He could not account for those
faces being there, and the faces of Shadows, too, with living eyes.
But he soon found that amongst the Shgadows a man must learn never to
be surprised at anything; for if he does not, he will soon grow quite
stupid, in consequence of the endless recurrence of surprises.
At last they climbed up the bed of a little stream, and then, passing
through a narrow rocky defile, came out suddenly upon the side of a
mountain, overlooking a blue frozen lake in the very heart of mighty
hills. Overhead, the _aurora borealis_ was shivering and flashing like
a battle of ten thousand spears. Underneath, its beams passed faintly
over the blue ice and the sides of the snow-clad mountains, whose tops
shot up like huge icicles all about, with here and there a star
sparkling on the very tip of one. But as the northern lights in the sky
above, so wavered and quivered, and shot hither and thither, the
Shadows on the surface of the lake below; now gathering in groups, and
now shivering asunder; now covering the whole surface of the lake, and
anon condensed into one dark knot in the centre. Every here and there
on the white mountains might be seen two or three shooting away towards
the tops, to vanish beyond them, so that their number was gradually,
though not visibly, diminishing.
"Please your majesty," said the Shadows, "this is our church--the
Church of the Shadows."
And so saying, the king's body-guard set down the litter upon a rock,
and plunged into the multitudes below.
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