如果梦境允许他选择,杰克绝不愿踏足此地。他想真正的魔物也该没有梦境,否则那些被辜负、被残害的必定纠缠不休。现在他正被纠缠着,被死者追逐,沿着植被繁茂的山谷蹒跚而行。在浓稠的紫色的夜幕下,道路如水银的河,钻石一样冷硬。为什么?为什么?玛尔塔。他感觉不到双腿,只能匍匐前行,在晶面上艰难攀升。 "Many and multiform are the dim horrors of Earth, infesting her ways from the prime." 她忽然出现在台阶顶端,拎着黄铜制的香炉,镂空纹饰间溢出淡白的雾。杰克呼唤她,她就出现,好像宇宙的边缘正是她的故乡。 残缺的月照耀着山谷,一些升起,一些随之落下,星辰黯淡。玛尔塔安静站着,直到第四轮月沉入大地,杰克经过她脚跟。然后她望向远处腐烂的队伍。"这也是我的队伍,"她惨笑道。"去神殿里,你知道路,趁黎明还未降临,趁双子的太阳还未睁开第三只眼睛。[1]" 神殿只灰色的城市里才有,离此地万般遥远,杰克也不喜欢那里。所有的城市,故乡的,异域的,前者他大多没有见过,但他知道它们只有这一种沉闷的颜色。 "我力竭了,不想再走。"他索性停下来休息,连腹部的卷须也不动了。"看着我死吧,至少黎明之前你会感到愉悦。" "但黎明降临我就要醒来,等着来人将我撕碎,"女孩对若虫说。"我们只有活着的时候才是真实的,哪怕爱不得持续一日。到我们死了,画布和相纸就要篡夺你我的存在,直至我永远爱你,因为忘记了你的残忍;往后的人见你作了粉饰的画,就当真以为你爱我,而我从未因此受苦。你要艺术也忍受毁谤么?" 她的皮肤和肌肉都裂开,虫蛇的蜕变一般脱落。开口从胸廓到骨盆,翻出一层不薄也不厚的脂肪,和内脏鲜血一起流淌到地上,直到阶梯映不清任何人的脸。 "可我爱你!" 杰克尖叫。行尸里的一个也出声呜咽,因喉咙上有刀伤,那哀嚎极不规则。 终于最后的月色沉没,翡翠色晨曦漫过他们,也漫过透明的、血红的晶石。玛尔塔漂亮的头落在上面,仅摔一下就成碎片,杰克试图不去看她。 然而他没有眼睑。
Many and multiform are the dim horrors of Earth, infesting her ways from the prime. They sleep beneath the unturned stone; they rise with the tree from its roots; they move beneath the sea and subterranean places; they dwell in the inmost adyta; they emerge betimes from the shutten sepulchre of haughty bronze and the low grave that is sealed with clay. There be some that are long known to man, and others as yet unknown that abide the terrible latter days of their revealing. Those which are the most dreadful and the loathliest of all are still to be declared...[2] 日记到这里就终止,看起来它的主人再没有时间写下去。奈杰尔督察从办公室出来,同僚都向他投来同情的目光,他知道等他走出视线之外,这些人就又要凑在一起窃窃私语,而被委以重任的他更无法不去想这桩案子。到了吃晚饭的时候他仍摆脱不了恶心的感觉,惹得妻子很不高兴,还差点给老帕克的鱼店去电话,确认今天这批鲑鱼是不是坏了。 奈杰尔只认为自己倒霉。他想他也没有得罪过总警司,为何非得摊上这么件差事。他在岛上待了近一个月,参与搜证的警探从废墟中接连刨出些垃圾,一件比一件骇人。还有尸体,男人和女人,索姆河战役中也不见得有死状比这些人的夸张、离奇。这究竟是怎样一个世界啊?他头痛欲裂。 奈杰尔对世界的看法十多年前就变了。战争开始之前他正处在对人生抱有无限希望的年纪,相信文明社会正待迎接一个和平而繁荣的新纪元。因此14年苏格兰场门前排起征兵长队时奈杰尔仍是乐观的,随后他的幻想破灭在索姆河[3]与凡尔登[4]。原来一切都没有变化,文明的异象自古便很短暂,更多时候,人类还是要回归野蛮和暴力的黑暗时代。 饭后他带着证物躲进书房里,说要一个人待着,贝拉和雷妮丝便不来打扰他工作。总督察严令案情保密,因疑似有若干世袭贵族牵涉其中,但即使没有这道命令,奈杰尔也不愿冒险让妻子和女儿看见这邪恶的物件,何况它的内容——如此污秽、残酷且不可理喻。
1 格赫罗斯(Ghroth): 拉姆齐·坎贝尔《牵引》(The Tugging, Ramsey Campbell, 1976)中首次提及此名,一颗形如"红色有疣球体"(a red warty globe)的流浪行星,亦称为"审判之星"(Nemesis)或"灾厄之兆"(Harbinger)。"它如同生锈一样通体棕红,除了山丘一般的球状突起外并无其他特点。当然,如果他从这里望去就会发现那些突起并非山丘大小,而应该更为巨大。一个锈迹斑斑、满是肿块的球体... 它毫无生气地浮在那里,散发着压倒性的气息,犹如翻滚的闷雷..." (It was red as rust, featureless except for bulbous protrusions like hills. Except that of course they weren't hills if he could see them at that distance; they must be immense. A rusty globe covered with lumps, then... It seemed to hang ponderously, communicating a thunderous sense of imminence, of power...) "行星的表面不会移动,它只是一颗行星,行星的表面也不会随意裂开,它不会像那样滚动,更不会散开几千英里,让你看到下面的东西-苍白而闪闪发光。" (...the surface of a planet doesn't move, it's only a planet, the surface of a planet doesn't crack, it doesn't roll back like that, it doesn't peel back for thousands of miles so you can see what's underneath, pale and glistening.) 格赫罗斯由气体、灰烬与炙热的液态铁构成,外壳上遍布断层与裂谷,并时常以其下广阔的液态铁海洋形成一只巨眼,它是宇宙的"先驱和代行者"(the Harbinger and Maker),令群星归于正确的位置并唤醒其上沉睡的古老神祇。实际上早在坎贝尔1964年作品《夏盖妖虫》中格赫罗斯就已经出现,作为毁灭夏恩母星的元凶:"那东西在一个被翡翠绿光芒照耀着的日子的黎明时第一次被看见。在地平线的双日上方,出现了一颗古怪的半球形红色天体。它的边缘模糊不清,而中心是一个轮廓分明的深红色火焰点... 它们断定那不是一颗恒星或行星,而是某种由无法辨认的物质组成的天体;它的光谱完全未知,一定来自一个与宇宙中任何区域都截然不同的领域... 第三天,球体在天空中化为一片巨大的红光,它遮住了绿色的太阳,用深红之焰照亮了一切,但是没有热量散发出来,除了血红色的光外,没有其他证据能证明这颗星球的存在。...它看见天空中一道长长的深红色闪光迅速地接近地面... 随着红光慢慢消退,建筑物及街道上的行人再次清晰可见。在这场灾难中,这些生物和建筑在某种程度上发生了变化,它们都从内部发出同样的红光。光线每时每刻都在变亮,从红-橙-眩目的黄转化为白色,昆虫们在无助的痛苦中扭动着,抓挠着。...建筑物摇摇欲坠,居民在瞬间的炽热中四分五裂。它最后瞥见的是光球下夏盖领主们所遗留的一切,它们在深红辐射下没落。" (It was at the dawning of one of those emerald-lit days that the object was first seen. Above the double disc on the horizon, and slowly approaching their planet, appeared a strange semi-spherical red globe. The edges were indistinct, while the centre was a sharply-defined point of crimson fire... it was not a star or planet, but some species of body which was composed of no recognizable substance; the spectrum was completely unknown, and the substance must have come from a region where conditions were unlike those anywhere in this universe... On the third day the globe was a huge red glow in the sky, blotting out the green suns and lighting everything with a crimson flame; but no heat emanated from it, and no other evidence of its existence met the insects besides the blood-red light. ...it saw a prolonged crimson flash in the sky, speedily approaching the ground... As the red glow slowly faded, the buildings became again visible, as did the beings in the streets. The creatures and buildings had changed in some way during the cataclysm- for they glowed with that same crimson light, streaming from inside each. And the light became every moment brighter, changing from red-orange-blinding yellow to white, as the insect-beings writhed and clawed at themselves in helpless agony... the buildings reel and the inhabitants burst asunder in momentary incandescence... And its last glimpse was of the globes of light which were now all that remained of the lords of Shaggai, as they sank to fill the ground with crimson radiation.) 2 《无名的子嗣》(The Nameless Offspring, Clark Ashton Smith, 1931)引言,出自阿卜杜尔·阿尔哈兹莱德所著《死灵之书》: "自太古以来,地球滋养着各式阴晦恐怖之物,形态纷繁且为数众多。它们在不动的山石下沉睡,伴随林木的生长自根系间升腾;它们巡游海床、潜行地底,以幽深殿室为居所;它们在坟穴茔窟中出没,视凌人的青铜与卑微的黏土无异。过去人类得以见识其中些许,余下的仍隐匿行迹以待将来显现世间。或许世人还未能得见最骇人、最致人厌恶的污秽,但在昭示过自身存在的异形中,有一物因过于卑劣肮脏,其名隐而不宣。它是墓穴的隐居者与必死凡人所得之子嗣。(Many and multiform are the dim horrors of Earth, infesting her ways from the prime. They sleep beneath the unturned stone; they rise with the tree from its roots; they move beneath the sea and in subterranean places; they dwell in the inmost adyta; they emerge betimes from the shutten sepulcher of haughty bronze and the low grave that is sealed with clay. There be some that are long known to man, and others as yet unknown that abide the terrible latter days of their revealing. Those which are the most dreadful and the loathliest of all are haply still to be declared. But among those that have revealed themselves aforetime and have made manifest their veritable presence, there is one which may not openly be named for its exceeding foulness. It is that spawn which the hidden dweller in the vaults has begotten upon mortality.)" 3 索姆河战役(the Battle of the Somme, 1916.6.24-11.18): 第一次世界大战中规模最大的会战,参战各方伤亡超过130万人(英军伤亡360000<另说45万>, 英联邦军64000, 法军约200000人<另说34万>, 德军近550000; 7月1日最为血腥, 英军伤亡超过57000人, 其中19240人阵亡, 德军伤亡人数在10000-12000)。索姆河战役是一战中最惨烈的阵地战,也是人类历史上第一次将坦克投入实战(英制马克1型, Mark I)。 4 凡尔登战役(La Bataille de Verdun, 1916.2.21-12.19): 一战中破坏性最强、持续时间最长的战役,交战双方共伤亡近百万人(法军约543000, 德军433000),仅次于索姆河战役。 5 拜亚基(Byakhee): 首次现身于《魔宴》(The Festival, H. P. Lovecraft, 1925),一种可驯化和训练的有翼混血生物,外形特征难以把握,可携人飞行。"在那里有节奏地扑打着的,是一群已经驯服并且经过训练的,像杂种似的有翼生物。健全的眼睛无法把握它们的样子,健全的头脑无法记忆它们的形貌;那些东西即使和乌鸦、鼹鼠、兀鹫、蚂蚁、吸血蝙蝠,或者腐烂的人类尸体相比,也都完全不同——我无法回忆,也绝对不能回忆起来。那些生物拍动膜翼,用带蹼的脚前行,它们的大群接近了参加祭祀的人群,抓住这些身穿套头外衣的人。" (...there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember. They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings; but something I cannot and must not recall. They flopped limply along, half with their webbed feet and half with their membraneous wings; and as they reached the throng of celebrants the cowled figures seized and mounted them...) 洛夫克拉夫特并未在文中提及"拜亚基"一词,该名称出自奥古斯特·威廉·德雷斯(August William Derleth, 1909.2.24-1971.7.4)《天空守望者》(The Watcher From the Sky, 1945):"In order that these creatures be made to serve me, however, it would be necessary for me to swallow a small pellet, a distillation of that marvelous golden mead of Professor Shrewsbury's, the mead which rendered the drinker insensible to the effects of time and space, and enabled him to travel in those dimensions, while at the same time heightening his sensory perceptions; then to blow upon a strange stone whistle, and also call forth into space certain words: 'I?! I?! Hastur, Hastur, cf'ayak 'vulgtmm, vugtlagln, vulgtmm! Ai! Ai! Hastur!' Certain flying creatures- the Byakhee- would come out of space, and I was to mount and take flight unafraid." (为了使这些生物为我所用,我必须事先服下药物,蒸馏提取自舒兹伯利教授那奇妙的黄金蜂蜜酒。蜜酒可令饮用者不受时空迁移影响,使其得以在各维度间穿梭,并且强化感官知觉。此后需要吹响一只古怪石哨,面对天空吟诵以下词句: "I?! I?! Hastur, Hastur, cf'ayak 'vulgtmm, vugtlagln, vulgtmm! Ai! Ai! Hastur!" 这些飞行生物,拜亚基,就将自空中降落,我便可以安心骑乘。) 根据德雷斯的补充设定(《天空守望者》&《库尔文街上的小屋》The House on Curwen Street, 1944),拜亚基膜翼漆黑,飞行速度接近光速(也可能是夸张的修辞),侍奉无可名状之哈斯塔(Hastur the Unspeakable; Him Who Is Not To Be Named),需要以特定的工具和咒文召唤。(Then he took me by the hand and stepped up to the sill of the tall narrow window. I followed him, and both of us stepped out into space. I felt something beneath us, and I saw that each of us was riding a monstrous black-winged bat-like creature which traveled with the speed of light. 然后他拉住我的手踏出窗沿。我跟着他一起走入空中,发现身下有什么东西。我看见我们各自骑乘着一只生漆黑膜翼,蝙蝠似的生物,它们正以光速飞行。)