_The Shining Line_
Alveric wandered on, alone of that small company of three without a hope
to guide him. For Niv and Zend, who were lately led by the hope of their
fantastic quest, no longer yearned for Elfland but were guided now by
their plan to hold Alveric back from it. They vacillated more slowly
than sane folk, but clung with far more than sane fervour to each
vacillation. And Zend that had wandered through so many years with the
hope of Elfland before him looked on it, now that he had seen its
frontier, as one of the rivals of the moon. Niv who had endured as much
for Alveric's quest saw in that magical land something more fabulous
than was in all his dreams. And now when Alveric attempted lame
cajoleries with those swift and ferocious minds he received no more
answers from Zend than the curt statement "It is not the will of the
moon": while Niv would only reiterate "Have I not dreams enough?"
They were wandering back again past farms that had known them years
before. With their old grey tent more tattered they appeared in the
twilight, adding a shade to the evening, in fields wherein they and
their tent had become a legend. And never was Alveric unwatched by some
mad eye, lest he should slip from the camp and come to Elfland and be
where dreams were stranger than Niv's and under a power more magical
than the moon.
Often he tried, creeping silently from his place in the dead of night.
One moonlight night he tried first, waiting awake till all the world
seemed sleeping. He knew that the frontier was not far away as he crept
from the tent into the brightness and black shadows and passed Niv
sleeping heavily. A little way he went, and there was Zend sitting still
on a rock, gazing into the face of the moon. Round came Zend's face and,
newly inspired by the moon, he shouted and leapt at Alveric. They had
taken away his sword. And Niv woke and came towards them with immense
fury, united to Zend by one jealousy; for each of them knew well that
the wonders of Elfland were greater than any fancy that their minds
would ever know.
And again he tried, on a night when no moon shone. But on that night Niv
was sitting outside the camp, relishing in a strange and joyless way a
certain comradeship that there was between his ravings and the
interstellar darkness. And there in the night he saw Alveric slipping
away towards the land whose wonders far transcended all Niv's poor
dreams; and all the fury the lesser can feel for the greater awoke at
once in his mind; and, creeping up behind him, without any help from
Zend he smote Alveric insensible to the ground.
And never did Alveric plan any escape after that but that the busy
thoughts of madness anticipated it.
And so they came, watchers and watched, over the fields of men. And
Alveric sought help of the folk of the farms; but the cunning of Niv
knew too well the tricks of sanity. So that when the folk came running
over their fields to that queer grey tent from which they heard
Alveric's cries, they found Niv and Zend posed in a calm that they had
much practised, while Alveric told of his thwarted quest of Elfland. Now
by many men all quests are considered mad, as the cunning of Niv knew.
Alveric found no help here.
As they went back by the way by which they had marched for years Niv led
that band of three, stepping ahead of Alveric and Zend with his lean
face held high, made all the leaner by the long thin points to which he
had trained his beard and his moustaches, and wearing Alveric's sword
that stuck out long behind him and its hilt high in front. And he
stepped and perked his head with a certain air that revealed to the rare
travellers who saw him that this sparse and ragged figure esteemed
itself the leader of a greater band than were visible. Indeed if one had
just seen him at the end of the evening with the dusk and the mist of
the fenlands close behind him he might have believed that in the dusk
and the mist was an army that followed this gay worn confident man. Had
the army been there Niv was sane. Had the world accepted that an army
was there, even though only Alveric and Zend followed his curious steps,
still he was sane. But the lonely fancy that had not fact to feed on,
nor the fancy of any other for fellowship, was for its loneliness mad.
Zend watched Alveric all the while, as they marched behind Niv; for
their mutual jealousy of the wonders of Elfland bound Niv and Zend
together to work as with one wild whim.
And now one morning Niv stretched himself up to the fullest possible
height of his lean inches and extended his right arm high and addressed
his army, "We are come near again to Erl," he said. "And we shall bring
new fancies in place of outworn things and things that are stale; and
its customs shall be henceforth the way of the moon."
Now Niv cared nothing for the moon, but he had great cunning, and he
knew that Zend would aid his new plan against Erl if only for the sake
of the moon. And Zend cheered till the echoes came back from a lonely
hill, and Niv smiled to them like a leader confident of his hosts. And
Alveric rose against them then, and struggled with Niv and Zend for the
last time, and learned that age or wandering or loss of hope had left
him unable to strive against the maniacal strength of these two. And
after that he went with them more meekly, with resignation, caring no
longer what befell him, living only in memory and only for days that had
been; and in November evenings in this dim camp in the chill he saw,
looking only backwards through the years, Spring mornings shine again on
the towers of Erl. In the light of these mornings he saw Orion again,
playing again with old toys that the witch had made with a spell; he saw
Lirazel move once more through the gracious gardens. Yet no light that
memory is able to kindle was strong enough to illumine much that camp in
those sombre evenings, when the damp rose up from the ground and the
chill swooped out of the air, and Niv and Zend as darkness came stealing
nearer began to chatter in low eager voices schemes inspired by such
whims as throve at dusk in the waste. Only when the sad day drifted
wholly thence and Alveric slept by flapping tatters that streamed from
the tent in the night, then only was memory, unhindered by the busy
changes of day, able to bring back Erl to him, bright, happy and vernal;
so that while his body lay still, in far fields, in the dark and the
Winter, all that was most active and live in him was back over the wolds
in Erl, back over the years in Spring with Lirazel and Orion.
How far he was bodily, in sheer miles from his home, for which his happy
thoughts each night forsook his weary frame, Alveric knew not. It was
many years since their tent had stood one evening a grey shape in that
landscape in which it now waved its tatters. But Niv knew that of late
they had come nearer to Erl, for his dreams of it came to him now soon
after he fell asleep, and they used to come to him further on in the
night, on the other side of midnight and even towards morning: and from
this he argued that they used to have further to come, and were now but
a little way off. When he told this secretly one evening to Zend, Zend
listened gravely but gave no opinion, merely saying "The moon knows."
Nevertheless he followed Niv, who led this curious caravan always in
that direction from which his dreams of the valley of Erl came soonest.
And this queer leadership brought them nearer to Erl, as often happens
where men follow leaders that are crazy or blind or deceived; they reach
some port or other though they stray down the years with little
foresight enough: were it otherwise what would become of us?
And one day the upper parts of the towers of Erl looked at them out of
blue distance, shining in early sunlight above a curve of the downs. And
towards them Niv turned at once and led directly, for the line of their
wandering march had not pointed straight to Erl, and marched on as a
conqueror that sees some new city's gates. What his plans were Alveric
did not know, but kept to his apathy; and Zend did not know, for Niv had
merely said that his plans must be secret; nor did Niv know, for his
fancies poured through his brain and rushed away; what fancies made what
plans in a mood that was yesterday's how could he tell to-day?
Then as they went they soon came to a shepherd, standing amongst his
grazing sheep and leaning upon his crook, who watched and seemed to have
no other care but only to watch all things going by, or, when nothing
passed, to gaze and gaze at the downs till all his memories were
fashioned out of their huge grass curves. He stood, a bearded man, and
watched them with never a word as they passed. And one of Niv's mad
memories suddenly knew him, and Niv hailed him by his name and the
shepherd answered. And who should he be but Vand!
Then they fell talking; and Niv spoke suavely, as he always did with
sane folk, aping with clever mimicry the ways and the tricks of sanity,
lest Alveric should ask for help against him. But Alveric sought no
help. Silent he stood and heard the others talking, but his thoughts
were far in the past and their voices were only sounds to him. And Vand
enquired of them if they had found Elfland. But he spoke as one asks of
children if their toy boat has been to the Happy Isles. He had had for
many years to do with sheep, and had come to know their needs and their
price, and the need men have of them; and these things had risen
imperceptibly up all round his imagination, and were at last a wall over
which he saw no further. When he was young, yes once, he had sought for
Elfland; but now, why now he was older; such things were for the young.
"But we saw its border," said Zend, "the border of twilight."
"A mist," said Vand, "of the evening."
"I have stood," said Zend, "upon the edge of Elfland."
But Vand smiled and shook his bearded head as he leaned on his long
crook, and every wave of his beard as he shook it slowly denied Zend's
tales of that border, and his lips smiled it away, and his tolerant eyes
were grave with the lore of the fields we know.
"No, not Elfland," he said.
And Niv agreed with Vand, for he watched his mood, studying the ways of
sanity. And they spoke of Elfland lightly, as one tells of some dream
that came at dawn and went away before waking. And Alveric heard with
despair, for Lirazel dwelt not only over the border but even, as he saw
now, beyond human belief; so that all at once she seemed remoter than
ever, and he still lonelier.
"I sought for it once," said Vand, "but no, there's no Elfland."
"No," said Niv, and only Zend wondered.
"No," replied Vand and shook his head and lifted his eyes to his sheep.
And just beyond his sheep and coming towards them he saw a shining line.
So long his eyes stayed fixed on that shining line coming over the downs
from the eastward that the others turned and looked.
They saw it too, a shimmering line of silver, or a little blue like
steel, flickering and changing with the reflection of strange passing
colours. And before it, very faint like threatening breezes breathing
before a storm, came the soft sound of very old songs. It caught, as
they all stood gazing, one of Vand's furthest sheep; and instantly its
fleece was that pure gold that is told of in old romance; and the
shining line came on and the sheep disappeared altogether. They saw now
that it was about the height of the mist from a small stream; and still
Vand stood gazing at it, neither moving nor thinking. But Niv turned
very soon and beckoned curtly to Zend and seized Alveric by the arm and
hastened away towards Erl. The gleaming line, that seemed to bump and
stumble over every unevenness of the rough fields, came not so fast as
they hastened; yet it never stopped when they rested, never wearied when
they were tired, but came on over all the hills and hedges of Earth; nor
did sunset change its appearance or check its pace.