Fair Semblances: An Allegorical Fantasy (Chapter 34)

For some seconds, the four companions watched the inexorable tide of tribesmen swarming over the fallen wall, entirely covering its stark remains as the clouds of locusts blanket any green tree when they swarm in the late summer. At first, none of the companions could believe what they were seeing, but a surge of joyful hope swept over them all, and they were momentarily as those who dream, lost in the glad impossibility of it all.

“Mishael!”, Shashi cried out finally, the first of the four to break the revery; “It’s just like you saw! The walls are tumbling down, and the last tribe is free! Soon, we’ll all be in Lebben-Or together!”

“But we must go with them now,” Gilead urged. “They will be scattered abroad as sheep with no shepherd; we must lead them to the east, through the gruel-marshes, to the southern passes of the Draconian Mountains. Vrak will doubtless come after them with an overwhelming host, and bring them back captive again, so that their latter end will be worse than the former. Unless we can hasten them along with all possible speed and due orderliness, I fear their freedom will be short-lived.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”, Mishael wondered. “Let’s go!”

And together, the four seekers began to make their way across the debris of the fallen wall, joining the last stragglers of the Eschatoi who were still picking a way through the destruction.

By the time they had gotten across the wall and into the unbounded freedom of the surrounding plains, however, something unusual began to transpire. Much as a wave of the sea, when it meets some immoveable obstacle, rebounds upon itself and scatters its droplets in a cloud of confusion, so the foremost tribesmen were rebounding even now, running back to the wall they had just left behind, and throwing the whole tribe, which was now gaining momentum in two contrary directions, into a hopeless mayhem.

“What’s going on up there?” Shashi cried out in frustration. “They’re coming back! Why are they coming back?”

“Let’s stop someone and ask,” Gilead replied.

Stopping someone proved to be a more difficult task than they had thought. For quite a few minutes, the four companions scurried about waving their arms and shouting out, “Stop! Tell us what’s going on!”. But no one seemed interested in stopping. Since they did not care to return to their hateful pit, and there was obviously something hindering them from pressing onward, they decided just to run around in circles, and no one could stop them in their mad panic. But finally, Mishael was able to get the attention of someone whom he recognized as one of the men in the little group of calmer souls, which they had approached just before the toppling of the wall and the ensuing panic.

“What’s going on out there?”, Mishael asked, when he had his full attention. “What’s turning the tribe back?”

“There’s a watchtower in our path,” the man responded, “and a scorching heat comes from it, and makes the way unbearable. We can’t get by it, and yet we do not wish to return to the pit. Some of us in the council have been stationing ourselves at the western edge of the breach in the wall, to prevent the tribe from rushing in that direction. There, they will only meet the sea, and Vrak will soon crush us. We must go east if we would survive, but any eastward progress has been cut off by the tower.”

“Try to gather the tribe together,” Mishael said. “We will go examine this watchtower, and see if there is some way of getting around it. We have a little experience in resisting Vrak, and perhaps we may be of help to you. But first, we need the tribe gathered together in an orderly fashion.”

The tribesman seemed more than willing to accept any help he could get, and so, with a quick, “I’ll see what I can do,” he headed off to the eastern edge of the wall, to try to instill some order into the mob.

“Let’s go see what this is all about,” Mishael said to the other three, who seeing his success in capturing the ear of a tribesman had by this time gathered around. “Carl! Do you know anything of this watchtower?”

“Yes,” Carl said credulously, “I ‘member now. Vrak ‘as a tall tower what reaches clear up to th’ sky, an’ it kin bring th’ sun right down from th’ eavens and throw it down on th’ earth an’ burn ever’one t’ ashes. An’ it’s in jes th’ right spot so that nobody kin git by at all.”

“Let’s go see what more we can find out,” Gilead suggested, a little skeptically. “There has to be some way of getting by it and out to the gruel-marshes in the east.”

The four companions cautiously made their way along the black wall surrounding the pit, until they were in sight of the tall watchtower. And when they saw it, amazingly enough, it was just as Carl had said: it seemed as if the sun itself were nestled between the two cusps of a huge crescent moon, high above the tower walls; and the scorching power of this sun was directed so intensely at the strip of ground between the wall and the tower’s base that the heat of it was almost too much to bear even from so great a distance as the companions then were from its direct rays. It would clearly be impossible to get through between the tower and the wall.

After observing it for awhile, Mishael suddenly exclaimed, “Why, it’s a huge mirror in the shape of a parabola! It’s concentrating the sun’s rays and throwing them all to a certain point on the ground. I remember when we were children we would start fires with a magnifying glass, which we used to concentrate the sunlight on a certain point of dry tinder. This is just the same thing, only on a much greater scale. But if we can’t get by here, maybe we could go around the tower on the other side. What do you think?”

“But Vrak kin throw the sun clear t’ th’ ocean on th’ other side,” Carl said. And sure enough, as the companions scoped out the terrain on the other side of the tower, they could see the reflection of the ocean not too far distant. Apparently, there was a bay on the southern side of the city, which cut several miles inland, and the shore of which lay within reach of the deadly mirror. The watchtower, with its searing ray, was perfectly positioned to reach the north-eastern corner of Dolos itself on the one extreme, and the shores of the Encompassing Sea on the other. The only place to which it did not extend was the little strip of ground between the south-western edge of the surrounding wall of the pit and the seashore in the west, on the northern side of the bay. The Eschatoi were in a protected pocket with no way out.

“I think the only way to get out to the east will be to walk around the entire city, holding close to its walls, until we’ve made it to the dry eastern plains on the north of the gruel-marshes,” Gilead observed. And to walk that far, within range of the archers on the wall, would likewise be suicide. How vexing! We’re so close, and yet still unable…but there has to be something, some factor we haven’t yet considered!”

If there were some overlooked factor, none of the others could come up with it either. But as it turned out, they wouldn’t have to. For suddenly a most unexpected thing occurred: on the surrounding wall high above them, they heard the sharp, scratching sound of steel striking stone, a sound such as a steel-tipped arrow would make when it hit a stone wall; and immediately thereafter, a broken arrow fell down to the ground just before them.

“Someone’s firing on us!” Mishael exclaimed.

“No, not on us,” Gilead murmured; “look at the tower”.

Just then, another arrow came flying up from somewhere beyond the tall watchtower; only this one struck the watchtower itself, just a few feet from the top.

“Someone’s firing on them,” Gilead continued. “It must be Elkanah and Azariah, and hopefully Tobiah too. There’s no one else it could be.”

Just then, the blistering heat of Vrak’s death ray began to swing back toward the south, where the arrow-fire was coming from. The guards on the tower were responding to this new threat.

“Quickly!” Gilead shouted; “They’re giving us an opportunity! We must make the most of it, we don’t know how long they can hold out!”

And together, the four of them raced back to the breach in the surrounding wall, where the tribal chiefs had finally succeeded in gathering the tribe together in one place.

When they got to the ranks of the Eschatoi, Gilead and Mishael went straight to the most prominent of the chieftains, whom Mishael had encountered a few minutes earlier, and spoke to him in an urgent and commanding tone:

“We have friends who are drawing away the gaze of the watchtower. We must take advantage of this opportunity now, and get the entire tribe to a safe place out of its reach. Bring the tribe as close to the tower as they can get, and whenever there is opportunity, we will send them across in groups. Only hurry! We must act now.”

Immediately, the chief began barking out orders, and the crowd, much more subdued now, began following him with haste, but a much more decorous sort of haste than they had displayed until now. Soon, with the four seekers and the tribal chief at the front the tribe, and the diversionary tactics of the other seekers carving out moments of opportunity, the whole tribe of the Eschatoi, one group at a time, was dashing out between the wall and the tower and making it to safety on the other side. Whenever the tribesmen began to run through the gap, the mirror would slowly swing around to prevent them; and as soon as it came around, Elkanah and his companions would renew their arrow fire, and draw the gaze of the mirror back to themselves. In this way, by slow degrees, the whole tribe finally made it through in a couple of hours.

“If only Tahath were still with us,” Mishael said sadly, at one point, “His deadly arrows would have picked off all the guards by now, and we would be free to cross at our leisure.”

“Tahath is lost to us,” Gilead replied quietly, “and we feel that loss most deeply. And yet, we still have all the help we need, whenever we most need it, and we will still make it through if our hearts do not fail us. Courage, friend! We are almost home!”.

Finally, when everyone else had made it safely to the other side, the four friends and the tribal chief, whom they had learned in the course of their discussion was named Benaiah, crossed the treacherous gap last of all, and joined the tribe of the Eschatoi on the border of the gruel-marshes, which stretched out for many miles ahead of them, and ended at the western edge of the Draconian Mountains. There, Benaiah called for the attention of the tribe, and when he had it, he requested that Gilead speak, and exhorted the whole tribe to listen carefully and obey his instructions exactly. Gilead paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, and then began to speak:

“Men, women, and children of the Eschatoi tribe, an extraordinary thing has happened today! You who were in bondage for countless years have now been set free from Vrak. The pit where your ancestors lived in harsh slavery for many generations is no longer your home. You have left the city of darkness, and your faces are set toward the Beautiful City, the City of the High King, Lebben-Or! The goal toward which you now must strive is greater and more beautiful than you can imagine; but so also, the obstacles will be great and discouraging. Do not lose courage, O people of Eschatoi, but find it in your hearts to sacrifice, struggle, sweat, and hope until your journey is complete! You have seen great things today, walls have come down, taskmasters have been destroyed – but this is only the beginning. A long, arduous journey still awaits, and only they who are firm to the end shall be finally saved.”

“If you are carrying any burdensome weight, you must cast it off now. Take only the clothes on your backs; any further encumbrance will slow you down, and speed is of the utmost importance. You will march without rest, sustain yourself with the gruel-moss you find along the way, deny yourselves sleep and comfort for the next few days. When you think of giving up or turning back, remember what lies ahead: a few more days, a few more miles, and the plains of Lebben-Or will spring up to greet you with food such as you never dreamed, love such as you had not thought possible, joy beyond your wildest expectations.”

“You are the last tribe that Vrak has managed to keep in his power. His rage will be great and his opposition fierce. We will not be safe until we arrive in the surrounding plains of Lebben-Or. But friends, we will arrive! If you refuse to turn back, refuse to slow down, refuse to give up, we will arrive safely, and none of the armies of Vrak will overtake us. Be strong, and follow us now! We must set off at once! To the East! To Lebben-Or!”

And turning sharply about, Gilead began trudging through the stinking mud of the gruel-marshes of Dolos, with his face set toward the East, where his heart had so long been. As one great and unified people, the Eschatoi fell in behind him, and the march was begun.

* * * * * * * *

By the time Gilead had finished his speech, some old, familiar faces had appeared in the crowd before him; and when he turned toward Lebben-Or, they came running up behind him, surrounded him, and so insistently impeded his progress that he was forced to turn over his place as guide to Benaiah, who kept the tribe marching along in the right direction. The friends, of course, were none other than Elkanah and Azariah; and sure enough their old comrade Tobiah was with them, looking a little paler and thinner, but really quite healthy. He was thoroughly unable to contain his exuberant joy at their reunion.

“Ah, my dear friends!”, he gushed out, scarcely able to contain himself, “How pleased I am to see you, how very pleased! Only don’t you know how foolish it was to march into the city of Vrak himself to rescue an old fool like me? Still, I’m glad your ignorance didn’t get you killed, and I’m pleased, very pleased to see you again. Only, how sad it is about Lebbaeus and Ethan, and especially poor Tahath. How very sad!”

Then, unable to restrain himself any longer, he embraced them all, even Carl, whom he had never seen before in his life. He seemed not to recognize that he was but a new addition to the company in his uncontainable joy.

“Ah, how dark, how dismal that dungeon was!”, Tobiah began again. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone! How foolish it was for you to come! Still, you did well, very well, and I am very pleased to see you.”

“And we cannot express our joy at seeing you either, dear friend,” Gilead finally had the chance to respond. Even if we were tempted to regret our coming here at some points along the way, we regret nothing now, just to be able to see your face again.” Here, he paused and grew thoughtful, and then added in a pensive tone, “When we set out to rescue you, we were seven; and now, here we are seven again. Even in our loss, we always find victory.”

For some seconds, Mishael had been wanting to speak, but when he finally did get a chance to say something, what came out was nothing like he had planned.

“Do you remember, Tobiah,” he heard himself asking, instead of the affectionate greeting he had prepared, “when you answered a summons for aid, and put up with all the shenanigans of a young, foolish boy who had just unwittingly escaped from Fair Semblances? It is because of you that I am here today, and it was because of me that you were locked up in Dolos. It was the remembrance of your own example and sacrifice that kept my heart fixed on our goal, even when everything around me shouted out that failure was certain. I hope I have shown in some small measure that your sacrifice was not in vain.”

Here, Tobiah paused for a few seconds, and the soberness and constant thoughtfulness that had always given him a disconnected, distracted air became prominent again. Finally, in a low, murmured voice, he said,

“You have changed much since then. You have become a true seeker and a bold warrior.”

“Oh!”, Mishael shouted out then, after a brief, awkward pause; “But you haven’t met my friends! This is Shashi, my best friend from childhood, who also escaped from Fair Semblances, although in a much different manner that I did; and this here is Carl, a true and faithful companion who bravely stood with us in the face of the whole army of Vrak. Without him, we never would have made it.”

“Well, I did meet Shashi, under some less-than-ideal circumstances,” Tobiah replied, “But Carl is a new face to me. New, but most welcome. Anyone who befriends these men is a friend of mine for life.” And saying that, he bowed most deferentially to the awkward guardsman, who immediately turned a shocking shade of crimson, and muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

“We’d better be going,” Azariah spoke up, for the first time. Then, with a trace of friendly sarcasm he added, “After that speech of yours, Gilead, it wouldn’t do at all to linger. But it is pleasant beyond words to be with you all again.” And to this, his placid old father nodded affirmatively, only saying, “It is indeed”.

And together, the seven remaining men in the company of Lebbaeus fought their way through the muck and mud to the head of the Eschatoi people, who were still plodding along diligently at as quick a pace as the women and children could handle.

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