After they could eat no more, the travelers rolled themselves into warm sleeping bags. The last thing Josh remembered before he plunged into the soundest sleep he had ever known was Sarah and Dave talking.
∗ ∗ ∗
When Josh finally awakened, he found himself caught up in a plan that Dave had devised with some help from Sarah.
Dave was quick to ask Josh’s opinion, but it was immediately clear that the others had already agreed to try the plan.
“You were really worn out, Josh,” Dave said sympathetically. “I knew you’d be anxious to get on the way, so here’s what we’ve decided. Here’s the next Sleeper.” He pulled out the worn map.
Josh looked at him sharply, and Dave added, “We didn’t want to disturb you, so I took it out of your pocket. I hope you don’t mind.”
As a matter of fact, Josh did mind, but what could he say?
“It’s so simple,” Dave went on. “You’ve already come through the worst of the country. Now all we have to do is get out of these woods and hit the Great Road —see?”
“I know that,” Josh snapped. “But it may not be so easy.”
“All we have to do is hit the Great Road, and it leads right to the city. That’s where the next Sleeper lies. What could be easier? You’ll think more clearly when you’re a little more awake,” Dave added loftily.
“I’m awake enough to know that the Sanhedrin has an alarm out for us! How long do you think it’ll take them to spot us on that highway out in the open?”
“Say, that’s right,” Mat said. “We have to keep away from the main road.”
Dave waved his hand airily and showed his perfect teeth in a big smile. “Don’t worry! When we get there, we’ll skirt the roads. The important thing is to keep moving. Come on, let’s go.”
Josh had time to speak to Crusoe for only a minute before Volka picked the old man up. “How do you feel? If you can’t make it, we’ll stay here until you’re better.”
“Sorry to be such a bother, Josh—but I do feel much better,” Crusoe assured him. “As long as we’re careful, we should be all right. But keep your eyes on that young man.” Crusoe pointed at Dave. “He could get us captured if he doesn’t learn caution.”
“I’ll watch him all right—but it seems like everyone is convinced that he’s the great leader,” Josh said grimly.
He glanced jealously at Sarah. Dave was helping her place her pack just right, and Josh thought that she looked far too happy.
They left the edge of the Ghost Marshes, and at once the country began to flatten out. They followed a broad trail evidently used by many travelers. They covered a quarter of the distance to the Great Road before they stopped for lunch. After a quick meal and a short rest, they continued.
By afternoon, Josh had decided that he had been wrong and Dave had been right. Grudgingly, he began to admit to himself that maybe Dave was the leader they needed.
But his thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he heard Volka shout, “Everyone watch out—Snakepeople!”
Volka put Crusoe down and set himself for a fight.
Out of a canyon came a number of terrifying creatures—perhaps twenty in all. They were upon the small group so fast that Josh had time for only a quick glimpse before the attack.
He whipped out his sword as if he’d been doing it all his life and plunged it into the scaly breast of one of the creatures. The thing was not really human, although it had two legs and two arms, for the limbs and the body were truly snakelike, twisting and writhing in coils.
The worst part of the creature was its head. Instead of a human face, it had a pointed surface with black beady eyes and a mouth with two large fangs. From the fangs dripped some sort of clear fluid.
Josh no sooner dropped the first creature than another attacked. The little group was indeed hard pressed by the attackers.
In the heat of the crisis, Dave showed his true ability to organize. He was fighting off some of the Snakepeople with a sword that Mat had given him, and still managing to shout directions and encouragement to the others. “Get back against this bluff, everyone. Look out, Mat, there’s one behind you! Get those bows in action!”
It was Volka who gave them time to form, for with a roar and one blow of his massive forearm, he swept aside half a dozen of the horrible creatures. This allowed Mat and Sarah to use their bows. As another enemy wave swept toward them, Josh heard the hiss and impact of arrows striking home. Sarah was not hitting much, but Mat proved to be a deadly marksman. Soon the bodies of the snakelike creatures were littering the ground.
“There’s too many of them!” Josh shouted as he fended off two scaly bodies at once with his blade. “Watch out, Dave!” he called. “They’re coming behind you—from the tree!”
Now the company was completely cut off. The twisting creatures were dropping down behind them, sliding through the branches and falling on top of their victims. Josh caught one right across the neck just before the creature had Sarah in its writhing arms.
Miraculously, no one had been bitten. Yet they were at the end of their rope now, huddled together inside a ring of hissing Snakepeople.
Josh began to believe this might be the end. Yet worse than the thought of death was the knowledge that, with them, died all hope of a new world.
Then for no reason that he could see, every Snakecreature froze like a statue carved out of marble. They looked like a movie stopped in a single frame.
Josh stared at the venomous face of the nearest creature and saw that a film had covered its eyes. It began to sway faintly from side to side.
“What’s wrong with them?” he whispered to Sarah.
“Listen!” Sarah said and cocked her head to one side.
Josh heard nothing for a moment. Then a faint, thin melody reached his ears. As the notes grew stronger and stronger, Josh recognized the tones of some kind of flute. Suddenly, out of the trees just to the left of Volka, stepped a man.
He looked like the picture from a story Josh had loved —“The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” The stranger wore a peaked green cap with a feather, a short tunic, and brown leather boots. He carried a bow over his shoulder and a sword at his side, but it was the pipe that Josh looked at.
The little instrument was silver with many stops. The melody the stranger played was like none Josh had heard. It almost made him feel drowsy, in spite of the danger.
The strange figure took the pipe from his lips. He looked at the Snakepeople, who were all glassy-eyed and swaying from side to side. Then he said, “They won’t be able to do much for about half an hour. However, I think it might be wise to move on a bit.”
He had a brown face, very white teeth, and bright black eyes.
“My name is Hamar,” he said, “but you’d better introduce yourselves later.”
He walked away, and they followed as quickly as they could.
Josh shuddered as he wiped his soiled sword blade on the grass. Killing anything was not to his liking.
They hurried through the forest until finally Hamar drew up.
Then he spoke. “They won’t follow us this far. They never come this far away from their pit.”
“How do you know?” Mat asked suspiciously.
“I study them.” Hamar smiled. “Actually I study biology, but I became interested in these life-forms on my own, so I’m collecting material about them.” He nodded with a smile, then added, “They almost had you, didn’t they? One bite and it’s good-bye to this world.”
“Well, you sure saved our bacon,” Dave said. He stepped forward and shook Hamar’s hand. “I hope there aren’t any more of them ahead.”
“You’re headed that way?” Hamar pointed with his flute. “Well, I’m afraid that country is the worst of all—the Snakepeople, I mean. That place where you are going is crawling with them. I’d think twice before I’d go through there alone.”
Hamar’s voice sounded grim, and Josh looked ahead fearfully.
“How did you stop them?” Sarah asked.
Dave opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Josh broke in. “Oh, just some travelers who lost our way. We’re trying to get to the Great Road.”
“Well, I can take you there,” Hamar volunteered. “It’s where I was going anyway. I know where these creatures have their pits, and we can go around them. Wouldn’t do to fall in a snakepit.”
Josh shuddered at the thought.
“That’ll be great,” Dave said. “Come on, everybody, let’s get out of here.”
He hurried them into some sort of order and then walked ahead, talking to Hamar as the rest followed raggedly.
The company walked for two hours, and then Josh saw that they would have to camp out for the night. Hamar led them to an excellent site with good water and cover. After a hearty meal, they sat around the fire and talked.
But they spoke only of the food until after Hamar got up and said, “I’ll take a look around. Should be safe, but in this part of the woods you never know.”
He left as silently as an Indian, and they began to discuss him.
“I don’t trust him,” Mat said flatly. “It’s just too convenient—his being there at just the right time.”
“Oh, Mat, you’re too suspicious.” Dave grinned at him from across the fire. He pressed his point. “It’s the break of a lifetime! Hamar saved us, didn’t he? And he can get us to the road. That’s all we need. I talked to him all afternoon, and I say he’s all right. I think we ought to tell him about our quest.”
“No!” Crusoe sat up and spoke in a stronger voice than Josh had heard him use since the beating he had taken.
“Let him guide us to the road if you must. But say nothing to him—or anyone else—if you want to live.”
The effort seemed to exhaust Crusoe, and he lay back weakly.
“I agree,” Josh chimed in quickly. “He may be all right, but we don’t know much about him.”
Dave looked at Josh with contempt. “Josh, you’re going to have to get over being afraid of everything that moves.” He turned to the others and said, “I believe we need help. We know Hamar is strong, and he’s smart. Let’s tell him our story. He’s an adult, and he knows this country like the back of his hand.”
“No,” Josh objected angrily.
“And I say yes!” Dave retorted.
He got up and started to call Hamar to the fire. But before he could, Josh did something he had never done in his life. He drew back his fist and hit the older boy in the face.
To his surprise, Dave went down. However, Josh’s victory was short-lived. Dave immediately jumped up and, with his superior size and skill, began to administer a thorough beating to Josh.
One of Josh’s eyes was already closed, and he was bleeding from the nose when Volka stepped in. With a hard hand, he picked up Dave, then set him on the ground at a distance away.
To give Dave credit, when he saw the mess he had made of the smaller boy’s face he seemed to feel ashamed. “Oh, Josh, I’m sorry! I have such a rotten temper! Here, take this handkerchief and wipe your face off.” He looked around. “I guess I get so carried away I forget to consider what others think. Well, here comes Hamar.”
They all sat down as Hamar rejoined them.
If the piper noticed Josh’s face, he did not mention it. “Everything seems quiet,” Hamar reported. “Have you decided what to do tomorrow?”
They all looked at Josh, who was having trouble breathing through his nose. “I guess Dave is right,” he said in a muffled voice. “If you could take us to the road, we’d be mighty grateful.
“No trouble at all,” Hamar said. “We should be there before noon.”
They all breathed sighs of relief, but for a long time Josh lay awake. He was thinking about the strange figure of Goél. In addition, he felt humiliated at the sorry showing he had made in the fight with Dave. It brought back bitter memories of the failures he had always suffered. The newfound confidence that had been building up in him toppled and fell. He wished he were safely at home again.
Then he realized that home was gone forever. Any home he found would have to be here in this frightening place.
9
Captured!
Breakfast the next morning was a rather sorry affair. Josh was sullen. He refused to eat or even speak to anyone.
True enough, it was raining, and cooking was impossible. But when Dave made an effort to patch up their quarrel by handing Josh a piece of cold meat between two soggy crackers, all Josh did was grunt and draw his coat closer around him.
“Better try to eat a little, Josh,” Dave urged. “Looks like it’s going to rain all day. You may not get a hot meal for a while.”
“I’ll eat when I want to!” Josh said mulishly. He knew he was behaving like a child, but he couldn’t help it. Things had been going so well until Dave showed up!
They were all sitting around what was left of the campfire when a strange thing happened. Dave and Hamar were talking about how far it was to the road, when Sarah —she would later tell Josh—began to feel most peculiar.
Suddenly she tossed the last bite of cold meat aside, thinking that she was going to be sick. Her head was spinning a little, and the talk of her friends seemed to fade into the distance. She heard the sound of her own voice, and yet she did not understand what she was saying. It was as if she were listening to someone else, but she knew the words were coming from her own lips.
Then she felt the pressure fade, and the world came back. Looking around, Sarah saw that the others were looking at her strangely.
“What’s wrong?” she asked shakily.
No one answered for a moment.
Then Dave said, “What was all that stuff you were saying, Sarah? I couldn’t understand a word of it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sarah said quickly.
“Didn’t you understand what you said, Sarah?” Crusoe asked.
“No.”
“You were speaking the dialect of Nuworld.” He waved his hand at Mat and Volka.
“We all speak it well—but you never learned.”
“But how can I speak it if I don’t know it?” Sarah cried. “And what did I say?”
“I don’t know the answer to the first—except that some strange things are beginning to happen. But you said, ‘The way ahead will be dangerous and filled with snares, but he that turns back from the trodden road goes to his own destruction.’”
They were quiet for a moment trying to take it in.
Then Dave spoke briskly. “Well, I don’t know about all that jabber, but I do know we’ve got to get started. It’s a long way to the road.”
They broke camp quickly, concealing their fears as best they could. Soon they were trooping after Dave and Hamar toward the south.
They could only have gone a few miles when a horse approached from behind. They dived into the bushes, scarcely getting out of sight before a troop of scarlet-clad priests rode by at a full gallop. Josh noticed that the priests were carefully scanning the forest on each side, as if looking for something.
“Whew!” Dave said as they returned to the road. “That was close! Everyone look sharp. There may be more of them.”
No other patrols appeared at once, but after about an hour, Sarah called out, “Crusoe! What’s the matter?”
She knelt beside the old man, who had slumped to the ground. Crusoe’s face was pale, and his breathing was uneven. He tried to say something but failed. Then his head sank forward on his breast.
“We’ve got to get him off the road,” Sarah said.
“Right!” Dave agreed. “Volka,
will you take him over to that clump of bushes? We can rest there until he’s better.”
“Don’t—think he’s going—to get—better,” a voice said haltingly.
Sarah turned to see Mat weaving in an alarming fashion. Then Mat too began to sag dangerously.
Josh and Dave grabbed him and helped him to the small grove where Sarah had opened a canteen and was trying to give Crusoe a drink.
“He’s unconscious!” she said in a whisper. “What can we do?”
“Listen,” Josh said suddenly. There was the sound of traffic on the road again—men walking and riding.
“Everyone keep still,” Dave whispered.
Josh peered through the bushes and saw a band of men dressed in black uniforms. They wore the strange device of the Sanhedrin on their chests.
He groaned. “Oh, no!”
“What’s the matter?” Sarah asked.
“They’ve stopped to rest!” he hissed. “Keep quiet, everyone!”
Sure enough, the troop had halted and began to sit down not thirty feet from where the little band huddled. Josh clearly heard the sound of a cork being pulled from a bottle and then a coarse voice saying, “How much longer we got to keep this up? My feet are killing me!”
“You’ll keep walking as long as the Chief Interrogator tells you to!” another voice, evidently that of the first speaker’s superior, answered. “You ain’t no tireder than the rest of us.”
“Well, there ain’t no sense to it,” the first insisted. He apparently took a long pull at his bottle. “Ain’t likely them Sleepers will be out in plain sight just askin’ to be caught.”
At the word “Sleepers,” Josh glanced wildly at Sarah. He saw that she was as pale as he felt.
“Ah,” the second voice went on, “but there’s the reward, don’t forget.”
“Sure, I’ve not forgotten that,” said the first. “And how much did you say it was?”
“One thousand in gold!”
“Ah, now, there’s a sum a man could do a bit with! But I still say they won’t be on the road.”
“You ain’t a sergeant, but if you was, you’d know that it don’t much matter where we are. Whoever sees them will hear about that reward, and they got to tell somebody. So if we gets told, we finds ’em.”
Flight of the Eagles Page 7
