‘Welcome,’ he said, and the music of his voice sent shivers down their backs. ‘I apologize for their rudeness; they should not have stared but you understand that they were curious to see you. Come; we will go through into my own room where we can be private and talk.’
He stood up and his great green and silver cloak fell to the floor and swept along after him as he walked towards a little door and, opening it, ushered them through. Nab glanced back at the huge throne where he had been sitting; made of black oak it seemed to grow out of the floor. In fact it did not seem to have been made at all but rather to have always been there; there was no decoration except that which was in the wood itself, and the ends of the arms shone where the Elflords’ palms had rested on them since the beginning of time, polishing them so that they glistened like water. The throne was bathed in a pool of sunlight which poured through a window high up in the roof. The sun shone against the black wood and brought out the colours; blues, purples, and reds from deep within.
The little room in which they were now standing was panelled in green moss all around the walls and here and there patches of the orange lichen that served to provide light were buried amongst the green. The wooden ceiling was low and gave the room a cosy atmosphere quite unlike the grandeur of the great chamber outside; it reminded Brock and Nab of the sett. There were two small round windows in opposite walls and through them could be seen the whole of the clearing; Brock looked out and saw that the sun was starting to grow pale and the mist beginning to rise from the water and spread out amongst the trees.
The Elflord sat in a seat that had been carved in the wooden wall next to one of the windows and Nab and the animals sat on the floor at his feet. He smiled at them for a long time, looking from one to the other, and his smile had the warmth of age. They looked deep into his misty grey eyes and became lost in the mysteries of time until they felt as if they were swimming in a sea of cloud. Finally, as the sun sank in the winter afternoon and shone through the window casting a halo of gold around his head, he began to speak, and his voice was grave.
‘The time has come,’ he said, ‘for you to learn something of our world. In the beginning were only the Efflinch, by name Ashgaroth and Dréagg; and Ashgaroth the Great One, Lord of Good, had fought Dréagg the Mighty, Ruler of Evil, since time itself had begun.
‘And the Universe rang with the sound and fury of the Efflinch Wars and the nature of them may not be contemplated by us though their horror may be perhaps guessed at and glimpsed in the darkest and wildest of our nightmares.
‘And in their struggle for supremacy the Efflinch wrought matter out of themselves and hurled it through the endless darknesses of space.
‘And after aeons of time too infinite to grasp Dréagg the Mighty wearied and became subdued and Ashgaroth trumpeted in the heavens his glorious victory. And Dréagg he banished to the Halls of Drāgorn in whose foul atmosphere he was to languish for ever. Dréagg, he nursed his wounds and brooded long over the bitterness of his defeat.
‘And Ashgaroth looked at the wreckage of war and saw the Universe full of the missiles of battle; and in celebration of victory he chose such a one and vowed to transform it, to make it his jewel and glory to shine as an everlasting memorial to the triumph of the Lord of Good.
‘And he blessed it with the gifts of life and he gave colour, shape and form to this life.
‘He first created the green growing things: the trees, grasses, mosses and lichens; then the flowers and the vegetables of the earth and their colours glowed and shone so that he was well pleased.
‘And he created the mountains as pinnacles of his power to reach up to the sky; and he gave them a savagery and power to reflect even his own.
‘And he created the sea and the blue was of a depth and brilliance that defied the eye to meet it; and in joy at his creation he invested it with a fragment of his own might so that it heaved and rolled even as he breathed.
‘And lastly he peopled the oceans and the land with the creatures of life, the animals, the birds and the insects, to live among them and to survive by the fruits and the berries. And there was harmony and peace amongst the life he had created and they were at ease with one another so that it was even as he had wished, for Earth shone out as the creation of the Lord of Good.
‘And the light was strong so that it came to Dréagg where he lurked in the Halls of Drāgorn which are outside the Universe and his fury welled within him even as the light goaded him, seeming to taunt him with the bitter memories of his defeat so that he fed from the eldritch and steaming fluids that lie within the Halls and slowly regained his strength and power.
‘And his sojourn amongst these noxious vapours had made of Dréagg a more cunning adversary and the more dangerous for it so that he returned slowly and insidiously with great stealth and deceit and he turned the animals one against the other so that they fought one with the other and lived off the flesh of their fellows, and the creatures of the Earth were afflicted with much suffering and torment as the waters ran red with their pain.
‘And Ashgaroth in his renewed struggle with the Lord of Evil created a race to fight the influence of Dréagg and to restore peace and innocence to his chosen jewel. And this race is named the Elves and they are of Magic so that they were formed from the wind and the stars and their essence is of the depth of the mighty sea and their spirit is amongst the green growing things of the woods and the trees and their souls are of the wild forgotten mountains.
‘And three Elves he put over all the Earth according to the three great vastnesses of creation, so that there was Malcoff, Lord of the Mountains; Saurélon the Lord of the Seas and Ammdar who was Lord of the Forests and the green growing things.