Quest for the King (15 page)

"They cannot have seen us yet," Alleophaz panted, "and they must
proceed more slowly than we do, because they must search as they
advance." They reached the rock face, and the blue column led them
up the sloping ledge. The torches fell further back, and the sounds faded as they climbed the cliff.

But as they reached the top, they were stunned to see no cabin
there. All they could see-and that only dimly-was the outline of a
doorway. There was no balcony, no rail, no cabin. The blue column
was beside the door frame. The outline of the sleeping Gerachti could
barely be seen on the ground.

"Help me rouse him," Alleophaz cried. It was not easy, for the
powder had had powerful effects. Somehow they got him, mumbling
incoherently like a drunk, to his feet. The blankets of his bedroll fell
round his feet, and Wesley scooped them up in his arms. Alleophaz,
with the stumbling Gerachti leaning heavily on him, moved toward
the door frame. Wesley followed him.

Suddenly there was a loud yell behind them, a yell of triumph.
"They are here, men! They are here! I have them!" Turning, Wesley
saw the sergeant coming over the top of the cliff, his face shining
more with astonishment and exultation than with torchlight. Wesley
could not imagine how he had arrived so quickly.

Alleophaz dragged the helpless Gerachti through the door frame
and vanished. Wesley tripped over the end of the blankets he was
carrying and dived after him.

Silence wrapped itself round them.

In the morning, once again the table had been laid for them and
breakfast prepared by unseen hands. A bowl of hot cereal lay steaming in its center, and beside the bowl a large plate of crisp-crusted
buns. There was also coffee, cream, butter, honey and marmalade.
Wesley sighed with contentment.

"Where is Gerachti?" Alleophaz asked Belak.

"He is in a bad way, my lord. He is standing facing the door that
leads outside. He neither moves nor speaks when I address him. He
just stands, staring at the door in a sort of stupor. Shall I try to bring
him here?"

"No, do not bother. He will not eat. We will just manage him the
best we can." Alleophaz looked hard at Kurt. "Keep out of his way,
Kurt. Try to ignore him. I do not think anything will happen-but
watch out"

They sat down, and Wesley saw that Lisa was wearing jodhpurs. "I found them in the closet in my room last night," she said.

Alleophaz had been trying not to stare at her. "The women in our
country wear garments of that sort," he said. "They are not quite like
what you are wearing-but of much lighter material, and not tight
round the calves, but loose."

"These are for riding," Lisa said. "I don't like riding side-saddle. I
only had one lesson in it, an' that was years ago at a fancy girls' school
in Switzerland when we lived there. So I never learned." She began
to pour coffee. "There's no sugar. You'll have to use honey."

"We had quite a time last night," Wesley said.

"Oh, yes!" Alleophaz joined in. "We have not told them about it yet,
have we? Wesley and I went down the road while the rest of you were
asleep last night."

Between them they told the story of their adventure, and the animated conversation and questioning that followed drove the matter
of Gerachti's strange behavior from their minds, holding their interest
through cereal, buns, marmalade and coffee.

"An' when we stumbled through that door frame," said Wesley, "I
suddenly realized the explanation of the 'bigger on the inside' phenomenon."

"How d'you mean?" Kurt asked.

"Well, you know how Uncle John describes the Gaal trees (by the
way, I hope we get to see one) and how Chocma's cottage-and this
place-turned out to be a palace inside, but only little on the outside?"

Kurt and Lisa nodded, while Belak and Alleophaz looked on with
obvious interest. Wesley continued, "Well, I was too tired to think
about it last night, but I've been doing a lot of thinking this morning.
The first time we were in Anthropos we rode reindeer at one point,
and we took refuge in a tower on a hill. There was an opening at the
top of the tower, and a space. We sat round the rim of it-remember?"

Again, Kurt and Lisa nodded. Alleophaz stopped eating, and laid
his knife and his bun on the plate, watching Wesley with his mouth
half open.

"The hole we sat around was the hole 'where time is no more.' "

Again the two children nodded.

"I think," Wesley continued, "that when we all came through the
doorway we passed out of time, and into another dimension, another
sort of space, space where time no longer exists."

"You mean-that we touch the Eternal Now?" Alleophaz asked. "It
is an interesting thought."

Wesley frowned. "Yes, I think I do. There's still a whole lot I don't
understand. But it's as though when we are in Gaal's presence-an'
I keep feeling we're in his presence here-we're no longer trapped
in time, but sort of released from it. Space and time are somehow
linked."

A stillness fell on the group, and for some time nobody spoke.
Finally Lisa said, "That was a lovely breakfast. More coffee, anyone?"

But nobody wanted more. Slowly they all rose, and the children
made their way into the stable, where Gerachti still stood facing the
doorway. They pretended they did not notice him. Carefully the children loaded the mules and saddled the horses, taking care to cinch
the straps for the saddles properly.

Wesley was very conscious of Gerachti's still and silent figure at the
door, and wondered at Alleophaz's warning to Kurt over breakfast. "I
hope Kurt's not in any danger," he thought. "I wonder what Alleophaz was thinking of when he said that."

Just then Alleophaz and Belak returned, wearing heavy capes and
strange felt hats. Belak carried another cape and hat that Wesley
supposed was for Gerachti. Then he noticed similar capes and hats
hanging from hooks in their own horses' stalls. "Perhaps we are
meant to put them on," he thought. Aloud he said, "Let us take the
capes and hats. There was a red sky outside earlier on."

Belak was standing beside Gerachti, his face anxious and uncertain.
"Here-I have a cape for you," he said, holding it out tentatively.
"Here-put it on, Gerachti." Gerachti remained silent and still, his
eyes on the door. Belak's short and tubby frame, his strange uncertainty, contrasted with the tense stillness of Gerachti's tall figure. Carefully he reached up on tiptoe and tried gently to place the cape around Gerachti's shoulders, but instantly and with a violent shrug
Gerachti shook it off and it fell on the floor.

"Leave it," Alleophaz said. "Or carry it on your own horse. He may
be glad of it later."

"He's more like an animal than a human being," Wesley thought
to himself. Kurt and Lisa pretended to notice nothing amiss. They
were leading two horses from the stalls, one of which was Gerachti's.
Wesley pushed the door open and instantly Gerachti burst through
it, knocking Wesley aside in his haste.

Wesley recovered his balance and slipped cautiously out through
the door, wary of any soldiers waiting-but there was no sign of
anyone but themselves.

He took several strides outside, then stood still.

"Red sky at night

Shepherd's delight;

Red sky in morning

Shepherd's warning.

"Now we know why we have capes. Mebbe we're gonna have a
storm." Clouds threatened overhead, and the sky was sinister, glowering and intimidating.

Lisa led Gerachti's horse to him. She said nothing, and turned to
go back into the stables, only to discover that there was nothing to see
apart from the outline of a door frame, beyond which one could see
the forest and the stream they had crossed the previous night. Yet, as
she passed through the door frame, she was once again inside the
stable.

Alleophaz and Belak emerged, passing through the door frame. A
short distance away, just out of sight of the cabin, they found the
remains of a campfire. A pile of ashes and blackened, half-burned
logs lay heaped together. Alleophaz leaned over them and held out
the palm of his hand. "They are still warm. I wonder where the
soldiers are. They must have spent most of the night right here." He
looked around again. "Perhaps we had best get moving."

A wind had begun to blow, and the tops of the trees were swaying. As the children brought the last horse out, the door frame disappeared, leaving no trace of their night's lodging.

Gerachti had already mounted and was sitting erect, staring into
space. He and his horse looked like an equestrian statue. The rest
mounted-Wesley, Kurt and Lisa wearing the heavy capes and felt
hats from the stalls. Only Gerachti was without either, and Belak had
the cape in front of him on his saddle.

"The column of smoke is going across the stream-and back the
way we came last night," Kurt said.

"Well, lead on then," Alleophaz responded. "I can see nothing. I
imagine safety lies in following it, though I feel nervous, wondering
where the soldiers are. Surely they have not given up."

"Well, sir, remember what the captain said, warning the soldiers not
to go deeper than necessary into the forest," Wesley said.

Alleophaz said, "Hm! I had forgotten that. It is amazing they followed us as far as they did, or that they stayed here overnight. Perhaps
they have decided that discretion is better than valor."

He followed Kurt, and Wesley was about to follow after Alleophaz,
when Gerachti's horse pushed Wesley's horse aside. For the rest of
the day, Gerachti kept as close as he could to Alleophaz. Lisa trailed
Gerachti, with Wesley behind. Belak came last, urging the mules forward. Wesley smiled to himself. He, too, could still see the column of
smoke and see it clearly, but he said nothing.

The sound of wind in the treetops became gusty, increasing steadily
in intensity. Rain began to fall in large drops. As they passed the
spring, Kurt followed the trail that led off to the right. They were still
moving in the general direction of the Anthropos frontier and the city
of Bamah.

All day long they continued much as they had the previous day,
ascending and descending, twisting and turning, dismounting when
they had to. They found no traces of the soldiers, and might as well
have been alone in the world.

The storm grew progressively more violent about them. Lightning
flashed and thunder crashed louder than the roaring wind, the sound amplified in the gullies they crossed from time to time. At first the
trees afforded them some shelter from the rain, but soon it began to
drip from the branches, and later to stream from them. They were
glad of the capes, which grew heavier as the day wore on.

All were conscious of Gerachti, and they stole glances at him from
time to time. Always he sat erect and dazed, rain streaming from his
black hair and beard. He was soaked to the skin and shivering. Belak
had made renewed efforts to get him to wear the cape and hat, but,
coming out of his trance for a moment, Gerachti cursed, spat at Belak,
and flung hat and cloak into the mud at his horse's feet. Wesley saw
the gestures, but did not hear what was said for the howling of the
wind and the groans of bending trees. "The man is mad," he said to
himself.

At one point they descended to a bog and had to cross about a
hundred yards where the larger clumps of grass and weed formed
what looked like islands of safety in a wide lake of foul-smelling and
treacherous mud. The blue-gray column of smoke stopped at each
small island of safety, waiting until Kurtjoined it there before it proceeded to the next safe clump. Kurt dismounted, leading his horse,
retaining the reins and encouraging it to jump to the clump on which
he then stood. It was obvious that the crossing was perilous, and that
it would take time for them to cross in safety.

Once Kurt gained the third clump, Alleophaz dismounted and
coaxed his horse onto the second. The horses themselves seemed
afraid, their ears flattening and the whites of their eyes showing.