Gaal the Conqueror

by John White

  John wanted to speak, to let Eleanor know he was there and that he would do something when he could. But he kept his mouth shut. He stared at Gaal, wondering to see him failing to act with drama and strength in the crisis. And as he stared at Gaal's face, the face turned, and the brown eyes looked directly into his own. Gaal could see him!

  While their eyes remained locked, something strange began to take place. Ever so slowly a powerful blue light,seemed to surround John. The scene around them faded, and he felt giddy, almost as though his feet had left the ground and his body were floating. He could still see Gaal but was only aware of the eyes of Gaal staring into his own. He lost all sense of time and place. The blue light began to fade, and the scene around them had changed. They were back again beside Rapunzel's tower with Eleanor. He knew he was seeing what had happened before, even as he watched it happen again. Yet he played his part, just like an actor. Gaal was talking to him. "They will capture me."

  "The Circle?" John asked. He was asking the same question he had asked more than two weeks before.

  "Yes."

  "And then you'll trick them and get away."

  "No, it won't be like that. Rather, they'll kill me."

  Once again, just as it had happened before, John and Eleanor stared at him blankly. After a moment John said, "You're kidding. I mean, why would you let them? Aren't you more powerful than they are?"

  And again Gaal smiled and said, "As a matter of fact I am."

  "I don't understand," John said.

  "Perhaps my greatest power will be used to conquer deathto conquer it from the inside, so to speak."

  It was like a dream. He saw Eleanor shake her head in a bewildered fashion, and found himself protesting, his voice rising squeakily. "You're sort of the same as the Changer. You said so yourself. And the Changer isn't the sort of person that you can kill. I mean he doesn't even have a body."

  "But I have. I shall be killed as a lamb by my enemy, the Bull of Bashan. On the day when it happens you will see me gored to death by a great black bull. In fact-well, I'll not bother to explain it now. You'll see for yourselves later on."

  Then the blue light came again, and when it faded John was back in Bamah staring at the crowd of captors with their four prisoners. How long had his brief reverie lasted? The conversation had taken only a minute or so, yet he must have been walking even while his trance had been proceeding, for they were no longer where they had been before but were advancing through heavy iron gates into a prison courtyard. Quickly John entered with them, and the gates clanged shut behind them.

  They were in jail-at least in the courtyard of a jail. Gaal seemed to want it this way. Yet why? What did his talk of his death mean? Death was death, wasn't it? John sighed. Nothing made sense. But for the moment he would stick with the prisoners.

  Bewildered, he followed them as torch-bearing goblins led the prisoners from the courtyard through the doors of a stone building. They conducted them down steep flights of steps into darkness with damp and evil smells. The flickering torches revealed iron-barred cages, much like the cages they had encountered in the enchanted forest. Most were crammed with prisoners, many standing dull and silent, but some prisoners, among them matmon and men who were obviously not under the spell, rattled their cage doors and shouted at the goblins. Into an empty cage they thrust Gaal, locking the gate behind him. Much farther on, beyond a door of iron bars they thrust all three of their remaining prisoners, Bomgrith, Authentio and Eleanor, into an empty cage.

  One of the goblins, hideous in form, its great balloonlike head so disproportionate with its fragile plantlike body, appeared to be their captain. It bore a ring of keys and bade the others leave and lock the door behind them. They did so, leaving one of their torches in a holder on the cage door. Then for a moment the goblin captain stared at them.

  "One eeez woman, yessss? Feeemale eeez eeet?"

  Eleanor's eyes gleamed with terror in the flickering torch light. Authentio answered for her. "The lady Eleanor is a girl, yes."

  "Eeeeet weeeel tomorrow go to weeemen's jail. Yessss?"

  There was no reply and the goblin continued to stare. Slowly John drew his sword. Goblins were to be killed. They were not like people. He lifted the sword which became visible, glinting in the torch light as John lifted it high. At that moment the goblin turned to leave, saw the sword and hesitated. In an instant the blade swept down, bursting the frail bulbous skull. The ring of keys crashed to the wet stone ground.

  John stooped to pick up the jailor's keys, but quickly drew his hand back. The goblin had flopped on the floor with the kind of sploshing, slapping sound a very wet bath towel makes when you drop it from a height. Then, more rapidly than snow on a hot stove, and much less pleasantly, its body began to turn into liquid. Cries of amazement broke from the three prisoners in the cage.

  "The sword-did you see the sword? It is a miracle!" Authentic cried.

  "It might be-I is that you?" Eleanor said, a tearful desperation in her voice.

  "The goblin's dead!"

  A foul stench arose from the liquefying body, so foul that by comparison the general smell of rottenness in the jail seemed fresh and sweet. The liquid bubbled until all semblance of goblin disappeared. John gagged and backed away. As he did so he glanced behind him, seeing without being fully aware what he was seeing, that there was another steel door in the wall opposite the first one. Later the memory came back to him.

  Torchlight reflected eerily from the foaming foulness on the ground. But in two minutes there was nothing left but a dry patch on the jail floor, from which a wisp of smoke rose. In the center of the patch lay the bunch of keys the goblin had been carrying. John seized them. They were surprisingly hot, and for a moment or two he switched them rapidly from one hand to the other.

  "One good thing about goblins," he muttered savagely, "is that when you kill them there's nothing left. No embarrassing corpse to dispose of."

  Eleanor recognized his voice. "I knew it was you!" she cried." Thank goodness you're here! Do take the stone off-I want to see you."

  John was about to obey, but had second thoughts. "No-I'd better not. Gaal said I only get to use it once more. In any case we're not outside yet. Being invisible can be handy."

  The cries of wonder and astonishment that had clamored from the lips of Authentio and Bomgrith broke out afresh at the sound of John's voice. They stared at the floating sword and at a bunch of keys that danced a jingling dance between invisible hands. John sheathed the sword and it disappeared.

  Eleanor said, "It's O.K It's John-I mean the Sword Bearer. He's invisible, that's all. He wears a jewel round his neck and it happens."

  But John was staring at the shining face of Authentio. The young man's ragged tunic could hide neither the sturdy proportions of his frame nor the nobility of his carriage. And in contrast to the rest of them joy poured out of him.

  "You look happy, Authentiol But you're not half as happy as I am to see you again!" John said.

  Authentio shook his head in wonder. "Oh, invisible one," he replied, "how can I not be happy when the spell of days has been broken! It has been a dream-a very bad dream-but now I am awake!"

  "Your mother dearly wants to see you again."

  "And she will! No prison can hold the spirit that Gaal has released! How great he is!"

  "Let us out, John," Eleanor pleaded.

  "Why don't you just stay there until I go back to where Gaal is, then if anyone should come-"

  "Please, John. I can't stand cages anymore!"

  There were several keys on the ring, and once the keys were cool enough it still took John a couple of minutes before he found the one that released the cage door. He had forgotten the key in his pocket. First, they opened the iron door into the area of the many crowded cages. A babble of talk from the prisoners broke out as soon as they entered. How had they got free? What were those keys doing floating along beside them? The group was too concerned with finding Gaal to pay much heed, but when they reached the
cell where Gaal had been, it was empty.

  "Are you sure this was the one?" Authentic asked.

  "I think so," John said. "Look there! Isn't that his cape?" Purely from habit he pointed an invisible hand at a garment lying on the floor, sublimely unaware that nobody could see where he was pointing. But they all were looking. There was more than a cape lying on the floor-there was also what looked like Gaal's staff.

  John grunted in disgust. "So much for Ponty's grand scheme of my becoming invisible and rescuing Gaal," he muttered.

  A matmon prisoner in the next cage had been watching them intently. "They came for him straightaway," he said, "and they came with much haste and excitement. Hardly had they left him than they returned with high officials of the prison. The governor himself was with them."

  They stared at the matmon who was shaking his head and gripping the bars of his cage. There was a silence for a moment and then a babble of questions from the followers of Gaal and a babble of answers from many of the prisoners.

  "Where's the place of execution?" John asked at length.

  The matmon who had spoken first was the one to reply, turning his head in a puzzled fashion, wondering where the voice had come from. "My lord, my lord the Invisible One," he said fearfully, "it is the grand altar, I suppose. They take one of us for sacrifice there from time to time. We just wait. We never know who it is going to be. But there was something special about him." He paused and seemed to be listening. Then hurriedly he added, "I know not how the rest of you escaped your cell, but get back quickly. They are returning."

  John had not heard whatever sound had warned of the approaching jailers, but as he looked over to the far side of the area, he could see the flickering light of torches illuminating the foot of the stairway by which they had originally descended. Already Eleanor and her two companions were hurrying toward the iron door that separated them from the smaller area where their own cell was. John followed them through it, carefully locking the door behind them. They stood in a circle, staring at one another and at the bunch of keys that appeared to be suspended in the air where John's invisible body stood.

  "That's the second time I've tried to do something with the Mashal Stone in order to help Gaal," John grumbled. "And both times it seems to have backfired. He warned me not to misuse it. Maybe I shouldn't even be wearing it now-but it's so comforting to have it on."

  Eleanor's face wore a strained expression. "What now?" she said.

  "Will they come here?" Bomgrith asked.

  "Who knows," Authentio replied.

  "Gaal said he would die," John said, his voice heavy with sudden despair. "It sounds as though he means what he said in the forest. But you fellows shouldn't be standing like this. Get into the cage in case they come in here."

  One after another they made their way through the cage door, pulling it closed after them. "Do not give way to sadness, my lord," Authentio said, directing his smile in the direction of John's keys. "If my lord Gaal chooses to be sacrificed, he must surely have a great plan in his heart. All will be well, I know!"

  John did not reply. Nor did he bother to lock the cage door. He turned to look at the door at the far side of the room, half realizing he had seen it before. "I'm going to find out what's behind that door. You never know where it might lead." In spite of Authentio's words, the disappearance of Gaal and the sight of his clothing had disheartened him. Nevertheless his mind was still working on escape.

  He walked over to the door and saw at once several locks, some of them padlocks, and three of them keyholes for locks in the body of the door. Light came through the keyholes, and when he peered through one of them he felt a mild surge of hope.

  "There's a street outside," he announced slowly, "-not a courtyard or anything. Just an ordinary street. I can even see houses."

  "I know the street well," Bomgrith said. "There is a door behind this prison. I have seen it many times."

  John tried one key after another, both in the keyholes and on the padlocks. None worked. Then at the height of his frustration he remembered the key in his pocket. He was about to try to use it when from behind him, he heard the turning of another key. He swung round. The iron door through which they had just come opened and five goblin guards entered. For a moment they stood still, staring now at their prisoners, now around the whole room. "Heee eeez nut heeeer," one said.

  Slowly it produced a bunch of keys similar to the one in John's hand, approaching the cage door as it did so. It inserted the key, struggled to turn it, withdrew it, stared at the key and tried again. As it struggled the second time it seemed to realize the door was unlocked, left the key in the lock, looked up at the prisoners and drew its sword. Meanwhile two of the guards had discovered the dry area on the floor outside the cage. There was an intensity, a suggestion of panic in their strangely monotonous voices as they said, almost simultaneously, "Eeeet eeez heeez death place."

  Now all five had their swords drawn and they turned menacingly to the prisoners. Eleanor, Authentio and Bomgrith backed fearfully toward the rear of the cage, their eyes on the goblins. John's heart contracted. Still invisible and at the far end of the room, he knew he must act quickly. Did goblins believe in ghosts? He raised the keys in the air with his left. hand and began to jingle them, crying in his best imitation of a goblin's voice, "Heee eeez deadl Heee eeez dead!"

  The effect on them was immediate and dramatic. All of them turned round, saw the dancing keys and stared at them in fear. The goblin who had tried to open the door, and the two by the dry patch seemed to freeze. Two others began to back toward the door. In panic John realized they must not be allowed to get through it. Drawing his sword he hurtled across the room. The goblins were quicker, but in their blind panic two of them attempted to pass through it at the same time and got stuck. They were still struggling when John flung his weight against the door, slamming it, cutting through their fragile bodies with the hard steel of the door. The mess of their fluid remains boiled on the floor.

  In fury he turned to face the other goblins, who stood, eyes wide and staring at the floating keys and sword. He never paused. With swift sword strokes he decapitated all three.

  "Oh, well done, John! Well done!" he heard Eleanor say between choking and coughing at the boiling stench. He himself retched dryly and said nothing, except, once he could stop retching and get his breath, "Let's get away from here as fast as we can. There'll be more of them coming sooner or later, and it won't be just goblins next time."

  He plucked the treasure key from his pocket, worrying at the time it might take to open the door with so many locks on it, even if the key worked. He need not have worried. The key glowed and vibrated as he drew it from its resting place. And as he pointed it in the direction of the door the padlocks sprang apart Every lock gave way and of its own accord the door swung open.

  Once in the street they abandoned any attempt at shuffling disguise and ran in the direction of the temple, toward a point from which they could enter the tunnel system. There were shouts behind them, but their pursuers never caught sight of them. Guided by Bomgrith they soon found themselves crouching behind a bush by one of the monoliths that surrounded the temple, making sure there was no one to observe them as they entered the tunnel system by yet another secret entrance. Less than half an hour later they were back in the walls of the city, making for a room where "the leaders," as Bomgrith called them, met.

  "Who are the leaders?" John asked. He had heard about them several times since he had been in Bamah, and had often wondered.

  "They're the people who were closest to Gaal, both Regenskind and matmon -people he'd released from the spell ages ago."

  At length they emerged from the tunnels into a cave some distance beyond the city walls. Their sudden appearance caused surprise, and their story dismay and alarm. About thirty men, women and matmon were gathered there. John, who had removed the Mashal Stone from around his neck, stared at them gloomily. He had seen a few of them before, but most were strangers. They looked s
ingularly unimpressive. His spirits, which were already low, sank even further as he glanced at them. What good would such a pitiful bunch do? What hope was there that anything would turn out right?

  Bomgrith's story provoked questions. There was a good deal of interest in John's invisibility. "It arises from a stone called the Mashal Stone that he may wear on a chain around his neck," Bomgrith explained.

  There was talk about the potential of such a stone. One young matmon urged that the stone be used to rescue Gaal. John was irritated. "That was Pontificater's grand scheme, and so far it hasn't done a scrap of good," he said. "In any case we have no idea where Gaal is. And I for one am fed up with penetrating the Circle's territory. It doesn't work. And Gaal said that I could use the stone once more and then give it to-give it to-" a look of wonder, and then a smile crossed his face "- give it to Authentio. Somehow I'd forgotten till just now!"

  He glanced over at the young man, who stared back at him, his lips parted in astonishment.

  "Listen to me, all of you. I could use it to rescue Gaal!" cried the matmon who had first suggested the idea. "I have the courage that his lordship evidently lacksl"

  "You could not use it-and you will not, you bombastic jackanapes! " John snapped. "The Mashal Stone is for me to use. Gaal's orders are explicit. I don't intend to disobey them for some fool idea that any upstart idiot-leader or not-gets into his fool head."

  The matmon flushed, and there were murmurs of astonishment. But there were also more questions about all that had happened. There was particular concern about Prodo Tehs, and even more concern about Gaal.

  "Listen!" John interrupted impatiently. "Gaal told Eleanor and me-told us days ago in the enchanted forest, that he intended to die. There was also something about a black bull killing him. It didn't make sense then, and it doesn't now, but that's what he said."