The Hushing of the Voice explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Sacrifice and Heroism

  The Ten Thousand risk their lives to save the youths and retrieve their souls; the youths themselves make a foolish but heroic attempt to rescue the Lesser Redoubt.

• Hope in Despair

  The crescent light rises to protect the Ten Thousand from the Hump, offering a moment of hope amid overwhelming danger.

• Isolation and Community

  The Great Redoubt mourns collectively; the community is bound by shared grief and the need to uphold the Law, while the youths are isolated in their doomed venture.

Characters to notice

• The Narrator

  Awakened by Master Monstruwacan to use Night-Hearing; hears the Master-Word and communicates with Naani; watches the battle from the Great Redoubt.

• Naani

  Speaks weakly from the Lesser Redoubt; hears the Master-Word and the message 'We are coming!' but is reassured by the Narrator.

• Master Monstruwacan

  Awakens the Narrator to listen for the Master-Word; later sends the Home-Call and signals to the Ten Thousand to beware of the Hump.

• The Diskos

  Used by the Ten Thousand to fight the Hounds; disks spin and glisten, sending out fire.

• The Hounds

  Five score attack the Ten Thousand; slay 1,700 men before being hewn in pieces by the Diskos.

• The Humpt Men

  The Hump (a Great Force of Evil) approaches the Ten Thousand but is driven back by a crescent light.

Key passages

• “words whispered in my brain, that there had been a fight with an outside Force that had harmed many in their minds; so that in madness they had opened the gate and had run from the Lesser Pyramid, out into the darkness of the Lands about them; and there had their physical bodies fallen to the monsters of those Lands; but of their souls who may know?”

  The Narrator learns that a psychic attack drove the people of the Lesser Redoubt mad, causing them to flee into the Night Land where monsters killed them; their souls' fate is unknown.

  Explains the fall of the Lesser Redoubt due to the Earth-Current failure and psychic assault.

• “And lo! as I sat up in the bed, there came the sound of the Master-Word, beating in the night about the Pyramid. And immediately there was a crying in the æther all about me: 'We are coming! We are coming!'”

  The Narrator hears the Master-Word and a message in the æther announcing an approach, which he initially believes is near.

  Key moment of communication and confusion about the source of the message.

• “And I knew that the voice was the voice of Naani; and I put a question through all the darkness of the dead world, whether she were within the Lesser Redoubt, and safe thus far.”

  The Narrator recognizes Naani's voice and asks if she is safe in the Lesser Redoubt.

  Establishes telepathic contact with Naani.

• “Then there happened a wonder; for in that moment when all had else gone quickly, that they might save their souls, out of the earth there rose a little Light, like to the crescent of the young moon of this early day. And the crescent rose up into an arch of bright and cold fire, glowing but little; and it spanned above the Ten-thousand and the dead; and the Hump stood still, and went backwards and was presently lost.”

  A crescent-shaped light rises from the earth, forming an arch over the Ten Thousand, which drives back the Hump and protects their souls.

  Miraculous intervention saves the Ten Thousand from a Great Force of Evil.

• “Yet, the Ten-thousand ceased not to smite with the Diskos; and they hewed the Hounds in pieces; but of the men that went forth, there were a thousand and seven hundred slain by the Hounds, ere the men won to victory.”

  The Ten Thousand fight the Hounds with Diskos, killing them all, but lose 1,700 men in the battle.

  Describes the brutal cost of the battle against the Hounds.