Fair Semblances: An Allegorical Fantasy (Chapter 24)

For a few moments, no one dared to speak. Then, suggestively clearing his throat, Lebbaeus gave the company a solemn reminder:

“We are still surrounded by unfriendly forces, and so we would do well not to forget the need for caution.”

The whole company was, in fact, standing around the recently slain wyrm at full height, not taking advantage of the ramparts they had constructed earlier as a defense against the menacing arrows of the hairy beast-men. But remembering again the earlier threat, which they had quite forgotten in the excitement surrounding the arrival of this newer, and until recently much more imposing danger, they took cover once again behind their crude bulwark. They were far too agitated by their narrow escape to go back to sleep, but for a time they seemed thoroughly out of words or ideas, so they just sat there all huddled together and staring gloomily into the encompassing darkness.

Finally, Azariah broke the silence:

“As you previously intimated, Lebbaeus, this event has indeed put a different spin on our situation. Our only hope before was to avoid the knowledge of Vrak; and so how much less chance of success do we have now, not just having come to his attention, but having lost all our mules and supplies to boot? And even Gamaliel told us before we left that our safe and timely retreat would be a higher priority, all things considered, than fulfilling our drastically parlous and altogether unlikely mission.”

“However,” he went on, “we are currently in such a state that even to retreat is by no means an easy plan to carry out. We are on foot and deep in the territory of Vrak, who knows our location precisely. As I see it, we are confronted with two urgent needs: first, we need to give up the mission and make an immediate retreat; but second, we also need to do something unexpected, that would throw Vrak off our trail for just forty-eight hours, or even twenty-four, to give us the time to get back to safer territory. Only, no matter how I cast things about in my mind, I can come up with no convincing diversion or stratagem for concealing the company and giving Vrak the slip.”

“But do you agree with my judgment that we need to give up our mission?,” Azariah added, turning to look at the old patriarch of the company; “And if so, do you have any suggestions as to how we might go about it?”

The white-haired Keeper of the Light stared into the coals for quite some time before responding; but finally, with an uncharacteristic lack of certainty about him, he replied,

“Although my reason informs me of the sensibleness of what you’re saying, there is a feeling in my heart – perhaps you could call it a premonition – that this mission is far from over, and that we will see the cursed halls of Vrak with our own eyes before we have done with it. And yet, a premonition is too airy a thing to wield against the concrete realities of our company’s tangible troubles and material foes. And so, although my heart is darkened with a nameless doubt, I concede the truth of what you say, and am willing to implement any strategy that any of you might come up with toward that end. But even so, I am no closer to devising a realistic plan for escaping Vrak’s notice than you are.”

Again, there was silence for some time; but finally, Mishael spoke up with an idea he had been struggling to form for quite a few minutes. Ever since Lebbaeus had spoken, the faintest shadow of a plan had formed in his mind, but he could not quite bring it into the daylight of his consciousness, no matter how he tried. He felt that there was some unseen fact or reality that had a bearing on the case, but he could not quite remember what it was, or how it mattered, until he had almost decided that it was really nothing at all, just his despairing consciousness making concrete stepping stones out of will-o-the-wisp sinkholes. But just when he had abandoned all hope of finding the missing link to his plan, it dawned upon him unexpectedly. Still thinking in fuzzy terms, but certain he was on to some nebulous but promising idea, he turned to Azariah and asked about what had just come to his mind:

“Did we not choose this pass because it was the more difficult, and hence the less likely to be kept under Vrak’s minute surveillance?”

“Yes,” Elkanah’s son responded impatiently. “Why do you ask?”.

“And was not the easier and likelier pass just on the other side of the mountain peaks behind this cliff?”

“Yes,” Azariah affirmed again, “but those peaks are absolutely impassable.”

“True,” Mishael responded, “but the two passes meet together west of here, don’t they? How far away is the point at which they meet?”

Here, Gilead realized what Mishael was getting at, and so he jumped in ahead of Azariah, a little incredulously:

“Do you mean to suggest that we move out westward from here and follow the southern pass back to the plains of Lebben-Or, once we’ve made it around these intervening mountains? How would that help? It would be combining the bitter part of Azariah’s plan to retreat with the foolhardy and hopeless part of the remaining option of pressing further into Vrak’s territory even after having been discovered by him.”

“Yes,” Mishael responded, “it would be foolish indeed; but Vrak is not so foolish as we would be to press on further, so he would not be so foolish as to suspect that foolishness in us.” Here, he paused, trying to work out in his mind if that had come out right, with all its levels of foolishness pitted against each other, but giving up he simply continued:

“What I’m saying is, when Vrak comes looking in the morning, the first place he’ll look is behind us, scrutinizing any route of escape to the east. He knows that this company is wise and experienced, so he’ll search slowly and carefully, lest he miss some hiding spot. By the time he realizes that we did not go back east, we’ll have had the twenty-four or forty-eight hours we need to get around to the other pass and head back east.”

“But the hardest and most dangerous part of the pass is coming up just ahead,” Azariah responded; “for several miles, we’ll have to hold tight to a bare ridge that skirts the southern border of one of the highest mountain peaks of all; the first part of that journey will be through bare rock, shale, and boulders that offer no cover whatsoever, and the second part will be along the edge of a glacier that is equally exposed. It will be at least ten miles of difficult terrain before we get into any more tree cover; and during all that time, we’ll be absolutely helpless and laughably conspicuous. Vrak couldn’t help but notice us, even if he were trying not to.”

“Well, could we do it in the dark, before daybreak?”, Gilead suggested.

Azariah snorted contemptuously. “I’d put our odds at about one to a hundred that we could make it in the dark without some of us, if not the whole company, breaking a leg or falling to our death somewhere along the way. Even in broad daylight, a safe passage is a coin toss.”

“You may be right,” Lebbaeus interrupted, “but right now I would be glad to try a one-in-a-hundred chance of escape. Those odds seem considerably more fortuitous than any other plan we’ve come up with so far. Perhaps we should seriously consider this option. Mishael is right, that if we get past this part of the pass before daybreak, Vrak may spend the better part of two or three days searching behind us, without even thinking to look to the west or the south. If anyone has a better suggestion, by all means, make it now. But if not, time is running out, and a laughable chance is better than no chance at all.”

There was a little grumbling and disagreement, especially from Tahath and Azariah, both of whom seemed skeptical of Mishael’s wisdom, unproven as it was. But the simple truth was that no one else could come up with a better plan; and so reluctantly, and only at the stern order of Lebbaeus himself, they all set out due west, in the middle of the night, through treacherous terrain, surrounded by wolves and hairy beast-men, and headed straight into the stronghold of Vrak. Morale was understandably low.

* * * * * * * *

The moon was obscured by cloud cover that night, and only a few stars were visible in the scattered patches of clear nighttime sky; so away from their little fire, the night was almost pitch black. The chances of a successful journey across the pass seemed very slim.

But nevertheless, the travelers took action immediately. First, they wrapped some cloaks around a few old logs, so as to give the appearance of human bodies still crouched behind the ramparts; and then, Tahath used his bow to propel a burning faggot far to the east, behind the forest wall that bounded the meadow. They waited just a few moments, hoping that the wolves and beast-men would go investigate, and then set out at once, at a brisk jog, to the other side of the meadow.

Whether their bestial antagonists had fallen for the ruse they didn’t know; but soon, they were in the deep forest, and not too long after that, on top of a high, bare hill; and then, in such a steep, jumbled slide of shale and boulders that they doubted if even the wolves would be so hardy (or foolish) as to attempt to follow them. It was utterly dark, and they were forced to feel their way along through the precarious rockslide. The progress was slow and painstaking. More than once, one of the companions lost his footing and began to slide toward the lip of the high mountain ridge, where the slide turned into a veritable cliff, and dropped hundreds of feet down into a narrow, rocky ravine. Once, old Elkanah only managed to grab ahold of the one solid rock projection anywhere within reach, before he plunged to his death below. From his waist down, he was hanging over the edge when Gilead arrived to pull him back up.

It was already nearing daybreak when they finally began to approach the point of the ridge where the edge of the glacier met with the steep rock slide, a little less than halfway to the nearest tree cover. The impossibility of making it the rest of the way before daylight was obvious. The companions became more and more doubtful of any hope of success, and a gloomy feeling of despair hung over them all. It seemed that their condition could not possibly become more hopeless.

But in fact it did. For just then, before they entered the glaciated sidehill ahead, at a point at which the negotiable terrain was a strip of just a few feet, and with the deep, rocky chasm just beside them, they caught the familiar, revolting scent of burning sulfur. One of Vrak’s wyrms was nearly upon them.

The companions each dove headlong into some convenient nook or cranny of the jumbled rocks all about them, and somehow managed to escape the searing breath of the wyrm without any major injury. But still, they had only managed to prolong their certain end: Vrak had found them after all, and they were more exposed than before; but this time, they were cut off from any possible avenue of escape. By the time the wyrm had wheeled about in the sky, Lebbaeus had the torch brilliantly lit, and so it was kept at bay for awhile. But it was only a little while; for soon, he would call reinforcements and together they would overpower the little company, whose fate would then be sealed. The end had never seemed nearer or more certain to any of the company before.

For a few minutes longer, the beleaguered travelers continued along the ridge; and soon they had ventured out upon the glacier, all that time protected by the circle of light. But before long, one wyrm became two, then two became three, and with each additional antagonist, the protective light of the torch became dimmer and smaller in dimension. When the three wyrms attacked in unison, the torchlight would flicker and shrink, and the fire of their breath would penetrate the circle, filling it with smoke and heat. The companions were gasping for air, covering their mouths with handfuls of snow; and still the wyrms came wheeling about and belching out their hellish volleys without respite.

For about half an hour the struggle continued in this fashion; and although the wyrms were always on the brink of destroying the little company, they were never quite able to finish the job. If they added but one more to their ranks, the conquest would be easy. Apparently, there was not another wyrm to be found nearby; but it was only a matter of time.

Eventually, the wyrms ceased their attack, and flew in unison to a point high above them, near the peak of the snow-capped mountain. A few minutes later, the companions saw the sulfuric wyrm-flame lighting up the sky just to their left, at the highest point of the glacier they were traversing.

“What are they doing up there?” Mishael cried out in frustration; “have they found more of us to batten their filthy bellies upon?”

But no one had a chance to answer; for just then, there was a terrific crashing noise up above them, and as they continued to gaze to the south, they saw the glacier they were standing on starting to split in two. Slowly, the pieces began to separate, and soon they could feel the ice moving beneath their feet. A white cloud of ice and snow was building up above them, hurtling down closer and closer to where they were standing, until it had blotted out the wyrms entirely, and was about to swallow them up.

The men all stood there, frozen in place. On their left, the thousands of tons of ice and snow, bearing down upon them at a mind-numbing velocity, was about to catch them up like leaves in a tornado, and utterly overwhelm them; on their left, the vast chasm was approaching ever nearer, as a great slab of ice upon which they were standing continued to gain momentum in its progress downhill. The only question about their fate was whether the avalanche would catch them before they had plunged over the lip of the gaping ravine.

As it turned out, neither eventuality would transpire: for just then, the ground split again, this time just beneath them; and the whole company was swallowed up in the fissure that had suddenly appeared. Not a moment later, the avalanche swept down upon the place they had been standing, scouring it mercilessly; and groaning beneath the tremendous force, the whole hillside shuddered, and collapsed into the yawning canyon below. There was a horrific report that lingered in the air for several minutes. Slowly, the hillside appeared again through the white cloud of ice and dust, visibly narrower than it had been before. The whole company, and in fact, the whole strip of rock that the company had been standing on, was gone.

For a few minutes, the wyrms circled the area below them; then, satisfied at last, they wheeled about in the sky and sped south toward Dolos.

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