Gaal the Conqueror (11 page)

"You're leaving us?" Eleanor asked.

Authentio's face was haunted. "I'll be going ahead of you,"
he said uneasily, "and will do what I can to warn you of any
dangers I may encounter. But you have the treasures. Use
them." He said little more after that. He made sure they understood the way, saw to it they had provisions for a day, started
them along the correct path, then embraced and left them. The
last they saw of him he was running lithe and light, with never
a backward look, toward the desert.

They reached the edge of the desert by midafternoon and lay
down to rest. Eventually, warmed by the sun, they fell into an
uneasy sleep. They woke a little over an hour later, in John's
case from a dream of falling, falling, falling. A distant roar was
rapidly getting closer and louder. The sensation of falling continued even when they were awake, creating the sensation that
they were shooting down an elevator out of control. Scrambling
to their feet they discovered that the earth was shaking and rolling beneath them, throwing them to the ground. They
struggled in terror to regain their balance.

"It's an earthquake!"John gasped. He struggled to remember
what you were supposed to do in an earthquake, but could
remember none of the things he had read. Eleanor was crying
and trying to hold on to him, so that they staggered uncertainly
together. For several minutes they continued to panic. In an
attempt to keep their own fears at bay, they assured each other
breathlessly that everything would be all right and that nothing
was going to happen to them. At last the noise subsided.

There was no sleep for the rest of the day. Several times they
felt tremors, but nothing like the shaking that had wakened
them. The afternoon grew cool, and they sipped their water
carefully, trying to make it last till they reached the other side
of the desert. They were too tense to be hungry.

"You know-it sounds crazy, but I think I'm right. The earth's
tilted. We're going to have to climb slightly as we go." They felt
strangely reluctant to continue on their journey. First they made
sure the book was firmly strapped to John's back, and that
Eleanor was comfortable with the orb, the key and her share
of provisions. John said, "I guess we might as well start."

In spite of the rough terrain, and even though they were
climbing slightly all the way, the first part of the night was
thoroughly enjoyable. They began by treating themselves to
five swallows of lukewarm water from the leather water bottle.
Though they had eaten nothing all day, thirst and excitement
combined to mask their hunger, and the water served to render
their thirst bearable.

"Did you ever see such stars?" Eleanor breathed wonderingly. A multitude of diamonds stared down unblinking from the
crowded velvet sky. The stars sometimes seemed close enough
to touch, and their light was bright enough for them to spot
boulders and rough spots. The cool air braced them, so that
they took deep breaths of it.

"Don't walk so fast. I can hardly keep up with you. I'm out
of breath," John said to Eleanor at length.

Eleanor stopped. "You kidding?" she said, astonished.

"No, why?"

"Because I was trying to keep up with you!"

They laughed and resumed their walk at almost the same
pace. So the night wore on. Twice they stopped momentarily as
they sensed the ground tremble beneath their feet. But there
was no repetition of the earlier severity. Later the moon rose
and the stars sulked and shrouded their splendor. From time
to time the two companions stopped briefly for water, beginning to empty their bottles. Gradually their pace slackened and
weariness began to dog them. At one point Eleanor said, "This
is such a long night. Are all nights this long?"

But at last, as dawn began to lighten the sky on their left they
squeezed the last drops from the water bottle. John felt both
guilty and worried as they did so. How would they get through
another day and night in the desert without water? They were
already thirsty. Neither of them complained for each was determined to display no sign of weakness.

Soon the eastern sky began to glow pink. "What's that
ahead?" Eleanor asked suddenly. "It looks like a man-a big
man!"

John stared into the darkness. Certainly there was a shadowy
something ahead of them in the darkness. Cautiously they advanced. "It's awfully big," John whispered, "and it doesn't move.
It's more like a tree."

Which is exactly what it was-an oak tree, apparently in full
leaf, standing alone in the desert. They faced east sitting among
the roots and leaning their backs against the trunk as they
watched the sky turn gray, and color gently invade the eastern
horizon.

"Whatever is it doing here?" Eleanor asked. "There's no water, no lake, no river. It's not as if there were an oasis."

Like liquid silver the rim of the sun stole over the horizon.
John grinned. "Perhaps the tree's a mirage. Perhaps we just
imagine we're leaning against it."

But Eleanor was serious. "I think there's something strange
about it-like it's meant to be here-like it's expecting us."

Slowly the sun revealed itself, a distant peacock opening a
shining tail. But John was not watching. He had risen to his feet
and was facing the trunk of the tree, hardly noticing his own
shadow framed by pinkish light. Rubbing his hands cautiously
over the bark, he said, "Know what?"

Eleanor stopped squinting at the sun and turned to look up
at him. "What are you thinking?"

"It might be a Gaal tree."

"What's that?"

"A tree that has a big room inside its trunk. It's sort of bigger
on the inside than on the outside. We had them when I was
here last time."

"No kidding! How do we find out if it is?"

John didn't answer for a moment. Then he said, "It's funny.
I didn't think of it until just now, but when you talked about this
Gaal person, I knew the name was familiar, but I didn't realize
why. I wonder if Gaal trees have anything to do with Gaal? Mab
used to tell it to open in the name of the Changer."

"The Changer? Oh, yes. Ponty said he was the Uncreated
Creator-or something." Eleanor scrambled to her feet, her
eyes shining with excitement. "Think you could open it? I don't
see any sign of a door."

"Who knows? You never do see a door until it opens. But
we've got nothing to lose. We've no water for tomorrow."

They stared at each other in silence. Eleanor said, "If the
trees do exist I bet they have something to do with Gaal. He's
like that. I hope you get to meet him."

John was thinking. "Mebbe if I ask it to open-mind you, it
may not be a Gaal tree. At any rate ..." He let his sentence trail into nothingness, then drew back several paces and stared at
the tree. After a moment he said, "I'm going try it." He drew
in a deep breath. Then, "Tree, I command you. Open in the
name of the Changer!" Slowly a door swung open in the trunk

Eleanor said, "Oh ... oh, oh!" and quickly stepped through.

John followed her. "It worked!" he cried. "It worked! It's just
like last time! I was scared nothing would happen ... "

"But look!" Eleanor was squeaky with excitement. "How can
it be like this? It's so big in here!"

It was indeed big. They found themselves standing in a large,
roughly circular room. Not far from the door was a table before
a window overlooking the desert. It was laden with dried figs,
dates, raisins and fresh fruits, oat cakes and jugs of water and
of milk. Divans and soft carpets filled the rest of the room. A
winding staircase led them up to two bedrooms in each of
which there was a four-poster bed with the sheets carefully
folded back. In each bedroom on a side table stood an oldfashioned china jug and washbasin with soap and towel.

"It's like a house!"

"A tree house?"

"Well, a house in a tree, but how on earth ..."

"I know," John said. "It's always like this. You get used to it."

"Is it O.K if I take this bedroom? The curtains are sort of
frilly, and you wouldn't want ..."

"I couldn't care less-I'm too tired to worry about curtains!"

In the circular room they tackled the fruit and the oat cakes,
quenching their thirst with the milk, all the time feeling that
they were dreaming. Then satisfied and refreshed they sat together, too sleepy to move. At length they shook themselves and
went upstairs to bed.

"Good night!" John said sleepily.

Eleanor giggled. "It's really morning," she said. "But who
cares?"

Two minutes later they were both fast asleep.

Sunlight flooded John's bedroom, and for the longest time he
lay staring at the ceiling, dreamily examining the beams supporting it. He knew where he was, but he did not know when
it was. He thought it was early the next morning, whereas it was
in fact the late afternoon of the same day.

Slowly his mind began to rest on the events of their journey,
the dragon, the earthquake, the trek by night over the desert.
How long had he been in Anthropos? Surely it amounted to
more than a couple of weeks! It seemed more like a month.
The thought of time made him think of his father. How long
was it in Canadian time? Would his father get impatient and
come? Anxiety like a gimlet stabbed into his dreaminess, and
he sat up, no longer sleepy, but alert and afraid.

Slowly John walked over to the window and stared. The desert looked exactly as it had done on the previous day. Sand and spiny bushes stretched endlessly as far as the horizon in every
direction. How long would their journey take? How would he
get back? Would his father come there-and die?

He poured water into the basin and slowly bathed himself.
The towel on which he dried himself was soft and comforting,
and somehow the process of bathing and drying calmed him,
and made him feel better. He turned to the bed and was bewildered to find a change of clothing there. There was clean
underwear and a fresh pair of sandals. The other garments
were the same, except that they were of lighter material. He
dressed and was about to buckle on his sword-belt when there
was a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

Eleanor slid through the door, shiningly groomed and in
clean clothes. "Hi!" Eleanor said, "Did your clothes-"

"You mean yours did too?"

"Is somebody living here? A servant or something? It's like
magic."

"No, not magic. Mab explained it to me once. It's much better
than magic. It has to do with love-the Changer's love."

"Who's Mab? You keep talking about him."

"Didn't I explain when I told you my story? He's really my
dad. Only I'd never met him till I came to Anthropos. And he
didn't even know he had a son. But when I think of what we
did together here, I still think of him as Mab-that's what we
all called him then. Let's go down and eat," John said after a
moment. "I'm hungry."

They set out once darkness had fallen, and Shuma the star
in the south could be clearly identified. But their journey was
less enjoyable than it had been the previous night. Their steps
were sluggish. Their legs ached and they had blisters on their
feet. And because they were careless they finished their water
long before dawn.