The Cellar Beneath the Cellar (Bell Mountain) (9 page)

“A little. Enough,” Wytt said. “Hurry now!”

The day was just breaking. The Forest Omah had dispersed, melted into the woods without anyone seeing them go. A couple of the little grey ones stayed behind; they led the way. Others would follow after them and ruin the trail so no enemy could follow it, Wytt said.

The Omah led them along paths hidden by thick ferns, paths that just barely found a way through otherwise impenetrable sticker bushes. These were paths that animals knew and used, but not men.

“You came just in time,” Ellayne told Jack. “They were going to sell us to the Heathen. And they scalped that man Budric! I didn’t think there were any Obannese people who would do a thing like that.”

“Where are we going?” Martis said.

“To see some big man, Wytt says. Don’t ask me who,” Jack said.

“Wytt wouldn’t take us anywhere bad,” Ellayne said. “Wytt, you saved us! I love you!”

She stooped over and held out her arms. Wytt hopped into them, and she picked him up and held him like a cat, and kissed him. He made a rapid clicking sound that meant he was gloriously happy. The grey Omah chattered at them.

“They want us to keep moving,” Jack said. Ellayne put Wytt down, and they all got going again. She shocked Jack by yanking him close and planting a kiss on his cheek. “I thought I’d never see you again!” she said. “I was glad you got away, though.”

It was on Jack’s tongue to tell her to leave off the girl-stuff, but he couldn’t get it out. Instead, he felt something he would have described as a warm, strong hand suddenly wrapped around his heart, cherishing him. It made him kiss her, too, right on the cheek. And of course that embarrassed him tremendously and made him blush. He threw a backward glance at Martis to see if the man was laughing at him, but Martis only looked a little sad.

“Don’t get any funny ideas!” Jack said to Ellayne; and that made her laugh.

By midmorning they reached their destination, the mouth of a cave in a thickly wooded hillside. A man was waiting for them, someone whom they’d met before.

“Helki!” Ellayne cried.

“Helki the Rod!” Jack echoed.

There he was, a giant of a man in crazy rags that helped him blend into the leaves and shadows, with his deadly staff in his hand and a broad grin on his face.

“You made good time getting here,” he said. “I’d have come for you, if I’d known you needed me. But I’ve only just this morning heard about it from the little folk.

“But I reckon there’s a lot more for me to know. You went east with Obst and come back with this fellow from the Temple. That’s twice you’ve been yanked out of Squint-eye’s clutches, friend! Try to avoid going for a third time.

“Tell me all your tale—no secrets! But first I reckon you’ll want a bite to eat and a good, long drink of water.” He turned back toward the cave. “Peeper-baby!” he bellowed like a bull. “Come on out and meet Daddy Helki’s friends.”

Out of the cave came the last thing Jack, Ellayne, and Martis would ever have expected to see—a little girl.

And she carried a horrendous monster in her arms.

Orth was the best preacher in Obann, in the First Prester’s opinion. Even better, he eagerly preached whatever message the First Prester wished him to preach. This morning, in front of the crowd that packed the great chamber of the Temple, he was at the top of his form.

“I want you all to take a good look across the river today,” he said, the high, curved ceiling of the hall amplifying his voice. “I want you to see the vast, shapeless pile of rubble that used to be the greatest city in the world.

“There was a Temple there, a much greater Temple than this one. When the Empire fell, a thousand years ago, and the entire city was destroyed, that great Temple was destroyed, too. You can see what’s left of it, right across the river.

“But a thousand years before that, there was another destruction, of yet another Temple, on the same site as the greater one. This was the First Temple, the heart of the kingdom of Obann. The last king, Ozias, was the last of Obann’s kings to worship there. Rebels drove him into exile; and then the Heathen came.”

He paused for effect. He had a hard face, an iron-grey fringe of beard with a clean-shaved upper lip. Great lamps on thick gold chains hung over his head, concentrating light on him. From his throne at the right of the preacher’s podium, Lord Reesh looked on him with approval.

“They came in numbers uncountable,” Orth resumed. “They came like locusts, say the Scriptures: like a flood. They starved the city for a year; no one could get in or out. And then a traitor opened one of the sally ports to them. A handful of invaders entered the city by stealth, overwhelmed the guard at the Commerce Gate, and threw the doors open; and the Heathen host poured into the city. They slew with the sword until the streets were choked with corpses and the gutters ran with blood. They put the city to the torch. How it burned! Nor did they leave off until they had destroyed everything: the whole city had to be rebuilt.

“Now they are about to come again, in power and might and number greater than the world has ever seen. Their aim is to destroy this city and leave uninhabitable ruins on both sides of the river. That’s why I want you to take a good look at what’s left of the old city. That’s what this city, your city, will look like, if the Heathen have their way. And they are coming—soon!”

He held the crowd in silence; they waited on his every word.

“By now you have all heard various people, supposedly imbued with the spirit of prophecy, claim that King Ozias’ bell on Bell Mountain has rung out, proclaiming the imminent destruction of the world. And to be sure, the bell has rung; we all heard it. But very few have understood its message!”

Orth raised that mighty voice of his. It was like the tolling of an iron bell.

“Yes, it was a warning—a dire warning from God Himself, which we dare not ignore, on peril of our lives. But how can anyone be so blind as not to see what we are warned against? The danger we’ve been warned against is breathing down our necks! It is nothing less than the assembled nations of the Heathen, come together for our final and complete destruction.

“And what are the people of Obann, God’s people, to do? Offer our throats to be cut, our cities to be burned? Bow down to Heathen idols?

“No, no, no! That bell was calling us to war, calling us to go forth and conquer. To put forth all the strength that God can give us, and once and for all, forever, destroy the Heathen and their idols! To drive them out of our land, and then to march beyond the mountains and ruin their cities, burn their idols!

“If we do not do this, if we do not obey the commandment of God, then that will be the end of us—the end of our world. For has not God commanded us, ‘Ye shall surely destroy the Heathen’? But we have not destroyed them. We have not even tried.

“Now we have been warned. Ozias’ bell has warned us. This is our last chance, the last time God will call on us to destroy the Heathen. If we do not, the Heathen will destroy us; and this time there will be no one to rebuild the Temple.”

And that was that: a short speech, but certainly effective, Lord Reesh thought. Orth had written it himself; he’d be a good choice to be the next First Prester. But meanwhile, imitations of his sermon would be preached in every chamber house in Obann.

We can’t silence all the crazy prophets, Reesh thought, but we can turn their fervor to our own uses.

Jack flinched, and Ellayne gasped and stepped back when she saw the thing the girl was carrying.

“Great powers, what is that?” Martis said.

“It’s horrible! Take it away!” Ellayne cried.

It hissed at her, just like a snake. It had a scaly lizard face, with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth and shiny red eyes; but the rest of it was covered with feathers, like a bird: dirty-looking, grey-blue feathers. It had clawed hands on its wings and a long, stiff, feathered tail. If it hadn’t been only the size of a large crow, Ellayne would have thought it was a dragon. But maybe it was—a baby dragon.

“Don’t be afraid,” Helki said. “I’m burned if I know what it is, but it seems mighty fond of Jandra. She found it yesterday while she was playing in the bushes. It just hopped right into her arms and let itself be petted. Jandra, baby, these are Daddy’s friends. Say hello.”

“Hello.” She’d be a sweet little girl, Ellayne thought, if it weren’t for that monster she was holding.

The child looked up at Martis and smiled at him. “Nice man,” she said. Martis looked away. He’d met Jandra on the plain before Helki found her, but she wandered away from him while he slept. Intent on his mission for Lord Reesh, he didn’t try to follow her to protect her.

“She likes you,” Helki said. Martis cringed. He’d given her food and water, nothing more, and left her behind. It was a miracle she wasn’t dead.

“Who is she, Helki?” Jack said. “Don’t tell me she’s yours!”

“Only until I can find a proper home for her. I found her on the plain, wandering around alone. I reckon the Heathen must’ve got her folks, and she escaped somehow. Peeper, these two kids are Jack and Ellayne. I’m sure they’ll be nice to you. Why don’t you put your bird down now, and let him find something to eat?”

Jandra released the creature. It strutted like a chicken, head bobbing as it walked, glaring at Ellayne. Helki picked up Jandra and invited his guests into the cave, where he fed them on fresh fish he’d caught with his bare hands in a nearby pool and some coarse little cakes he’d made by baking them on a flat stone. Only after they’d filled their bellies did he question them.

“Where’s Obst?” he said. “Start by telling me that.”

It took all day to tell their tale. Jack and Ellayne told him everything—Jack’s dreams, their long journey to the summit of Bell Mountain, and their ringing of the bell. What Martis held back from his part of the story was his own affair.

“I wish you’d told me all that the first time we met,” Helki said. “I’d have gone up the mountain with you. Obst should have trusted me; he’d’ve done better if he had. But then I reckon I wouldn’t have been there to take care of Jandra.”

“Can you help us get to Obann?” Jack asked.

“Never been there. It’ll be a pretty good job just to get you through the forest, the way things are. Latt Squint-eye, King of Lintum Forest!” Helki threw back his head and laughed. “I’ll crown him with my rod!”

Throughout the day Jandra played with Wytt, napped, and cuddled her hideous pet dragon, never venturing more than a few yards beyond the mouth of the cave. She sat on Helki’s lap for a while, then puttered around the cave, humming a tuneless little song. She lay down on a bed of ferns for another nap, and they’d just about forgotten her—until she raised her voice in words that no toddler from the mountains should have known.

“The Temple is fallen; twice has the Temple fallen; but I will give the throne to Ozias, and my words to all the peoples of the earth.

“There is a Temple beneath the Temple, and a cellar beneath the cellar.
Ih wolbe c’heilet ander richteke-mann, an hehr wol Ih ophelten
…” And with that she fell into a sound sleep.

“What in the world was that?” Ellayne whispered.

“It was a line of Scripture, in the language of the Old Books,” said Martis. “It’s from the prophet Ika: ‘I will be honored by the righteous, and him will I uphold.’ No reciter could have pronounced it better.”

“But how could she recite Scripture?” Jack said. “How old is she? Two? Three?”

Helki shook his head. “She’s always coming out with something I don’t understand. If you say it’s a verse from Scripture, that’s more than I know. She talks about some book that’s missing and tells me I’m the Flail of the Lord, whatever that is. The rest of the time, she’s just an ordinary little girl. I wish Obst were here—he might understand it.” He looked at Martis. “Too bad a servant of the Temple can’t explain it to us!”

Martis spread his palms. “What can I say?” he answered. “Do you know how many thousands of men and women serve the Temple? We aren’t all religious scholars!

“All I know is that these two children rang the bell on Bell Mountain, and what I suspect is that that changed everything. I don’t know how; but I do know the First Prester, my master, was mortally afraid of it. He sent me out to stop them, and I failed—which is the one thing in my life I don’t regret.”