Time and the Gods | Page 9

they went is set
in many books. But the Pestilence fed on the light that shines in the
eyes of men, which never appeased his hunger; chiller and damper he
grew, and the heat from his eyes increased when night by night he
galloped through the city, going by stealth no more.
Then did men pray in Harza to the gods, saying:

"High gods! Show clemency to Harza."
And the gods listened to their prayers, but as They listened They
pointed with their fingers and cheered the Pestilence on. And the
Pestilence grew bolder at his masters' voices and thrust his face close
up before the eyes of men.
He could be seen by none saving those he smote. At first he slept by
day, lying in misty hollows, but as his hunger increased he sprang up
even in sunlight and clung to the chests of men and looked down
through their eyes into their souls that shrivelled, until almost he could
be dimly seen even by those he smote not.
Adro, the physician, sat in his chamber with one light burning, making
a mixing in a bowl that should drive the Pestilence away, when through
his door there blew a draught that set the light a-flickering.
Then because the draught was cold the physician shivered and went and
closed the door, but as he turned again he saw the Pestilence lapping at
his mixing, who sprang and set one paw upon Adro's shoulder and
another upon his cloak, while with two he clung to his waist, and
looked him in the eyes.
Two men were walking in the street; one said to the other: "Upon the
morrow I will sup with thee."
And the Pestilence grinned a grin that none beheld, baring his dripping
teeth, and crept away to see whether upon the morrow those men
should sup together.
A traveller coming in said: "This is Harza. Here will I rest."
But his life went further than Harza upon that day's journey.
All feared the Pestilence, and those that he smote beheld him, but none
saw the great shapes of the gods by starlight as They urged Their
Pestilence on.

Then all men fled from Harza, and the Pestilence chased dogs and rats
and sprang upward at the bats as they sailed above him, who died and
lay in the streets. But soon he returned and pursued the men of Harza
where they fled, and sat by rivers where they came to drink, away
below the city. Then back to Harza went the people of Harza pursued
by the Pestilence still, and gathered in the Temple of All the gods save
One, and said to the High Prophet: "What may now be done?" who
answered:
"All the gods have mocked at prayer. This sin must now be punished by
the vengeance of men."
And the people stood in awe.
The High Prophet went up to the Tower beneath the sky whereupon
beat the eyes of all the gods by starlight. There in the sight of the gods
he spake in the ear of the gods, saying: "High gods! Ye have made
mock of men. Know therefore that it is writ in ancient lore and found
by prophecy that there is an End that waiteth for the gods, who shall go
down from Pegana in galleons of gold all down the Silent River and
into the Silent Sea, and there Their galleons shall go up in mist and
They shall be gods no more. And men shall gain harbour from the
mocking of the gods at last in the warm moist earth, but to the gods
shall no ceasing ever come from being the Things that were the gods.
When Time and worlds and death are gone away nought shall then
remain but worn regrets and Things that were once gods.
"In the sight of the gods.
"In the ear of the gods."
Then the gods shouted all together and pointed with Their hands at the
High Prophet's throat, and the Pestilence sprang.
Long since the High Prophet is dead and his words are forgotten by
men, but the gods know not yet whether it be true that The End is
waiting for the gods, and him who might have told Them They have
slain. And the gods of Pegana are fearing the fear that hath fallen upon

the gods because of the vengeance of men, for They know not when
The End shall be, or whether it shall come.

WHEN THE GODS SLEPT
All the gods were sitting in Pegana, and Their slave, Time, lay idle at
Pegana's gate with nothing to destroy, when They thought of worlds,
worlds large and round and gleaming, and little silver moons. Then
(who knoweth when?), as the gods raised Their hands making the sign