The Other Gods | Page 2

to breathe; but still they toiled up and up, marveling at the
strangeness of the scene and thrilling at the thought of what would happen on the summit
when the moon was out and the pale vapours spread around. For three days they climbed
higher and higher toward the roof of the world; then they camped to wait for the clouding
of the moon.
For four nights no clouds came, and the moon shone down cold through the thin
mournful mist around the silent pinnacle. Then on the fifth night, which was the night of
the full moon, Barzai saw some dense clouds far to the north, and stayed up with Atal to
watch them draw near. Thick and majestic they sailed, slowly and deliberately onward;
ranging themselves round the peak high above the watchers, and hiding the moon and the
summit from view. For a long hour the watchers gazed, whilst the vapours swirled and
the screen of clouds grew thicker and more restless. Barzai was wise in the lore of earth's
gods, and listened hard for certain sounds, but Atal felt the chill of the vapours and the
awe of the night, and feared much. And when Barzai began to climb higher and beckon
eagerly, it was long before Atal would follow.
So thick were the vapours that the way was hard, and though Atal followed at last, he
could scarce see the gray shape of Barzai on the dim slope above in the clouded
moonlight. Barzai forged very far ahead, and seemed despite his age to climb more easily
than Atal; fearing not the steepness that began to grow too great for any save a strong and
dauntless man, nor pausing at wide black chasms that Atal could scarce leap. And so they
went up wildly over rocks and gulfs, slipping and stumbling, and sometimes awed at the
vastness and horrible silence of bleak ice pinnacles and mute granite steeps.
Very suddenly Barzai went out of Atal's sight, scaling a hideous cliff that seemed to
bulge outward and block the path for any climber not inspired of earth's gods. Atal was
far below, and planning what he should do when he reached the place, when curiously he

noticed that the light had grown strong, as if the cloudless peak and moonlit meetingplace
of the gods were very near. And as he scrambled on toward the bulging cliff and litten
sky he felt fears more shocking than any he had known before. Then through the high
mists he heard the voice of Barzai shouting wildly in delight:
"I have heard the gods. I have heard earth's gods singing in revelry on Hatheg-Kla! The
voices of earth's gods are known to Barzai the Prophet! The mists are thin and the moon
is bright, and I shall see the gods dancing wildly on Hatheg-Kla that they loved in youth.
The wisdom of Barzai hath made him greater than earth's gods, and against his will their
spells and barriers are as naught; Barzai will behold the gods, the proud gods, the secret
gods, the gods of earth who spurn the sight of man!"
Atal could not hear the voices Barzai heard, but he was now close to the bulging cliff and
scanning it for footholds. Then he heard Barzai's voice grow shriller and louder:
"The mist is very thin, and the moon casts shadows on the slope; the voices of earth's
gods are high and wild, and they fear the coming of Barzai the Wise, who is greater than
they... The moon's light flickers, as earth's gods dance against it; I shall see the dancing
forms of the gods that leap and howl in the moonlight... The light is dimmer and the gods
are afraid..."
Whilst Barzai was shouting these things Atal felt a spectral change in all the air, as if the
laws of earth were bowing to greater laws; for though the way was steeper than ever, the
upward path was now grown fearsomely easy, and the bulging cliff proved scarce an
obstacle when he reached it and slid perilously up its convex face. The light of the moon
had strangely failed, and as Atal plunged upward through the mists he heard Barzai the
Wise shrieking in the shadows:
"The moon is dark, and the gods dance in the night; there is terror in the sky, for upon the
moon hath sunk an eclipse foretold in no books of men or of earth's gods... There is
unknown magic on Hatheg-Kla, for the screams of the frightened gods have turned to
laughter, and the slopes of ice shoot up endlessly into the black heavens whither I am
plunging... Hei! Hei! At last! In the dim light I behold the gods of earth!"
And now Atal, slipping dizzily up over inconceivable steeps,