The Dark Lord's Demise (9 page)

To Wesley the cord looked familiar. He had once climbed a rope
ladder woven of that same indestructible material. Shamith had
said something about Tiqvah not being able to get silk for rope
because the weaver bees were dead. So those vicious insects spun
this stuff, like silkworms!

Ahead the lake water ruffled with little whitecaps, and beyond it
he saw the walls of a city that must be Nephesh. A stiff breeze hit
the raft's front quarter. As the wind picked up, cold water splashed
up over the sides of the raft.

Lisa, Betty and Wes struggled to sit upright like Kurt. They all
scooted closer together toward the raft's center. With their hands
and feet bound, they would be helpless if the raft capsized.

The Matmnon dug in and paddled harder. They had sea legs.
They stood with feet wide apart and let their short lower limbs roll
with the motion of the raft. Lisa felt queasy. She tried to focus on
the far shore, which is often a good remedy for seasickness. She
frowned. The far shore had disappeared. A dense fog had swirled
in to obscure the walls of the city.

"You're not going to head into that fog bank, are you?" Lisa
asked the Matmon. They ignored her. At least they didn't threaten
her, so she tried again. "We could lose our bearings out here. If the
wind gets too strong and we-if we capsize, nobody will find us!
And-and we can't swim all tied up like this!" Ildreth and Shamith
still ignored her fear. She begged, "Turn around, won't you? Don't
head into the fog!"

"Silence! I see no fog," snapped Ildreth at last.

"We're headed straight for it! I think it's coming toward us!"

Shamith snorted. "The little fool attempts to trick us. Pay no
heed."

Lisa turned to the others for help. They only looked bewildered.
Kurt said, "Don't try to kid them, Lisa. You'll only make them mad."

"Kurt's right. Knock it off, okay?" Wes added sharply.

"You mean you don't see it?" Lisa stared ahead. How could they
not see the thick cloud approaching fast, dense and impenetrable,
yet somehow lit from within with a grayish-blue glow-Blue light! Was it possible? But why couldn't the others see it? Lisa fastened
her gaze on the low thick mass that rode the surface of the lake. No
matter if nobody else saw it. She knew it was real. Gaal, she pleaded
silently, I'm sure you're there, I'm sure it's you. Help us!

The fog bank rolled toward them. In seconds it would swallow
the raft. At the last instant it veered off and swept past only a few
feet away. Lisa turned her head and watched it recede across the
surface of the water. For a while it hid the shore where they had
been captured. Then it faded and dissolved.

Lisa looked forward. The city wall of Nephesh loomed high and
solid just ahead of them. A wooden pier jutted out from shore,
where several Matmon were busy at work on small boats. They
looked up and shouted questions, first about the weaver bees, then
about the strange passengers on board. The raft touched the pier
to the accompaniment of startled cries. "You have bound the
Regenskind! What is their crime? How did you capture them? Who
are they?" The two Matmon said nothing as they took their time
tying up the raft. Clearly they enjoyed their status as captors of the
strange group of four.

"Stand up!" Shamith ordered the children. Though their hands
and feet were still bound, they managed to obey. But when Ildreth
told them, "Step out onto the pier!" Wes asked, "How do you expect
us to walk?" Their captors grumbled but admitted he was right.
From their packs they produced short knives with bone handles
and began to slice at the cords on the prisoners' feet. The job took
some time.

Once the four children were lined up on the pier, Ildreth and
Shamith told their story. Their version was so overblown that the
children fought not to interrupt. Not that they had much chance,
for the two Matmon interrupted each other often. They crowned
their tale with the account of how, outnumbered four to two, they
overpowered the Regenskind and transported them back to the
city to be brought to justice, which was only what any Matmon loyal
to the king would do.

Betty couldn't keep quiet at this. She wailed, "What do you
mean, brought to justice? Lisa! Wes! Kurt! What do they mean?"
Ildreth ordered her to be silent. The Friesens tried hard to remem her what happened to prisoners who were brought to justice in
Anthropos. Prison? Execution? If only they could be taken to King
Tiqvah! He would recognize them and release them at once. What
if they never saw him? What if he never found out who they were?

Ildreth and Shainith marched their captives along a narrow
road between the lake and the city wall. The road and the wall
eventually curved away from the lakeshore, and the party soon
arrived at a massive wood-and-iron gate in the city wall. Young
human soldiers with swords at their sides stood guard. Kurt, Wes
and Lisa scanned the soldiers' faces. If only they could recognize a
friend. But how could they? Three decades had past since they had
last been in Anthropos.

One soldier stepped forward and greeted the Matmon. "So the
royal beekeepers have returned. It appears you caught other prey
besides the escaped swarm." His face hardened. "Who are they?"

The children raged inside as the Matmon started a new version
of their story. In this version the Matmon were even more heroic,
and their prisoners were even more sinister. The soldiers soon lost
patience. "Enough!" harked the one who had stepped forward. He
flicked a hand, and another soldier muttered something through a
hole in the wall. A section of stone swung out to reveal a passageway. Into this opening the soldier disappeared, and immediately
the door closed-but not before a whiff of cooking smell drifted
out from inside the city wall.

Kurt felt a sharp pang of hunger. Beef, potatoes and bread
waited in the kitchen back home. He almost moaned "I'm starving!" but stopped himself. His complaint would only make the others hungrier.

Lisa felt as exhausted as Kurt felt hungry. She backed up against
the sun-warmed stone wall. Betty leaned next to her and asked in a
desperate whisper, "Where are we? What's going to happen to us?"
Lisa could only whisper back "We're outside the city of Nephesh. I
don't know what's going to happen." Sharp glares from the soldiers cut off the girls' conversation. Lisa thought, It's like we're criminals on the Most Wanted List.

One soldier turned to the Marmon and raised his eyebrows in a
questioning manner. "You boast of how you captured the bee slay ers. Yet you say nothing of how the swarm escaped in the first
place."

Another soldier, very young, mumbled something that sounded
like "Lucky."

"What was that?" snapped his superior.

The offender stumbled to explain: "I said-I meant to say, some
fanner will be lucky to find the swarm in his barn."

Another soldier snorted, "Lucky! He would not dare sell the
honey or use the silk. All Anthropos would know he harbored the
royal weaver bees. Your lucky farmer would soon find himself-"
He made a quick motion across his own throat. The children
shrank back against the stone wall. What sort of justice was this?

The head soldier laughed. "He would beg Gaal to rid him of the
monsters before they stung his cattle and sheep to death!" The
Friesens jerked to attention. Gaal! At least the people of Anthropos
still believed in him! The speaker turned to Shamith and Ildreth.
His expression grew sober. "I do not envy your duties. Guarding
the city gate is safer than tending the king's bees. But tell us, how
did you hope to capture the swarm?"

Shamith winked and patted his leather pack. "As all renegades
are caught-in a web of their own making! Ildreth and I carried
fine nets of the weaver bees' own silk. As you know, it is like spun
stone. The holes are far too small for the bees to escape. We would
find the swarm at rest and cast our nets over them."

"Madness!" said still another soldier. "It is too much risk. I have
been stung only once, when I chased a fool of an intruder who
tried to steal honey. My foot ached for ten days and nights and
robbed me of all sleep. It swelled so I could not think of wearing
even a sandal."

Ildreth chuckled. "You recall the intruder was not so fortunate.
So viciously was he stung that he did not live to be brought to trial."

Lisa felt her throat close with shock. They had been viciously
stung, but their stings had disappeared. She recalled how Betty
hopped up and down and sang out, "It worked!" What worked? Had
Betty Riggs called on Gaal for help? But how could she, if she didn't
know him? Did she use some trick? Could she use it now to set them
all free? Lisa longed to ask Betty, but too many ears were listening.

The door in the wall swung open. The soldier reappeared and
nodded once to his superior, who ordered the children "Into the
passageway! Now!"

In single file, with a soldier in front and another behind, they
entered the opening. It became a low dark tunnel, for the city wall
was many feet thick. Still stiff from the raft ride, they stumbled and
bumped into the walls and each other. Then for the first time in
many Anthropos years (and for Betty the first time ever) they
emerged into the broad streets and busy life of the royal city of
Nephesh.

The Friesens had first entered Nephesh on the day Gaal freed it
from its long captivity to the evil spell of the Dark Lord, Lord
Lunacy. They watched from the city wall as King Kardia lifted up
the royal orb and proclaimed a week of feasting to celebrate the
city's liberation and his marriage to Princess Suneidesis. On that
clay Gaal made the wicked city of Bamah, adjacent to Nephesh,
sink down and become Lake Bamah for a defense on the north
and a supply of water in drought.

This time they entered Nephesh as shamed criminals, with
hands tied and guards all around them. A fresh escort of soldiers
met them as they came out of the tunnel. The two Matmon were
gone. In a swirl of sinister words the soldiers discussed the children's fate.

"What are the orders concerning the prisoners?"

"Take them to the dungeons to await trial."

"On what charges?"

"Treason and rebellion."

"By the hair of Gaal! They are young to have done such
crimes!"

"In these matters the young are the most treacherous. They go
about their business unnoticed. No one suspects them."

The Friesens grasped for hope when they heard Gaal's name.
Yet "by the hair of Gaal" was a strange phrase. They had no time to
think about its meaning. With a gruff command of "Get moving!" a
soldier prodded them into action. They were now in the custody of
two new soldiers, who marched them along it broad street of
Nephesh.

They almost forgot they were prisoners as they plunged into the
vibrant activity of the city. Color, noise, action, life swirled around
them. Peddlers called out the praises of their wares from stalls
shaded with bright awnings and hung with pots and pans, musical
instruments, shoes, tools and goods of all sorts. A lutist played and
sang a merry song. She was dressed too well to be a beggar, and
she had no cup or upturned hat on the ground before her. The
bright-colored doors of shops and houses opened directly onto the
street, and every door was flanked with window boxes full of flowers. Farmers in muddy boots hurried along with crates of geese or
ducks, undoubtedly bound for market. The birds thrust their heads
between the wooden slats and loudly protested their fate. Stray cats
and dogs, sleek as pampered pets, strolled back and forth across
the streets.

The little parade passed food sellers' carts painted in bright
stripes of red or yellow. Each one beckoned with more and more
delicious smells. The soldiers carried on a lengthy discussion
about what to eat while the children's mouths watered and their
stomachs growled. At last the group halted in front of a seller of
hot meat-stuffed rolls. The children's hopes soared, but the soldiers cared only for their own hunger. They wolfed down several
steaming rolls apiece while the children watched. Then they tossed
the leftovers to a fat old dog by the vendor's cart and ordered the
prisoners to march on.

The group turned onto the broad main street of Nephesh and
entered a river of people. Young and old, men and women, children of all ages-all were in a rush and all wore clothes of comfort
and luxury. The younger people had on big floppy hats decorated
with long bright feathers; the Friesens had never before seen the
style in Anthropos. Everyone, no matter what age, strode along
with eyes straight forward or on the ground slightly ahead. All
looked as if they were on their way somewhere important.

The Friesens strained to find a friendly face among the
crowds-if not a familiar one, at least a sympathetic one. They
tried hard to catch someone's eye. No one so much as glanced
their way. The further they went, the stranger it felt. Here they
were, an unmistakable group of prisoners in custody, yet no one showed any curiosity about them or about where they were being
taken. Not even young children stared or pointed. If the soldiers
had not purchased food on the street, the entire party could have
been wearing the Mashal Stone on one chain-and therefore
invisible. Wesley recalled that even the food seller had not even
looked at the prisoners or asked about them. Certainly he would
have hoped to sell more meat rolls. Were Wes, Lisa, Kurt and Betty
somehow all wearing the Mashal Stone? But if they were invisible,
how could the soldiers guard them?

There was no clear answer. The group left the main avenue and
entered a maze of smaller streets. For the first time ever in
Nephesh, the Friesens felt lost and afraid.