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"So you didn't have the curiosity to follow him?" "No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in the man somehow seemed to vanish." "Probably because he was useless to you." Corpang glanced at Maskull. "Our road is marked out for us." "So it would appear," said Maskull indifferently. The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and grew restless.
Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to his pride. The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform on the opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to the right, and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a bridge, coming out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line of precipices immediately confronted them.
"Perhaps you won't find it so joyous," replied Corpang a little grimly. "But tell me these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?" Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast fading into obscurity. "Passion keeps them from falling." Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of spirit. "What, the love of rock for rock?" "It is comical, but true."
It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without individual shapes." "Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?" "The life of an absolute male is fierce. An excess of life is dangerous to the body. How can it be anything else than torturing?" Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte. "I remind you of your promise to tell about Muspel." Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile.
"Because its living will contains the element of Thire." "Why are we stopping here?" Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and proffered it to him. "Eat this, Maskull." "For food, or something else?" "Food for body and soul." Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap was bleeding.
"We'll take a closer peep at them presently. Beyond the mountains is Barey, is it not?" "Yes." "And then the Ocean. But what is the name of that Ocean?" "That is told only to those who die beside it." "Is the secret so precious, Corpang?" Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than two hours of daylight remaining. The air all around them became murky.
He glanced anxiously around him, and fastened his eyes on Corpang. He put a hand on his shoulder and aroused him from his praying. "You must know what I am feeling, Corpang." Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing. "I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?" "So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to the invisible worlds."
It appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of where they were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull's heart beat quickly. "What can that sound be?" asked Corpang, peering into the obscurity. "It is Surtur." "Once again, who is Surtur?" Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiance was in the air, in the direction of the drumming.
"Better explore," said Haunte. Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging the curtain aside and disappearing into the night. Haunte rose abruptly and hurried after him. Corpang too got to his feet. He went over to the untouched spirit skins, untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to the floor.
On both sides of the chasm, facing one another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they too proceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emerged onto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higher than that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a double line of lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.
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