And presently, I was beyond the corner of the mountain, and did look downward into a mighty Country of Seas, and the burning of great volcanoes.  And the volcanoes did seem as that they burned in the Seas.  And the country was full of a great ruddy light from the volcanoes.  And so shall you perceive me there among the rocks that did all stand upward strange and bold and silent in the red and monstrous glare of the light.  And I, as it did seem, the one thing of life in all that desolation and eternity of rock and stone, there in the end part of the great Gorge.

And I peered forth into the wonder of the light, and was full of thrillings and fancies that I was surely come to the place where the Lesser Redoubt had been builded.  And immediately I knew that this was not so, for surer had not Naani told how that they were in a land of darkness.  And if this did be so, truly, how wondrous and dread a way had I yet to go, if that this Country of Seas and mighty volcanoes stood between.

Surely, it did seem to me then as that I must wander searching unto the world’s end.  And so shall you be company unto me there with my trouble and my thoughts, and the immediate wonder and strange glory of that mighty Country.

IX

THE DARK PYRAMID

Now in two hours more I was come clear down out of the Gorge, and stood in that Country; and for all that I did feel fresh troubled and bewildered, yet was I rejoiceful, as you may believe, in the surprising light and splendour of that sudden Land.

And before that I had come down out of the great Gorge, I had stood high within the mouth thereof, and lookt well out over the mighty Country.  And I had counted seven and twenty great volcanoes, and this doth not take heed of two monstrous ranges of fire-hills that burned afar off, something unto my right.  Neither doth it take account of an hundred thousand lesser places of fire.

And truly it did seem a very land of fire and water.  For there was a small fire-hill stood within a sea, as it did seem no more than a little mile from that place where I did stand.  And maybe a score to the back of it, spread all about.  And here shall I do proper to tell concerning the seas.  For there were of these, that I did count at that time, three that were small, and a mighty sea that went onward for ever into the red light of the fire-hills, so that it was gone utterly out of my sight, and did show no ending.

And there rose up out of the seas, islands; and on the islands, volcanoes.  But in other parts the fire-hills did come upward straightly from the sea.  And over the near sea, as it did seem, there lay a plentitude of steam, as that the sea did boil at whiles and in diverse places.

And there did seem to me, as it were within the red atmosphere of that place, as that there were a muttering thunder, low and constant, shaking the air, now from that distance and now from this, and this did I judge to be the voices of the fire-hills, speaking with the fire that lived in them.