‘The Black Thing. Yes. The Black Thing burns unless it is counteracted properly.’ The three beasts stood round Meg, and it seemed that they were feeling into her with their softly waving tentacles. The movement of the tentacles was as rhythmic and flowing as the dance of an undersea plant, and lying there, cradled in the four strange arms, Meg, despite herself, felt a sense of security that was deeper than anything she had known since the days when she lay in her mother’s arms in the old rocking chair and was sung to sleep. With her father’s help she had been able to resist IT. Now she could hold out no longer. She leaned her head against the beast’s chest, and realized that the grey body was covered with the softest, most delicate fur imaginable, and the fur had the same beautiful odour as the air.
I hope I don’t smell awful to it, she thought. But then she knew with a deep sense of comfort that even if she did smell awful the beasts would forgive her. As the tall figure cradled her she could feel the frigid stiffness of her body relaxing against it. This bliss could not come to her from a thing like IT. IT could only give pain, never relieve it. The beasts must be good. They had to be good. She sighed deeply, like a very small child, and suddenly she was asleep.
When she came to herself again there was in the back of her mind a memory of pain, of agonizing pain. But the pain was over now and her body was lapped in comfort. She was lying on something wonderfully soft in an enclosed chamber. It was dark. All she could see were occasional tall moving shadows which she realized were beasts walking about. She had been stripped of her clothes, and something warm and pungent was gently being rubbed into her body. She sighed and stretched and discovered that she could stretch. She could move again, she was no longer paralysed, and her body was bathed in waves of warmth. Her father had not saved her; the beasts had.
‘So you are awake, little one?’ The words came gently to her ears. ‘What a funny little tadpole you are! Is the pain gone now?’
‘All gone.’
‘Are you warm and alive again?’
‘Yes, I’m fine.’ She struggled to sit up.
‘No, lie still, small one. You must not exert yourself as yet. We will have a fur garment for you in a moment, and then we will feed you. You must not even try to feed yourself. You must be as an infant again. The Black Thing does not relinquish its victims willingly.’
‘Where are father and Calvin? Have they gone back for Charles Wallace?’
‘They are eating and resting,’ the beast said, ‘and we are trying to learn about each other and see what is best to help you. We feel now that you are not dangerous, and that we will be allowed to help you.’
‘Why is it so dark in here?’ Meg asked. She tried to look round, but all she could see was shadows. Nevertheless there was a sense of openness, a feel of a gentle breeze moving lightly about, that kept the darkness from being oppressive.
Perplexity came to her from the beast. ‘What is this dark? What is this light? We do not understand. Your father and the boy, Calvin, have asked this, too. They say that it is night now on our planet, and that they cannot see. They have told us that our atmosphere is what they call opaque, so that the stars are not visible, and then they were surprised that we know stars, that we know their music and the movements of their dance far better than beings like you who spend hours studying them through what you call telescopes. We do not understand what this means, to see.’
‘Well, it’s what things look like,’ Meg said helplessly.
‘We do not know what things look like, as you say,’ the beast said. ‘We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing.’
‘Oh, no!’ Meg cried. ‘It’s – it’s the most wonderful thing in the world!’
‘What a very strange world yours must be!’ the beast said, ‘that such a peculiar-seeming thing should be of such importance. Try to tell me, what is this thing called light that you are able to do so little without?’
‘Well, we can’t see without it,’ Meg said, realizing that she was completely unable to explain vision and light and dark. How can you explain sight on a world where no one has ever seen and where there is no need of eyes? ‘Well, on this planet,’ she fumbled, ‘you have a sun, don’t you?’
‘A most wonderful sun, from which comes our warmth, and the rays which give us our flowers, our food, our music, and all the things which make life and growth.’
‘Well,’ Meg said, ‘when we are turned towards the sun – our Earth, our planet, I mean, towards our sun – we receive its light. And when we’re turned away from it, it is night. And if we want to see we have to use artificial lights.’
‘Artificial lights,’ the beast sighed. ‘How very complicated life on your planet must be. Later on you must try to explain some more to me.’
‘All right,’ Meg promised, and yet she knew that to try to explain anything that could be seen with the eyes would be impossible, because the beasts in some way saw, knew, understood, far more completely than she, or her parents, or Calvin, or even Charles Wallace.
‘Charles Wallace!’ she cried. ‘What are they doing about Charles Wallace? We don’t know what IT is doing to him or making him do. Please, oh, please, help us!’
‘Yes, yes, little one, of course we will help you. A meeting is in session at this moment to study what is best to do. We have never before been able to talk to anyone who has managed to escape from a dark planet, so although your father is blaming himself for everything that has happened, we feel that he must be quite an extraordinary person to get out of Camazotz with you at all. But the little boy, and I understand that he is a very special, a very important little boy – ah, my child, you must accept that this will not be easy. To go back through the Black Thing, back to Camazotz – I don’t know. I don’t know.’
‘But father left him!’ Meg said. ‘He’s got to bring him back! He can’t just abandon Charles Wallace!’
The beast’s communication suddenly became crisp. ‘Nobody said anything about abandoning anybody. That is not our way. But we know that just because we want something does not mean that we will get what we want, and we still do not know what to do. And we cannot allow you, in your present state, to do anything that would jeopardize us all. I can see that you wish your father to go rushing back to Camazotz, and you could probably make him do this, and then where would we be? No. No. You must wait until you are more calm. Now, my darling, here is a robe for you to keep warm and comfortable.’ Meg felt herself being lifted again, and a soft, light garment was slipped about her. ‘Don’t worry about your little brother.’ The tentacles’ musical words were soft against her. ‘We would never leave him behind the shadow. But for now you must relax, you must be happy, you must get well.’
The gentle words, the feeling that this beast would be able to love her no matter what she said or did, lapped Meg in warmth and peace.
‘It is so long since my own small ones were grown and gone,’ the beast said. ‘You are so tiny and vulnerable. Now I will feed you. You must eat slowly and quietly. I know that you are half starved, that you have been without food far too long, but you must not rush things or you will not get well.’
Something completely and indescribably delicious was put to Meg’s lips, and she swallowed gratefully. With each swallow she felt strength returning to her body, and she realized that she had had nothing to eat since the horrible fake turkey dinner on Camazotz which she had barely tasted. How long ago was her mother’s stew? Time no longer had any meaning.