away, a voice came. It was a cold, dark voice. It said:
“The age of the Giants is over! Their rule is ended! The Great Runes of Binding are broken! Now the Lord of Ombros has arisen in power. He will take back his realm. All peoples will receive the Yoke of Negobith.”
‘Then I seemed to see a great dark being, shaped like a nyanda, with head and limbs, but it had no face. It was striding through a dark landscape. The Moon was shining, but the figure raised its arm and a thick grey mist streamed forth, making the Moon’s light dim. And in the misty sky I saw a horrible shape. It had huge wide wings. It flew towards the dark figure and as it flew it made a fearful roaring, screaming sound. Its great shape blotted out the light of the Moon. And I heard many voices, howling, baying, screeching, roaring. I could make out no word but one: Mikhan-dâ!
‘Then the Falakkazri came. Not like they were when we cultivated the frostberries, Grekkon: surly, taciturn, and peremptory. They were filled with hatred and violence and they brandished their staves and cried aloud. Then two of them seemed to come right at me and bring down their staves on my shoulders and I felt this burning, stinging spread over me. I heard them say “Receive the Yoke of Negobith till the Night release you!” And then I seemed to fall back into dark sleep, but sleep with bad dreams of monstrous beasts — O, no more can I tell…!’
And Grekkonanaskhon said:
‘Then say no more, Hannar. You are safe now. And you did not in truth receive the Yoke. Look at your shoulders. No marks there!’
And when Hannartikhoth had taken food and wine and was calmer in himself, Grekkonnanaskhon left him to sleep, but he went and gathered some of the wise elders of the Kabadri and told them what Hannartikhoth had witnessed, for he had no doubt that it was a true vision.
No comments:
Post a Comment