Setting: Primitive country, occupied by wilderness and warring kingdoms, culture circa Medieval times.

Dramatis Personae: Messenger (later Guide); General; Captain; soldiers and horses (background).

Sounds of battle, and an army being routed as trumpets blow a retreat. Clashing swords, the groans of dying men and the shrieks of terrified horses can be heard over the tumult. These trail off into a more subdued background noise as we center our attention somewhat apart from the fighting, at the command post of the beaten army. A horse can be heard galloping towards it, bearing a Messenger.

Mess. (drawing his mount to a halt): Whoa, there!

The horse clatters to a standstill. Thump of the rider leaping off and running brokenly up the hill to where the leaders, the General and Captain, stand.

Genl.: Well, out with it! How bad is it?

Mess. (in a frenzy): We’ve broken completely, sir! It’s a total rout! We’ll be lucky to escape with an eighth of the army, and likely will be harried through the hills by the enemy at that! We—

Capt. (breaking in): Silence, fool! The men! (To the General): Sir! We must have a strong place to fall back on, where we can hold out and regroup our forces. Otherwise this villain’s words will prove a sure prediction, and our cause, utterly lost.

Genl.: I agree. But we must move quickly if we’re to regain any control over the army. You— (indicates the Messenger) — you know these hills! Is there such a place near enough at hand?

Mess. (hesitating): There is one place— a narrow stone-walled valley against the mountains to the south. I saw it once. It is well-suited for defense; nearly impregnable, if a few men will hold it. But there is a dark tale told of it—

Capt. (snarling): We’ve no time for tales! We’re being slaughtered here! Has it water enough for our needs?

Mess.: A brook runs through it.

Capt.: Game?

Mess.: Some, perhaps. It is too small to hold much.

Capt.: Well, it’s better than here, that’s sure!

Genl.: Can we escape from it in the face of the enemy, if need be? Or will we be walking into a trap of unbreakable siege and slow starvation?

Mess.: The vale opens onto a steep high pass into the wastes beyond the mountains. It is hard, but may be climbed. The other walls are sheer and high — none can enter in, if the mouth be guarded. Yet—

Capt.: What then? It is a wish fulfilled! You delay us!

Mess.: Other hosts have fled there in ages past, even armies of great renown, seeking rest and renewal of strength. But I have never heard of any coming out again. All vanish, as if swallowed up in a void, nor has any trace of them been discovered after by searchers. It is said—

Capt.: Enough of your children’s tales, coward! There’s no time! Lead us there at once!

Mess. (hotly): Coward? Damn you, I’ll—

Genl.: That will do! You forget your place!

Mess.: Sir, I’m no coward!

Genl.: No one questions your courage. Another time the captain would not have spoken so, but equally, you would have been flogged for your insolence. Be thankful these are not normal times. Lead us at once to your valley, and I shall overlook this breach. Hurry, lest the men outdistance us in their panic!

Mess. (stiffly): Sir. I spoke rashly. We can be there towards nightfall of this very day.

Genl.: Good. (calling) The horn!

The din of battle grows more intense. A trumpet blares above it wildly, then both horn and din slowly fade until both abruptly cease.

From silence, fade-in to the muffled metallic clanks of armored men shuffling wearily forward. They are breathing heavily. Also to be heard is the aimless clopping of their exhausted horses, with three sets of hooves louder than the rest. They are the mounts of the General, Captain, and Messenger, now the Guide. The breathing of these three men is loud and ragged. The approach of evening is signaled from time to time by the sounds of whining mosquitoes, chirping crickets, and birds.

Genl. (slowly and wearily): The lads are tiring quickly, those who remain. The ambush back in the trees cost us half our surviving forces, and all our spirit. We have lost all speed.

Capt. (grimly): The enemy will overtake us soon, now. We must make the valley ere another hour passes.

Guid.: We are nearly there, I think. Were it not for the trees, we would see its entrance in the setting sun. We will be safe soon, if safety it is.

Capt.: Aye, if our foes know the spot, they may well have gained if before us. Then indeed we are lost.

Genl.: I don’t fear that. If so few of us had heard of the valley, raised as we were in this region, then surely they, as foreigners, will know nothing of it.

Guid.: I was not thinking of human foes.

Capt. (bursting into a rage): Then what—

Genl. (breaking in): It is enough that the valley is near. You, soldier, scout ahead and try to locate it for us. We mustn’t miss it in the gloom.

Guid. (acknowledging): General. (His breathing recedes with the sounds of his horse as he veers off from the struggling mass of men.)

Genl. (softly): He speaks bravely, that lad. Yet have you noticed, as we come closer to our goal, he grows more and more fearful?

Capt. (harshly): I mark it not. He is unmanned, starting at stories told to frighten children.

Genl.: Ordinarily, I would agree with you. Yet—

A shout of relief is raised among the forward men of the tattered column.

Genl.: Look!

Capt.: Yes! I see it through the trees. The villain was right about one thing, anyway. There’s our valley!

Genl.: See those cliffs. It has the very look of a fortress! Here’s our man, coming back.

Capt.: He appears to have recovered some spirit.

Hoofbeats, drawing nearer. Other noises subside as the tired army halts spontaneously.

Guid.: Sir. The valley appears empty. I—

Capt. (alarmed): Wait! What’s that?

Genl.: What?

Capt.: There, high on the face of the cliff! A glint, like flashing steel!

The Guide groans, as if his fears have been realized.

Genl.: Yes! There is another! Three!

Capt.: Warriors I see, with spears! Yet they seem so wild, and fell—

Genl.: —almost insubstantial. They’re fading! But for a moment— I thought I saw men, standing on the crags, naked and armed like the tribesmen who lived in these hills in ages gone.

Capt.: Visions? —from the fatigue of the march?

Genl.: Perhaps. But look at our men - they also gaze about with widened eyes.

Capt.: Then they saw what we did. Yet it can’t be the enemy.

Genl.: No, they had not that look. (pauses) Well, we must go on. We have no choice. (To the Guide): How now, soldier, why do you hang back?

Guid. (with a hysterical laugh, almost a shriek): They are the dead! The ancient dead of the hillfolk, whom our people conquered ages past! They are waiting! Waiting for any of us driven to the same straits they were, to gain their revenge on us! The legend—

Capt.: Damn your fantastical imaginings! You’ve played on our fears until so long we’re seeing things! Who needs the enemy with you to destroy our forces? Be silent!

Guid.: You won’t believe your own eyes? (To the men:) Doomed! We’re all doomed!

Capt.: Silence, I say!

Guid.: The shades of the hillfolk will destroy us all!

Capt.: Damn you! I’ll stop this prattle— now!

His sword rasps from its scabbard and strikes the Guide’s armor with a ring and crunch. Sounds of the Guide falling from his mount and hitting the ground, then his dying groan.

Genl.: That was ill done. Yet you spoke truly, after all. (pause) Move the men forward. But keep a wary watch.

Capt.: Horn!

Horns sound, and belongings are shouldered with much noise as the soldiers rise and resume their forward tramp. Their marching fades as the scene ends.

Fade-in with night sounds of crickets, a slight wind in the distance, the crackling of a fire close at hand, and somewhere, running water. Silence otherwise for a time, then the noise of the Captain trying to shake the General awake.)

Capt. (whispering): General? (Shakes him more.)

Genl. (stirring): Umph—?

Capt. (impatiently): General! (More shaking.)

Genl. (sleepily): What is it? Surely it’s not morning—? Too dark. (stirring more) What do you in my tent? Where are my guards?

Capt.: Asleep; as are all but I and those who shared the night watch with me. Few others can be roused. I was lucky with you.

Genl. (grumpy): It’s night. They’re supposed to be asleep. Only the entrance watch besides your men need stand, anyway. Go away and let me be. (Pause, then with more force): Go away, I say!

Capt.: That’s the trouble! We can’t find the watch! Sir, this place has changed strangely during the night! It should rightly have been morning six hours ago! But it’s dark, and no one will stir!

Genl. (suddenly wide awake): What?!!

Capt. (in an odd voice): Come outside, sir.

Noise of the two rising, raising the tent flap, and stepping out. The crackling of the campfire grows louder, and the sound of the wind increases to an almost coherent muttering.

Genl. (alarmed): Look! The stars! They glow in pale colors, big as suns! What has happened to the sky?

Capt.: It changed but minutes ago; it was then that I came to rouse you. But that is not the worst!

Genl.: What is?

Capt.: The very shape of the valley appears to have altered; rounded into a circle in which we can find neither entrance nor those watchmen set to guard it. An hour agone we heard screams a man of my company swore were theirs, but we found no sign of them anywhere!

Genl.: That’s impossible!

Capt.: It’s true! And there is a strange feeling grown up since, of creeping menace just beyond the firelight, and of fell voices borne on the wind—

The muttering grows louder.

Genl.: I feel it! I hear them! Oh, why did you kill the guide? He knew the legends! He would have known what to do!

Capt.: Sir! You approved the deed! And he was useless! Had I spared him, he would have died of fright by now!

Several shrieks are momentarily heard above the wind, overwhelming in their agony.

Capt.: No! My men!

His footsteps tread heavily as he runs away in the direction of the sound.

Genl.: Wait!

(The General pounds after him. The blazing roar of the fire recedes with the distance as he joins him. Suddenly the Captain’s steps stop up short.)

Capt. (confused and alarmed): This is where they were. I can see their prints in this terrible starlight. But they lead nowhere!

The muttering wind increases in volume, and the crackling of the fire ceases abruptly.

Genl. (wildly): The fire! It’s gone out! And look! Look around us!

Capt.: The camp is gone! I can’t see it! It and all the sleepers: vanished like a mist!

Genl. (savagely): Damn it all, man, look! Can’t you see them? Eyes, millions of pale dim eyes, all around us! Look!

The muttering becomes louder still. The wind suddenly dies, but the voices remain, revealed as human, or akin to human, in nature.

Capt. (shouting): Charge them! Make for the pass, if it still exists! This is a place of madness and death, with fiends all about us! Run!

Their footsteps pound rapidly. A swishing noise is heard as they brush past whatever surrounds them, which parts like chaff before their charge. The muttering continues, louder yet, as the footfalls come faster and more panicky. The two men’s breathing grows labored after a minute of this.

Genl.: We’ve been going upwards! Look ahead! The pass! It’s still there!

Capt. (almost shrieking): Then hurry! In the name of all the gods, faster!

Genl.: We’re at the top! We’ve made it!—

The running sounds stop as they halt in their tracks. Dead silence for a moment, then the start of a high-pitched, insane tittering. It is the Captain.

Capt. (laughing and sobbing): Gods! Eyes! Huge eyes, big as boulders; pale — terrible! Those pale stars! They were eyes all along! Eyes of great monstrous beasts, crouching in the sky, waiting for us to flee into their jaws—

He shrieks, and bolts, laughing wildly.

Genl.: No! Not that way! You’re heading back into the valley, you fool— (laughs) You damned fool— !

The muttering grows intolerably loud. The General’s footsteps falter about as the unseen tormentors press in on him from all sides.

Genl. (uncomprehending, wildly terrified. His words get closer together as he shouts): No!— No!— No!— No! No! No! No! No!No!Noooo— !

He trails off into a tremendous scream of terror which echoes through the valley.