And, at whiles, through the forgotten centuries, had the Creatures been
glutted time and again upon such odd bands of daring ones as had
adventured forth to explore through the mystery of the Night Lands; for
of those who went, scarce any did ever return; for there were eyes in
all that dark; and Powers and Forces abroad which had all knowledge; or
so we must fain believe.
And then, so it would seem, as that Eternal Night lengthened itself upon
the world, the power of terror grew and strengthened. And fresh and
greater monsters developed and bred out of all space and Outward
Dimensions, attracted, even as it might be Infernal sharks, by that
lonely and mighty hill of humanity, facing its end--so near to the
Eternal, and yet so far deferred in the minds and to the senses of those
humans. And thus hath it been ever.
And all this but by the way, and vague and ill told, and set out in
despair to make a little clear the beginnings of that State which is so
strange to our conceptions, and yet which had become a Condition of
Naturalness to Humanity in that stupendous future.
Thus had the giants come, fathered of bestial humans and mothered of
monsters. And many and diverse were the creatures which had some human
semblance; and intelligence, mechanical and cunning; so that certain of
these lesser Brutes had machinery and underground ways, having need to
secure to themselves warmth and air, even as healthy humans; only that
they were incredibly inured to hardship, as they might be wolves set in
comparison with tender children.
And surely, do I make this thing clear?
And now to continue my telling concerning the Night Land. The Watcher of
the South was, as I have set to make known, a monster differing from
those other Watching Things, of which I have spoken, and of which there
were in all four. One to the North-West, and one to the South-East, and
of these I have told; and the other twain lay brooding, one to the
South-West, and the other to the North-East; and thus the four watchers
kept ward through the darkness, upon the Pyramid, and moved not, neither
gave they out any sound. Yet did we know them to be mountains of living
watchfulness and hideous and steadfast intelligence.
And so, in a while, having listened to the sorrowful sound which came
ever to us over the Grey Dunes, from the Country of Wailing, which lay
to the South, midway between the Redoubt and the Watcher of the South, I
passed upon one of the moving roadways over to the South-Western side of
the Pyramid, and looked from a narrow embrasure thence far down into the
Deep Valley, which was four miles deep, and in which was the Pit of the
Red Smoke. And the mouth of this Pit was one full mile across, and the smoke of the
Pit filled the Valley at times, so that it seemed but as a glowing red
circle amid dull thunderous clouds of redness. Yet the red smoke rose
never much above the Valley; so that there was clear sight across to the
country beyond. And there, along the further edge of that great depth,
were the Towers, each, maybe, a mile high, grey and quiet; but with a
shimmer upon them.