by Shannah Jay
'So you can see no way down.'
'No, Elder Sister. No way at all.'
Bitter disappointment flooded through her. Why had Dissler led them to this place? Did the Petrigeist intend them all to die of thirst and starvation here in the heart of the mountains?
A hand tugged at her clothing. 'They want you to get back into the tunnels,' Dissler said suddenly.
'Get right back. They have to move some rock. They have to make a way down for you. Then, after you're down, they have to put it back. This is the end of their soul grounds. This wall stops people getting in.'
Herra mentally castigated herself for doubting her Brother's care for them. The darkness, the suffering she couldn’t remedy were making even her feel downhearted. She gathered her inner forces together and turned with a smile to shepherd her weary followers back into the tunnel.
Some of the children were now looking drawn and pale, as were some of the older miners. One or two were ill and near collapse - with the coughing sickness, or simply with bodies weakened by long years of hard work and poor food. She moved among them as they waited, but couldn’t afford to waste her life energy on healing them, not until she knew what else they had to face.
When the ground rumbled beneath their feet, there was muttering and the faces around Herra betrayed their fear. Even Davred tensed and looked at her. She kept her smile serene, more serene than she felt. They all depended on her. She must continue to shoulder that burden and rely on her Brother to support her.
'It's not the Serpent,' she said quietly. 'You can hear the difference if you listen. You always feel the Serpent in your belly, the sounds are so low, like a deep growl of anger.'
Davred nodded. 'Yes. I see what you mean. This is a groaning of the rock itself.'
'It's all right, my friends,' Herra called out. 'The tremors are only because the Petrigeist are moving the rock for us, so that we can climb down the cliff face.'
Most of the group just sat there numbly as the shaking and rumbling noises continued, too tired to panic.
There was silence for a few minutes, then the ground shook again, but it was a smaller tremor this time and it died down very quickly.
Dissler came shambling forward. 'It's all ready for you. Be quick! Be quick!'
In the great open space, Herra again sent her light flying out to shine upon the wall of rock, and then trace its way down to the ground so far below. Now the sheer rock face had shifted in several parts to make a sort of path down. It would be a tough climb, but not impossible if they helped one another.
'Hard rock again,' Dissler said apologetically. 'Takes a lot of shifting. And they have to shift it back again afterwards. Can't do more than this.'
'We're very grateful for any help they give us,' said Herra.
'Help stops here,' he added. 'Can't go further. No soul in those rocks below.'
'Then we'll thank the Petrigeist for what they’ve done and go on alone. We shall get out of here!'
Ivo touched her arm to get her attention. 'Look, Elder Sister. I'll stay at the rear again, if you like, and come down last. It seems to make people feel better.'
She smiled up at his cheerful moon-shaped face. 'You're a pillar of strength, Ivo. I'm so glad you've been called to join the Kindred.' She touched his arm in one of her fleeting gestures of affection and he blushed and shuffled his feet, not knowing what to say, but proud to have earned her praise.
'Light all the torches,' she ordered loudly. 'We can stick some of them in clefts in the rock. It'll be a hard climb down. This is no time to be economical.'
As people started making their way down the cliff face, moving slowly and again helping one another, there were some who trembled every step of the way down and some, just a few, who climbed so rashly in their haste to escape from the never-ending darkness that they put themselves and those near them in danger.
After watching the first group make its way to the bottom, Herra decided to stand half-way down, so that she could encourage those who were flagging. More people started down, some sweating profusely from fear. Suddenly there was a scream below her and she turned to see a child's body spin away from the rock face in a steep part and start falling towards the ground. Without hesitating, she stepped forward into space and reached mental fingers out to control the child's fall and her own with it.
Davred had seen her use this strange Gift before, but for the others it was a cause for panic to see the Elder Sister step from her secure perch. The air around her was filled with screams and shouts of
JAY The Price of Wisdom31
fear. Then, as they saw she wasn’t falling, but floating down, they realised this was another sign of Sisterhood 'magic' and fell silent, accepting what was happening, as they would have accepted anything Herra of Tenebrak did.
From further up the slope, Davred stood silently watching what was happening below. He couldn’t imagine how Herra did this.
The child landed first in a sobbing, terrified heap, but she landed gently enough not to hurt herself beyond a few bruises. It was a few seconds before Herra came lightly to earth beside her.
With the crisis over, a sigh rippled from one person to another, all the way down the rock face, and someone who had already reached the ground ran to comfort the terrified child.
'Are you all right, Herra?' Davred called, unable to help himself.
'Yes, I'm fine. Our Brother is with me still.'
'I can't believe what I saw,' Ivo said quietly from the top of the rocky wall.
'I've seen Herra do it before,' Davred called back. 'She insists it's not magic, just one of her Gifts.'
'Well, it looked like magic to me,' Lerna said as she started the climb down, last to leave except for Ivo. 'And I don't mind if it is. We'll need magic, powerful magic, to defeat Those of the Serpent.'
When everyone was safely down, Herra called a rest period. She could feel how weak some of them were getting and it was beginning to worry her. She took Dissler a little aside and asked him to find out how much further they had to go.
He went rigid again, then whispered, 'Same distance as we came.'
Herra shook her head. 'Some of them are very weak.'
'Can eat florifungi,' the faint voice said. 'Eat pink and green ones. Not dangerous. Will give strength.'
Dissler took Herra's arm and pulled her across the cavern towards the far wall. Along the lower edge of it where moisture pooled and trickled, huge florifungi were nestling in clusters. He grimaced at them. 'They don't taste good, but they keep you alive. Don't eat the yellow ones, though. They give you the gripes. And don't eat the stems. They taste too bitter.'
Herra stepped forward and broke off a piece of one of the large fleshy flowerlike growths, rolling it around her mouth. Then she nodded. 'As you say, the taste is very bland, but they will help keep us moving.' She gestured to the rest of them to come across the cavern, holding her own light high to guide them.
They were at first reluctant to eat, knowing how dangerous some of the florifungi in the mountains could be, so she and Davred set an example, chewing the pulpy tasteless mass.
Davred swallowed a mouthful and pulled a face. 'We need Jonner here to remind us of roast enga hen with fenyl nut stuffing.'
Herra smiled. 'I daren't even think of such treats.' She raised her voice. 'Do eat, my friends. Just the pink and green flowers, and not the stems. They don't taste very nice, but they'll give you strength.'
Everyone ate their fill, pulling faces, but chewing stoically. If the Elder Sister said it was safe to eat these florifungi, then it must be so. She allowed them a short rest afterwards, then chivvied them into movement again.
As they left the great cavern and the rocky wall, they felt the earth shake beneath them again, and heard rumbling sounds behind them for quite a while.
'The wall is back as it was,' said Dissler when the sounds stopped.
'So we couldn’t turn back even if we wanted to,' Herra murmured to Davred.
As they walked she continued
to encourage the exhausted miners. 'Keep going, my dear friends.
Freedom lies ahead of us. Don't stop now.' She saw how they still helped one another, how utterly spent most of them were, and she knew it was only their will that was keeping them going now. Their will and hers.
The next night was spent in a broad passageway not nearly as comfortable as the sandy floored cavern the Petrigeist had prepared. Then another dark morning saw them set off once more. They were walking even more slowly now, but they were still walking.
Brother, help us through this day! Herra prayed as they walked. Help us to get out of these tunnels.
And then, after what seemed like an eternity of stumbling through the darkness, resting more often now, then moving on, resting and moving yet again, Dissler said suddenly, 'Nearly there now. Feel the breeze.'
Herra passed the word back that they were reaching the end of the caverns and the pace of their progress through the long darkness picked up a little, though people hadn’t the energy even to speculate about what lay ahead.
The breeze grew stronger. Walking beside Herra, Soo said softly, 'Doesn't it feel wonderful to have a breeze on your face? Up on the satellite I never thought about the freshness of the air I was breathing, but down here on Sunrise I relish every breath. It's the cleanest freshest air I've ever breathed. Even on my home planet, the air wasn't like this. Or maybe I just didn't appreciate it then.
We didn't spend a lot of time outside.' Like the people behind them, Soo was pale and unsteady. Of all Herra's group, she was the weakest. And yet she was making herself keep moving.
Brother, lend us just a little more strength, Herra prayed silently.
Ahead of them something flickered and twinkled. Herra held up her hand to halt her followers and told them to cover the torches. She allowed her own light to fade. A pinpoint of brightness lay there in the distance, tantalising in its smallness.
Sunlight. A way out.
'Is it safe?' she asked Dissler. 'Are any enemies likely to be waiting outside?'
'Should be safe enough,' he answered. 'Those of the Serpent won't be there, anyway. They don't venture into the mountains much. The going is too hard. And there's nothing there for them. No people. No settlements. Not even water most of the time. They don't waste their time when there's no gain.'
They pressed on forward, then as they approached the entrance, Herra called a halt so that she could go outside and reconnoitre with Davred and Purvlin. No one grumbled about that because no one wanted to fall into the Serpent lovers' hands again.
The cave entrance wasn’t large, just wide enough to allow three people to stand there together, and it looked down over a sloping mass of scree. Below was a stony valley with no signs of habitation, but there was a small river running through it and a few scrawny plants were struggling for survival along its banks. Herra cast her senses around, but could find no signs of life.
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'Where are we?' Ivo asked.
'I don't know,' Herra admitted. 'But we're free, wherever it is. Let's go and bathe in the river and rest in the shade.' She looked around. 'And some of us had better go back and pick more of the florifungi from that last big cavern. We'll need something to eat.' She raised her voice. 'Come out, my friends. It's quite safe.'
People came hurrying outside, blinking in the sunlight and shading their eyes until they grew used to the light. Some of them raised their faces to the sun, eyes closed, enjoying the warmth they hadn’t felt for a long time, others hugged one another.
'There aren't any people here. We still haven't escaped,' Rogal's whining voice complained. 'It's out of the frying pan into the fire, this is. What are we going to do now?'
Lerna marched across and shoved him till his back was against the wall. 'It's people like you who keep us down,' she declared. 'Here's the good Sister, who’s saved us from Those of the Serpent, brought us through those dark caverns, given our children back to us, given us our freedom, and here you are complaining again!' She shook him like a rat. 'Well, as far as I'm concerned you can just go back into the tunnels and lose yourself. But if I hear one more word of complaint, I'll push you off the edge of the nearest cliff myself.'
He shrank back from the anger in her face and said nothing more.
Lerna turned and walked across to Herra, bobbing her head in respect. 'We thank you for your care, Elder Sister. We thank you for saving us.'
Voices repeated Lerna's formal thanks. When they stopped, she jabbed a sharp fingertip into the arms of two or three of the strongest people nearby and ordered them to go back inside and collect some florifungi. 'Mella and Pedriss, give them your petticoats. They'll need something to carry the florifungi in. And they can have my petticoat, too.' She was wriggling out of it as she spoke. 'Wash the petticoats in the spring before you fill them with florifungi,' she ordered. 'At least we can get ourselves clean here.'
The women pulled faces at losing one of their few ragged garments, but did as they were told.
When the foragers had left, Lerna looked at Herra, obtained a nod of encouragement, and continued to organise everyone. 'Now, let's all go down to the river. I, for one, am going to take these filthy rags off and bathe myself clean, and I don't care if everything I put on again is wet. I don't even care who sees my scrawny old body, so long as it's clean at last.'
A chuckle ran round the group.
Hiding a smile, Herra said, 'Lerna, you are a gift from our Brother. Will you continue to organise our camp for us?' Then she called, 'Follow me!' and started slipping and sliding down the scree towards the river. Always, she tried to go first, to show them the way.
Behind her a sharp voice said, 'Now be careful, you lot. Move down a few at a time, or you'll be injured by the flying rocks from the scree. Did you hear what I said, lad? Just you wait there until I tell you to go.'
'Thank you, Brother,' said Herra, smiling. 'Lerna is just what we need now.'
CHAPTER 4 CHANGES BREWING
They all passed an uncomfortable and rather chilly night out in the open, but no one, not even Dissler, suggested going back into the tunnels for shelter. He’d stopped rocking about and sidling away from people once they left the caves, and his face seemed to have changed subtly, become more human and less frozen.
Few people cared about the discomfort. The ground might be rocky, the night wind chill, but the air was fresh and they were free. Even their stomachs were full, though no one would have eaten raw florifungi by choice.
In the morning, Herra was just wondering whether to send a group to explore the valley and see if they could find a way out, when she heard a sound in the distance. Her wary expression softened into a smile as she caught Ivo's eyes. 'We might have known the deleff would come to our aid.'
'How did they know where to find us?' he asked.
'Who can tell? The deleff keep their own secrets.'
'I've lived with them all my life and I think I'm only just beginning to understand them.' He watched as three teams of deleff came into view, pulling wagons that jolted and bounced from the unevenness of the ground. As they topped the crest of the hill, it became obvious that no one was riding on the driving seats. No one was sitting in the backs, either. Ivo strode forward to greet the deleff, as traders always do.
A ragged cheer went up from the miners, but most of them sat where they were. Their exhaustion showed shockingly today in their sunken faces and grey-tinged complexions.
Ivo walked back towards Herra at the side of the leading team of deleff. 'M'Shevan is the deleffal.
He wishes us to leave quickly. There's food in the wagons and room for the weaker ones to ride.'
Within a few minutes everyone had eaten some of the journey bread and hard cheese they found in the wagons and there were even a few jokes about how delicious the hard stuff was after florifungi.
Those still able walked along beside the wagons when the deleff set off, munching on the dried fruit and nuts they’d found in some sacks. Inside the wagons the smal
ler children and weaker adults were sitting or lying according to need, most of them oblivious to the jolting. Behind each wagon a ragged line of people walked, not talking much, but smiling from time to time. They were beginning to feel there was real hope in the world, not just for their own escape, but for a future untainted by the Serpent.
Later in the day, the rocky track turned around the flank of a mountain to end at a still dark pool.
Herra nodded. 'Another portal. I expected as much.' She gestured to the crowd who had followed them up to the small plateau in front of the pool. Everyone was waiting for Herra to give them further instructions, trusting her implicitly. She could barely remember a time when she hadn’t had to lead others. It was as the prophecy had said:
No ease, no peace, though they may yearn,
Small respite from the foe.
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She climbed up on a rock and explained what a portal was, urging people to trust the deleff and follow the wagons through the pool.
'Anything's better than what we've come from,' said Lerna stoutly. 'Shall I go first, Elder Sister, or shall you?'
'You go first.' Herra watched the people straggle through the water. They had split naturally into three groups, each of which walked behind one of the wagons, holding on to the ropes Ivo had tied to the rear canopy supports. The pool bubbled and boiled around them, but not violently, and when they clutched at one another, it was for courage as much as to keep their balance. She watched them disappear one by one into the blur where water mist met rock, which signalled the portal itself, then she turned to Davred. 'We can't go with them to the High Alder.'
'Are you sure that's where they're going?'
She nodded. 'The deleff know what we're doing, and I think they're helping now in every way they can. I'm sorry, Davred. I know you're longing to see Katia again. But we haven’t yet completed our special task, and it's crucial to our quest that we find the boy.' Years ago she’d rescued two babes when Those of the Serpent tried to kill them, two babes who were destined to become Key Lives in their quest. Cheral had gone to seek the girl and Herra had yet to find the boy.
