Part 14 (1/2)
”What are we to do?” old Ralabun wailed. ”Look! One of the Companions has gone down. Oh, no! The savages are hacking him to pieces!”
”You must do exactly as I say.” The Prince was all at once full of stern resolution. ”Go off the trail to the left, creep downhill, and make your way to the crag near the waterfalls. Get up on it, then begin flinging rocks down on the Glismak with all your strength. Screech as though you were a phantom from the Th.o.r.n.y h.e.l.l. It will distract the fiends and perhaps help frighten them away. Meanwhile, I will do what I can with the talismans.”
”But-”
”Hasten!” the Prince hissed. He set off slipping and sliding down the trail, drawing the Three-Lobed Burning Eye. When he reached the clearing and could see the battle partic.i.p.ants distinctly, he halted, dropping to one knee. Holding the talisman by its blunt-edged blade, he pointed the hilt at the tallest of the three Glismak a.s.sailing the fallen knight.
In his mind, the boy saw this heinous creature burnt to ashes. He said: ”Burning Eye, slay him.”
The three orbs forming the sword's pommel split open, revealing eyes that stared at the giant Glismak. From the human eye shot a golden beam, and from the Folk eye a ray of green, and from the silvery eye of the Vanished Ones a beam of searing white. The body of the savage warrior was enveloped in tricolored radiance. In an instant his flesh was consumed, and then the glowing bones also vanished, leaving only a splash of gray resembling wet ashes on the muddy ground. The other attackers drew back, stunned. Their intended victim still lived, for the knight hauled himself to a sitting position, unrecognizable for the gore that covered him, and regarded the ashes with wonderment.
The Prince was also amazed that the new talisman had so readily obeyed him. A fierce jubilation welled up in his heart. He pointed the Burning Eye at the other two Glismak, who still stood near the downed Companion as though paralyzed, and incinerated them also with magical lightning.
The rest of the cannibals set up a furious clamor, shouting one to the other in their guttural language. They began to flee, and inside of a few moments all were gone into the forest. Tolivar, standing invisible at the edge of the clearing, could not help but utter a shout of triumph.
”Who's there?” cried Sir Edinar. He and the brothers Kalepo and Melpotis were the only Companions left on their feet. The three of them had many wounds, but none were mortal.
”It is some sorcerer come to our aid,” said the knight hunched on the ground, who then groaned in agony and fell limp. By his voice the Prince identified Sir Sainlat, bleeding in a dozen places. One of his feet had been hacked from his leg by a Glismak axe, and blood spurted forth like a small scarlet fountain.
Tolivar hurried to him. Touching the coronet on his head with two fingers, he closed his eyes and saw Sainlat in his imagination, tall and strong as he had been that morning setting off from the flatboat. ”Talisman,” he whispered, ”let him be so.”
Sainlat's body was enveloped in soft green light. The burly knight stirred and sat up. His face was unbloodied and stupefaction caused his mouth to sag, for all traces of his injuries had vanished. Even his armor and garments were clean and undamaged.
”Sacred Flower!” Edinar cried. He ran to his restored Companion, followed by Melpotis and Kalepo, and the three of them pulled Sainlat to his feet and began to laugh and pound him on the back. As this went on, the Prince commanded the Three-Headed Monster to heal the others. A triple pulse of emerald light announced the accomplishment of the magic, leaving the transformed knights numb with shock and delight.
”O Wizard, come forth and accept our thanks!” Kalepo managed to say.
Tolivar spoke in a disguised croak. ”Where are the others? Where is the Lady of the Eyes?”
”Did you hear?” Sainlat exclaimed. ”He's somewhere close by!”
The Companions began to gabble all at once until Tolivar cried out, ”Edinar, answer me!”
The young knight controlled himself. ”Unseen Wizard, the Lady of the Eyes has pa.s.sed through a viaduct-we hope into the land of the Star Men-and promised to return to us anon. Sir Bafrik fell gravely wounded into yon pool and I fear he is dead. As to the Nyssomu Jagun, I know not where he may be. I have not laid eyes on him since the Glismak savages sprang upon us. But who are you? Are you one of the Vispi servants of the White Lady? The invisible Eyes in the Mist?”
The Prince silently asked the coronet: Is Bafrik alive?
No, said the voice in his head. He has pa.s.sed safely beyond and his body has floated some distance downstream.
Where is Jagun?
At this moment he stands at the brink of a namp's pit, halfway up the hill to your left, wondering who it is that the beast has just now devoured.
”A namp!” the Prince wailed aloud. ”No! Oh, no!” And he dashed away, cras.h.i.+ng through undergrowth and tripping over concealed rocks. The four knights saw the disturbance he made in the vegetation and followed after, giving voice to their mystification.
Within a few minutes Tolivar caught sight of Jagun, who was staring somberly into a ragged-edged cavity in the ground that measured some two ells in diameter. Obviously, it had once been roofed over with thin saplings, dead leaves, and other trash from the forest floor to mask its presence. Something-or someone- had broken through the flimsy covering and tumbled in.
”Burning Eye, bring him out safely!” the Prince shrieked. ”Oh, please! Rescue Ralabun!”
The request is impertinent.
The invisible boy fell to his knees at the brink of the hole opposite Jagun and looked down. The pit was full of shadows; but there, half buried in soil and duff, was a gigantic shape that almost filled the bottom. It resembled a bloated bald head, having two saucer-sized bright blue eyes that looked up from between wrinkled lids. The namp s.h.i.+fted and seemed to smile, revealing a huge mouth that stretched from one side of its head to the other. Very short limbs with twiglike digits sprang from the place where the creature's ears might have been.
”Did-did this vile beast take Ralabun?” the Prince inquired of the talisman in a quavering voice.
Yes.
Tolivar burst into tears. ”Oh, no! My poor old friend! If only you had been more proficient in wilderness ways... if only I had not sent you off the trail! Now you are gone and no magic can bring you back.”
Jagun was frowning, his gaze fixed on the place where the unseen lad's weight had compressed the forest detritus. The Oathed Companions had come up and were casting horrified glances into the pit. The namp licked its purplish lips at the sight of them and scratched at the dirt with its tiny hands.
”Prince Tola?” the old Nyssomu hunter said. ”Is that you?”
Just then the namp gave a grotesque hiccough, shuddered, and blinked its eyes rapidly. Tolivar, Jagun, and the knights made haste to move back from the edge of the hole as the creature hiccoughed again, showing row after row of stained, pointed teeth. The namp's shuddering turned into violent spasms, punctuated by gagging sounds. Suddenly its maw gaped wide like the opening of a t.i.tantic, fang-fringed sack, and there was a thunderous eructation.
A slender silvery container flew through the air, accompanied by a quant.i.ty of phlegm, and landed at Jagun's feet. Thus relieved, the namp sighed, shook itself, and burrowed down until only its half-closed eyes remained above ground, glowing faintly in the dimness of the pit.
There was a crackling sound in the underbrush and Kadiya emerged.
”You have returned safely!” Jagun exclaimed. ”Praise be to the Triune!”
”Indeed,” she replied, ”and I have met with some success. But before I speak of
it, let me introduce you to a certain wizard.” Swiftly, she circled the namp's hole to where the two footprints indented the ground and seized something that seemed naught but thin air. ”You may as well turn yourself visible, Tola.”
The Prince appeared, crowned with the Three-Headed Monster and having the Three-Lobed Burning Eye still in one grubby hand. His cheeks were streaked with tears. Kadiya had hold of him by the back of his jerkin, and even though they two were nearly of a size, Tolivar seemed helpless in her grip, like the newly captured prey of a lothok, numbly resigned to its fate.
”This is the wizard who saved our lives?” Sir Edinar gasped.”Impossible!” said Sainlat.”He wears the magical coronet,” Melpotis pointed out, ”and carries the talisman stolen from the Lady of the Eyes.””But he is only a child,” Kalepo scoffed.”I slew the Glismak and healed your wounds,” Tolivar said in a dull voice. ”I am a sorcerer, and your contempt will not make it otherwise.”
”You are also a thief,” Kadiya said calmly, ”but that is by the bye.” Firmly, she
guided the Prince to the slime-covered star-box. ”Open it!”
As though overcome with an immense fatigue, Tolivar obeyed. When she commanded him to place the Three-Lobed Burning Eye within, he obeyed without speaking a word. Then the Lady of the Eyes made finger play upon the gemstones within the box. There was a blaze of light and a musical sound. A moment later Kadiya took up the magic sword with a triumphant smile, holding it in both hands by the dull-edged blade with the hilt upright.
”Talisman,” she asked, ”are you once again mine own? Is your power restored?”
Nestled amongst the conjoined k.n.o.bs on the sword's pommel was Kadiya's trillium-amber, s.h.i.+ning like a tiny flame in the deepening twilight. The dark lobes seemed to split open, and three gleaming Eyes that mirrored those on her golden-scaled cuira.s.s gazed at her.
I am bonded to you, Lady, and fully potentiated.
”Good,” she said. ”Now I command you to s.h.i.+eld me and my companions from the Sight of Orogastus and all his Star Guild.”
It is done.