The Dark Lord's Demise (30 page)

"But what was that darkness?" Kurt asked. "Was it a spell? If it
was a spell, what broke it? Or was it just some weird kind of
weather? Or an eclipse?"

"Even a total eclipse doesn't make it totally dark," Wes answered.
"At least not in our world. Of course, this is Anthropos and some
things work differently. But I don't think it was weather or an
eclipse. It lifted when ... well, it lifted when we all gave up our big
ideas of ourselves."

"And it came last night when we were still at odds with each
other," Lisa said.

"It came because of our own stuck-up pride," Kurt suggested.
"You notice I didn't say your stuck-tip pride. I'm including myself."

"It didn't just affect us. It affected the soldiers, the animals, the
woods, everything. Nobody could see what was real," Wes said
slowly. "We couldn't see each other. Or ourselves."

"Or who was about to sneak up on us and cut our throats," Kurt
said with his eyes wide. Nobody laughed. "If Gaal hadn't protected
me, I'd be dead. Probably all of us would be (lead. Hey, I just
thought of something. Wes, I'll bet you can draw the sword now!"

Wes reached for the Sword of Geburah. He felt the chill of anxiety. Would it come free this time? Or would it be as frozen in place
as before? As his hand closed over the leather grip, calm flooded
into him as surely as the sunlight flooded the clearing. "I won't
draw it now," he said quietly. "We don't need it now. I know the
next time I have to use it, it'll be there for us. As long as I remember who's boss. Now come on. We've still got to get to the island
and enter the Garden Room. If it's light here, maybe Dominicus
and Andron have light too, and they'll come back after us."

"Should we still go to the lodge on the south shore like we
planned or go straight to the north side?" Kurt asked. "The north shore is a lot closer. Our only reason to go to the lodge was that
Tiqvah said we'll find boats there."

"That's still a good reason to go," Wes answered as he began to
go through the soldiers' backpacks. "We have to get across the lake
somehow. Let's get something to eat and get moving."

They raided the backpacks for food, ate a hurried breakfast,
filled their water bottles and repacked their own packs. They
decided to leave the tents. They also discarded the leather honey
bottles, except for two, which they filled with water.

Wes looked over the wrecked camp. He mused, "All this chaos
may work in our favor. If those guys come back, they may think
somebody else attacked us and dragged us away, even killed us."
He shook his head. "No, they'll figure out that we went on."

Kurt kicked at a collapsed tent. "Yeah, and they'll be even more
determined to get us. The queen won't give them another chance.
Unless they lose their nerve again, they'll follow us."

"We should hide that pile of honey bottles," Lisa said. "It just
screams that we changed our plans. Let's stash them in the woods.
We should make the camp look like we went on with our original
mission." Quickly they gathered up the leather bottles, carried
them a few yards into the woods and stashed them under leaves
behind a fallen log.

Philo's load was now much less than before. They decided to take
turns riding him. Lisa went first. She settled herself behind the panniers and avoided the growths on his back. They were definitely
larger than they had been only yesterday morning. She scratched
them, and Philo stretched out his long neck with pleasure.

Wes was anxious to be on the move. He shrugged into his backpack, looked everything over quickly and started up the trail.

"Shall we not wait for Vulcanus%" Philo asked.

Wes sighed. "No. We don't have time. Anyway, we don't need
him. Who knows where he went or when he'll be back?"

"Good," said Philo with a swish of his long silky tail. "He who
follows an eagle will only arrive at a carcass."

Lisa said, "Wow, Philo, (lid you make that up?"

"It is a popular saying among horses," he replied and started up
the trail after Wes and Kurt.

The trail snaked through a forest of elm, ash, oak, fir, spruce and
maple. The children could only imagine its depth on either side.
Here and there the undergrowth cleared to let them see far into
the dappled reaches of the woods. Through the forest canopy, blue
sky showed in patches with occasional fluffy white clouds. The clay
would have been ideal for a hike-or a ride, for whoever was on
Philo's back. The threat of the soldiers' possible pursuit and uncertainty ahead stole the pleasure from the journey.

Their route was mostly level with low hills and some gullies. The
denseness of the woods made them guess about what lay ahead.
Philo was no help. He said he knew of the royal lodge only by
hearsay; the king had never ridden him there.

"Then I wonder if Tiqvah was right about the boats," Lisa wondered aloud. The boys had each taken a turn on the horse, and she
was on his back again. Wes and Kurt walked a little ahead.

"We'll have to trust Gaal about that," Wes replied. "If we need a
boat, there'll be a boat." He sounded confident, but in his mind he saw a desolate, empty dock with no sign of a boat, or perhaps one
turned upside down on shore with a jagged hole in its hull. He
pushed the images from his mind. He couldn't let fearful thoughts
crowd in on him. Right now he felt like everything crowded in on
him. The Sword of Geburah was strapped to his left side. Kurt
walked on his right with Andron's sword (which he now thought of
as his own) stuck into his belt. Kurt crowded Wes so the scabbard of
the Sword of Geburah knocked against trees and snagged on
brush. Wes tried to reclaim his rightful half of the trail, only to have
Kurt's sword (without a scabbard) poke him. He snapped, "Move
over! Don't hog the whole path."

"You're the one who's hogging the whole path, Wes! You've shoved me into three or four trees already."

"I didn't shove you. I barely have room to walk. What if I have to
draw the sword in a hurry and it's hung up on brush?"

"Well, I don't much like getting pushed into brush either!"

From Philo's back, Lisa acted as referee. "You're both shoving
each other. I can see it very well from here. Look, you don't have to
walk side by side. One of you go in front of the other."

"After you," said Kurt with a little bow.

Wes gladly stepped in front of his brother. It would feel good to
have some space. He worked his shoulders and swung his arms
out-and banged the knuckles of both hands on tree trunks. He
looked left and right. The path appeared wide enough for two people. Wes swung his arm again. This time he hit sharp thorns. He
hollered, "Ow! What's going on?"

At the same moment, Philo's panniers caught on trees on either
side. Lisa worked them free and almost fell off while she did it.
Kurt scraped the knuckles of both hands on tree trunks as he
swung his arms out in imitation of Wes. His sword whacked against
a tree and spun him off balance. Lisa ducked to avoid a pointy
branch that threatened her eyes. Kurt's sleeve snagged on thorns.
He pulled loose, but the thorns left a three-cornered tear in the
cloth. Wes jerked the scabbard of the Sword of Geburah free from
a tangle of vines. Lisa leaned forward and rode with her head
almost on Philo's mane.

"You'd think we were city slickers who never walked through the woods before," Wes grumbled in disbelief. A low branch lashed
him across the forehead. "Look out for that branch!" he called to
the others behind him. He turned to see Kurt fight his way out of a
prickly bush. Beyond Kurt, Philo squeezed his big body between
two saplings while Lisa struggled again with the panniers and drew
up her own legs for protection.

"You know what this makes me think of?" she asked after she
and the horse got through. "It's like when we rode the reindeer
through the forest. The path would only open up a few yards
ahead of us. As long as we kept going, the path was there. And
behind us, it closed up again. This is something like that."

"No, it isn't!" Kurt said. "In that case the path cleared for us. Now
it's-ow!-closing in on us. It's trying to stop us. I've had it with this
stuff!" Kurt whipped his sword out of his belt and hacked at a vine
around his feet. It felt like steel cable. He chopped at it viciously
until it parted and he kicked his way out of the remains. He panted,
"Wes! Use your sword!"

"No! I'm not going to draw the Sword of Geburah to clear
brush."

"You think we're just bushwhacking? Think again! This woods is
out to get us!"

Lisa looked up to watch for low branches. She caught her breath
and cried out, "Wes! Kurt! The sky is coming down! It's-it's lower
somehow!"

The boys thought Lisa meant that low clouds had moved in.
They were too busy fighting the woods to think about clouds. A
wall of grossly swollen tree trunks and fat roots blocked the path
ahead. When Lisa doubled over and rolled offPhilo with a scream,
they did look up-and gasped! There were no clouds. Nor was
there any sense of distance from the sky. The sky itself had turned a
glassy cobalt blue and descended to form a ceiling, so low the treetops touched it and bent against it. The air felt squeezed and compressed. They were short of breath and dizzy.

"The whole world's closed in on us!" Wes said. "The trees are
pressed in. The sky's come down-" He lost his balance and fell
on one knee. Surely his imagination had taken over. How could
the ground itsel/'suddenly rise and throw him off balance? He knew he hadn't imagined it when Kurt said, "Even the ground is
closing in on us! It came right up under my feet!"

The woods, the air, the sky, the earth forced them together into
a frightened huddle. The forest itself swirled and altered shape.
Trees swelled and shortened into thick underbrush. Bushes elongated into deformed trees. Vines fanned out over the ground in
thorny mats. Fingers of sky poked down and shattered into jagged
blue-green leaves and needles.

"Everything is-it's changing into everything else! " Kurt gasped.
"It's all being pressed together!" The air in his lungs felt like liquid
lead.

"It's what Betty told me," Lisa called out. "She said everything is
the same; everything is one. No difference between anything and
anything!"

"Wes insisted. "We're still us. You got that? We're still
us!" He didn't know why it was so important to say that, but he
knew it was. "We're still us!"

"No difference," Lisa repeated. Her skull was in a vice of heavy
air. "All same ... sky ... ground ... Lunacy ... Gaal..."

"Gaal!" they all said together. He would help them! He had to!
Wesley called, "Gail, help us!" His voice should have echoed, but
the forest had closed too solidly around them. Trees bent near like
people who bend at the waist. Thick branches entwined into a
woven cage just over the children's heads. The low sky slanted like
the attic ceiling on Grosvenor Avenue.

Wes thought, I wish it was Grosvenor. I wish I was home. Even with
all its problems! Aloud lie begged again, "Gaal, help us!"