Final Kingdom (4 page)

Beorn stared at her for a long moment, unsmiling.

Sarah flushed. She took a step back as the rest greeted the two guides.

It was the same in each case. Glori greeted each Sleeper with a firm handshake and a kind word. The dwarf simply stood there, his hand on his battle-ax. Finally he said gutturally, “Do we stand here talking all day, or are we going to obey Goél?”

An hour later, the Sleepers and their guides were long out of sight of the camp. They were walking along, Josh still angry at the dwarf's rudeness, when the guttural voice spoke again. “And where do you think you're going?”

Josh swung around and saw that the dwarf had stopped and was staring at him with a sneer.

“What do you mean?” Josh asked.

Beorn waved a hand forward. “You'll never get to the Land of Ice that way,” he said. “I thought
I
was to be the guide.”

Josh flushed, and his freckles stood out. “All right,” he said gruffly, “which way is it?”

Beorn did not answer. He strolled past Josh and made a right-angle turn without even looking to see if the others were following.

Sarah came up to Josh, who was glaring after the dwarf, and whispered, “Don't let him upset you, Josh.
He's grouchy—but after all, he
is
the one Goél gave us to show us the way.”

Dave asked Glori, “Couldn't
you
show us the way?”

“I can take you to two of your destinations but not to the Land of Ice. That is Beorn's specialty. But he
is
a horrible sort of creature, isn't he?”

“He sure is.” Jake drifted up to stand beside them. “I'm surprised that Goél uses him. He's not the kind you'd like to go on a two-week canoe trip with.”

“Or any kind of trip with,” Wash agreed. “But we better get after him. He looks like he's not going to slow down for us.”

“All right,” Josh said with grim determination, “let's show him the Sleepers can keep any pace he can set.”

By noon, however, the Sleepers were all gasping for breath. The land had turned uphill, and they seemed headed toward a steep mountain pass.

Beorn's legs were short and stumpy, but he appeared to be as tireless as a machine. He had forged ahead all morning without a single stop, even for a drink.

Now, as the sun was exactly overhead, Josh called out to the dwarf, “Wait a minute. We'll take our noon meal here.”

Beorn turned and stared back at him expressionlessly, then shrugged his burly shoulders. He put down his knapsack, opened it, pulled something out, and began to eat.

Sarah was usually the one to see to the meals, and she called to him, “Don't you want to share what we have, Beorn?” She got no answer, and her face reddened. “Well,” she said quietly to Abbey as they took food out of their knapsacks, “he doesn't seem to be
worried about table manners. Goél certainly has some strange servants.”

When they had eaten their cold lunch, Josh said, “We'll make camp tonight in time to have a fire and cook something hot.”

Beorn spoke up. “I thought you were in a hurry. Didn't Goél say our journey was urgent?” Finished with his own meal, he was standing impatiently, arms crossed, looking down at the seated Sleepers.

“We'll get there,” Josh said grimly. He got up and began repacking his kit. Then, when the others were set, he looked at Beorn. “All right, now we're ready.”

All afternoon they trudged uphill. Abbey developed a blister on her heel, and Sarah insisted they stop while she put ointment on it and a tight bandage so that it would not be rubbed even worse.

Abbey bit her lip. “Why does he have to be so mean? We're going as fast as we can.”

Reb strolled up to Beorn. “Couldn't you have a little consideration for the ladies? They're not as strong as we are.”

Beorn looked the Sleepers over and laughed harshly. “Strong? I don't see anything strong about any of you.”

Reb took this as a challenge. “We might be a little bit stronger than you think—some of us.”

“You? You're just a
boy.”

Reb, always sensitive and carrying a bit too much pride, said, “A runt like you shouldn't be too hard to handle.”

Beorn grinned. “Why don't you try it?”

Reb put a hand on Beorn's thick chest. He shoved hard, forcing the dwarf one step backward, but he had time to do no more. A steely hand clamped around his
wrist. Then he found himself rising in the air and turning a complete somersault. The dwarf tossed him as easily as if he had been stuffed with feathers instead of flesh and blood!

Reb hit the ground, rolled over, and came up spitting dirt. With a wild yell, he charged Beorn, who simply stood waiting.

When the young Southerner was upon him, Beorn shifted quickly, grabbed Reb, and threw him to the ground easily. He held him there while Reb kicked and screamed.

“As I say,” Beorn said, “it's up to Goél who goes, but I don't see why he chose a bunch of children for the job.”

“Turn him loose!”

Beorn looked up at Glori, standing beside him. Her eyes were half slitted, and she looked very angry.

“Turn him loose, I said!”

Beorn stared at her arrogantly, then slowly nodded. “All right, he's loose.”

Reb came to his feet and would have continued the fight, but Glori took his arm. “No, Reb,” she said, “this is no time to fight. No one doubts your courage. Dwarfs are known for their brute strength.” She glanced at Beorn and sniffed. “They don't have many brains, but they make up for it with brawn.”

Beorn simply looked at her, saying nothing. Then he picked up his knapsack, put it on his shoulder, and without another word strode off up the hill.

Reb was trembling with anger and embarrassment.

Wash came up to him. “Never mind, Reb,” the small black boy said, slapping his friend on the back. “He's built like a bull. And like Glori says, he doesn't have a lot upstairs, seems like.”

“I don't see why Goél had to send
him,”
Reb said angrily. “We could've had a map.”

“Seems a map would be a lot better than being around
him,
all right.”

But Josh called everybody into order, and they followed after the dwarf, who again set an exhausting pace.

That evening, when they made camp, Beorn disappeared for a time. He came back with a rabbit, which he proceeded to roast and then devour without even offering a share to the others.

Later on, when the dwarf was asleep, Glori approached Josh and said quietly, “We have to have a guide, but that one is dangerous.”

“What do you mean ‘dangerous'?”

“I mean he has no judgment. He's not very bright. He's strong enough and too ignorant to be anything but brave—but that can get us all killed. Be very careful, Josh! That dwarf could lead us all to destruction.”

She turned away, and Josh and Sarah stared at each other, considering what Glori had said.

“But we have to follow him,” Josh said finally. “He's the only guide we have. And for some reason Goél gave him to us.”

“All right, but let's all watch him,” Sarah said. “He can get us to the Land of Ice, but after that I don't care if he just disappears and leaves us alone. We have Glori —and she's all we need!”

J
osh stumbled along with the other Sleepers. “My feet are frozen stiff!” he moaned. “If I stub my toes one more time, they're going to break off.”

All were clothed in furs from head to foot. They wore heavy, fur-lined boots and fur-lined gloves. Still, everyone was shivering and had been for the past three days.

Wash's teeth chattered as he said, “I never
could
stand cold, and this is the coldest place I ever saw. They can have this Land of Ice for all of me.”

Beorn had led them over high mountains, across a narrow inlet in boats, and then outfitted them at a village that bordered the icy land where the Aluks lived. The dwarf himself laughed at the cold and at the complaints of the Sleepers. “It'll get worse,” he promised. “You'll all be frozen stiff before you get to the Aluks— but I think you'll give up before we get halfway there.”

Josh's own lips were stiff with cold, and his nose and cheeks had lost all feeling long ago. “I never knew it'd be like this,” he muttered to Sarah, who was walking close by. “I don't see how anybody
lives
in this place.” He scanned the long stretches of ice and snow, and his eyes burned in the fierce glare. He took off his gloves in order to rub them.

At once Beorn was at his side. “No! Keep your hands in your gloves, or you'll wind up without any fingers.”

“But I can't see. This snow is blinding me.”

Beorn stared at him, then nodded. “Then it's time for the glasses.”

“You have glasses?”

“I got some at the outpost,” Beorn said. “I knew we'd need them.” He shifted out of his pack, shuffled through it, and came up with what looked like a girl's hair barrette. He handed the item to Josh. “Put these on.”

Josh saw that they were in fact a piece of bone, or horn, in a curved shape. They had thongs that tied behind the head, and across the front was a narrow slit. He fitted them over his ears and at once felt relief.

“Wow,” he said, “I can't see as much, but the glare's all gone.”

“Everyone put on sunshades,” Beorn commanded. “The natives would have been blind a long time ago if they hadn't invented these glasses.”

“Pretty smart,” Jake said. “I've seen pictures of Eskimos wearing something like this back in Old world. Does cut down on the vision a little, but at least we can see.”

Abbey said, “That
is
better, but I'm so cold, and I'm getting hungry.”

“The grub's getting pretty low,” Reb said. “We better strike a village pretty soon.”

Beorn shook his head. “No village for three days.”

“Three days!” Josh cried. “What are we going to eat?”

Beorn did not answer for a moment, then he said, “You wait here. I'll get something to feed you babies.” He hefted the harpoon that he had brought from the village. It was a wooden weapon with a barbed tip fastened to the stock. Attached to this was a line of stout cord. Beorn turned without another word and walked off.

“Well, I hope he finds something.” Jake shivered. “Let's put up the tents. I wish we had a tree here for firewood.”

But there was no tree. There was nothing at all in the waste of ice and snow. Nothing but white as far as the eye could see. Overhead the sky was slate gray, and the sun was almost hidden behind tattered, heavy clouds.

“It's like being under water,” Jake complained. “I don't like this place.”

None of them liked it and were not likely to like it better.

As they set up camp, Glori said to Abbey, “Have you thought what would happen if Beorn would just leave us here?”

Abbey stared at her in consternation. “Leave us? Why would he do that?”

“He would if he saw a reason. You don't know these dwarfs as I do.” She frowned. “They're a stubborn, loveless people. They always think about what's best for
them
. He'd leave us in a minute if something came up that interested him more.”

“I can't believe that,” Abbey said staunchly.

“And even if he didn't, suppose he fell through the ice.” Glori looked around and swept the landscape with a helpless gesture. “Could you find your way back to civilization?”

Fear closed upon Abbey's heart, and she could not answer. For two long hours after that, she kept looking out the tent flap in the direction that Beorn had taken.

Then she saw him. “I see him! He's coming back!”

The Sleepers all rushed out of the tents and watched Beorn's small figure grow larger and larger. He was a moving black spot on the endless white background.
When he got closer, they saw that he carried something over his shoulder.

“He's got something to eat!” Abbey said.

Indeed, Beorn tossed a half-grown seal at their feet. “We eat,” he said.

Jake said, “I can't eat raw seal.” He set up their tiny, single-burner, oil-fed stove and took out their single frying pan. Soon the smell of cooking meat was in the air, and then he was parceling it out.

Beorn, however, laughed at his preparations. “Raw is better,” he said. “You cook the good flavor out of it.” He was eating a portion of raw seal with a relish that almost turned Abbey's stomach. Even the boys looked a little squeamish.

However, the food seemed to put fresh strength into everyone.

“This will do until we get to the Aluks,” Beorn said. He then rolled up in his furs and went to sleep instantly.

“He's like an animal,” Sarah whispered. “He can just go to sleep anytime he wants to—or go without sleep forever, it seems like.”

“He's tough, and I guess that's one reason Goél sent him,” Josh said. “We'd be in a pickle without him out here. I'll just be glad when it's all over.”

Three days later the Sleepers, led by the tireless dwarf, were standing in the village of the Aluks.

The chief, a tall, handsome Aluk with coppery skin, a man named Monti, greeted them warmly. He roused the entire village, and the Sleepers were treated royally. They soon learned that Monti was an enthusiastic supporter of Goél. He let them rest for twenty-four hours and then honored them at a banquet, where he pledged his support.

“There are many warriors in other villages. I will send my men out today, and we will all gather and make for the Plains of Dothan at once. We will fight for Goél.”

This was encouraging news to Josh.

Although Monti urged the Sleepers to stay and rest, Josh shook his head, saying, “No, chief, we must go now to the Land of the Centaurs.”

They stayed one more day only. Then, carrying as much dried food in their packs as they could walk with, they were led out, once again, by Beorn.