Quest for the King (21 page)

The canoers made rapid progress, though they had to paddle furiously against the slow current while watching for rocks jutting from the
water. As the most proficient canoer, Lisa steered from the back of
the smaller canoe and led them after the blue light ahead. Unaccustomed to canoe travel, and still fearing pursuit, Alleophaz and Belak
gripped the sides of the canoe as Kurt and Wesley paddled hard.
However, Gerachti (with Lisa in the smaller boat) scorned to show
fear, though he sat as strained and stiff as the other two.

Darkness wrapped a heavy blanket around them all. A bizarre illusion seized their minds-it seemed to them that nothing existed but
the column and themselves. River banks, trees and pursuers faded
from their thoughts, leaving only the nightmare sense of peril behind.
They could see nothing. Even rocks did not appear until the last
moment, and Lisa could anticipate their approach only because of the
column's movements. Then rocks would briefly emerge from oblivion, only to glide swiftly and smoothly behind.

Lisa's steering and paddling gradually became mechanical, though
she never slackened pace. Soon she became dreamy, her arms moving
automatically and effortlessly, the canoe simply sliding through the
slick black waters.

"Where does this river arise?" Lisa asked drowsily at one point.

Gerachti replied, "Some maps call it the White Rure-white, I suppose, because of the rapids in its earlier course-others, the Alloway.
According to the maps we consulted it springs from several sources
in the mountains of northern Anthropos. What some people call the
Black Rure, and others the River Nachash, joins it by turning a sharp
corner some distance into Anthropos, where the White Rure joins the
Black."

Slowly they grew used to their ride through the stillness of the night,
the only sounds being those of the dipping paddles and the occasional gurgling of the water sweeping past. Lisa grew steadily more confident of the safety of following the blue column. There was no sign
of pursuit, and as they continued, hour following hour, weariness
began to steal into their limbs. The men soon joined them in their
efforts, for there were enough paddles for everyone, and though canoeing was new to the older men, they imitated the children and were
soon doing well.

Yet before too long they all had to force themselves to keep their
eyes from closing and their heads from nodding. Finally, and with
great relief, they saw the blue column of fire leave the river and lead
them to a long, broad beach on the east bank.

Once they were on shore again the craving for sleep became too
powerful to fight any longer. Alleophaz urged them to eat a little food,
but they would have none of it. They wearily dragged the blankets of
their bedrolls from the larger canoe and settled themselves as well as
they could on the sandy beach. Sleep quickly overcame them, conquering even their fear of pursuit.

In the darkness they failed to see the wide track that came through
the forest to the very place where they slept. Nor did they see further along the beach the dock of a ferry, and a rope connecting it to the
far bank of the river. The place the blue column had chosen for them
to sleep was apparently a place of extreme danger-yet it was the
place to which the blue column had led them, and safety consisted
in following it.

Eventually the gray dawn broke, and the outlines of tree-lined
banks emerged from the blackness. Slowly light stole across the sky,
and the sun climbed into a blue and cloudless sky. As the early morning hours passed, Lisa dreamed of a blinding light that she could not
evade. In her dream she had been found by soldiers, who were shining a light in her face, a light so powerful that they themselves could
not be seen. She woke, hot and sweaty, to find powerful sunlight
pouring over her. "Oh, no!" she muttered. "It must be nearly noon!"

Unreasoning terror gripped her, and a bothered expression crossed
her face. "Didn't I just dream something awful? What was it about?"
she asked herself. But what was the dream? What had she dreamed?
Strive as she might she could remember nothing of it. Her dream had
evaporated, dissolved in the suddenness of her waking, so that she
was left with terror but with no reason for it. She stared at the river
and at the sunlight dancing dazzlingly on one section of it. Then as
she rose to her feet she saw with a start the smoky column in midriver, as if it were impatient for them to get moving. "Hey, everybody!"
she found herself shouting. "Wake up! Wake up, everybody! The
column is on the river!"

One by one they struggled into wakefulness, the two boys grumbling under their breath, and the men's mussed hair adding to an air
of general stupidity.

"Hey! Wake up, everybody. We've got to get moving!" Lisa cried.

"Oh, can it, Lisa! Give us a chance to wake up," Kurt grumbled.
"What's the hurry?"

Lisa did not know what the hurry was. Still gripped by the unexplained terror that woke her, she rapidly folded her blanket and threw
it into the larger canoe. Then, as she turned from the canoe, she saw what the darkness had hidden from her the night before. At the far
end of the beach a crude platform rested in the water. It was connected to a rope suspended above it, which linked in turn with a jetty at
the far side of the river. "A ferry-it must connect the old road with
the new!" she breathed. Though there was no sign of a ferryman, the
sight of the ferry greatly increased her sense of urgency.

And then she saw the road of beaten earth leading back into the
forest "Look!" she cried. "A road and a ferry!" While they had slept
they had been in the very place their enemies may have been aiming
to reach!

Alleophaz sprang to his feet, followed by Gerachti and Belak. "This
is no safe haven!" A note of alarm rang in Alleophaz's voice. "Into
the boats! We can eat later. The sooner we are away from here, the
better!"

They hurled their bedrolls into the canoes and began to launch
them, just as Gerachti cried, "I hear hoofbeats!" A moment later a
mounted group of armed men rounded a bend in the roadway, and
their burst of yelling and shouting told the travelers they had been
spotted.

Their enemies were upon them. For a frozen moment the party on
the beach stared in shock at the sight of their pursuers. Then, aware
only of a need to escape, they continued to push the canoes into the
river.

Lisa's canoe was afloat first, though Gerachti clambered over the
back end of it and nearly capsized it. The leading horseman broke
onto the beach even as Alleophaz pushed the larger canoe afloat,
scrambling over the stern as Gerachti had done.

The horseman, never hesitating, rode his horse into the water and
raised his sword to strike. "Stop!" he yelled breathlessly. "In the name
of the king, stop!"

Alleophaz swung round to meet him, a spare paddle in his hand.
As the swordsman leaped at him, Alleophaz drove the butt of the
paddle into the man's belly. Grunting and groaning, the soldier
doubled, fell from his horse and dropped his sword into the water. His head struck the stern of the canoe, rocking it wildly and almost
overturning it. The boys dug their paddles deep into the water and
pulled hard-and still rocking, they shot out into the river following
Lisa. She pointed ahead to the column of smoke, waiting at a bend
in the river two hundred yards away. Though at this point only Lisa
could see it, they followed her lead without hesitation.

For several minutes nobody said a word, saving their breath as they
paddled frantically away from the yells and shouts of their pursuers.
Alleophaz turned his head to see what was happening and watched
the fallen horseman being dragged by his comrades onto the beach.
Then, as the distance increased, he saw the rest of the horsemen
proceeded to load their horses, one man and one horse at a time,
onto the platform to cross the river.

"They are not giving up," said Alleophaz. "They will follow that
road to Bamah."

As the canoes rounded a bend in the river, the activity at the fenry
was lost from view. For a long time afterward, still following the column, the travelers concentrated on putting as much distance between
themselves and the feny as possible. Their throats were dry, their
arms and backs aching, and their lungs ready to burst. Blisters formed
on their hands, though they did not feel them until later.

They saw no sign of the Bamah road-and though no one had
eaten, there was no thought of food. But as one hour after another
passed, their sense of danger lessened and they began to slacken their
pace. Eventually the two canoes drew level with each other. Lisa suddenly called out in awe, "The column is headed for the shore-on
the right! I guess it must know we're tired!" She turned to follow it.

"Where are you going?" Alleophaz called out to her.

"The column's headed for the shore."

"It might not be safe on this side," Wesley said, frowning, "though
I can't see any road."

Alleophaz pointed to the right-hand bank further along the river.

"There should be a large tributary joining the river soon, from the
side we are heading for. And-look! There it is!"

A couple of hundred yards ahead of them they could make out a
turbulence in the river where two currents met. They beached the
canoes carefully in the shingle, only to discover they were on a narrow, tree-covered spit of land that separated the river they had journeyed on from another, smaller river which they could see through
the trees.

"I wonder-" Kurt began.

"I suspect we are supposed to eat before we continue," Gerachti
interrupted. "Anyway, it would do us no harm. We will soon lose our
strength if we do not."

"The column has disappeared." Lisa's forehead wrinkled.

Belak said, "Well, we are not going to be able to move for the
moment-that is, not if we are supposed to be following it."

They ate as quickly as possible and drank from the river. Wesley,
ever the fusspot, worried a little. "The waters are clear enough, not
that clearness means anything. Though come to think of it, I never
heard of anyone getting sick from Anthropos water."

Lisa continued to frown. "I must keep a lookout for the column,"
she thought.

A few moments later she caught sight of it again, but this time it
was moving along the narrow spit of land that separated them from
the other river. "The column's over there now," she cried, pointing.

Belak said, "Oh-yes it is! I can see it tool"

"Do we drag the canoes across?" Kurt asked, puzzled.

Alleophaz said, "No-leave them here. This must be the end of our
river journey. Besides, we have no time-I can see the column too,
and it has not stopped moving."

So they snatched up their packs and abandoned the canoes, then
stumbled in haste through the trees to the bank of the river on the
other side. There they followed the column down an almost invisible
path-narrow and overgrown, which they would never have discovered without the column's guidance. They followed it upriver, proceeding almost in the opposite direction to the one they had been
traveling.

"Can anyone hear anything?" Wesley asked.

"What sort of thing?" Kurt returned.

"I can hear a deep sort of-well, like a waterfall."

Belak, in his squeaky voice, said, "I can hear it too."

They proceeded to an eastward bend in the river, the new sound
growing clearer as they approached it. By now they were aware of a
deep note like distant thunder. On rounding the bend they found
themselves quickening their pace as a magnificent spectacle came
slowly into view.

"Wow! Take a look at that!" Kurt said.

Over a two-hundred-foot bluff, the river plunged downward to greet
them-a splendid cataract of crystal, tumbling through a rainbowarched cloud of spray and mist. Vapor shrouded the foot of the falls
where a pool glistened, emerging fern-fringed into the sunlight from
beneath the mist. Ferns clambered on the sides of the falls between
wet and shining rocks.

As they reached the pool they stood awestruck, waist-deep among
ferns and bracken, deafened by the thunderous roar and marveling
at what they saw above them. But soon their wonder turned to dismay.

"The column!" Lisa cried, her shrill voice penetrating the roar of
the plunging cataract. "It's-it's way up there near the top of the falls!"

There was a shocked pause as their eyes focused on the column,
hovering two-thirds of the way up the falls. Dismayed, they wondered
how they could ever follow.

Gerachti broke the pause, yelling loudly to make sure he was heard.
"It is possible. And if nobody minds, I will lead the way. The rocks
will be slippery, so we will have to take great care! Alleophaz-forgive
me for leading, but could you bring up the rear?"

Wesley gazed upward, dismayed. "However will we do it?" he muttered to himself. "Still, if Gerachti's game, I guess I'll try to follow. I
hope Gaal-if that's who the column is-knows what he's doing!"