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1 - The Ivory Plain |
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2 - The Journey Begins |
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3 - The City of Princes |
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4 - The Mountain Village |
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5 - The Road Divides |
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6 - Comrades in Arms |
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7 - The Pass of Silence |
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8 - The Ivory Towers |
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9 - The Union |
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5 - The Road Divides
Chapter 5: The Road Divides
The tunnel floor sounded wet beneath their feet, the echoes resounding with wet slapping noises from the tread of their leather sandals. The rough walls felt slimy to the touch and the ore-veined uneven rocky roof dripped steadily with a thick pale substance that felt slightly sticky and glowed slightly in the darkness of the tunnel.
“Perhaps there’s a river or something ahead”, whispered Eldar. “I hope there is because we need to fill the water bottles soon”.
“Why are you whispering?” asked Rindith.
“I don’t know” she said quietly after a pause, “I don't want to attract any attention to us, just in case there’s anything in here with us. I feel so vulnerable.”
The three trudged along for a minute in silence then Shandyke asked,
“How far have we travelled?”
“No idea”, answered Rindith testily, “your guess is as good as mine”.
They stumbled on in the oily darkness for several yards in silence then Rindith abruptly halted. Eldar bumped into the back of him and Shandyke promptly kicked her heel.
“What on earth did you stop for?” Eldar asked crossly rubbing her sore heel.
“The tunnel branches just up ahead, if we don’t mark one of the tunnels we will get lost very easily. Shandyke, do you still have that white lead you use for your maps?”
“Yes, I think so, I’ll check my scroll pack”.
A minute later Shandyke triumphantly produced the white lead and passed it to Eldar who pushed it into Rindith’s calloused hand. Carefully Rindith brushed away some of the sliminess on the walls and drew a large white cross on the rough stonework. The substance on the walls glowed around it making the cross easy to spot from a few yards away.
“Which tunnel should we take?” whispered Eldar.
“We’ll stay in this one for now, if everyone is happy with that.” Eldar and Shandyke both murmured that the choice was fine and then Rindith started off again. Several yards further on Rindith said,
“The floor is beginning to slope quite steeply. Take care, or we may lose our balance”.
The others laid hands on the wall, grimacing at the horrid slick feel of it, and tried to place their feet carefully on the tunnel floor. It was Rindith who fell. Suddenly Eldar felt a tug at her wrist and then heard Rindith cry out as he slipped. The belt snapped through her fingers pulling her forward and she missed her footing as she took another step. The ground literally fell away from her and she felt herself falling. She could hear Shandyke grunt with pain as he cracked an elbow on the sharp rock of the tunnel floor as he fell after her. A few seconds later she crashed into Rindith’s body lying still on the floor. A second later Shandyke fell on her feet and rolled away from her to lie gasping on the ground. Eldar pulled herself onto her knees and checked her own ankles and wrists before reaching out blindly to find Rindith’s prostrate form. Slowly she patted him gently up his chest and arms, feeling for broken bones. As her fingers touched his throat she felt the sticky warmth of blood.
“Rindith”, she cried, “wake up, please, wake up. Oh God, don’t let him be dead”.
Her searching fingers found a cut on his chin that was bleeding. Quickly she ripped a small piece from the hem of her shift and wetted it with water from her flask, then gently washed the blood away. As she sponged Rindith moaned and turned his head to look at her. His eyes glistened in the darkness with tears as he whispered his thanks. When she had finished wiping away the blood Eldar helped Rindith to sit up, then she called Shandyke’s name softly in the darkness and groped her way towards the muffled groan he gave. Shandyke was kneeling on the rocky floor nursing a fractured left elbow. The boy’s face was white, his lips pale from being compressed from the effort it took to keep his fear and pain at bay. Swiftly Eldar tied Rindith’s belt into a sling and put it round Shandyke’s neck to give the cracked elbow support. Once done, Eldar sat back on the floor, her head was spinning and her ankles ached where Shandyke had fallen on them. Silently she sent up a prayer of thanks that their injuries were no worse.
Glancing up at the hole through which they had fallen, Eldar was startled to see how far above them the entrance was, she could just make out the glow of the sticky walls illuminating the tunnel. The cave into which they had fallen was pitch black, she only knew that the others were with her because she could hear them breathing. As she sat there on the floor, her thoughts were despairing.
How in Heaven were they supposed to get out? They were trapped with no food and almost no water. The tears welled behind her closed lids. Eldar struggled to hold them back but the effort was too much and she gave in, weeping uncontrollably, the salty flow coursing down her cheeks and over her hands in which she had buried her face. Sweet Jesus, help us, she prayed. We need your hand to guide us from this Hell, in your mercy show us a way out! When she finally lifted her head from her hands, exhausted from stress, Eldar felt the faint drift of a breeze over her face drying the tears into salty streaks. It’s probably nothing, she thought, just a draught from the hole.
Then Shandyke spoke, his voice weak in the darkness,
“Eldar, can you feel that draught? It’s not coming from above, it’s coming up from the floor, over here near me.”
“I’ll come over,” Eldar replied and turned onto her hands and knees to crawl over to Shandyke. As she did so, her own belt, loosened by the fall fell from her waist and the white diamond she had taken from the monster they had killed some weeks earlier lay winking up at her. The purity of the diamond lit up the entire cave bathing the three occupants in its blue white rays. Eldar saw Shandyke gaze at the jewel with awe and watched, fascinated, at how quickly the awe turn to greed.
“Where did you get that?” He asked, reaching out to touch the glowing jewel. Hastily Eldar picked up the belt
“I’ll tell you later”, she said hurriedly, whisking the belt out of reach of his fingers and holding it aloft. As she did so she saw the steep flight of steps cut into the rock a few yards from Shandyke leading down into the mountain.
“Look”, she said excitedly, “look, there’s a way out. Thank you Lord!”
Shandyke shuffled to the edge of the steps,
“They’re terribly steep, I don’t know if I can manage it with my broken elbow”.
“It’s not broken”, retorted Eldar, “It’s just fractured, and if you don’t try and make it, you’ll die here.”
Eldar turned away from him, suddenly guilty at the way she was treating him. Yet she could not let them be weak, and she especially must be strong, for weakness and despair would kill them. Swiftly she tied her belt round her waist again, this time with the diamond showing so that its pure shining rays lit the cave and illuminated the steep rocky escape route. Gently she took Rindith by the arm and helped him to stand. Rindith’s eyes were wide, the pupils expanded with shock and concussion.
“Rindith, we have to try and make it down some steep steps. Just take each step slowly and carefully, if you feel dizzy, stop and rest, there’s no hurry.”
At the top of the steps Rindith sat down and eased his body gently down onto the next step, and then again. He looked up at Eldar and smiled shakily,
“We’ll be fine. Come on then”.
Eldar helped Shandyke onto the first step and waited as the two injured men eased their way slowly down the steps. The roughly hewn stone spiralled down into the gloom seemingly without end. Her heart thumping, Eldar sat down on the top step and levered herself onto the next. Her ankles quivered and ached as she rested her weight on them and she paused at the top of the steps to pray that the Lord would strengthen her for the task.
They seemed to descend forever in the clammy dankness that pressed in upon them from all sides. The further down they went, the stronger the draught so all three began to hope that the steps would lead them outside the mountain. A hope that none of them voiced in case they were wrong and the steps led only into another cave. At one point Rindith called up to Shandyke that he needed to rest, so they sat on the stairs in silence, breathing hard, the sweat from their exertions drying on their backs in the play of the breeze. Eldar, who had started to count steps in the beginning lost count after six hundred and merely concentrated on the effort of taking each steep, spiralling twist of the stairs one at a time. Slowly, travelling at their own speed, the three became slightly separated on the stairs, so when Eldar heard Rindith’s shout it sounded as if he was far away.
“I can’t hear you, what did you say?” She shouted down the stairs, afraid to hurry in case she slipped.
Rindith’s voice came dimly up the steps, echoing hollowly,
“I’ve reached the bottom, and it’s all wet.”
“What do you mean ‘wet’? Are the walls dripping, or have you found a lake or something?”
“Not sure”, Rindith replied. Eldar heard a muffled shout and a splash, then Rindith’s laughter drifting up the stairs, “Definitely an underground lake. Come on you two.”
Eldar bumped to the bottom of the steps and stared around her in wonder.
The walls gleamed with the same strange substance as the tunnels above casting an eerie glow over the dark water. The cavern in which the steps had ended was high and vaulted, a strange high pitched squeaking from the depths of the blackness in the roof came to Eldar’s ears and she shuddered as she thought of the leathery wings and teeth of bats.
“How deep is the water Rindith?” She asked.
“Not very deep, at least, I haven’t gone very far, but it seems to be shallow enough to wade through.”
“I wonder where it goes. It may be just a lake with no outlet, or it may lead outside the mountain.”
“Eldar”, called Shandyke, “come and look at this.”
Eldar waded over to where Shandyke stood at the edge of the water peering across the dark expanse.
“Doesn’t that look like some kind of boat?”
Eldar peered across the water and said, doubtfully,
“It may be, but it is a bit hard to tell at this distance. Rindith, do you think you could wade across and see if it is a boat.”
Rindith nodded and started to cross the water. It wasn’t far, barely a hundred yards, and he stepped carefully, testing the depth of the water each time with a cautious foot. It was a shock when he reached out and found the depth of the water plummet so sharply that he lost his footing and dropped into the water. The temperature also dropped and the water in this deeper part was icy cold. Shivering, Rindith struck out and swam towards the boat. Eldar and Shandyke watched him anxiously praying for his safety. As he touched the wooden stern of the punt Rindith felt a strange sliminess stroke his ankle and then the tentacle wrapped itself around his foot and he was instantly dragged under the water. At the last second he drew a huge breath and clutched his dagger tightly as the water swept over his head. He heard Eldar scream his name and then the water churned as he felt more tentacles snake their way around his body and tighten, trying to squeeze the life out of him. Frantically he slashed with his dagger at every tentacle he could find, feeling the breath being forced from his lungs. Swinging wildly in the water he plunged his dagger where he thought the monster’s face might be. I need to hit an eye or something to force it to let me go he thought. Stabbing in the dark he felt his knife enter something soft and a strange thick substance spurted over his hand and arm. The tentacles whipped swiftly away from him, his wrist ached as the knife was jerked roughly from his hand and he kicked upwards desperately, feeling the last of his air drain away.
As his head broke the surface he dragged air into his lungs and banged his head on the boat causing him to see stars. Quickly he hauled himself into the boat and lay in the bottom of the punt gasping. As he looked up he saw huge, yellow suckered tentacles slash though the air at the place where his head would have been had he been sitting up. The backlash whip of the ten feet long tentacles was enough to take the head off a man. Rindith flopped back into the punt, his body shaking, waiting for his fear to subside. Cautiously he poked his head over the side and saw that the waves created by the movement of the monster under the water had pushed the little craft nearer to Eldar and Shandyke. It had nearly crossed the deep, dark green water. Carefully he knelt in the boat and picked up the rope attached to the stern.
“Stand in the shallows”, he called to Eldar, “and catch the rope”.
Eldar sloshed her way forward into the icy water her hands outstretched to catch the fraying, greasy rope as Rindith flung it with perfect aim into her arms. Hastily she pulled the boat into the safe shallows.
“Are you hurt?” She asked as the boat scraped to a stop.
“Yes, but let’s deal with it later. Now get in, we must leave this place.”
Shandyke and Eldar cautiously stepped into the punt, which rocked slightly and sank down lower in the cold water under their combined weight.
“Here Shandyke”, said Rindith, “you’ll have to row, my eyes are seeing double. Eldar you sit at this end and keep an eye on the depth of the water. We’re safe enough in the shallows but there’s something gruesome lurking in the deeper water.” Rindith settled himself in the far end of the punt and lay down on the bottom closing his eyes to shut out the double edged vision. Once settled in the boat they let it drift away from the edge to catch the direction of the river’s flow. Then Shandyke took up the oars and gave the boat an inexperienced shove into the centre of the current, only using the oars occasionally to keep the boat on course and within the shallows. In the silent gloom of the mountain darkness they drifted forward.
Eldar and Shandyke sat together in the boat and prayed as the boat was carried along, committing their unknown future to God and asking for his protection. They prayed also for Rindith’s soul that he would come to know the Lord before their journey’s end. Beneath the boat the water flowed silently passed in a dark greenish black void, no fish disturbing the eerily tranquil surface. Above the heads of the travellers long stalactites clung to the uneven roof of the tunnel and caverns they passed. Not even the tinny squeak of a bat could be heard on the air. The two believers held hands and prayed harder as they felt the emptiness press upon them. After a long while, they heard Rindith stir and groan as he woke. Eldar called softly to him,
“Rindith, how do you feel now? Are you alright?”
Rindith sat up in the boat and felt his head carefully, his voice was full of surprise as he said,
“I can’t even feel the wound at my chin, and my head is fine. What did you use?”
Eldar smiled and pressed Shandyke’s hand in triumph under cover of the darkness,
“Nothing but prayers, Rindith, nothing but prayers”.
“Well,” Rindith said, “For once I’ll believe you. How long have I been asleep?”
“A couple of hours, that’s all.”
They sat quietly for a while, each with their own thoughts, pleased that they were still together and relatively unharmed. Then Rindith said,
“Is it just me, or does the water sound like it’s getting faster?”
The others listened intently for minute then Shandyke said,
“I think it is getting faster, we haven’t been able to even hear it before, so it must be getting faster.”
“Eldar,” said Rindith, “Turn the diamond so that we can see”.
Eldar turned her belt over so that the diamond’s rays broke the darkness. From where she sat the front of the boat was lit up showing where the roof of the wide tunnel met the dark water a scant one hundred yards ahead. Eldar gasped as she realised how fast they were travelling and how low the roof was falling.
“Get down on the bottom of the boat. Quick!” yelled Rindith. All three flung themselves into the bilge water in the bottom of the punt as it glided smoothly under the hanging roof with a handful of inches to spare. Eldar took in a mouthful of water and gagged at the bitter oily taste of it. Without the guide of the oars the brave little craft was carried into the centre of a strong current and ran merrily along. A few minutes had gone by when Shandyke called out, his voice shaking with fear,
“I can hear a waterfall, we’re going to go over!”
There was nowhere to leap out of the boat except into the black water, the rumbling of the cascade of water slowly grew louder as they drew nearer. Suddenly the roof of the tunnel rose sharply up from the turbulent waters they saw daylight beyond the craggy lip of the rocks where the water crashed in silver and black waves. The little punt sailed gaily out over the edge, hung for a second in the spray of the waves, and began to fall. Eldar looked out and saw the drop of eighty feet below them where the waterfall foamed in a lake before running out in a series of streams. She pulled herself to her knees and screamed at the others,
“Jump!”
She launched herself forward turning the fall into a clumsy dive, hitting the water with her hands, sinking fast and deeply beneath the crash of the falling water. Tendrils of underground vegetation caught at her thrashing legs threatening to keep her below, but she kicked out and pulled herself to the surface. Just in time to see the boat smash upside down into the lake and splinter. There was no sign of Rindith and Shandyke. Coughing she swam towards the grassy bank of the lank and hauled herself out, lying on the warm green sward trembling with fear. A splashing from the lake made her spin round and cry out as she saw Rindith stagger into the shallows and flop down beside her on the grass. Happiness engulfed her at the sight of him and she threw her arms around him, thankful to have him alive, ignoring the fluttering of her heart at the feel of him in her arms. After a moment’s pause Rindith returned the embrace his heart overflowing at being able to hold her. Before them the lake churned and flowed onward. The grey crags of the mountain reached out steep rocky arms and almost ringed the lake. There was still no sign of Shandyke.
“He must have been swept down one of the streams.” Said Eldar, her face pressed against Rindith’s broad chest, “I pray he is still alive and that we find him”.
Rindith stroked her wet dark hair tenderly.
“He might have been caught in the weeds at the bottom of the lake. We should dive down and see.”
They took turns diving into the waters and crossed the lake from side to side searching for a sign of Shandyke, but there was nothing. It was some consolation that there was no body, it meant that the boy might be alive. Eldar and Rindith took the widest of the streams and began to follow its meandering path into a small tightly thicketed wood.
Shandyke had belly flopped into the water of the lake, the boat splintering above him and causing him to bang his head on a piece of the stern. For a moment he saw stars and gulped water sinking in the murky depths, losing his direction in the water. A fierce current in the centre of the lake caught his legs and pulled him swiftly out into a fast running stream. Arms flailing he grabbed at a log above his head and hauled his head out of the water to gasp in air. The lake was already three hundred yards away. He could see Eldar lying half-drowned on the bank but did not see Rindith surface as the log turned and rolled around a bend of the river.
Two miles on the river forked into three smaller rushing brooks. As the force of the current lessened, Shandyke was able to swim to the grassy bank and heave himself out. The cut on his forehead where the boat had hit him had stopped bleeding but his head ached terribly. He knew he should start walking to find the others, but his legs refused to hold him. He sank down onto the grass and leaned against a willow tree. Opening his sodden scroll pouch he lifted out the oiled skins that held his precious maps and unrolled one gently on his knees. The thick parchment was only slightly spotted with water, the oiled skins had protected them well. Sighing with pleasure he rolled the map up again and put it carefully away. Then, clutching the pouch to his chest, he closed his eyes and let himself sleep.
Eldar and Rindith made their way slowly along the bank pushing their way through overgrown rushes and thick, sucking brown mud. They needed to follow the river as closely as possible. If they went into the wood they could easily lose sight of the water and their way. The going was difficult, made so by the sludgey mud at the river’s edge and the wood which grew right down to the water in places. Just after a mile they paused, panting. Eldar scooped up some water in her cupped hands and rubbed it over sweating face.
“Do you think it’s safe to drink?” She asked.
“Probably,”answered Rindith, “but we ought to boil it first just in case.”
“Got a tinder box handy then?” Eldar asked with a laugh.
Rindith patted his pockets and said ruefully,
“No, I must have lost it over the fall”.
“Well, I have nothing to light a fire with either, and I’m too thirsty, so I’ll say a prayer that it will be sweet and trust God”. Resolutely she dipped her thrust her face into the water and drank deeply, ignoring the laughter this brought from Rindith. As she straightened up and ran a wet hand over her hair she looked hard at Rindith and said,
“You only laugh because you don’t believe in the power of God. I know that he will protect me if the water is bad because He loves me”.
“He loves you”, said Rindith wonderingly under his breath, “some man you’ve never met, some god who may only live in your imagination. Haven’t you realised yet that I love you?”
Eldar stared at him, her face white with shock,
“What...what did you say?”
Rindith threw caution to the wind,
“I love you Eldar”, he cried, “Did you never stop to think why I would follow you to death? I have no love for your Christ, I only love you! I want you to be mine. And all you can do is pray and say that you love a mythical being”.
He came towards her where she stood at the water’s edge and gazed down at her face. Her eyes looked up at him, full of fear and something else. Eldar could not deny that she was fond of Rindith that she even loved him as a friend and that her heart longed to bring him to the overwhelming love of Jesus. She even acknowledged at the at moment by the stream that she was attracted to his rough, handsome face and the strength of him. But he was not the right man for her, he was not her soul mate and she knew it. Yet the temptation to give in, to let him kiss her, just once, was so strong that her will wavered and she leaned towards him slightly. Rindith immediately took this response as an invitation and he caught her in his arms and kissed the soft red lips that trembled so alluringly.
For a few seconds it seemed the world stopped around them. The birds fell silent, there was not even a breath of wind, the sound of the river dulled as their own senses roared in their ears. Eldar felt breathless and stunned at the reaction of her body. Her heart and mind thundered with the feelings Rindith had engendered within her. She felt vibrant, alive, aware of her own sensuality and yet her soul wept. Rindith felt his own body react violently as he held the only girl he felt he would ever love. He rejoiced in the sensation of holding her, of kissing her, of knowing her response to him, and yet he felt ashamed. Slowly their lips parted and their arms fell to their sides as they unwillingly separated. Rindith raised one brown hand and stroked her petal soft cheek,
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “I’ve wanted to do that for such a long time. I do love you Eldar, and I think you love me. It’s only your religion that prevents you and I from being together. Isn’t that true?”
Eldar dropped her head and stepped away from him up onto the bank.
“Yes,” she replied, “I do love you, but as a friend. When I thought you had died in the waterfall my heart wept for you, but more because I believed you had died without knowing Jesus and that you would go to Hell”.
Rindith stared at her in astonishment.
“I didn’t know such faith could exist. You amaze me. Alright, tell me more about your Jesus, I want to know why you are so sure of his love for you”.
“We need to keep walking, we have to find Shandyke, but I’ll tell you everything as we go along”.
Smiling Eldar rose to her feet and took Rindith’s hand. Together they set off again along the bank, she talking all the while and Rindith listening intently. They nearly missed Shandyke so deep in conversation were they. Shandyke had lain down in the fallen leaves of the willow tree and had burrowed into them to keep himself warm. Their voices discussing the Trinity broke into his dreams and woke him and he called to them as they were about to press on and leave him behind. There were hugs all round as they were filled with relief that they were together again.
“So where do we go from here”? Asked Shandyke.
“Somewhere we will meet up with the others again. God does not mean for us to finish this journey alone,” answered Eldar, “I suggest we press on towards the Mountains and the Pass of Silence. That is the only way to cross the Mountains so we will meet them there if we do not see them on the way.”
From where they stood the Mountains shimmered around them, the Pass several miles walk ahead of them and nearly a mile high in the snowy treacherous crags. The three travellers filled their last water skins and ate some plums and wild strawberries they found growing on the riverbank, then they set out for the distant snow capped peaks.
Chapter 6