In his hiding place, Iraj burned with curiosity. He was anxious to get on with whatever was going to happen next.
Palimak caught a whiff of strangeness. He sniffed the atmosphere with his magical senses, but couldn"t trace the source. It must be the coffin, he thought. And turned his attention back to his father, who was lifting the sh.e.l.l trumpet to his lips.
Safar blew and the most wondrous music issued forth. It was as if a whole orchestra of musicians were playing--pipes and horns and silver-stringed lyres. With a single wild wailing trumpet swooping above and through and below all the notes like a glad hawk set free on the winds after a long period of captivity.
On the wall the mural shimmered. Then not only the painting but the entire wall dissolved. Except instead of looking out on a Syrapian night, they were gazing across bright rolling seas.
A tall ship danced over the waves, graceful sails billowing in a balmy breeze. Playful dolphins and flying fishes leaped high in its wake, making the whole a joyous scene. The ship flew a flag bearing the symbol of Asper: a twin-headed serpent, borne on jagged-edged wings. And soaring above it all was the unmistakable silhouette of the circus airship, suspended beneath its two painted balloons.
Safar lowered the sh.e.l.l trumpet, but the music kept playing--growing more haunting, more compelling.
Each note beckoning them to follow.
Palimak saw familiar figures moving about the tall ship"s bridge."Look, father!" he said in awestruck tones. "Don"t you recognize them?"
"It"s us!" Safar said.
Jooli pointed at a slender figure in armor. "I"m there, too," she said, pleased and amazed at the same time.
"I wonder where we"re going?" Leiria marveled.
Safar indicated the red moon hanging low on the horizon. "There"s only one course that puts the Demon Moon so low," he said. "We"re bound for Hadin."
Leiria was startled at how grim he sounded. She looked at him. His face was pale, blue eyes hollowed and bruised.
Then the scene vanished to be replaced by the hard, blank surface of the fortress wall. And the mural of the Spirit Rider was gone.
Safar turned to them, slowly straightening his shoulders as if steadying a weighty burden. "Oh, well," he said, smiling brightly. "It"s not as if I didn"t know that I had to go back."
Palimak caught the worry hiding beneath the false surface of cheer. "It"ll be different this time, father," he said. "You were in some kind of spellworld before. It"s wasn"t the real Hadin."
"I know," Safar said. But he was shaking his head slowly, uneasy.
"Maybe we"re looking at this the wrong way," Leiria offered.
The world and everything in it could go to the h.e.l.ls, as far as she was concerned. She"d do anything to spare Safar further agonies.
"How do we know that wasn"t a false vision? Something concocted by Charize and her monsters?"
"It wasn"t," Safar said. "To begin with, Charize had nothing to do with the mural. That"s clearly Asper"s work. Just as it was clearly Lord Asper"s intent for Princess Alsahna--whom I"ve always thought of as the *Spirit Rider"--to help me discover a way to keep the world from destroying itself.
"As you can plainly see there is no sense denying--or fighting--our fate." He drew in a long breath. "We must go to Hadin. And as quickly as possible."
Palimak became frightened. Not for himself, but for his father. Suddenly he saw him as a driven, tragic character. Doom was written all over his features.
"Let"s not be so hasty, father," he said. "I think we ought to look into this some more. You know ... Study the auguries ... Re-read the Book of Asper. After all, Hadin is on the other side of the world! Thirteen thousand miles away. We need to look for other answers before we decide to do something so drastic."
"Palimak"s right," Leiria said. "We can"t just abandon everything and everybody in Syrapis. Think of your family and friends. You brought them so far. And now you"re going to leave them again."
Desperate, she turned to Jooli. "Tell him," she said. "Tell him there must be another way. Another answer!"
Jooli gave a sad shrug. She quite liked Leiria and Palimak and was loath to disappoint them. But what could she do?"Princess Alsahna was quite clear," she replied. "The only one who can decide is Safar Timura."
At that moment the floor heaved under them. The earth shock was so great that they were hurled flat.
It was like riding a giant bucking horse and they found themselves clinging to any surface they could dig their nails into.
Objects crashed to the ground, shattering. Plaster and stone rained around their ears.
Outside, people and animals panicked, screaming and bellowing in fear.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the earthquake ended. And all was still and all was silent as they braced for another shock.
Finally, they realized it was over.
Safar was the first to his feet. He looked around, surveying the damage. Furniture smashed, stone walls cracked, the floor split right down the middle.
"There"s your answer," he said. "We go to Hadin!"
In his hiding place, Iraj knew fear. He"d just escaped from that awful place. He fought for calm.
Safar was right. There was no other choice: they had to return to Hadin.
Part Three
Bound for Hadinland
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
THE CRY OF THE TURTLE.
Safar stood on the bridge of the tall ship watching the green rolling seas froth into white spume as they parted before the wooden prow. Hungry birds followed in their wake, filling the air with their gleeful cries as they swooped on fish stunned by the ship"s swift pa.s.sage.
From above he could hear Biner shouting orders to the airship crew. And--more faintly--the roar of the magical engines that kept the balloons taut and the airship aloft. He smiled, remembering just how much fun it was to be a member of the airship"s crew. Everyone would be rushing to perform the tasks Biner set, laughing and joking with one another as they sailed through azure skies.
The atmosphere would be the direct opposite of what he"d experienced thus far on the tall ship. The vessel--named the Nepenthe--was the best that Coralean could provide from the mercenary fleet.
Although Safar was no sailor, it certainly seemed sound enough.
But the crew was sullen, the captain harsh and when orders were given the sailors were slow to act. To Safar they also seemed deliberately clumsy--fouling lines, tangling sails and generally making an unnecessary mess of things.
Sooner or later he would have to do something about this state of affairs. However, at the moment he was content just to get the voyage started. He consoled himself, thinking he had thirteen thousand or more miles to bend matters--and the captain--to his will.
Some consolation! By the G.o.ds, if there were any other choice he would"ve taken it. To begin with, he dreaded the voyage"s goal. Of all the becursed lands in this becursed world, Hadin was the last place hewanted to visit. Secondly, as far as he knew such a voyage had only been accomplished once before: by Lord Asper many centuries ago when he"d journeyed to Hadin and back again.
No wonder the captain was moody and the sailors unwilling. Safar was paying them handsomely--many times more than they"d ever received before in their seafaring careers. He"d also promised rich bonuses when the voyage was complete.
However, these men had never strayed far from Esmir. Venturing only to the not-so-distant islands, such as Syrapis. They were ignorant men, had sometimes even worked as pirates, and had little knowledge of the wider world. But, ignorant as they were, in their many voyages they"d experienced first-hand what the scholars of Esmir had only speculated about.
Safar watched a great sea turtle swim frantically away from the path of the ship. It was a huge creature--big enough to seat a large man on its broad sh.e.l.l. Possibly a hundred years or more in age.
He smiled ruefully, thinking this was how all but the wisest scholars and priests saw the world they lived in. According to Esmirian myth, the world was borne on the back of a sea-turtle G.o.d. In turn, the continents that made up the world were carried by lesser turtle G.o.ds.
There were four such continents--confirmed in Asper"s voyages. First there was Esmir--which in the language of the ancients simply meant The Land, or The Earth. Then Aroborus, the place of the forests.
The third continent was Raptor, the land of the birds. A place they wouldn"t visit until their return voyage.
Last of all was Hadin, land of the fires: a continent shattered by the forces at work there into a vast island chain that crouched at the bottom of the world.
The place, Asper said, where he waited at "Hadin"s last gate."
Of course, Safar didn"t think Asper would actually be waiting there. The old demon had been dead for a thousand years, after all.
Nor was Safar certain that he"d truly find a solution to the world"s ills once he reached Hadin.
However, despite his uncertainties Safar was driven to act. His entire adult life had been devoted to this mission. And many had suffered and died as a result of his obsession to halt the poisonous cloud that was slowly killing the world.
And he had no doubt many more would meet similar fates before he was through.
To accomplish his goal, Asper said Safar would have to awaken the G.o.ds. Exactly what this meant, or how he"d go about it, Safar was far from certain. He"d have to wait until he arrived in Hadin to find out.
Safar wondered how his people would fare during his absence. Even if he were successful it was unlikely he"d survive the experience and return to Syrapis to find out. Would they prosper? Would they find happiness again? The happiness lost to them when he"d led them from their ancestral home, Kyrania--the Valley of the Clouds.
As he pondered these unanswerable questions his mind floated back to the last night he"d spent with his family, friends and fellow Kyranians.
Safar had invited all the Kyranians to a farewell feast, although only his closest confidants were aware of its purpose.Long tables were set up in the main courtyard of the mountain fortress. Colorful lanterns were hung all around giving everything a cheerful atmosphere. The tables were heaped with every dish and delicacy he could manage to a.s.semble in the short time he"d had to prepare. And the finest Timura jugs were set out, full of wine and beer and cold goat"s milk sweetened with honey--this last for the children.
First Safar put on a little show to entertain the Kyranians and brighten their spirits. With the help of Biner and the other circus folk he performed many astounding acrobatic feats, spiced with glittering displays of magic.
Biner and Arlain put on their clown costumes and wowed the crowd with their most humorous antics.
Safar also performed horse tricks with Khysmet, showing off the stallion"s uncanny abilities.
Finally, when he thought the moment right, he asked them all to gather round for an announcement. There were more than a thousand Kyranians, so he had to stand on a table for all to see. He cracked a magical amplifying pellet so that no one would miss his words.
"My dear friends," he said, "the time has come to speak to you on a matter of the utmost importance."
Immediately his mother and sisters burst into tears. His father, face pale, straightened his shoulders and tried to look stoic. But it was hopeless, for several tears could be seen running down his cheeks. Safar"s family had been told of his plans and could no longer hold back their emotions.
Everyone looked at them, a sense of dread chilling the air.
"I stand here before you with a grieving heart," Safar said. "I"ve known all of you my entire life. And we have been through so much together--good times and ill. So it is with great sadness and much reluctance that I now tell you that I must take my leave.
"Perhaps forever."
There was a stunned silence. Followed by shouts of, "No, Safar! It can"t be! Stay with us! We love you, Safar! We love you!"
Safar bowed his head, letting the outpour flow over him until it was spent.
"Thank you, my friends," he said, eyes glistening with barely checked emotion. "But you must understand this isn"t something I want to do. When I was a boy herding the village flock through the pa.s.ses of the G.o.ds" Divide I was given a sacred trust. And I cannot refuse what I have been called to do."
Foron leaped onto the table with him. "Please, Safar," he said. "You must listen to us. You are a great man. Still, you are only a man. You cannot prevent what the G.o.ds desire. Forget the outside world.
Remain with us."
He made a sweeping gesture that took in the fortress and the mountains beyond. "This is a paradise, Safar. Just as you promised back in Kyrania. We had to fight for it, to be sure. But this is a wonderful place.
"Look about you, my friend. Look at all the plenty. There are fish in the sea begging to be netted. Forests full of game, rich earth eager for seed and fat herds of goats to be milked or slaughtered. And the mountain air is so clear and clean and sweet it"s like drinking wine when you breathe."
"All you say is true," Safar replied. "But there are forces at work that will soon end this paradise. It will be destroyed, just as Kyrania was destroyed."Foron shook his head. "No one doubts your wisdom, Safar," he said. "But in this one thing I must tell you that you are wrong. I can"t believe it"s necessary for you to leave us in order to fight whatever evil it is that threatens us all. Again, I beg you--remain with us.
"Allow us to fight with you. And if we win, what gladness. And if we lose, so be it. At least we"ll all die together."
The crowd took up a chant: "Fight, fight, fight. Fight together!"
Safar let them chant for a time, then raised his hand for silence. When he got it, he said, "I wish with all my heart that what you said was true. But it isn"t. Please let me show you so you can see for yourselves."
He gestured for Foron to step down. When he"d done so Safar said, "First, I beg you to send the children away. What you are about to witness is not a sight for young eyes."
After the children had gone--the babes borne away by the village grannies--Safar called again for everyone"s attention. When he had it, he drew the sh.e.l.l trumpet from beneath his cloak. People gaped at it. They"d couldn"t imagine the sea creature that had once inhabited the marvelous sh.e.l.l.
As he raised the trumpet to his lips Safar took a deep breath. And then he blew, long and hard.
Once again the sounds of the wondrous magical orchestra filled the air. The Kyranians murmured at the beauty of the music. Then they gasped when they saw the Spirit Rider suddenly appear on the fortress wall, shimmering like an apparition. Then, once again, the mural and the wall dissolved into nothingness.
As the solid stone dissolved there were loud cries of alarm as the Kyranians found themselves looking down on a yawning emptiness. It was as if they were at the edge of a sloping cliff and were about to fall into a terrible abyss.
People clutched each other, the tables, the benches--anything to prevent themselves from plunging into the unknown.
Safar himself didn"t know what was going to happen next. And when the music and then the scene changed his nails dug into his palms until they bled.
First came the familiar throb of the harvest drums. The conch sh.e.l.ls wailing. The rhythmic slap of bare feet on sand and open palms on naked chests. And then they were looking down on the beautiful people of Hadin dancing before the smoking volcano. Their lovely harvest queen leading them in song: "Her hair is night, Her lips the moon; Surrender. Oh, surrender.
Her eyes are stars, Her heart the sun; Surrender. Oh, surrender.
Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s are honey, Her s.e.x a rose; Surrender. Oh, surrender.
Night and moon. Stars and Sun.