Terraless

by Thorby Rudbek

  Going Higher

  “Let’s get going!” Eshezy found she had to use her sword to hack a way through the thick undergrowth which began just twenty feet from the river. This will really slow us! She pushed through the partly shredded plants and stepped into a tiny clearing, dark and green-shaded. Carranavak stepped through behind her, followed immediately by Athanashal and then Gefforen.

  Gefforen looked uneasy being so close to the man she thought of as being the most evil she had ever met, and not only that, but being in a gloom so profound that initially she could not see more than the vague paleness of her hands and the faces of her companions. And him. Rauffaely hissed unexpectedly, making her jump until she realised it was because of his proximity to their prisoner.

  Athanashal grinned, though no one else noticed. “Don’t worry! I think I see the solution to our problem.” He stepped up beside Eshezy and pointed ahead and slightly to the left. “If you could hack through this mess of plants, I think you’ll see what I mean.”

  Eshezy looked at him, trying to see his expression, but only his eyes showed in the dimness. Almost bright enough to use as a light in the gloom! “Okay. Step back a bit, I don’t want to hit you by mistake.” She could see no advantage to this particular choice, but took his word for it, remembering how she had predicted that his eyesight would be an asset on their journey. Five hacking blows cut the ivy and creeper down, showing another little clearing about the same size as the first one. Well, that’s something… She stepped through and found the space was a bit longer than the initial opening. Perhaps it will not be too bad, taking advantage of these gaps, even if they aren’t leading directly towards… Rauffaely jumped down and ran along to the apparent end of the clearing – which was not very far. He stared ahead, into the forest. She stopped as she reached his position to find that a small gap between two twisted trees on the left – where he was staring – showed a more encouraging sight. “Come on, everyone! Well done, Athanashal!” She reached down and rubbed Rauffaely’s head as he bounced up to meet her gesture.

  In a few moments, all of them had squeezed through the gap and all were smiling as they walked up the steep canopied pathway revealed – all except Carranavak, of course. Rauffaely ran off ahead, looking back as if to encourage them to move more quickly.

  Gefforen found the path was wide enough to allow her to walk beside her beloved Eshezy and immediately took up that position. She looked up at her mentor’s tired and sad face, pleased to see more hope glimmering in that resolute visage. After a few minutes of companionable silence, she spoke up: “Eshezy, I-I wanted to thank you.”

  Eshezy looked sideways, noting the seriousness on her younger companion’s face and thinking that she suddenly looked older than her real age. Whatever that was.

  “You insisted on bringing me along, though I think not anyone else could understand why I should be included. You took the time to explain how things work here in Terraless and all about the love of She – before we learned that She was called Janeesise. But more than that, you did the really difficult things.”

  Eshezy put her arm around Gefforen’s shoulder and squeezed, hoping that her young friend would not further clarify her comment, as it would pull apart the soul-wounds she was trying to ignore.

  Gefforen looked left and her eyes and Eshezy’s seemed to lock. “That’s all!” And she grinned in the gloom, though her eyes glinted much more than the dim light would warrant.

  “That’s why I brought you!” Eshezy whispered, her voice breaking with emotion. She tilted her head and rested her cheek briefly against the crown of her under-appreciated companion. They walked on in silence, a strange strength flowing from one to the other as they moved harmoniously up the path.

  ***

  Some hours had passed – probably more than was normal between meal-times – but no stop had been suggested or requested, though their path became ever steeper. Overhanging fruit trees had provided apples, pears (though Eshezy could not recall the name of this very juicy snack), peaches (which she did recall and enjoyed immensely) and something of similar size, with a strangely lumpy exterior but a more intense and sharp flavour than the others – all without the need to stop. The last, unfamiliar fruit seemed to provide a huge boost of energy and even Carranavak had walked faster for a while after eating one.

  “Let’s stop and sleep here.” Eshezy looked around at the wider space she had just entered, noting that the central portion of the area was bare rock. The trees were like giant sentinels positioned around the clearing, which was probably more than forty feet across. Each one of the broad-based evergreen trees – and there were dozens around the perimeter – was about two hundred feet tall and was generously endowed with branches that interlocked with the neighbour’s for the first hundred feet or so, making a shelter from the winds which seemed to be increasingly gusty, if the motion of the tops was to be believed.

  Gefforen bounced over to the edge of the clearing and collected some dead wood for a fire. She put it in the centre space on the rock shelf there and looked for a suitable supply of needle-tinder beneath the majestic giants. Rauffaely ran off into the undergrowth to seek his own supper.

  Athanashal pushed Carranavak into the treeless area, indicating a space with patchy grass in the intermittent low bushes, near the centre, as the terminus of their day’s travel. “Now you can get down.” He looked at Eshezy for confirmation.

  “Better get down quick.” Eshezy’s hand moved up and twisted before him. Carranavak squatted immediately. The restraints grew around him, twisting into the short undergrowth between him and the trees, immobilising him effectively and completely.

  “I’ll be back in a flash.” Athanashal ran back down the trail, his bow in one hand and a short, broad stick in the other.

  Eshezy decided not to call out a warning as he disappeared from view. I think we are safe on this trail. It was very well-hidden; thanks be to Janeesise!

  Within a few minutes, Gefforen had a small but hot fire burning and Athanashal had returned with a sack full of potatoes and parsnips – one of the benefits of his sharp vision – he had noted a bunch of distinctive sprouts and leaves a few hundred yards down the track. He sat down near to the fire and started rubbing the dirt off the tubers on the short grass there. It wasn’t long before Gefforen had let the fire drift a few inches from the starting point, leaving glowing ashes that seemed so bright in the enduring twilight. As each cleaned potential meal was placed within her reach, she positioned it close to the embers to cook.

  Within an hour (though they had no concept of the measurement of time and no way of measuring it) the meal was consumed and Carranavak, Eshezy and Gefforen were drifting off with satisfied stomachs. Athanashal sat up for the first watch, waking Gefforen for the second when his eyes would not stay open anymore. Gefforen lasted about three hours. Rauffaely came back during her watch and sat staring beside her, accepting the stroking and cuddles that she happily gave and inadvertently – or deliberately – helping her stay awake. Gefforen finally admitted defeat when her eyes would not stay open not matter how much she shook her head, and woke Eshezy reluctantly, thinking how much she wished she could let her personal beacon sleep on. Eshezy took her turn. She sat watching the sky dim further, until the blue was so dark it was almost black. The clouds moved past at an alarming speed and each one was a shade of grey – there were no white fluffy, friendly concoctions that in earlier days had seemed to be good enough to eat. The sun creature was not nearby, though a slight lessening of the gloom back towards the lowlands reassured her that he was still airborne. What would happen if he fell?

  Leaving that thought before it depressed her too much, Eshezy watched a while more, until finally she knew it was the morning of the last day. “Let’s get started!” She called out as brightly as she could manage, not mentioning this alarming premonition of finality.

  Soon the companions – and of course Rauffaely – were stretching and Eshezy released some of the sleep-time restraints so Carranav
ak could, too. Trips to the bushes at the side of the clearing were soon completed. For better or worse, the day had begun.

  A steady supply of fruit – including the restorative, energy-boosting, lumpy kind – kept them moving for half the morning, until the fruit trees were entirely supplanted by pines and the like. Somehow their pace seemed to increase, instead of slacking off as it often tended to do. Strides were longer, feet felt lighter and the biggest trees on either side of the path became so tall that little light filtered down to them hundreds of feet below. Gefforen, being the youngest and not especially known for much focus on philosophy, found the changes to be very cheering. She began to run and jump, finding she could leap easily so that her feet were above her own head height and that she could travel from one side of the pathway to the other in one ‘step’, though this was sometimes as much as ten yards. Rauffaely had already disappeared ahead, almost flying, skimming low over the steeply angled path.

  Eshezy let Gefforen run onward, aware of the strange lessening of gravity, wondering if it were a function of altitude, or if it was another indication that Terraless was dying. She’s almost as energetic as my furry friend! Eshezy turned to see how her other companion was doing and how the prisoner was behaving. She found that the ever upward and generally gently curving route had been straight for long enough to allow her to see down the track and out above the trees… the view was enough to stop her cold.

  Athanashal saw the expression on her face, turned and looked too. “So that is Terraless!”

  Carranavak was content with any reason to stop the constant march and turned to study the view in like manner. Gefforen, now a good fifty yards further up the path, heard the sound of Athanashal’s voice though the words were muffled by distance. She bounced off a tree trunk and did a flip before landing so very lightly on her feet, facing back down towards her companions, some fifty feet below her.

  There, in the slot provided between the trees, one that channelled their eyes outward, was a narrow window out across the comparatively level vastness of Terraless. In the gloom to which their eyes were of course well-adjusted, could be seen miles and miles of grasses, patchy woods and enormous forests, all spread over gently rolling hills or smooth plains. Occasionally, little patches of glinting water could be spotted where the rivers or streams aligned with their viewpoint so as to add sparkle to the spectacle. Above the almost aerial view, clumps of cotton wool floated – far below their altitude. Either the air was clearer or there was some magic in the mountains, as the view did not become blurred as the distance increased far beyond the forty miles or so that had been visible from the Fortress tower. The vast ocean of which they had previously caught just a hint was laid out fairly clearly, though it was more than a thousand miles distant – this was true at least for the parts by the nearer shore. There were some islands scattered across it, though they were so far away as to be just specks of green.

  Eshezy zoomed in with her gifted sight. The islands became blobs, with the hint of the shape of the trees on them. She raised her eyes above the islands, towards the far end of the ocean, but the junction between water and land refused to resolve itself – here the optical turbulence from warm air currents at the surface blurred all. Instead, far above the watery boundary there was a hint of grey at an impossible distance. Zooming in did not provide an explanation, but she felt this must be the far side of Terraless, where mountains also formed a barrier. She could follow this band of rock – within the confines of the fairly narrow gap in the foliage – as it stretched to the left and right of that far distant and opposite mountain range, and in each case the band seemed to expand, hinting that it curved closer in both directions. And beyond the mountains… what? Nothing? Or nothing we could go to, at least! And yet we are getting closer and closer to the top on this side, or this edge!

  Athanashal climbed a little higher and stood beside her. “We must be thousands of feet high!”

  Eshezy stared. Higher than you think! She noted the clarity of the air, wondering how it was that she and her companions could breathe normally, remembering that a similar trip would require some special aid – though of course she did not recall precisely what this aid was – to enable a climb to such a height in the world from which she had been summoned, and grateful that the slope allowed walking. I wouldn’t wish to be using our rope to aid us in our ascent! We’d never get there in time. She glanced back to the upward slope, seeing Gefforen waiting almost twenty yards higher. She turned back in time to see that the view outward from the mountains had disappeared as a dark cloud floated across their ‘viewport’. So, we are not above all the clouds, not yet! But I have never been this high before, not back … wherever I came from. If we are that high, I wonder where the sun-creature is? The grey cloud slipped out of sight, and the view was restored. So dark! We must hurry! She looked at the profile of her apparently pointless prisoner. “It is strange, is it not, Carranavak, that you and I would be together to see such a wonder?” She did not delay for his response, considering that it would be unlikely there would be any, and that, if he did deign to reply, any comment might not be worth the wait. We are closer, but the time is almost gone! “Everyone! We must run!”

  Eshezy helped Athanashal ‘encourage’ Carranavak to move faster and faster, letting Gefforen lead the way with her seemingly inexhaustible youthful energy. They bounced and leaped from one point to another, covering ten, fifteen, even twenty yards in each ground-covering motion – almost half of it being upwards, rather than forwards – continuing for more than an hour, with the effects of gravity becoming more and more reduced as their altitude increased. The trees, which before had blocked all view except along the path, were now not quite as tall, and as the minutes passed unmeasured these hardy mountain pines seemed to shrink further, becoming more ordinary in their appearance and finally losing their elegant lines, starting to look more twisted, tangled and terminated – yes, increasingly their modest tops seemed to have been torn or worn away – and the occasional gust of wind hinted how this could have been achieved as they found their landings becoming unpredictable, sometimes close to the centre of the pathway, sometimes near one edge or the other.

  “Stop!” Gefforen shrieked. She crashed to the ground, concluding her last fast-floating step within inches of the stunted trees which blocked the end of the path and grabbing a handy branch to make sure that she did not tumble back down the slope. Rauffaely ran out of the undergrowth and rubbed around her as she lay there, catching her breath. She smiled and gasped, impressed by his relaxed and confident stance. If only we could move as fast as you can!

  Eshezy and Athanashal heard Gefforen’s warning and managed to halt a few yards down the path, but Carranavak came ‘down’ in the middle of the first layer of trees, some ten feet above the path’s end, breaking some of the brittle, dead branches off.

  “Get down!” Eshezy had no sympathy for any bruises he might have received, remembering all the tricks he had tried since they had departed from her Fortress. And before that, the death of Beinkanap! The three companions waited impatiently while he climbed down and Eshezy shackled his legs as his feet touched the rocky surface so that she could concentrate on the next stage. Whatever that may be! “Now, let’s see where we are.”

  Gefforen moved over beside her and looked out across Terraless. The trees were now reduced to stunted, windswept specimens barely worthy of the term, only reaching to a height of ten or fifteen feet from their cracked, rock-embedded roots. The angle of the slope was such that the tops of the trees did not block their view, and hence they had a truly panoramic vista to absorb. The mountains which Eshezy knew – somehow – formed a ring around the land of Terraless, could be seen curving away from them to both left and right, starting some forty or fifty miles along the ring, once the battered trunks of the nearby arboreal remnants were no longer blocking the view. It was the view straight outward which was far more compelling, however – rolling hills which before could be discerned, now looked as flat as t
he plains that surrounded them, fluffy little white clouds now looked more like grains of rice scattered on a patchwork tablecloth after a meal and the far distance, where the surface seemed to curve upwards, not downwards, took the eyes to a grey border, now almost clear, an incredible two thousand eight hundred miles or more from their precipitous position… the mountains on the other side!

  Eshezy wondered what to do. She turned to look up towards their destination. Whatever that is! There is no more path and the stunted trees and undergrowth I can see stretching up the mountainside are such that we can’t walk through, and running and jumping across such a landscape looks impossible. She bowed her head. Oh Janeesise! What should I do now? She staggered as the truth came to her.

  Gefforen and Athanashal both steadied her. Then they watched her, both concerned about the fact that their path had finally failed them, both wondering if something was wrong with the route. Rauffaely wound around their feet, looking up at them and meowing as if he were urging action. And Carranavak stared past them from his prone position, seeing the vastness of the rugged, steep landscape and wondering when his next chance would come.

  “There’s just one option left.” Eshezy looked at Gefforen and Athanashal, knowing how well they trusted her, but not sure if this final directive would seem too impossible, even for them. “We haven’t very much further to go. If the path continued, we would be there in a couple of hundred leaps and bounds.” And I know we are out of time. “We must be there really, really soon, or we will be too late.”

  Gefforen voiced what she felt was the only answer. “Eshezy, I will follow you, though there is no path!”

  Eshezy looked at her, seeing her sincerity and intensity, proof that she was frighteningly serious. She checked Athanashal’s countenance, and saw the same commitment mirrored there. She nodded and smiled. “I am so proud of you two.” After looking again at each of them in turn, she turned to the still prone, still shackled Carranavak. “This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. I’m releasing your bonds now. You will soon be free – to follow us, or to go back down, sideways, or whatever.”