Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Anthem. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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Speaker 1: Caden von Klegg Anthem by Einrand, Chapter nine. We have
Speaker 1: not written for many days. We did not wish to speak,
Speaker 1: for we needed no words to remember that which has
Speaker 1: happened to us. It was on our second day in
Speaker 1: the forest that we heard steps behind us. We hid
Speaker 1: in the bushes and we waited. The steps came closer,
Speaker 1: and then we saw the fold of a white tunic
Speaker 1: among the trees, and a gleam of gold. We leapt forward.
Speaker 1: We ran to them, and we stood looking upon the
Speaker 1: Golden One. They saw us, and their hands closed into fists,
Speaker 1: and the fists pulled their arms down, as if they
Speaker 1: wished their arms to hold them, while their body swayed,
Speaker 1: and they could not speak. We dared not come too
Speaker 1: close to them. We asked, and our voice trembled, how
Speaker 1: come you to be here, Golden One? But they whispered,
Speaker 1: only we have found you. How come you to be
Speaker 1: in the forest, we asked. They raised their head, and
Speaker 1: there was a great pride in their voice. They answered,
Speaker 1: we have followed you. Then we could not speak, and
Speaker 1: they said, we heard that you had gone to the
Speaker 1: uncharted forest. For the whole city is speaking of it.
Speaker 1: So on the night of the day, when we heard it,
Speaker 1: we ran away from the home of the peasants. We
Speaker 1: found the marks of your feet across the plain where
Speaker 1: no men walk. So we followed them, and we went
Speaker 1: into the forest, and we followed the path where the
Speaker 1: branches were broken by your body. Their white tunic was torn,
Speaker 1: and the branches had cut the skin of their arms.
Speaker 1: But they spoke as if they had never taken notice
Speaker 1: of it, nor of weariness, nor of fear. We have
Speaker 1: followed you, they said, and we shall follow you wherever
Speaker 1: you go. If danger threatens you, we shall face it. Also,
Speaker 1: if it be death, we shall die with you. You
Speaker 1: are damned, and we wished to share your damnation. They
Speaker 1: looked upon us, and their voice was low, but there
Speaker 1: was bitterness and triumph in their voice. Your eyes are
Speaker 1: as a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire.
Speaker 1: Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are
Speaker 1: soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers
Speaker 1: cringe you walk, but our brothers crawl. We wish to
Speaker 1: be damned with you, rather than blest with all our brothers.
Speaker 1: Do as you please with us, but do not send
Speaker 1: us away from you. Then they knelt and bowed their
Speaker 1: golden head before us. We had never thought of that
Speaker 1: which we did. We bent to raise the golden one
Speaker 1: to their feet, but when we touched them, it was
Speaker 1: as if madness had stricken us. We seized their body,
Speaker 1: and we pressed our lips to theirs. The golden one
Speaker 1: breathed once, and their breath was a moan, and then
Speaker 1: their arms closed around us. We stood together for a
Speaker 1: long time time, and we were frightened that we had
Speaker 1: lived for twenty one years and had never known what
Speaker 1: joy is possible to men. Then we said, our dearest one,
Speaker 1: fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude.
Speaker 1: We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget
Speaker 1: their good and our evil. Let us forget all things
Speaker 1: save that we are together, and that there is joy
Speaker 1: as a bond between us. Give us your hand. Look ahead.
Speaker 1: It is our own world, golden one, a strange, unknown world,
Speaker 1: but our own. Then we walked on into the forest. There,
Speaker 1: hand in ours and that night we knew that to
Speaker 1: hold the body of women in our arms is neither
Speaker 1: ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to the
Speaker 1: race of men. We have walked for many days. The
Speaker 1: forest has no end, and we seek no end. But
Speaker 1: each day added to the chain of days between us
Speaker 1: and the city is like an added blessing. We have
Speaker 1: made bow and many arrows. We can kill more birds
Speaker 1: than we need for our food. We find water and
Speaker 1: fruit in the forest. At night, we choose a clearing,
Speaker 1: and we build a ring of fires around it. We
Speaker 1: sleep in the midst of that ring, and the beasts
Speaker 1: dare not attack us. We can see their eyes, green
Speaker 1: and yellow as coals, watching us from the tree branches beyond.
Speaker 1: The fires smolder as a crown of jewels around us,
Speaker 1: and smoke stands still in the air in columns made
Speaker 1: blue by the moonlight. We sleep together in the midst
Speaker 1: of the ring, the arms of the Golden One around us,
Speaker 1: their head upon our breast. Some day we shall stop
Speaker 1: and build a house, when we shall have gone far enough.
Speaker 1: But we do not have to hasten. The days before
Speaker 1: us are without end, like the forest. We cannot understand
Speaker 1: this new life which we have found. Yet it seems
Speaker 1: so clear and so simple. When questions come to puzzle us,
Speaker 1: we walk faster, then turn and forget all things as
Speaker 1: we watch the golden one following. The shadows of leaves
Speaker 1: fall upon their arms as they spread the branches apart,
Speaker 1: but their shoulders are in the sun. The skin of
Speaker 1: their arms is like a blue mist, but their shoulders
Speaker 1: are white and glowing, as if the light fell not
Speaker 1: from above, but rose from under their skin. We watch
Speaker 1: the leaf which has fallen upon their shoulder, and it
Speaker 1: lies at the curve of their neck, and a drop
Speaker 1: of dew glistens upon it like a jewel. They approach us,
Speaker 1: and they stop laughing, knowing what we think, and they
Speaker 1: wait obediently without questions, till it pleases us to turn
Speaker 1: and go on. We go on, and we bless the
Speaker 1: earth under our feet. But questions come to us again
Speaker 1: as we walk in silence. If that which we have
Speaker 1: found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men
Speaker 1: wish for save corruption? If this is the great evil
Speaker 1: of being alone, then what is good and what is evil?
Speaker 1: Everything which comes from the many is good, everything which
Speaker 1: comes from one is evil. Thus have we been taught
Speaker 1: with our first breath. We have broken the law, but
Speaker 1: we have never doubted it. Yet now as we walk
Speaker 1: through the forest, we are learning to doubt. There is
Speaker 1: no life for men save in useful toil for the
Speaker 1: good of all their brothers. But we lived not when
Speaker 1: we toiled for our brothers, we were only weary. There
Speaker 1: is no joy for men save the joy shared with
Speaker 1: all our brothers. But the only things which taught us
Speaker 1: joy were the power we created in our wires and
Speaker 1: the Golden One. And both these joys belong to us alone.
Speaker 1: They come from us alone. They bear no relation to
Speaker 1: our brothers, and they do not concern our brothers in
Speaker 1: any way. Thus do we wonder there is some error,
Speaker 1: one frightful error, in the thinking of men. What is
Speaker 1: that error, we do not know. But the knowledge struggles
Speaker 1: within us, struggles to be born to day. The Golden
Speaker 1: One stopped suddenly and said, we love you. But then
Speaker 1: they frowned and shook their head and looked at us helplessly. No,
Speaker 1: they whispered, that is not what we wished to say.
Speaker 1: They were silent. Then they spoke slowly, and their words
Speaker 1: were halting, like the words of a child learning to
Speaker 1: speak for the first time. We are one alone and only,
Speaker 1: and we love you, who are one alone and only.
Speaker 1: We looked into each other's eyes, and we knew that
Speaker 1: the breath of a miracle had touched us, and fled
Speaker 1: and left us groping vainly, and we felt torn, torn
Speaker 1: for some word we could not find. End of Chapter nine.
Speaker 1: Recording by Caden von Klegg The Lunar Island dot blogspot
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