The Thief and the Beanstalk (Further Tales Adventures) (24 page)

“Come on!” Roland gave Nick and Jack a shove toward the wagon. Nick climbed on, but Jack snatched up a bow and a quiver full of arrows and ran as fast as his old legs could carry him toward Gnasher. Roland cursed and ran after him. “Come back here, Jack! You’ll get all of us killed!”

“Did you say
Jack?
Yes, come to me, Jack! I was planning to visit you—and here you are to welcome me!” Gnasher laughed. He’d begun to unfasten the first of five buckles that secured him in the harness, but paused to draw his sword.

Roland and Bill caught up to Jack and wrapped their arms around the old man. Jack tried to wriggle free, but his men were stronger by far, and they dragged Jack back toward the wagon. Gnasher grinned, putting the sword on the ground and returning to the buckles. And that was when Nick saw something happening behind the ogre.

The rope had begun to uncoil and slide up the hill.
But why
, Nick wondered, and the breeze at his back
reminded him.
The beanstalk isn’t there anymore—the cloud island can move again!

“Jack’s right,” he shouted to Henry. “We have to attack!” He climbed into the back of the wagon and pulled out a pair of spears.

“Have you lost your wits as well?” said Henry.

“We just have to distract him for a moment—look at the rope!” Nick hopped down, handed one spear to Henry, and ran at the ogre. Henry understood at last and followed. Jack and Roland and Bill were so startled to see them go by, holding their spears high and screaming, that they forgot their struggle.

“We’re coming to kill you, Gnasher!” Nick shouted.

“Are we the only ones who don’t want to die?” Bill asked Roland.

Gnasher had unfastened the second buckle, and he looked up when he heard Nick’s voice. His grin grew wider. “Oh, this is even better. Yes, come to me, little Nick. You and your friend, come to me”

The ogre bent to pick up his sword, but the rope tugged at him from behind, and the weapon was somehow out of reach. “What?” he muttered, and then he was pulled over onto his back. The rope began to drag him, slowly but irresistibly, up the slope.

High above, on the cloud island, she found the machine that lowered the infernal rope. She watched it for a while
as the line fed out a yard at a time, the teeth of the gears clicking mechanically away. There was still plenty left on the spool.

Reaching into the mist, she felt about and found a loose rock of considerable size. She crammed it into the place where the gears meshed. The teeth bit into the rock, trying to shatter it. But the rock resisted, and the machine ground to a halt. She hoped she had not arrived too late.

The giantess looked at her shadow and waited for it to dance.

Nick saw the narrow band of sky at the horizon begin to widen and remembered how the cloud island had descended to meet the growing beanstalk. So now it was rising back to its normal height, taking the rope
up
as well as away, and pulling the ogre with it.

Gnasher screamed and scratched and clawed at the slope below him. He rolled onto his back and fumbled at the three remaining buckles of the harness. The rope was gathering speed. His helmet popped off and clattered down the hillside, past Nick and the men.

The ogre was approaching the top of the hill rapidly. He saw it coming and gave up on the buckles. Pulling out his knife, he hacked at the straps of the harness. He sliced through one quickly. He was halfway through the remaining one when he reached the crest of the hill.

Gnasher gave a shrill cry as he soared out into space and the ground dropped away beneath him. The second
strap began to weaken, and he grabbed the rope above just before it snapped.

If Gnasher had let go in that instant, when he was not far above the ground, Nick thought he might have been able to land without serious injury. But he did not. The ogre hesitated, gaping down at the world he’d come to conquer. Then he was hundreds of feet aloft, and the opportunity was gone.

Nick and Jack and Roland and Henry and Bill stood together and watched without speaking as the ogre was carried away, clinging to the rope and rising higher and higher. The cloud island flew out to the west, toward the open sea. At last the sun emerged above the retreating cloud island, and the shadows that had fallen across the land disappeared in a burst of golden radiance.

Finally Henry turned to Nick.

“Are there any more of those … things?”

“No, I guess that’s all of them,” said Nick.

“How long do you suppose he can hang on to that rope?” asked Bill.

“I don’t know,” said Nick.

“Think he can climb back up?” asked Roland.

“It’s an awful long way,” said Nick.

Jack kneeled beside him.

“How’s your head, sir?” asked Nick.

“I’ll be fine. Those two, Nick … were they who I think they were?”

“Yes, sir. The sons of the giant.
Her
sons, too.”

A thrill of hope ran through the old man’s bones. “Her sons! So she didn’t die that day!”

“No, sir. And she’s still alive. Gullinda gave me a message for you. There are some things you ought to know.”

Jack put his hands on Nick’s shoulders. “Tell me what she told you. Please.”

Nick looked over at the others. “I’d kind of like to say it in private. I guess it’s personal.”

Henry and Roland and Bill had been watching. They shrugged and smiled and went to the wagon.

“Whisper,” said Jack. He turned his head to one side so Nick could speak quietly into his ear.

Nick closed his eyes and whispered. He told Jack about the story the giantess told him. About the love she still had for Jack, despite everything he had done. Nick talked about what really happened the day the giant died. About the peace that Gullinda found, however brief, after that day. Nick told Jack about the new suffering that she endured. About how her suffering was over now, perhaps forever, because of what happened after Jack gave Nick the beans. And he gave Jack the message that the giantess had asked him to remember.

“
I have not forgotten, but I have forgiven. Waste not another day on sorrow, not another moment. Live happily, and be at peace
”

Jack felt a strange something inside as he listened to Nick’s quiet voice. It felt like shackles were corroding and falling away, and their leaden weight was releasing
his heart and soul, and he was rising swiftly out of a cold and sunless place, and as he rose he could begin to see the light above him through the murky waters. Jack listened to the whispers like a child, with wide wondering eyes and open mouth. He laughed out loud when Nick told him who really killed the giant. And he cried tears of sympathy, of relief, of happiness, of peace. By the time Nick gave him Gullinda’s message, he felt like he had broken through to the surface at last, out of the deep, and the sun was shining on him again, and for the first time in sixty years, he could breathe and laugh and
live
.

Jack gathered Nick up in a hug. Roland and Henry and Bill watched, enchanted, as the old man smiled a bright smile they had never seen before, a smile no living person had seen, and the old man and the boy laughed and danced and shouted with joy.

Jack suddenly stopped and gave Nick a serious look.

“But where’s the treasure? Surely you’ve brought back some treasure!”

“I … I didn’t steal any,” said Nick.

“Ha! What kind of thief are you!” Jack beamed down at him. “Do you know what you really are, Nick?” he asked.

“No, sir,” said Nick, a little bewildered.

Jack tousled his hair.

“You’re a good lad.”

Roland took Finch’s body out of the tree and dug a hole to bury him. They all gathered around the grave and Henry said a prayer.

Jack thought it would be unwise to leave the ogre’s weapons lying about. His men loaded the cart with Gnasher’s helmet and as many weapons as the horses could pull. The old man said they would return the next day to gather the rest.

There was food and drink in the wagon. Nick had not even considered how hungry he was during his frantic adventures on the cloud island. He wolfed down huge quantities of bread and cheese and salted meat, and guzzled mug after mug of cider.

Exhaustion overcame Nick as he ate. He fell asleep with a piece of bread in one hand and a mug in the other. Jack took these away and lay the boy down on a blanket, adding another on top to protect him from the coming chill of night.

Nick slept for a long time, dreaming about the cloud island. He sensed the wagon bouncing along the path, and woke up certain that he was back on the ogre’s cart. Then he opened his eyes and saw stars overhead, flanked by the dark shapes of trees on either side of the forest road, and he remembered where he was. He felt the sweet relief that sleepers feel when they find that nightmares are only nightmares.

Nick wondered about Gullinda, and where she went after she escaped. Was she finding out now what lay beyond the mountain, what undiscovered mysteries? Then Nick slept again, deeper this time than the first, and far longer.

What to do,
Gullinda wondered, about the great rope and the cart that held it to the cloud island. She spent the night pondering the question. As the stars swirled overhead, she paced around the massive vehicle, squinting through the darkness.

And what of Gnasher and Basher?
Neither was there when she arrived. She had watched as the beanstalk toppled from the edge, its fingers tearing the boulder away as if to wield it as a weapon of destruction. Was that the end for one of her sons? For the sake of all the helpless, fragile folk who lived below, she hoped so.

Gnasher must have taken the rope down,
she thought. She knew him well enough. Gnasher would send his brother down the beanstalk—because that was the dangerous way, the path that destroyed their father. And he would make a triumphant descent on his own invention. His arrogance wouldn’t allow him to go any other way. When she put her hand on the heavy cord, she could
almost feel Gnasher’s evil presence far below. For a moment she even thought she heard his voice.

If all had gone well, if she had arrested his descent in time, Gnasher was trapped between worlds at the end of this rope. Too high to reach the world below. And too far down to climb back up—too far for Gnasher at least, who was powerful of mind but weak of body. It was a cruel end, but nothing compared to the punishment he was prepared to inflict on the little innocents.

What to do about the rope?
She thought about prying up the spikes at the end of the chains and sending the whole accursed creation—rope, spool, and cart—over the side. But those spikes were driven deep into the rock, and she doubted if she could free them. Besides, it seemed a reckless gesture. What if Nick or some unlucky stranger was standing below?

Perhaps the best plan was to wait for several days, after Gnasher’s strength gave out for sure, and he had fallen, and then remove the stone she had jammed into the gears and wind the rope up again.

The sun was rising. Its first modest light illuminated the horizon in the direction of the castle, but then the world spun lazily and the glow passed in front of her at the very spot where the rope disappeared over the edge.

The edge
. She had been close to it before, but never dared to go all the way to the very brink, not even on that day when she hacked the beanstalk away so many years before. As always, the mist made it impossible to
tell where solid ground ended. But now the end of the rope, where it bent and disappeared, clearly marked the spot where land stopped and the void began. Perhaps if she went there and stuck her head out, she could see the fabled land of little people, far below. Just one time, she would like to see it, the home of Jack and Nick.

She stood and walked cautiously through the mist, following the rope, testing each step before putting her weight down. When she was three steps away, she leaned out to look, but the fog still obscured her view.

Afraid now to be so close to the end of her world, she turned and walked sideways, extending one foot gingerly across the ground and then sliding the other behind.

She leaned as far as she dared. Out here, the wind was louder, whistling and moaning as it cut across the rocky shore. She looked into the mist that enshrouded the edge. Something
was
down there—not a faraway land, but a dark shape just below. A shape that moved.

A bloody hand came out of the mist and seized her ankle. Gullinda fell backward and landed hard on the jagged stones, sending mist billowing in every direction. She heard the word “
Motherrrr,”
a barely audible croak. The hand tugged on her ankle, and she slid toward the edge. She would have been pulled farther, but the grip was weak.

Gnasher’s face rose out of the mist. He was panting and his tongue hung out between his sharp teeth. His hair was matted with perspiration. He looked up at
Gullinda and tried to smile. The expression seemed contrite at first, pleading and helpless. Then she looked past the smile and saw the truth that Gnasher could not mask.

She drew her free foot back and held it poised above his face. “No, Gallinor. Never again. You can’t come back.”

She did not have to strike him. The words were enough. Gnasher’s strength was spent, and his grip failed. His hand slid down her ankle and over her foot, and his face sank abruptly into the mist. There was no sound for a moment, and then a scream, far, far, far below.

Nick opened his eyes to the morning light. He was in a soft bed with plump pillows all around, in a handsome room that looked somehow familiar. The sun was just beginning to shine through the window, breaking up rain clouds that gathered during the night.

Nick leaned out the window and saw the white stone of Jack’s fortress. Below him, Bill was pulling the ivy down from the wall. When he saw Nick, he held up a piece of the vine in his fist and shook it. Then he laughed. Nick grinned back and waved.

On a table next to the bed some fine new clothes were laid out for him. There was also a basin filled with water. Nick took off the black garments that the thieves had given him and left them in a pile. He splashed water on his face and tried to scrub off as much of the dirt as he could. When he was dressed, he opened the door and stepped out into the same hall he’d crept down two nights before. It all looked so different in the light.