Enchantress from the Stars Page 8

  Yet there were problems, problems I could never have anticipated. I expected, you see, to be playing a game of make-believe with the Andrecians. During my briefings as to the sorts of explanations that would be meaningful to Georyn and Terwyn—which Father gave me via the communicator, just as fast as he could learn what concepts they understood—I got the impression that I would be simply acting out a part in a fairy tale. It didn’t occur to me that I myself would be affected.

  Not that Father didn’t warn me. “Elana,” he told me, “one of the first things you’ll learn when you start working with these people is that they are fundamentally no different from other people you know. The fact that they are Younglings in terms of their culture does not mean that they are in any way childish as individuals. Any man who is capable of doing the job we are going to give him will be a strong, self-assured person, and you will not feel toward him as you would toward a child.”

  This turned out to be something of an understatement. But it was a while before I realized it.

  THE LIGHT

  Now when Georyn and Terwyn told the Enchantress of the magical disk that the Starwatcher had demanded of them, she told them, “This task is much simpler than you know, but it is at the same time more difficult.”

  “Simpler?” questioned Georyn. “Can you, then, tell us where the disk is to be found?”

  “I can do better than that,” said the Enchantress, “for I myself have the thing that you seek.” So saying, she went into the hut, and to the amazement of the brothers she brought forth the enchanted disk even as the Starwatcher had described it. There did indeed appear an image within the disk—an image of none other than the Starwatcher himself, as tall as a man’s finger—and it moved as though it were a living thing! Furthermore, the miniature figure spoke to them in the Starwatcher’s own voice; but the words were strange, and they took no meaning from them.

  “This is a great marvel,” said Georyn. “I had not thought that such a thing could be!”

  For a long time they stared into the disk; and it showed them not only the Starwatcher himself, but also the interior of his hut, and his table, where only this morning they had sat to eat, and even the red glow of his fire. Then Terwyn said, “Why, Lady, since the disk is now before us, do you say also that our task will be difficult?”

  “Alas,” said Georyn, “I fear that the Lady means that she will not give us the disk.”

  “Oh, I will give it to you gladly,” the Enchantress told them. “But there is a condition.”

  “Name it,” declared Georyn, for he was willing to agree to any condition that was honorable, and he could not imagine the Enchantress setting one that was not.

  “It is simply this: if I give you this thing, you must solemnly promise that you will allow it to be taken from you by no one but the Starwatcher, even if you must die defending it.”

  “That is no condition at all,” exclaimed Terwyn, “for we would not let anyone else have it in any case.” But Georyn knew that the Enchantress did not make statements that had no meaning, and that if she said the condition was difficult, it most assuredly would be. Nevertheless, he promised her that he would defend the disk with his life, and Terwyn did also.

  So it was that the brothers, having thanked the Enchantress for her aid, took the magic disk and started back the way they had come. And as before, Georyn looked back as he left the clearing, and he hoped that he would have occasion to seek the Lady again; for to him she was far more than the possessor of enchanted objects.

  The sun had sunk below the horizon when they set out, and within the wood it was already almost dark. The tops of the trees were lost in gloom; their many trunks seemed to be crowding closer as the remaining light faded. “We can go no farther tonight,” Terwyn said. “We must stop to sleep, for we cannot travel in the dark.”

  Georyn agreed, and they began at once to seek a good place to build their campfire. But in the next instant the brothers froze with fear, for a dark figure loomed ahead of them, a figure that was approaching noiselessly, blocking their path.

  No mere mortal threat was this; the stranger could not be a villager nor yet one of the King’s huntsmen, for he was taller than other men and his eyes had an alien look. And indeed the eyes were all that could be seen of the man’s face, for the hood of his cloak covered it almost completely. This cloak was of a gray stuff that, though it hung in folds, was more like to metal than to cloth, and it shone—not softly, as did the garments of the Enchantress, but harshly.

  Yet the stranger’s appearance frightened Georyn but little beside a more fell circumstance. For though the figure was totally silent, its thought was all too understandable. And that thought was this: You must give me the enchanted disk.

  “We will not,” said Georyn, for the demand had been made as clearly as if it had been spoken aloud, and it required an answer. Terwyn too stood fast, making no move.

  If you do not give it, then I will take it; and I will make you sorry. You cannot stand against my power.

  Georyn knew that this was the truth; they were helpless before such a thing as this. For the stranger was clearly an evil spirit or a wizard of some sort, and one cannot fight wizards as one can fight men. Yet having given their word to the Enchantress, they were bound to resist, whatever evil might befall them. “The condition was in truth a real one,” he murmured to Terwyn, “but we accepted it, and we must now hold to it.”

  “What an ill chance!” exclaimed Terwyn.

  “I do not think it was chance at all,” Georyn told him. “For I am sure that the Lady knew exactly what would happen. Do you think, Terwyn, that enchantments are easily bought? If it were so, all the evils of the world would have been vanquished long ago; there would be no Dragons left!”

  The dark figure moved toward them. Georyn and Terwyn drew their swords, but it was to no avail, for they were disarmed within seconds. As if they had life of their own, the weapons flew out of their hands and landed on the path, out of reach. The stranger had not touched them; his hands were still hidden under his cloak.

  Georyn closed his fingers tightly around the precious disk, and drawing a deep breath, he waited. By all normal logic they were in the power of an evil spirit and were about to die; but he suddenly found that he did not believe their doom to be a certain thing. For two reasons he did not believe it: first, the Enchantress had known what would happen, he was positive of that, and he was also positive that she would not have sent them to a sure death; and second, there was the matter of the enchanted disk. If this wizard could by magic obtain their swords, then he could surely obtain the disk in the same fashion; yet he did not do it, and it was therefore obvious that the disk itself was not the thing at issue.

  So Georyn faced the stranger and he said, “We will not give you the disk, for if we were truly powerless against you, you would have it by now. Instead, you have offered us a choice, and our choice is to keep it—so stand aside and let us pass.”

  And as Georyn and Terwyn walked forward, the dread demon did indeed stand aside! The brothers went on, swordless, and they did not look back; and though they camped for the night only a little distance from that place, they saw no more evil spirits.

  Evrek contacted me that same night, after his encounter with Georyn and Terwyn, since I had insisted that I wanted to hear the outcome just as soon as the thing was over. (The communicator I’d given the brothers had been a spare one; I still had my own.) I’d hated to send them off like that, knowing as I did what they’d meet. Of course I had warned them, and I was sure that Georyn, at least, had fully understood.

  “It went surprisingly well, darling,” Evrek said. “They showed a lot of spirit, and I think I managed to get them pretty scared, too. I could hardly keep from letting them sense my admiration. That Georyn is a sharp one; I wasn’t expecting him to reason his way out of it the way he did.”

  “Georyn goes right to the heart of the matter every time,” I agreed, thinking what a surprise it had been to discover that intellig
ence has so little to do with background. Georyn was definitely not a person you talked down to.

  “We’ve been lucky in finding those two, all right.”

  “Evrek,” I said thoughtfully, “aren’t we taking some awful chances? I mean letting Andrecians have a communicator, even temporarily. What if they were captured and the Imperials found it?”

  “It would be bad,” he said soberly. “But we’ve got to take chances if we’re to accomplish anything at all. This next business, with the light, is particularly dangerous; the thing can be seen for miles, but of course they’ll keep to the middle of the woods with it, and they’ll have it for a very short time.”

  “Too short,” I said. “Do you have to take it from them?”

  “You know I do, Elana. It’s not going to be fun, though.” He sounded tired and, I thought, rather dejected. To my chagrin, I realized that I hadn’t offered much sympathy. I hadn’t meant to sound as if I were blaming him; I knew his job was much harder than mine. His role as “evil spirit” wasn’t all of it, either. I got the shivers, thinking of some of the other things he and Father were doing.

  They had been to the nearby village more than once, dressed as peasants. Fortunately the invaders were steering clear of settled areas. If they had spotted one of us in local dress, they would have had no reason to suspect us of being alien, of course; they’d simply have gotten the idea that there was another native race. However, they might then have started a real investigation of Andrecia’s inhabitants, something we weren’t anxious to have them do. After all, for our scheme to work, they had to keep on believing that one native was like another.

  It had been necessary to visit the village not only to gather information, but also to get supplies. Father was now feeding Georyn and Terwyn as well as the rest of us, and we were saving our concentrated food for emergencies. Buying things had proved no problem; the unminted silver with which a survey team is normally equipped was very acceptable to local shopkeepers. But I could not seem to get any details about that village out of Evrek even, let alone out of Father. I wanted desperately to go too; but when I pressed the subject, Father said that I had had “insufficient preparation.” And anyway, I had to stay put in order to do my own job.

  It had also been necessary to do some scouting of the invaders’ camp. Evrek had gone while Father was working with the brothers; I had not been told of the venture until it was over, but I suspected that this first trip was not the last. There were all too many occasions on which I was unable to contact Evrek. Naturally we had to know what the colonists were doing, and we had to have specific details on which to base our instructions to our “dragon slayers” when the time came. But the thought of what could happen if Evrek were caught was a thing I had to keep pushing from my mind.

  Meanwhile, Father felt that the brothers were surpassing his highest hopes and that it had been little short of a miracle, our happening to find men so well suited to the job as quickly as we had. “I was expecting them to stand up to Evrek,” he said the morning after that first trial, “but Georyn did more than that; he showed an ability to think fast under pressure that may be a very big bonus so far as any encounter with Imperials is concerned.”

  I didn’t answer. Somehow, the thought of Georyn being sent to confront Imperials was more disconcerting than it had been at first.

  “Of course,” Father went on, “the next test is quite a bit more demanding.” He reviewed the procedure in greater detail than he’d done before, and the more I heard the less I liked it. To me, it seemed entirely too demanding.

  “Won’t it be awfully discouraging to them?” I protested.

  “Yes, it will. But if they can’t face that and keep trying, what chance will they have of dealing with the invaders? I’m willing to bet that there will be plenty of discouragement there.”

  That I couldn’t argue with. And this was more than a test, it was an essential part of the leadup to the instruction we were going to give. Georyn and Terwyn had to learn that courage, while essential, was not in itself enough, and that magic can be challenged only by more powerful magic. Yet still I hesitated.

  “It seems like such a dirty trick. I hate to have any part in pulling it on them, that’s all,” I complained.

  “We all do,” Father said. “But if they’re going to back out, it’s better to find out now than later.” He paused, then continued, “Do you know how to give the right kind of encouragement, Elana?”

  “I think so. I’m supposed to make them feel that I want them to succeed, that I believe they can, and still scare them a little with my warnings.”

  “That’s right. Try not to give away the happy ending, not even after you can see they’ve earned it. Let it come as a surprise.”

  “Are you sure there’ll be a happy ending?”

  Father smiled. “For this episode, I’m almost positive. For the whole venture … well, as we’ve known all along, it’s a long chance—but I’ve got a strong hunch that these men can achieve one, if anyone can.”

  With glad hearts, the brothers took the enchanted disk to the Starwatcher, and he said to them, “You have done well, and I am very pleased to have this thing. But before I can give you the secret that will overcome the Dragon, you must perform another task for me.”

  “We are ready to try it,” said Georyn, “and this time, you do not need to warn us that it will be difficult!”

  The Starwatcher smiled. “It may indeed prove so; but I have no doubt that you are equal to it.”

  “What must we do?” asked Terwyn, in haste to be off.

  “Bring me a piece of the Sun, so that in my hut there shall be no darkness, though the fire be cold and night envelops the forest.”

  “But that is impossible,” faltered Georyn. “No man can touch the Sun.”

  “Nevertheless, you must obtain a piece of it,” returned the Starwatcher. “Go, and do not return until you have done so.”

  So Georyn and Terwyn went again into the forest; and they were joyful no longer, for they knew that any attempt to reach the Sun itself would be quite useless, and they could scarce believe that a piece of it had ever been imprisoned anywhere upon the earth. Georyn doubted that even the Enchantress could do such a thing.

  Yet it was his belief that in her lay their only hope. Accordingly, the brothers set out once more for her hut, although already the time drew on to nightfall. Dusk was deepening ere they came to the place, and a chill wind sighed in the tops of the towering firs; and still Georyn and Terwyn continued on their way, all the while looking up at the blazing stars and wondering how the Starwatcher had been able to glean their secrets. And when at last they approached the abode of the Enchantress, therein was light, not soft and ruddy, as is firelight, but white and dazzling, like that of the Sun.

  And the Enchantress met them; and when she learned their task, she put the light into Georyn’s hands, confined within a small globe of glass, with a handle by which to hold it, that he might not be burned; and there was yet more light, in another globe, which she kept. And Georyn accepted the gift with reverence, for he knew now that she must be custodian of all life’s secrets if she could hold the Sun itself and bequeath it unto her friends.

  “You command great powers indeed, Lady,” he said to her. “But surely you cannot simply give us this marvel. What shall we do to earn it?”

  The Enchantress replied, “You are right, Georyn; for this too, there is a condition.”

  “We will meet it willingly,” said Terwyn.

  “It may be harder than it seems,” she warned with a gentle smile.

  “So was yesterday’s condition,” Georyn told her. “I would not expect it to be otherwise.”

  “Well, then,” said the Enchantress, “here is what is required of you: if I give you this thing, you must promise me that you will return to the Starwatcher with it tonight, without pausing for food or rest, and that you will let no one touch it but him.”

  “That will not be hard!” cried Terwyn. “For we are alread
y in haste to complete this task, and we shall not mind traveling at night with this to light our way.” But the Lady did not reply, and Georyn knew that the condition would be hard. Still, both he and Terwyn promised her that they would not stop to rest until they reached the Starwatcher’s hut, and that no one would be allowed to touch the light.

  “Know also,” said the Enchantress, “that were this light allowed to burn by day, it would be outshone by its parent Sun and would expend its fire to no purpose; therefore, since the dawn may come ere you reach your destination, I must show you how to extinguish it.”

  “But if it is extinguished before we come to the Starwatcher,” Terwyn protested, “how then shall we have fulfilled the task that he set us?”

  She laughed. “Have no fear; the Starwatcher will know how to make it burn again.” And she guided Georyn’s hand to a tiny ball at the base of the globe, saying, “Turn this, and the light will be darkened.”

  “I understand,” said Georyn. “I will do as you have told me.”

  Then the Enchantress said to them, “I can show you a shorter way to the Starwatcher’s hut, which will save you some hours; but it lies through the heart of the Enchanted Forest.”

  “Lady,” said Georyn, “I must tell you that I know little of the Enchanted Forest except wild tales that I have heard, and those tales have not been encouraging. But I believe you have knowledge as to the truth of them; so I will ask you directly whether you think that this route is a safe one for us to take.”