SETISIA Chapter 1

Horn Hill was the kind of feature that will always be given a name if there are people in its vicinity. A distinctive shape, that of an upside-down drinking horn, as well as its size determined this. Its peak was the highest point for many miles in all directions, offering unrivalled views of its surrounds, but the hill had few human visitors. One who did sometimes make the effort to climb to its treeless, rocky crown was a young hunter and dreamer known to his community as Telli. He came there on days when he knew the weather would allow him the clearest of views. On one such day, in his fifteenth year, he came to say farewell to his homeland from a favourite seat on a flat rock at the summit. It was a clear, bright morning in late spring. Songbirds chorused in the forest below and a squirrel-hawk circled high in the sky. Bees buzzed around the flowers under his feet, and Telli was enjoying the sights, sounds and smells he would soon be leaving. With the sun already high above rolling hills to the south east, he could see for great distances from his vantage point. To his south there were trees, millions and millions of them, as the forest stretched so far away that even the squirrel-hawk's eye could see no end to it. Only the occasional bald, rocky outcrop like Horn Hill itself broke the view. The area of this great forest immediately surrounding the hill was Telli's hunting ground, his home from home, where he knew every shady glade and bubbling brook, and where he spent most of his waking hours. To the west, the forest became slowly thinner and thinner until it gave way to flat prairie land. This Telli knew to be the haunt of great yellow lions, hunting its herds of giant buffalo. He had never been this way, and few men would dare to go alone, for the big cats hunted in prides of ten or more, each animal weighing as much as two grown men. Telli's own father had perished on these great plains. To the north, at about two hours' walking distance, the trees stopped abruptly, cleared by men. Telli could see his village of some two hundred wooden homes with thatched roofs, stone chimneys, and a surrounding patchwork of green and yellow fields. A tall fence encircling the village, there to protect children and livestock from the forest's wolves, was clearly visible, and he could just make out wisps of grey-white smoke from early cooking fires rising above some of the houses. The river Elne wound from east to west beyond the settlement, and further north were low purple hills where wild goats grazed on the heather. No signs of human life could be seen in any other direction. As far as the Elne-siders knew, there were none. Then there was the east. Here the forest lay flat for some distance, then rose slowly over ridge after ridge, each higher than the last. Beyond were tree-covered hills, then higher blue-grey mountains; and behind these, looking like a line of tiny, pointed clouds above the haze, were the snow-covered peaks of the Great White Mountains. It was to the east that Telli gazed for the longest on that fine spring morning. He thought of the tales told by his uncle Takos of the prophet, Drakis, who had led more than two-hundred young followers out of their land on the far side of the mountains, crossing over perilously high, snowcovered passes to become founder of Telli's community nearly three hundred years before. Of how Drakis had planted his staff in the ground when he arrived at the small, fertile delta by the river Elne where the village now lay, and declared this to be the Promised Land. The land where his people could thrive without the terrible wars they had escaped; without the greed for power and for gold that had destroyed so much in the old country. Looking to the east, Telli thought also of the tales his grandfather loved to tell. Stories passed down through centuries of the Great River, with its trading ships as long as cornfields and wider than houses. Of walled cities with thousands of stone buildings, and of ornate palaces with hundreds of rooms and towers far higher than the tallest of trees. Over the mountains had been the wonders of the world, and the young hunter from Drakisland wished for nothing more than to see if those wonders still existed.

His desire to see the lands in the east was not only due to a thirst for adventure, although Telli certainly had that. He felt that beyond the mountains might be found the answers to many questions he had about life; answers which could not be had in his own small community. And, most important, he wished to find out about certain traits that he thought to be unique in himself. Sitting in the warming sun, Telli's mind wandered back drowsily to a night four years earlier, when he had discovered the most peculiar of these traits. He had been lying on his bed, playing a game in his mind, a game he played nearly every night before falling asleep. Eyes closed, he would imagine himself to be flying, as perhaps all children do at some time. Flying over fantasy landscapes, up with the birds and amongst the clouds, until the daydream merged into night-dreams, and he fell asleep. On this particular night, Telli had pictured himself as flying in the very room where he lay rather than in some exotic world of the imagination and, to his astonishment, had opened his eyes to find himself floating several inches above his bed. Falling back instantly to the mattress, he had rested there for a few minutes in a state of shock, experiencing a mixture of excitement and exhaustion, as if he had just made a great effort rather than indulging in a pleasant fantasy. On recovering, he had managed to 'fly', or levitate, once again, floating for several seconds at a short distance above the cot. An unusual child in other ways, Telli had resolved that night to tell no one of his new found ability until he fully understood its nature and what lay behind it. He was both fascinated and worried by his discovery, which seemed to contradict the laws of nature his people believed to have been laid down by their Gods. Now, with four years' examination of this strange talent behind him, he could float up to thirty feet in any direction with great concentration and effort. He still kept to his resolution of secrecy, being no nearer to knowing why he alone should be able to do this seemingly impossible thing. He gazed at the distant peaks of the White Mountains, wondering if the answers might be found in the Old Kingdom of his ancestors beyond. A movement below jerked Telli's mind back quickly from its reverie. He froze instinctively, moving only his eyes to see what had distracted him. Coming out of the forest onto the southern slopes of the hill was a herd of Yellowhorn, a species of dwarf deer common west of the mountains. They moved cautiously, noses and ears twitching, one or more of them looking around while the others grazed. There were many predators to fear, including Telli. The boy hunter eased himself slowly off his rock seat on the side opposite to the herd, then licked a finger and held it up to test the wind. After a patient crawl to a point out of sight and downwind of his quarry, he fitted an arrow to his bow and moved forward on both knees until he could see the nearest animal, which had its head down grazing. Telli then stood quickly and, in the split second when he knew the startled deer would look up at him before running away, planted the arrow in its throat. The animal fell dead instantly. It was the knowledge of how his target would move as much as the accuracy of his shooting that had made the youngster already one of the best hunters in his village. The rest of the herd disappeared quickly into the forest barking their alarms. Telli knelt to the ground to thank his Gods for the luck of an easy kill, and to show respect for the spirit of the victim as was the custom amongst his people. He then drew an axe from the sack on his back and walked down to the trees to make a wooden stretcher on which to tie the deer's carcass. This he would drag home behind him, as even the small Yellow-horn was too heavy to carry over any great distance. Telli took about four hours to make his journey home, stopping frequently, both to rest and to gather edible roots, herbs, nuts and berries to add to his load. His grandmother would make a feast that night for the family and for many guests. It was his sister's wedding eve, and also the night when Telli must tell the family of his plans to leave them shortly. This last would not be easy, he knew, but how could they stop him? Thinking of his impending departure, he arrived at Elneside village about four hours before sundown and dragged his load through it until he reached the home of his grandfather, old Beyorn the fisher.

The old man was seated on a wooden bench by the open door of his house, where Telli and his sister, Trina, also lived. He smiled a greeting, showing all three of his front teeth. "We shall feast well tonight, little hunter," he said. "And where did you happen across that fine beast of yours, then?" "Horn hill. She walked right into my arms," Telli smiled back. "You've not done so badly yourself," he added, nodding towards a barrel of water teeming with silver fish, still alive. "They swam right into my arms! Your sister is waiting for you and your grandmother will want to start work on that deerling." Beyorn picked up a net he had been mending and went back to work as Telli entered the house, dragging his load behind him into the hall. The hall of an Elneside home was usually most of the house, that of old Beyorn and his wife, Allina, being no exception. Some fifteen yards long by ten wide, it was used for cooking, eating, working and sometimes sleeping if there was no other space available. There was a large fireplace at one end with a stone chimney, and a long oak table in the centre at which as many as thirty people could be seated on feast nights such as this one. Trina was to get married the next day and her husband would move into the house. Tonight was a welcoming party for him. Telli's sister, his grandmother and two aunts were busy round the fireplace preparing the night's meal. They welcomed the young hunter and his burden with pleasure and a great fuss. "We have too much meat, too much of everything," said Allina. "Thank the Gods. We shall have to stuff ourselves full all week," said Trina, grinning at her brother. "Brill eats like a pig anyway, so it'll soon disappear." "Don't speak of your man like that before you're even married," chided an aunt who was standing by the fire turning a spit on which a large boar was already roasting. "Alright, I'll start calling him names tomorrow if I must wait," Trina replied, winking at Telli. Telli smiled back at her, suddenly realising just how much he would miss his sister when he left Elneside. The two were matching siblings and, if Telli had been a few inches taller, could have been twins. They shared the same dark brown, almost black hair, light brown complexion and striking black eyes; Trina's usually smiling, and Telli's more often dreamy, but piercing when he was alert and interested in what was around him. He helped the women put his contribution to the feast where they wanted it, then left through a door which led to the sleeping rooms of the house where he could change from his hunting clothes and wash himself. He would then help to prepare the food for the party. People started arriving at old Beyorn's house just before sundown. They were nearly all relatives of Trina or her fianc, Brill, and all knew one another well. Beyorn greeted them at the door with Trina by his side. On entering the hall, guests would be given a large cup of wine or mead by Allina, and would sit where they chose to around the long table. All feasts in this small community began in much the same way, so that all of its members knew what was expected of them. When all those invited had arrived, toasts were drunk to the betrothed couple, and the first plates of food were served. Plates piled high with meat, fish, vegetables or fruit, from which the gathering helped themselves, spooning the food into wooden bowls and making any mixture they chose. Telli looked around the table of plenty, at the happy, smiling faces, and thought that he must be slightly mad to dream of leaving his village for lands of which he knew nothing. The Elnesiders lived well. The

forest, the river and their fertile fields provided more than they needed, and they had no neighbours to compete with for land or hunting grounds. Indeed, to Telli's knowledge, no-one from the settlement had ever even seen a human being from outside the community since their ancestors had arrived there with Drakis the prophet three centuries before. But curiosity is a powerful force, and Telli was not the first youngster from the banks of the Elne to dream of a more interesting and exciting life that might be found elsewhere. The guests at Trina's party did not remain in one place, but moved around to serve themselves food and drink, and to change partners in conversation. At one point, Telli found himself next to his sister on one side and Brakis the hunter, an old friend, on the other. He had talked to both on several occasions of his wish to see the lands east of the White Mountains. Now, with the wine starting to reach his head, he chose to announce his intention of leaving within the next few days. Trina was not having it. "You are mad, you are still a child, and why should you want to leave us anyway?" She didn't wait for an answer, but announced loudly to the gathering that her crazed brother was talking of leaving Drakisland to die in some foreign place. Allina looked over from the end of the table where she was carving up venison. "The boy speaks nonsense," she said. "He is as his father was head full of dreams and never content with the good, simple life the Gods have blessed us with and look what came of him." Telli's father had been killed by prairie lions ten years before while hunting buffalo (which he did not need to do). Brakis came to Telli's defence, saying that he too had often dreamed of travelling. "How do we know our life is so good when we have nothing to compare it with?" he reasoned. "However, the mountains are high and snows cover their peaks. Even if Telli is serious about this journey, he will probably be back within a few weeks to tell us that they cannot be crossed." Others joined in the discussion. Most did not seem to take Telli's intentions seriously. Those who did generally tried to discourage him on account of his age, and on the basis that there was no reason to leave his Elneside home and many a good reason for staying there. Old Beyorn looked at his grandson from under bushy white brows, smiled a little, and said nothing. Conversation turned to other things. The marriage taking place the next day, which the entire population of the settlement would attend, and speculation as to other matches that might be arranged in the near future. There was talk of the weather, the crops, some gossip and scandal, some hunting and fishing news. Telli listened to the familiar talk and felt increasingly that he was different from the others present; that he was not intended by fate or by the Gods to lead the same kind of life. For one thing, whoever had heard of a man who could fly? He knew that if he told the others of this strange discovery about himself, they would not believe him until he lifted himself off the ground before their eyes, and he had no intention of doing so. The feast continued past midnight, with less and less eating and more and more drinking. Songs were sung. Songs they all knew well. Some were Elneside tunes, but some were very old, coming from the times before Drakis had crossed the mountains and concerning near forgotten people and places. Places, Telli knew, that might still exist. His grandfather came and sat beside him, bringing two cups of the strong, sweet mead he made from wild bees' honey. "So, little hunter, do you really mean to leave us?" The old man spoke as though he knew the answer. "I must. I have decided. I wish to go now," said Telli. Old Beyorn sighed and sipped from his cup thoughtfully. "When I was young, I dreamed also," he said. "I dreamed of a life that offered more than merely providing for my needs, and those of my family. Once, I even set off for the White Mountains, but turned back after

three days. I was a little older than you are now and could not live without a pretty girl I knew, little Allina." He looked along the table to where his wife sat watching them. "Then you understand?" "I do not want you to go, but I do understand, perhaps. Yet you are different from others," said the old man, putting Telli's own thoughts into words. "Of all the young men who have left, perhaps you will be the first who does not turn back for home. Whichever way, you have my blessing." Old Beyorn smiled. "Anyway, if you have truly decided to go, we can hardly tie you down to your bed for the rest of your life, can we?" Telli had not expected his grandfather to be so easy on him, and knew that he would find more opposition from his grandmother and from Trina. He had no worries about their welfare in his absence. Brill was a good man and would be moving into the house the next day, and Telli's grandparents were surrounded by relativeshe was just one of their nine grandchildren. Knowing that they had brought him up in their house since his mother had died at his birth, he wished to leave with a clear conscience, and the old man's blessing was important to him. The party reached its liveliest point. Two harps, drums and a wooden flute were being played, and two of Telli's cousins had started to dance on the table. He caught the eye of pretty cousin Rita, his own age, and with his head swimming from the mead he jumped up to join her. Others followed until the solid oak table shook beneath them. Brill and Brakis swung Trina up onto the centre of the table, knocking two of the dancers off, and Brill leapt up to join her in an impromptu wedding dance. The normally staid and reserved character of the Elne-siders was forgotten on such occasions. Even Beyorn and Allina took a turn at table dancing despite the latter's fears for her furniture. Then Telli forgot himself. Still dancing, he reached down for a cup of wine offered to him by an aunt, and drained it in one go. Then, concentrating as best he could, he leapt for a beam above him, placed his hands on it and swung his legs upright over his head. Flipping over completely, he landed with perfect balance back on the table. The other dancers gasped in amazement, then applauded, fortunately too confused with wine and the excitement of the occasion to notice that the feat was near enough humanly impossible. "Ooooh Telli! How wonderful!" Rita's pretty eyes shone with admiration, much to her cousin's gratification. Then Telli caught the eye of Brakis. The hunter was staring hard at him and shaking his head slowly from side to side. As Telli met his gaze, Brakis winked an eye without smiling and pressed his forefinger to his lips to indicate secrecy or silence. Telli had used his strange talent to show off in public, and the shrewd hunter had noticed that something was not as it should be. The wedding ceremony took place at noon the next day and in the Elneside tradition it was brief, with many of the participants suffering from their excesses of the night before. The whole village attended while Trina and Brill had their union blessed by the High Priest (Telli's uncle Takos) on the common land in the centre of the settlement. They then went about their business, with only the heads of each family congregating at Beyorn's house, bearing gifts for the young couple. Later in the afternoon the fire was relit in the family hall, and the festivities recommenced. Telli had noticed Brakis looking at him thoughtfully during the ceremony. He wasn't surprised when the hunter arrived at the house later and sat beside him at the long table. "I must talk with you, son," Brakis said after eating a little. "Will you come outside?"

Telli followed him to the back of the house, where they were alone. Brakis sat down on a low wooden fence, and began to speak. "About two months ago, I was in the forest on my way back from a morning's hunt. As I walked, I saw a figure come down from a tall fruit tree about eighty yards ahead of me. I hid behind a bush and watched carefully, because this being did not seem to be climbing down by means of the branches, but rather, was drifting down between them while carrying a load of fruit in both arms. At the foot of the tree, he appeared to look around carefully, then picked up a bundle from the ground in which he put the fruit. Then he set of in the direction of the Elne. I followed carefully, but saw nothing else unusual. I caught up with you, Telli, as you entered the village, if you remember." "Why did you say nothing?" asked Telli. "For one thing, the light of the sky had been in my eyes, and I was not sure until your display last night that I had seen anything out of the ordinary. There was another thing also. Something that worried me." "Which was...?" Brakis sighed. "There are old stories from our people before they came here to Drakisland, which you may have heard. Stories of wise Holy Men who, by prayer and meditation, could actually raise themselves off the ground as you seem to be able to do. But there are also tales of men possessed by demons who appeared to do the same. I know you well, Telli, and although you are no Holy Man, I am certain that you are no demon either." He smiled briefly through his beard, then became serious again. "Others may not be so sure." "Would that matter so much?" Telli asked. "Perhaps, yes," Brakis replied. "Here at Elne-side, many years ago when my grandfather was a young boy, there was a girl of about fifteen years who was seen to lift herself off the ground without knowing how or why she had done so. The priests were convinced that she was controlled by demons, which they tried to exorcise. No one knew exactly what happened excepting the priests who were present, but in the course of their efforts to cleanse her the poor girl died. You have been discreet about your gift, or curse, or whatever it is; and you would do well to be even more so in the future, here or anywhere else you might find yourself." Brakis then asked Telli questions about how he had discovered his ability to levitate, how far and how high he could go, and whether these distances were improving with age and experience. On receiving the answers, he smiled and commented that Telli was still a long way from being able to fly over the house, let alone the White Mountains. Then he added, to the boy's surprise, that speaking of which (the White Mountains) he would like to join Telli on his journey if he was still intending to go; if it had not been the wine talking the night before. "Think about it," he said, "and give me your answer tonight if you can." Then he left to rejoin the merrymaking inside the house. Telli stayed outside for a while, considering Brakis's suggestion. He had only thought of journeying alone because it had not occurred to him that anyone else would wish to join him. Certainly, there was unlikely to be a more useful companion in Elneside than the hunter. Brakis was a tall, agile man, just over forty years of age, with a permanently tanned face half concealed by his greying beard, and a pair of broad shoulders on which he could carry a full-grown deer with ease. He was held in great respect by the younger hunters of the village as the best guide to and teacher of the ways of the forest. There was

something else which made it likely that he might be prepared to leave Elneside for a long period of time and would not worry too much about risk to his life. Brakis had no wife or children to care for. The story behind this was well known to Telli and to his family. Brakis as a young man had been handsome, carefree, and much admired by the girls of the village. He had fallen in love with, and married, a young woman named Esmelda, considered by many to be the most beautiful in Elneside. She was the sister of Telli's mother. It had seemed a match made by the Gods, but Esmelda had fallen ill suddenly after nearly a year of marriage, and had died at noon (the marriage hour) on the first anniversary of their wedding. The timing had seemed a deliberate blow by the hand of fate. Brakis had gone mad with grief, and had heaved a huge rock onto a shrine dedicated to the Goddess of Love, before disappearing into the forest, saying he would never return. It had been Telli's father, Brakis's best friend, who had tracked him down many months later living wild in the forest and persuaded him to come home. The carefree young man was no more, and Brakis had never trusted the Love Goddess; he had never married again. Telli re-entered the house, his decision made. He nodded to Brakis, and sat beside him. The two talked quietly for a few minutes, arranging to meet the next day. Then both settled down to enjoy what might be their last Elneside feast. The night went on much as the night before, with eating and drinking, singing and dancing, until Telli retired to bed in the early hours of the morning, when the last of the guests were leaving. He fell asleep knowing his life was about to change, dreaming of the great White Mountains and what he might find beyond them.

Chapter 2
The huge peaks of the White Mountains were turning slowly orange with the setting sun, and the sky was changing colour from a light blue to an eerie, glowing pink. Telli and Brakis watched a sight they had never seen before with wonder and in awe. "The Gods are fine artists," said Brakis, and could have been reading his companion's thoughts. They watched the changing scene in silence for a while. The mountains looked so near, but the travellers had already realised that this was something of an illusion due to the range's great height, and Brakis had guessed that they had at least another three or four days' walking before they had to worry about trudging through the snows. This was the end of the fifth day since their departure from Elneside. The journey had been uneventful for the most part, although difficult at times because there were no paths, and they had no way to know the easiest way eastward. They had followed the Elne up river for the first two days, but when they had reached the hills the river had begun to wind, and they were forced to choose between a long route on its bank, or shorter, but steeper cuts between its bends. Now on a high ridge that seemed to lead straight towards the mountains, they had decided to stop for the night by a spring in a small hollow offering them some protection from the wind. A stew, consisting of rabbit and edible roots gathered on their way, was cooking over the fire that Telli had made up earlier, and smelled good to the hungry travellers. The spring formed a stream, which flowed into a pool a short distance away. Brakis got up, went over to the pool, and started to rinse his face and hair. Telli, watching idly by the fire, saw his friend stop suddenly with his washing and stare down into the water for fully half a minute, before pulling off his shirt and plunging his head and shoulders below the surface. He came up holding something in his hands which he examined for a moment before giving it a good rinse in the pool, then looking closely at it again. Telli could see a gleam of white and his curiosity was aroused. Brakis picked up his shirt and came back to the fireside. He handed over his find.

"What do you make of this, then?" he asked. It was a skull, complete with lower jawbone which came away from the rest in Telli's hands as he examined it. No animal that he knew of had such a skull. Indeed, it was more like a man's than that of anything else, but could not be unless it had belonged to someone hideously deformed. The nose and upper jaw were one bone, sticking forward and pointed at the end, and the lower jaw matched it, sloping upwards to a point without forming a chin. The eye sockets looked human, as did the large brain cavity. It was like the skull of a man with a beak. Brakis took it back and held it to the neck of his shirt, moving the lower jaw up and down. "Helleeow Telli, cheep cheeep," he said in a high pitched voice. They both laughed, but Telli was uneasy. "Do you know what it is?" he asked. "No. I've seen nothing like it." Brakis looked serious now. "It belonged to something more like us than anything else I have ever seen. The pond is clear with a stone bottom and little mud. There are many bones, not just those of one maof one being." He looked at the skull thoughtfully. "Our friend here was about the same size as me, and perhaps around my age when he died. I cannot tell how long ago that was, but it was not so long. The bones of animals lying for a very long time in a stream become slowly worn down, the edges become rounded and they start to lose their shape. This skull is in good shape, so I think that this creature was walking around the area quite recently. Perhaps some of his friends still are." They both looked around instinctively. Brakis stood up, walked over to the pond and dropped the skull back into the water. "There are so many bones that perhaps these creatures buried their dead in the water as we do under the ground," he said on returning. "Let's eat. That stew must be ready." The last light faded as they ate their meal. When it was finished Telli wrapped himself in his cloak and lay down beside the fire to sleep, it being Brakis's turn to watch first. Even when in the familiar forest around Elneside a night watch was a wise precaution as wolf-packs, large brown bears and tree leopards could all pose a threat to the unwary hunter. Now well away from their home ground, the travellers were more cautious than usual. Telli took some time to fall asleep, thinking of Elneside without yet feeling homesick. The goodbyes to family and friends had been difficult, but not to the extent he had feared. The fact that he was not travelling alone, and that Brakis, of all people, was to be his companion had gone a long way to calm the fears of his grandmother and sister. His grandfather's support had also been a great help. He drowsed contentedly until, in a half-dream, the image of the strange skull appeared in his mind, and he stirred restlessly, tossing and turning before eventually the tiredness from a long day's march led him into a deep, dreamless sleep. * It was still dark when Telli awoke, but the sky had already turned from black to a dark blue behind the silhouettes of the mountains, announcing the imminent sunrise. He sat up sharply and turned to see the reassuring shape of Brakis sitting nearby with his back against a large rock. "Why didn't you wake me to watch?" he asked. "It's near sunrise." "I did not feel the need to sleep, so left you to rest well. I shall sleep now, and if we start a little later than usual it does not matter. What hurry is there? It's perhaps better if we divide the night in two like this, instead of four, to be sure that one is always awake now we are so far from the lands we know."

Brakis laid down and seemed to sleep immediately. He appeared relaxed, but Telli knew well that his friend was a little uneasy, and was probably nearly as alert in his sleep as others are when wide awake. Telli waited for a while until the day became lighter, then collected some dead wood from under the nearest trees and made up the fire. Then, nothing else to do, he started to whittle away at a new arrow he was making, pausing every so often to watch the morning light, and then the sun, rise from behind the snowy peaks ahead of him. He would leave Brakis to sleep as long as he could. True, there was no hurry at all. Only when they were in the snows would they need to move as quickly as possible while their food supply lasted, and to avoid too many cold nights. Brakis woke at about two hours before noon to the smell of cooking, as Telli was boiling a soup of vegetables and grain from the supplies in his pack. They ate quickly and went on their way, following the ridge towards the mountains. The forest was now below them, with only a few scattered and stunted trees growing exposed to the weather on top of the ridge, and the travellers could see fine views all around them. Brakis was well rested and more talkative than usual. "Drakis found a way over the mountains which brought our forefathers to this side south of the river Elne, where we are now. It was not far from the Elne, because they reached its south bank just three days after leaving the snows behind them, as you know if you remember your reading. We cannot do better than to continue straight ahead where we have as good a chance as any of finding that route. You can see by the break in the trees that there is a river or stream down in the valley to our right, and we know that the Elne is to our left. Brenen the scribe, whose account of the journey with Drakis is the best in detail, writes of how they followed a stream down from the mountains. We know that it did not lead them directly to the Elne, for they cut north to avoid the thick forest, and to march on more open ground. Therefore, I think that the stream they followed must flow down into the one on our right, or perhaps the next one to the south." Telli, who had also read Brenen, both as part of his learning of letters and again recently with this journey in mind, had been thinking along the same lines. He nodded in agreement, and replied: "We should follow each stream that flows down to the river below, going upstream as far as we can. If we do not find Drakis's route, or another, we should come back down, hunt ourselves up another supply of food, and then do the same for the next river to the south." "You have worked it all out," smiled Brakis. "I agree." He looked at Telli, now walking ahead of him, and thought how different his young friend was from others of the same age, indeed from other people in general. Telli often seemed wise beyond his years and reserved things to himself, so that when he did reveal some of his thoughts, Brakis was sometimes taken by surprise. If other children had discovered the ability to raise themselves off the ground inexplicably, as Telli had at the age of ten, they would surely have run around telling everyone and showing off. Brakis could see some of the traits of his sister in law and her husband, Telli's parents, in Telli's looks and his ways, but there was so much more that seemed to be the boy's own, as if he had arrived at birth a complete stranger to the Elneside community. Travelling with him was like travelling with another man, the only difference being that he could not carry as much weight, leaving Brakis's pack the heavier because they had balanced their loads so that both walked easily at the same pace. The pair marched through the day, stopping to rest only once, briefly, because they had started late. They made good progress as it was easy going along the top of the ridge, and by late afternoon the mountains were visibly much nearer. Around the time they had started to think of looking for a suitable place to pass the night, Telli saw something ahead that seemed unusual, and pointed it out to Brakis. At about an hour's walk away, the ridge rose up to a point. On the top of this was what seemed to them to be a very large rock sticking up towards the sky, with a jagged edge on top and unusually straight sides. They decided to continue towards it and, as they approached, it seemed less and less like a natural feature, and more and more like something made by man.

Brakis stopped at some distance and gestured to Telli to join him behind a low ledge which offered concealment, but over which they could look at the object, now just three to four hundred yards away. "What do you think it is?" he asked. Telli stared, concentrating hard, and suddenly had a vision in his mind of a great grey building with battlements on top, with shouts, horn blows and drum beats sounding around it, and the glint of armour as men walked on its walls. A vision, perhaps, from the stories he had heard or read of the old country. "I think it is, or was a castle," he answered slowly. They both stared. No Elnesider had ever seen a building other than their own wooden houses. After watching for a while and seeing no sign of life excepting an eagle circling above the hill in front of them, they continued to walk very cautiously towards the building they could soon see was obviously a ruin. Both held bow and arrow loosely at their sides in the left hand, and their long hunting knives ready in the right. It had been a castle or watch-tower and, although the battlements were crumbling so that many fallen stones lay at the foot of the weathered walls, all four walls themselves were still standing. It was square at the base, with a round turret running from bottom to top in each corner, about fifteen yards separating each one, and stood about seventy feet high. To the travellers it seemed enormous. "How did they build such things?" whispered Telli. Brakis shrugged, as buildings of stone were just as new to him. "Just as interesting is why did they, and who were they," he pointed out, also in a whisper. They circled the castle slowly and quietly, looking for an entrance, and found it on the far side. It was an archway in the wall facing the mountains, and would have made an easy way in were it not for the fact that it was about twenty-five feet up, and any outside stairway, if there had been one, had long since gone. "I think these people had enemies," commented Brakis, dryly. "They did not want their guests walking in unexpectedly." Curiosity overcame caution for Telli. He laid down his pack and stood below the archway, estimating its height. Then, concentrating all of his attention on it, he rose slowly from the ground, and ten seconds later was hanging from the doorstep. He heaved himself onto it and sat there for a moment to recover, grinning down at Brakis who stood below, open-mouthed. He had seen Telli cross a couple of streams on their journey without getting his feet wet, but this effort (which was about the most that his friend could manage without great risk of a fall) was spectacular in comparison. He watched as the boy turned on his seat to face inside, and saw his head moving to look down, and then upwards. After a few moments, Telli seemed to have decided that there were no obvious dangers in the castle, as he turned back and, still too careful to shout down, made gestures with his arms and hands miming someone climbing a rope. Brakis pulled their only rope, brought with the mountain crossing in mind, from his pack. He coiled a few feet of it to make a weight and threw it accurately to Telli then, on the signal that it was secure, showed his agility by arriving on the doorstep in little more time than his flying friend had taken to get there. Telli watched Brakis as he looked around. The sight was surprising, mainly because while the weathered, rocky ridge outside had few plants growing on it, here, under the protection of the walls, they were everywhere. Climbing ivy covered most of the stonework, and on the ground below them they could see shrubs, grasses, flowers and, most surprising of all, a few trees were growing, two of them reaching well above the point where they sat. It was like a very high walled garden. All that was built of stone had stood the test of time well. They could see the large holes in the walls at every level, made for the beams that would have supported the various floors and the roof. These must have been made of wood and had long since disappeared, presumably becoming part of the fertile earth now covering the foundations. Three pillars, or buttresses, ran from bottom to top of each wall helping to support ledges, about two feet wide,

which ran between the rounded corner towers on each level, joining arched doorways in their walls. Telli and Brakis were on the second ledge of six, what would have been the floor level of the third chamber up from the ground. Having taken all this in, Telli began to move carefully along the ledge towards the tower on his left, then started, and nearly lost his balance, at a sudden noise from above. Looking up quickly, he spotted the eagle they had seen earlier flying out of the top of the castle, and the mess of twigs and moss that was its nest on the highest ledge. Shaking his head and smiling as his nerves calmed, he looked back at Brakis, who was also smiling as he sheathed his hunting knife. The eagle was good news. It would not nest there if it felt threatened by any regular visitors to the ruin, and the travellers felt more confident that they were alone. Telli continued along the ledge with increasing confidence as it felt solid beneath his feet, and reached the arch in the corner tower. Looking inside he could see that the tower contained a spiral staircase made of stone treads attached between the walls and a central pillar. He turned and beckoned Brakis to join him, but his companion signed back, pointing out through the castle entrance. He disappeared for a minute or two, then reappeared with Telli's pack, which he placed on the ledge before descending again for his own. This task completed, he came along the ledge to join Telli. "Up or down?" he asked, after peering through the arch. "Up," decided Telli, thinking of the view they might have from the top, and as the lighter of the two he led the way up the staircase. It proved to be solid, and was well lit from the two arches leading out to the ledges on each level they passed, as well as from arrow slits at intervals through the outside walls. They reached the sixth level in a few minutes and went out onto the ledge, which was slightly wider than the others and seemed strong enough. From here they had a fine view through the weather worn and slightly crumbling battlements. It was now not much more than an hour before sundown, and the colour of the snows on the mountains was beginning to change, white turning to soft pinks, yellows and oranges. Brakis looked down towards the route they would have to follow the next day and spoke, no longer bothering to whisper. "This must have been built by people from the other side and, from the wear on the stones, must be very, very old. I would guess that its builders were long gone from the area by the time of Drakis, who knew of no settlements in his time or before on this side of the mountains. We can also assume that our forefathers did not pass exactly this way, as Brenen and the others make no mention of a castle, or tower. Indeed, they state clearly that they found themselves alone on this side of the mountains, and discovered no signs of habitation by man." Telli nodded his agreement, and looked down into the valley below, where he could see the break in the trees that indicated the line of the river, to their right as they faced the mountains. "They certainly did not find this," he said, "but could easily have come down from the mountains following the banks of the stream down there without seeing the tower through the trees, as we cannot see the water itself from up here." He looked along the ridge below them as it stretched towards the high mountains. "If the castle builders came from the other side, perhaps we shall find their way over to the Kingdom in the east, whether it is the way Drakis found or not." "True," said Brakis, "but for now I think we had better leave our fellow hunters in peace and make a camp down below for the night." He pointed upwards, where the eagle had been joined by another, and the two circled high above, clearly watching the intruders with their sharp eyes. Telli looked over at the ledge on the wall opposite, and could see the head and neck of an eagle chick protruding from the nest. It was early summer, and he knew that the chick would soon be joining its parents in flight, a magnificent flight that made his own small efforts, however unique, seem absurd, he thought as he made his way down the stairs.

Investigating the bottom of the tower they found, unsurprisingly, that the earth which had accumulated over the centuries to form the base on which the plants and trees were growing blocked the lowest arches. However, they could easily jump down onto the new ground level from the entrances to what had been the floor above. So, after retrieving their packs from the ledge by the castle entrance, they made their camp for the night under the trees inside the protective walls of the building. They found ample firewood for Telli, the tinderbox expert, to start his cooking fire, and as they had enough water in the flasks they carried with them, started to prepare their evening meal. While waiting for their food to cook, they made a brief exploration of their surroundings, finding nothing of great interest except for some scratches and writings on the walls. These appeared to contain letters similar to their own, but were impossible to read in the fast fading light. They decided to explore the rest of the castle the next day before going on their way, to see if there were any clues as to who had built it, and why they had done so. Telli, up since before dawn that morning, fell asleep immediately after eating, leaving Brakis awake and watchful in spite of the seeming security of being within four walls for the first time since leaving Elneside. As he had done the night before, Brakis left Telli to sleep until just before dawn, each of them now sleeping on completely different cycles to ensure continuous vigilance as they neared the mountains. Telli started his watch sitting drowsily with his back to the wall, waiting for the light before searching for more dead wood and making up the fire. This chore finished, he decided to continue the exploration of the night before. Keeping an eye on the camp and on the entrance to the castle from time to time, he first checked the writings they had seen. These proved to be of little interest, consisting of what Telli deduced to be names idly carved on the walls by soldiers who had served in the castle, although none were names used in Elneside. He then investigated the stairways in the three corner towers they had not visited the evening before, finding them more or less identical to the first one. Then he decided to walk along the ledges at every level of the building. It was on the second highest ledge, just below the eagles' nest, that he discovered some more interesting writings. I CHARICLES AM LASTE KAPTAIN OF THYS FORTE WE SHALL DESERT -------- AS NO RELIEF FOR 1 YEARE HE WHOMEVER ---------- READE THYS BE WARE -H--WORMLING-- AS THEY ---- ---W STRONGE The writing was ancient and faded, but Telli thought he could understand the gist of the message. Someone had been forced to leave the castle, and wished to warn anyone who understood his language of an enemy in the area. Telli wasn't too worried at the warning as it had clearly been made centuries ago. After searching for a while and finding nothing else of great interest, he went back down to the camp, and started to prepare some food while waiting for Brakis to wake, which he did while the meal was still cooking. Telli described his find and Brakis went up to see it for himself. When he returned, they speculated as to what or who a wormling might be as they ate, and Brakis wondered aloud that the builders of this great tower had clearly spoken a version of the Elnesiders' own language. Telli thought that the discovery raised more questions, rather than giving answers, and he was even more eager than before to complete the journey over the mountains where he felt that some of his curiosity might be satisfied. They left the castle, Brakis climbing down first with the packs, and Telli detaching the rope before using his strange talents to drift slowly to the ground, Brakis waiting beneath to break his fall if necessary as

neither of them yet had complete confidence in his "flying" abilities. However, all went well, and the travellers set off along the ridge towards the mountains. After about an hour's walking, they noticed that the line of the river to their right was going through a number of sharp bends and was rising up towards them. A while later, they saw a series of waterfalls ahead of them and Brakis commented that it looked as though they would join the river without going downhill. He proved to be right, as they soon reached the head of the falls at a point where the way ahead up river looked promisingly easy. The water cascaded down several different levels until it reached a pool far below them, from which the river flowed on its way westwards, away from the mountains. Above them, the stream was not large, but was turbulent and fast flowing, swollen by the summer melt water from the peaks ahead. There were a few trees and bushes along its banks, but not enough to impede their progress, and it looked to the travellers as though they had reason to be pleased with the route they had taken so far. It was a pleasant place, and they decided to stop for a while to rest and to eat. Telli was just about to move towards the river to refill his water flask, when Brakis stopped him with a hand on his arm and a whispered caution, pointing upstream. At about forty yards distance, an animal was moving out from behind some rocks on the opposite bank towards the water, clearly unaware of their presence. The two hunters crouched slowly, and watched what appeared to be a large cat of a type unfamiliar to them. It was a whitish grey in colour, and had a long, bushy tail, clearly used to help itself balance as it moved to a position on some rocks forming a small island in the river. Like a smallish leopard, apart from the colour and the tail, it was not large enough to cause the two watchers, armed as they were with bow and knife, any serious concern. "A white cat the Snow Leopard from Brenen's writings," whispered Telli. Brakis nodded, remembering the scribe's account of the beast. Both then thought along the same lines. Brenen had recorded a sighting of the cat on the other side of the mountains, when their forefathers had first reached the heights where the snows still lingered in the summer. This must then be a species that lived on both sides of this natural barrier, and probably one of the few that could easily cross it. The sight of the animal made them feel much closer to their goal. Still unaware of being watched, the leopard was crouched low on a rock, looking intently at the river beneath it. Then, with a sudden movement, it darted a paw into the water, and the watchers saw a flash of silver as it landed a large fish on the rock. "Good hunting," murmured Brakis with admiration. "I wish I could do that a fresh cooked fish would go down well." They watched for a while as the snow leopard ate its catch, and then patiently repeated the fishing performance, this time carrying the fish in its mouth to the bank and disappearing in the direction it had come from. "She has a young one and is a good mother." Brakis stood up and made a saluting gesture towards the far bank where the cat had been. It was signal of respect amongst the Elnesiders for the beasts with which they shared the land, and which they regarded as fellow creatures of their Gods, only to be hunted when there was a use in doing so. The travellers ate cold food from their stores, and continued on their way, following the left bank of the river upstream. The going was easy and they made good progress, climbing steadily and, towards the end of the afternoon, beginning to feel that the night ahead of them would be noticeably cooler than the last two. Eventually, following a series of rapids up a steeper incline than usual, they arrived slightly breathless at a small lake, from which the river flowed. On the far side was an impressive waterfall, thundering down some sixty feet into the lake from a huge cave in a mountain rising up sheer from the water's edge. It was an unexpected sight. They had come suddenly to the source of the river, or rather, of the part of it that ran above ground.

Telli was the first to comment when they had taken in the scene for a few moments. "Well, this cannot be on the way that Drakis came. Brenen would surely have mentioned such a place had they passed this way." Brakis agreed. This was not somewhere easily forgotten, with the blue lake like a mirror, reflecting the scattered firtrees around its shores, the mountains behind it, and even the waterfall which fed it. "It's still possible we may find a way up and over, either to the left or right of that," he said, indicating the mountain ahead. "Indeed, with your flying tricks and my rope climbing, it seems almost likely," he added, smiling at his young companion. "But for now, we must make our camp here, and I suggest we leave the decision on which way we shall try for tomorrow." Looking into the clear waters of the lake, they could see that it contained some good-sized fish. So, while Telli collected wood and made up the fire, Brakis took a thin line from his pack, tied it to a stick and, using worms dug from the bank as bait, tried to catch the meal he had so envied of the Snow Leopard. After nearly an hour had passed, a cry of triumph told Telli that his friend had been successful, and the pair ate a good meal of fresh fish and boiled roots. This ended a good day. The way had been easy, and the sight of the Snow Leopard somehow encouraging. Yet Telli felt a vague uneasiness as he settled down for the night. A feeling as if they were being watched in their exposed camp on the edge of the lake, as if perhaps the mountains themselves were aware of the two strangers who dared to challenge their might. He fell asleep later than usual, listening to the roar of the waterfall, then woke suddenly to the sound of a cry from Brakis. Confused with sleep and the dark night, he felt something like a fishing net covering him, then strong arms holding him down as he struggled. A dark figure leant over him, and something with a strong, pungent smell was thrust into his face. Feeling sick and dizzy, he looked up to glimpse a white face above him, and a pair of pale, pink eyes staring into his own, before he lost consciousness.

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." "Workermining?" 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."

Chapter 4
Slaves. Words like "slave" and "mining" were nearly forgotten in Elneside. People who were doing arduous jobs, chopping firewood or harvesting a crop, might still declare themselves to be "working like

slaves," a reference passed down through generations from a distant time and place. But after their experiences that day, the meaning of Seth's words was fairly clear to Telli and Brakis. The motives of the cave creatures in capturing them, without inflicting unnecessary injury, were explained. So was the high stone wall around the village, not there to keep wolves out, but to keep people in. Seth busied himself for a while, serving portions of food from the pot into bowls and refilling their cups while the Elnesiders absorbed his information. Every cloud is said to have a silver lining, and the weary travellers soon discovered this to be true of their present predicament. Slaves maybe, but the food, a thick, richly flavoured stew, was excellent. So was the drink, a brew made of fermented apple juice, which Seth drank at an almost alarming rate. Brakis decided it was just the thing to help digest the news that he might spend the rest of his life digging holes for the "beakmen," and drained his cup, holding it out for more and saying: "It is not every day a man falls asleep free, and wakes a "slave" as you call it, so I think I shall celebrate." Seth gave a rare smile as he filled the other man's cup. "Have you been here a long time?" Telli asked. The big man looked down at hands like shovels, shaped by his work as a smith. Telli saw a dreamy look come to his eyes as he replied in the slow manner of speech that was his nature. "I was nine years old when the Khrelling took me, stole me from near my home as I was walking back one night alone after a visit to my grandmother in the next village. I do not know how far away it was, for like all here, I do not know exactly where we are, and I was drugged for most of the journey here. For the first three years I worked the fields with the women, as all our children do here. Then I started in the forge, and have been there since, more than twenty years. My wife was born here, as was her mother, but not her father who was taken as I was. Nearly all here were born slaves. Only a few like myself have some memory of another life; and there are only three others who, like you Brakis, reached manhood before coming here." "Do you not think of escape?" asked Brakis. The question made Seth visibly uneasy, and he replied gruffly that he would speak of that the next day, as he had the day off, and had been told by Anolph to show them around. The mention of Anolph's name led Telli to another question. "Can you speak the language of the creatures you call Krelling?" "Khrelling," Seth corrected him, starting the word with a hissing sound in the back of his throat, so like the noises the creatures made themselves that the others laughed. "I understand a little, perhaps a little more than I choose to let them know. It can be useful to hear things not meant for one's ears at times." Seth laughed also, and Telli, who had been noticing the way their new acquaintance became increasingly relaxed in their presence, realised that the big man instinctively liked the newcomers. He guessed shrewdly that what Seth liked, whether he knew it or not, was that they smiled and laughed with ease; that in spite of their recent capture, they had not begun to behave like prisoners or slaves. Brakis seemed to have decided to take their situation philosophically, and indicated as much by complimenting Seth on the food and the apple wine, and asking if he could spare some more of the latter. Telli had come to know his friend well, and knew that he also had guessed Seth might like to stay and talk with them for a while. Brakis might seem determined to enjoy himself, but was also trying to guide the mood of the big man in such a way as to make him reveal as much as possible about their new situation.

Telli smiled to himself at the guile of the hunter, as the two men started to drink cup for cup of the brew together, while he drank slowly, keeping his young head clear and taking in the conversation. The Elnesiders learnt that the village was known simply as the "camp", the slaves lacking the affection for the place to give it a proper name, unusual for people in such a beautiful and fertile valley. When Brakis commented again on the quality of the food, Seth stated that the Khrelling went to great lengths to ensure that their slaves had the means to produce plenty to eat for themselves. "In my village we kept oxen as beasts of burden, to pull our ploughs and our carts. Only a foolish man would starve his oxen. He would get less work from them, and if they did not die they would still have lost value if sold at market. The Khrelling are not fools, at least not in that way. Their own diet is completely different from ours, and they have no reason to take any of what we produce." It appeared that the Khrelling were very much creatures of the caves, and when outside them, were creatures of the night. They saw well in the dark and their eyes did not like bright light, like other night animals. Their pale skin needed to be covered when in direct sunlight, as it would burn. They could swim very well, and could climb rock faces far better than men, their hands and feet specially adapted to do so. Important in their diet were blind-fish and a white fungus, both plentiful inside the caves, and when outside they preferred scratching in the ground for insects to anything else. One of the main reasons for keeping slaves was that their ability to make and use tools was not nearly as good as that of the men who worked for them. Seth indicated that he considered himself very valuable to his masters, and Telli noticed that Brakis found this particularly interesting. The big smith explained that "Khrelling" meant "masters" in the creatures' own language, leading Brakis to comment that the slaves of the camp must then have other less polite names for them, drawing another smile from the big man. Seth stayed for the evening, leaving once for a few minutes to return with another flagon of wine and some cakes, which he presented as a gift from his wife. By the time he left, the Elnesiders had learned quite a bit about their new home, but were still curious and puzzled as to many things. "We must be careful," said Brakis, as they lay down on the cots for the night. "I think our new friend is a good man, but there is much he has not told us, and some of his hints lead me to believe that we cannot trust some of our fellow slaves, as well as the Khrelling. We shall find out more when we see the camp tomorrow." Telli agreed and, too tired to talk much, they both fell asleep at the same time for the first night since their journey had begun. Already captives, there was no need to watch. The sun was already rising over the eastern peaks of the mountains surrounding the "camp" when Telli woke Brakis, who was still feeling the effects of the apple wine. They had slept well and late, and Telli felt more relaxed and refreshed than he had on any morning since leaving Elneside. He was building up the fire from the previous night's embers when Seth arrived with some food, this time accompanied by a young boy whom he introduced as his son, aged ten. Telli smiled at the introduction, hardly necessary as the youngster was already his own size, and resembled his father so closely in every way (excepting the bald head) that the sight of the two together was almost comical. Indeed Brakis, coming in with his head dripping wet after an attempt to clear it in the water barrel, laughed aloud as he guessed the relationship, and clapped Seth on the back, congratulating him in typical Elneside fashion on having such a sturdy offspring. Seth was obviously pleased, and stated that he would be back shortly to show them around the camp, wishing them a good appetite before leaving with his son in hand. The food was plentiful and good, and it was difficult for the Elnesiders to feel anything other than optimism in their present circumstances. The memory of the day before seemed like a receding nightmare as they sat down on a pile of logs outside the hut to eat. It was such a beautiful day, the lush green valley

and the splendid mountains to the west bathed in sunlight, that contrast with the dark caves and their hissing, squealing inhabitants could hardly have been greater. Several neighbours passed and greeted them shyly. The apparent health and wellbeing of the camp's inhabitants added to the impression, so strange for two people who had just lost their freedom, that all was going well with their journey. They had, at least, passed the highest of the great White Mountains. When Seth returned, the three of them set off on a tour of the village and its surrounds. The houses were all on a similar model to the hut allocated to Telli and Brakis, although most were larger. There were few people around, but as they emerged from the village, they passed several groups of women and children working in the fields and picking the summer fruit in the orchards. Seth led the newcomers directly towards the boundary wall as if sensing their inevitable interest in the practical nature of their imprisonment, speaking of escape as he had promised the night before. "When I first arrived here, though only a boy, I thought of little else than of finding a way out of the camp, and of returning to the family and friends I had left behind. You will do this also, as all new captives do, and indeed, many of those who are born here. It is impossible to escape! I have been told to show you why this is so. Only a man who could fly could possibly leave the camp." Telli deliberately showed no reaction to this chance remark, but was sure that he could feel the smiling gaze of Brakis, walking a step behind the other two, on the back of his head. They were approaching a wooden fence which ran parallel to the high stone wall at about thirty yard's distance from it, and could see a man sitting on a small platform at the top of some steps beside it. On arriving at the fence, Seth introduced the man, who was elderly and grey-haired, as Hanith, a "fence-guard" by occupation. He asked the Elnesiders to join Hanith on the platform, and when they had done so, he untied a goat that was tethered to the foot of the steps. Lifting it easily in his great arms, he then carried it up to the platform beside them, and dropped it on the other side of the fence. "This is the boundary we cannot pass. Watch the goat," he said simply. They watched as the goat struggled to its feet and limped away, bleating in protest at this unexpected treatment. The area between the fence and the wall was covered in long grass and shrubs, and there were several large ponds in sight. The watchers saw nothing unusual at first, then there was a splash from one of the nearest ponds, and the grass seemed to part at an ever-increasing speed in a direct line from the water's edge to where the goat now stood. The animal reared up suddenly with something large hanging from its throat. Telli and Brakis watched in astonishment as the goat fell to the ground and they could see its attacker clearly. It was a massive lizard, perhaps nine feet long and looking like an enormous version of the green fly-catching lizard that lived on the banks of the Elne, but which never to their knowledge grew to more than two feet in length. As they watched, the monster was joined by two more of its kind, and while they tore into the flesh of the goat with huge jaws champing, and tongues longer than a man's arm flickering in and out, red with blood, others started to arrive from further away. Fights broke out over the meat, the beasts swinging their tails at each other with such force that a single blow would surely have killed a man. After a few moments, nothing was left of the goat but a few bones. As the great lizards moved away, Brakis let out his breath in a long whistle, and commented that he would not be going any nearer to the wall in a hurry. "Cannot lizards climb trees?" he asked. "Are we safe up here?" The fence they stood on was about twelve feet high, and Hanith told them to lean over and look at the inside. They could see that this was covered not with wood, but with squares of smooth slate, each layer overlapping the next from top to bottom. "Their claws cannot grip this," he explained. "If it was made of wood, only a fool would stand here."

They climbed down from the platform, saying goodbye to the old man, and started to walk beside the fence while Seth talked about the barrier to their freedom. "The fence is watched by men like Hanith, too old or sick to be of much use as workers in the caves like the rest of us. They do not guard the fence because they wish us all to remain prisoners. Each one is held responsible for a section of the boundary while they are on duty. Should another slave pass that section, whether he succeeds in escape or not, the fence guard will be thrown to the lizards and will die." Seth waited for this information to sink in before he continued. "The wall itself is guarded by Khrelling. As you can see, it would seem impossible to pass both fence and wall in daylight without being observed. You must remember I told you that the Khrelling are cave creatures, and creatures of the night. The watchers on the wall see far more clearly than we do in the dark. Their sense of smell is also far stronger than ours, and their hearing slightly better as well. Trying to outwit the Khrelling at night is like racing another man who has no burden when you are carrying a heavy weight." Listening to all this, Telli felt himself losing some of the optimism of that morning. The news that they could not pass the wall without causing the death of another man was particularly hard to come to terms with. He identified a concern, a small nagging worry that he had felt since the night before without knowing its source. Tolerating slavery might be easier for some than for others. Brakis was a free spirit if ever there was one, and Telli, confident in his own ability to act the part of a docile slave and wait patiently for the chance of escape, was worried that his friend might do something rash and offend their new masters. As Seth led them along a path that followed the curve of the fence round towards the south side of the camp, Telli's line of thought led him to ask an obvious question of their guide. "Has anyone ever escaped the Khrelling since you have been here, Seth?" "No. No one at all, although there have been attempts. Three fence-guards have been murdered in my time, but only two by the Khrelling. One of the guards was an uncle of my wife." Seth did not elaborate on the escape attempts, and was silent for some time as they walked. The Elnesiders began to understand how a bid for freedom might divide the slaves and perhaps offend those who were resigned to a life of captivity. At the southernmost point of the enclosure, they crossed a wooden bridge over the river, which ran north through the village. A fence-guard sat on a platform above the river where the barrier ran through it about twenty yards from them. There were many holes in the fence to let the water through, though these were far too small to let a slave swim out or a giant lizard swim in. Brakis broke the silence to ask about the lizards, what they were, and where they had come from. "They are just what they appear to be; lizards. Only these are far larger than any I heard tell of as a boy, and all others who come here from outside say the same. They are always hungry, and will eat anything that moves, which is why the Khrelling capture them and put them between the fence and the wall. They are native to this valley. I have seen them outside the wall, and once saw one attack and eat a leopard." "You have been out?" Brakis was surprised. "Several times. The Khrelling sometimes take slaves out under close guard to cut down trees for firewood and building, both for their own use and ours. But you will not go." "Why not us?" Brakis guessed the answer as he spoke.

" I have a wife and four children inside the boundary when I am out," Seth said. "Many of us here think no longer of our own escape, but rather of the end of slavery for all in the camp. We can always live in the hope that one day our children, their children, or their children's children will know what freedom is." The three walked on in thoughtful silence for a while, heading towards the cliff at the western end of the camp, in which the Elnesiders could already make out the outline of the great cave mouth they had emerged from the day before. After some time, Seth spoke again. "I do not think that the Khrelling care so much about the loss of one or two slaves. They do not go to such lengths to keep us within the boundary for that reason. I think they fear what might happen if just one from amongst us was to carry the news of this place to other men, and those others should make it their business to set us free." The big man now spoke with great emotion for the first time since the others had met him. "I would like nothing more than to see that day, nothing more," he said, punching his huge right fist into his left palm, and gripping it until his knuckles went white. Telli felt that he would not like to be the Khrelling standing nearest to Seth if and when the big slave's wishes became true. They continued their walk past the cave entrance, where they could see how the wall joined the sheer cliff on either side of it, then they followed the fence as far as the northernmost point of the enclosure, where the river flowed out under the barrier. Here Seth suggested that, as they had walked three-quarters of the length of the wall, they should now follow the riverbank back to the village and eat something, it being already past midday. On arriving at the village, the Elnesiders saw for the first time a large number of its occupants gathered together in an open area not far from their hut. All were men and boys, from about Telli's age on upwards. Seth explained that these were the afternoon work team, which assembled here before going off to start their 'shift' in the caves. As they approached the hut, he started to talk about the work that was expected of them. "We are divided into three teams, and work continues throughout the day and the night. As one team finishes, another starts. You will be starting tomorrow night on the same team as I. We start after sundown, and work eight hours until sunrise. The next team takes over and works through until early afternoon, and the team you have seen gathering just now works until we start our next shift. So it continues for seven days in a row, until all stop for a break of two days, ending what we call a 'period' of nine days. After each period, the teams change hours, those on the night moving to the afternoon, the afternoon to the morning, and the morning to the night. You are in one sense lucky, as you will be starting on the second to last night of the period, and will only work two shifts before the first break." Seth stopped at this and pointed to a large hut, which he said was his own. He explained that, while he had been given the night before off so that he could greet them and show them around, he would be working that night and must now leave them as he needed to rest before starting. He added that two women who had no families to feed had been given the job of catering for the newcomers, and would arrive at their hut shortly if they were not already there. Leaving Seth and arriving at their hut, Telli and Brakis found that the women had already been there and had lit the fire leaving a pot cooking slowly over it. They now found themselves with time to discuss their unexpected situation. To Telli's relief, Brakis seemed to have resigned himself to the idea that they must be slaves for the time being, until they knew more of their circumstances and could find a way of escape. "There seems to be no choice for the moment," he said. "However, I have no intention of becoming an old man in this place, and will be looking all the time for a way out. You must do as you think fit, Telli. If you see a chance to get out with your flying, then you should take it without thinking of me. There is always the possibility that if one of us escapes, we can bring help for the whole camp."

"The barrier is too much for my flying as far as I can see," said Telli. "The wall alone is higher than anything I have managed so far, and to cross both fence, wall, and the distance between in one flight is well beyond my powers. I certainly do not wish to rest for too long between the two and become a meal for those lizards." They discussed the slaves they had met, and the Khrelling. Telli reminded Brakis of the message they had seen carved into the wall of the watchtower on the other side of the mountains. "The Khrelling might have been the 'wormling' feared by the castle builders. They live in holes, and the name seems to suit them." "Quite possibly," agreed Brakis. "It seems that they are interested in us only for our value as workers. This is in some ways not so bad, as we can see that the slaves are well fed and healthy, and that if they obey their masters, they can live a life of sorts. But have you noticed how seldom they smile compared with those we know back home? It is no life for a human being. We need space, and some control of our lives. We are not goats or tame fowl to be reared for the needs of others." Telli speculated as to what the work would be like. They agreed that they must rest well the next day as they would be required to work throughout the following night. Then, having eaten, they set out to explore the camp for themselves.

Chapter 5
Telli and Brakis were leaving their hut the following evening as the last of the daylight faded when they heard a long horn-blast, which they knew to be the signal for their work team to assemble. As they made their way to the meeting place, Telli felt a nervous anticipation at the prospect of his first night as a slaveworker for the Khrelling. On arrival, they were approached by Anolph, whom they had not seen since the afternoon of their arrival in the camp two days before. In his dour manner, he stated that he was the foreman of the team, and called over two other men whom he introduced. "This is Brent who is in charge of the mining team on which you, Brakis, will work for the moment; and this is Harren who leads the smith's shop where Telli will learn his trade, being apprenticed to Seth whom you have already met. You will go with them into the caves, and they will show you your work places." With this he left them to join an equally grim looking pair of men who appeared to be counting the workers as they arrived. Telli noticed several men looking up at the darkening sky above them, and following their gaze, let out a gasp of surprise. Flying from west to east was a flock of creatures he soon identified as bats; but bats far larger than any he had seen before, and flying in a constant stream in the same direction, rather than hunting moths alone as they did on the banks of the Elne. Their bodies were so heavy that they dipped up and down with each slow flap of the wings, and Telli could see the outline of a pointed nose and large ears on the heads of the lowest, not more than fifty feet above him. "Flying rats, we call them. They eat our fruit if we let them." Telli turned at the familiar voice to see Seth. "They come out of the caves as we must go in. Come Tellimakis, apprentice, it is time to start with your new trade." The big man walked off behind Harren, and Telli followed.

At the entrance to the caves were several well-armed Khrelling, who seemed to be counting the workers as they entered. Anolph walked at the head of the team of about one hundred men, and led them down the tunnel, keeping to the right hand side. The men of the afternoon shift passed to their left on the way out, and some from the two teams exchanged greetings. After a few minutes, Harren turned off down a tunnel to the right with Seth, Telli, and about twenty others following him. They reached the smithy, a large cavern with a number of furnaces cut out of stone around its walls. There were shafts in the ceiling to let out the smoke, and Telli noticed with interest that he could see starlight at the top of one as he passed under it. The men took off their goatskin jackets against the heat, and went to their work places. Harren, a tall wiry man in his forties, came to Telli to explain the work to him. "Here we make all the tools and weapons for the Khrelling, and also the tools we need ourselves for our farming, and the building of our homes. You will work with Seth, whom you know, and with Stellakis, who has just moved from apprentice to smith." Harren pointed out a young man, who grinned at Telli, and told him to call him "Stell" as everyone else did. Telli liked the look of him, and felt that even though a slave, he appeared to be lucky in having two friendly work-mates. Harren continued. "Your job is to keep the two furnaces they are working on fed with wood and blackstone. Come with me." He led the way to one end of the cavern, where there was a huge pile of wood and beside it a pile of shiny black stones. "Have you seen these before?" he asked, indicating the stones. When Telli replied that he had not, Harren explained that this was a type of stone that burned, and which the Khrelling used for fire and light. "Most men coming from outside think it a miracle to burn stone," he said, "but it burns more slowly than wood, and with greater heat. The wood you use only when the fires are low, and you need to increase the heat quickly." After pointing out a small wooden handcart, which was used to carry the fuel to the furnaces, and a shovel with which to fill it, Harren led Telli back to where Seth was standing. The big smith was beating out a length of hot iron with a large hammer. Harren left them after giving a few more instructions, and saying that Seth and Stell would be able to tell him anything else he needed to know. So Telli settled into his first night of work. He wheeled the black stones, wood, and sometimes other stones containing iron ore, from the storage piles to the furnaces, fuelling them to the instructions of the two smiths. When he was ahead on this work, he helped the pair in any way they needed. Seth sometimes found time to explain to him various aspects of the smiths' skills. Telli also took away the finished tools made by the pair, storing them in a chamber adjoining the smithy. The hardest thing for him was becoming accustomed to the heat and noise of the work place. At least one of the fifteen or so smiths would be hammering on metal at any given moment, making a clamour such as he had never heard before. He tried not to think too much of his previous way of living, hunting freely in the beautiful and tranquil Elneside forest. Halfway up one of the walls of the cavern was an opening with a stone balcony in front of it. From time to time, one or two Khrelling would arrive in the balcony from a passage behind, and look down on them. This was their only regular supervision, and the practical running of the workshop seemed to be left largely to Harren. Telli made a rough count of his work-mates, reckoning there were fifteen smiths, and six or seven young apprentices like him. They all seemed to work steadily, for the most part in silence. Stell was an exception. Although he worked with great energy at his furnace, he was anything but silent, taking every opportunity to talk and joke with those near him, and singing as he beat his iron tools into shape. His behaviour brought an occasional word of warning from Harren, after which he usually remained silent for a few minutes, before starting up with a new song, or a shouted conversation with another smith.

The workers stopped only once, briefly, to eat the food they had brought with them. Seth advised Telli to fuel the fires well before this break, so that he would not have to rush at his work after eating, as he must not let the fires cool too much at any time. The same went for the end of the night's work, when he must pile enough of the blackstone on the fires to ensure that the smiths on the morning shift could start work immediately on their arrival. When this time came, and a horn-blast announced the sunrise outside and the end of their shift, Telli, now tired and bleary eyed from the smoke of the forge, was led out of the caves with the others. He found Brakis, looking soiled and weary, and they walked to their hut together, comparing notes on their respective jobs. On arrival, they found that the fire had been lit, and food was cooking over it. Brakis was accustomed to catering for himself, and explained to Telli that, although he greatly appreciated the efforts of the women, he was uneasy with the system. "Because we slave for the Krelling, then the women are also slaves in that they must make up for the work men would do in the normal course of things. One of my work-mates told me that most men find some time when they can help in the fields. If we cannot escape this place immediately, then I think that we should do the same." Telli agreed. He thought his job seemed tolerable, at least for a short while, and wanted to know the details of his friend's mining work, and whether he felt the same way about it. Brakis described his experience as they ate. "We were led some distance into the caves to a site where they mine the black burning stone you use in the forge. Then we were set to work as a team of eight men, four chipping at the rock face, and four carting the blackstone away. We would change jobs every half-hour, the carting of the stone being a welcome rest from the work with pickaxe and shovel. I am fit, and will not have too many problems with this kind of work when I become accustomed to it. However, it is not something to be done for a long time. Some of the older men have painful joints, from too much of the same repeated actions, and some have coughs in their lungs from the dust created when the blackstone is broken. It is not natural for men to work in this way. I am glad Seth arranged for you to work with him in the forge, although it may not be much better." Exhausted, the Elnesiders lay down on their cots soon after they had finished their meal, and after some more discussion of the night's experiences, both fell soundly asleep. The next night at work passed more easily for Telli and Brakis, and certainly for their fellow slaves. While this was only the second shift for the Elnesiders, the others were on their seventh consecutive night. However, the knowledge that they would all have two days' rest to look forward to on its completion made this in many ways the easiest of the seven. The atmosphere in the forge was clearly different, with Stell singing more loudly than the night before, others joining in at times, and Harren largely ignoring them. Telli learnt a little more about his job, and increased his acquaintance with some of the other workers, particularly the apprentices with whom he would meet and exchange a few words when they arrived at the fuel piles at the same time as he did. They talked much of the following night when, free from work, they intended to drink vast quantities of the apple wine Telli had tasted on his first night in the camp. One of them, a lad of about his own age called Beyorn (a name familiar to Telli, as were some others amongst the slaves), invited the newcomer to come fishing with him the following afternoon, an invitation he gratefully accepted. The apprentices were understandably eager to talk with someone who had experienced another world outside the camp. When the time came to finish work, the smiths joined the stream of slaves leaving the caves, most now smiling and laughing, a contrast to the generally subdued and depressed behaviour in the camp

experienced by the Elnesiders up to this time. Beyorn said that he knew where Telli's hut was, and would call for him in the late afternoon, when they were rested from the work. Seth said he would come to the hut at sundown to show the newcomers the way to the meeting house, where many gathered to celebrate the break from work. Beyorn arrived at the Elnesiders' hut in mid-afternoon, accompanied by Stell who proved to be his cousin. They were equipped with rods and nets, and when Telli introduced Brakis, insisted that he also should join them at the river. The pair were good company, especially Stell, one of those people who seemed to exist for the sole purpose of making others laugh. Beyorn led them to a site on the far bank, which he insisted was the best place to be sure of a good catch. However, they were unlucky there, and in the end it was only Brakis, choosing his own place a little further upstream, who landed a fish of a size worth eating. Fishing was to become his main pastime in the camp, where he could not hunt, and he soon gained a reputation as a provider of fish to his neighbours, this contribution saving him much of the obligation he had felt to help the women and children in the fields. The afternoon ended with Stell falling in the river as he tried to net a fish. Once there, he decided to stay for a while, fully clothed, shouting to the others that it was warm, and that they still smelled of the week's work and needed a good bath. They forgot their fishing, stripping off to join the young smith in the water. Refreshed and hungry, the four made their way back to the village. Telli and Brakis were questioned thoroughly by their new friends about their life in Elneside, and their capture by the Khrelling. They answered all they could, only misleading the others as to the whereabouts of their home and the size of the settlement, now having agreed with each other on stories that were consistent in case they were questioned separately. Brakis did mention the Khrelling skull in the pool while describing their journey towards the mountains, and Stell confirmed his guess that the creatures buried their dead in water. "They eat mainly fish, and believe that they must return their own flesh to the fish of the caves on dying," he explained. "The caves are rich in fish, most of them blind as they have no use for eyes." "He knows so much about Khrelling that we think he will become one," said Beyorn. "This young fool says that because I speak the tongue of the cave maggots better than almost all in the camp," said Stell, flicking his wet shirt at his cousin. "But I am no fool. There are few of us able to communicate between man and Khrelling, and the masters can ill afford to harm those who can." They had reached the village, and the Elnesiders bade their new friends goodbye, and made their way to the hut to eat, and to await Seth. The meeting house was a long wooden shed with stone fireplaces at each end and rough wooden tables and chairs set around the walls. When Telli and Brakis arrived with Seth, there were already over a hundred people present, both men and women. This was the night for all to relax as there would be no work done in the caves until the morning team started at dawn on the day after next. Although it was clear to Telli that the slaves were happy that night to have a rest from the grind of their work, the atmosphere of the gathering held undercurrents he had never experienced at an Elneside party or feast. The apple wine flowed freely, as did other strong drinks, but many of those present seemed to be drinking to forget their situation, rather than to celebrate.

People were eager to meet the newcomers to the community, and Beyorn, who arrived shortly after the Elnesiders, took an obvious pride in already having met them. He introduced Telli to many others of his own age, too many for him to remember most of their names. One name he did remember was that of Nina, a pretty girl with long black hair, and large, dark brown eyes through which she gazed at him with a shy curiosity. Telli managed to talk with her a little, while Beyorn went to fill their cups with wine. She stated that she could not stay too late at the gathering as she must rise in the morning to pick some fruit that was too ripe to leave even though it was a rest day. Telli found himself volunteering to help in the orchards, much to the amusement of Brakis, who was standing nearby. The night wore on, and the Elnesiders enjoyed themselves well enough. It was the first party they had ever attended where they were meeting people whom they had not known for all of their lives. It was this novelty, something only people from the most isolated human communities would be able to comprehend, which made the first few days of their experience as slaves not only bearable, but almost enjoyable. The rest period passed all too quickly. Telli helped out in the orchards on the morning after the gathering in the meeting-house, and managed to get to know Nina a little better. She seemed at home in the fields, and lost some of the shyness of the night before, plying him with questions about Elneside, and answering his own about life in the camp and work in the fields. Telli found himself the victim of strange emotions. While unworried for the time being about his own situation as a slave, he found the idea of Nina being condemned to know nothing other than life in the camp almost unbearable. Remembering Seth's show of feeling when he talked of his dream that the whole community might find freedom, Telli now realised that he was already thinking in the same way. If he found a way to escape himself, he would not be able to rest until he had also found a means to free the other captives. The Elnesiders decided to settle into their pattern of work for at least another two nine-day periods before any serious consideration of escape. They did not feel that they were in any danger, as long as they managed to obey the rules laid down by the Khrelling, and it would clearly be unwise to attempt anything without a much better knowledge of their surrounds. Brakis spoke at length on this subject during the morning following their first two rest days while they waited in their hut for the horn-blast to signal the gathering of their first afternoon shift. "There is a danger less obvious here than death at the hands of the Khrelling," he said at one point. "Many here have died in part of their minds. It is not only the barrier that keeps the slaves here, and it is not only the attachment to family and friends, which most in the camp certainly have. If a man can tolerate the work here, then all else is easy for him. He does not lack food, or clothing, or anything else he needs in life. To ask why some might like to stay in this place is then a bit like asking why we two are the only ones who have chosen to leave Elneside in our times. Like our people, they want for nothing that is essential to them. Although they do not have the freedom, so valuable to you and me, to roam at will in the forest, and they do not rule themselves, few of them have experience of these things." "I do not think that either of us will fall into the trap of comfort here," said Telli. "If we were in danger of doing that, we would not be here in the first place, but in Elneside, where folks are clearly more content with their lot than are those we see around us now. Did you not feel the atmosphere in the meetinghouse?" "Yes and elsewhere. However, the others here know nothing of Elneside. Their origins are to the east of the mountains. We must remember the stories of war, plague and famine told by our forefathers, as well as the tales of the great wonders of their world. Then, perhaps, it would not seem such a bad lot in life to be a slave here. Speaking of the meeting-house, how is young Nina? Could not such a person become a 'trap of comfort' for a young man in a few years time, or even now?" Brakis's voice was teasing, and his

eyes smiling. The horn sounded for their shift, sparing Telli's blushes, and the two made their way to work. Three nine-day periods passed quickly for the Elnesiders, with much to learn, and many new acquaintances to be made. They became more accustomed to the Khrelling, who frequently toured the work places in groups, usually accompanied by a human translator. Brakis hated the creatures, understandably, but Telli's dislike for his masters was tempered by interest in them and their ways. He asked Stell to teach him some of their language, which the young smith tried to do. The pair made Seth laugh as they attempted to set aside days in which Allenth could not be spoken, and the business of the forge must be conducted in the hisses and clicks of Khrelling. Telli became teacher as well as pupil, attempting to teach Seth's family (adults as well as children) their letters, with some success. While resigning themselves to life as slaves for a while, both Telli and Brakis were on a constant lookout for a means of escape, and it was not surprising that Telli was the first to identify a possible route for himself, considering his ability to 'fly'. It was towards the end of their second complete 'period' of work, the first on a morning shift, that he decided to explain his idea to Brakis, whom he had joined for an afternoon's fishing. They sat lazily on the riverbank, their rods propped against a rock, watching the lines dangling in the stream below for signs of movement that would indicate a catch. Midsummer was approaching, the days reaching their longest, and the hidden valley was truly beautiful under the afternoon sun. The irony of discussing escape on such a day as this was not lost on Telli, as he looked up at the high mountains surrounding them, and broached the subject on his mind. "There seems no need for haste in escaping the camp for the time being, but it is certainly about the easiest time to do so," he began. "In what way?" asked Brakis, adjusting the angle of his rod with a foot, and lying back against a convenient rock, eyes closed. "We passed under the highest of the mountains when we were taken through the caves, but the peaks to the east are still high. The way over them will be free of snow for another two months, maybe three. Even though it may well be possible to pass them after the first snows, the choice of ways would be limited. I fear that the easiest passes may be well watched by the Khrelling, not only in the event of a slave escaping, but also to ensure that there is not a chance discovery of the camp by men from the Kingdom to the east." "True, too true," Brakis murmured drowsily. "I think I may have found a way out," said Telli, as he looked around to make sure that the pair were alone. Brakis sat up, suddenly wide awake, and looked around also. " Where's that?" "From the forge. There are shafts cut in the roof of the cave to let out the smoke. Looking up two of these, I can see the light of day. But these two are in the centre of the ceiling, and are too high for me to fly up to even if I could do so without being seen. One of the others, however, would be possible for me to enter, although far from easy. The opening is as high as the others, but it is in a corner of the forge, and there are uneven patches on the walls where I can find a grip, and so rest on the way up. Most important, this opening is not in the line of sight of the other workers when at their usual places, nor of the Khrelling should they arrive on the lookout balcony, unless they have a particular reason to look in that direction. I cannot see daylight at the top of this shaft, but in the dim light, it appears to be crossed by another passage, perhaps twenty feet above the forge's ceiling. Smoke from our furnaces drifts slowly into the entrance, which means it must surely lead to an exit from the mountain somewhere, whether directly or

indirectly. I think I should try it." Telli looked at his friend, not knowing if he should expect encouragement in this course, or warning of the obvious dangers. Attempts at escape were punishable by death. Brakis looked thoughtful. "Assuming you make it into this chimney, or whatever it is, what happens if the way out is blocked, or guarded, or if there is no way out at all?" he said, slowly. "Then I shall return to the forge as quickly as possible, hoping that I have not been missed. The timing will be important. I have already tried piling up the fuel on the fires I tend, then leaving for the fuel piles, and staying away for ten minutes, or slightly more. As long as the fires are burning well, no one takes notice. Remember that we are locked into the forge by an iron gate when we enter. The only open exit from it is halfway up the wall behind the balcony on which the Khrelling guards arrive from time to time to observe us, hardly a likely escape route. That is to say, the only exit apart from the chimney shafts, and one other hole, which is important to my plan look, look at your line." Telli interrupted himself to point out the twitching of Brakis's fishing line, indicating a catch. Brakis pulled in the line carefully, and landed a large fish, nearly the length of his forearm. He looked at it carefully, not recognising the type, then held it out for Telli to see. "Look at the head," he said. "This is Khrelling food." Telli saw that the fish had no eyes, only markings on its scales, like scars, as if they had once been there. "The river must flow in or out from the mountains, perhaps both," said Brakis. "There seem to be many entrances to the caves. That is of interest to you if you intend to go wandering in them." He threw the fish into a catch net, adding: "It may be good eating for the cave worms, but I shall have to check with Seth whether it is good for us. What were you saying about another hole in the forge?" "There's a hole in the floor where we piss." Brakis laughed, despite the seriousness of the subject. "You're not planning to dive out down a piss-hole if you cannot fly out of your damned chimney!" "No. The hole may be just about big enough for someone my size to squeeze through, but I am sure it would be suicide to do so. I can hear fast running water down below, and anyone trying that way out would surely drown, or be bruised and crushed to death against the rocks. This is why it is left open." "Then what part can it play in your plans?" "It can give me more time. I want the Khrelling and our fellow slaves to think I have gone this way, and hopefully to assume my death." Brakis looked closely at his young friend, beginning to sense that the boy might have a well thought out plan that actually did have a chance of leading to escape. "Go on. Tell me how you intend to make them think that," he said slowly, his brow creased in concentration as he tried to picture the layout of the forge, which he had never seen.

"My goatskin coat will be found by the piss-hole. I will have mentioned to Seth, Stell, and others my desperation to escape, that I feel so strongly as to take suicidal risks, and, in a manner half joking, that I have even dreamt of diving down that stinking hole. Then I disappear, my coat is found, and of course it is not possible for a slave to leave the forge by any other way , not unless he could fly, and we all know that no man can do that! Therefore I must be dead, and with luck the Khrelling will not search too hard for my remains; and most important, they will not see a reason to blame Harren, Seth, or even you, as my friend, for my foolish suicide." Brakis was impressed with the plan, but cautious, and reluctant to let Telli take the risks involved even though he would certainly have taken them himself, given the chance. "You must not rush into this, however good your plan may be. With your talents, an easier way may present itself, and as you say, there is no immediate pressure to escape." Telli agreed, saying that he still had much preparation to do, even if he did decide to attempt a bid for freedom from inside the caves. However, as the pair picked up their rods and their catch, and headed towards the village, he was almost sure that he would soon be either free of the camp, or facing the consequences of failure.