the base of this tower in which you and I sit and, try as
it might, was unable to escape. The creature, thus bared
to the all-seeing eye of the moon, seemed a thing more of
light than of flesh. If I had not released the hounds that
very moment, they might have torn themselves to shreds.
The eighteen beasts crowded the floor beneath
the dinner table, like a king’s ransom in carpets.
Surely, thought Sous-Terrain, Mornot had been
through the pass, to this country on the utmost
edge of the known world. But while oaths were
sacred, did the sacred exist in oblivion? Now tell
me, said the duke, if you could do absolutely anything,
what would you do? Sous-Terrain started sweating.
He would slay a criminal, he said. And would you
not, said the duke, rather forget? I have never, myself,
felt that punitive impulse. Desire, however—if you were
simply to desire to do a man harm, I would understand.
Again the mute stoked the braziers in the effort
to keep the cold at bay. In this region, the night
fell faster and further than Sous-Terrain wished
to believe possible. The wine too ought to have
soothed him, but it tasted unpleasantly bitter, as
though made from young, stunted grapes. If he
did have a desire of that sort, Sous-Terrain said,
what would the duke like to ask of him next? I,
said the duke, should ask by which method. They are
so various. Sous-Terrain selected disemboweling.
The Massacre of the Excommunicants had, yes,
involved precisely this, albeit on a grander scale.
62