Quest for Lost Heroes (16 page)

'It is beautiful,' said Kiall. 'I have always enjoyed the sunset.'

'You are a romantic,' stated Chareos.

'Is that bad?'

'No, it is the best way to live. I felt that way once - and I was never happier.' Chareos stood and stretched his back. 'Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise.'

'I shall. Tell me, do you like Beltzer?'

Chareos laughed aloud and the sound, rich and full of good humour, echoed in the valley. 'No one likes Beltzer,' he said. 'Least of all Beltzer.'

Then why do you have him with you? Why did Finn buy his axe?'

'You are the dreamer, Kiall. You tell me.'

'I don't know. I can't imagine. He is so gross; his speech is vile, and he doesn't understand friendship or loyalty.'

Chareos shook his head. 'Don't judge him by his words, my friend. If I was standing alone down there in the valley, surrounded by a hundred Nadir warriors, and I called his name, he would come running. He would do the same for Finn, or Maggrig.'

'I find that hard to believe,' said Kiall.

'Let us hope you never see the proof of it.'

*

At dawn the next morning the questors moved north into the shadowed pine woods, following a deer trail that wound down to a shallow stream. This they waded across, climbing a short, steep slope to a clearing beyond. The wind gusted and an eerie, high-pitched scream echoed around them. Finn and Maggrig leapt from the trail, vanishing into the undergrowth. Beltzer lifted his axe from the sheath at his side, spat upon his hands, and waited. Chareos stood unmoving, hand on sword-hilt.

Kiall found his limbs trembling and suppressed the urge to turn and sprint from the clearing. The scream came again, an ululating howl that chilled the blood. Chareos walked on, Beltzer following. Sweat dripping into his eyes, Kiall could not bring himself to move. He sucked in a deep breath and forced himself forward.

At the centre of the clearing, some fifty paces away, stood a huge stone edifice and before it, on lances decorated with feathers and coloured stones, were two severed heads.

Kiall could not tear his eyes from the shrunken faces. The eye-sockets were empty, but the mouths trembled with each scream. Maggrig and Finn stepped back into view.

'Can we not stop that noise?' hissed Beltzer and Chareos nodded. He walked swiftly to the first lance and held his hand behind the severed head. The scream stopped instantly. Chareos lifted the head and placed it on the ground, then repeated the action with the second. All was silent now, save for the gusting wind. The other questors approached. Chareos squatted down and lifted the silent head, turning it in his hands. Taking his hunting-knife he plunged it deep through the scalp, peeling back the skin, which stretched impossibly before snapping clear of the wooden skull beneath. Chareos stood and lifted the wood to his lips - immediately the blood-curdling scream sounded. He tossed the object to Finn. 'It is merely a kind of flute,' said the former monk. 'The winds enter through the three holes in the base, and the reeds set in the mouth supply the sound. But it is beautifully crafted.' Stooping, he gathered the skin, lifting it by the hair. 'I do not know what this is,' he said, 'but it is not human flesh. See, the hair has been stitched in place.'

Kiall picked up the second head and looked closely at it. It was difficult to know now why it had inspired such fear. He turned it. The wind whistled through it and a low moan came out. Kiall jumped and dropped the head, cursing himself even as the others laughed.

Chareos moved on to the edifice. There were two stone pillars, twelve feet high and three feet square, covered with an engraved script he did not recognise. An enormous lintel sat above the pillars, creating the impression of a gateway. Chareos squatted before it, running his eyes over the script.

Kiall moved around to the rear. There are symbols here,' he said, 'and the stone seems a different colour. Whiter, somehow ..." He stepped forward.

'Stop!' yelled Chareos. 'Do not attempt to pass through.'

'Why?' Kiall asked.

Chareos picked up a round pebble. 'Catch this,' he said, tossing it through the opening. Kiall opened his hands, but the stone vanished from sight. 'Throw one to me,' commanded the Blademaster. Kiall obeyed. Again the pebble disappeared.

'Well, do we go through?' asked Beltzer.

'Not yet,' Chareos told him. 'Tell me again all that Okas told you of the Gateway.'

'There was precious little. It leads to another world. That is all.'

'Did he not say it leads to many worlds?'

'Yes,' admitted Beltzer, 'but we do not know how the magic works.'

'Exactly,' said Chareos. 'Did Okas give an indication of when he would pass through the Gateway. Daytime, midnight, sunset?'

'Not as I recall. Is it important?'

'Did he say which side he entered, north or south?'

'No. Let's just go through and see what we find,' urged Beltzer.

Chareos stood. 'Take my hand, and hold to it tightly. Count to five, then draw me back.' He moved to the entrance and held out his arm. Beltzer gripped his wrist and Chareos leaned forward, his head slowly disappearing from view. Beltzer felt the body sag - he did not count, but dragged Chareos back. The Blademaster's face was white, and ice had formed on his moustache; his lips were blue with cold. Beltzer laid him down on the grass, while Finn began rubbing at the frozen skin. After a while Chareos' eyes opened; he stared angrily at Beltzer.

'I said count to five,' he said. 'Not five thousand.'

'You were in there for only a few heartbeats,' Finn told him. 'What did you see?'

'Heartbeats? It was an hour at least on the other side. I saw nothing, save snow and ice blizzards. Not a sign of life. And there were three moons in the sky.' He sat up.

'What can we do?' asked Beltzer.

'Build a fire. I'll think on it. But tell me everything you can remember about Okas and his tribe. Everything.'

Beltzer squatted down on the grass beside Chareos. 'It's not a great deal, Blademaster. I never had much of a memory for detail. They call themselves the People of the World's Dream, but I don't know what that means. Okas tried to explain it to me, but I lost hold of it - the words roared around my head like snowflakes. I think they see the world as a living thing, like an enormous god. But they worship a one-eyed goddess called the Huntress, and they see the moon as her blind eye. The sun is her good eye. That's all.'

Finn lit the fire and joined the two men. 'I have seen them,' he said. 'In the mountains. They move at night - hunting, I think.'

'Then we will wait for moonlight,' said Chareos. 'Then we shall try again.'

The hours passed slowly. Finn cooked a meal of venison, the last of the choice cuts he had taken from the deer killed the previous evening. Beltzer wrapped himself in his blankets and slept, his hand on his axe. Kiall wandered away from the fire, walking to the crest of a nearby hill. There he sat down alone and thought of Ravenna, picturing the surge of joy she would feel when he rode to her. He shivered, and depression struck him like a blow. Would he ever ride to her? And if he did would she just laugh, as she had laughed before? Would she point to her new husband and say, 'He is my man. He is strong, not a dreamer like you'?

A sound came from behind and Kiall turned to see Finn walking towards him. 'You wish to be alone?' asked Finn.

'No, not at all.'

Finn sat down and stared over the rugged countryside. 'This is a beautiful land,' he said, 'and it will remain so until people discover it and build their towns and cities. I could live here until my dying day - and never regret it.'

'Maggrig told me you hated city life,' said Kiall. The hunter nodded.

'I don't mind the endless stone and brick - it's the people. After Bel-azar we were dragged from city to city so that crowds could gawp at us. You would have thought we were gods at the very least. We all hated it - save Beltzer. He was in a kind of Heaven. Chareos was the first to say, "No more". One morning he just rode away.'

'He has had a sad life, I understand,' said Kiall.

'Sad? In what way?'

'His wife. Beltzer told me about it.'

'Beltzer has a big mouth, and a man's private business should remain so. I saw her in New Gulgothir three years ago. She is happy at last.'

'She is dead,' said Kiall. 'She became a street whore and killed herself.'

Finn shook his head. 'Yes, Beltzer told me that but it's not true. She was a whore, but she married a merchant - bore him three sons. As far as I know they are still together. She told me she had seen Beltzer - it was the lowest point of her life. That I can believe. Every time I see Beltzer I feel the same way. No, Beltzer heard of a whore who drowned and the rest was wishful thinking. She was happy when I saw her - for the first time in her life. I was pleased for her.'

'You did not hate her, then?'

'Why should I hate her?' asked Finn.

'She betrayed Chareos,' Kiall answered.

'She was sold to him by her father. She never loved him. She was fey and high-spirited - reminded me of a fawn I saw once. I was hunting and the creature saw me. It did not recognise a bow or a hunter, it had no fear. When I stood with bow bent, it trotted towards me. I dropped the arrow and the fawn nuzzled my hand. Then it went its way. Tura was like that. A fawn in search of a hunter.'

'You liked her, then?'

Finn said nothing but stood and walked back down the hill. The sun was setting, and a ghostly moon could be seen shimmering behind the clouds.

*

Chareos waited as the moon rose higher. Silver light bathed the clearing and the ancient stone Gateway shimmered and gleamed like cold iron. He stood and rolled his head, stretching the muscles of shoulder and neck, trying to ease the tension born of fear. Something deep within him flickered, a silent voice urging him to beware. He sensed himself on the verge of a journey that would take him where he did not want to go, on pathways dark and perilous. There were no words of warning, merely a feeling of cold dread.

'Are you ready then?' asked Beltzer. 'Or would you like me to try it?'

Chareos did not reply. He walked to the Gateway and held out his arm. Beltzer gripped his wrist as he leaned forward, half his body disappearing. Seconds later he drew back.

'I do not know if that is the place, but it fits the description. There is jungle beyond. The sun is bright.' He swung towards Maggrig and Finn. 'I need only Beltzer with me. The rest of you should stay here and await our return.'

'I get bored just sitting,' said Finn. 'We'll come with you.'

Chareos nodded. 'Then let us go, before good sense can assert itself.'

He turned - and was gone from sight. Beltzer followed him, Maggrig and Finn stepped through together. Kiall found himself alone in the clearing. His heart was beating wildly and fear surged through him. For several heartbeats he stood rooted and then, with a wild cry, he leapt through the Gateway - cannoning into Beltzer's back and sprawling to the mud-covered trail. Beltzer swore, leaned down and hoisted Kiall to his feet. Kiall smiled apologetically and looked around. Huge trees festooned with vines surrounded them. Plants with leaves like spears, and heavy purple flowers, grew at their bases. The heat was oppressive and the questors began to sweat heavily in their winter clothes. But what impressed Kiall most was the smell - overpowering and cloying, decaying vegetation mixed with the musky scent of numberless flowers, plants and fungoid growths. A throaty roar sounded from some distance to their left, answered by a cacophony of chittering cries in the trees above them. Small, dark creatures with long tails leapt from branch to branch, or swung on vines.

'Are they demons?' whispered Beltzer.

No one answered him. Chareos looked back at the Gateway. On this side it shone like silver and the runic script was smaller, punctuated by symbols of the moon and stars. He gazed up at the sun.

'It is near noon here,' he said. 'At noon tomorrow we will make our way back. Now, I would suggest we follow this trail and see if we can locate a village. What do you think, Finn?'

'It is as good an idea as any. I will mark the trail, in case any should become lost.' Finn drew his hunting-knife and carved an arrow-head pointing at the gateway. Beside it he sliced the number 10. 'That represents paces. I will swing a wide circle around our trail, marking trunks in this manner. If we do become separated, seek out the signs.' Aware that Finn was directing his remarks to him, Kiall nodded.

The group set off warily, following a meandering trail for almost an hour. In that time Finn disappeared often, moving to the left and reappearing from the right. The small, dark creatures in the trees travelled with them, occasionally dropping to the lower branches, where they hung from their tails and screeched at the newcomers. Birds with glorious plumages of red and green and blue sat on tree-limbs preening their feathers with curved beaks.

At the end of the hour Chareos called a halt. The heat was incredible and their clothes were soaked with perspiration. 'We are travelling roughly south-east,' Chareos told Kiall. 'Remember that.'