Entry #398286, added on 07-13-06 @ 7:02 pm EDT
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| Chapter Three - New Wineberries in Old Skin | Entry #398286 |
Elkwater's King
Chapter Three - New Wineberries in Old Skin
"Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through him, they had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered."
~Kenneth Grahame
The hard, smooth stone under my face felt cool. I raised myself up a little and looked at the uneven, grey surface of that hard floor. It looked strange to me and yet somehow very familiar. I was still for a moment, frozen in that half push-up, until it dawned on me that the floor reminded me of the walnut shell. It was so real, so detailed and clear. I sat up and looked at the walnut in my hand. My hand had changed. Oh, it was still the hand of a nine-year-old boy, but I could see every line of my palmprint, every thin blonde hair on my arm, and even the pores on my skin. My teal-and-orange t-shirt blazed with color, and every strand of fabric in my jeans was as vibrant as a tapestry thread. I inhaled, and the air that entered my lungs was so startlingly refreshing that I wondered what I'd been breathing all my life.
I made it!, I thought. I'm here in the other world!
My chin throbbed with pain because it had broken my fall. I moved my jaw up and down to make sure it wasn't broken. It wasn't. I lifted my gaze from my hand to the grey wall in front of me, and this is the first time it occurred to me that something might have gone wrong.
The wall was high, taller than I was. It encircled me, and for a moment I thought I was in some kind of prison; but I sighed with relief at the sight of a wood door behind me leading to--well, I did not yet know where it led. And the door was part of a taller wall, still made of the same magnificent grey stone, which rose to a point in the sky. In fact it was the top of a tower, and I was on the battlement. And so I saw the sky again. If it looked "topaz blue" to me, then that is because it really did look like gemstone, clear and bright and precious. I turned around to look at the moon I had noticed, but in the course of looking I found yet another moon, this one whitish-grey and about the same size of the moon I was used to seeing at ordinary times, but the craters were in all the wrong places. The smaller, pale yellow moon was lower in the sky and a good deal to my right, or just over the wall in the direction I was facing when I first fell. I got up and walked to the wall. Its top was about two feet over my head. I struggled to pull myself up, just barely getting a foothold on the uneven stone. The top of the wall was like a floor itself, about five feet thick, so with an effort I climbed on top of it and slowly crawled to the edge to look down.
The colors in the landscape below me were shocking in beauty and intensity. I thought that the building I was in must have been atop a large mountain, because everything I saw was so far below me. A long way in the distance I could see a glittering sea, and then closer to me was a long strip of land, perhaps a large island, between the sea and a very large body of water that was closer to me. On this strip of land I could see a city in the distance. It was very far away, but whether the air was clearer than I was used or my vision much better, I could make out the walls and many of the buildings and a large shape reaching to the sky from the city's center. It looked like the horn of an antelope or the spiral of the inside of a snail's shell. And the stone of the city looked to be a shade of pink or peach, and there were networked lines of green snaking all through it. The green lines branched all over the stone fo the city like veins running through living skin.
When I examined the closer body of water, the one between me and the strip of land, I realized it was not an extension of the sea beyond, as I first thought. It was incredibly wide, even from my height, but it was a river, going from the North to the South as far as my eyes could see. To the South, a long thin line ran across the river - a very distant bridge. The near bank of the river was hard to see because it was so close to the bottom of the "mountain" I was on. But I could just see the bank and running alongside it a green area dotted with trees.
I stared at the treetops for a minute, even though it hurt my neck. They seemed to be in a pattern. Suddenly my mind recognized the pattern as the words of a sentence that said:
Keep the walnut shell forever.
I rubbed my yeyes and looked again, and the pattern was gone. I wondered if someone was trying to communicate the message to me, someone like the Usher, or if it was simply my excited imagination. Looking down at that steep angle, I noticed with dismay that the building was not on a mountain at all. The building was the mountain. I do not think there was ever a skyscraper so tall, but this was no scyscraper. I looked to my right and left, and could see no end of it. The whole structure was one giant wall, and as I was on a tower of it I could see that it was not only impossibly high and wide but hundreds of yards thick. I wonder what it was meant to separate, and what fearful enemy it was meant to protect against, and on which side of the wall the enemy lived! It was becoming increasingly clear that the only way out of the great fortress (if I wanted to go out) was into that door on the side of the tower.
As soon as I knew I was looking over a sheer wall, a wave of vertigo hit me, but because I was lying flat on my stomach I only had to crawl backwards and lower myself back to the battlement of the tower in which I'd first arrived. Only then did I think about the fact that the Usher and Michael were nowhere to be seen. Despite the beauty all around me, I was all alone with no idea where to go. And then the Usher's warning came unbidden into my mind: It would be very dangerous to be near one of these artifacts when you come with me. I had been touching that tractor closest to the creek when I first saw this world. Could this have taken me to a place where the Usher never meant for me to go? Did I even go to the right world? And even if this was the right world, did the Usher even know I made it there?
I started to breathe a little faster. If only a part of me was here (as the Usher explained), then the rest of me was back on the farm. This meant that as far as Aunt Eva and Uncle Martin knew, I hadn't gone anywhere. That's what had happened to Michael. He entered another world, but some version of him was still back at the farm. This meant that not only was I alone and lost, but also that no one knew or perhaps would ever know that I was alone and lost. Not unless I could get myself found. This was a very terrible moment, and I don't mind admitting that I spent several minutes crying my eyes out, there on that high tower all alone.
But this was not the kind of crying that comes out of total despair, because I knew there was still the tower door. And after my tears had mostly dried I walked over to it and pushed down on the metal handle. It swung open towards me easily. Inside, it was very dark.
"Hello," I weakly called. The sound of my voice died as if this was just a little room with no way out. But as my eyes adjusted, I could see it was a stairwell, and there were stone steps in front of me spiralling down. It was very dark, and a strong feeling came over me that no matter what I should not go down those stairs. But this feeling was not as strong as my fear of being alone for even one more minute, so I opened the door as far as it would go and began to walk down the steps, my knees fluttering in their sockets like the wings of a hummingbird. The stairwell was narrow, so I could almost (but not quite) feel both sides of the wall at the same time as I descended. When I went down so far that I could not even pretend that a little light still shone from the doorway above, once more I called out, this time a little louder.
"Anyone here?"
I waited for a full minute, but there was no answer or sound in reply except my own breathing and the beating of my heart. If I kept going, it would be in total blackness. I longed for the comfort of the light at the top of the tower, but I'd either have to come right back down the steps or eventually spend the night there. I swallowed hard and started down again, sightless and scared.
At least three times as my hand felt the wall of the stairwell I would feel a space open up. But no light at all came from these spaces, and a terror worse than walking down the steps would overtake me when I thought about going into them. So I continued down to what I hoped would lead me to the way out, or if not the way out to the bottom, or if not to the bottom at least to a little light.
I kept my mind steady by counting steps, but I stumbled at three hundred something and lost count. My legs were so tired it felt like I had been going up instead of down. I decided to rest for a minute.
Sitting there with my head in my hands, I saw the faintest outline of my white sneakers, and I sprang to my feet like a jack-in-the-box. There must be light somewhere ahead, I thought, and all the tiredness left my legs as I resumed my descent, my pace quicker. Sure enough, before long I could see my shoes even when standing, and not long after that I began to see the outlines of a step or two in front of me. Lighter and lighter it became, until I could even see the walls of the stairwell. Suddenly, the stairs stopped and the walls gave way to a wider landing, but for a moment the light blinded me and I stood there blinking my eyes.
The landing was about the size of the living room of the farmhouser, maybe twenty feet long by fifteen feet wide, and I could see that the spiralling steps continued on the far side. To the right, there was an opening much larger than the ones I had felt so far, but I could only see a little ways down before it got just as dark as the stairs above. What little I could see was the same uneven but carefully hewn bare grey rock the whole fortress seemed to be made of.
The light came from a small window without glass on the wall to my left. I rushed to the landing so I could peer out the window, but it was too high for me and I could barely touch the sill when I jumped and reached as high as I could. Still, I could see a patch of sky through it and could feel the fresher air swirling around me. I wanted to laugh. I felt much better. No tower can go on forever, no matter high. I felt that soon I would be outside in fresh air and everything would be all right.
Suddenly a horrible feeling came over me, and I felt an urgent need to get off the landing. I obeyed my instinct and ran to the lower steps, but I peeked around the corner of the wall and stared at the opening of the tunnel that ended at the landing. The same sense of urgency that made me hide told me to run run RUN down the steps, but I hated to leave the light. Besides, I hadn't actually heard or seen anything dangerous, and I wondered if this tunnel could be my way of finding help or escape. So I waited, straining my ears, listening carefully for any noise.
Eventually, I did hear noises. They were very faint and far-off, and I tried to listen harder by sheer force of will. They got a little louder, and it occurred to me that they sounded like a shoe's wet rubber soles on waxed linoleum. Then the squeaky noise stopped, and yet I couldn't help feeling that something was getting closer. And then I heard a different sound, a scrabbling and scraping sound, very faint and yet very close. Now I did not dare to run or even to move, for fear that the thing coming down the tunnel would hear me. But I thought to myself, What if it wants to go down the stairs? What will I do then? Oh, please let it want to go up the stairs!
The scraping sound came to a halt, and I felt the presence of the thing very near. I stared at the opening of the tunnel, not even risking a blink. The thing hesitated for a long while, and I hardly heard any sound at all from it except the faintest of rustling. I wondered if it could hear my pulse.
Very slowly, something was inching its way out into the light. It looked like a dozen, stiff strands of fishing wire that was feeling its way around the corner of the wall. I relaxed a little. In my mind I imagined a boy in sneakers holding a pole with these strands of wire at the end, just as scared as I was, feeling around the corner with the same fear I had at that very moment, except that I had the advantage of a better line of sight. The thought emboldened me, and so-- still euphoric from the light of the window-- I said in a high, weak voice,
"Excuse me, but--"
And that is all I managed to get out before the wires vanished and a terribly loud squeaking and shreiking and scrabbling commenced. But worse was that I knew that the shrill noises were actually words, and that the creature - whatever it was - was shouting out at the top of its lungs. Most terrible of all, I understood what the thing was saying. Just as with the Usher's calf-like moaning, I could understand the basic message of the tunnel creature without actually translating the words in my head. It did not sound friendly at all, and it was not speaking to me.
"To me!" it said. "It is the shade of Doss Teeglan! Tooth and claw to bear, and to me! To me!"
As it said these things, it seemed to be moving down back the tunnel, but not nearly fast enough for my liking. And to my dismay, other faint squeaking seemed to be responding to it and getting closer.
I knew I had made a terrible mistake, and I had no doubt that even if it was discovered that I was only a boy and not any kind of shade at all, these creatures would do things to me that I had never dreamed in my worst nightmares if ever they should catch me. I turned and went down the steps so quickly that it was more like a controlled fall. All too soon, the light vanished and I was descending blindly, guessing from my experience where the next step would be. For a time the shrieking noises grew fainter, but soon they grew louder again and I knew the chase was on.
Going down those steps in the total darkness, my heart racing with adrenaline, sweat beginning to run into my eyes, I wondered if it would be better to fall down the stairwell than to be caught by the "teeth and claws" behind me. I wondered if it would hurt much to be killed that way, or if I would go unconscious at the first bite and not feel anything. It is surprising that the sheer terror did not make me faint long before anything caught up with me. As these thoughts went through my mind I heard myself saying aloud, "Please God no, please God no, please God no," over and over. You may remember how, not long before when I was asking Aunt Eva about the invisible window, that I more or less believed in God but rarely thought about it. Well, there is nothing like being chased down a dark stairway in another world by unseen foes frothing and champing to tear him apart to give a young boy a healthy dose of religion.
But just at that moment I felt the wall to my right give way to another small opening and I lost my balance, falling hard on my knees, my chin hitting the corner of the far side of the opening. If my chin hurt me before, it was in positive agony now. My eyes filled with tears and my head spun. But the terrible sounds were very close now, and I could hear several horrible squealing voices at once. One was louder and deeper than the rest, and it was saying, "Faster, you snoutless pukesniffers! That is no shade, but a gutless intruder! Catch him and you'll win the favor of the Lady's comforting coils. Let him escape and you'll feel those coils from the inside--I'll see to it! Faster! You are running for your own lives!"
Hearing this, I managed to get to my feet, but I knew that if I kept going down the stairs my pursuers would have me in no time. I had no choice but to go wherever the small opening led. Whether it was an answer to my prayer or mere chance I did not know, but I later learned that this was the one and only way from this tower that led directly to the outside. But it did not lead to safety.
I ran down the dark and narrow tunnel. I could have run into a wall or trip over a step or even fall over a precipice at any moment. But the voices hesitated in the stairwell behind me and the deeper voice said, "Litterbane and Splatterfur, follow the grain tunnel. We'll catch him on the stair!"
So the creatures following me had split up and the awful leader had gone the wrong way, but the names of the two creatures who were chosen to follow me down the tunnel sapped any confidence I may have had left. What kinds of creatures had names like that? I had no desire to find out.
The height of the floor changed a little, and I threw my arms out in front of me just in time to feel the wall coming at me at a slight curve to the left. I set my direction and ran again, and my heart leapt. Light! A pinprick of light shone ahead, whether another window or a door I did not know, but it was straight ahead and I sprinted like I never knew what running was like before.
In a few seconds a shrill voice behind me (it was the one that I first addressed on the stair) said, "I see him! I see him, Litterbane! For the glory of her lidless gaze, we must POUNCE!"
"Shut your sick jaws and run, Splatterfart. The only glory I want is the trickling of its blood on my tongue."
I don't know if their words made them run any faster, but they certainly made me run faster. But they were getting closer. As the light grew brighter I could hear the scraping of claws against stone and breathing and lots of cursing, especially from Litterbane.
But just as they got so close that I could smell the musk of their breath and was bracing for an impact from behind, I was out of the tunnel and into midday light. I still ran, blinded by brightness, blinking and with my hands nearly covering my face.
The creatures behind me were still in pursuit, but they also slowed, cursing the sun. I blinked hard and tried to look around me for the best route of escape. But the sight before me paralyzed my mind.
I was on a ledge of the high wall (which was now on my right), and this ledge ran like a mountainside road straight ahead for hundreds of yards until it ran straight into the wall again further ahead, disappearing into another dark tunnel. The path was only about six feet wide. I looked to my left. It was more than a hundred feet to the ground. But a steep ramp was built from the ground to the ledge which met the path about halfway to the other side. Coming up this ramp were dozens of giant mice, or some foul interpretation of mice, some pushing wheelbarrows full of what looked like vegetables and sacks of something. Others were carrying sacks over their shoulders. Still others were pulling carts behind them on all fours. Some were white, others black or grey or brown, and some were a mixture of colors, but they were all twisted a little out of their normal shapes and with spots of baldness. Every one of them looked at me, and pandemonium broke out. The ones near the bottom of the ramp quickly hopped off. The ones near the top dropped their loads over the side and made a run for the farther tunnel. The ones in the middle seemed not to know what to do, and I heard a couple of loud squeals as two or three went over the side in the confusion.
I looked behind me and saw my two pursuers, both mice-like creatures the size of large dogs. One was dark brown, stumbling forward, its forefeet (or hands?) trying to block the sun out of its especially large eyes. The other was mostly white but dotted all over with flecks of grey and black, the dots merging as they got to the tip of his short snout, which was solid black. This one was standing on two feet, eyes narrowed at the sun. But both creatures seemed to be covered in what looked scabs or tumors, and the brown one had a large, yellow tumor encircling its neck so that it looked like a horrible mane.
I decided to make for the ramp and try to get down to the ground level, even if it meant going where there were lots more of these verminous nightmares. I was not going back into another dark passageway if I could help it. I looked down at the ground far below. There seemed to be lots of things moving around down there, scurrying things, but further off and away from the wall the land looked green and not unpleasant, but most of it seemed to be covered in a fog or mist. When I looked as far as I could into the distance (above the mist) I thought I could see the faint outline of another wall. In despair, I feared (correctly) that I had managed to get myself trapped inside a terrible place, and that my view when I had first arrived in this world of the glittering sea and wide river and coral-colored city would be my last glimpse of freedom.
I reached the top of the ramp just before the brown mouse-thing, and had barely made it a quarter of the way down when I felt his weight crashing on my back. Instantly a chittering snarl came right by my ear and thick claws began to tear my shirt away.
"I've got you, you juicy little salamander," said the voice I knew to be Litterbane's. It opened its mouth wide for a bite into my neck.
But the force of the impact sent me somersaulting forward down the ramp, and the fall was such that by chance I landed on my back, which meant I landed on Litterbane. The rodent then let out an airy squeal as all the air was knocked out of him, but his grip only tightened on me. We rolled like that down the ramp, with me mostly landing on my back until I saw a dreadfully large white mouse charging up the ramp at us with more huge rodents behind him. At each somersault roll I would see its face and teeth and pink eyes get bigger and bigger. Then, just as we were rolling right into its waiting claws I stuck my feet out as far as I could in midair, and it so happened that my heels caught the center of the white mouse's chest and sent him falling backwards and into the creatures behind him.
All I remember about what happened next is that there was a whirlwind of claw and saliva and tumor and teeth. Then the snarls turned into squeals of anger and fear as a mass of naked tail and furry flesh descended with me off the side of that ramp. I don't know how far up we were when we fell, but since I was in the center of that ball of squirming bodies my fall was cushioned. All of five or six creatures limply fell away from me and I groaned to my feet. I seemed to be much heavier than I remembered, and then I saw claws embedded in the skin at my shoulders. I shouted and pulled the claws out, feeling a dead weight fall off me to the ground. I spun around to see the glassy-eyed stare of the mouse that wanted my blood to trickle on his tongue. I fancy I did see a trickle of blood coming out of its slack, open jaws...but it was not mine.
Still, I had no chance to savor my luck. I looked up from the dead or injured mice and saw dozens of snarling faces right in front of me. I turned to every side and saw a mass of tumored, raging vermin ready to pounce on me like a hungry pack of wolves. In the beady eyes of the nearest black rodent, there was no mistaking the end of all hope.
My temples began to throb and I began to feel lightheaded. My vision blurred and I heard the rushing sound of blood in my ears. It sounded like wind. Something was tickling my chest, and in a daze I looked down to see that it was two trails of red blood from the claw wounds on my shoulders. I looked up at the growing crowd of snarling, shrieking rodents.
"Please," I croaked. "I just want to go home. I didn't mean to come here. I didn't mean to hurt anything."
As soon as I spoke, several things happened at once. First, I realized before I finished that I was not speaking in English at all, but was instead uttering the squeaks and snarls and grunts that seemed to comprise the language of those creatures. Second, a wave of surprise and what could only be interpreted as revulsion swept through the gathering. The chittering and squeaking rose to a crescendo.
But this only lasted for a few seconds before there seemed to be a commotion coming through the ranks of the crowd, and soon many mice-creatures were scrambling to get out of the way. Several dozen large mice broke through to the little clearing in front of me, and they were armed. Some had artificial steel claws covering their front "paws", some had sharp curved metal sheaths covering one foreleg, and a few had something like deadly braces on their snouts, equipped with jagged metal "teeth". All had the yellow or grey tumors to a greater or lesser extent on their bodies. But behind them was something even worse.
Standing tall on two legs - as tall as a grown man - was a rat. It was not fleshy like most of the mice seemed to be, but lean and twisted-looking. It did not have the tumorous growths of the mice, but it had six arms growing from its brown-furred sides. The two lower arms on its left side were little more than stumps, but each of the other arms carried a weapon. A sword in that one, a mace in the other, a dagger in one, a flail in another, and in the last a whip which it was using to savagely clear a path for the armed mice. Its eyes were locked onto mine.
More armed mice came streaming out of the crowd on my right, and behind them was another of the terrifying rat-creatures, this one plumper and lighter brown. It had five arms instead of six, and all were defective stumps except for the two middle ones. Saliva was dripping from its exposed teeth.
"The monkey speaks," said the heavier rat in raspy, deep tones. "That defiles it, but it might still be fit to devour once the tongue is torn loose." At this, a high snarl seemed to come from nearly every creature except the mice armed with weapons. It was some kind of laughter.
But another sound interrupted the snarl. It was far-off, and reminded me of the sound of a hundred baby rattles all being shaken at once. The effect was something like a hiss. Then, the sound came again but much closer.
The first rat (the thinner one) spoke. "The Lady wants it. Take it to her, Porquillian. Leave your squad with me."
The heavier rat made an irritated sound but advanced upon me. It produced a curved sword from a strap at its side and brandished it a little. It stopped about five feet from me.
"The Lady will have you for dinner now, ape," it snarled. "Come with me."
The deformed rat called Porquillian turned and began to stride through the crowd. The overgrown mice gave it a wide berth. I did not want to go with it, but I was even more afraid of what the horrible creature might do if I did not obey. I followed in silence, my legs shaking from terror and fatigue.
"Back to work! Back to work!" the thinner rat shouted behind me. "Any of you who linger will join the Lady for an appetizer, and any I see not working as hard as I think you can will lose one grain token. Back to work!"
The giant mice soon cleared quickly away after that, and as we swiftly walked through the slowly clearing mist, the only ones I saw kept themselves busy about some task. Still, from time to time they shot curious, enraged glances my way.
We travelled down a cobblestone road, the high wall of the fortress to our right. Sometimes we would pass noble-looking stone ruins, but more often there were crude wooden structures. The rodent-creatures came in and out of these. Once, just to the right of the roadside, there was some kind of station manned by two very serious-looking tumored mice. At first I thought it was a well, but there was no hole in the ground - just a wooden arch with something hanging from ropes. The hanging thing was not a bucket. It looked more like a ridged pinata. But I did not have a chance to wonder what the strange construct was for. It was all I could do to keep up with the fat monster in front of me.
After a lot of jogging and running, something breathtaking came into view. It looked like a giant clad in green, on one knee as he reached for something on the ground. Yet the giant did not move, and as we got closer I saw that it was a huge statue. His face and hair were those of an African man, and his eyes looked down at whatever his right hand was picking up. He was not clothed in green after all though, but in hundreds of huge vines. Halfway up, I could see the leaves of the vines dotted with bugundy-colored fruit. They look like wineberries, I thought.
Just then, I felt I could run no more. Partly this was because I had not relieved myself since I left the farmhouse that morning, and so after all the excitement I was in terrible distress. I hated to do it, but I called out to Porquillian.
"Excuse me! Excuse me! Please stop! My bladder is going to burst!"
The giant rat whirled around in fury, its curved sword out in a flash. Before I could say another word, it swung the flat of the sword at my hip, and I fell over in pain. Then it kicked my face. One of its claws got stuck in my nostril, and as it drew its foot away,the claw took a little flesh with it.
"No!" I screamed. "I'm only 9! I'm just a little kid! Why are you hurting me?"
Porquillian seemed amused. He spat on me and said, "Do you think I care if you are immature? I have slaughtered hundreds of unauthorized litters in my career. It would be a pleasure to add you to the list. But the Lady wants you, and that's worse than anything I could do. Now get up!"
I had never met anyone who was so without mercy, so cruel. I did not want Porqullian to hurt me again. But some part of me was also very angry, and the words escaped me before I could stop them:
"If I pee in front of the Lady, I'll blame you for it."
Porquillian raised the curved sword for another strike. This time, the edge of the blade was turned toward me. I curled up in a ball and waited for the end. But the end did not come.
When I risked a look up, Porquillian was gazing thoughtfully at the great statue, and a pleased snarl rumbled from his chest.
"You want to spray? All right. You can spray, poor little monkey. But you will have to do it on him. And the rat pointed its sword at the statue.
I almost refused. Not on him, I thought. The face on the statue seemed so wise and gracious. But I longed for the brief rest and relief.
I staggered after Porquillian down a side-road that led right to the statue. The road was less kept than the other, and weeds poked through the stones.
The walk took longer than I thought it would, and the statue was much larger than I realized. I had never seen a statue so massive. The leaves of the vines that grew all over it were as big as me, or bigger. And the statue was on a giant stone platform. As we drew closer, I saw that the platform and statue nestled against a large lake.
The waters of the lake were dark and sad, like something beautiful that had been spoiled. It reminded me of a time when I saw bad words spray-painted on an old, pretty church. But some workmen painted over those bad words. This wide lake seemed like it had been left spoiled for a very long time.
But the right hand of the statue wasn't reaching for the ground after all. It was open and pointed toward the water of the lake, as if ready to scoop up some water. The eyes on the statue's face looked thoughtful and serene.
"Who was he?" I asked, for the moment forgetting who I was speaking to.
But Porquillian did not hit me that time. "A heap of dung!" the rat answered. After that, I kept my silence.
"This is it," Porquillian growled when we reached the base of the platform. "Go on. Pay your respects!" My captor made a grumbling, laughing sound.
There were steps to climb. They were crumbled and uneven at first, but got better preserved as I got near the top. Once there, I walked past the right knee and to the huge left foot of the statue. I looked all around. I could see for miles now that the fog had partly cleared.
To my right was the ever-present wall of the fortress. Straight ahead the lake stretched on for some way, and beyond there was some kind of stone building. It was ominous and dark. Beyond that there were hills, and then the faint outline of the wall curving around. To my left, on the far bank of the lake, there was a ruined city. The ruins were beautiful but nothing moved within the crumbling walls. I could not see much beyond it except the faint outline of the encircling fortress wall. Behind me, there were seemingly endless fields and wooden buildings and mice moving to and fro. If I could have seen far enough, I would have seen the south wall of the huge fortress.
"Hurry up!" I could not see Porquillian, but I could hear the impatience in its snarl.
I stood behind the statue's heel and prepared to relieve myself. I glanced up and saw the kind face looking down at me. I felt so guilty. "I'm so sorry," I whispered.
When I was finished I stared longingly at the huge berries far out of my reach. I was very thirsty, and I wondered if they were juicy.
"Come on, you flatfaced roll of dried snot. Get down here now!"
I wondered why the rat hadn't climbed up with me in the first place. But I did not want him any angrier. I turned around and headed back to the edge of the platform.
But as soon as I turned, a wonderful thing appeared. On the western side of the statue's bent right knee (the side I did not see when I walked to the left heel), there was a crevice among all the huge vines and leaves. And in the crevice there grew a single giant wineberry. It was within reach. I ran to it.
The berry as as big as a beachball, and the bulges that held the seeds were as big as apples. I reached for one of these, twisting it off the berry. Red juice ran down my arm. I hesitated for a second, wondering if it might be poisonous. But since being poisoned was probably far better than whatever else lay ahead for me, I sank my teeth into it.
It was sweet and very juicy. I felt it run down my chin. I half-ate, half-drank the rest of what was in my hand, and the fog all around me seemed to diappear completely. Or maybe it was the fog in my mind. I was a little less afraid, and very refreshed.
There was a large seed left in my hand. I put it in my pocket, next to the walnut shell.
Porquillian called out again, but no longer in a shout. Its voice was low and menacing. "If you do not come back down right now, I will make you wish you had never been born."
That was enough for me. I ran to the edge of the platform and down the steps. Porquillian stood in place with venom in its eyes. Its two good arms were folded, but its four shrivelled, deformed stumps waved madly and its clawed toes kept extending and contracting, scraping against the stone underfoot.
"Sorry!" I yelled. "It just took a while. I'm ready now."
But when I came close to the rat, its eyes grew wide and its whole demeanor changed.
"What is that red stain on your snout?" It little more than whispered.
I tried to think of a way to answer that would not get me killed.
"Oh, I stole a berry from that dung heap of a statue. I thought you would like that."
But Porquillian hardly seemed to hear me. It turned its feral head to the north and said, as if to itself, "The monkey has killed itself, then. And maybe me too. What have I done?"
Suddenly that strange, hissing rattle came again from the direction Porquillian was looking. It was a signal. It was a message from the Lady, whoever she was.
Bring him now, and you may be spared. That was the message. I shuddered.
"Follow or die," said Porquillian, matter-of-factly. Its shoulders slumped. The fight seemed to have left it.
We got back to the main road and headed north. We moved quickly, but not at the breakneck pace we did before. From the rat's reaction, I guessed that the berry must have been poisonous and that it was going to get in trouble for letting me eat it. It would also probably kill me. But I could not bring myself to regret eating the fruit. I still felt renewed.
Soon the road nearly skirted the east bank of the lake. For a long time we paralleled it. No other mice or rats were anywhere to be seen, and there were no buildings on the side of the road any more. When the lake ended, we turned left down a path and skirted the north edge of the lake. Ahead, I could see the stone building I had spied on the platform next to the statue. We were heading directly for it.
The stone building was not exactly a building at all. It was a rocky hill with very little of anything green growing on it. But on the side of the hill facing the lake, there was an opening surrounded by an enormous pillared facade. The stonework looked old but intact. It was also not the grey stone of the wall and the ruins I had seen so far. It had to be of a kind of black marble.
The rat walked slower and slower as we got closer to the opening. And just beside the opening was another of those "pinata well" contraptions. Sitting in front of it was a very ancient-looking, heavily tumored grey mouse.
A faint hiss came from the opening, and when it did the grey mouse took something in his hand that looked like a blackboard eraser, and rubbed it against the hanging "pinata" just so. A hissing sound resulted that replicated the hiss from the inside of the hill.
Enter the tombs now was the message.
Porquillian turned to the grey mouse in annoyance. "I heard it the first time," Porquillian said.
The grey mouse bared rotting teeth and expelled a whoosh of air. I almost gagged at the scent of decay. I wondered if it came from the "tombs" or from the mouse's breath.
It was the mouse. As we walked through the opening and into the tombs, it smelled pretty bad. But not that bad.
I really did not want to go into that hill. Porquillian's body language and silence showed he didn't want to go in either, and that only made me more nervouse. I wanted the whole day to be a dream. I wanted to wake up.
We stopped about twenty feet inside the opening. I could see pretty well. The day was getting on but there was still plenty of light coming through the opening to see everything around me. Ahead, shafts of light from above must have been from openings going up to the top of the hill.
The walls were all black marble. So was the floor and ceiling. There were some letters carved into the walls. I tried to read them but could not. Whatever magic helped me understand and speak languages apparently didn't work for the written word.
The hiss returned, louder.
"Both of you come closer," it said.
I looked into the long hallway ahead. Nothing was moving.
We slowly waked forward. Porquillian shuffled so slowly that he actually was behind me. His breathing was shallow. His eyes darted back and forth.
I saw indentations in the walls to my left and right. In these indentations were black marble coffins, inlaid with colors and more writing. But the coffins were all partly to completely destroyed. Many of them were crushed like an egg, and some looked as if they had been bashed with a sledghammer. Some of them had skeletal remains hanging out of them. Bones littered the floor.
Someone or something had desecrated these tombs. Something powerful and angry.
We kept walking until the marble hall opened up into a great cavern. There was less light there and a lot more space. The walls were more natural rock, and there was only blackness far ahead.
Stop, said the hiss.
We stopped. I heard a chattering next to me. It came from Porquillian's teeth.
Why did you bring him to the Carthalon, Porquillian? The hiss was very soft.
The rat-creature took a raspy breath. "I thought..."
Did you not remember what you were taught from the litter? Did you forget the curse of Doss Teeglan? "He who drinks Carthalo's blood--"
"I...I didn't think--"
I'm hungry, Porquillian.
A squeal of terror came from the mostrous rat. It turned and fled back the way we had come. Before I could decide whether to turn and run too, something massive and scaly brushed past me, knocking me to the ground.
I sat and stared, paralyzed by the scene unfolding in front of me. What had knocked me over was an impossibly large snake, as big around as a small car and almost as long as the street I lived on. Part of it was still streaming past me. It was a rich, red-brown color with dark hourglass markings on its body. The little light that came in made some of the scales glisten like a new penny.
I looked to see what was happening with the rat, and soon wished I hadn't. Porquillian had fallen to the ground just as the snake caught up with him. It struck, and soon its mouth had him feet-first. He was in the snake all the way up to his shoulders. Te incoherent squealing and shrieking was unbearable and I put my hands over my ears. I shut my eyes.
In a few minutes there were no more sounds and I came to my senses. I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head. The great snake was coiled up not fifty feet from me. It was blocking the exit. It was looking right at me.
I stood and faced it, my lip quivering.
"Do I have to die too?" I asked, weakly.
The snake made no sound or move. Could it be sleeping?
"I...I'm sorry I ate that fruit. I'm sorry about everything. I didn't mean to do anything wrong."
Still it gazed unnervingly at me.
"I promise not to hurt you," I said.
The snake hissed at that. There was no meaning to it that time. It was just a hiss.
"Can I - can I go home? Usher said--"
As soon as I mentioned the name "Usher" the giant snake began to uncoil and move towards me. I saw its mouth open. Two giant fangs presented themselves. It hadn't used its fangs on Porquillian. I wondered whether death would be quicker if I was pierced with a fang.
I turned and ran into the blackness of the cave.
Soon I was running blindly. I kept falling down. Every time I did I expected to be gobbled up like Porquillian. Each time I managed to get up. Then, there was a good stretch where I could almost sprint, but behind me I could hear a scraping sound and a low hiss. It was getting closer. It was almost upon me. I thought I felt a tongue flicking on the back of my neck.
A blinding light appeared in front of me and I saw a girl. She was a teenager with very pale skin and red-brown hair softly falling down her shoulders. She was dressed in green, like her eyes.
"Stop, Lady! Do not harm him! Let him be!" she shouted, her palm outstretched.
There was a furious hissing behind me. I stopped and turned to see the red snake twisting madly but with its eyes locked firmly on the girl's. They fought a test of wills.
Finally, the snake calmed and slithered back several yards.
This time, little prisoner it hissed. This time. It coiled again and was silent.
"The Lady will not hurt you, for now," said the girl.
"Thank you," I said. I never meant it more. "Thank you for saving my life."
She smiled.
I walked closer to her and her smile faded. Something seemed wrong. It looked as though she was behind something, like a thick pane of glass.
I stopped. She was not behind glass. She was behind the rock wall of the cave. It was as if the rock had turned to ice and I was looking at her through it. I reached out and touched the rock. It was not cold like ice. She was trapped behind the rock.
"So now you know how I was made prisoner," the girl said.
"Can I--" I began, then lowered my voice to a whisper, "Can I help you get out?"
"Maybe, someday. What is your name?" she asked.
"Tim."
"Just Tim?"
"Timothy Daniel McFadden," I said. "But everyone calls me Tim." I decided to leave out that my family still called me "Timmy", for what I hope are obvious reasons.
"Tim," she said. I liked the way she said my name.
"I'm Ari," she said.
"Just Ari?" I asked, and thought myself rather clever for thinking of it.
"Yes, for now," she said seriously. I no longer felt clever.
"Who put you here?" I asked.
"People from a very long time ago. I haven't spoken to a human being in seven hundred twelve years."
"Oh my gosh I'm sorry," I said. "You don't look that old."
She shrugged. "I don't feel it either. I don't feel anything, trapped in the rock. It isn't even like really being alive."
"Why did they put you here?" I asked.
"Can I see the stile?" she asked, changing the subject.
My hand quickly felt the outside of my pocket. "How do you know about that?"
"You are speaking my language, from my own home kingdom in Kinoth over the mountains. No one in Elkwater knew that language even seven hundred years ago, except..." She paused. "And you can only get into the fortress from another world, not from this world. So the - the Usher must have been careless."
"It was my fault. I didn't follow instructions like my brother did."
"Your brother?"
"Yes, we each have a stile, but only one of us was supposed to make it here. He got here first. I figured it out later, but not in the right place."
"So there are two of you," said Ari. Almost to herself she said, "That complicates things."
She looked into my eyes. "Show me the stile, please." But it sounded more like a command than a request.
I took out the walnut shell from my pocket. When I did, the giant wineberry seed fell to the ground. Ari saw it fall.
"You should not have eaten that berry," she said. "It will kill you unless we do something about it."
I almost answered that I'd rather die of poison than of old age in a dark cave. But right at that moment, being in a dark cave talking to Ari did not seem like such a terrible thing.
"You can cure me?"
"Maybe," she said. "Let me see that stile. hold it closer."
I held it up and to the wall. The snake - the Lady - behind me stirred. I did not look at it, but kept my eyes on Ari. She had freckles on her arms.
"A walnut this time," she said. "Interesting." Then she stopped looking at the stile and looked at me. "I think I can help you. Before I was made into a prisoner I was a powerful mage. I still have powers, but they are very limited. I can cure the poison in you, and I think I can get you out of here to join your brother."
"To find a king?"
She smiled. "Yes, that's right. But you must listen to me. It is very important that you find a king first, before your brother does. If you do, if in the end you win, then maybe you can get me out of here. And that will make me so happy. In fact, I will get all my powers back and I will use them to help...to help the King. And I will reward you very much."
She seemed so nice. But something made me hesitate. I didn't say anything.
She seemed to take a step back, further behind the rock. Then she stepped forward again. "Tim, they put me in prison because I did some bad things back then. But a lot of time has passed and I am very sorry that I did those things. That's why I saved you from the Lady. That's why I am going to save you from that poison. That's why I am going to help you out of here. Will you also promise to help me?"
After she put it that way, it was hard to refuse. And she was so pretty. "Yes," I said. "Yes I will."
"Good. Follow me."
I wondered how she could go anywhere since she was trapped behind the rock, but to my amazement she glided along the wall of the cave from the other side. I moved along next to her, staring.
She led me to a passageway and told me to turn down it. My way was lit as long as she was next to me, shining out from the cave wall. Then I heard movement behind me.
"I think the Lady is following us," I said nervously.
"Yes," said Ari. "But do not worry. I will keep her from harming you."
"OK," I said. But I was still nervous.
Finally we came to a farly large cavern. It smelled terrible, like a septic tank. I coughed.
"I know this smells terrible," she said, "And looks terrible. Bt your cure is here."
I looked around and almost ran right back out. I could see scattered bones and skulls that obviously came from rats and mice. All the giant snake digested had been deposited in this room. I could hear it behind me.
"I'm scared," I said.
"Don't be," said Ari. Look along the far wall. Can you see that long piece of what looks like cloth?"
"I think so."
"Go to it, Tim."
I walked over to the shroudlike cloth. It was like a giant narrow blanket. I picked it up. It was nearly transparent, and felt like crinkly plastic or thick onionskin.
It was shedded snakeskin. I dropped it.
"Tim, listen to me. The antidote to the berry poision is in the snakeskin. You must eat a piece."
"No!" I said. "The snake is right behind me. It will make her angry!"
"No, Tim. I'll protect you. Tear off a piece and eat it. It will keep you from dying."
I closed my eyes. I remembered...something.
"There was a man on a plane," I said. "It was when we were going to the farm."
"Tim--" said Ari, impatiently.
"I thought I was dreaming. He said be careful of snakes."
"It probably was a dream," I heard Ari say behind me.
"And he said...'especially pretty ones'." And I looked at Ari.
She stared at me, penetratingly. "Maybe he was right. You should be careful of snakes. Tim, if you die of this berry poison, I won't be able to prevent the Lady from devouring your body. And then you will be mixed in with that pile of bones in the corner there."
I swallowed hard. I hadn't thought of that.
"And the Lady is pretty, for a snake. She is the the prettiest - and most dangerous - snake in the world. I am trying to save you from her."
I was confused.
"Tim. I am trying...to...help...you."
I looked down at the snakeskin. "How much of it do I have to eat?"
Ari sighed with relief. "I am not sure. Tear off a decent amount just in case."
I tore at the snakeskin. It was very tough. I struggled for a moment and finally had to use my teeth. I had a piece the sice of a lemon.
"Now just eat it," said Ari. The Lady is immune to poison. I have magically enhanced the curative effects in the shed skin so that you also will be immune, at least for today. But you must eat it."
I closed my eyes and put the snakeskin in my mouth. It had no taste. I expected it to be rubbery and hard to chew, since I could barely tear it, but I had no trouble with it. It was like eating unflavored meringue.
But in a moment, I felt a terrible pain in my left side, in my lower abdomen. I doubled over and cried out.
"Don't wory about the pain," Ari said placidly. "The skin is fighting the poison, that's all."
I lay on the floor of the cave in agony for a very long time. Ari would occasionally speak to me, comfortingly. But I think hours went by before the pain subsided.
When I was no longer gasping with pain, I nearly dozed off. But Ari said, "You need to get up now."
"But--"
"Now is your chance for escape."
She led me out of the horrible room and down another passageway. We walked for a very long time.
"How long is this cave?" I asked.
Ari did not answer.
After some time, she stopped. "I can go no further," she said.
"Why not?"
"I am imprisoned behind the four walls of the giant fortress by a strong spell. We are now directly under the outer edge of the fortress. You must go on without me."
"But I don't have any light!"
"You don't need any. Crawl on your knees until you get to a pool of water. DO NOT go into that pool. You will only drown. Circle around it halfway and continue until you reach a second, smaller pool. Dive into this pool headfirst and swim where it leads you. When it opens up a few feet away go to the surface and swim to the nearest shore of the Megalos River. Get up immediately and walk perpendicular to the river until you get away from the marshy area. You will then be safe, reasonably. I think."
She repeated the instructions to me several times until I could repeat them back.
"One more thing," said Ari. "I'm putting a spell on you so you cannot tell anyone what happened to you inthe fortress, or even that you were here at all. It is for your protection. If they suspect you were in here, I've no doubt they will kill you. So don't be surprised if you can't speak of it."
"But--"
"And when you swim into the river, don't worry about the eels coming at you. The stile will protect you. They won't bother you as long as you have the stile. DO NOT ever lose your stile, nor give it away to anyone. Ever. If you do, terrible things will happen. Do you understand?"
"I--"
"Good. Be safe, Timothy Daniel McFadden. I am certin we will meet again."
"If--"
GO!
I continued down the path on my feet until Aria's light faded, then went down on my hands and knees as she instructed. In a fairly short time my hands went into wetness, and I remembered to circle around the pool. But I did not know how far was halfway, and got very confused. I thought about going back, but wasn't sure how far around the pool I had come. I could see nothing. I made a guess, and kept crawling.
After what seemed like a long time, I felt wetness again. The second pool, I thought. But it was small...very small. I could feel the other side of it. I plunged my arm into it. It did seem deep. But it was barely wide enough for my whole body to fit in. If it was wrong, I would not be able to turn myself around.
I sat there at the edge of the little pool and cried and cried. All the day's events surged through my mind, and I sobbed like never before in my life. When I could not cry any more, I only felt a dulness. My left side still hurt from the poison. My hip hurt from Porquillian's sword. My chin hurt from the falls on the tower stairs. I felt the wetness of the little pool again.
Suddenly, without another thought, I plunged in. It was a tight squeeze, but I swam down a narrow underwater tunnel until I thought my lungs would burst. Then, there was open space. Up, up I swam. I felt eyes upon me, and slithery things against my skin The eels, I thought. But I had no thoughts for them. I only wanted to get to the surface.
I did get to the surface. I broke through into air and I gulped in the precious oxygen like never before. It was dark, though two moons were overhead. I heard waves lapping against a shore and I made for that sound, trying to keep my head above water. I was always a good underwater swimmer but never mastered fully the trick of keeping my head up. My arms were tired. My legs stoped kicking. The shore was further away than I thought. My legs began to sink.
But I felt mud under my feet as they sank. I trudged to shore, and fell on my face. My side began to throb and I remembered Aria telling me I had to get up and walk. But I could not walk.
My last thought was that I had left the wineberry seed on the cave floor near the terrible snake. Then the darkness overcame me.
(Chapter End)
Chapter 4 will be titled "Far More in the Tale" (Heigh-ho-the merry-o) |
© Copyright 2006 Basilides (UN: basilides at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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