Gaal the Conqueror

by John White

  Eleanor's eyes widened. "What could he do?"

  "We have planned for it for many months, knowing that sooner or later we would have to face it," Authentio said slowly. "Shagah would try to cast on us the same spell that you saw in the village beside the fjord. But when Gaal passed through our village he taught us many things. He taught us how we might detect the approach of evil, how to resist the dark powers and how to flee temptation. Nevertheless, I fear lest I find an empty village when we arrive."

  When about noon they reached the village, having left the wood behind, they found the very thing Authentio had dreaded. Unnatural stillness. Doors and windows were open. Neither Rgenskind nor animals were anywhere to be seen. In Authentio's cottage the sight of open drawers, yet of general tidiness, told a tale of a flight taken in haste. But the dust on the furniture and the withered house plants told them that days had passed since the inhabitants had left.

  Authentio's face was white. "They fled rather than let the sleep overtake them," he said. "They have gone to the walls of Bamah to join the followers of Gaal. They may already be there."

  "In Bamah?" John asked in astonishment.

  "Yes, in Bamah. The very walls that surround the city are honeycombed with tunnels and dwelling places that are hidden from the eyes of the Circle. There is refuge there, right in the presence of evil."

  Authentio's mind seemed to work clearly, but his air was distracted. "Forgive me," he said at length, "but I must run with all speed to Bamah, and I cannot insist that you keep pace with me. My mother-" He bit his lip and then began again. "If you continue southeast you will cross a brief arm of desert that begins three hours from here. Use the stars to guide you. Numa is dead north. And in the south, one point off due south, there's another star you-will see-Shuma. Better to sleep when you reach the edge of the desert and to cross it by night. After that the woods begin again. There is a natural valley on the far side of it that leads to a path through the forest. In ten days or so you should emerge from the forest near Bamah."

  "You're leaving us?" Eleanor asked.

  Authentio's face was haunted. "I'll be going ahead of you," he said uneasily, "and will do what I can to warn you of any dangers I may encounter. But you have the treasures. Use them." He said little more after that. He made sure they understood the way, saw to it they had provisions for a day, started them along the correct path, then embraced and left them. The last they saw of him he was running lithe and light, with never a backward look, toward the desert.

  They reached the edge of the desert by midafternoon and lay down to rest. Eventually, warmed by the sun, they fell into an uneasy sleep. They woke a little over an hour later, in John's case from a dream of falling, falling, falling. A distant roar was rapidly getting closer and louder. The sensation of falling continued even when they were awake, creating the sensation that they were shooting down an elevator out of control. Scrambling to their feet they discovered that the earth was shaking and rolling beneath them, throwing them to the ground. They struggled in terror to regain their balance.

  "It's an earthquake!"John gasped. He struggled to remember what you were supposed to do in an earthquake, but could remember none of the things he had read. Eleanor was crying and trying to hold on to him, so that they staggered uncertainly together. For several minutes they continued to panic. In an attempt to keep their own fears at bay, they assured each other breathlessly that everything would be all right and that nothing was going to happen to them. At last the noise subsided.

  There was no sleep for the rest of the day. Several times they felt tremors, but nothing like the shaking that had wakened them. The afternoon grew cool, and they sipped their water carefully, trying to make it last till they reached the other side of the desert. They were too tense to be hungry.

  "You know-it sounds crazy, but I think I'm right. The earth's tilted. We're going to have to climb slightly as we go." They felt strangely reluctant to continue on their journey. First they made sure the book was firmly strapped to John's back, and that Eleanor was comfortable with the orb, the key and her share of provisions. John said, "I guess we might as well start."

  In spite of the rough terrain, and even though they were climbing slightly all the way, the first part of the night was thoroughly enjoyable. They began by treating themselves to five swallows of lukewarm water from the leather water bottle. Though they had eaten nothing all day, thirst and excitement combined to mask their hunger, and the water served to render their thirst bearable.

  "Did you ever see such stars?" Eleanor breathed wonderingly. A multitude of diamonds stared down unblinking from the crowded velvet sky. The stars sometimes seemed close enough to touch, and their light was bright enough for them to spot boulders and rough spots. The cool air braced them, so that they took deep breaths of it.

  "Don't walk so fast. I can hardly keep up with you. I'm out of breath," John said to Eleanor at length.

  Eleanor stopped. "You kidding?" she said, astonished.

  "No, why?"

  "Because I was trying to keep up with you!"

  They laughed and resumed their walk at almost the same pace. So the night wore on. Twice they stopped momentarily as they sensed the ground tremble beneath their feet. But there was no repetition of the earlier severity. Later the moon rose and the stars sulked and shrouded their splendor. From time to time the two companions stopped briefly for water, beginning to empty their bottles. Gradually their pace slackened and weariness began to dog them. At one point Eleanor said, "This is such a long night. Are all nights this long?"

  But at last, as dawn began to lighten the sky on their left they squeezed the last drops from the water bottle. John felt both guilty and worried as they did so. How would they get through another day and night in the desert without water? They were already thirsty. Neither of them complained for each was determined to display no sign of weakness.

  Soon the eastern sky began to glow pink. "What's that ahead?" Eleanor asked suddenly. "It looks like a man-a big man!"

  John stared into the darkness. Certainly there was a shadowy something ahead of them in the darkness. Cautiously they advanced. "It's awfully big," John whispered, "and it doesn't move. It's more like a tree."

  Which is exactly what it was-an oak tree, apparently in full leaf, standing alone in the desert. They faced east sitting among the roots and leaning their backs against the trunk as they watched the sky turn gray, and color gently invade the eastern horizon.

  "Whatever is it doing here?" Eleanor asked. "There's no water, no lake, no river. It's not as if there were an oasis."

  Like liquid silver the rim of the sun stole over the horizon. John grinned. "Perhaps the tree's a mirage. Perhaps we just imagine we're leaning against it."

  But Eleanor was serious. "I think there's something strange about it-like it's meant to be here-like it's expecting us."

  Slowly the sun revealed itself, a distant peacock opening a shining tail. But John was not watching. He had risen to his feet and was facing the trunk of the tree, hardly noticing his own shadow framed by pinkish light. Rubbing his hands cautiously over the bark, he said, "Know what?"

  Eleanor stopped squinting at the sun and turned to look up at him. "What are you thinking?"

  "It might be a Gaal tree."

  "What's that?"

  "A tree that has a big room inside its trunk. It's sort of bigger on the inside than on the outside. We had them when I was here last time."

  "No kidding! How do we find out if it is?"

  John didn't answer for a moment. Then he said, "It's funny. I didn't think of it until just now, but when you talked about this Gaal person, I knew the name was familiar, but I didn't realize why. I wonder if Gaal trees have anything to do with Gaal? Mab used to tell it to open in the name of the Changer."

  "The Changer? Oh, yes. Ponty said he was the Uncreated Creator-or something." Eleanor scrambled to her feet, her eyes shining with excitement. "Think you could open it? I don't see any sign of a door."

 
"Who knows? You never do see a door until it opens. But we've got nothing to lose. We've no water for tomorrow."

  They stared at each other in silence. Eleanor said, "If the trees do exist I bet they have something to do with Gaal. He's like that. I hope you get to meet him."

  John was thinking. "Mebbe if I ask it to open-mind you, it may not be a Gaal tree. At any rate ..." He let his sentence trail into nothingness, then drew back several paces and stared at the tree. After a moment he said, "I'm going try it." He drew in a deep breath. Then, "Tree, I command you. Open in the name of the Changer!" Slowly a door swung open in the trunk

  Eleanor said, "Oh ... oh, oh!" and quickly stepped through.

  John followed her. "It worked!" he cried. "It worked! It's just like last time! I was scared nothing would happen ... "

  "But look!" Eleanor was squeaky with excitement. "How can it be like this? It's so big in here!"

  It was indeed big. They found themselves standing in a large, roughly circular room. Not far from the door was a table before a window overlooking the desert. It was laden with dried figs, dates, raisins and fresh fruits, oat cakes and jugs of water and of milk. Divans and soft carpets filled the rest of the room. A winding staircase led them up to two bedrooms in each of which there was a four-poster bed with the sheets carefully folded back. In each bedroom on a side table stood an oldfashioned china jug and washbasin with soap and towel.

  "It's like a house!"

  "A tree house?"

  "Well, a house in a tree, but how on earth ..."

  "I know," John said. "It's always like this. You get used to it."

  "Is it O.K if I take this bedroom? The curtains are sort of frilly, and you wouldn't want ..."

  "I couldn't care less-I'm too tired to worry about curtains!"

  In the circular room they tackled the fruit and the oat cakes, quenching their thirst with the milk, all the time feeling that they were dreaming. Then satisfied and refreshed they sat together, too sleepy to move. At length they shook themselves and went upstairs to bed.

  "Good night!" John said sleepily.

  Eleanor giggled. "It's really morning," she said. "But who cares?"

  Two minutes later they were both fast asleep.

  Sunlight flooded John's bedroom, and for the longest time he lay staring at the ceiling, dreamily examining the beams supporting it. He knew where he was, but he did not know when it was. He thought it was early the next morning, whereas it was in fact the late afternoon of the same day.

  Slowly his mind began to rest on the events of their journey, the dragon, the earthquake, the trek by night over the desert. How long had he been in Anthropos? Surely it amounted to more than a couple of weeks! It seemed more like a month. The thought of time made him think of his father. How long was it in Canadian time? Would his father get impatient and come? Anxiety like a gimlet stabbed into his dreaminess, and he sat up, no longer sleepy, but alert and afraid.

  Slowly John walked over to the window and stared. The desert looked exactly as it had done on the previous day. Sand and spiny bushes stretched endlessly as far as the horizon in every direction. How long would their journey take? How would he get back? Would his father come there-and die?

  He poured water into the basin and slowly bathed himself. The towel on which he dried himself was soft and comforting, and somehow the process of bathing and drying calmed him, and made him feel better. He turned to the bed and was bewildered to find a change of clothing there. There was clean underwear and a fresh pair of sandals. The other garments were the same, except that they were of lighter material. He dressed and was about to buckle on his sword-belt when there was a knock on the door.

  "Come in!"

  Eleanor slid through the door, shiningly groomed and in clean clothes. "Hi!" Eleanor said, "Did your clothes-"

  "You mean yours did too?"

  "Is somebody living here? A servant or something? It's like magic."

  "No, not magic. Mab explained it to me once. It's much better than magic. It has to do with love-the Changer's love."

  "Who's Mab? You keep talking about him."

  "Didn't I explain when I told you my story? He's really my dad. Only I'd never met him till I came to Anthropos. And he didn't even know he had a son. But when I think of what we did together here, I still think of him as Mab-that's what we all called him then. Let's go down and eat," John said after a moment. "I'm hungry."

  They set out once darkness had fallen, and Shuma the star in the south could be clearly identified. But their journey was less enjoyable than it had been the previous night. Their steps were sluggish. Their legs ached and they had blisters on their feet. And because they were careless they finished their water long before dawn.

  Morning found them thirsty and trudging drearily forward, hoping that they would see some sign of the forest or else that they would come across another Gaal tree. But desert stretched endlessly before them. At length Eleanor stopped and said, "I don't think I've ever been either as tired or as thirsty as this in my life. Is it never going to end?"

  John saw she was near to tears. "Let's take another break," he said.

  "But we've finished all the water."

  "A few minutes will do no harm." He was doing his best to act like a man and remained standing, shading his eyes as he peered off to their right a little.

  "I can see something shining. It could be water," he said.

  "Where?" Eleanor was on her feet at once, staring in the same direction.

  "Why don't you take it easy here while I push on ahead and see?"

  "No, sir! If you go anywhere I'm coming with you. I'm not going to stay alone in this place. You might never come back!"

  "Oh, come on! You know I wouldn't do anything like that."

  "Sorry, I don't mean it that way. It's just that you might not find me again. It's a big desert, and we're only two tiny specks in it."

  There was obvious sense in what she said, but John felt he had been wronged, and sulked. Eleanor was too tired to notice, and followed him blindly as he pushed stubbornly forward in the direction of the shining.

  It took them half an hour to reach the place, and excitement took away their tiredness momentarily as they perceived it was indeed a river. But disappointment followed, and they became conscious once again of their thirst. The water was bright yellow, thick with the mud the river was washing downstream. Had they been truly dying of thirst they might have drunk it. But the thought of drinking that water turned their stomachs.

  Since the river was flowing north, they decided to follow it upstream, toward the south. The decision was a poor one, for the walking was far rougher than their walk across the desert. The river had recently left its course, almost as though it had flooded. It had frequently torn through its banks, to leave what had once been a slow and meandering course to a more direct and purposeful one. So it crisscrossed its former course, which was now lined with pools and drying mud. The former bed was marked by a series of ox bow bends which John and Eleanor were obliged either to cross or to circumvent. Frequently they stopped to rest.

  "Know what?" John said on one of these occasions.

  "No. What?" Eleanor's voice was heavy with weariness.

  "There's no sign of vegetation. You'd think there would be something, especially along the old course of the river. But there's absolutely nothing-no grass, no trees, not even palm trees."

  Eleanor remained silent for a moment. When she spoke there was a little more life in her voice. "What made it change its course anyway? It must have only just happened. The mud is still drying in the old river bed."

  John shook his head. "It makes no sense-unless-"

  "The earthquake!" Their voices chimed in unison, and for a moment their weariness was forgotten.

  "So the river had to go faster-"

  "-and break through all those twists and turns."

  "Mebbe that's why the water is so muddy!"

  Before long they came to a steep slope where the river issued from the mout
h of a cave, through an opening that was too small to admit any exploration. So they climbed the slope to crest a hill, seeing as they did so that they were about to descend into a circular depression, a sort of gigantic bowl.

  But what they saw in the bowl was so horrifying that they stopped abruptly. Terror and bewilderment gripped them for several moments. Human skeletons lined the slope below them. At the foot of the slope an almost circular pool reflected the clear blue sky. Some of the skeletons were in small groups, tangled together, others alone. Ragged bits of cloth, the remnants of what had once been clothing, hung from the bones of many. Some lay on their backs, some on their sides, some on their faces. Some lay as though sleeping. Others lay in grotesque contortions, as though they had died in torture and pain. Some were half covered with sand, and all gleamed white and clear in the sunlight.

  "This is the Valley of Taavath-Basar," Eleanor breathed. I've heard of it, but I never thought it was real."

  Very slowly they moved toward the skeletons, realizing they would have to pass through them to approach the water. Thirst burned on their tongues. They stopped and Eleanor shuddered. "It's hideous. Why hasn't someone buried them?"

  "You scared?" John asked.

  "No-o. But I hate the thought of walking through them all."

  "We'll have no choice if we're to get to the water."

  There was a long pause. "It's the way they all grin," Eleanor said. Suppose they move ..."

  "Don't be silly. They're just dead people's "John would never have admitted it, but he felt profoundly scared himself.

  Eleanor took a step closer to him and sighed. "I really thought I'd never be afraid again after what Gaal did for meand the thing with Protector. I was lying just now. I really am scared. I'm sorry."

  John felt uncomfortable. "That's O.K"

  "Do you mind if I-" Eleanor paused, embarrassed.

  "If you what?"

  "If I hold your hand?" Eleanor's face was pale and pleading.

  "Sure!" John held out his hand, wishing it were dry and warm, and knowing it was not. But Eleanor's hand was icy. Slowly they began to walk among the skeletons, descending as they did so toward the little lake. Eleanor kept her face to the ground, shuddering whenever she accidentally caught site of whitened bones. Eventually they reached the water, which was clear, and saw what had not been visible from the crater's rimthat there were also skeletons on the bottom of the pool. "I guess it will be O.K to fill the water bottle though," John said with a frown. He turned to Eleanor. "It will be O.K, won't it?"