|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 46
"Why hast thou come hither?" He hugged her fiercely to his bosom. He
felt a throb of ecstatic delight; for the first time she had
surrendered to his arms; for the first time he held her close to him;
death--for the moment--lost its terrors--he felt that he would be
willing to die, in that storming darkness, with her heart beating, so
that he felt its every pulse, close, close to his.
The wild winds almost drowned Annadoah's words.
"The women came to me," she panted with difficulty, and Ootah had to
bend his ear to her mouth so as to hear. "They were angry. They said
'She stealeth souls! Annadoah stealeth souls!' They said, 'Annadoah
hath caused the death of many children!' Ootah! Ootah! They came, as
they do when thou art absent. They threatened me--they called upon the
spirits, as they once called to them beneath the sea. And the curse of
the long night--of darkness--hunger--death . . . they invoked . . . of
the dead . . . upon me . . . I was afraid." Ootah felt her shuddering
in his arms. "The women came unto my igloo," she repeated
wildly--"they desired that ravens peck my eyes--that I rest without a
grave--that my body lie unburied and that my spirit never rest. And
the curse of darkness--_io-o-h-h_!--they called the curse of darkness
upon me. They trampled upon me with their feet, and they tore at my
hair . . . They came unto my igloo as the storm came and called upon
the spirits of the skins to strike me; for they said I had again driven
thee to thy death, that I had sent the others to their death. Thou
knowest I lay ill when thou didst depart. But they fell on me one by
one and hurt me--I feared they would kill me. They were angry and they
called upon the dead. The storm strikes; the spirits of the winds are
angry; the ice breaks, and it is the fault of Annadoah. So they said."
Her eyes were wild, her hair dishevelled. Ootah felt her forehead--it
burned with fever.
"How didst thou come hither--and why?" he asked, his heart bounding in
the thought that she had followed him, that of him she sought
protection.
"I know not--methinks I called upon the spirits. I knew thou didst
come this way--I knew thou wouldst save me from the women. And I
followed. The way was dark. The wind held me back. But I knew thou
wert here--my heart led me; my heart found thee as birds find grass in
the mountains. Ootah! Ootah! I fear I shall die!" She collapsed in
his arms. The wind shrieked! In the distance two icebergs
exploded--there was a flash of phosphorus on the sea as the arctic
dinosaurs collided.
"Come! Or we perish in the sea!" Maisanguaq, his head bent near so as
to hear, now yelled into Ootah's ear.
Annadoah cowered at the sound of his voice. Ootah felt her trembling,
in his arms.
"And he . . . is here?" she whispered. "I am afraid."
They felt the great ice field rocking on the waves imprisoned beneath
them. It trembled whenever it touched a passing berg.
Maisanguaq prodded the terror-stricken dogs. Their howls shrilled
through the storm,
"_Huk_! _Huk_! _Huk_!" he urged.
Supporting Annadoah with one arm Ootah pushed forward after the moving
team. He knew they were being carried steadily and slowly seaward, but
he had hopes that the ice field would swerve landward toward the south
where an armlike glacier jutted, elbow-fashion, into the sea and caught
the current.
Snapping their whips and frantically urging the dogs, they fought
through the snow-driven darkness and over the moving field of ice.
Annadoah murmured wild and incoherent things in her delirium. They
paced off half a mile.
"_Aulate_!" Ootah suddenly called, panic-stricken. "Halt! halt!"
Maisanguaq stopped the dogs. Before them a snaky space of water,
blacker than the darkness about them, and capped with faintly
phosphorescent crests of tossing waves, separated them--Ootah knew not
how far--from the land.
"To the right!" Ootah called. "Let us go onward!"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|