by John White
"Excellent, spirit, excellent!" Lunacy's laugh sent ripples through the sinister tapestries of war. "He-Whose-Naine-We-WillNot-Dirty ... but we wander from our purpose. What of his three deluded followers?"
"We know, majesty, you considered it most important that the three followers of-I shall say only That Unspeakable One-that those three be destroyed before they could come before King Tiqvah. As soon as they arrived in Anthropos, we sent the flying monsters' swarm to slay them. The plan failed for reasons I do not fully understand. We arranged to imprison them. Then, according to plan, we freed them. They were to be slain by the guards in the corridor. Meanwhile, the one called Betty was to be enveloped by the same light that had freed them. She would be taken to a place of safety where we would groom her for our purposes."
"Very clever, that light in the cells the jailers couldn't see. Was that your idea?"
"Thank you, your majesty, yes."
"You show promise after all, spirit. I have constant need of inventiveness in my battles. It is true that our enemy has not shown himself for years; yet I do not imagine he has withdrawn from the fight. I never underestimate our foe." Lunacy closed his eyes a moment. The spirit surveyed his ghostly face and stood in jealous awe of his power.
Lunacy's eyes opened. His gaze pierced the gray form. "The fact remains that those miserable three were not slain by the guards. There was some foolery about magic that planted cowardice in their hearts." The Lord of Darkness snorted. "Afraid of mere trickery! I regret I ever called some of them to my service. But never mind that. My latest information is that something went badly wrong in the square. Are you able to enlighten me?"
"They ran, sir."
"Ran?"
"We captured Betty."
"The wretched three are still at large?"
"Not for long, majesty. A search is underway. As you know, our representatives in the city are numerous."
The Dark Lord Chuckled. Paintings rattled in their frames. "As numerous as bees," he said. He settled himself more comfortably. The spirit became uneasy. How long would this interview continue? Lunacy said, "What I wish from you now is your strategy. Tell me how you will destroy them before they reach King Tigvah."
"There are several possibilities. I must remind your majesty that the palace is not yet fully under our control. I do not know whether we can prevent-"
"Be brief. I feel something takes place this moment in Nephesh."
"I feel it also, my lord. My words will he few. Perhaps it is not necessary to keep them from the king. There are other methods ..." The spirit's gray mist grew less distinct. "Forgive me, my lord, I must depart."
"Yes, yes, I know. But keep in mind, spirit, I do not like failure. I consider it an insult to the perfection of my plans." Lunacy's voice rose. "You will succeed this time, or it will not go well for you!"
A few wisps in the heavy air were all that remained of the grayish mist.
King 'I'igvah reined his horse to a halt just before it bumped its nose on Lisa's forehead. She felt the warm breath from the horse's nostrils and noticed that his white nose was marked with a snip of black. She wanted to reach out and stroke the velvety muzzle. A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She thought, I'm being arrested! I've got to tell Tiqvah who I am! What should I say? Will he remember me?
"Out of the way, little lady, you'll he run over there." A soldier tried to push Lisa toward the sidelines. She wanted to shout, "I'm not a little lady! I'm an escaped criminal!" She planted her feet against the soldier's efforts. He glared at the crowd and demanded, "Whose child is this?" Everyone looked away; no one answered. The guard turned from the people in disgust. "Another one, your majesties. It is disgraceful to your royal persons that such children are allowed to run wild in the streets of Nephesh."
The king called out, "Swiftlope! This girl shall be taken to join the other abandoned children. Let Anthropos know that the king's heart is ever open to such as these." Lisa looked up between the white horse's ears into Tiqvah's face. She took a deep breath and said very loudly, "Your majesty! I am not an abandoned child! I am Lady Lisa Friesen from another world!" Normally she would never talk that way to an important person. However, these were not normal circumstances. The king's horse pricked its ears forward. Lisa kept going. "When you were a boy, I came with my brothers, Kurt and Wesley, to the cave beneath the sea. In that cave you hid with your mother, Suneidesis. Together we ate the bread-bread and fish-and water-which Gaal provided. In the cave-the inner cave-at the back of the cave, that is, where the witch thought she had you trapped."
She faltered. Tiqvah's expression did not change. Did she have her facts straight? Did he think she was a silly child who made up stories? She thought of a crowning touch. "After we rescued you, you stood on the deck of the Thunderhead and watched the witch's ice palace catch on fire! You told your father you didn't know ice could burn!"
Tiqvah's eyes widened. The lady leaned toward him and asked, "What palace of ice is this? What thunderhead does she mean?"
The king threw his head back and sent out a laugh that could only be called "merry." It was like the laugh of a large, overfed monarch from a storybook, or even like Santa Claus. But Tiqvah was thin. Too thin. His face had an angular look, and his clothing was loose, as though his thinness had recently come on him. Again Lisa recalled the gaunt man on the TV screen. "Swiftlope!" he called again.
Lisa found herself face-to-face with a silvery gray Koach tall enough to look her in the eye. The huge wolf yipped and pushed its cold nose against her forehead. It was a doglike greeting, so tame and domestic that Lisa wondered if this really was a Koach. The animal sat, cocked its head and whined its way through several pitches.
Lisa caught on. "Do you think I can talk Koach? I'm sorry. I can't. Do you speak the common speech?"
"Of course. I learned it as pup. I am Swiftlope, special attendant to his majesty, King Tigvah, and her majesty, Queen Hisschi. Come with me." Swiftlope rose, put his shoulder against Lisa and nudged her in the direction from which the procession had come. He growled something about "dirty little thing." Lisa hoped she had rid herself of all the telltale dungeon straw. She asked the wolf, "Excuse me, but is Queen Hisschi the beautiful lady on the bay horse?"
The wolf swung his huge head around and stared at Lisa with yellow eyes. He snarled, "I)o you make some strange sort of joke?"
"No, of course not. I just wondered."
"How could anyone in Anthropos not know of our queen? Ah, surely you are a runaway child from some from far land. Queen Hisschi is the most noble lady of the kingdom. Her wisdom is a light in our darkness."
"Really?" Lisa had never known a Koach to be so eloquent.
"Her majesty came to us when our need was greatest. Our king was an able ruler, but he had ruled too long alone. He had no mate to be his comfort and strength. Then he went to the region of Playsion to hunt fenfinch. Have you eaten fenfinch pie? It was a delicacy much loved by the late King Kardia. At any rate, it was King Tigvah's good fortune, and the good fortune of the kingdom, that his gaze fell upon the Lady Hisschi. All is better in our land since the two were wed."
Lisa sighed. "Sounds like a wonderful love story." She looked up at a surging wall of people and gasped, "We're going to get trampled!"
The silvery wolf commanded, "Place your hand on my back and take hold of my fur." She did so, and the crowd parted to let the strange pair through.
For the second time in two days rude hands shoved Wes and Kurt into a room against their will. For the second time they heard a door slam behind them. They blinked and caught their breath. Where were they? What was going on? Things had happened too fast. A shopkeeper had caught them hiding behind some crates of geese and turned them over to a couple of official-looking men in dark-blue tunics. These men muttered things about "dirty children of the street" and took them to a pale-colored stone building that the boys did not recognize. They expected to wind up in another foul dungeon with a barred door. Instead they found themselves in a large, bright room w
here high windows showed squares of sunny blue sky.
They were not alone. About a dozen children around Kurt and Wes's ages were in the room. That played games at tables or talked or slept or simply stared at the walls. All were unkempt and dirty. Their clothing was torn and stained, and some wore clothes too big or too small.
Silence fell as everyone stared at the two newcomers. Wes and Kurt looked around for Lisa and Betty, but they were not there. They were glad to see bread, cheese, fruit and nuts spread out on it table. The food looked stale but edible.
"Where'd you come from?" a large girl demanded. She wore a patched tunic, and her filthy feet were bare. Kurt and Wes sensed each other's caution. They dared not say much yet. The girl shrugged and said, "Never mind. Makes no difference anyhow."
Wes thought he should at least introduce himself and Kurt. Not only was it polite, it might lead the others to reveal something of who they were, what this place was and why they were all here. Wes began, "Hi everybody. I'm Wesley Friesen, and this is my brother Kurt."
A small boy spoke tip in a high thin voice. He was seated on the floor with a web of string around his fingers. He looked to be the youngest in the room. For an instant the Friesens thought his hands were bound with weaver bee silk, but he only played a game like cat's cradle with ordinary string. The small boy asked, "Are you going with us tomorrow?"
Wes felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. Going with themwhere? To another prison? To a workhouse? To the hangman? As casually as possible he asked, "Going where?"
The small boy's eyes went wide with amazement. "You don't know?" He grinned at the chance to show off his knowledge. "Tomorrow morning we're all going to the royal lodge!"
The Friesens could hardly believe the boy's words. The royal lodge on Lake Nachash! They had been there! Kurt blurted out, "We know that place! That's where King Kardia fought the dragon and got wounded and later he died and-" He was about to say "and Wes here killed the dragon!" But Wes guessed what was coming. He nudged Kurt hard in the side and coughed. Kurt wanted to bite his own tongue in two. How could he be so stupid? These people would think he was crazy. In Anthropos time the battle at the lodge had happened years before they were born.
An older girl unwittingly covered for Kurt. She scolded him, "Quit showing off. Who cares how much old history you know?"
A tall, muscular boy approached. He looked to be the oldest in the room. His face bore several scars that could have been from knife fights, and his nose was crooked as if it had been broken. His greeting was also a challenge: "Don't stand there like a couple of stone statues. Come on, want to play a game of Kill the Rat?"
The Friesens moved further into the room. Most of the children lost interest and went back to their games or talk. A few closed in to look at them more closely. "Where'd you get those fine fancy clothes asked the girl who had warned Kurt not to show off. Despite some stains and rips, the clothes Wes and Kurt wore were much better than the tattered rags of these children.
"Stole them from a shop, didn't you!" said the tall boy. He looked at the brothers with new admiration. Kurt changed the subject. "I don't know how to play Kill the Rat," he said. He didn't want to learn, but the boy offered, "I'll teach you!" The scarred boy then dragged two extra chairs to a table piled with small wood pieces. "Come on, it's easy. Or are you scared you'll lose?"
"I've never lost a game of Kill the Rat yet," Kurt bragged-which was true. He helped himself at the food table and then sat down to play. Wes took food also but shook his head no at the game. He wanted to do some quiet investigation.
The smallest boy still sat on the floor and frowned at the web of string around his fingers. Wes sat next to him and asked, "Here, can I try?" Perhaps if he demonstrated his skill at cat's cradle, the boy would open up to him. Wes hadn't tried cat's cradle in years and soon had the string in a hopeless tangle. The small boy took back the string and quickly demonstrated several complex patterns.
"You know a lot for your age," Wes said. "I'll bet you know why we're being sent to the royal lodge."
"It's because we don't have homes, and we don't have anyplace to go. I think some of us are sick too. But I'm not. Anyway, we don't have mothers or fathers to take care of us, so they're going to take care of us there."
Wes got a painful lump in his throat. These were unwanted children with no homes-perhaps orphaned, perhaps abandoned, perhaps both. For the first time in his life he could sympathize with children like these. He knew the hurt of a home that was about to shatter-that already had shattered. The actual split between John and Eleanor would be only a formality. He was embarrassed that tears stung his eyes. He tried to concentrate on the small boy's game.
A thin-faced girl with stringy hair joined the conversation uninvited. "Oh, they'll take care of us all right," she said. She gave it short sharp laugh. The sarcasm in her voice made Wes look up and try to catch his brother's eye. Kurt was busy learning Kill the Rat under the loud and critical instruction of his tutor. Wes raised his voice in Kurt's direction. "Who'll take care of us there? Take care of us how?"
"We'll get all kinds of good food," ventured the small boy. "We'll play games and swim in the lake every day." Wes wondered if it was true. He thought he would enjoy that. It sounded like summer camp. He'd like to go to a place like that forever. The boy continued, "We'll have lots of fun and get fresh air and sunshine and-"
Across the room, for no apparent reason, a boy about Kurt's age began to wail and cry. The littlest boy was startled into silence. The girl with stringy hair said, "Oh, don't mind him. He does that all the time."
Now Kurt looked at Wes with a question in his eyes. Everyone else ignored the distressed boy, who continued to howl. Wes stood and walked over to him. Kurt got up and followed. His opponent in Kill the Rat sneered, "Where are you going? What's the matter? You a sore loser?"
Gently Wes asked the crying boy, "What's wrong?" He sniffled and wailed even louder. Wes sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders while Kurt sat on the other side. Kurt had caught it little of Wes's conversation with the boy who played cat's cradle. Like Wes, he felt sharp sympathy with these children. He knew a little of how they felt. If only there was a place like that camp where they could go forever and escape all family problems.
The crying boy moaned, "I'm scared. I don't want to go to that place." As if the boy's fear broke a dam, a jumble of voices from around the room joined the conversation. "You want to miss out on all that food and fresh air and sunshine?" "I heard after we get well, we'll live in beautiful homes with rich families. We'll never have to live on the streets of Nephesh again." "You're right about one thing-we'll never live on the streets again!" "I hope they don't feed us figs. I don't like figs." "No fear of that! There's no figs where you're going."
The strange words bounced around the room while the boy between Kurt and Wes howled more loudly. Above the din, the large girl in the ragged tunic declared, "They can't scare me! I'm not scared of anything!" She swaggered around the room in a display of bravado. Over and over she insisted, "They can't scare me!"
"There's nothing to be afraid of," Wes assured the boy. He wondered why he said it. He was a little afraid now. Meanwhile, the big girl kept up her unconvincing performance. She paced back and forth bragging, "They can't scare me! I'm not scared of anything!"
Then the blue light came.
The room with high windows faded away in a swirl of intense blue brightness. Far away, as from inside a well, the girl still boasted, "I'm not scared!" Wes and Kurt couldn't see her. They couldn't see anyone except each other. The others in the room had disappeared and only the Friesens remained.
No. There was someone else. Someone approached. He walked toward them with powerful strides as though he moved across a prairie or a snowfield. At the same time, he was already in the room. With every step lie carne closer, not across-the-room closer but closer in some other, more important way. It was Gaal himself, Gaa1 the Shepherd, the Lord of All Worlds!
Gaal's long tunic
glowed with intense blue light. His hair and beard were white, but he walked with the vigor of youth. His powerful arms swung freely, and his posture was straight and proud. He was ageless-one who was ancient yet ever young. His face bore lines of deep suffering and sorrow; yet through them shone a brighter joy. But what captured and held the children's attention were his wonderful eyes. They sparkled and shone with glad welcome.
Wes and Kurt rushed forward-into another part of the room? into an open field? They could not tell, nor did they care. They ran into Gaal's embrace. He smelled as good as ever, a clean cedary scent of wood and outdoors and freedom. After a long moment they backed away and gazed up into his face. Gently he smiled down at them. He asked, "Are you surprised to see me? Did you not expect I would meet you here in Anthropos?"
Wes floundered for an answer. "Of course we expected to see you, Gaal, but I guess we're kind of distracted right now. All kinds of strange stuff is going on in Anthropos. And we don't know what's happened to Lisa."
Kurt's face brightened. "You know where she is, don't you, Gaal? She's all right, isn't she?"
Gaal did not answer directly. "I know all about the events of the past days. I know that the two of you and your sister have acted bravely, though not always with the greatest wisdom. Wesley, you did good work on the lakeshore when the bee swarm attacked. You used the Sword of Geburah with great skill."
Wes looked down, embarrassed. "I thought so at first. Then I realized I didn't do anything. You're the one who saved us."
"True, I did save you. I love you, and I have work for you to do here in Anthropos. All the same, you did what was right. You called on me in your heart. You picked up the sword. You used your skill not only for yourself but for your brother and sister-arid for your friend Betty Riggs."