Fair Semblances: An Allegorical Fantasy (Chapter 28)

The great dragon in the center of the black throne room seemed to swell up to twice his already prodigious size; the red glint of his eyes flamed up in an eruption of fury, smoke belched forth from all six of his nostrils, and in a menacing, multifarious voice, which seemed to proceed from all three of his heads at once, he thundered out deafeningly,

“Insufferable fool! I want them dead! Find them and kill them, whatever it takes! Must I put up forever with nothing but imbeciles and asses?”

Then, calming down only slightly, he added in a voice that was quieter but still trembling with uncontrollable rage, this time coming only from his most ferocious head on the right,

“All of my wyrms and most of my sanguinors are right now in the Desert of Salt. Go find Lebbaeus and all his filthy company, and lure them deeper into our territory. Do whatever it takes to bring them closer and prevent their escaping to the east; but do not engage them or reveal yourself to them unless it is absolutely necessary. I need to gather together a much greater army than I have standing by at present before I attack; this time, I want no chance of their escaping.”

“And I trust I do not need to warn you,” the ferocious wyrm continued, in a voice sultry with pent-up rage and unendurable frustration, “that if you fail, your own end will be worse than his. Now go! And do not show your face in here again until Lebbaeus is mine!”

And with that, the fearsome wyrm belched again, and the smoke and heat of his wrath filled the room. Trembling in fear and gasping for air in the midst of the murky haze, Javan Togarmah, the new Grand Proprietor of Fair Semblances, retreated hastily out of the throne room of Vrak.

All that next night, Lebbaeus and his companions traveled westward, toward the terrible city of the Enemy; and by the time they had stopped for the daylight, they were within one (or at most, one and a half) night’s journey of the high walls of Dolos. As they crept nearer the burning dust seemed more stifling and acidic, the very air was unhealthy and tainted, and a nameless feeling of dread and impending doom hung thickly over the whole company. When they finally stopped to hide away and rest for the day, they were all unexplainably exhausted, as if they had been battling their way through waist-high swamps of mud as thick as molasses, and not merely walking along on the irony surface of the parched plains. The feeling of hopelessness that had been so conspicuous in the demeanor of Tahath since almost the beginning of the journey had now spread to the rest of the men, so that even Elkanah, who was never perturbed by any circumstance at all, seemed a little downcast and reserved. Silently, and without even dreaming of giving voice to their thoughts, they were all beginning to regret their decision to come – even Mishael, who had argued so ardently for this very course of action.

Wearily and without a word, the men laid out their beds in another coulee, prepared themselves for a few hours’ sleep, and laid themselves down, one at a time, beneath their concealing cloaks. As was their custom, they had dug out a small latrine several yards from where they were sleeping, which was concealed from the rest of the camp by a bend in the ravine where they had settled down for the day. The men took their turns using this little latrine in private, before lying down for the day ahead. The last man to use it, after all else were hidden away and resting, was Tahath.

Tahath had just passed the crook in the ravine, and was out of sight of the company, when he paused, the sharp attentiveness that years of living vigilantly had ingrained into him making him aware that something was amiss. Slowly, he turned his head to the left, looked all around him, and saw nothing. Then, he began to swing his gaze back around to the right; but before he had the chance, he felt the cold, hard steel of a blade across his neck, accompanied by the whispered words,

“Not a sound!”

Tahath froze, without so much as a gasp.

After a moment, the speaking continued, in a voice as strained and icy as the glacial snows of the Draconian Mountains had been the moment before they broke loose to hurtle over the edge of the cliff:

“Did you actually suppose that you could come so close to Dolos without being discovered? What did you think? That Vrak is such a one as yourselves? Be assured, Vrak sees and hears everything. His will is uncontested on the west of the mountains. You have chosen very foolishly, and now you must pay the price.”

“But I think perhaps it was not you who so foolishly chose,” the whisper continued, now growing soft and alluring. “Perhaps, your decision was forced by the unwise and overly zealous counsel of a young and untested addition to your company. Am I right? I know that I am right. And like you, I think that the whole company should not have to suffer for the mistake of one foolish young boy. Nor will the company have to suffer, if you are willing to listen to me. I want Mishael. He is the only one of you that’s of any concern to me. I have known him from our youth, and let’s just say I have very personal and very implacable reasons for wanting him back in Fair Semblances. And Vrak, too, is concerned with him above all, for Fair Semblances is his strongest possession, and no one has ever escaped before your newest companion. In fact, Vrak himself has intimated to me that he would be more than willing to exchange Tobiah for Mishael, and call it an even trade. Tobiah is the one you are after, is he not? Trust me, if you just follow my counsel, I can promise you Tobiah, as well as the safe passage of all the company back to Lebben-Or” (when the voice came to that word “Lebben-Or,” he almost spit it out in a fury of disdain, so that for the first time, Tahath started; but apparently, the change in tone was unintentional, for the owner of the voice paused, took a deep breath, and with an obvious effort re-assumed the same soft tone).

“But you must trust me and do exactly as I say, if you wish to capitalize upon this offer. Do not now speak a word to the company; if you do, they will doubtless counsel and confer, and decide to flee back at once, Mishael with them, and leave poor Tobiah in the clutches of Vrak. Make no mistake, I have no feelings one way or the other about Tobiah: whether he rots in the dungeon or is set free matters not at all to me. But I think you would rather see Tobiah free and Mishael in captivity. Well, then, that is a trade I am willing to make. Tobiah is of no concern to me, I only want Mishael. And I will have him one way or the other. But I only make this offer because I have no taste for a breathless chase back across the plains, and all the hassle and rigamarole of a battle. One way or the other I will get him; but I am a sensible man, and prefer to do so with as little inconvenience as possible.”

“Listen closely then, for this is why I have come. I wish to make the following proposal: lead the company on closer to Dolos; take them straight to the eastern-facing gate of the city, which is directly west of here. Do not permit them to turn aside for any sort of flanking action. If you do this (and it is a simple enough request) without arousing anyone’s suspicion, then I will make you a guarantee: once you are close enough that we may meet you with a vastly overpowering army, before which you will have no chance of escape, then I will simply come with an embassy, freely exchange Tobiah for Mishael, and let the rest of you return to the east. If you then go back directly, and do not turn aside at all, you will not be hindered.”

“I know the company as a whole will not agree to these terms. But I also suspect that you are sensible enough to recognize the value of my offer. And besides, I am sure you know that it is the only option available to you. If you refuse, you will all certainly perish – and where will that leave Mishael, let alone Tobiah and the rest of the company? No, if you have any concern for them at all, you will do what is wise, conceal this little conversation from them, and make sure they continue directly to the west. If you do this much, you may be assured that your entire company, with one little exception that I think you won’t miss too deeply, will survive. If not, you will all surely die. I leave you now to think on this. If you sound an alarm when I am gone, the wyrms and sanguinors I have surrounding you will not hesitate to attack.”

Suddenly, the blade was gone from Tahath’s neck, and the unknown assailant disappeared without a trace. Tahath stood there for some time, deep in thought. Finally, he slowly turned about, walked back to the camp, and stretched out beside the company, beneath his concealing cloak, without a word.

* * * * * * * *

Later that evening, when the dusk was just beginning to obscure the harsh lines of the horizon, the company began stirring to life, breaking their fast, rolling up their beds, and preparing for another night’s march. Before they set out, Lebbaeus called the company together, and in hushed tones addressed them all:

“We are getting very close to Dolos, and it is imperative that we devise a definite strategy before we arrive. Now, Vrak’s intensest opposition is to the east, of course, and it is therefore to the east that he will have positioned his strongest defenses, his most impregnable gates; and it is toward there, moreover, that he will be directing his sharpest vigilance, and from there that the heaviest traffic will be proceeding, to go on out to the battlefields in the east. But perhaps the eastern gate is not the only way into Dolos. I would suggest, therefore, instead of attempting to walk straight into the city, that we attempt to circumvent it, looking for any relatively little-used ways of access, and steer clear of its eastern boundaries. What do the rest of you say?”

To everyone’s surprise, it was Tahath who spoke up before anyone else had a chance to deliberate at all. As he had been so silent and brooding the whole trip until now (and besides, he had always been rather reluctant to venture his opinion before, preferring to wait instead until Ethan had spoken his mind), the whole company was taken aback, and gave him at once their undivided attention.

“I think your plan is good in theory, but I doubt we can usefully employ it right now,” Tahath began, in an uncustomarily formal and disinterested manner; “For one thing, none of us has ever been to Dolos before, and so we can’t know for sure if we’re actually close, or still quite far off. And besides, Mariah told us explicitly not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left, or else we would certainly be discovered; and the Pelites know these regions better than any of us. I suggest that we continue directly to the west, toward Dolos; and only when we are within sight of its walls should we try to flank it, for then we will know better what we are dealing with, and how far we should go to one side or the other in order to stay out of its sights; and yet we will still be close enough to look for covert entrances and little-used means of access.”

The hitherto gloomy cousin of Ethan ceased abruptly, and gazed at the rest of the company with a half-defiant, half-nervous look, as if to say, “Are any of you so brazen as to turn down my only piece of advice, when I have put up with all of you throughout this whole cursed mission?”.

There was a little more discussion, but in the end, Tahath’s unexpected plea won the day. Finally, turning to him, Lebbaeus said,

“It shall be according to your wishes. But the night is advancing, we must set out at once!”

And immediately, the little company began to make their way through the pale moonlight, heading due west, toward the high eastern walls of the terrible city of Vrak. Only Mishael, who did not dare voice his gnawing suspicions, could not get a sense of impending doom and unspeakable evil out of his head.

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