Quest for the King (7 page)

Mary had once had a lesson in Toronto-but one lesson had been
enough. Perhaps it would not be so bad in Anthropos. She looked at
the horses again and said, "Side-saddle? Oh, gosh, no! Women wear
jeans or jodhpurs in our world. I only tried to ride once, and didn't
like it. I'm no good at that sort of thing. I don't know how I'll manage
side-saddle."

Lady Roelane nodded. "Do not worry. Nala, the horse you will ride,
is very gentle. You may experience a little discomfort at first, but I
suspect you will do well."

Mary could eat no more. She resisted the urge to wipe her mouth
with the back of her hand (a bad habit she had only fairly recently
acquired). In any case, the jeweled rings on the fingers of both hands
would not make for a comfortable wipe. The silk dress had also wakened feelings of wanting to be a lady. And since she had discovered
a small linen handkerchief tucked into her left sleeve, she withdrew
it and dabbed her lips delicately in the way she had seen women do
in restaurants.

For some time a question had been haunting her. The pinkish
brown stones in the tower reminded her of the stories Uncle John told
about his second visit to Anthropos. Was this tower the one he had
described?

"Is this Rapunzel's Tower?" she asked.

The lord and lady exchanged glances.

"Rapunzel?" his lordship asked.

"You know-or do you-Rapunzel got shut up in a tower by aby a witch, an' her lover would say, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down
your long hair.' An' she would let it down, an' then he would climb
up it to be with her."

"An interesting story," Lord Nasa murmured, "but what was it that
made you think this tower might be it?"

"Well, when Uncle John was in Anthropos once he got into a mess
there. There was a girl called Eleanor with him. Shagah the magician
had arranged a trap for them, and hair came down when they asked."

"Shagah we know about," Lady Roelane said quietly.

"And the forest isn't enchanted?"

"Not as far as we know."

"An' Shagah's not inside his portrait in the Tower of Geburah?"

"No, dear. He is an evil sorcerer in the service of the spirits of
darkness."

Mary was both puzzled and dissatisfied. In spite of the fact that they
did not seem to know about Rapunzel, Mary had the growing conviction that it was the tower Uncle John had described. Obviously, Shagah was "now" (whenever "now" was) neither in this tower nor in the Tower of Geburah. So perhaps, after all, she had arrived before Uncle
John did on his visit. It was very confusing, and again she pushed the
thought away from her.

"This tower was built by Gaal," Lord Nasa began, but Mary interrupted him.

"If it's the same one that Uncle John talked about, then it wasn't
Gaal who built it, but his father."

"That is what Gaal would say. His father, the Emperor, planned it,
but Gaal did the actual building. Gaal has a special thing about his
father. He is father-oriented, so to speak."

Mary sighed tremulously. Fear filled her. What had she done? However could she find out and be sure about Uncle John? Was he even
here?

The rest of the day passed quickly. Lady Roelane showed Mary the
horses and introduced her to Nala, the palfrey she was to use. Then
came a riding lesson, and though Mary still felt insecure, she did not
fall off the gentle horse.

They had their evening meal indoors, for the evening was chilly,
and soon after she had eaten Mary decided she was too tired to stay
up any longer, so she went to bed in the room Lady Roelane had told
her was the room prepared for her. Soon she was asleep and dreaming. But in one of the dreams she heard the voice that she knew was
Gaal's, saying, "I am, and I am here. I am, and I am here." Gaal was
in the doorway of her room, and walked toward her until he stood
at her bedside. It was dark, but light accompanied him wherever he
was, for he himself was the source of the light.

For the first time since she came to know him, his face was stern
and his eyes deeply grieved. Mary had the feeling that he was reading
every secret in her heart, and she did not enjoy the feeling. For what
seemed like an age he stood in silence without speaking a word, and
the longer he stood, the more frightened she became. She wanted to
say, "Aren't you going to speak?" but she was too frightened. She
found she could not even open her mouth. When she tried to do so
even her throat seemed to close. Finally he spoke. "You did not come here by magic. I brought you here. The glass on the computer screen
was made from a proseo stone-but that is neither here nor there.
I instructed Risano what to do when you arrived. Mary, I have already
delivered you once from the power of a witch. Have you forgotten?"

Mary groaned in pain, and her body began to shake. Suddenly, only
the light was there, and Gaal himself could not be seen. Then the light
gradually faded, until she was once again in darkness. For the rest of
the night she remained wide awake, longing for the dawn to come.

"Where are we?" Kurt whispered. All he could see was the blue mist
surrounding them.

In response, Wesley also whispered, "We seem to be on firm
ground, but I can barely see as far as my waist, let alone what we're
standing on. Whose hand am I holding? Is it yours, Kurt?" Wesley
gave the hand a squeeze.

"Yeah."

"So where's Lisa?"

"She's here holding my other hand," Kurt said, but his whispered
reply was cut short by Lisa, who giggled nervously and said, "Why are
we all whispering?"

Wesley didn't laugh. Bewilderment and anxiety did not affect him
in the same way. "I dunno. After that terrible racket the silence
seemed almost like church. But I wonder where we are? What's this mist? Uncle John talked about a blue mistiness on both his visits to
Anthropos."

"I hope that's where we are," Lisa responded. "It must be somewhere Gaal-ish, anyway."

"Unless we're all dead!" Kurt said in a spectral voice.

Irritated, Wesley detached his hand from his brother's, and almost
immediately saw Kurt's disembodied hand groping toward him.
"Don't do that, Wes!" Kurt cried, his voice now sounding panicky.

"I think the mist is clearing," Lisa breathed softly.

She was right. They could dimly perceive one another's ghostly
outlines. Wesley and Lisa found themselves facing each other, both
holding hands with Kurt. Before long they could see one another
fairly clearly, and instinctively released their hands. Kurt said,
"There's a sort of-I can't see what it is-but it's like a big blue light
area ahead there."

The others turned to look. "Is it changing, or am I imagining it?"
Lisa asked.

"I think you're changing," Wesley said with a thoughtful smile. "Wait
a minute, though-no, no I believe you're right!" He sounded excited.
"And I sort of feel good about it-not irritated or anything. Anyway,
Uncle John experienced something like this more than once. It must
be Anthroponian."

"Hush!" Lisa said, half scared.

"I think it's coming nearer."

"Oh, don't be so smart. It could be anyone-or anything.

For a moment or two there was silence as the strange blue area
grew in size. Then it resolved itself into the figure of a man emerging
from the mist. The area surrounding them immediately grew clear,
like they were entering into a large bubble. Inside the bubble everything was clear, but beyond it the mist remained. It was darker blue
mist now, for they saw the light was coming from inside the man.

"Gaal!" cried Lisa. All three children flung themselves at him.

"Oh, Gaal!" Wesley said.

"I've missed you!" cried Kurt, half excited, half tearful.

"You still smell like a freshly sharpened pencil!" Lisa murmured,
laughing a little.

They sat down-on something that was reasonably soft, though
they had no idea what it was. "Where are we?" Kurt asked.

"We are in the zone where time does not exist."

"Like the hole where time ends?" Kurt asked, remembering their
first visit to Anthropos.

"The same sort of thing," Gaal replied. "And you see me as you are
accustomed to see me. When you next see me we shall all be in time,
not in this `no time' where we are now. You will be quite bewildered
by my appearance, and will not recognize me-though Mary will. So
do not forget, we are not in time, but outside it at present."

"But why won't we recognize you?" Wesley asked. Gaal smiled but
made no reply.

They spent the next few minutes-or what seemed like minutestelling him what had happened, how they had been stuck in Singapore and unable to attend Uncle John and Aunt Eleanor's wedding,
how Mary had been upset over the disappearance of the newlyweds,
of their parents' disbelief in Anthropos, and of their worries about
Mary and the witches' club. At every item he nodded, smiling, as
though he already knew what they were going to say.

"Yes." Gaal had a quiet smile still on his face. "I knew, but I enjoy
listening to you tell it. As for Mary, she does not know quite what
happened. I arranged for her to be brought into Anthropos, though
she still believes she came by her own magic. She will have been in
Anthropos several weeks before you will arrive there."

"How? I mean, how could she come by her own magic? And how
did you bring her?" Lisa asked.

"She incorporated several spells on a floppy disk. Her idea was to
come through your Uncle John's computer. She suspected that he
would be back in Anthropos and was determined to follow him if he
was, wife or no wife."

"And did she? I mean, has she?" asked Kurt.

"She would have landed in serious difficulties if she had tried."

"I bet she did try!" Wesley said cynically. "That's probably why she
wanted so much to go to the Chans' place in Shah Tin. It worked out
real well for her!"

"But not exactly as she herself planned," Gaal said, still smiling.

"Why not?"

"I told your Uncle John to send his computer over either to the
Chois' or to the Chans'." Wesley's eyes widened, but Gaal continued.
"You see, he once had a proseo comai stone that he stored in a glass
jar in the attic where he kept his computer system."

"I know," Kurt said gloomily. "It disappeared, and he thought one
of us might have taken it."

"So now you will be able to tell him what happened! One day Mrs.
Janofski put water into the jar and stuck some flowers in it. The stone
dissolved."

He paused, and the children stared at him, their mouths open,
waiting for him to go on. Gaal looked at each of them in turn and
then continued.

"Later the same day Mrs. J. brought some hot water upstairs and
washed, among other things, the attic window. She also, rather nervously, washed the screen of the new laptop computer your uncle had
bought, but seemed worried with the result. So she took the flowers
out of the jar, poured some of the water from it over the washcloth
and squeezed it out a couple of times. Then, unaware of the extraordinary power in it, she gave the screen a final wipe, and turned it into
a doorway to Anthropos."

Lisa shook her head in wonder but said nothing. Wesley said, "I
couldn't figure out why Uncle John would bring it to Hong Kong! It
has a hard disk, but he'd never bothered to transfer his stuff onto it.
I see now..." He began to laugh. "Poor Mary! This has been a rough
time for her."

"It's time she grew up," Lisa said.

But Kurt said, "Gaal, why have you brought us here?"

Gaal rose to his feet, and the children did the same, hoping that
he was not going to leave them, and wondering what would happen
next.

"I shall send you on to Anthropos to rescue a young king."

Kurt asked, "What young king?"

But Gaal just went on speaking as though he had not heard him.
"Listen carefully. You will arrive in Playsion and will meet three men
on horseback. With them will be three saddled horses and two pack
mules. They will stop and discuss whether to hire you or not. You are
to let them see that you will be willing to be of service to them, but
if they ask questions of you on the first day or so, you must tell them
you are on the secret business of a Great King, and that he has
requested you to be silent."