The Dark Lord's Demise (6 page)

Wesley could see nothing except a slow-swirling fog. He guessed
he was in the clearing they had seen on the TV screen. His feet
were on something solid. It must be the ground-unless he was at
treetop height and standing on a tree branch-or maybe in it tree
house.

He thought he was wearing shoes. He wiggled his toes inside
them. Before he took a step in any direction, he wanted to know
how much room he had to stand on and how high above the
ground he was, if he was above the ground. He listened for bird
calls or wind. Everything was quiet. No, there was a faint noise. A
monotonous hum, he couldn't tell from what direction.

Lisa's voice spoke from somewhere to his left and scared him
half out of his wits. He managed to keep his feet planted wherever
they were. The unseen Lisa mused, as though to herself, "It isn't
the right color for fog."

"Lisa! Where are you? I can't see you."

"Wes! Is that you? I can't see you either."

"I've never seen such a heavy fog." Wes reached out his left hand. He was startled to touch cloth. Lisa was only inches away.
Still he could not see even a vague shadow of her, and her voice
had sounded muffled and distant. He said "Lisa! Are you wearing
the Mashal Stone?"

The Mashal Stone was a piece of magic they had encountered
during other visits to Anthropos. It made the visible invisible and
the invisible visible. Worn on a chain around the neck, it made the
wearer invisible; it also gave special vision so the wearer could
pierce through any deception and see things as they truly are.

Lisa replied, "Of course I'm not. Where would I get the Mashal
Stone?"

"Then why can't I see you?"

"I can't see you either. The fog's too thick. No, it's not exactly
fog. It's the wrong color. Too ... blue. Where's Kurt? Is he on the
other side of you?"

Wes called out, "Kurt! Are you there?" He felt around to his
right. Nothing. Then Lisa said, "Look! Whatever this stuff is, it's
burning off or lifting or something. It's getting lighter!"

She and Wes still could not see each other or anything around
them, but the foggy substance grew brighter and airier. It glowed
with a blue luminescence. They could breathe more easily.

"Blue light! Blue light is tnie light!" Lisa recited. "Remember?
Blue light means Gaal is here!"

"Or at least Gaal has something to do with whatever this is." Wes
longed to see Gaal the Shepherd walk toward them out of this fog,
strong and ageless, his wonderful eyes alight with welcome, a
woody scent all about him like the scent of freshly sharpened pencils. In another way, Wes was afraid. Not afraid of being hurt, but
afraid of... well, it was hard to explain if you hadn't met Gaal faceto-face.

Still from the distance came that monotonous hum. "Sounds like
a motorboat," Wes decided. "Maybe we're on a seacoast. Or at least
near some body large of water. That would explain the fog."

Lisa gave it sigh of exasperation. "When have you ever seen
motorboats in Anthropos? They haven't invented motors yet. We
always used sailboats or rowboats, remember? Oh yeah, and
canoes."

"You mean they hadn't invented motors yet when we were there.
Maybe we're in Anthropos in the future. Remember, we can enter
at any point in Anthropos time." Lisa had forgotten that possibility.
She was about to call Wes a smart aleck when they heard a mournful voice call: "Helloooo!"

"It's Gaal!" breathed Wesley. Lisa said, "No, it's Kurt!" And it
was. Their younger brother's voice again floated toward them
through the bluish mist. "Helloooo! Wes! Lisa! Where are you?"

"Where are you?" Wes called back.

"I'm in some kind of fog!" wailed Kurt. Lisa and Wes laughed
out loud. They couldn't help themselves, though Kurt sounded
very lost and helpless. They both called out "So are weee!" The
blue light intensified. Then a human shape, darker in contrast
with the fog, appeared somewhere out in front of them. It came
closer and grew in size. Its arms moved as though it swam through
deep water or perhaps felt its way through a dark passage.

"Come toward my voice!" Lisa called. Wes realized he could now
identify his sister as a shadowy forma next to him. Kurt reached out
toward them. They caught his hands and pulled him to themselves.
Now all three began to distinguish each other's faces.

Kurt gasped, "I can't tell where we are. Can you?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure Gaal is in this," Lisa answered. "He'll tell
us what we're supposed to do next." She admired Kurt for how he
had walked blindly through the fog when she was afraid to take a
step.

"What's that humming noise?" Kurt asked. They turned to face
toward the sound, which now seemed to come from a specific
direction. As they strained eyes and ears, the light around them
intensified. The blueness faded. The fog became white, like normal mist. It felt cool and refreshing on their faces. Light poured
through the mist, not a ray of light like a sunbeam but a diffused
light that grew constantly brighter. What happened next looked
like magic. You would know it was quite natural if you have ever
watched fog burn off a landscape. You have seen the same effect if
you've seen photographs developed in a darkroom. Out of blankness, shapes start to emerge. First they mean nothing to your mind.
Gradually they grow more definite until they transform themselves into people or objects you recognize.

As the three children watched, a vertical solid form appeared
nearby. It materialized into a tree trunk. Other, skinnier shapes
appeared and became the trunks of trees farther off. Beyond the
trees a horizontal strip of pale yellow emerged and became a strip
of sandy shoreline. There was now no doubt that their feet were
safely on the ground. But where? Water showed itself, at first a blur,
then alive with choppy waves. The water stretched away and
revealed an opposite shore where a line of trees poked upward.
That shore came into sharper focus as a point of land with more
water beyond it. Finally a distant, uneven shoreline appeared on
the far side of the water.

Everything glowed neither blue nor white but soft gold. The sun
(for it was clear now the light was ordinary sunlight) penetrated
and evaporated the mist. Suddenly the world got bright and hot
and surprisingly normal. The children could have been by a Canadian lake in summer.

"Where are we?" shrieked a girl's voice. It wasn't Lisa! To all
three Friesens the voice was strangely, disturbingly familiar. They
turned to see the last person they expected to see in AnthroposBetty Riggs.

If they were surprised, Betty was completely flabbergasted. She
stared at the Friesens. She stared at her surroundings. She looked
down and stared at herself. She wore clothing nobody would wear
along Grosvenor Avenue, except perhaps at a costume party. Betty
had on a white tunic of woolen material caught up at the waist with
a light cord, a leather vest embroidered with bright colors, and softleather boots.

She swayed a little in shock. To steady herself she leaned with
both hands on a most unusual "cane" encrusted with brilliant jewels.

"What are you doing with the Sword of Geburah!" Wes
exploded. "You're not supposed to have that!" Betty only blinked at
him stupidly.

"This can't be Anthropos," Lisa muttered. "Why would Betty be
in Anthropos?"

"Look how she's dressed," Kurt pointed out. "She's dressed like us, in Anthropos-style clothes." Lisa looked down at herself. She
now wore clothing much like Betty's. The boys were dressed in
woolen, trouserlike garments, loose shirts gathered at the wrists
and leather boots.

Betty managed to choke out a few more words. "Is this the great
surprise you talked about? I don't think much of it!"

Lisa turned and stomped away toward the water's edge. Wes still
fumed at the sight of the sword in hands where it didn't belong. He
wanted to snatch it away. He took it deep breath and tried to steady
his emotions. If Betty Riggs was here, Gaal must have summoned
her. If Gaal summoned her, he had his reasons, and she had it part
to play. But still-the Sword of Geburah in the possession of it
stranger to Anthropos?

Wes kept his voice calm. "Betty, tell me one thing. Did you pick
up that sword when you were in the parlor and we were upstairs?"

This specific question helped Betty settle down and focus her
thoughts. She swallowed hard. "Yeah. I got bored sitting around
waiting for you guys. So I thought I'd take this jeweled doodad
upstairs and ask you about it. At the same time, I'd see what was
going on up there."

Wes restrained his outrage at hearing the sword called a `Jeweled doodad." He asked, "Now, can you remember what happened
when you came into the attic?"

"Well, before I even reached the door, I heard you yell something. When I opened the door, you were all in a line hanging
onto each other. I thought it was a game of tug-of-war, but I
couldn't imagine who with. So just for fun I grabbed hold of Lisashe was last in line-and I-I got yanked right off my feet!"

Wes tried to picture the scene. "So you had hold of Lisa with one
hand and the sword with the other hand when you came through
the TV set-"

"When I what?"

"Game through the TV set. We were pulled through the glass,
except there was no glass there anymore. That's how it always happens. And you got dragged along."

"What do you mean, that's how it always happens? You guys do
this kind of thing all the time?"

Kurt spoke up. "It doesn't always happen that way, Wes. When
we were in Hong Kong we climbed up Lion Rock and that funnel
cloud came and swept us away, and that time we wound up in a fog
something like this one-"

This was too much for Betty. She let go of the sword and covered her ears. The heavy scabbard toppled to the ground. Wes ran
forward to pick it up. Before he reached it, Lisa called out to them
from the shore: "Hey, I think I know where we are. This is Lake
Bamah."

The two boys turned to squint over the lake, if a lake is what it
was. They forgot about Betty for the moment and hurried to join
Lisa on a strip of sand lapped by little waves.

"It's the lake where the city of Bamah used to be," their sister
said, "before Gaal made it sink down and fill with water."

Kurt corrected her: "It sank and filled with water when I commanded it to. In the name of Gaal, of course."

Lisa ignored him and pointed out, "At first I thought those were
rock formations on the far side. Now I'm sure it's a city wall with
towers and ramparts."

"Wait!" Wes said. "Listen. That humming sound is getting
louder. Is it coming from the city?"

Kurt was more and more excited about the possibilities for
adventure. "If this is Lake Bamah, then that's got to be the royal
city of Nephesh. I bet we're being sent on a mission to help whoever the king is now. Or queen, maybe. King Kardia is dead. We
know that."

"Depending on when this is," Wes reminded him.

Betty came up behind them and interrupted their discussion.
She wasn't interested in the view across the lake. "Somebody has
got to tell me what's going on! How did we get here? Where did
these silly clothes come from?"

They struggled for some way to explain. Kurt remembered
something Betty had said in the hallway before they went up to the
attic. Maybe it would help her understand. "Betty, remember how
you said you believed in other worlds? You said any sensible thinking person has to believe there are other worlds. Well, you've just
entered one. You're standing in one now. This is another world."

Kurt's words appeared to make Betty a little more confident. She
even stood up straighter. Then she startled the Friesens by asking,
"So how do I get back?"

The question came on them like a sudden thick fog. They
couldn't answer. From all their previous experience in Anthropos,
they never knew how or when they would go back to Winnipeg.
They always did get home eventually. But it was only when and
how Gaal decided.