Part 6 (1/2)
He descended.
”Have we not yet reached the ground of light?”
”Look below: can you see nothing...?”
She looked along his wing.
”I see nothing...! It is night.... It is dark.... Chimera!!!”
”What, little Psyche?”
”Where is the land of silver light, the land of the people of light? Where is it gone?”
”Do you not see it?”
”No....”
”Then it is gone....”
”Whither?”
”Behind us, under us....”
”Why did you not descend sooner?”
”My flight was too quick, and I could not, Psyche....”
”You are deceiving me! You could have done so. You would not.... Now ... now it is night, pitch dark, starless night.... There is an icy coldness in the air.... O Chimera, take me back...!!”
He turned with a swing of his powerful wings. And as he turned, the lightning broke forth and darted zigzag through the air, like smooth-bright electric swords; the black clouds parted asunder with a violent peal of thunder like the clapping of cymbals, a storm of wind arose, the rain fell down in torrents...!
”O Chimera, take me back!”
She threw herself on to his neck; she hid her face in his mane, and through the bursting storm, whilst at every blow of his hoofs it lightened round them, he winged his way, back with her to her country: the Kingdom of the Past, inky there, in the inky night....
CHAPTER IX
The old king was dead.
Black flags hung from the three hundred towers, and cast their dark shadows below.
A dim light fell through the bow-windows into the castle, for the three hundred flags obscured the sun.
With funeral music, that made the heart feel sad, the procession, with long flickering torches, followed the king's coffin down the steps to the deep vaults below.
The priests, in black, prayed in Latin; the court, in black, sang the litany; and the princesses, in black, sang alternately a long Latin sentence....