"Very well, impatient god of these ignorant people. This is the final time that you shall hear words from my dreams, given to you. Hear this and hear it only once, and remember! Commit it to paper if you will but remember it. Tell the court of the Prominants, if you will, but never ask it to be repeated to you, for on that day when that request is done, so should it be the end of your rule in Pomperaque." Jessuum's eyes glowed with the fire of wisdom and the light of knowledge. His brow poured forth an anxious sweat while Manguino stood by smiling with less than no faith in what he was told — even if he cared to think of the meaning behind it.
"Four great elements, ride on high
Come from the greatest fears inside.
All suspicions end with feast
Of gilded skins and threaded beads.
Foul water there is all to drink
And wine does burn with chocking stink,
Of dying corpses bleeding free
And refuge cut off, from the sea.
And where to run with hearts that tare
Leave not your sight, from the air.
Black feathers from his shoulders peer
As promised by that Holy Seer,
Shall come and take his place that day
And rule the city where he once did play.
The great one falls in the bloodied sand
And is soon forgotten in the land.
The bones of his body are never found
But his breathing body yet is sound."
Manguino stared at Jessuum for a moment then sneered.
"What do I make of that? It was quick and as senseless as all your other dreamy riddles. How could my fore-fathers trust you?"
"Do you remember those words, Manguino?" Jessuum asked him.
"Yes, but what should I care?" Manguino asked.
"Then … repeat it to me — once … if you can!" demanded the great Seer and Manguino did indeed repeat every word to no great avail of knowing their meaning.
"You play alone, now, Manguino!" said Jessuum and he bound out of the chapel.
Manguino ran after him to question him on the meaning but Jessuum
Benitar was gone.
Manguino, in a maniacal craze ran about the teaching rooms and ordered the scribe-vicars to make copies of the words, and he recited the puzzling riddle until he found every word copied onto paper, then he returned to his bed chamber and saw Polis give to Eckma a capsule of the age retardant drug, and she drank it down with the water from the pool in which she was still wading.
BIPARTITE: JOURNEY BACK TO POMPERAQUE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
3058 C.E. commenced with the onset of those in Besten who were in the final throws of preparation for the invasion of Pomperaque.
Throughout the year, while the plans for invasion were being finalized,
Harvard Bartlett ordered the armies into a building programme, to make
Besten and the other major cities in the alignment larger and more
beautiful than imaginable.
The men in the armies welcomed the building programme that Harvard had engaged them to do. They didn't want to feel the anxiety and the excitement of war until the war itself was fought. So the men, as they created great architectural masterpieces, left their worries of death while they welded their concentrations on this new work.
In the days, weeks and months that passed, Besten and many other cities grew to a majesty, remembered only from the clouded, nightmarish dreams of the late Twentieth Century.
The northern cities became the jewels of the continent, and from all around the continent, every type of human went to them to purpose trade and alliance, and many treaties were entered into and signed by the respective parties involved.
Lloyd and Boyce discussed, with Harvard, the proposed routes that they had some choice on which to use, on their way back to Phoride and Pomperaque.
Boyce was eager to return and take what was his, and Lloyd also felt that now would be the best time since the ArchBishop had also begun a great building programme in Pomperaque, soon after Besten commenced with their's.
In Pomperaque, Manguino's spies described to him that Harvard Bartlett's army was being used to build up the cities, and that they grew at a surprising rate.
On the advice from his wife Eckma and several of the noble Cardinals, Manguino thought that the idea of an army building force was brilliant, and he thought that Besten had engaged itself in such a programme only to rise above Pomperaque, as an economic power.
He set Phoride's entire army to work in building the city into one great mass of moving machinery and light.
Using the knowledge available in the gadgets that had once belonged to Brook, towering buildings were built and were powered by currents of energy — electricity.
Light illuminated the evenings in the city of Pomperaque from tall glass posts that were filled with conductive gases that glowed when energy was passed through them, and the citizens travelled around in little propelled carts with wheels that were set upon endless tubes of steel that also utilized the same electrical forces.
The city's incinerators were converted to produce the power since the furnaces constantly
burned some kind of waste material throughout the entire day and night, and huge storage batteries, such as those in the Blue Mansion, were built to preserve energy for emergency use.
Pomperaque grew into a grandeur never before seen by those living there, and it hardly took a year to complete.
The sudden boost in the lifestyles of those in Phoride made many of Phoride's citizens, from the peasantry to the elite Prominants feel alive again, and many returned to praising Manguino.
Manguino was proud of his own brilliance and praised himself.
He had taken notice of the words spoken to him by the Seer, Jessuum Benitar, and his spies' news about the north compiling an army was all he needed to order the male citizens into a compulsory army of his own.
Throughout the first years of the arms build-up all the women, even those wives of the Prominent elite, had to do the work of their husbands, as-well-as their own domestic chores while their husbands trained to fight a war which gave no indications would ever be fought.
Now, however, the new city of Pomperaque stood as a monument of strength, and with this, Manguino released the Prominent men from their service duties and most of them returned home to their wives and families. Only a few of the Prominents, who had personal gains from staying in the service, remained as the generals.
There was an odd contentment in Pomperaque and the people had a tolerant and even kindly regard for their Almighty ArchBishop, and they thanked him for improving their lives, unaware that the improvements were all made for his own benefit, and not really intended for them.
The entire Northern United Alignment heard of the progress that Manguino forced in Phoride and they also heard about the common people's change of heart towards him. Now they all favoured him.
Harvard, thought, felt confident that the Alignments' forces could annihilate the Phoridene armies, and before his son and Boyce left Besten for Phoride, he wished them God's speed and safety.
"We will send Empal with word of mobilization." Lloyd said to Harvard. "It is a long way back to Pomperaque but we should save several days in travel, taking this shorter route." He pointed-out the route on a small map while they made their final plans. His finger etched the line through Krolalin's Dark Forest and other possibly hostile lands.
"Take care in those places." Harvard cautioned. "Though these nations are small and have agreed to let you pass, we cannot trust them with their promises. Remember, some are friends of the ArchBishop. In consideration of this, you will first go to Alugean and get proper weapons to carry on your trip."
Boyce and Lloyd both agreed to Harvard's request and they left on their long journey, on foot.
It was unanimously decided that the men's journey would be taken this way in order to confuse the attention of any spies that were watching. Machine travel, and even travel by horse, would have directed attention upon them.
A small performing caravan was sent south, as were tinkers of every kind, and all knew their purpose for going to Pomperaque.
Lloyd and Boyce made their way slightly to the south-west towards Alugean where they were to check the production of weapons and receive some for their personal use during the trip.
When the height of people leaving Besten was reached the two men left the city for their day's jaunt to the vault library in the Alugean Mountain. To break the stress of their exertions, they spoke of many things during their first day of travel. The talks were mostly centred on what they thought Pomperaque would look like after all the changes. Another topic that lasted them was their views on Manguino's illogical assumption that Brook had cursed him and that it was the cause for his women baring him monstrosities. They spoke of Eckma and her, one day, turning into an almost appealing woman and Boyce speculated that the ArchBishop had found in Brook's gadgets the formula to the age stunning drug — originally designed by the fourth wife of Hosea Jones, called Ruth.
While the day waned and Alugean grew larger, and closer, Boyce and Lloyd shared a worry that they both had about the invasion that they had planned.
It came to Boyce's mind early in the day that, when the war was under way, many innocent women and children would probably be caught up in it and would die.
Lloyd understood Boyce's feelings but knew that nothing could be done about it; but Boyce really knew that Lloyd wanted to taste vengeance through the death of one particular woman.
Lloyd considered Eckma an evil woman. A woman of tasteless love that sank into deeper evil through her marriage and violent consummation. He knew that the loss of those many ugly and pretty children, at their birth, drew no tears from her.
Lloyd wanted to see her die, with her child and with Manguino, and yet, he did not want to kill them himself, although the temptations was great for him to do so.
His reasoning for this judgement of her was simple and Boyce accepted it.
"This past time that she gave birth, Boyce, she gave birth to twins. One was the beautiful son child that both she and the ArchBishop desired. The other twin, whatever sex it was, was drowned in a pool of water by its mother, because it was hideous looking." Lloyd explained to Boyce. "She held that child's head under water, watching it writhe and convulse, and she enjoyed watching it die, since she had never before killed something that was alive." Boyce was quiet and he just listened. "What's more, my friend, the water was rain water. Can you imagine?"
They turned onto a short path that lead to the hidden entrance doors and Lloyd punched-in the numbers as taught to them by Brook, a decade earlier.
"I remember the rain that touched me. It wasn't much but it made my sanity depart from me. I can imagine how it must've been for the child, drowned in such fluid."
Lloyd also remembered that night when his injured form was given comfort. It was the night when Boyce first proved his courage by isolating himself in his room after the rain fell on him.
The doors of the entrance slid open and they walked down a lengthy hallway that was dark, but also oddly shiny, until they came into an enormous cavern that hosted a number of gigantic machines of knowledge, and around them were a number of Bestenese scientists learning how to operate them.
They made their way to the other side of the busy cavern to a flight of stairs and descended them until they came out to a large area that at one time had stored food and other supplies. Now it was converted to the production of weapons, and all the other contents that were once within were taken down to another storage level.
They sat down their gear then headed to where the labs were and walked into one. The endless number of workers, that worked on weaponry in front of them, paid little mind to the two men.
Inside the lab doors the two men stopped, looked at a red light and became encircled by a smoky mist that smelled like flatulence.
They held their breaths until the smoky mist subsided and a green light came on, and with it the door before them slowly swung ajar. The full smelling smoke had actually made their bodies and clothing free of bacteria, since what they were now entering was a very clean area.
Just as they pushed the door all the way then closed it after they were in, one of the supervising technicians, in charge of small side-arms production, approached and welcomed them.
"My Lords Bartlett and Scullion-Blue, welcome!" said the tall dark man in the white plastic oversuit. "You are here just in time. We have two little gems to give you!"
He offered them the direction of the test lab and they went to it.
"It seems that my father has sent to you some more men, Burman?" Lloyd questioned Burman, in passing.
"Yes, Lloyd. They have been invaluable. Already we have attained a forty percent increase in our production levels and only three percent of that is rejected as battle perfect." Burman sounded proud and Boyce was pleased.
Boyce remembered the day that he and Lloyd first set foot inside Alugean. It was a huge lifeless place full of silence, machinery and cratesful of supplies.
They went into the test lab and watched a half dozen men and women trying out the strength of the small, hand-sized weapons.
Twenty meters from them were sheets of different materials, that came down automatically after the weapons were tested out on each piece of the materials.
Materials of plastic, glass, wood, splintered and burned up after a single blast of the small guns that had both laser and electrophoric capabilities built into them.
The power of the small weapons evenly cut into the strongest metal slabs that they had on which to test these devices.
Burman was pleased to flaunt the devices that he helped to construct and both Lloyd and Boyce were impressed.
Lloyd looked at the weapons and tested the weight in his own hand. He fired a shot of the electrophora at one of the foot thick pieces of the wood and it splintered into a countless number of pieces.
"I'm glad that the ones I was hit with, when you found me, were not like this one." Lloyd commented to Boyce with a slight grin.
Boyce studied the weapon for a moment switching it from the electrophoric to laser, and back again until he was satisfied with its performance.
"These guns, Burman — they use the same source of power for both elements?" Boyce questioned Burman.
Burman looked confused for a moment and questioned Lloyd with his eyes and Lloyd knew what it was that had confused Burman.
"Gun, is an ancient term for such a weapon of aggression."
Burman then remembered that word 'gun' and he answered Boyce letting him know that its power source was indeed common for both settings.
Boyce was satisfied with the answer, and so was Lloyd, since he had thought of asking a similar question. Now both of them knew that, once the source of power was used up, that was the end of that energy cell.
They each took a belt case and a spare cell, as their armament for the trip.
They did ask Burman to show them some of the larger-gauged weapons that were to be used in the invasion and these had a strength five times that of the small hand guns.
Everything seemed to be going well with the production and already the weapons were being sent all through the Northern United Alignment, to the armies that would get two more weeks, so it was hoped, of training with them until the invasion.
Impressed and fully satisfied with what they saw, they made their way back to the upper levels of the mountain.
"We have prepared your quarters for tonight." said Burman. "You will find food and baths, and if you wish, women can be sent to you at the completion of their shift?"
"No, the food and baths will suffice!" Boyce told Burman. "We depart early and we should rest — unless you would prefer some company tonight, Lloyd?"
Lloyd smiled at them both.
"Maybe, but they'd probably tire me too much and that would make the trip harder on both of us!"
"We'll find out if that means 'yes', later!" Boyce joked with Burman, and all three of them laughed.
"Good sleeping then, my friends!" hailed their host then left them go to their chambers.
They thanked him and entered.
They both bathed before eating and Boyce put on some sweet sounding music from a time long before the Twentieth Century, and they lay down on their respective couches and listened.
"Of all that we found in this place," Boyce began, "the music archive must've been our greatest discovery."
"True!" was all that Lloyd said and they fell asleep.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next day came early. The two men woke up in the hour before dawn and after having their fill of good food for breakfast, they readied themselves for their long trip to Pomperaque.
They made up a list for the rations supervisor to fill for them before they were to leave Alugean. The list was common to them both and they were comprised of field hiking packs full of dried meats, fruits and vegetables, two four-litre water sacks and two electric lights.
When Lloyd and Boyce finished giving Burman and the library steward the final details of how and when they would be notified about their own advance on Pomperaque, they left the city, hailed with luck from each worker within.
It was an unusually hot day and it wasn't yet nine o'clock in the morning.
Not far from Alugean, they took their first break by a stream and sucked back a few healthy gulps of water from their sacks.
There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the air felt thick to breathe as they slowly advanced south.
They took to walking in the shade of the trees that were all around them on their path, and only after Boyce noticed a dragonfly fanning itself on a boulder, were both of the men aware that there was a strange lack of insect life.
The men didn't speak. Boyce just pointed to the big beautifully coloured insect and Lloyd knew what was on his mind.
It seemed, to the men, that they were stopping every few minutes to drink their water but they did indeed walk a long distance, losing sight of Alugean several hours into the afternoon.
All the vegetation around them was dry and brittle, especially that which was under foot. The trees and shrubs, however, were still green and were waxy looking, and sap ran sown the bark of some of those trees.
Their feet burned and it wasn't until the late afternoon that they finally came across a stream that was to give them some relief.
They stayed at the little river for an hour, partaking of its fresh and crystal qualities, and Lloyd caught, with his bare hands, a couple of good-sized fish for their supper.
They built a fire and a shading lean-to by the water's edge and there roasted the fish, then ate them.
When they finished they speculated on the distance that they had travelled and they looked at their maps, putting them fifty-five kilometres from the library at Alugean. This surprised both of them and Boyce joked, remarking that the entire walk must've been down hill.
They knew that they had several hours of sunlight available to them, but both agreed that the time would be better spent in search of a proper shelter, where they could sleep that evening.
They doused the fire and scattered the materials of the lean-to, limiting the evidence that someone was there, in the chance that someone was following them.
Although no one followed, their caution spurred them into a steady pace that allowed them to gain a good distance with each passing hour.
It wasn't until dusk that Lloyd caught sight of a large hole in a hillside, which was overgrown with trees and other vegetation.
Since the sun was sinking quickly, Boyce agreed to Lloyd's decision to check it out as a possible shelter for the evening.
It indeed was a cave and it was incredibly large, and the floor of the cave was relatively smooth, as far down as they could see.
Their curiosity was sparked by the looks of the cave opening, and they couldn't see any ledges or nooks until they went further into the cave. Then before them they saw a huge hole, that stretched into darkness. Normality, Boyce threw a rock into the hole but it was never heard hitting the bottom.
There was light in the cave since the entrance faced towards the west and the setting sun. They each took out their electric lights anyway, but the beams of light could not illuminate the other side, if there was another side.
To their right was a large road, seemingly joined to the smooth surface that ran through the entrance, so they began to walk on it.
"I wonder where this leads?" Boyce thought to ask, not expecting to be answered and especially with Lloyd's remark.
"Hell, maybe?" he replied.
This annoyed Boyce, but more from not really having a concept of what hell was supposed to be. He could not imagine that which had been described in legend since the dawn of man _ both times.
He sometimes shone the light onto the wall to their right and Lloyd shone his straight ahead so that they wouldn't fall into nothingness if the road was to suddenly end.
"Maybe we should head to the entrance, Lloyd. We have been here for some time."
"I thought I saw my light reflecting off something just ahead. We'll head back after we check that."
Boyce nodded to resuming and as they neared that which was returning Lloyd's light, Boyce shone his on the wall again and lit a large black, cube that didn't look like it was made of stone.
"What is that?"
Lloyd stopped and looked at it, then went over to it. He touched it and set his fingers into a groove that he found on the side.
"I don't know, but — " he pulled on the groove and half the cube, which was hinged, flew open. "It seems to be opening!"
There was a row of six small levers and beneath those was one large dusty one. Lloyd tried to move it but it didn't budge.
He sighed then dropped his pack to his feet and drew from it a small axe, gave the lever a good slam them tried it and he pushed it right around until it stopped.
There was a sudden rush of air followed by a screaming whirling sound, and the entire place became lit with dim yellowish light.
They turned to face the direction of the light and were totally flabbergasted by what they saw.
In the utmost of awe, both stood with their mouths agape and were silent as their eyes combed the entirety of the huge pit that extended far below them, with the road on which they stood, spiralling in a terraced fashion down to the very bottom.
Throughout the immense hole, there were huge machines; dormant and silent. Only God knew for how many years this place had been abandoned.
Lloyd saw that which had reflected his light earlier. It was a huge yellow hauling machine, several dozen meters away from them and covered with faded writing. It had many large, black wheels and a gigantic load bin, still filled to the limit with whole rocks, many of them larger than either of the two men.
"This is a mine!" Lloyd began to explain to this companion. "It's odd, though, that this place would be mined like this?"
"Why do you say that?" Boyce was puzzled.
"This style is called an open-pit mine, yet it's in this small mountain. That is why I think it's odd. Shafts are usually dug for mining in mountains or for something that is found very deep!" Lloyd pointed to the floor of the pit, maybe a kilometre below them.
"I would like to go down there, but we don't have the time. Let's get back." Boyce suggested.
The shrieking whirl suddenly stopped and there was no more drafty air flowing about them and the lights went out.
"I suppose that we'll have to go back now?" Lloyd chaffed, picking up his pack.
They lay back on the flat, even floor of the cave, using their water sacks as pillows.
Bluish starlight filtered into the cave and it was barely enough to let them see one another.
They stared up into the dark of the ceiling and thought about what they had just found.
"What a strange and fantastic place!" said Boyce.
"Have you noticed that this entire road, that runs to the floor of this mine, has been carved right out of the rock?" Lloyd was formulating a theory about the odd method of building such a place.
Boyce remained quiet, knowing Lloyd well-enough by now, to let him continue with his thoughts.
"They must've used lasers, like ours!" he continued. "How else could they make it's surface so flat and even all the way down?"
"I was thinking, Lloyd … wouldn't this great hole make an interesting city — like the Alugean library?"
They both were quiet for a moment, reflecting on Boyce's idea, until
Lloyd resumed.
"I'd wager that both places were made by the same people!"
The silence that came next lasted until morning when Boyce and Lloyd were snatched from their dream states by the shrill cawing of some crow on a boulder outside the mouth of the cave.
Bleary-eyed, the men got to their feet and stretched until they were fully awake, but still relaxed.
"What a noise to wake up to!" Lloyd complained.
"Oh, leave it be. It's not hurting anything!" Boyce gurgled.
"Besides, at least we can get an early start today."
They left the cave and sat on the big rock that the crow had vacated. They took some food out of their packs and filled their bowels with the fuel for a rest.
Their curiosity and sense of awe had made them go back into the mine.
They were in there
only briefly while they took some notes and made some calculations approximating the overall dimensions of the mine.
They marked the location of this sight on their maps and then proceeded on their journey back to Pomperaque.
Not very far from the mine there was a wide, rapid-moving river that they had to cross before they continued their trek overland to the Dark Forest which spanned most of the northern part of the Virgin Mountains. It was a part of the land where no one lived since it was too hostile for any groups of people to settle. Only hunters and criminals roamed those desolate areas.
Lloyd and Boyce tried not to think of what lay ahead. They were given the choice of what routes to take and they chose the shortest and most perilous way.
They were beginning to see more wild life now, some larger than they had ever seen before.
They knew that they were nearing the Dark Forest because of these signs. The forest was home of every kind of titan-like animal, many of which were devilishly ferocious.
They came over a rise and there they rested because, across the small aspen rose an escarpment a few hundred meters in height. To keep on schedule, they had to scale the escarpment walls by evening.
Overhead, a black bird was circling, quickly nearing the ground with each successive round, until it finally came to rest in the top of a tree between them and the cliffs of the escarpment.
It cried out in dry sounding quavers and flapped its wings in a silly-looking manner before it dropped itself off the tree and flew over to the cliffs.
"Funny!" voiced Boyce.
"What?!" Lloyd asked him, thinking that maybe he did something worthy of being made fun.
"That's the second raven they we've seen today, and I wasn't aware that they were indigenous to this area."
Lloyd didn't even notice the bird until Boyce pointed-out its presence to him.
"Maybe it's lost?"
Boyce shrugged at Lloyd's suggestion. He watched the bird fly over the scarp ahead and he sighed with envy.
"Too bad we don't have wings to fly over that thing!" Boyce said about the escarpment. "I don't feel up to the climb."
"I can do without it, also, but we can't go around it; that would take too long."
Boyce looked at Lloyd with a perplexed expression.
"Why did I agree on taking this route, anyway?"
Lloyd grinned and closed his pack while he spoke.
"It's shorter, for one thing." Boyce began. "I wonder, at times, if we will make it there, by taking this way?!"
He drank some water then slung the sack around his neck and shoulders, and Lloyd did the same with his pack.
They both got on their feet and looked at the escarpment then started in its direction, pacing themselves steadily and surely until they were quickly on the other side of the aspen, and were standing at the base of the escarpment's towering cliffs.
"Looks high!" Boyce's brief comment drew a look from Lloyd until he finished his thought. "But — we can't turn back now!"
He laughed for a moment then looked up.
"You know, if someone told me, back when I was a boy, that I would be climbing an impossible rock when I was twenty-one, I would have laughed in their face." Boyce continued to laugh, watching for Lloyd's reaction.
"At least you're young, my friend. I'm nearly twice your age, so this trip is that much harder for me!"
"Strange," Boyce began. "this thing, Fate! It made us friends through your hardship, kept us as friend through my own, and now we're going to a place where we will engage in battle… and maybe die, together."
Lloyd gave him a strange look of disgust and shook his head.
"If I didn't know you better, I'd swear that you were still reading
Djenaud Smarte." he said to Boyce.
"Knock, knock …" Boyce smiled and then gave Lloyd a pat on the back.
"Who'll go first?"
"I will have to go first. I've done more climbing." answered Lloyd.
"Watch where I put my hands and feet and climb up the same way."
Boyce nodded in silence and Lloyd gave him a concerned looks as if to calm him.
They began to climb the escarpment which was almost a straight vertical rise of brittle rock. Several times Lloyd lost his footing on the rocks that flaked off with every inch that they climbed.
They had set for themselves two goals, the first being a wide lege about half-way up, and the second was the flat summit itself, where they were to sleep when the evening came.
By late afternoon, after a slow and painful climb that almost claimed them both, they reached the ledge and took off their packs.
Boyce looked down over the edge and he felt a chill go through him.
"If I wasn't so tired, " he said. "I think that I'd get sick."
Out of breath, Lloyd laughed and looked down himself.
"You never … you never get used to it, Boyce." He lay flat on his back and saw how far they still had to go. "We can't rest here for too much longer or we'll lose the strength to finish the rest of the way!"
He lifted his arm towards the summit and let it drop down again.
"I would rather have gone by caravan." Boyce sighed.
Exhausted, Lloyd grinned and slowly rose to his feet. He helped Boyce up onto his and they put their packs back on and started up the cliff-face, gain.
As it was Lloyd's experience in climbing a few times before, the second-half of the climb was a little easier for him.
Boyce had also found the next part easier to scale, losing his hold only briefly, near the top.
The skies were beginning to take on a purple-orange colour as the sun fell behind the clouds far on the western horizon.
Summoning the rest of their strength they finally reached the flat summit.
It wasn't until an hour passed, and the sunlight was gone, but for the dimness left over, that the two men stood on their feet and cleared an area on which to sleep.
The skies were turning to black velvet, with the diamond stars covering every space and some galaxies were seen lingering far behind some brighter stars. Directly overhead, a galaxy of fingernail size seemed to slowly pass over as they both lay back and watched it.
Meteorites streaked across the sky ever-so-often and Boyce told Lloyd that they were angels racing one another through the heavens.
It was a clear and beautifully warm night, and a splendidly colourful borealis shined in the north-western sky.
Neither one knew when they fell asleep, and neither one woke up until noon the next day, barely noticing that they were being baked by the sun.
Every bone in their bodies cracked and there wasn't one muscle excluded from feeling the brunt of their climb.
Nothing much was said between them while they ate. When they were through, however, Boyce praised God, and turned to Lloyd.
"I just thought of something." he said and Lloyd waited, interest shining from his eyes. "We could have cut holes into the rock face with our lasers! The climb wouldn't have taken us half the time!"
"I considered that before we started to climb." Lloyd admitted to
Boyce.
"Why didn't we, then?"
"It would have been too simple and you would not have valued the skill of the climb if we made it without the hardship and sweat. Climbing this escarpment is much the same as striving for a goal in life — you do understand what I am trying to say?" Lloyd finished.
"Yes, Lloyd, I do! You are teaching me things that you haven't promised my father you would teach to me. Nevertheless, I am grateful."
The two men spent the day on the escarpment looking at the land that stretched for miles on each side of the precipice, but their main interest was in the land that was set directly ahead.
The Krolalin Mountain Range was before them, with the chain of desolate old mountains at the head of the Virgin Mountains.
They sat on the southern part of the escarpment and stared at the awesome sight. It was a mammoth forest canopied by clouds.
There was the river before them, flowing through a channel that it dug out of solid rock over its many years of erosion. Its banks sloped up from there, on each side, with short underbrush on this side of the river and the forbidding Dark Forest, on the other side.
Lloyd had Boyce hand him a pack and from it he took a dark cylindrical case that he opened. He pulled out from it an instrument of glass and light metal.
He pulled the instrument apart and put it up to his eye, pointing it in the direction of the river.
Boyce quietly watched him for a while.
"Is that one of those distance aids for the eyes?" he queried.
Lloyd smiled taking the thing away from his eye and showing it to him.
"It's called a telescope. To see further an clearer you pull it out, like this." he showed him and Boyce knew right away what it could be used for. "It is compressed for easier packing and travel. A very handy toy, I might say!"
He handed the telescope to Boyce and told him to look at the river near the huge rock and tree, an he did. He saw a cable there, stretched across the river from one rock to another on the other side.
"That's what we're crossing on." said Lloyd.
Boyce gave him an odd look as if asking him, 'why?'.
"We can't swim through that tempest. The current would rip us to shreds and we couldn't control a float on her either." he said. "That wire cable is all we have."
"Who put it there?"
"I don't know, really. All I know is that when I was maybe nine or ten, some hunters came to my father with new of its existence. We came with a couple of Virunese to see it and it didn't look in very good shape." Lloyd took a breath that shuddered slightly. "I had to carry a thick rope to the other side and back in order to strengthen it until some others were sent to replace it with a new cable."
"Why did you have to carry the rope?" asked Boyce.
"I was the smallest and therefore the lightest, but I could feel the thing under my weight the further I went." Lloyd smiled reassuringly and took a gulp of water. "I've been over it a dozen times since then."
Boyce continued to look through the telescope at the other side.
The Dark Forest didn't look any more welcoming closer up and Boyce wasn't looking forward to going through it.
The Dark Forest was densely overgrown with titanic sized trees, the diameters of which ranged from one to ten meters in thickness. They were extremely tall, too. So tall in fact that most of the forest ceiling was constantly hidden in the clouds, which never seemed to dissipate.
No one knew the actual height of the trees in the Dark Forest because of the clouds. Over the years, folk lore and tales had formed about their origin and formation. Mythical civilisations of evil gremlins were said to have built a city up in the trees and kept it shrouded from human eyes by the soupy canopy of clouds. The same lore explained why the entire forest teamed with hostile life; that which was the gremlin king's way of venting his anger on the world and on mankind.
"We'll stay here today and sleep. Tomorrow, when fresh and strong, we'll go down there and carry ourselves across to the other side."
Boyce bore a pensive smile to what Lloyd had said.
"Lloyd?" he began. "Exactly how will we get down from here? Will we have to climb?"
Lloyd grinned at Boyce.
"It's easier climbing down!" he answered and watched Boyce's facial colour draw away. "Really! — We will climb down part of the way."
He got on his belly and leaned over to the edge of the cliff and motioned to Boyce to do the same, and he did. He pointed to a large ledge that was about the width of a forearm, which continued on to a piece of this big rock where there was a gentler slope and a path down to the base.
Boyce shrugged and smacked his lips as he looked beyond the path and straight down to the base of the escarpment, strewn with rock and dotted with dry bush.
"That's still a climb!" he said.
"I would guess twenty meters! I like to think of it as a morning exercise."
They rested on the summit through the rest of the day and talked about their past decade together, as friends, and they discussed the great city of Pomperaque and what it would be like when they finally reached it.
Their second night came to them on the scarp, hardly different in its beauty than the night before. The only noticeable change was that of the full moon, which was big and bright.
Each man was silent and rolled about in his own thoughts.
Boyce laboured with the vision of Brook and Dearborne's executions, being played repeatedly in his mind while his uncle, Manguino, watched with murder-hungry eyes.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and took the telescope that was beside Lloyd and put it up to his eye. He aimed the instrument at the moon and was amazed at the details that he saw on its surface.
Lloyd had his eyes rivetted on the moon, as well. His mind played with him, showing him the memories of Mercedes' suicide mingled with that of his own beloved Charnan's death. His tears never formed, though. With his, at one time's ease to mourn, all he had now was the respectful love and praise for her.
He never married since his betrothal to her, and rarely did he ever have relations with women. The only woman since Charnan, who interested Lloyd in the slightest, was his father's maid-servant, Torella.
She drew and teased his desires from him, until with her scalding passion gave her body to him, before she left the Bartlett household with a wandering artisan.
He never found out whether it was Torella's desire to leave or his father's desire to expel her; so to keep him from fraternising with the lower-classed help.
Lloyd's second love was removed from him and since that time he had never again engaged himself with thoughts of love and passion.
He was deeply depressed and Boyce's voice was the welcomed hammer that shattered his flagonful of thoughts.
"Have you ever wondered about the moon's perfection, Lloyd?" asked Boyce and Lloyd responded with a questioning mumble. "There are large holes on the moon and mountains, larger than any in Krolalin."
Lloyd turned on his side, faced Boyce and reached for the eye-glass.
He looked at the moon and agreed with what Boyce had said.
Boyce continued. "It's strange how it looks so warm and beautiful by our own eyes, then so
cold and empty with the telescope. The stars, also! They just hang there, each a sun like our own!" he finished and they both sighed.
"It's truly beautiful!" Lloyd added.
"Remember our studies, Lloyd? Wouldn't it be some life to sail between those worlds?"
Lloyd expelled some air and he sounded in agreement.
Soon, the men fell asleep and travelled the uncertain routes between the stars in search of those precious things that they had lost in their youth.
Those harmonious dreams were fleeting, yet blessed moments of comfort given them by the love of God.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Morning saw the men eat little and collect their possessions, in their preparation to make their descent to the floor of the other side.
Carefully, they hung off the edge and made their way, a hair and a-breath-at-a-time, until they reached the narrow ledge.
Reaching the ledge didn't take the two men very long and they sat on it, with their legs dangling over its edge while they ate their breakfast.
The rest of the way would be quicker and easier because, to their left the ledge soon became a wider path that gradually made its way down, coming out at the river, very near to where the cable was anchored.
While they ate they watched a Kenttitian Eagle fly over them with a rider. It was heading south over the Dark Forest and they thought that it was Empal on his way back to Pomperaque.
"Do you think it's him?" Boyce posted.
"If it is, he'll be in Pomperaque by sun down." Lloyd replied.
They didn't eat too much food for breakfast, conserving it for when they needed it most, after walking for several hours without a rest.
They packed up their stuff and made their way slowly until the ledge became the path and there they quickened their pace, finding that they soon came down to the river, whose noisy roar grew stronger the nearer that they came to it.
They sat down their packs and tested out the cable.
Although it looked rusty and brittle, it still had seemed to support the weight of both of them. That was near the anchoring and Lloyd wondered how the middle and other side would hold out.
The river was indeed fast, pulling air over its surface as it flowed along, making the banks seem somewhat windy to the two men. The air passing over made the huge cable buzz as it vibrated, sounding like some of the sustained orations chanted by the monks at Halls.
They sat on a couple of rocks by the water and observed the river and cable for a few minutes, trying to draw the courage to start across.
Suddenly, both men were thrown off the rocks that they sat on but they didn't know by what.
They gave one another a couple of curious and worried glances and Boyce hollered.
"Was it an earthquake?" he yelled.
Lloyd shrugged and they watched the rocks slowly rolling away and then digging themselves into the mud at the water's edge.
Lloyd moved over to Boyce and told him in aloud voice, trying to overcome the roar of the river, that the rocks on which they sat on must have been living rock.
Neither man had ever seen one of those strange mutations until now.
They had always thought that the stories about the strange rocks were nothing but stories, but they really were able to buck a man from off their backs.
They became calm now, and they knew that once they crossed to the other side, they would have to become more careful.
These rocks that they had encountered were passive, but on the other side of the river the beast were all but shyly submissive. In fact, they would attack their own shadows without the slightest forewarning that they would do so.
The day before, Lloyd and Boyce discussed the possible perils that they would encounter, not knowing for certain since very few men had ever successfully passed through the Dark Forest.
Now, however, no more discussions could keep them from trying to cross the river, and they knew it.
"We can't sit around here forever." yelled Boyce. "We have to cross, so I'll go first!"
He put his pack on and tied it to himself and Lloyd grabbed his arm as he moved towards the cable.
"Why do you want to go first?" he asked him.
Boyce just smiles at him.
"I'm lighter than you are. Besides, you went first on the climb."
Boyce turned to the escarpment and pointed at it.
Lloyd put his other hand on Boyce's shoulder and nodded his head to him, approving the decision that the young man had made.
Lloyd tied his own pack to himself and they went over to the cable where it was anchored to a huge boulder.
Boyce reached up and pulled on the cable a few times.
"Be careful!" Lloyd hollered to him and slapped him on the back.
He eased himself along. First sliding one hand out then his other until his hands were together. He kept to this method but half-way across he began to tire and he hung there motionless for a moment.
The cable didn't vibrate with that odd tone any more, and Lloyd became worried for Boyce. Within his heart he egged him on and he prayed that God would grant him strength to make it the rest of the way.
He was relieved to see Boyce continue to pull himself along and after a short while made it across.
Lloyd watched Boyce drop to the ground and not move for what seemed like several minutes, until he sat up and took the pack off.
He waved to Lloyd from across the river and Lloyd waved back.
He watched the cable vibrating, more now than before with the buzzing evening-out into a low tone. He stepped up on the anchoring rock and looked at the wedge that held the cable in the rock, and it was moving about a little.
He waved over to Boyce and pointed to the anchoring and Boyce went to the anchoring on his side, looked at it and pulled at it. He then waved to Lloyd to make his way across.
Lloyd was unsure of the crossing. The anchoring on this side seemed very weak but he had no choice but to go over.
Once he grabbed the cable it lost its bass-tone hum. He didn't ease himself along, however,
seeing the wedge showing itself more and more.
He began to wish that they had a rope that Boyce would've strung across to strengthen it for his crossing.
He threw one hand and grabbed the cable, then followed by throwing out his other hand far in front of the first while he tried to keep his body straight.
He kept his legs firm and straight, though, and the cable moved very little, yet on the last dozen meters he felt the cable give way.
A booming twang was heard accompanied by a whistle. He held on to the cable and for an instant saw the other end recoiling towards him while he was pulled closer towards Boyce's side of the river.
Unable to hang on Lloyd fell and Boyce hid behind a big rock trying to keep the snapped end of the cable from cutting him in half with its whip-like action.
The end finally fell into the water and Lloyd had made it to the bank of the river having fallen only a couple of meters from the shore.
Boyce came out from behind the rock and helped Lloyd onto the rocks nearby.
"Are you hurt?" shouted Boyce.
Lloyd breathed heavily and shook his head. The only thing that was at fault with him was his torn clothing and scraped hands.
They spent the evening at the river's edge, trading off on staying awake throughout the night, guarding from attacks from animals, but the night was calm.
The only hostilities that the two men experienced through the night were the horrific sounds of wild animals fighting somewhere deep in the forest. The noises were so great that they, at times, drowned out the roar of the river. To their relief, however, not an animal was seen.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Morning took a long time, so it seems, coming to the two men.
They were both awake by the time the sun rose and by the rime that it was fully light, they had finished eating and made their way into the forest.
It was a perfectly clear day out by the river, but the odd clouds that towered over the forest were still there and they were maybe even thicker than the day before.
At any rate, the inside of the forest had a night look to it.
The trek through the forest was the part of the journey that the two men wanted most to do without. They were afraid of the forest because they knew very little about it.
The veil of mystery and the stories of horror and evil, surrounding the place, didn't make their nerves any calmer.
Not much time went by since they had entered the forest. All was quiet inside and they
began to feel easier until they came across a gigantic, ox-sized carcass of a rabbit that was being devoured by huge larvae as large as big rats.
They didn't know the nature of the larvae, whether or not they attacked their prey or just fed-off of dead animal bodies, so they both took their weapons and carried them as they continued.
Soon after, the men heard a strange grating sound overhead that got louder and louder. As the sound became louder, so it changed, sounding like the beating hooves of stampeding horses and finally like a droning whistle.
"Maybe it's the gremlins!" Boyce joked.
Suddenly, before them was a small swarm of hornets, larger than anything that they had ever seen, flying straight for them.
Lloyd shouted to Boyce to dive to the ground and he immediately did it, always trusting that Lloyd had a good reason for telling him to do such a thing.
When Boyce threw himself to the ground Lloyd pointed his weapon at the swarm and shot into it. The laser setting managed to hit and kill only one hornet which was the size of a human head.
He quickly put his weapon on the electrophoric setting. By then Boyce had already set his weapon and shot into the swarm that moved towards Lloyd.
A bunch fell to the ground dead, and after Lloyd killed some more, the few that were left took off for the clouded tree tops.
They both got up and looked at a couple of the hornets twinging on the ground as they died.
They bent down and prodded one with a stick and saw that it had a stinger that was about five inches in length. Its mandible was large and sharp, too. It looked as if it was able to snap a hand off at the wrist. They looked around to see if there would be another attack.
They continued to walk, hoping that the direction was still south, since the only way that they could assume that they were heading south was by taking a straight line right through the forest, ever so often looking back from whence they came, in order to make sure of their direction.
They made steady and rhythmic their jaunt through the thick underbrush, keeping their eyes open for anything and everything that could possibly be harmful to them.
They kept walking, not stopping for a rest or a drink. They didn't speak or look at one another, either, although each knew exactly where the other one was at all times.
The forest seemed to be slightly brighter the further they went into it but this boon to them soon passed, also.
It soon became very dark again and they knew that it was time to find a place of shelter where to sleep.
They were fortunate to find a resting place not too much further into the woods. It was an outcropping of rock that was fairly high and there was a recess in the rock, some ways up. Over the recess there was an over-hanging piece of rock, which would be a nice guard against the condensing moisture that was beginning to fall now.
Boyce set his weapon on laser and blasted holes into the rock, to make the climb up to the recess easier for them.
The recess was large enough for only one person so when they climbed up to it they carved out a much larger hole. It was smooth and warm in the shelter that they made. The cutting edge of the lasers warmed the surrounding rock while they melted a strong smooth surface on the ceiling and walls.
It was another night spent in trading watch by each man, keeping guard from the ferocious animals that stalked their prey at night.
They were high enough up the rock, though, to be safe from most animals, so they hoped. They remembered the size of the rabbit and the hornets, and they couldn't really presume safety even that far up.
What made the watch worse for the two men was the utter lack of light that prevented them from seeing anything, including their own hands in front of their faces.
They used their electric lights only when they heard noises that were nearby, but they never saw anything.
Throughout the entire first day in the forest, Lloyd and Boyce barely said anything to each other, or even stopped anywhere to eat or to drink. The evening was quiet, too; the only things said between them happened when they relieved one another from their watch periods.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The forest began to take on a lightness and Boyce knew that it had to be morning. He had stayed on his watch longer, letting Lloyd sleep because he knew that Lloyd needed more rest, being thirty-nine years old. Boyce didn't mind sacrificing his sleep to let him rest longer. God knew how much Lloyd had sacrificed in his own life to fulfil his promise to Brook and Dearborne.
When Lloyd woke up he asked Boyce why he didn't wake him for his second watch period. Boyce answered that he had just lost track of time.
Lloyd knew that Boyce didn't tell him the truth, but the topic wasn't pursued any further because he was grateful for the few extra hours of rest.
They finally spoke for a while as they ate their first meal in the forest.
"I don't like this place!" admitted Boyce.
"We'll have to tolerate it. We still have a day's walk ahead of us." Lloyd said to him and took a bite of meat, then continued. " — If we're lucky!"
The woods were noisy, continuing from the night, but the men now felt safer because they could, at least, see much of what was around them.
Growls were heard all about them, and birds screamed and fluttered around. One huge bird flew past their line of sight, soaring silently, then with a loud screech, quickly rose into the clouded tree tops.
"What a damned place this is!" Boyce stressed. "It is so ungodly."
"It may be but it's the legacy given to the world by the ancient men!"
Their attention was diverted when they heard a gagging roar and grunt. With it there was a loud shriek, like a scream, and they looked at each other with puzzled and surprised eyes.
"That did not sound like a scream that a bird would make!" Boyce suggested as he got on his knees, drawing his weapon and trying to follow the unusual sound.
It came again and was getting nearer and more frequent.
The, there it was. To their utter dismay, there was a woman running out of the thicket of brush some twenty meters away.
She constantly turned to look behind her. The bushes waved and buckled as if a herd of elephants were breaking through in the same direction that the woman was running.
Lloyd hollered out to her, calling her to run towards the cliff where they sat, and then they saw what was running after her. It was a wild pig the size of a horse.
It advanced more quickly on the woman, now that she was in the open.
"Drop to the ground!" Boyce yelled at her several times until she finally did it.
Before the pig came upon her in its rampant and hostile charge, Boyce fired a laser at it split the pig's skull in two.
Lloyd quickly climbed down from the ledge and ran to her, picked her up and ran towards the cliff just as the pig fell from its momentum.
He guided her into the notches in the cliff face and push her up along the way. At the ledge Boyce took hold of her arms and pulled her up. She looked at his face for a moment then lost consciousness.
Lloyd and Boyce were ready to leave before this strange woman happened along. Now they felt a duty to stay with her until she came to.
They wrapped her in Lloyd's blanket after touching her skin and finding that it was ice-cold.
Lloyd looked at the woman and made a comment to Boyce about her beauty and strangely frail-looking quality.
She wasn't very tall yet her build was slim and firm. Her hair was very long and dark, shaded with copper highlights and her shut eyes were oblong and appeared to be larger and slightly slanting.
Her whole face had a serious beauty about it, the patches of dirt, here and there, made little difference to its overall appeal.
Lloyd was taken with her. He didn't know whether it was because of her beauty or because she was in the middle of this most naturally hostile place on the northern continent. Nevertheless, he found it very hard not to look at her.
Boyce had found her extremely attractive, also, but the idea of this woman's presence in the forest made him wonder about her.
"She is beautiful!" Lloyd began. "I wonder who she is; how she came to be here?"
"I question her being here, at all. She's a day's journey from both the river and the end of this forest. How has she survived here?"
Boyce was becoming nervous about her and he disliked her due to his mistrust.
"How she had come into the forest, is another point." Lloyd added to Boyce's train of thought. "We shall find out, but until then let's enjoy her beautiful company."
He leaned against the ledge wall and kept his eyes on her until he poured some of the water from his sack, into his warm hand and ran it across her face.
She stirred and opened her big green eyes. She looked at Lloyd leaning over her and Boyce staring at her with frozen eyes.
She looked about at the recess in which they all were in, and she took an excited deep breath and then shivered.
She seemed frightened. Lloyd took her tiny trembling hand into his own and spoke to her.
"We're friends." he said then helped her sit up and look at the wild pig, that didn't move any more. "See — it's dead!"
Lloyd pointed to the animal then handed to her his water sack, and she nearly drowned from her incredibly quick drinking.
She gagged and coughed and Lloyd pushed her forward and rubbed the centre of her back.
The woman soon caught her breath and quietly looked at her two gallant saviours.
"My name is Lloyd Bartlett and this is Boyce Loebh …" something kept him from finishing the whole name and Boyce was relieved. "… we are making our way to the south."
"We are in a hurry to get to our destination, so we took this route.
It is shorter by several days."
By the manner of Boyce's speech, Lloyd knew that Boyce didn't want any details of their journey to be revealed.
"You almost had yourself stomped into the ground by that animal. What are you doing in these woods?"
The woman looked to the dead animal and at Boyce. When she spoke, she turned to Lloyd.