“Where’s Kybus?” Jake asked.
The others looked around, but the dwarf was indeed gone.
“Well, looks like the population is declining,” Jake commented.
“We can’t be too far from the next Sleeper,” Josh said.
“What are you hoping for?” Jake asked. “Do you really think that this Sleeper—or the last one—will have all the answers?”
“I—I don’t know, Jake. But we can’t go back. What else is left?”
There was a slight murmur of agreement, and Josh quickly tried to skip over their losses and doubts. “Now—where are we? How close to the Sleeper?”
“Not too far,” Tam said.
“Yes—very far,” Mat argued glumly. “Ten miles distance all right, but after only a mile walk we leave the woods and begin crossing the desert. Stones are like razors there, and it gets hot enough to fry an egg on the rocks.”
“Here’s the song,” Sarah said.
“’I am a lock without a key—
I guard my treasure silently.
“’No man that breathes
may pass through me.“’
“That’s 16 across and 8 down—see? Right here.” Josh pointed.
“Well, if we’re going, let’s go,” Mat concluded.
The travelers gathered their small supply of food and blankets and trudged through the trees without more talk. Nearly two hours passed before they made their way out of the woods and into scrubby forest. Then the ground quickly turned to sandy loam, spotted with low plants. Finally, they reached the edge of the real desert. The sun had risen only two hours before, but already the heat poured over the plain.
“Pull your coats or handkerchiefs over your faces,” Crusoe said. “We should wait until night, but we don’t have time. Are all the water bags and canteens filled?”
“Shore,” Reb said. “I reckon that sun ain’t no hotter’n an Arkansas sun. As Uncle Seedy used to say, it can’t be no worse than sliding down a forty-foot razor blade into a vat of alcohol!”
The passage through the Ghost Marshes had been terrible, but this was just as bad. Josh could feel the moisture being cooked out of his body, and the water they carried had to be conserved. The Hunters were sent out to watch for enemies or water, and they skimmed the land like hunting dogs.
“I’d shore like to have them fellers ‘long on a real hunt,” Reb said admiringly.
It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was sinking, when they found the sixth Sleeper. They had stopped to rest under the shade of a large rock formation, one of the few they had seen, when Sarah said suddenly, “This is it!”
“This is what?” Josh asked.
“This is where the Sleeper is—or close by. Look at the heart.”
They leaned closer and saw that the tiny heart was fully aglow.
Josh looked around. “But where? I don’t see a thing.”
“Then it must be in this rock,” Jake said. “Let’s look for a door—a hidden door.”
“It’s just like a story, ain’t it, Sarah?” Reb said. Then he uttered a shrill cry. “Ow!”
“What’s wrong, Reb?” Sarah asked.
“Just ’bout knocked my toe off on this here root—no, ’tain’t a root neither.”
He bent over, then gave what must have been his idea of a rebel cry. “It’s a handle—to a door!”
The travelers all spilled around him and began to scoop back the sand. Soon a square, steel door with a plain handle lay in the clear.
“Well, that was easy,” Josh said in relief. “Let’s get inside. Let me see the words to that song, Sarah.”
He read them out carefully, and the door swung open at once with a soft sigh.
“Well, strip me naked an’ hide my clothes! Ain’t that a caution!” Reb exclaimed admiringly.
Before they could stop him, Reb stooped and started to enter the dark door. Then with a cry he fell backward, as if struck by lightning.
“Reb! What is it?” Josh cried, as they gathered around him.
The Southerner was trembling, and his hat had fallen to the ground, revealing his pale, sun-bleached hair.
“I’m OK, but don’t nobody go through that door. It’s electric. Like to of knocked my head off.”
Cautiously, Josh reached his hand into the opening and drew it back with a yelp.
“It’s wired,” he confirmed.
The company stood helplessly in front of the open door.
“Well, what now?” Mat asked. “We can’t stay here long.”
Josh opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He could not think of one single answer. Finally he said heavily, “I—I just don’t know.”
Sarah must have seen how close to tears he was. She quickly said, “Let’s eat a bite and have some water. We’ll think of something. Volka, put Mr. Crusoe in the shade while we get the food.”
Sarah kept everyone busy with little chores to fend off discouragement. The Hunters came in, and while they were eating they spoke in Nuworld to Crusoe. It was obvious that what they said disturbed the old man.
He turned to them and said, “The Hunters have spotted a party coming across the desert. I fear it’s the Sanhedrin.”
Josh said, “What will we do, Mr. Crusoe?”
“I don’t know, my boy. We will have to trust.”
“I have it!” Sarah cried and jumped to her feet.
“What is it, Sarah? What’s wrong?” her friends began to ask.
“Oh, why don’t we just listen to the song?” she cried in a mixture of joy and anger. “The answer is so simple. ‘No man that breathes may pass through me.’ What does that mean?” she demanded.
“I reckon only dead men can get in there,” Reb answered.
“No! Listen to the words. No man may pass through. Man. But I’m not a man—so I can pass through.”
Sarah ran to the door. Before anyone could do more than cry out a warning, she had disappeared into the opening.
The others looked at each other in shocked surprise.
“That is some fine lady,” Jake said in admiration.
“I reckon I’d take her to the ice cream social anytime,” Reb said.
Josh made no comment. Instead, he kept his eyes glued to the door. Sarah’s bravery was admirable, but who knew what was in there? It could be a trap of some kind.
“I don’t like it,” he muttered finally.
“It’ll be OK, Josh,” Tam said. “Sarah will be fine.”
“If something doesn’t eat her, or if she doesn’t get caught in some kind of trap, or—”
Mat was off on a list of catastrophes, when Josh snapped at him. “I wish you’d keep quiet, Mat!”
They waited anxiously.
Finally Jake spoke. “I see something coming out.”
They all edged close, and two figures emerged, Sarah in front, and just behind her the sixth Sleeper—once again, not a muscular soldier or a formidable fighter. No, the sixth Sleeper stepped into the sun, blinking her eyes against the sudden light. She was the prettiest girl that Josh had ever seen.
“Hello,” she said huskily. “My name is Abigail.” And when she smiled, every masculine heart within twenty yards beat a little faster.
15
On the Wings of Eagles
Sarah looked on with disgust as the dark-haired Abbey sat on a rock with a clump of teenage males at her feet. They looked up at her with bright eyes as they told her all that had happened. Jake, Reb, and Josh sat in the front row with the Oldworld creatures not far behind. As Abbey smiled at them, there was an audible gasp from the audience.
“Well, Sarah,” Crusoe said, watching her keenly “Don’t you want to help our newest recruit get acquainted with Nuworld?”
Sarah knew Crusoe read her jealousy, but she couldn’t hide her disgust. “Look at them staring at her.” She stamped her foot impatiently. “Here we are about to be caught, sentenced to certain death, and all those fools can do is drool over a pretty face.”
“Well, she is a fine-loo
king girl, Sarah.” Crusoe smiled. “She can’t help that, can she?”
“No, but she could—she could—oh, I don’t know!”
Suddenly Sarah began to feel tears stream down her face. She threw herself into Crusoe’s thin arms.
Sarah had endured heat, hunger, danger, and other terrible things. Why would she cry over this girl she hardly knew?
Crusoe did not seem particularly worried. He smiled and murmured, “Don’t worry, Sarah. Abbey is a beautiful girl, but you have the ornament of a humble, yet proud, spirit. That’s what Josh—and the others—see in you.”
Sarah wanted to say, “I’d rather have her long eyelashes.” But instead she said, “Mr. Crusoe, what will happen to us? I mean, there’s no way that we can get away if the Hunters are right.”
“Not in the practical sense, child,” Crusoe said. “But you know, I found out one thing about this world, and no one wants to hear it.”
“I do,” said Sarah, leaning against him.
“Well, you will hear it then. Boiled down to one sentence, here it is: We learn little from good times, Sarah. We learn through difficult times.”
Sarah suddenly laughed. “Well, we ought to be learning now!”
She left Crusoe, and soon the group around Abbey broke up and re-formed around the small campfire.
“Ain’t it dangerous to have a campfire?” Reb asked.
“I don’t think so,” Crusoe answered. “If the attack force of the Sanhedrin is coming this way, they will find us.”
“What will we do then?” Josh asked.
“I don’t know, Josh. But this may be our last time together, so I want to say one thing to all of you—especially to you Sleepers. Something is being shaken in Nuworld. And you are at the heart of it.”
They all leaned forward to listen to the old man. Only the lonely sound of a desert fox broke the silence.
“Tomorrow may bring grief, but you must learn to kiss joy as it flies. Do not try to hang onto pleasures. They are all of the moment.” He looked at them with a prophetic fire in his fine old eyes. “The world is bent and ruined. It has been waiting for something—all of creation is standing on tiptoe, waiting! You are the hope of the world.”
“But we’re likely to be dead or in jail tomorrow,” Jake protested.
“Goél has caused you Sleepers to be protected and to be raised up at this time and in this place. It is your hour. It is the hour of the House of Goél.”
“What is that?” Sarah asked.
“The House of Goél is man—man as he should be. In these days, all peoples on earth will come to fill his house. And you stand as a sign, my children, that the House is ready, the doors are open. The invitation is in your hands.”
This speech seemed to have drained the old man of his frail strength, for he slumped back onto his blanket. The others looked at him, then at one another.
Finally Reb hesitantly remarked, “My land, looks like we’re somebody, don’t it?”
None of them slept much that night, and, just before dawn, Sarah felt Josh come to sit beside her as she stared into the east, waiting for sunrise.
She could not resist saying, “Well, did you finally get Her Majesty brought up to date?” Instantly, she regretted her cheap and mean remark.
Josh didn’t answer for a moment. Then he sighed and asked, “Are you mad at me, Sarah?”
“No,” she said and hurriedly averted her embarrassed face. “I’m just silly and tired and selfish. Don’t pay any attention to my moods.”
“Sarah,” Josh said slowly, “I might as well tell you. I’m scared to death.”
He hung his head and grasped a handful of sand in his fist. “I know I ought to be brave and all that—but I can’t help feeling scared,” Josh continued. Slowly he let the sand trickle through his fingers.
“Well, join the club.” Sarah gently slipped her arm around his shoulders. “Don’t you know we’re all scared?”
“Not Reb or Jake,” Josh objected. “And Dave wouldn’t be, either.”
“Oh, no? You’re just being honest.” She paused, then said, “Josh, just in case something happens tomorrow—and I know everything will be fine—but anyway, I want to tell you something. I want you to know how much I like you. I always have liked you, Josh, even in the other world.”
“You do!” Josh sat up and looked at her. “But I’m so plain and ordinary. I’m always saying the wrong thing—”
“And you’re always putting yourself down,” Sarah finished. “I just wanted to tell you—just in case—”
Josh seemed to want to say something to Sarah, but after her confession she hurriedly slipped away, and the opportunity passed.
∗ ∗ ∗
Soon the sun was up, and one of the Hunters—the one with the bulging eyes—said something that Josh couldn’t understand. He looked where the Hunter was pointing and saw a thin stream of dust. Josh jumped to his feet.
“Here, everyone. Get your bows ready. You have your swords? Now, Volka, you watch that side, and the Hunters …”
He continued to post them around the pile of rocks that formed a natural circle, but Mat said, “Josh, we won’t last five minutes.”
“Well, that five minutes will be ours and not theirs.” Josh’s rebellious spirit began to infect them all, and soon the company had developed a defense strategy.
By the time their plans were complete, the procession marching across the desert had come so close that Josh and his group could see the glint of their steel-tipped spears. The procession stopped, and the enemy began to fan out in a circle.
“They’re going to surround us,” Josh warned. “Be ready.”
His hope lay in the archers, but there were only four who were adept with bows, and arrows were scarce. Volka could destroy anything in his reach, but he would never be able to get close enough under the enemy’s bow-fire.
Finally the circle was complete. The enemy started to close in. Arrows began to whiz over the travelers’ heads, but Josh told the group to hold its fire. “Wait until they’re closer!”
The enemy was well-trained, however. They were not wasting men or ammunition. They drew back after one of them was wounded by an arrow from Mat’s bow.
“Reckon they’re going to wait us out,” Reb said. “Sure wish I had my old .30–30 for ’bout five minutes. I’d settle their hash.”
All morning they waited and grew more and more thirsty. Finally the long-sighted Hunter spotted more dust to the east and spoke to Crusoe.
“I would say they’re bringing up heavy equipment—shields and rolling turrets, I’d guess.” Crusoe spoke without a trace of despondency, and yet Josh’s heart ached when he heard the fatigue in the old man’s voice.
Crusoe’s astuteness hadn’t dimmed, however. He seemed to guess Josh’s thoughts and softly remarked, “No, Josh, there must always be some hope.”
Josh knew the rest had all been pretending to believe that hope remained. They had been calling out encouragement to each other all the long, undying morning. But now, with this new threat, it all seemed futile. The arrows fired by the enemy snapped at the rocks.
Josh’s thirst grew almost unbearable. And the dust cloud grew larger. “They’ll be here in an hour,” he croaked.
Then something happened. One of the enemy stepped out and called, “Adams! Joshua Adams!”
“What is it? Who wants me?”
“You are trapped, Adams,” the soldier said. “In thirty minutes we will have protection, and you will all be either dead or captured. I will make you a proposition. If you will surrender now, I will help you. The Chief Interrogator will listen to me. Why should you die uselessly? Surrender!”
“Don’t listen to him, Josh,” Sarah pleaded.
“I won’t—but he’s right. We only have a few minutes. I—I wish I could do something. We’ve gone through all this, and I don’t want to die for nothing—”
Suddenly there was a cry. “Look! Look up in the sky.”
Josh looked up and thought he
was losing his mind, for coming from nowhere was a large flight of eagles!
“The eagles come,” Volka said in his deep voice. “Just like the promise.”
Now they were closer, and Josh could see that a number of the huge birds had something around their necks. Then he saw that small people were riding on the backs of the eagles.
“What kind of bird is that?” Jake asked in stunned amazement.
“I guess they’re the kind that’s going to get us out of here,” Reb said. Then he gave a rebel yell and threw his straw hat as high as he could. “I shore wish Uncle Seedy was here to see this!”
“Look at the enemy!” Mat said. “They’re running!” And so they were. As the eagles circled above, their tiny riders fired a deadly rain of arrows on the Sanhedrin’s Servants. Bodies began to drop. The survivors fled the scene like so many rabbits.
With open mouth, Josh watched one large bird land ten feet in front of him.
A voice said, “I bring eagles, just like old book say, eh?” A crumpled figure slipped from a saddle on the mighty bird’s back and ran forward to grab Josh.
“Kybus!” Josh cried out and hugged the little gnome in a wild dance. “But where did you come from? And what are these birds?”
“My people sometimes called Birdpeople. We tame birds, and they serve us. We their friends. These our riding birds.”
They were not true eagles, Josh saw, but some kind of condor. Even in the Oldworld, eagles had been very large, but these birds had wings that must have spanned twenty-five feet. They had beaks large enough to bite a man in two, but they did not seem fierce at all.
“When I hear ‘bout eagles, I know I can go to my people, and they come for us. Come, we go now.”
“Go where?” Josh asked.
“To seventh Sleeper. There!”
Kybus pointed across the deserts to snowcapped peaks.
“Beyond mountains is place you show on map. No can walk—we fly. Come, everyone get one, and we fly.”
The other travelers had come close enough to hear. Soon it became clear that they were going to have to mount the huge birds and ride them high in the sky.
“I get airsick,” Abbey complained.
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