“Maybe he did,” Josh said slowly.
“Did what?” Jake asked.
“Maybe he said exactly what he meant.”
“But where’s the road, Josh?”
Jake shook his red head in bewilderment. “What we need is a real road, with rocks on it you can pick up—not some sort of ideal way.”
“Right.” Wash nodded vigorously. “Like what we are standing in need of is a genuine, guaranteed, certified, literal road that will get us out of here.”
“Listen,” Mat said suddenly. “I think they’re getting ready to make another rush. And they may have us this time. Get your weapons ready!”
“Wait,” Josh said suddenly.
He held up his hand, and they all stopped their rush to the door as if they had run up against an invisible wall. “There’s a time to fight, and there’s a time to obey. And right now we’re going to obey Goél.”
“But how, Josh?” Sarah asked. “We don’t know what—”
“We don’t have time to do anything but obey Goél,” Josh said. “Now listen. What do the words say? Never mind for now about what they mean. What do they say?”
“Well,” Reb said slowly, his face twisted in thought, “the words say there’s a road.”
“Right,” Josh cried. “Now, where is it?”
“Well, we don’t really know,” Jake said.
“Maybe we ain’t supposed to know that,” Reb suggested.
“Nonsense,” Josh said. “The words tell us where the road is.”
“Where, Josh?” Sarah asked in bewilderment.
“The words say, ’Pass on through truth.’”
“But, Josh—” Sarah shook her head with a smile. “That’s just too vague. ‘Truth’—why that could be anything.”
“Let’s take it literally,” Josh said. He saw that none of them had the least idea of his meaning, so he pointed up at the wall and said, “Look!”
They all looked up, and there were the huge letters they had seen a hundred times:
YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE
They all stared blankly, then Sarah suddenly smiled a brilliant smile.
“Josh, you mean that ’truth’ is right there”
“Can’t see any other way,” Josh said. “Let’s look for some sort of a door or something right around that word TRUTH.”
“But there’s two of them,” Jake said.
“We’ll look at both.” Josh straightened and looked at the doors. “Hurry! I think they’re coming.”
They all scurried to the wall and began to feel the apparently solid stone walls that were directly behind the word TRUTH. Almost at once Wash cried out, “I think I hit the jackpot!”
He pointed to a small steel lever that extended from between the cracks of stone. There was the outline of a massive door—a faint hairline crack, almost hidden by centuries of fine dust.
“Quick!” Josh urged. “They’re coming!” He pushed the lever. Silently the massive stone swung open to reveal a narrow tunnel that led down into the earth.
“Inside, right now!” Josh cried. He shoved them in like chickens, calling every name to make sure none was left. “Hunters, you first. It’ll be dark inside, so you must guide us down. Volka, you next. Now you, Mat, Tam, and you, Amar and Rama—get in, now. Kybus, go along. Next, Sleepers—Dave, will you take Abbey’s hand? Jake, now you. Reb, Wash, and Sarah—”
He touched them all lightly as they stepped inside, then Josh tripped the lever. Just as the massive gate began to close, he jumped inside to safety, only a second before the gate slammed in place with a conclusive thud.
“They’ll never get through there!” he shouted as they began to walk downward. Even as they made their way along the passage, he thought he heard the faint, frustrated cries of the Sanhedrin, but then their babble faded to deadly silence.
Though it was completely dark, there was plenty of air. The Hunters led them carefully down the road that kept dropping more and more sharply. Finally, Josh was forced to lean backward to keep his balance. He could not judge the time, but it seemed a long while before the Hunters stopped and said something to Mat.
“They say that water is ahead,” Mat relayed.
Sure enough, the little band had not gone too far before the sound of rushing water could be heard. Slowly they edged forward until finally they stood beside a stone wharf that bordered a small stream. Then one of the Hunters spoke again, and Mat translated.
“He says there are torches on the wall.”
They groped around and discovered some dry sticks bound up and set in wall sockets. Soon they had made a fire and lit the torches. By the light, they saw five small wooden boats tied to the wharf.
“Who could have made those and left them here?” Dave wondered.
“I don’t know, but they made them for us, I think,” Josh said. “Everyone get in.”
There was a scrambling and a few nervous cries from Abbey and the Geminis. Finally, with Volka on one craft all by himself, and the others comfortably settled, Josh addressed the company. “Volka, you go first, and Sarah and I will bring up the rear.”
And so they slid away from the wharf, holding the torches high as they began their journey down the river.
“You know,” Wash said, his voice echoing in the cavern, “I bet the crowd upstairs is beating their brains out, wondering what we’ve done with ourselves!”
They all laughed at the thought of the Sanhedrin trying to explain their failure to Elmas. Then they grew quiet and marveled at the beauty of the cave, where glittering diamond icicles hung from the ceiling. The stream channel was cool after the heat of the battle, and there was a silence that seemed to wrap them in a protective garment.
“Josh,” Sarah said quietly after a long time, “we don’t know where this river goes for sure, do we?”
“Sure we do, Sarah,” Josh said with a broad grin. “Remember the last of the song? It said that the river ‘leads, at last, to me.’”
He took a pull with the paddle and watched a silver fish swim under the boat.
After a little while he added, “I don’t know how long this river is—and I don’t know what lies around that next curve—but, Sarah, at the end of it we’ll be sure to see one thing!”
“What’s that, Joshua?” Sarah whispered.
Josh was sure she knew but wanted to hear him say it.
He caught up her hand and said in a glad voice, “At the end of this river we’ll find Goél waiting for us!”
The Seven Sleepers Series includes:
Flight of the Eagle #1 0-8024-3681-1 978-08024-3681-8
The Gates of Neptune #2 0-8024-3682-X 978-08024-3682-5
The Sword of Camelot #3 0-8024-3683-8 978-08024-3683-2
The Caves That Time Forgot #4 0-8024-3684-6 978-08024-3684-9
Winged Raiders of the Desert #5 0-8024-3685-4 978-08024-3685-6
Empress of the Underworld #6 0-8024-3686-2 978-08024-3686-3
Voyage of the Dolphin #7 0-8024-3687-0 978-08024-3687-0
Attack of the Amazons #8 0-8024-3691-9 978-08024-3691-7
Escape with the Dream Maker #9 0-8024-3692-7 978-08024-3692-4
The Final Kingdom #10 0-8024-3693-5 978-08024-3693-1
The Lost Chronicles of several adventures of the Seven Sleepers have been discovered!
The books in The Lost Chronicles Series includes:
The Spell of the Crystal Chair #1 0-8024-3667-6 978-08024-3667-2
The Savage Game of Lord Zarak #2 0-8024-3668-4 978-08024-3668-9
The Strange Creatures of Dr. Korbo #3 0-8024-3669-2 978-08024-3669-6
The City of the Cyborgs #4 0-8024-3670-6 978-08024-3670-2
The Temptations of Pleasure Island #5 0-8024-3671-4 978-08024-3671-9
The Victims of Nimbo #6- 0-8024-3672-2 978-08024-3672-6
The Terrible Beast of Zor #7 0-8024-3673-0 978-08024-3673-3
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