Fair Semblances: An Allegorical Fantasy (Chapter 36)

By midnight, the Eschatoi were thronging into the hidden valley of the Pelites, until they had quite overwhelmed its narrow confines. Here they would find rest for a night, maybe two, but the sheer impossibility of their staying for the winter had become patently obvious well before the last members of the tribe had straggled in. Every corner of space was occupied, so that it had become thoroughly impossible to walk anywhere without continually stepping over the stretched-out bodies of the exhausted tribespeople, many of whom had already collapsed on the valley floor, and were somehow deep in sleep, despite their deplorable condition.

Before long, the hospitable Pelites had bonfires roaring in several convenient locations across the valley, and the Eschatoi were gratefully warming themselves and drying their scant clothing. Those worst off among them, whether the very old, the very young, or the otherwise weak and vulnerable, the Pelites supplied with warm clothes and blankets; but they simply did not have the necessary clothing to provide fully for the needs of everyone. Besides, they had but a small superfluity of food stored away for the long winter months, and the Eschatoi could only survive a few more days on the gruel they had brought along with them; so one way or another, it was clear that they would have to keep pushing on. But the snow was still falling, at an increased rate, in fact; and Mishael dreaded the very thought of facing the high mountain passes in the middle of a blizzard, let alone with several thousand tribespeople, many of whom were in a very weakened condition.

Finally, well into the early hours of the morning, Mariah approached the band of seekers, and invited them to a tribal council led by her father Buzi, the chief of the Pelites, and attended as well by Buki, her brother, whom they knew from their previous trip through the mountains. Soon, the eight seekers (Carl included), Benaiah, the chief of the Eschatoi, and Buzi, Buki, and Mariah were gathered together in one of the Pelites’ rock homes, discussing the future of their quest. Elkanah offered to translate the Pelites’ speech into the Common Tongue, for which Mariah was most grateful, as it afforded her a welcome opportunity to rest from her difficult task of interpreting. Here, in the words of Elkanah’s translation, is how the brief council went forward:

“Most honorable soldiers of the High King,” the ancient Pelite chieftain began, “We are honored that you have taken so full advantage of our sincere offer to you of the free and neighborly use of our humble valley and slight provisions. Our joy would be multiplied many times over if we could only magnify our hospitality in proportion to your great worthiness, and extend to you the invitation to stay with us, not only through the winter, but for many, many years to come. But alas, our humble valley is simply inadequate. Please accept the brokenhearted apology of a shamed and sorrowful leader of a small, unworthy tribe.”

“We have discussed your most perplexing plight at some length among ourselves, and have concluded that, although it is impossible for you to stay with us any longer, it will be equally impossible for you to survive the mountain passes in this weather. We have lived here for many years, and we have seen the onset of many cruel winters; and our wisdom and experience all decry the hazardous folly of attempting a journey through the high passes so late in the season. Of course, we also feel most poignantly the impossibility of your returning to the place from whence you came. We as a tribe are as adamantly opposed to Vrak as any people in any place under heaven; we would all die to the last man before allowing ourselves to be forced into his service, and so too would we starve on this mountain before we sent any man, woman, or child back to him.”

“But if you cannot stay here, you cannot cross the passes, and you cannot turn back, then you must find another option, a ‘third way forward,’ as they say in the Ancient Tongue; and if you will kindly give heed to an old man’s wisdom, I will suggest to you another way. It is not ideal, but it is possible. And under the given circumstances, the merely possible is a very welcome alternative.”

“You are already familiar with those whom we know as the Skoli, the wolf-men who resisted you on your previous journey through these mountains, and you know of their bestial symbiosis with the wolves of the Draconian Mountains. For many years, the Skoli have dug in the earth for its hidden treasures, and they have carved out tunnels through the heart of the mountains, tunnels by which they are able to cross the highest peaks in the dead of winter, even when the passes are utterly blocked off. No Pelite has ever gone through these tunnels, but we know where they enter the mountain on this side of the range, and we know where they go out on the eastern slopes. These tunnels may be the only means of conveying you safely to the plains of Lebben-Or, which you are seeking.”

“The Skoli are fiercely protective of their territory, and especially of their mines; but they are inwardly cowards, and will only skulk about in the presence of any strong enemy. If you arm yourselves well, and place your strongest soldiers on the outside of the tribe, with the women and children in the middle, you may be able to pass through without any loss of life. And we have also heard of the great power of the torch that you carry, and hope that it may be a successful deterrent to the contemptible beasts.”

“We consider it both our privilege and our solemn responsibility as your hosts to provide you with a guide until you have arrived safely at your destination. Please do not refuse us this honor, or you will sorely offend our customs and our ancient, honorable manner of life. My own son and heir to the chiefdom, Buki, will guide you until the entrance to the Skoli’s mines; and from thence, my daughter, Mariah, will continue with you, to offer you any assistance required, even if it should exhaust the resources of the entire tribe.”

“We are sending Mariah with a secondary intention, and we only ask in exchange for our assistance that you help her to attain this cherished objective, when you have made it safely to Lebben-Or. Many generations ago, before the dawn of the Present Age, we ourselves were seekers, in alliance with Lebben-Or; but the world has forgotten us from time immemorial, and we have had no contact with the Beautiful City for countless years. But the time has grown short, and for some years we have believed that the battle for Lebben-Or is on the verge of consummation. We feel most desperately the need to renew our ties to the High King before the last great battle is fought, and we want nothing more than to offer ourselves up as his unquestioning allies and subjects, and to await his further orders. Therefore, we humbly beg of you that, when you have made it safely to the fruitful plains of Lebben-Or, you will arrange for Mariah an audience with the High King. If you do this for us, we will consider ourselves forever in your debt. Of course, it is Mariah that must go, as she alone speaks the Common Tongue and could converse with you along the way. And in the meantime, we will presume upon your unrivaled generosity, and await the news she will bring back to us from the city of the High King, when Spring will have opened up the way for her to return again.”

For some moments longer, the old chief continued to pour out a profusion of unblushing compliments, overtures of gratitude, and self-deprecating expressions of his tribe’s unworthiness in every respect, but the basic substance of his generous proposal has already been detailed here, and it would test the reader’s patience to reproduce every word spoken. But the sum of it all was this: Buki and Mariah would lead the seekers and the Eschatoi to the mines of the Skoli, from which point Buki would return, while Mariah would continue with them until they had reached Lebben-Or, and return to her people in the Spring, with whatever message she had received from the High King concerning the future of the Pelites. It was an arrangement that was highly satisfying to everyone involved; and when the seekers were finally granted a couple of hours to rest before heading out once more, they went to sleep with lighter hearts and a greater optimism than they had known in many days. For the first time, Mishael allowed himself to think that their long journey was nearly finished, and that soon he would be in his beloved city once again.

* * * * * * * *

Early the next morning the host of travelers set out across a light blanket of fresh-fallen snow, anxious to arrive at the mines as soon as possible, just so they could be out of them and on the other side of the mountains all the sooner. Mishael was surprised to find that the whole morning’s journey was over familiar terrain: Buki and Mariah were taking them back through the same canyon where they had found them at the first; they even crossed the site of the recent avalanche they had weathered a few days before, and the seekers gazed up at their temporary little cubbyhole high in the newly-scarred face of the cliff, and remembered the difficulties they had encountered in traversing the mountains the first time.

“How impossible it all seems looking back upon it, every step of the way was impossible!” Mishael thought to himself as he gazed at the evidence of their prior struggle; and his heart surged up again with renewed joy and hope for the future.

It was only a few hundred yards after the debris from the avalanche that Buki and Mariah pointed out the entrance to the Skoli mines. There were actually many entrances: a portion of the cliff face that was hidden behind a much older pile of boulders and debris, from a more ancient avalanche or rockslide, was virtually honeycombed with little holes that extended back untold miles into the mountains. Unfortunately, these holes were all of such a size and shape that it was nearly impossible to walk upright, and the whole tribe advanced by turns in a stooped-over shuffle or else by crawling upon their hands and knees. All of them except the children, that is, who had a peculiar advantage in this particular location that not a few adults envied them greatly before the journey was done. But as the tunnels progressed, they tended to grow a little wider and taller, so that the whole trip turned out to be a little less uncomfortable than its beginnings had intimated; and so they made progress without too much needless labor.

Until now, I am afraid that I have had a piece of bad news with which to discourage the patient reader at every step of the way; but now that we have arrived at the last leg of this monumental expedition, I am pleased to be able to provide the unalloyed good news that it has been in my heart to give all along. The Skoli and the wolves alike were, as the Pelites averred, basically cowards; and although they skulked around the perimeter of the host for the entire length of the journey, they only dared attack once or twice, and were both times handily repulsed by the well-armed seekers surrounding the tribe. Furthermore, Lebbaeus felt sufficiently at ease to put his torch to an uncustomarily liberal use, and its rays proved to be a potent discouragement to any of the wolf-men’s hostile designs. In brief, the passage through the heart of the mountain was quickly and successfully accomplished, and required only one night’s stay in the tunnel before the entire tribe had arrived safely on the eastern side of the Draconian Mountains, which overlook the beloved plains of Lebben-Or.

My little words seem inadequate, as I cast about for ways to describe the joy and relief of the seekers, the wondering awe of the Eschatoi, and the glad release of that anxious tension which always accompanies an extended drought of news concerning the state of one’s beloved, which swept through the farmlands of Lebben-Or as the news of the company’s unimaginable good success spread like wildfire across the blessed plains. Whereas before, the progress of the journey had been hindered by a lack of help and supplies, it was now hindered only by an overabundance of hospitality, for every family along the way was seeking to feed and house the weary travelers, and importuned them most unceasingly and impertinently to stay a little longer, always “just one night more”. The harvest of a very fruitful year was just coming to completion, and every barn and wine vat stood full and overflowing with good and pleasing things. The company was finally home; and with them, beyond the wildest expectations of the most optimistic seekers of them all, was the entire last tribe of which the Ancient Prophecies had spoken so long before, and which had been in the minds of the people of Lebben-Or for many generations.

After several more days, or perhaps it was weeks, the joyous fleeting of time leaving little substantial distinction between the two different measures in the lighthearted consciousness of the jubilant seekers, the company of Lebbaeus arrived at the very gates of the most blessed City, which in their darkest hours they had despaired of ever seeing again. There, more soaring and beautiful and breathtaking than Mishael had even remembered, was the City he had left. Just as he had done so many times in his dreams, with his eyes shut tight against the harsh realities of the grim surroundings, he was standing before Lebben-Or, his heart’s true home. Only this time, his eyes were wide open; and with eyes wide open and fixed on the gates of the city, he saw another often dreamed-of and deeply desired object of his love. She was running to him from the Beautiful City, and laughter was written all upon her face.

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