"My amber amulet will conceal me from hostile eyes. If all is well on the other
side of the magical gate and it affords a safe way into the sorcerer"s domain, I
will immediately return to fetch the rest of you."
Jagun made protest. "And what if you emerge from the viaduct into some deadly locale, Fa.r.s.eer?"
"My trillium-amber has saved my life many times, as you know very well. It will
not fail me in the present instance."
The five knights sat without speaking for some minutes, each one mulling over Kadiya"s words, having grave misgivings about her plan but being unwilling to speak against it and be thought disloyal.
At last Jagun said, "And what shall we do, Fa.r.s.eer, if you enter the viaduct and
do not return?"
"Then you will bespeak news of my fate to the White Lady," she told him, "and follow her commands."
"Would it not be more prudent to consult her beforehand?"
"No," Kadiya said firmly.
Jagun bowed his head in silent reproach.
Kadiya rose and picked up her backpack. "We have tarried here long enough. Let us be on our way."
The Oda tribe of Glismak had only a single settlement of less than forty souls, lying three days" journey above the Double Cascade. Most of their race eked out an austere living by simple hunting and gathering. Those who dwelt farther north, near Wyvilo territory, occasionally did rough manual labor for their aboriginal kinfolk or even for humanity. The Oda tribe, luckier than most, had been taught by factor Turmalai Yonz to trap, skin, and cure the fur of the coveted blue diksu. Thus introduced to commerce, they were more ambitious than other members of their kind, having become accustomed to certain luxuries such as strong drink, pearl ornaments from Zinora, and steel knives. Factor Turmalai purchased their furs at the start of each Wet Time, and the Glismak had seen him very recently. A fur bale as tall as the Oda village headman"s hut, which had taken the tribe nearly half a year to acc.u.mulate, had brought them a single golden Varonian crown.
The Folk of the Oda had been astounded when Turmalai Yonz told them about the fabulous reward offered by the Star Men for the capture of the Lady of the Eyes. The sum of a thousand platinum crowns was far beyond Glismak comprehension. (Having only three digits on each hand, they had never learned to count higher than six; still, they knew that a thousand must be considerably more than that.) Mendaciously promising to share the reward with Turmalai if they found the Lady, the Oda Glismak returned to their wilderness traplines.
As they worked, they kept their big red eyes peeled for the valuable human prey. Yesterday, they had found her.
The Wyvilo flatboat had come into the lower reaches of the Oda just before dusk. It had been misty, but lurkers on sh.o.r.e had clearly seen a smallish human female with braided russet hair standing at the rail as the boat tied up for the night. The Glismak had not dared to attack then. The Wyvilo boatmen, their close racial kin, were too formidable a foe to mess with. The watchers could only wait and yearn, beseeching their three-headed G.o.d to cause the Lady of the Eyes to come ash.o.r.e without her aboriginal companions.
In time, their prayers were answered.
The Glismak of the Oda River were a primitive race of Folk, but they were by no means stupid. They decided to wait until the prey and the armed men accompanying her had reached the Magic Door before attacking, so that they would not have to carry her dead body very far.
On the next morning the weather was much better. The rain and fog had disappeared completely, and by the time Kadiya and her party returned to the trail from their bivouac by the river the sun was out. They hiked for four hours, seeing nothing unusual and hearing only the noise of the river tumbling over boulders, a rare trill of birdsong, and the occasional cry of some distant beast.
"The Double Cascade cannot be far now," Jagun said, when the sun was nearly overhead.
"A good thing," Sir Sainlat replied, "for I am well nigh worn out climbing this rocky trail. I would sell my soul for a saddled fronial."
The others laughed and began to tease him, but in truth they were all very tired, not being used to going afoot armored while carrying heavy loads on their backs.
Kadiya, still bringing up the rear as she had done throughout most of their march, paused and looked back the way that they had come. The valley of the Oda had narrowed and the character of the forest had changed. They had pa.s.sed out of the humid Ta.s.saleyo lowlands and into the foothills of the southern Ohogan Range. Something scarlet high in the tree canopy above the trail caught her eye. It was a huge gauze-wing, wider than her two hands, fluttering in search of nectar. Kadiya smiled at the sight of the lovely creature, then turned to resume her march. The others had already gained the top of the steep ridge that she now ascended.
She saw Jagun beckoning to her and froze, her hand automatically going to her sword hilt. But he did not seem to be alarmed, and so she made haste climbing and in a moment stood beside him and the others. Ahead was their goal-two narrow streams of water glistening as they fell for nearly eighty ells down the face of the mountainside. At the base of the Double Cascade was a pool, foaming white where the cataracts impacted and limpid blue-green in its outer reaches. The glade round about it seemed completely deserted.
They made a stealthy approach, encountering no one, and at length stood at the foot of the twin waterfalls in a dense grove of peculiar trees. These had trunks with vertical openings over an ell high that constantly opened and closed, revealing a maw lined with shiny green spikes like enormous fangs. Here and there a tree had its "mouth" closed, and blood and other nameless fluids seeped from its wooden lips.
"These trees are called lopa by the Wyvilo," Kadiya remarked to the Companions, who had gathered around one specimen and were staring at it with apprehension. "They appear repulsive, but they are not dangerous to human beings unless one is so foolish as to reach into the toothed opening. When my sister Anigel undertook her original quest for her talisman, the Three-Headed Monster, she found the coronet concealed within a gigantic lopa tree and only retrieved it by dint of great courage and ingenuity."
Jagun had left the group in order to explore the area near the pool. He now called out, "Fa.r.s.eer! I think I have found the site of the viaduct."
The others ran to him. There, between two exceptionally large lopas growing at the water"s edge, was a flat slab of rock oddly free of moss or other forest growth. A perfectly straight groove was incised in it, and spiked to one of the adjacent tree trunks was a board with a many-pointed star painted upon it.
"We will soon see if you are right," Kadiya said to Jagun. Cautioning the others to stand back, she commanded, "Viaduct system activate!"
A tall black disk seeming to have no thickness sprang into being to the sound of a deep bell-chime, whereupon the knights gave cries of amazement. Kadiya nodded in satisfaction and cast off the straps of her pack. Before any of the others could say a word, she drew forth from her jerkin the shining amber droplet that hung on a cord around her neck and held it tightly in her left hand. Her right rested upon the hilt of her sword.
"Black Trillium," she said, "I pray you shield me from the sight of hostile persons and keep me otherwise safe from harm." She stepped into the viaduct"s ominous dark surface and disappeared.
There followed an instant of utter silence. Then came a heart-stopping bellow of frustrated rage from many throats.
Jagun and the knights whirled about. Over a score of huge aboriginal warriors, tusks bared and eyes flaming, came bounding down the wooded rocky slope with steel-tipped spears held at the ready.
"Glismak!" Jagun cried. No sooner had he spoken than the creatures flung their weapons. The spears, aimed at the Lady of the Eyes, went toward the viaduct; but the black disk winked out of existence and most of the blades soared harmlessly across the cascade pool. One spear fortuitously caught Sir Bafrik in his unar-mored throat. He staggered backward, blood pouring onto his chest, and fell from the riverbank into the water, which turned scarlet.
The crowd of cannibals halted momentarily, bellowing in disappointment at the unexpected loss of their prey. Then some drew Varonian short-swords while their comrades hefted flint maces and other weapons. They advanced upon Jagun and the four surviving knights, intending to make short work of them.
After that, they would prepare a consolation feast.
Chapter Fifteen.
GOING invisible has its problems. When Prince Tolivar and Ralabun left the flatboat and began to follow Kadiya and the others through the river bottomland in thick fog, they soon discovered that the vapors did not penetrate the s.p.a.ce occupied by their unseen bodies. If one looked carefully, a human form might be perceived, outlined by swirling mist. The Prince was baffled. No command that he could think to give the talismans would alleviate the predicament. In the end, he and Ralabun simply kept far behind the others, hoping that they would remain unnoticed.
When the worst of the fog finally dissipated and the pair became truly invisible again, another difficulty presented itself. Neither the Prince nor Ralabun knew where the other was at any given moment. Once, when the boy paused to answer a call of nature, the Nyssomu continued on oblivious-only to panic as he realized that his own footsteps were the only ones to be heard. Ralabun then dashed back along the trail, frantically crying out the Prince"s name.
Tolivar tongue-lashed the old stablemaster roundly. "You blockhead! What good is it to be invisible if you betray our presence with your big mouth? I should never have brought you with me!"
"Then, Hiddenheart, you would have had to carry the star-box yourself," Ralabun retorted with injured dignity, "as well as our food and other supplies. Besides, without my knowledge of wilderness ways, a young lad like you would surely become lost or suffer some mortal misadventure before traveling half a league."
But that was not true. The Prince had learned a good deal from his clandestine excursions into the Mazy Mire, while Ralabun had for over forty years spent most of his days in the royal stables, enjoying civilized human comforts, and had forgotten most of the mirecraft learned in his youth. In truth, he was worse than useless as a guide.
He made a great fuss warning the Prince not to touch goblet-trees or tanglefoot or other obviously hazardous flora, while neglecting to point out more subtle dangers such as the deadly suni-bugs that dangled on a thread of slime among the bushes, or the snafi, which resembled fallen leaves but were actually small animals that crept along on mult.i.tudinous fingerlike feet, capable of injecting poison if they got into the clothing and touched one"s bare skin. Ralabun also vexed Tolivar by stopping again and again to survey the forest, swiveling his long upstanding ears, sniffing the rainy air, and cautioning against the stealthy approach of ravening beasts that never actually appeared.
Eventually the Prince became quite out of patience and took the lead himself, after which they made more steady progress. From then on, if a stream had to be forded, it was the boy who chose the place where they would wade or hop across on stones. Tolivar also decided how they would negotiate washed-out places on the trail, picking the way with care so that their pa.s.sage would not set the unstable earth moving again. And when the path now and again seemed to vanish amidst downed trees or dripping underbrush, Tolivar was the one who would find the route again, even though Ralabun would bl.u.s.ter and profess to have known the way all the time.
Pressing on through the rain, they reached the spot where Kadiya and the Oathed Companions had eaten their midday meal, and there they found a nasty surprise. The Prince pointed out numbers of large, three-clawed tracks in the soupy mud.
"These were not made by animals," he said, trying to keep his voice from trembling. "They must be Glismak. See how the prints overlie the ones made by Aunt Kadi and her companions? The brutes are following them."
"Oh, Holy Flower forfend!" Ralabun moaned. "We must find some way to warn the Lady"s party of the cannibals" presence!"
"Perhaps I can whisper in her ear, and she will think that her Black Trillium amulet speaks. Or even one of the Lords of the Air." The Prince laughed nervously, rather liking the idea of being mistaken for a heavenly guardian. He pressed his fingers to the sides of the coronet, closed his eyes, and bade it give him Sight of Kadiya. This was a kind of magic he had often practiced, becoming fairly proficient.
"Do you see the Lady?" Ralabun whispered anxiously.
"Yes." In Tolivar"s mind was a clear picture of her and the others, tramping along the steepening trail with tendrils of mist swirling around them.
He heard Ralabun"s voice say, "Tell her of the danger, Hiddenheart. Quickly!"
"Aunt! Can you hear me?" But Kadiya moved on heedlessly, even though Tolivar called out again and again, keeping his eyes shut to maintain the Sight. "It"s useless," the boy said at last. "There must be a knack to bespeaking that I do not yet grasp."
"Very likely. You"d better find out what the cannibals are up to."
Tolivar commanded the coronet to show him the Glismak. It promptly complied, and the Prince beheld a vision of very tall, fearsome aborigines trotting single-file along a narrow path choked with tall ferns and other undergrowth.
"Where are the Glismak in relation to me?" the boy whispered to the talisman.
They are approximately a league south of the river trail, moving away from you.
"Are they pursuing my Aunt Kadiya?"
They are moving away from her also. It is impossible to ascertain their intentions, since they do not speak of it and are beings with free will.
Tolivar told Ralabun what the talisman had said, and the Nys-somu was much encouraged. "Perhaps the cannibals have decided that the Lady"s party is too formidable to attack. After all, they are only simpleminded savages. You must check up on the brutes from time to time with your talisman, to be certain that they don"t return. But now we had better move on. It would be unwise for us to fall too far behind the Lady of the Eyes if we hope to pa.s.s through the viaduct immediately after her."
They set off again at as rapid a pace as they could manage, but neither of them had long legs. To make matters worse, the trail now trended mostly uphill and they were often forced to halt, gasping for breath and with st.i.tches in their sides.
Then it began to get dark.
Tolivar turned them visible once more, fearing that they might be accidentally separated in the deepening gloom. "It"s time that we thought about stopping for the night, anyway. Shall I ask the Three-Headed Monster to find a dry cave or hollow tree? Or shall I try to use the Burning Eye"s magic to cut down wood for a lean-to shelter?"
"I care not." The old Nyssomu was now very downhearted. "I would settle here and now for a pair of dry boots-and relief for the blister on my right heel."
"Let me try to help you," Tolivar said. He pulled the dark broken sword from his belt and held it by the blade, as he had seen Orogastus do. "Three-Lobed Burning Eye! I command you to restore Ralabun"s feet to health, and render his boots dry." At the same time that he spoke, the Prince visualized what he wished to accomplish.
The lobes forming the sword pommel split open, and three magical Eyes stared at Ralabun"s feet.
"Oh! Oh! It"s hot! It"s hot!" Clouds of steam suddenly poured from the boots and Ralabun danced about in a frenzy, yammering aboriginal oaths.
The Prince made haste to apologize. "Forgive me! I didn"t realize that would happen. Perhaps I should have used the coronet instead. I had forgotten that Aunt Kadi"s talismanic sword is more of a weapon than a magical wand. Um... is your blister healed?"
"How can I tell," the old man wailed piteously, "with my feet afire? Next time, let me at least take the boots off before you experiment. Better yet, practice your amateur sorcery on someone else-like the Glismak cannibals!"
"I hope that I will not have to," the boy said in a low voice, "and you would do well to hope so, too."
Ralabun sighed. His feet had cooled rapidly and the blister was indeed healed. "I"m sorry, Hiddenheart. I know you only wanted to help. But I am so very weary and wet..."
Tolivar pressed his fingers to the coronet. "Talisman-can you lead us to a dry place where we might safely spend the night?"
Yes. There is a sizable niche among the rocks on the hillside to your right. Follow the green spark.
A tiny emerald light sprang forth from the open mouth of the middle head on the coronet and began to drift slowly off the trail. Tolivar took Ralabun"s hand.
"Come. It"s time for us to rest and eat. With luck, I will find a way to dry the rest of our clothes with magic. But have no fear, old friend. This time I will practice first on myself."
They awoke refreshed in the morning, and Tolivar quickly ascertained that Kadiya and her party were less than a quarter of a league ahead of them, eating breakfast down by the Oda River.
"And are the Glismak following them or us?" the boy asked his coronet.
No.
Well satisfied and confident that his bold plan was succeeding so splendidly, the Prince rendered himself and Ralabun invisible once again. They set off at the same time that Kadiya and her companions did and hiked for several hours, growing more and more weary as the sun climbed but managing to stay fairly close behind the others.
And then they discovered fresh Glismak tracks crossing the trail to the right.
Tolivar halted and studied the ominous evidence with consternation.
Ralabun said, "This is strange. I thought your coronet said that the cannibals were not following."
The awful truth came to the Prince in a flash. "No-they were circling around us to prepare an ambush! I was too stupid to ask the talisman about that possibility, and it always answers questions literally. Quick! We must try to give warning!" He set off at a run, sometimes falling and scrambling ahead on all fours, for the trail at that point was extremely steep.
"I cannot keep up with you, Hiddenheart," the stablemaster gasped. "Go ahead without me and-"
There was a sudden volley of b.e.s.t.i.a.l cries in the distance, followed by the agonized scream of a man.
Stricken with terror, the invisible friends crept to the top of a rocky ridge. Below lay a small clearing near the paired waterfalls, hedged about by monstrous trees. It seemed crowded with enormous beings who leapt and flailed about with swords, stone-headed maces, and rusty Varonian axes, yelling hideously all the while. They wore no clothing, having plates of shining skin armoring their backs, shoulders, and upper arms. Their bodies were otherwise covered with auburn hair, which grew longer on their heads, forming manes. They possessed muzzled faces like those of their Wyvilo kin, but instead of yellow eyes they had orbs of glaring red. Great white teeth shone in their mouths and both their hands and feet were beclawed.
The mob of Glismak were engaged in a pitched battle with four vastly outnumbered Oathed Companions. There was no sign of the fifth knight, nor of Jagun, nor of the Lady of the Eyes.