Speaker 1: Chapter ten of Anthem. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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Speaker 1: Caden von Klegg Anthem by Einrand, Chapter ten. We are
Speaker 1: sitting at a table, and we are writing this upon
Speaker 1: paper made thousands of years ago. The light is dim
Speaker 1: and we cannot see the golden one, only one lock
Speaker 1: of gold on the pillow of an ancient bed. This
Speaker 1: is our home. We came upon it to day at sunrise.
Speaker 1: For many days we had been crossing a chain of mountains.
Speaker 1: The forest rose among cliffs, and whenever we walked out
Speaker 1: upon a barren stretch of rock, we saw great peaks
Speaker 1: before us in the west, and to the north of us,
Speaker 1: and to the south. As far as our eyes could see,
Speaker 1: the peaks were red and brown, with the green streaks
Speaker 1: of forests as vanes upon them, with blue mists as
Speaker 1: veils over their heads. We had never heard of these
Speaker 1: mountain nor seen them marked on any map. The uncharted
Speaker 1: forest has protected them from the cities and from the
Speaker 1: men of the cities. We climbed paths where the wild
Speaker 1: goat dared not follow. Stones rolled from under our feet,
Speaker 1: and we heard them striking the rocks below, farther and
Speaker 1: farther down, and the mountains rang with each stroke, and
Speaker 1: long after the strokes had died. But we went on,
Speaker 1: for we knew that no men would ever follow our
Speaker 1: track nor reach us here. Then to day, at sunrise,
Speaker 1: we saw a white flame among the trees, high on
Speaker 1: a sheer peak before us. We thought that it was
Speaker 1: a fire, and we stopped, but the flame was unmoving,
Speaker 1: yet blinding as liquid metal. So we climbed toward it
Speaker 1: through the rocks, and there before us, on a broad summit,
Speaker 1: with the mountains rising behind it, stood a house such
Speaker 1: as we had never seen, and the white fire came
Speaker 1: from the sun on the glass of its windows. The
Speaker 1: house had two stories and a strange roof, flat as
Speaker 1: a floor. There was more wind window than wall upon
Speaker 1: its walls, and the windows went on straight around the corners.
Speaker 1: Though how this kept the house standing we could not guess.
Speaker 1: The walls were hard and smooth of that stone, unlike
Speaker 1: stone which we had seen in our tunnel. We both
Speaker 1: knew it without words. This house was left from the
Speaker 1: unmentionable times. The trees had protected it from time and weather,
Speaker 1: and from men who have less pity than time and weather.
Speaker 1: We turned to the golden one and asked, are you afraid?
Speaker 1: But they shook their head. So we walked to the
Speaker 1: door and threw it open, and we stepped together into
Speaker 1: the house of the unmentionable times. We shall need the
Speaker 1: days and years ahead to look, to learn, and to
Speaker 1: understand the things of this house. To day, we could
Speaker 1: only look and try to believe the sights of our eyes.
Speaker 1: We pulled the heavy curtains from the windows, and we
Speaker 1: saw that the rooms were small, and we thought that
Speaker 1: not more than twelve men could have lived here. We
Speaker 1: thought it strange that men had been permitted to build
Speaker 1: a house for only twelve. Never had we seen rooms
Speaker 1: so full of light. The sun rays danced upon colors, colors,
Speaker 1: more colors than we thought possible, we who had seen
Speaker 1: no houses save the white ones, the brown ones, and
Speaker 1: the gray There were great pieces of glass on the walls,
Speaker 1: but it was not glass, for when we looked upon it,
Speaker 1: we saw our own bodies and all the things behind us,
Speaker 1: as on the face of a lake. There were strange
Speaker 1: things which we had never seen, and the use of
Speaker 1: which we do not know. And there were globes of
Speaker 1: glass everywhere in each room, the globes with the metal
Speaker 1: cobwebs inside, such as we had seen in our tunnel.
Speaker 1: We found the sleeping Hall, and we stood in awe
Speaker 1: upon its threshold, for it was a small room, and
Speaker 1: there were only two beds in it. We found no
Speaker 1: other beds in the house, and then we knew that
Speaker 1: only two had lived here. And this passes understanding. What
Speaker 1: kind of world did they have? The men of the
Speaker 1: unmentionable times? We found garments and the golden One gasped
Speaker 1: at the sight of them, for they were not white
Speaker 1: tunics nor white togas they were of all colors, no
Speaker 1: two of them alike. Some crumbled to dust as we
Speaker 1: touched them, but others were of heavier cloth, and they
Speaker 1: felt soft and new in our fingers. We found a
Speaker 1: room with walls made of shelves, which held rows of
Speaker 1: manuscripts from floor to ceiling. Never had we seen such
Speaker 1: a number of them, nor of such strange shape. They
Speaker 1: were not soft and rolled, they had hard shells of
Speaker 1: cloth and leather, and the letters on their pages were
Speaker 1: so small and so even that we wondered at the
Speaker 1: men who had such handwriting. We glanced through the pages,
Speaker 1: and we saw that they were written in our language.
Speaker 1: But we found many words which we could not understand.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow we shall begin to read these scripts. When we
Speaker 1: had seen all the rooms of the house, we looked
Speaker 1: at the Golden One, and we both knew the thought
Speaker 1: in our minds. We shall never leave this house, we said,
Speaker 1: nor let it be taken from us. This is our
Speaker 1: home and the end of our journey. This is our house,
Speaker 1: golden one, and ours, and it belongs to no other
Speaker 1: men whatever. As far as the earth may stretch, we
Speaker 1: shall not share it with others. And we share not
Speaker 1: our joy with them, nor our love, nor our hunger.
Speaker 1: So be it to the end of our days. Your
Speaker 1: will be done, they said. Then we went out to
Speaker 1: gather wood for the great hearth of our home. We
Speaker 1: brought water from the stream which runs among the trees
Speaker 1: under our windows. We killed a mountain goat, and we
Speaker 1: brought its flesh to be cooked in a strange copper
Speaker 1: pot we found in a place of wonders, which must
Speaker 1: have been the cooking room of the house. We did
Speaker 1: this work alone, for no words of ours could take
Speaker 1: the golden one away from the big glass, which is
Speaker 1: not glass. They stood before it, and they looked and
Speaker 1: looked upon their own body. When the sun sank beyond
Speaker 1: the mountains, the golden one fell asleep on the floor,
Speaker 1: amidst jewels and bottles of crystal and flowers of silk.
Speaker 1: We lifted the golden one in our arms, and we
Speaker 1: carried them to a bed, their head falling softly upon
Speaker 1: our shoulder. Then we lit a candle, and we brought
Speaker 1: paper from the room of the manuscripts, and we sat
Speaker 1: by the window, for we knew that we could not
Speaker 1: sleep to night. And now we look upon the earth
Speaker 1: and sky, This spread of naked rocks and peaks and
Speaker 1: moonlight is like a world ready to be borne, a
Speaker 1: world that waits. It seems to us it asks a
Speaker 1: sign from us, a spark, a first commandment. We cannot
Speaker 1: know what word we are to give, nor what great
Speaker 1: deed this earth expects to witness. We know it waits.
Speaker 1: It seems to say it has great gifts to lay
Speaker 1: before us, but it wishes a greater gift from us.
Speaker 1: We are to speak. We are to give its goal,
Speaker 1: its highest meaning, to all this glowing space of rock
Speaker 1: and sky we look ahead. We beg our heart for
Speaker 1: guidance in answering this call. No voice is spoken, yet
Speaker 1: we have heard. We look upon our hands. We see
Speaker 1: the dust of centuries, the dust which hid grins et secrets,
Speaker 1: and perhaps great evils. And yet it stirs no fear
Speaker 1: within our hearts, but only silent reverence and pity. May
Speaker 1: knowledge come to us? What is the secret our heart
Speaker 1: has understood, and yet will not reveal to us, although
Speaker 1: it seems to beat as if it were endeavoring to
Speaker 1: tell it. End of Chapter ten. Recording by Caden von
Speaker 1: Clegg The Lunar Island dot blogspot dot com