Explore "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Of the furtherance given by Queen Sophonisba, fosterling of the gods, to Lord Juss and Lord Brandoch Daha; with how the hippogriff's egg was hatched beside the enchanted lake, and what ensued therefrom.
Next day the Queen came to Lord Juss and Lord Brandoch Daha and made them go with her, and Mivarsh with them to serve them, over the meadows and down a passage like that whereby they had entered the mountain, but this led downward. "Ye may marvel," she said, "to see daylight in the heart of this great mountain. Yet it is but the hidden work of Nature. For the rays of the sun, striking all day upon Koshtra Belorn and upon her robe of snow, sink into the snow like water, and so soaking through the secret places of the rocks shine again in this hollow chamber where we dwell and in these passages cleft by the Gods to give us our goings out and our comings in. And as sunset followeth broad day with coloured fires, and moonlight or darkness followeth sunset, and dawn followeth night ushering the bright day once more, so these changes of the dark and light succeed one another within the mountain."