Chapter 3

Telli regained consciousness slowly, becoming aware of the sound of running water, then of flickering light around him. He could sense that he was lying on his back on what felt like hard rock. As his memory began to come back, he struggled to sit up, and realised that his wrists and ankles were bound. Managing to sit after a fashion, he started to take stock of his surroundings, trying to ignore a dull aching heaviness in his head and a bitter taste in his mouth. He seemed to be in some kind of cave, the light coming from torches carried by hooded figures in dark robes. His movement had obviously attracted some attention, as two of these figures approached him and a torch was held to his face, temporarily blinding him, until they withdrew, making strange hissing sounds. In the light of their retreating torches, he was relieved to recognise the silhouette of Brakis's head and beard a few feet away, the more so because his friend also appeared to be struggling to sit up, and therefore could not be too badly harmed.

"Brakis, you alright?" he enquired in a hoarse whisper. After a few seconds, there came a groan in reply. Then Telli saw a different light beyond Brakis, and identified it as the growing light of day outside the mouth of the cave. Hearing the roar of falling water coming from the same direction, and the sound of running water just beneath him, he suddenly realised where they must be. It was the cave they had first seen the afternoon before, from which the river they had been following flowed out of the mountain. They must have been carried across the water at some point while unconscious, as well as up the cliff, because from the direction of the cave mouth to his left, Telli could see that they were now on the other bank, or southern side of the stream. Looking at the robed figures, now clustered some distance away, he felt curiosity as much as fear. If they merely wished to kill their captives, they would have already done so. Then what did they want?

His thoughts were interrupted as one of their captors came towards them carrying a flaming torch in one hand, and a bundle in the other, which he placed on the floor between Telli and Brakis. Then, drawing back his hood, he made gestures with one arm accompanied by the hissing sounds Telli had heard before. The boy stared at the creature, open-mouthed. Its very pale white face and its pink eyes brought back a flash of memory from the night before, but it was the nose and mouth, fused together and protruding to a point, like a birds beak, which triggered a clearer memory. The skull in the pool, thought Telli. His glimpse of the creature was brief, as two others had arrived by its side, and one of these threw cold water over his head and face. As he spluttered and blinked, he could tell from the stream of curses to his left that Brakis had received the same treatment.

The creatures went away, leaving them with a torch propped against a rock nearby. From its light they could see (to their surprise) that the bundle between them consisted of their own packs with their food supplies taken out and laid on top. When Brakis first spoke, Telli knew that he too had seen the features of their captors.

"I hope they do not know that we have defiled one of their graves! Even if so, it appears that they want us to eat before putting us to the sword. How are you, Telli?" He sounded in a remarkably good humour, considering their circumstances, perhaps because he had been sure that he was about to die the night before, and waking up in any situation seemed an improvement. Telli was feeling a similar effect as he replied.

"Well enough, a sore head and a few bruises on me. And you?"

"About the same. Any idea where we are?"

Telli told Brakis his theory of their whereabouts as the two of them manoeuvred into positions where they could reach the food. Their hands had been tied together in front of them, so they could feed themselves well enough.

"I think you are right," said Brakis. "Where else could we be. It was perhaps two hours before the time for your watch when they took us, and the daylight has only now arrived. They could not have carried us far. Can you fly with your limbs bound?" He added this last as the thought occurred to him.

"Not far enough to escape — certainly not with this aching head. There are always at least three of them between us and the cave entrance, anyway."

"Yes, I noticed. We shall....here they come." Brakis was interrupted by the arrival of five or six of their captors. The prisoners were lifted to their feet, had their ankle bindings cut and ropes tied loosely round their necks like animal leads, then were shown sharp swords as a clear hint not to resist, before being led away. Not towards the cave's entrance, but the other way. Upstream, and into the core of the great mountain.

It was a strange journey for Telli and Brakis, something between a dream and a nightmare. The caves they passed through in the flickering torchlight were fantastic to them, almost beyond belief. They saw huge caverns, their roofs supported by great natural buttresses and pillars of rock. Seams of crystal glistened with different colours in the walls, and waterfalls shimmered down them. They passed through long tunnels and around deep ravines, neither of them ever having thought such wonders existed within a mountain. All this to the eerie accompaniment of the hissings, clicks and high-pitched screams that seemed to serve their captors for language.

At first, they followed the river for perhaps an hour. Then, after a short rest, they were led into a tunnel that branched off to the right and wound downward to well below the river's level, but was itself dry. They then joined a small stream which flowed through a series of wide caverns until, emerging into an enormous one, it entered a lake which seemed to the captives to be as big as the one they had camped by the night before. Here they were allowed to rest again, and had a chance to speak briefly.

"Even if these caves are the last thing I see, it's almost worth it," Brakis said. Telli agreed.

"I would want to explore them without being a prisoner. Do you think you could find the way back out?"

Brakis shook his head. They had passed so many passages branching off to each side, that to find the way back without taking a wrong turning seemed impossible. One of their guards indicated that they must move on, and they got up to be led around the lake, and into a long tunnel. This tunnel seemed to be a main route for their captors, and they started to pass some of the creatures going the opposite way. Greetings, and perhaps explanations, were hissed between their group and others, but those who had not seen the captives before did not show too much curiosity. It occurred to Telli that they must be accustomed to seeing men. If so, then it must mean that they had all crossed the mountains and must cross them regularly, as they could not have seen men on the western side, let alone be so familiar with them. Had he not been a captive, he would have been excited by this seeming connection with the people east of the mountains.

They were moving at a good speed now as many steps had been cut in the rock where the way was difficult. There were also torches set in the walls at ever more frequent intervals. The captives had no idea at all in which direction they were being led, but could tell that they were going down more often than up. Once, about an hour after they had left the lake, they climbed down several hundred steps in almost continuous flight, and the way after this continued on a downward slope until they reached a huge cavern of spectacular beauty where they stopped for a while.

Telli looked around in wonder as they entered the cave, which he later remembered as the water cavern. It was completely circular in every way, like the inside of a globe, with a diameter of about three hundred feet. Their tunnel emerged half way between roof and floor, one of several entrances Telli could see. A river ran from his left to his right, entering the cavern at the level he stood, and tumbling down to the lowest point on the floor in a series of falls, like giant steps, before flowing out through a small gorge it had cut in the opposite side. Other streams entered through the roof and walls, those highest up falling directly through the air, three hundred feet to the floor. There were hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites, varying in length from a few feet to giant pairs meeting in the middle of the huge chamber and forming natural pillars.

All of this wonder was lit by many torches and by other light sources Telli could not identify coming from shelves cut into the walls. There were many of the beak-faced creatures in the cavern, and some of the Elnesiders' captors went down a long flight of steps to join their fellows. Telli and Brakis were left at the entrance with several guards, but were standing some distance apart, and could not possibly talk above the sound of falling water, a constant and strange effect because of the echo and re-echo of the great spherical chamber. Both were slightly dazed and confused, more by their experiences of the last few hours than from the effects of the drug they had been forced to inhale when captured, which had largely worn off. However, neither had serious injuries, and they were far from exhausted as their captors had not forced the pace of the march, and seemed to understand their limitations and their needs. This was evident now as one of the guards came forward with a bag for each of them containing some of what remained of their own food supplies.

Telli sat down on a convenient rock facing towards the cavern and ate what he could, taking in the scene below, and reflecting on the puzzling mixture of rough treatment and apparent concern for their prisoners' welfare shown by the beak-men. The light here was by far the best of their journey so far, and he could see more of the features of his captors, most noticeably a very light, white or yellowish hair, which seemed to cover all exposed parts of their bodies, including most of the face. He spotted with interest a female at distance down below as she held a baby to her breast, human-like in posture, and then realised that, unlike his guards, perhaps half the creatures he could see in the cavern were female. The temperature in the caves was comfortable in general, and here seemed quite warm so that few of them were wearing the hooded cloaks Telli had already seen, and the attire of both male and female was varied in both quantity and style. He would soon have plenty of time to examine this at closer quarters.

It was more than half an hour before they moved on, following the wall around to the right on a ledge cut into the rock, rather than descending to the floor of the cavern. This led them to the opposite side, passing high above the river halfway around, over the point where it flowed out through the gorge. They stopped at the entrance to another tunnel, where they were rejoined by the rest of their guards, arriving up steps from below, and accompanied by another of the creatures who appeared to be someone of importance.

The newcomer seemed considerably older than the rest of the group, and was dressed in an elaborate robe of many colours. He inspected the prisoners, and Telli had to suppress a nervous laugh on catching Brakis's eye as the creature exuded a pompous self-importance so nearly human that it appeared comical. After some hissing conversation with the guards, the old one led the group along the tunnel, and their march continued for about two hours before the next rest stop, this time in a much smaller cavern. Another hour after this and the prisoners began to sense that the air was becoming fresher, and on rounding a bend could see the light of day, and realised that they were being taken out of the mountain.

 The two Elnesiders had been through an experience that would have been strange and confusing enough for any human, let alone those whose only knowledge of intelligent life was with the people of their own small community; and it was to continue. On arriving at the cave mouth, blinking in the daylight, they saw amongst a group of "beakmen" waiting for them, a man, the first stranger they had ever encountered. Middle aged, with grey hair and a light brown complexion like their own, it was only his goatskin clothes that lent him a foreign appearance in the eyes of the prisoners. To their astonishment, he appeared to hold a fluent conversation with the old beakman leader, making a fair imitation of the hisses, clicks and cries they were becoming familiar with. Then, to their great joy, the rope leads were taken from around their necks, their wrists were untied, the man beckoned to them, and they followed him out of the cave leaving the creatures who had captured them behind.

A few yards from the cave mouth, the man stopped, turning to speak.

"Greetings strangers," he said, without smiling. "Do you speak Allenth?" His accent was strange to the Elnesiders, but this was their language, the old written tongue of Drakis and their forefathers from east of the mountains.

"Yes, Allenth and nothing else," replied Brakis, thinking of the other's conversation with the old creature in the cave.

"I am Anolph, foreman. And you are?"

They gave their names.

"Come and look," said Anolph, simply, and led them a short way on to a viewpoint.

They were in a deep valley completely surrounded by mountains. Immediately before them was a village of wooden houses. A stream ran through it, and around it were fields, orchards and small woods, or coppices. At a distance was a high wall, made of stone, unlike the wooden fence that surrounded Elneside to keep out the wolves at night. They looked at the scene, lit by the late afternoon sun, for a few moments. Then Brakis started to chuckle to himself in disbelief. Putting an arm round Telli's shoulders he said:

"I think we shall not need to trudge through the snows after all, my son." He pointed at the peaks in front of them, and then around at those behind.

The dying sun shone on the mountains ahead, which were tree covered most of the way up to their rocky peaks. Only the occasional patch of snow clung to the highest slopes. Behind the two travellers, in the direction from which they had come, were higher peaks covered with snow, which hid the setting sun from their view, and therefore must be to the west. Telli realised that he had succeeded in his dream of reaching the lands beyond the White Mountains, albeit by passing under rather than over them.

Anolph led them down to the village in silence, until they reached a wooden hut, which he entered indicating that they should follow. He threw open the shutters of two windows to reveal a simple and slightly dilapidated room with a stone fireplace built out from one wall, and furnished only with two wooden cots and a bench.

"You will stay here. It is all that is free at this moment," he said. Then, after showing them a barrel of rainwater for washing behind the hut, and a latrine at a few yards distance from it, he stated that people would arrive shortly with food and drink, before leaving, still without a smile.

The travellers were instinctively puzzled at the apparent lack of friendliness shown by their new acquaintance, although they had no references to indicate what should be expected when strangers arrived in a new community. Telli was wary, and suggested to Brakis that they should not divulge too much information as to their origins and the whereabouts of Elneside.

"We would not like our friends to receive an unexpected visit from the cave creatures," he said, and Brakis agreed.

They washed at the water barrel, then, for want of anything better to do, made up the fire with wood that was piled beside it even though they had no means or need to light it. Then they sat down to discuss their bewildering day and await the promised arrival of food, and the chance to meet some other inhabitants of the village. Their hut was near the edge of the settlement on the side they had come from and, Anolph apart, they had only seen a few people at distance on their arrival. Brakis insisted on apologising for their having been taken captive during his watch.

"They were silent and I heard nothing above the noise of the waterfall until the last second before they were upon us," he explained. "There was a small noise from the rock behind as they threw some kind of net over us, and though I had my knife in hand, I could hardly move my arms in the mesh, and was hit on the head before being smothered by something pressed to my face. I thought I was dying, and was very pleased to wake up in the cave as soon as you spoke and I realised that it was not the underworld, or that if it was, at least I had company!"

Telli smiled at this, remembering his own elation at finding himself alive, in spite of the seemingly desperate circumstances.

"It was some kind of sleeping drug they made us breathe in," he said, adding thoughtfully that there were perhaps many interesting things to be learnt from the "beakmen" as he called them for want of a better name. They discussed the strange creatures and the sights they had seen underground, until voices outside and a knock on the door told them that their food had arrived.

Two women and a man entered the hut, laden with pots, plates and cups. The women introduced themselves by name—"I'm Marth" and "I'm Gretal"—and nodding as the Elnesiders did likewise, placed their burdens on one of the cots, then withdrew, bidding the strangers to eat well. Both were elderly, and dressed in goatskin robes like Anolph. Unlike him, they had smiled a little in welcome, making Telli feel slightly more at ease. The man placed a large pot he was carrying over the unlit fire and, taking something from a pocket, crouched before it and produced a bright flame that lit the wood immediately, to the surprise of the pair watching him. He filled three cups from a large flask, passing them round and drinking a long draught from his own, before introducing himself as Seth.

Seth was a massive man, not so much in height as in breadth, with muscular arms as thick as Telli's legs hanging from the broadest pair of shoulders the Elnesiders had ever seen. Although appearing to be a few years younger than Brakis, he was completely bald, the firelight shining a reflection from his smooth head. He lit two lamps he had brought, producing a surprisingly strong light sufficient to illuminate the entire room well. Then, seating himself on one of the cots, he began to question the travellers after asking them politely if he could stay for a while and eat with them.

Brakis gave a brief account of their journey, but deliberately left out any indication as to where Elneside might be, and gave the impression that it was part of a much larger community. This proved to be both wise, but perhaps unnecessary where Seth was concerned, as the big man interrupted him at one point, warning him to be guarded with such information although not immediately explaining why. While Brakis spoke, Seth rose from time to time to stir the contents of the pot cooking over the fire, and to refill their cups. He was also obliged to interrupt at times because the difference in accent and usage of words between his own dialect of Allenth and that of the Elnesiders was sufficient to mean that some clarification was necessary, although the gap was far from being insurmountable.

When Brakis had finished his account, Seth turned to Telli and asked:

"Telli, your name, is that after Tellimakis, conqueror, the first great King of my land this side of the mountains?" Telli nodded and explained that the story of the King was known to his people through the writings of their forefathers, the followers of Drakis. Seth seemed well pleased at this clear connection between their two cultures, and also, on further questioning, at finding out that both of his new acquaintances could read. He became increasingly friendly, suggesting that they might teach his own children their letters, as only three or four people in the village could read, and those not too well. Then the conversation took a strange turn.

"I shall ask for you to be sent to work with me," Seth said to Telli. "I am a smith, and make tools and weapons. It is easier for the youngsters to assist us than to work at the mining."

"Work--er--mining?" Brakis was confused. "We are hunters, and would be happy to assist in hunting some supplies for the village before we go on our way."

"We do not hunt. We have nothing to hunt and nowhere to hunt. You will work as we all must." Seth looked from one puzzled face to the other before him, and sighed.

"You will not be going on your way, as I could never leave once here. We have no choice in this. We are slaves."