PART 4

The Descent

Chapter Fifteen

Early morning sunshine covered the plateau and made long brown shadows. The three adventurers were outside the entrance to the late Thinistor Udd's cave, their necessaries split into three packs: two fairly large ones, and one much smaller for Aminza. Eldin the Wanderer sat on a rock, tenderly examining a naked arm where he had rolled up the sleeve of his jacket.

"What in all the dreamlands are you so sore about?" David Hero spoke to the older dreamer. "What are a few hairs to a walking doormat like you?"

"A few hairs, he says-a few!" Eldin rumbled volcani-cally. "Hell's bells, lad-the damned thing nearly singed my arm off! 'Only touch the wizard's wand with your sword,' says the Keeper. And like a damned fool-I did!"

Hero grinned as he slitted his eyes against the sun and peered at Eldin's hairless arm. "Well, he was right, wasn't he? We've had no more trouble, have we? Your sword drew the wand's last blast and that was that. And look!" and he held up a length of twine with the wand suspended at its end.

"And it works, too," said Aminza. "See how it points the way ..."

"Well, er, yes," said Hero, somewhat less happily. "But there might be something a little wrong there. I mean, the damn thing's pointing north!" Sure enough, the wand's knob not only pointed north but was actually tilted upward-up the final slope to the spot where Eldin and Hero had confronted the demon god Yibb-Tstll.

" 'Something's a little wrong there!' " mimicked Eldin, rolling down his sleeve. "I'll say there is. Just over that final ridge there's a damn great cliff that looks like it goes down to dreamland's core! And that's our quickest route to the next wand, is it? Well, I say we head for Theelys. Ebraim Borak owes us a deal of money-and I owe him a couple of broken ribs at least."

"Was that cliff really unclimbable?" Aminza asked of the two men.

"Can't really say," mused Hero. "It looked a bit tough, I'll admit, but remember I wasn't looking at it from a very comfortable angle. And there again, a lot of things are a far sight easier in dreams."

"That's as it may be," Eldin rumbled, "but they can be a damn sight harder, too. I'll grant you one thing, though: there's never been anything easier than falling off a cliff!"

"Hmm," frowned Hero, his eyes following the knob of the wand where it aimed itself at the rocky ridge. He twirled it once or twice at the end of its twine, but each time he did so the wand quickly steadied to its previous position, and always it pointed to the ridge.

"Well," said Aminza, "what's it to be? Or are we going to stay here forever?"

"You're a plucky lass, Aminza," said Hero with feeling, "but I reckon Eldin's right. If it was just the two of us, perhaps we'd give it a try. But with you along .. . it's a tough climb, sure enough."

"It's Theelys, then?" she said.

"Looks that way," Eldin rumbled, climbing to his feet, disappointment clearly audible in his voice. They shouldered their packs and turned south. "Since we already know the way," the older dreamer continued, "I suppose we'd do well simply to retrace our route. What do you say, Hero?"

"Eh?" the younger dreamer tugged distractedly at the wand, frowned, then let go of the thing and stepped back in amazement. Suspended in midair, floating free and dangling its thread beneath it, the wand hovered four feet above the rocky ground and stubbornly pointed north, up the steep slope to the ultimate crest.

"Well I'll be-" Hero started, gritting his teeth and taking both hands to the wand. Strain as he might the wand would not budge. As soon as Hero took a pace or two up the slope, however, then the wand went along meekly enough.

"-A monkey's uncle!" gasped Eldin, putting the finishing touch to his friend's incomplete comment. "Well, here's a fine thing. We won't go north and the wand won't come south. What now?"

"We could leave it here ..." suggested Aminza.

"We'll get nothing else out of Ebraim Borak if we do," said Hero.

"Except a deal of satisfaction when I break his arm," growled Eldin.

"Or ..." the girl said, and waited for a response from her friends from the waking world.

"Are we to come out of this utterly empty-handed?" asked Hero, jutting his chin aggressively.

"With nothing but a few tonds between us?" added Eldin.

The three formed a triangle about the wand where it pointed up the slope and quivered like a dog on a leash. Hero licked his lips. "Ail our hearts could ever desire, the Keeper said."

"And a fine, adventurous quest in the bargain," Eldin rumbled.

Aminza stamped her little foot and laughed. "Why, it couldn't have worked out better if you'd planned it this way!" she cried.

The two men peered at each other and grinned wolfishly. "What's life without a taste of danger now and then?" asked Eldin.

Hero sucked a finger and held it up, testing the wind. "North it is," he said, and they turned their faces up the slope.

Up until now the cliff face had not been too difficult, though difficult enough, and the climbers had made good use of the weathered face's many hand- and footholds where the sun's warmth had dried them out. The summit had long since disappeared into a mist-hazed sky and in places the cliff was concave, which meant that the three must remain securely roped together for long periods. Aminza had proved to be a good, natural climber, which helped matters, but Hero and Eldin could have progressed a lot faster on their own. Now they had found themselves a wide ledge on which to rest, and Eldin had brewed a pot of tea.

"I'm so tired," said Aminza, stretching her body to ease its aches and pains.

"It's the climbing," Eldin rumbled. "It gets you that way when you're not used to it." To Hero he said: "How deep are we, do you think?"

Hero shrugged. He gazed out and down into deeps which were gray and swirling, full of heaving vapors. "Look at it down there. You'd almost believe you could walk on it. And it seems to get thicker the deeper we go. As to how deep we are-we could be deeper," he answered a trifle grudgingly. "We've come down maybe six, seven thousand feet, but it must be well into the afternoon by now. We can only go half as far on the next leg, for then Aminza will be exhausted. Which means that if we don't strike bottom in the next three hours or so-"

"We'll be stuck on the cliff face for the night," said Aminza with a shudder. "And it's all my fault."

"Not at all, my dear," Eldin gently rumbled, placing an arm about her shoulders where they sat dangling their feet in empty air. "Don't blame yourself, lass, for we all knew what we were doing when we set out. And anyway, it won't be the first time Hero and I have faced nightfall on the face of a cliff. We'll make out all right."

"Providing it doesn't rain," said Hero. "And there are no visits from stray gaunts. And no rock falls ..." and he glanced ominously upward.

Aminza began quietly to snivel a little and Eldin glared at Hero where he leaned his back against the cliff. Hero cast his eyes to the heavens, gritted his teeth and silently rut-tutted for a moment, then said: "Eldin's right. Don't blame yourself, Aminza. It's not every girl could have done half so well. Now sip your tea and take it easy. We'll rest ourselves here for a half-hour or so, then carry on down. If only it wasn't so misty down there, we might be able to see the bottom. At least the wand doesn't seem to have any doubts. Look-" And he dangled the wand from its thread and showed how it pointed northward into space and slightly downward into the ever-thickening mists below.

"Somewhere down there," Hero nodded in the direction the wand pointed, "we'll find the second wand- eventually."

"Umm," said Eldin. "Well, for the immediate future I'll be happy simply to get down off this damned cliff. In the meantime-break out a piece of meat, eh, David? Let's have something to chew on ..."

Half an hour later they set off again and at first the going was a lot easier. They followed a route which moved to the left as it descended, and there were plenty of hand- and footholds. After about an hour, however, they began to hear the rush of water and the rock of the face rapidly grew slimy.

"The very last of the thaw," grunted Eldin, examining the smooth knob of a huge boulder which stuck out from the cliff's face.

Close behind him, Hero said: "Yes, and it's not only making the going nasty but thickening the mist, too." Turning his head to look back, he said, "Are you all right, girl?"

Aminza nodded, her face shiny and damp as the rocks. She bravely tried a smile but it didn't quite come off. Her arms felt like lead and she just couldn't seem to draw air quickly enough. "I'm fine," she gasped.

Meanwhile Eldin had embraced the great boulder which blocked his way. With his huge arms wrapped about it, slowly he slid his chest over its surface toward the far side. There the narrow ledge they had been following continued its steep downward route. When he was safely across he moved on a pace or two until he could see around a sharp comer in the face of the cliff.

"We're in trouble now," he groaned, "and that's for sure."

"What's up?" Hero queried, stretching himself to the limit to embrace the great round rock. A moment later he was beside Eldin and they peered together in silent dismay at the scene that awaited them beyond the corner of the cliff.

It was a great waterfall, and its rush was a tumult of sound now that the cliff's face no longer protected their ears. Below, the mists boiled and tossed; the rock ahead was sheer and glistened slickly. It looked utterly impossible. And yet ...

As Hero's ears became used to the roar of the cataract he began to grin. "Listen," he shouted above the roaring of falling water. "Do you hear it?"

"Hear what?" cried Eldin in return.

"Why, the water striking bottom!" Hero shouted back. "We've almost made it. If we go back a little way and take a different route, we should be down within minutes. At worst we should find ourselves on a different sort of face; a slope, perhaps, at the bottom of the cliff."

Grinning, the two looked back along the ledge.

Three or four paces away Aminza was clambering over the great boulder that blocked her path. She had not the reach in her arms to skirt the rock in the manner of her friends. Even as the two watched her, they saw the boulder tilt outward from the cliff. Its hold weakened by the steady seep of moisture, the great rock was unable to take her weight.

"Aminza!" Eldin croaked-and a split second later she gave a little shriek as the boulder tilted farther yet and seemed almost to shrug her into space. For an instant it was as if she floated gently downward-before her plummeting weight snatched first Hero, then Eldin from the slippery ledge.

Tied together they fell, a giant bolas whirling in air. Mist sucked their rushing bodies in, savored them, coughed them out onto a surface resilient as water.

It was water! A deep, cold lake.

Deep they sank, then fought weakly for the surface.

Gasping as they bobbed like corks in a froth of wavelets, they saw first the sheer wall of rock going up into mist, then, to their right, a tiny shingle bay luxuriant with tall, fernlike trees.

They swam, and in a matter of minutes which seemed like hours felt the sloping bottom beneath their weary feet. Still roped together they dragged themselves up onto the pebbly beach. And there they lay for some time, drinking deep of the damp air and thanking their lucky stars that they yet lived ...