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Again I heard the faint sound, his song. He, too, was looking up atthe sky, and he was singing more clearly now, a sombre and humblingcanticle, it seemed, alien to our own more measured and organizedmusic, yet full of eloquence and pain.
He watched the clouds moving above us, as heavy and white as anyclouds I'd ever beheld.
Did this beauty of the forest rival what I had seen in Heaven?
Impossible to answer. But what I knew with perfect truth is that heavenbad not made this beauty dim by comparison! And that was thewonder. This Savage Garden, this possible Eden, this ancient place wasmiraculous in its own right and in its own splendid limitations. Isuddenly couldn't bear to look on it, to see the small leaves flutterdownwards, to fall into loving it, without the answer to my question.
Nothing in the whole of my life seemed as essential.
"Did God know about the souls, Memnoch!" I said. "Did Heknow!"He turned to me.
"How could He not have known, Lestat!" he answered. "Howcould He not have known! And who do you think flew to the veryheights of Heaven to tell Him? And had He ever been surprised, orcaught unawares, or increased or decreased, or enlightened, ordarkened, by anything I had ever brought to His Eternal and Omniscientattention?"He sighed again, and seemed on the verge of a tremendous outburst,one that would make all his others look small. But then he wascalm again and musing.
We walked on. The forest shifted, mammoth trees giving way toslender, more gracefully branching species, and here and there werepatches of high, waving grass.
The breeze had the smell of water in it. I saw it lift his blond hair,heavy as this hair was, and smooth it back from the side of his face. Ifelt it cool my head and my hands, but not my heart.
We peered into an open place, a deep, wild valley. I could seedistant mountains, and green slopes, a ragged and rambling woodbreaking here and there for spaces of blowing wheat or some otherform of wild grain. The woods crept up into the hills and into themountains, sending its roots deep into the rock; and as we grewcloser to the valley, through the branches I would see the glitter andtwinkling light of a river or sea.
We emerged from the older forest. This was a marvelous and fer-tile land. Flowers of yellow and blue grew in profusion, caught thisway and that in dancing gusts of color. The trees were olive trees andfruit trees, and had the low, twisted branches of trees from whichfood has been gathered for many generations. The sunlight poureddown upon all.
We walked through tall grasses梩he wild wheat perhaps梩o theedge of the water, where it lapped very gently without a tide, I think,and it was clear and shimmering as it shrank back, exposing theextraordinary array of pebbles and stones.
I could see no end to this water either to the right or to the left,but I could see the far bank and the rocky hills growing down towardsit as if they were as alive as the roots of the straggling green trees.
I turned around. The landscape behind us now was the same. Therocky hills, rising eventually to mountains, with miles upon miles ofscalable slopes, copses of fruit trees, black, open mouths of caves.
Memnoch said nothing.
He was stricken and sad and staring down at the waters, and to thefar horizon where the mountains came as if to close in the waters,only to be forced to let the waters flow out and beyond our sight.
"Where are we?" I asked gently.
He took his time to answer. Then he said, "The Revelations ofEvolution are, for the time being, finished. I've told you what I saw?
the thin outline of all you'll know once you die.
"Now what is left is the heart of my story, and I should like to tellit here. Here in this beautiful place, though the rivers themselves arelong gone from the earth and so are the men and women who roamedat this time. And to answer your question, 'Where are we?' Let mesay: Here is where He finally flung me down from Heaven. Here iswhere I Fell."12G3D SAID: 'Wait!' So I found myself stopped at the gates ofHeaven, along with all my companions, the angels who generallywent and did what I did, and Michael and Gabriel andUriel, though not among my companions, were there too.
" 'Memnoch, my accuser,' said God, and the words were spokenwith the characteristic gentleness and a great effulgence of light.
'Before you come into Heaven, and you begin your diatribe, go backdown to the Earth and study all you have seen thoroughly and withrespect梑y this I mean humankind梥o that when you come to me,you have given yourself every chance to understand and to behold allI have done. I tell you now that Humankind is part of Nature, andsubject to the Laws of Nature which you have seen unfold all along.
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