The travelers turned with a start toward the ugly gnome who had finished feeding Crusoe. The little man was smiling at them.
“What did you say?” asked Sarah nervously.
“You speak Oldworld talk,” he repeated and wrapped another blanket about Crusoe. Then he turned to them again. “Not so many people speak Oldworld anymore.”
His voice was very nice, much like that of a radio announcer. Now Sarah saw that the gleam in his eyes was not evil at all—just bright and intelligent.
“Please, Mr. …” Sarah paused helplessly.
The gnome said, “My name Kybus.”
Solemnly, first Sarah, then Dave, and finally Jake shook the little gnome’s hand.
“Well, Kybus, who are these people?” Dave asked, motioning to the three prisoners with the outsized features.
“They? Oh, you never seen Hunter before?”
“Which one is the hunter?” Jake asked.
“They is Hunter!” Kybus insisted with a nod. “All three is Hunter. They get after anything—they catch him! See, smell, hear—they get him.”
One of the pretty Gemini twins said something in a language filled with R’s.
Kybus turned to them, and for a long moment he seemed to be weighing something in his mind. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Are you in the House?”
The three young people looked at each other in bewilderment.
“What house?” Sarah asked.
Kybus looked at them, but did not answer. Finally he said, “You better eat, rest now.”
Then the young people began to eat some of the broth that Crusoe had been fed. When they finished, they went to sleep so suddenly it was almost comical. Jake fell into a doze in the middle of a sentence, and Sarah was limp with exhaustion.
They had no way of measuring time, but when Sarah awoke she felt that she had slept the clock around.
“Jake? Dave?” she called.
“They still asleep,” a voice said.
Sarah sat up to see Kybus standing beside Crusoe, who was sitting up in bed.
“Oh, Mr. Crusoe, you’re better!” she cried. She ran to his side and took his hands.
“For now I am, thanks to our friend here.” Crusoe nodded at Kybus. “Are you all right?” he asked Sarah.
“Well—yes, but—oh, Mr. Crusoe, poor Josh!”
She began to weep.
Crusoe did not answer, but she felt his frail hands stroking her hair.
Their voices had awakened the others. Immediately Jake and Dave, with Mat close at their sides, drew around them in a circle.
Jake began questioning almost at once. “Say, what’s this ‘house’ they keep talking about? And why are we here?”
Crusoe held up his hand. “My boy, Kybus here can tell you about the House. It’s the reason he and all the others are in this place.” He paused, and they looked at him expectantly.
The gnome softly cleared his throat and spoke. “Everywhere in Nuworld, there is people who believe that One is coming. Yes, One is coming. And He is building House.”
Kybus fell into a speech pattern that Sarah seemed to recognize but couldn’t quite place. It was flowing, and it rose in intensity from time to time.
Finally Sarah recognized what it was. “He’s preaching!” she whispered.
The others nodded, for they had all heard this cadence from certain intense preachers and rabbis on religious occasions. Kybus was saying that a Deliverer would come and make the world good again. Evil would be eliminated, and justice would flow back into the world.
“Sounds like a prophet,” Jake murmured.
Finally Kybus drew to a close. Yet, his last line astonished Sarah more than anything he had said before. He gravely announced, “The Deliverer will come—when the Seven Sleepers wake!”
“What!” Dave exclaimed. He looked at the others with wild eyes.
“Do you think—” Sarah began.
“I’ll be a—”Jake began.
Suddenly there was a clanging sound as the gate closed. Soon two guards appeared and threw a limp body down at their feet.
“The girl,” one of the guards commanded, nodding at Sarah.
They reached for Sarah, but before they could drag her off, Crusoe put his hands on her head, and Sarah heard him saying something. She could not understand the words, but as he spoke, a warm sense of security suddenly filled her. She drew back and looked with wide eyes at the old man. “Thank you, Mr. Crusoe. I’ll be all right now.”
She turned and walked quietly away with the guards.
“Well, I’ll say this,” Jake said in quiet amazement as they left, “she has got courage!”
“She has more than that,” Crusoe said softly.
The voices of her friends faded into the distance as Sarah calmly followed the guard. She was in such a strange state. She knew she should be frightened, but she had no fear at all—just a strange sense of being watched and loved.
Her captors led her into a room where six redcloaked men sat at a long table. Yet even at the sight of the menacing strangers, Sarah’s serenity held. She felt that she was somehow outside herself, looking on. She saw herself pushed into a hard chair. Then she saw one of the hooded priests nod.
From the darkness along the wall, a frightening figure wearing a cloak with mystic symbols began to make weird gestures and mutter garbled phrases. There was a sense of evil in the room. Sarah knew that if she had not been wrapped in some sort of protective spell, she would have been totally at the mercy of this sorcerer.
“Well, is she ready?” Elmas asked, for it was he indeed.
“I—I cannot say. There is something interfering with the spell.”
“If you are too incompetent to deal with a small child, perhaps we need a new sorcerer!”
“No! She is ready!” the sorcerer said quickly.
“Very well. Begin the Questioning,” Elmas commanded.
And then Sarah felt very strange. The sorcerer and the six red-robed men began to shoot tortuous questions at her.
“Who are you? Where do you come from?” they demanded.
Even in her strange state, Sarah knew that if these men found out who she was, it would be death to all her companions. Just as she began to give way a little before the questioners, a sudden knowledge invaded her. It was more striking than a spoken voice, for she seemed not to hear it with her ears alone but with her whole body.
“Do not be afraid. I will help you to answer all questions,” the voice assured her.
So it was that Sarah heard herself responding, but she knew that she was not controlling her words.
Finally Elmas said, “Enough! Bring in the old man. There is nothing in this one.”
As she went toward the door, Sarah heard someone mutter, “This Uprising is getting out of hand.”
“Uprising!” Elmas snarled furiously. “When I am through, there will be no Uprising—if there ever has been. I think it is a tale made up by children and idiots!”
“Very likely, my lord,” another said smoothly. “And what shall we do with these prisoners?”
“Split them up,” Elmas ordered roughly. “All of them to different work camps. Let them serve in the mines. They will not be able to follow their so-called deliverer if they’re worked to death!”
11
The Visitation of Goél
For the three days following Sarah’s Questioning, the group waited fearfully to be dragged off to the mines. During that time Crusoe would have died had it not been for the kindness of the Nuworld prisoners. One by one, the travelers were taken for interrogation. Yet, each time, those who remained in the cell seemed to protect the one being questioned with their thoughts.
“You know,” Jake mused, “I think there must be something to this.” He looked a little embarrassed but continued. “I mean, when I go to the Questioning, it’s—it’s like it isn’t even me.”
“I know what you mean.” Dave nodded. Then his face grew very sober. “But this can’t go on long. We’
ve got to get out of here.”
“But, Dave, how?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know how, Sarah, but you were the one who heard what Elmas said. We’ll all wind up deep in the mines if we don’t get out of here.” He rose and said, “Let’s go talk to the rest of them about escaping.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t tell everyone.” Sarah suggested. “Let’s ask Crusoe. I—I wish Josh were here.”
“Sure, Sarah,” Dave said, “but he’s not, so we’ll just have to do the best we can.”
They waited until later that night to talk to their fellow travelers, for during the afternoon Tam was brought in. As expected, Mat attempted to make little of seeing his twin.
“Well,” Mat grunted, “about time you turned up. Probably been having a good time for yourself while we’ve been sitting in this hole!”
“Ho!” shouted Tam. “You’re the one who’s been living it up!”
“Me! What do you mean?”
“Why, look at these two young ladies you’ve been romancing.” Tam pointed delightedly at the Gemini twins, Rama and Amar.
The twins giggled suddenly at Mat’s discomfort, but before Tam could push the matter, Hamar dropped a bombshell.
“I hate to be the bearer of ill tidings,” he said, “but I’m afraid our time is about up. I’ve been making friends with the guard that comes on night duty—bribing him, actually. He says the word is out that tomorrow we’ll be shipped out of here.”
A dread fell on Sarah and apparently on all the others as well.
“Them mines,” Kybus said heavily, “they no good.”
“Like I’ve been saying,” Dave said, “we’ve got to get out of here. Let’s find out what Crusoe says.”
They found Crusoe and Volka sitting in a quiet corner of the common prison.
“Mr. Crusoe,” Dave began, “we have to get out of here—now! They’re sending us to the mines tomorrow.”
“Dave’s right,” Sarah seconded. “And we’ll die there and never see each other again.”
They all began talking about escape until Hamar interrupted. “I don’t think there’s any way out,” he remarked grimly. “You know that court out there? Well, I don’t know exactly what’s out there at night, but whatever it is, it’s pretty bad. The guard won’t even talk about it, and he’s a pretty tough fellow.”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t do anything?” Jake demanded.
“Not at all. I’m saying I don’t see how we can get out. It’s not possible.”
An argument broke out, but Crusoe said nothing until they had worn themselves out. Finally, in his old quiet voice he spoke. “I have no word on this. I can’t say what to do, but I think we’d better just wait until there is a word.”
“Mr. Crusoe,” Dave said hastily, “I know you believe in that business—and I do too. But we’ve been given common sense. Mine tells me we’d better try to break out of here.”
Crusoe looked at Dave peculiarly. Finally he said, “My son, without a hand to lead you, how could you find your way?”
Dave looked shamefaced, and they finally broke up, some to eat, some to sleep fitfully.
Sarah was confused. “I don’t know what to think,” she said to Jake. “Mr. Crusoe is so wise—but it’s getting to be so close.”
She finally lay down on the hard bunk and closed her eyes. Her head was swimming, and for a long time she tried to sleep. Just when she was about to slip off, she heard a voice call her name.
“Sarah.”
“Yes?” she answered sleepily.
“Awake, Sarah.”
The voice came so clearly that she sat straight up on her bunk. There, not five feet away was a stranger in a dark robe that had been cut from very rough cloth.
“Who—who are you?” she whispered faintly. It was so odd—she was afraid, yet at the same time she had never felt more safe in her whole life. She had seen him before—or heard him!
“If I tell you my name,” the strange figure said, “it will mean that you will have to make a choice. And the choice may be hard. Do you want to know?”
Slowly Sarah nodded. “Yes, I want very much to know you.”
“Ah, that is even more serious.” The man smiled, and his strong face was both sad and joyful at once. “Many want to know my name that they may use it for their own ends. But they do not know me.”
“I want to know you, please,” Sarah whispered.
Sarah had been taught not to trust strangers. But this man, though a complete stranger, was somehow different. He was not handsome. In fact, his face was rather plain. But his eyes . . ! Sarah was unable to look away from them.
Dark, with light flecks near the pupil, they seemed to have a warmth that crossed the short distance that lay between them. In his glance, she felt the same sense of safety she had felt during the Questioning.
“You can call me Goél,” he said. “That is one of my names. Later you will know others.”
“Yes, Goél,” Sarah whispered.
He smiled at her briefly then grew serious. “Daughter, tomorrow they plan to take you from this place to die alone in the mines.”
“Oh, Goél!” Sarah said fearfully. She reached out her hand to him as she had to her father when she was very small.
He took her hand and held it firmly. “You must believe in what I tell you, Sarah. It is not my purpose for you to go to the mines. I have come to open a door for you.”
“And for all of us?” Sarah asked quickly.
“Yes, for all of you, all of you who will believe.”
“Oh, Goél, come with me now, and you can tell them all about it.”
She rose, but he pulled her back and said carefully, “Sarah, I will open the door. Do you believe me?”
“Oh, Goél, yes, I believe you!”
“But you must go to the door without me.”
She drooped at this.
“If you will believe in me strongly enough, you will not fail. Wake up all your friends and tell them what you have seen. Tell them about me. And tell them that you have my word that tonight I will set the prisoners free. Can you do that, Sarah?”
“But …” She searched wildly for an excuse. “They’ll never believe me.”
He did not answer, nor did he smile anymore. He fixed his eyes on her face and waited. Finally he said, “I cannot help you to convince them. I will open the door, but you have to believe enough to get to that door. Goodbye, Sarah. I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the door.”
How he left, Sarah could not exactly say. He was there, then he was not there, and she was rubbing her eyes hard.
“Goél!” she cried out, then louder, “Goél!”
“What is it, Sarah?” Dave called.
She saw that Dave and Jake, who had been dozing close by, had been awakened by her call. Then the rest of the prisoners began to stir and gather around her.
“Are you all right, child?” Crusoe asked. “I heard you call out, and I was afraid for you. Who did you call?”
Crusoe’s question put Sarah in a very awkward position. It’s one thing to have a dream and another to tell it before a crowd, no matter how close they are. The hardest thing of all is to convince them that your dream really wasn’t a dream at all.
Sarah struggled awkwardly until Dave said kindly, “Oh, she just had a bad dream.”
“No!” Sarah said quickly. “It wasn’t a bad dream. It was something else. Mr. Crusoe, did you ever hear of someone named—Goél?”
Crusoe straightened up and looked directly at her. “Goél! What do you know about Goél?”
“Well, he was here tonight.”
“Here?” Dave questioned. “What do you mean, here? Where is he?”
“I hope you won’t laugh—but I was alone in the darkness, and this man named Goél suddenly appeared. He talked to me.”
“Oh, come on, Sarah! You just had a nightmare. Look, there’s no one here.” Dave swept his arm around the large open room.
“Wait a minute, Dave,” Cruso
e interrupted. “I’d like to hear what you saw, Sarah.”
Sarah would have shrugged it off then, for she saw doubt on Dave’s face. But with Crusoe’s encouragement, she told them what she had seen and heard. “And so we’ve got to leave here tonight and go to that door,” she concluded.
“Well, I don’t believe your dreams, but I’ve been saying that all along,” Dave said grumpily. He waved his hand at the courtyard. “We can’t even get through that door.”
“Oh, yes, we can get through that door,” Crusoe said matter-of-factly.
“What?” Dave cried with some irritation. “I guess you’ll work a little miracle?”
Crusoe shrugged. “Getting out past that door has never been a problem.” He smiled. “It’s always been possible. But what to do then? If we go out in daylight, the guards will see us. If we go out at night, that thing—whatever it is—is waiting.”
“But it’s our only chance, isn’t it?” Sarah said.
She found a surprising supporter in Mat. “I think it’s all hopeless. But if there’s only one door, you don’t have to like it. You just have to take it.”
“I agree, Mat,” Crusoe said. He looked at Sarah carefully. “Do you believe this man Goél, Sarah?”
“Yes, I do,” she said stiffly but firmly.
“Then you can go first,” he answered. He turned to Volka. “Are you ready, friend?”
“Yes.”
Sarah and the others followed Volka and Crusoe to the massive steel door and stood looking at the thing.
“Well, how do we open that?” Dave challenged. He was obviously miffed at not being on center stage.
“Oh, Volka can open it, I’m pretty sure,” Crusoe said.
Crusoe nodded at Volka.
The giant determinedly wrapped his huge hand around the strap of steel that formed the small window. As easily as a normal man would straighten out wet clay, Volka pulled the steel free, then reached outside. Sarah heard him slide back the heavy bar, and the door swung free.
“Ho! That was easy!” he said cheerfully.
Then Sarah felt every eye on her. She knew that this was the most terrible moment of her life. Every fear she had ever known was laughable compared to her dread of the thing that lurked outside. She did not see how she could ever make herself go through that door into the awful darkness. How cheerful the cell seemed in contrast to what lay outside!
Flight of the Eagles Page 9
