Final Kingdom (7 page)

“All right, Beorn. If they followed us into the cave, I just hope they took that other fork. We don't need any battles in here.”

They trudged on.

At last Beorn announced, “This is one of the lowest levels of the Caverns of Doom.”

“We haven't seen any monsters,” Wash said, looking around nervously. “Maybe they've all left.”

Beorn shook his head in denial. “They are here. And we must be very careful. Not all our enemies are human.”

He did not elaborate, but just his words were enough to frighten Sarah. She could imagine the horrible things that might lurk underground here—huge worms with sharp teeth and other sorts of terrible monsters. They encountered nothing, however.

And then they came to another decision point. The cavern broke off once more into two wings. One passageway led upward; the other led down.

Glori said, “I've heard tales of this place. That is the doorway to the deepest part of the Caverns of Doom.” She pointed to the downward passage. “We don't want to go there.”

“Yes, we do,” Beorn said. “That way—” he pointed upward “—is where the Dark Lord will have his men stationed. They know we came into the Caverns, and they'll be waiting for us when we come out. We must go down deeper.”

Sarah, who by now had a slight fever, could not
understand most of the debate that ensued. Eventually she heard somebody say, “We'll have to take a vote.”

It was Jake's voice. “How many of you vote to go down the way Beorn says?” he asked.

Only Abbey raised her hand.

Jake said regretfully, “Well, Beorn, it looks like you're outvoted this time. I think we've had all we can take of these tunnels.”

Beorn shook his head stubbornly. “To go upward is a mistake.”

“No, it is not!” Glori exclaimed. “We'll die if we go down farther. Come on, everyone. We've got to get out of this horrible pit!”

Sarah saw Abbey move next to Beorn.

“I'm sorry,” Abbey said to him. “I did all I could. Everybody's just so tired and half sick. They've got to have light.”

Beorn did not answer her. Looking toward the trail that led upward, he sighed. “Sometimes the easy way will prove to be the hardest.” There was a note of gloom in his voice. As they started forward and upward, he loosened his battle-ax, and his eyes gleamed in the semidarkness.

S
omehow the very act of heading upward, where they knew there were light and fresh air, encouraged the Sleepers.

Wash said, “It was just like going down into your grave when we kept going downhill into that tunnel!”

Beorn said nothing as they trudged upward. He kept his battle-ax unsheathed though, and his eyes were constantly looking ahead.

And then they came to a chasm so deep that the light of Glori's torch would not permit them to see the bottom.

“I'd hate to fall into that sucker!” Reb whistled softly. He picked up a stone, tossed it over, counted off the seconds, which seemed forever, and finally he heard a faint
clink
as the stone hit. “Nope—” he shook his head violently “—let's not fall into there.”

“This way.” Glori held the torch forward.

She was standing on the very brink, and Reb came alongside to peer into the gloom ahead. “Are we supposed to cross on
that?”
he exclaimed.

What he saw was a fragile bridge that had been constructed across the chasm. It looked so tiny that when Jake joined them he said, “I wouldn't trust that thing for my cat to walk across!”

“It will be safe enough. We will go one at a time,” Glori announced. To show her confidence, she strode out onto the bridge and stood in the middle of it. “You see? Just come singly. It's stronger than it looks.” Then
she crossed to the other side and stood waiting, encouraging them to make the trip.

One by one they crossed over.

Glori smiled. “Now, from here on it will be better, I trust.”

“That wasn't much of a bridge,” Reb grumbled. “They make better bridges than that back where I come from.”

The Sleepers and the dwarf hurried after Glori as she led them ever upward. The tunnel twisted this way and that, and soon everyone was exclaiming over the breath of fresh air that struck them.

“I think I see light up ahead!” Sarah cried.

Reb strained to see, and, sure enough, he could make out a pinpoint of light.

Glori laughed. “See? I told you this was the way to come.”

She quickened her pace, the others stumbling after her. The pinpoint of light grew, and then they were almost at the cave entrance.

“Wait!” Beorn commanded gutturally. “Don't go out there yet!”

“You stay in your caverns if you want,” Glori said coldly. “The rest of us need sunlight.”

She stepped outside into a wooded area, and the Sleepers crowded after her. Reb was almost blinded by the brightness, and he half shut his eyes as he tried to look around.

“This way,” Glori said. “The trail is plain.”

“Just a minute,” Dave said. “I thought I saw something . . .”

“What is it, Dave?” Sarah asked.

“I thought I saw sunlight reflecting on some metal.”

“There's no
metal
up here in these woods!” Jake exclaimed. “Wait, I see it too.” Then he cried, “Look out, here they come! They found us!”

Instantly the air was filled with flying arrows. The Sleepers stumbled back into the shelter of the cavern, and Beorn cried, “The rest of you—take the torch and go back! I will hold them here at the entrance.”

“I'll stay and help you,” Dave said firmly.

“I'm staying too!” Jake said, his jaw pushed out in a daring way.

“So am I,” Reb said. “Wash, take the girls back. Look after them. We'll give you a chance to get across the bridge.”

Wash didn't want to leave them, Reb could tell. But he obeyed, and the other three Sleepers and Glori —and the torch— quickly disappeared back down into the cavern.

Beorn said, “Four for one then.” He smiled crookedly. “We have some advantage—the warriors won't be able to use their bows as well in here. And they'll be blinded by the darkness.”

The four defenders stood shoulder to shoulder in the darkness. Soon they heard voices. And then they saw that they did have the advantage, for they could see their enemies against the light of the cave opening. Those who came at them could see nothing.

They heard the hissing of Beorn's battle-ax, though, and felt the slashes of the swords wielded by Dave and Reb and Jake. Shrill cries went up until, it seemed, the warriors could not be urged further into the blackness to face unseen death.

“Now,” said Beorn, “we go.”

The defenders slowly gave way, leaving their attackers—many fallen—behind them. They groped their way back down the unlit tunnel to the bridge, where
they found the others on the far side, waiting with the welcome torch.

When the four had crossed, Beorn began hacking at the timbers that held the bridge in place. His sharp ax made the chips fly.

Glori said, “If you destroy the bridge, we can't get back across!”

“And they can't get at us!” Beorn answered grimly. Soon the bridge sagged, then with a crash ripped loose from its moorings. It fell into the cavernous depths, turning slowly, and made a tremendous smash at the bottom of the cavern.

“Now we go back,” Beorn said. He stared at Glori as if awaiting a challenge, but she said nothing.

“Just a minute,” Wash whispered. “I. . . I don't think I can make it. . .” And he collapsed.

“Wash!” Reb cried. “What's the matter? Bring the light over here!”

Reb leaned over him. “He's taken an arrow!”

The arrow was a short, stubby one, more a dart than an arrow, but it had pierced Wash's side. Abbey tried to stem the severe bleeding.

Wash, however, whispered, “No, you've . . . got to go on!”

“Wash,” Reb said, his voice breaking, “you'll be all right.”

Wash reached up a hand feebly, and Reb grabbed it with both of his. “You're gonna have to go on . . . without me,” Wash said, his voice growing weaker.

Beorn said nothing, for this was a matter for the Sleepers. He and Glori stood back while Dave, Reb, Jake, and the two girls gathered around the injured boy. His head was in Sarah's lap now, and he was speaking so faintly that they had to lean close to hear.

“Looks like . . . I won't be . . . at the last battle,” he
whispered, “but you guys have got to make it. Don't worry . . . about leaving me here . . . I'll see you . . . again.”

“Wash,” Reb said, “you can't die!” Tears were running down his cheeks. He held the hand of the small boy tightly. “You just can't, Wash.”

“You been . . . my best friend, Reb,” Wash whispered. He looked around and said, “All of you . . . my good friends.” He closed his eyes, and they thought he was gone, but he opened them and said more strongly. “We've had . . . a good time.” He took each hand, then closed his eyes again as one who was weary from long labor. “I wish . . . I could be at the end. . .with you. But Goél . . . he'll look out for us all.”

Silence filled the tunnel, and then Abbey sobbed, “He's gone! Wash—Wash is gone!”

They looked at one another.

“We can't take him with us,” Sarah whispered.

“This will be his burial ground,” Beorn said suddenly, his voice deep, his eyes brooding. “It is a grave for a valiant warrior. No one will disturb him here.”

And so it was. They had no choice. Beorn found a small alcove, and there they placed the body. Afterward, each Sleeper said his good-bye to the small, still form. Then they turned away, eyes blinded with tears, and Beorn closed the alcove opening with stones.

On the way leading back down to the deepest parts of the Caverns of Doom, Sarah said brokenly, “Josh and now Wash—both gone! No matter what happens, things will never be the same again!”

B
eorn conducted the Sleepers and Glori deep into the bowels of the earth where they traveled for what seemed hours. But at last they emerged into the world of sunlight and fresh air without meeting further opposition. They knew that the soldiers of the Dark Lord behind them had been cut off by the chasm they could not cross over.

Now they were passing through a golden grassy plain. Herds of Nuworld cattle grazed here and there and lifted their heads to look curiously at the band that forged through their fields. The Sleepers were all limping badly.

“How much farther is it?” Dave asked Glori, who had resumed her place as guide.

“Do you see that low ridge ahead—the one that looks like a smudge on the horizon?” She pointed. “That is the home of the centaurs. We should be there tomorrow.”

Jake looked across the enormous distance and groaned. “I've about worn my shoe leather off,” he complained, “but let's keep going if we have to.”

There was an unhappy note in his voice, but he trudged on. After a time he noticed that Reb had fallen far behind. This was unusual, for the Southern boy usually was as far in advance of the party as possible. Slowing his steps, Jake waited until Reb was even with him, then said, “I don't feel like going much of anywhere. Do you, Reb?”

“No.”

Jake waited for Reb to continue, and when he saw that Reb's lips were pressed firmly together, he thought,
He's grieving over Wash. Those two were closer than brothers.
Aloud he said gently, “It's rough. First Josh, and now Wash.”

Reb did not reply for a time. The only sounds were the cries of a few birds overhead and the fall of their footsteps as they plodded through the field.

“It's like I lost an arm,” Reb said finally, pain etched on his face. “For two years now, we've hardly been separated at all. I got so that I sort of thought like Wash did, and he thought like I did.”

Jake knew better than to speak of their loss again.

The sun was just beginning to fall toward the west when Beorn said loudly, “Look!”

All of them lifted their heads to see what appeared to be a band of horsemen coming directly toward them.

“I hope they're friendly,” Glori said uneasily. “We're trapped out in the open—we wouldn't have a chance if they decided to make a fight of it.”

Sarah, whose eyesight was keener than most, was staring. She said with shock, “Those aren't men on horses!”

“What?” Dave shaded his eyes with a hand and waited for a moment. “You're right,” he said. “I never saw anything like that!”

By this time, others could see more clearly the group that was approaching. Abbey whispered, “I knew we were coming to the Land of the Centaurs, but I guess I never really expected that they'd look like
that.”

To Sarah, however, they looked exactly as she had pictured them. There were eight of them. All had the
bodies of fine horses. One was white, three were black, one was a bay color, one looked like a pinto, and two were palomino, a light cream.

But there their similarity to horses ended. Rising out of the front quarters of each one, instead of the arching neck and fine head of a horse, was the body of a man. All were deeply muscled, the kind of development she had seen in weight lifters and acrobats back in Oldworld. Every muscle stood out clearly. Most had long hair that whipped back in the breeze. They carried powerful bows and wore quivers of arrows over their backs. Their faces were stern and noble.

The leader was the strongest-looking of all. The horse part of him was cream colored, and his hair was a rich auburn, slightly curly and tied in the back with a leather thong. His voice boomed, “Who are you, and what is your business in the Land of the Centaurs?”

The centaurs surrounded the travelers and nocked arrows to their bowstrings.