by Maurice Gee
‘They’re not holy. You can’t kill people like that.’
Again he did not hear. He dropped the broken ends of the bones at his feet. One of the dogs nosed them. He took no notice. ‘I must have new ones. All of us must have bones. Until we wear them again we are not priests.’
Nick was at Susan’s shoulder. ‘Now you’ve done it.’ He had gone pale. ‘We’ll have to fight. Watch out for the cross-bows.’
The two priests who carried them unstrapped bows from their backs and levered the strings.
‘Into the cave,’ Limpy said. He took his knife from his belt and crouched at the entrance, shielded from the bowmen by the lip of stone. Nick began to carry the firestones one by one from the back of the cave. Below, the dogs set up a whining. Susan leaned past Limpy and looked down. The leader of the priests was on the steps, already a body-length clear of the ground.
‘Down,’ Limpy cried. She saw the bowmen aiming and leaped back. Two bolts came humming into the cave and ricocheted off the ceiling. Nick saw his chance. He ran forward while the men were loading and hurled a rock at the climbing priest. A shout of pain came up and a yelping of dogs.
‘Got him on the arm,’ Nick yelled. ‘He fell in the dogs. I bet he won’t be climbing any more.’
Limpy jerked him back and a single bolt rattled in the cave. ‘They’ll shoot in turn. They can pin us down. Another one will climb.’
‘And if they don’t they can starve us out,’ Susan said.
They crouched listening, and soon heard the breathing of a priest. They heard the soft scrape of fingers on stone. Two, perhaps three or four, were climbing. Then softly, even more softly, a voice breathed, ‘Follow me.’
‘Who was that?’ They jumped around. No one was in the cave.
‘Follow,’ whispered the voice. It had a distant sound, as though it came from a pit.
‘Where are you? Who are you?’
‘Go to the end of the cave. The door is open.’
‘Are you a Stoneman?’
‘Yes. Now go to the door. The priests are coming. I hear them climb.’
‘Come on, Limpy. Quick.’
‘There are no Stonemen. It’s a trick.’
‘I’ve met them. They’re our friends. Make him come, Nick.’
Nick grabbed Limpy by his cloak and pulled him after Susan into the back of the cave. Where there had been stone an opening showed, waist-high, narrow, leading into darkness. Susan pushed Limpy down on his knees.
‘In you go. Quick.’
‘No.’
‘Do as she tells you,’ the voice whispered. It filled the cave, lapping soft as water. ‘All who run from priests are friends of ours.’
‘In.’ She pushed him and he crawled into the opening. ‘Nick, go on.’
‘You first.’
She did not argue, but crawled into the hole. It led to a tunnel, running level. A deeper quiet – the sound of emptiness, she thought – told her when she reached the other end. She knelt at the opening, looking back. Nick came along, scuttling like a possum, and beyond him, in a square of light, she saw a part of the cave mouth. A priest sprang into it, and stood there, crouched like a wrestler. Another came up beside him. They were white as foam, shining in the light. They peered into the darkness, and came stepping forward, soft as cats.
‘Priests of Ferris, stop,’ said the voice.
The priests froze, and crouched, and peered. One of them spoke: ‘Stonemen, give us our prey. They have broken our Ferris bones.’
‘Your bones are foul. Do not follow into the dark.’
‘We know all your exits. We know your holes. They cannot escape.’
‘Wait then. But do not follow. The world of Stone is not open to you.’
And slowly, without a sound, the tunnel began to close. The band of light grew narrower, and Nick and Susan and Limpy were locked into the dark.
Chapter Three
Seeker
‘Tell me your name,’ Susan said.
‘First let me get out of this cupboard. The light would have killed me.’
She heard stone sliding again, and padding steps with the rubbery sound of suction. Then the Stoneman’s voice came in front of her. ‘We know each other already.’
‘Are you Seeker? A hundred years have passed.’
‘The generations of Stonefolk are longer than those of humans. But I am old. I am ready to die. I have waited only for the fulfilling of the prophecy.’ His voice had the asthmatic wheeze, the hedgehog snuffle, she remembered.
‘Where are you?’ She reached out.
A damp touch came on her arm. ‘Here, Susan. It is good to meet again.’
‘Where’s Finder?’
‘Finder was impatient. He wished to know what the great secret was. It is many turns since he passed into Stone.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Do not be. It is release. This boy who limps is frightened of me, Susan.’
She heard Limpy shifting nervously. ‘Limpy, he’s our friend. Put out your hand. Let him touch you.’
Limpy was breathing quickly. ‘The priests say – they say –’
‘They say we are vermin,’ Seeker said. ‘They say that about all of us. Woodlanders. Birdfolk. Seafolk. All the Folk. Ah Susan, joining the Halves together did not bring happiness to O. Is this Nicholas Quinn?’
‘Give him your hand, Nick.’
‘How do you do?’ Nick said. It was strange to be talking to someone you could not see. He felt Seeker touching his hand, exploring his face.
‘There are tales about you, Nick. I am pleased we have met. But hear the priests.’ It was a sound like mice scratching in a wall. ‘They dig with their knives. It will take them many turns to break through here.’ He made an angry snuffling. ‘Honest stone deserves a better mason. Let us go where we cannot hear.’
He set up a humming for them to follow, and they went along, stepping carefully. The sounds of the priests died away.
‘Where are we going, Seeker?’
‘Deeper yet. Away from priests and the smell of light.’
‘We can’t stay long. We don’t have any food.’
‘I know. We will go under the hills. The priests do not know as much as they think. There are ways out they have never found. You will be safe.’
They kept their hands before them and parted the darkness like drapes, but there was never any change, no blush of light, however distant, nothing to hold on to, except the sound of their guide. Susan had followed him once before, but he seemed smaller now, his snuffling was closer to the ground, and she wondered if age had shrunk him or whether it was just that she had grown. There were sounds of lapping water, rushing water – that was familiar. But this time she did not have to climb walls and hang upside-down over rivers.
‘Seeker, I gave the stone-silk gloves to the Woodlanders.’
‘They keep them still. It was well done.’
‘Seeker?’
‘You have not changed. You keep on asking questions.’
‘A prophecy? You said you waited for it.’
‘Ah. Wait until we rest. Then I will tell you.’
They kept on walking – by an echoing chasm, by a waterfall, down a slippery path where water dripped, through broken stones that jarred their feet. Always Seeker hummed, giving them something to follow, and now and then he warned them of dangers – potholes and wells and stalactites.
‘How does he see?’
‘He doesn’t see.’
‘He must have built-in radar, like a bat.’
Limpy kept silent. Susan heard his uneven step. Once, reaching back, she felt his knife in his hand.
‘Put it away.’
‘The priests say they lure people into caves and eat their flesh.’
‘Do you still believe the priests?’
‘We eat only things that grow in the lovely dark,’ Seeker said. ‘We eat mushrooms and lichen, and blind worms. Very sweet. You would taste sour, human boy.’
They climbed into drier, warmer
caves. ‘There is water here you can drink.’ Seeker stopped. ‘And over there a warm spring to bathe in. When you have rested I will take you to an opening into Wildwood where there will be no priests.’
‘Do they really know the exits?’
‘Their dogs sniff them out. But we make new ones so that we may talk with the Woodlanders and give them hiding places in the hunt.’
‘Do they hunt you?’
‘They come in with torches and so we must retreat. But Stone is endless. They can raid no further than the margins.’
The children crouched in the warm dark and listened while the Stoneman spoke of caves and caverns, chambers, halls, pits and wells, underground rivers, springs and waterfalls, as though they were farms and beaches in the sun. And when he spoke of priests they swarmed like beetles, destroying what they touched. The High Priest sat in his Temple like a spider in a web.
‘The Woodlanders tell us of him. A little man, old, but dangerous, and quick as a lizard.’
‘Why do they kill?’
‘It is their teaching. Susan said O belonged to humans – easy, child – and all other creatures must be wiped out. So they make a holy war against us. Stonefolk, Woodlanders, Seafolk, Birdfolk.’
‘I didn’t say it.’
‘We know that. Woodlanders know. But humans believe a different tale. How Susan flew and brought about the Mending. And gave the rule of O to Humankind and left her staff and her holy book with the priests.’
‘It’s all lies.’
‘Not to humans. O has become an evil place.’
‘I’ve got to see him. I’ve got to talk to this High Priest. That’s why I’m back. To face him the way I faced Otis Claw. Seeker, what’s the prophecy?’
‘Ah, that. I must tell you. But wash first. Drink. We have as far to go as we have come.’
‘How long have we been walking?’ Nick asked. He flipped back the leather hood on his watch and peered at the luminous figures. At once Seeker shrieked with agony. They heard him fall and thrash upon the floor.
‘Cover it. Cover your watch,’ Susan cried. She lunged at the little patch of light, but it jerked away and vanished as Nick snapped the cover shut.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think.’
‘Where’s Seeker? Where are you, Seeker?’
She felt her way towards the sound of his groaning and knelt by him, putting out her hands. He was shuddering, she seemed to hear a rattle of bones in his chest, but when she felt his skin it was spongy and damp. She traced the shape of a torso, stubby arms, a soft head, with hairs like a coconut.
‘Seeker, are you all right?’
He did not answer. Then she felt one of his hands, with its rubbery pads, come up and lie on her arm.
‘I am dying, Susan.’
‘No … oh no. It was only a watch.’
‘I’m too old. The light cut through me like a knife. Do not grieve. Nick? Is Nick there?’
Nick knelt beside Susan. ‘Can’t we help? Can’t we do something?’
‘I am broken inside. But it was time to die. Listen, Susan. I must tell you the prophecy.’
‘Don’t talk.’
‘The prophecy. I must speak before I die. Hold my hand, child.’
She took his alien hand between her own and held it tightly.
‘Do you remember Watcher?’
‘He guarded the Half.’
‘Yes. He was old. Like me he wished to die. But he waited for the ending of your task. And I came to him. Brand, your friend, came to the Throat and called to us that you had placed the Halves, you had mended the break in Humankind. So I journeyed to Watcher with the news, and I told him, and he said … ’
‘Yes?’ Susan asked. She was frightened Seeker had died. She could not hear his breathing any more..
‘Watcher had the gift of dreaming. He told me your task was not done yet. You would come again and banish the great Lie. It was in his dream. I asked him what that was, the Lie. He did not know. He said it was the lie about Susan Ferris. He … ’
‘Yes?’
‘He said I would save you. And Nick. And a boy who limped. When? I said. Where? Anywhere, he replied. Wherever you happen to be, that is the place. So … I waited until he died, I laid him in Stone, and I went back to the Folk, and took a wife, and fathered children. And I lived until I was old – too long. Then I grew tired of babble. I came here. I lived as a hermit, I lived in silence, by the gate. Watcher had said anywhere, so the gate would do. And you came – with Nick and a boy who limped. And I saved you.’
‘Yes.’
‘And now you must banish the Lie.’
‘How?’
‘I do not know. But in the dream – in Watcher’s dream – you walked with one, a man, very old, who carried an axe. And walking with you both was a white bear of the south.’
‘Jimmy. Jimmy Jaspers.’
‘Watcher did not say his name.’
‘But Jimmy’s dead. He died years ago.’
‘He was in the dream. That is all I know. Susan.’ His voice was faint, no more than a whisper. ‘Listen. I am dying. I cannot show you how to find your way out of Stone. There is only one way and you have no guide. Nick. Listen. Put your left hand on the wall above me. Walk ahead. You will climb. Never let your hand leave the wall. Are you listening, boy? You with the limp. Stonefolk do not eat men. Tell them that.’
‘Yes,’ Limpy whispered.
‘Listen to what I am telling Nick. After you have climbed you will come to a river. Walk by the side of it until it vanishes. You will hear it booming. Go down then through a turning passage, deep down, very deep, and you will come to a lake in a cavern. Still keep your left hand on the wall, and pass around it. You will swim. Then climb on a path over the lake – take care, it is slippery. At the top go straight along – there are holes and fissures – and you will reach a place where tunnels meet. One is large and you will smell the air that comes from Wildwood. Avoid it. Priests know that way. Take the tunnel next to it, wide enough only for a child. Nick, you will find it very tight. Climb then, and you will come out soon above the forest. But remember, do not hurry. Feel your way. Do not get lost. Stone goes on forever.’ Seeker sighed, and shudders ran through his body. ‘I can do no more. Susan, Susan, do you have my hand?’
‘Yes.’
‘Hold it, child.’ His grip grew tighter. She had to lean close to hear his voice. ‘I’m glad we met again.’
‘I’m glad too.’
‘Do not move me. Here is a good place. I shall lie in the heart of Stone.’ He gave a sighing breath and loosed his hand.
Susan knelt beside him a moment. She tried to arrange his arms across his chest but they kept sliding off.
‘Is he dead?’ Nick whispered.
‘Yes. Why didn’t you leave your watch at home?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’ She wondered if he was crying. ‘Should we leave him here?’
‘He said this was where he wanted to be.’
‘We must go on,’ Limpy said. ‘We must find the way outside. If we get lost down here we’ll never come out.’
‘Wait for me a while,’ Susan said. ‘I want to say goodbye to him.’
Nick moved off towards the sound of the spring. He found the cold pool and drank, and washed his face and hands in the warm one. He heard Limpy drinking and washing beside him. ‘I didn’t mean to kill him,’ he whispered.
‘That is a strange weapon you wear,’ said the boy.
They heard Susan talking softly to Seeker. Nick could not make out all of it, but thought she was thanking him and promising something. ‘Sleep in Stone,’ she whispered. ‘I will end the Lie.’ Then she said, ‘Come here, Nick. Keep your hand on the wall while I have a drink.’
He went towards her voice and touched her hair. She took his hand and put it on the wall.
‘Where is he?’ Nick said.
‘By your feet.’
She went to the spring, and Nick squatted, sliding one hand and feeling for Seeker with the other
. He felt the Stoneman’s bristling hair and shivered with revulsion. Then he said, ‘I’m sorry,’ and he took one of Seeker’s hands and held it in his. He wondered if he should leave his watch as an offering, a way of apologizing, but thought how dangerous it would be if other Stonemen found it. So he stayed holding the hand of this being he had not seen, and would never see, until Susan and Limpy came from the spring. Then he laid it down by Seeker’s side, and they started on their journey.
Nick took the lead, sliding his hand on the wall, Susan came behind, keeping in touch with him by voice, and Limpy in the rear. Nick felt his way with every step. He tried to read the tunnels by whistling softly and listening for the echo. After climbing for a while they heard the rushing of water far away, and it grew louder as they went along, and soon they stood by the side of a river. It made a hissing sound, and far off was a booming like machinery. They shuffled towards it, keeping a wall on their left. The noise increased until they seemed to be inside a drum playing an endless roll. They could not hear each other’s voices, even when they shouted. Nick pulled Susan close behind him and made her hold his hand, and Limpy hers. The water rushing by only metres away pulled them like gravity. They heard it being gulped into a hole, and far away exploding against stone.
Nick found the tunnel he was seeking and pulled Susan and Limpy into it. They were deaf and dizzy, battered with sound. But the noise was dulled by intervening rock and it fell to a murmuring as they climbed – deep down, deep, as Seeker had said – and after a while died altogether. Only their panting and the scuffing of their feet broke the silence. Nick began whistling again, trying to find the size of the passage.
‘We’ll rest when we get to the lake.’
It was a long time, hours it seemed, but a sense of huge space drew them suddenly forward and seemed to drag the breath out of their lungs.
‘Nick?’
The word floated off and set up echoes. The lapping of water made a sound like bat wings. They sank down by the wall.
‘I’m hungry.’
‘Me too.’ He looked at his watch. It was almost two hours since they’d left Seeker.
