Chapter V:
Scattered
The Elves
'You are lucky the Feisi did not eat your hand off as you slept,' Xan said, his voice reaching into Agonas' dark dreams.
The son of Parganas awoke with a start. 'What happened? Where is Zefru? I will kill him with my bare hands!'
'Do not worry about him,' Xan said. 'You must worry about yourself. We have escaped the Gargantan for the moment, but we are not yet out of the jungle. Keep alert, keep quiet and make your way south. If we are lucky we will be able to find our way into the Kingdom of Seasons. The Beast sleeps near their borders, if the dwarves are to be trusted.'
'You know that they are,' Gheshtick said, suddenly breaking his silence.
Xan nodded, admitting the truth of his words.
'Who else is here?' Agonas asked. 'What happened to the dwarves?'
'If they remained in that clearing any longer than we,' Xan said somberly, 'then they are all dead. I saw no less than twenty Gargantan heading in their direction as I fled. No man, elf or dwarf could hope to hold against such a force.'
'That is unfortunate,' Agonas said, thinking about how this would affect the rest of his quest. They had some idea now, at least, of how to find the Beast, but after seeing the resourcefulness of the dwarves he had really come to hope that they would be there to face the monster when the time came. 'What of Amerlu and Udraja?' Agonas asked.
'Udraja is dead,' Gheshtick said, shutting his eyes as if he might thereby hide his eyes from the memory of his comrade's gruesome death.
'We have neither seen nor heard aught concerning the other,' Xan explained.
'And... Zefru?' Agonas asked, barely able to contain his rage.
'He is missing as well,' Xan said. 'And to be lost in GarBrusht is almost as good as being dead.'
'That is no comfort to me,' Agonas said. 'If I manage by some trick of Fate to slay the Beast of the Earth, I will immediately return here and hunt down Zefru, and make sure that he is dead.'
Opportunity
When Zefru fled from the clearing he made his way first toward the west, thinking that perhaps there was some way out of the forest in that direction. But after twenty minutes of running he very nearly stumbled into a steep valley.
Before him lay an immense land of tall trees, dark woods, and perilous rocks. But moving about in the midst of the jungle he could see the great forms of the Gargantan. The monsters roamed about with obvious signs of agitation, having doubtless heard the ring of Haf's shield, but not being near enough to discern from what place the sound had originated. The great apes - for that is what they seemed to be - pushed the trees aside almost like a cow pushing its way through a field of grass. All over the valley the treetops rustled and shook as the enormous Gargantan prowled about.
'The gods!' Zefru cursed to himself. 'Now what am I to do?'
It had been easy enough for him to escape. With the others standing there like fools it was all but inevitable that they should perish. Why should he not, then, make use of them during his own escape? He almost burst out laughing when he thought of how Agonas was so filled with dread at the sight of the monsters that he accepted Zefru's admonition not to run without question. 'That is the sort of thing that sets the living apart from the dead,' he thought to himself. 'The quickness of thought.'
He turned to the south and walked along the edge of the valley for a time, finally deciding that he would be better off heading back to the water. 'At least in that case I know that I can find my way to the ocean,' he murmured to himself. He acted indifferent when others plotted and schemed, but he was always listening to what others said. He had heard everything the dwarves had to say about the lay of this region, and he knew that the Gargra River would eventually meet the Spring River, which marks the border between Antsesno and the Kingdom of Seasons. 'And without the dwarves I don't think I have THAT much to fear from those men.' In Evnai he had lived four hundred years as a thief and a cutthroat, but without ever being caught or taken under guard. After so long a career there were certainly men who knew exactly who he was; but all they could do when pressed for the ground of their accusations was to mumble and curse about his craftiness. It was his skill in this regard that brought him to the attention of Agonas, who, Zefru thought, was something of a thief at heart.
It was unfortunate, he thought to himself, that he had to leave the other elf in this manner. 'But such is the way of the living,' he assured himself. 'He would have done the same to me,' he thought, snickering, 'if he had the sense to think of it.'
He continued south, veering to the left or right as the sounds of battle indicated (he always chose to move away from the sounds) and as the terrain permitted. He did not want to go near the valley of the Gargantan, where he had seen so many of the great creatures foraging. It was some comfort to him to realize that the creatures ate - primarily at least - the leaves on the trees, and not animal flesh. He did not intend to test their preferences any further, however, and made sure to keep as far from them as possible.
He continued on in this way, sleeping in holes with his dagger at the ready or sleeping in trees high enough that he thought even the Gargantan could not reach him, until he at last came to the Gargra once again. This he followed into the south for several more days, finally coming to a sharp cliff and and a great waterfall. 'This land has altogether too many of these,' he observed. The descent into the south did not look terribly treacherous, there were a number of paths down the mountainside that, it appeared, could easily be followed into the lands beyond. But, hoping to avoid climbing, he searched beyond the eastern shore of the river for another path into the south. He found a rocky and unpleasant path that, with no small amount of difficulty, led around to the west, slowly curling to face the falls. From there, however, he could see that, in fact, none of the easier looking paths down the cliffside would have led him to the land below, and that every single one of them came to a place where they dropped off suddenly into the rapids below.
Just then he looked up and saw, at the top of the cliff, Amerlu, the mercenary from Evnai. Amerlu stood there for nearly ten minutes before unraveling his rope and tying one end of it to a thick branch at the top of the cliff.
Zefru grinned.
Amerlu struggled and labored for nearly twenty minutes before coming to a slippery ledge that, from above, had looked flat and strong. As he fought to find a place for his feet, Zefru called out, 'Is this the way it ends, Amerlu the mighty? Brought to naught by moss on a stone?'
Distracted, Amerlu slipped and grasped his rope at the last moment.
'Curse you, Zefru! Help me!' he shouted. 'You have always been a coward!'
'And what of you? Did you stay and kill all?' Zefru asked, his laughter echoing against the rock wall. 'No, we are both cowards, Amerlu. I am just quicker and better at it than you are!' With that he began to cast stones at the other elf, gently at first, but gradually throwing them harder and harder.
'Curse you to the pit!' Amerlu said angrily, his mouth foaming with rage and his face turning as red as blood. 'What is the sense of this?'
'What is the sense of anything? What sense does such a question even have? Just hold on as long as you can, and then let go with dignity.'
'What is wrong with you!?' Amerlu shouted as a stone struck his hand, almost forcing him to let go of the rope.
'Choose now, Amerlu of Evnai, child of the gods,' Zefru laughed. 'Will you fall by your own hand, or shall it be by mine? Will you hold on to the last?'
Amerlu struggled more with his rope, pulling himself up the cliffside as quickly as possible. But Zefru's face grew cold and murder rose up within his heart. He picked up a large round stone and flung it with great force into the back of Amerlu's head, knocking him from the rope to slide off the edge of the cliff screaming in terror.
It was not long after this that Zefru had the opportunity to repeat this circumstance with the other elves. Agonas, Gheshtick and Xan came following the Gangra two
days later, and stood in the early morning light examining the falls. At first Zefru was of a mind to let them figure out for themselves just how perilous the climb would prove. But he could not bring himself to let Gheshtick perish in this way. It is not as though he considered the other elf a friend - Zefru did not have friends. But he did not want to see him die. The word pity came to his mind, but he shook his head as if to cast the thought away from him.
When Xan had tied the end of his rope to the same branch that Amerlu had used, Zefru called out from the bushes on the eastern shore of the Gargra River. 'Xan of Thure! Do not meet the same end as our poor friend Amerlu, who, not more than a day ago plummeted to his death from that very spot!'
Agonas' face turned to blood with rage at the sound of Zefru's voice.
'Coward!' he called out, 'Traitor! Show yourself.'
Zefru emerged from his hiding place and spread his arms in mockery of the gesture Xan was wont to make when he meant to show that he was not trying to deceive. 'I am not a great warrior,' the thief admitted. 'But what I am able to do, that I do. Ever since I saw poor Amerlu meet his end I have scouted these parts for a path. I might have simply taken that path and abandoned you to make the same mistake as him. But I stayed, so that where I am able to help, I could help.'
'It is the worst of cowards who must explain his motives for an action which, for other men, would come so naturally as to need no explanation,' Xan retorted.
'Enough,' Agonas said, his face visibly calmer. 'Come here, Zefru - I promise you nothing.'
Zefru emerged from his hiding place and slowly approached the son of Parganas. When he drew within arm's reach of Agonas he paused and began to back away. But before he had taken a single step back Agonas rushed forward and took hold of the thief's wrist. 'Zefru thorn of Evnai, do you think that I have any delusions concerning your character? I chose you for a purpose, master thief - I chose you, not despite, but for your gutless, faithless soul.' As Agonas spoke those last few words he wrenched hard upon Zefru's wrist, so that the other man was forced to the ground in pain. 'Flee now, master thief!' Agonas hissed. 'Flee now that you are within my grasp! I know you and your kind. I know what you fear and what makes you act. Do not be mistaken, Zefru, there is nothing in the world but power. And surely I have power over you. Set your will against me, and you will be stung with the horns of a bull. Follow me and you will feast on the bounty of Fate.'
He released Zefru's hand and the thief backed away, looking hatefully into the eyes of the other elves. 'Now, obey me,' Agonas said coldly. 'Show me the way down.'
Not a word was spoken as the elves made their way slowly down into lands to the south. They followed Zefru's path for the rest of the day, carefully descending from the GarBrusht. 'If it is at all possible,' Gheshtick suggested, 'I would like to find another way to make our return.'
'Well,' Agonas answered him, 'I see no reason to return the way we came. If we succeed, then we can set sail from anywhere in Kharku. This Kingdom of Seasons must have ports and ships.'
'If you succeed in your mission,' Xan said, 'Every nation will bow before you and let you pass unmolested. Only a fool would trouble one who slew the immortal Beast.'
'The world is full of fools,' Agonas replied.
The elves had all but given up on the thought that they might see the dwarves alive again. Even Xan seemed to believe that there was no possible way for them to escape the circumstance in which they had chosen to stand. 'If they were of any other race I would guess that some one or two of them had escaped. But dwarves do not flee; not unless it is for a very specific purpose. They would not have been scattered as we were, and they certainly could not have withstood so many Gargantan. The only other possibility - nay, to me it is a certainty - is that they fought bravely to an end. If we ourselves survive this ordeal, we ought to have a bard compose something for them.'
'That would be fitting,' Gheshtick replied. He could not help but feel a sense of sadness at the thought of the dwarves. After all, they had forced the dwarves to come along on their journey, and now, instead of loosing Dan'Ereg, the people of Sparka would be losing Ereg and his five oldest sons. 'That is a great blow,' he thought to himself.
The Root Of All Causes
The days that followed their escape from GarBrusht seemed to follow one after another in dull repetition. The terrain grew easier, the rocks and trees being gradually replaced by grassy hills and gentle fields of wildflowers. 'This is the Winterfel,' Xan said, Or so I suspect. Nowhere else in Kharku can flowers thrive in such cold weather.' Indeed, almost as soon as he had mentioned the cold it began to overtake the land. They had passed over the mountains, and now they were in a land where the seasons waxed and waned as they did in Bel Albor. In the Far North it would be drawing near to the summer time. In southern Kharku, however, the air was growing bitterly cold.
They hunted deer in that area, making coats for themselves and cooking the meat. They meant to reserve what dried meat they still carried for leaner times. Day after day they walked south and east, and every night they camped out of sight and built a small cook fire. During these evenings they would often speak of the histories of Bel Albor and of Kharku, Xan asking most of the questions. The elf's hunger for knowledge was matched, perhaps, only by that of Gheshtick. The two of them would remain awake sometime through the entire night reciting epics, detailing the political systems of the nations, and otherwise considering and commenting on the history of the world.
But when Gheshtick felt he had given Xan enough of a break from the subject of the gods, he turned over a smoldering log, fanned the fire to life again, and said, 'I wanted to ask you, master Xan, about the second proof of the Essenes.'
Xan sighed, unable to think of a reason to avoid the conversation. He replied, 'Very well. Speak on; what else to these peculiar folk teach?'
'They say concerning the former proof that it is a descent from the God of all to the mind of man, and they insist that, though man may not descend from heaven to earth, perhaps he might rise from the earth to heaven, by means of the following proof. This argument, they say, begins at your feet and rises ever up until it brings us to the highest of all Gods.'
'Go on, explain,' Xan said, trying to sound more patient than he felt.
'They say that all that begins must have a precedent. If there was nothing preceding, how could aught follow? If it follows, how could it have no precedent? If it had no precedent, then how could it begin? It must either not be at all, or it must always have been. But there is nothing that is not, nor is there, they say, anything that must always have been. Everything is in flux; and therefore everything has a beginning and, therefore, a precedent.'
'You speak of causes, then?' Xan asked, pondering the other elf's words carefully. 'But how do these Essenes, by this reasoning, ascend to heaven as it were?'
'They teach,' Gheshtick continued, 'that, as everything that begins must have something preceding it, so also the world must have some precedent - some cause. For the world is not steady and unmoving, but in flux even as all other things.'
'There are some who say that this flux is eternal,' Xan suggested, not admitting it to be the very doctrine of Thure.
'There are many in the North who say this as well,' Gheshtick replied. 'But the Essenes insist that there cannot be such an eternal world, as it would lead to many absurdities. They say, for instance, that if there was aught that was without number, it must either not be at all, or it must fill the world to the brim. And, again, there is nothing of this sort to be found.'
'We can leave that aside for the moment,' Xan said. 'It is a hard matter; and it would not be a good use of our time to dwell on it any further here. But concerning the rest of the argument, I still cannot quite understand what it is meant to convey.'
'If the world has a beginning, then it, as all other beginnings, must have a precedent - it must have a cause whereby it began. This cause, being of a different nature from the world that it caused is what they ca
ll the God of all gods.'
'I see,' Xan said, leaning back and looking at the stars above for a few moments. 'If we are speaking of beginnings, there are two kinds, I think. There are beginnings where naught has changed, and beginnings where something has changed. If we are speaking of the first kind, then, as the beginning marks, in fact, the beginning, then it implies no precedent. If we are speaking of the latter kind, then it is not, in fact, a beginning, but rather a change. A change, of course, has its beginning and latter state already, as it is 'before' and 'after' that constitute the nature of a change.
'If there was a bird over here one moment,' Xan continued, pointing at the grass to his left, 'and then, in the next moment, there was a rat - over there,' he pointed to a stone on his right, 'this would not constitute a change, and however much the coming to be of the rat would constitute a change over on the rock, it does not imply the bird, nor does the bird imply the rat. But if the rat stood here, and, let's say, lifted its head, the latter stance of the beast would be a veritable change from its prior state, and insofar as it is a change, the lifting of the head implies that its head was once not lifted. Do you see what I am saying?'
'I think so,' Gheshtick said with a pensive look. 'You are saying that it is only when a change has occurred that one can think of cause and effect, and even so, the change is not a change for being two different things, but for being the same thing altered.'
'Exactly. So I am not entirely in disagreement with your Essenes on the question of whether or not the world has a cause. But, causes being the very thing in question but in a prior time, the only thing that is implied by the current state of the world is a prior state of the world.'
Gheshtick nodded, 'I see. That would answer one of their rhetorical expressions. They have said that the elves of Sunlan and all the others who do not worship their God believe that the world caused itself to be. This they say, is an absurdity. But this is truly absurd only if it is not understood that a cause is the same substance as its effect. The cause of the rat lifting its head is the rat - not the rat with head lifted, but the prior rat – if I may speak of one rat in such a manner.'
'That is correct,' Xan said. 'And so this is essentially my answer to their second argument, and to their attempt to rise to the heavens: If the world must have a cause, then the world is cause enough. If they wish to go beyond the change from one to the other, and pass out of time altogether, then they must find for themselves another argument and a separate principle than that of cause and effect.'
Agonas smiled as he listened to the end of their discussion. He thought of how similar it all sounded to his mother's teachings - rather, how similar it sounded to what she had taught to his brother Pelas so many years ago. She had never said anything like that to him, of course. 'I will tell you about the root of all causes, master of Thure,' he said in jest. 'Pelas, my brother, being of one and the same substance with his own parents, and they with theirs, passing all the way back into, who can say? Perhaps into the Dragon himself - Pelas is the root of all and the God of all gods.'
Zefru could not refrain from laughter.
Xan sniffed in amusement, but Gheshtick just rolled into his bedroll and shut his eyes. He had much to think upon, and was not in any mood for jokes.
The next morning they were awakened by shouts and cries in a strange tongue. Xan stood facing a tall man with long brown hair and a thick green cape, shouting at him in a language the others had never heard. 'Trunans!' the man seemed to use it as an accusation.
Xan shook his head and said, 'Ne, ne, ne trunam. Vestilam.'
'Harma tenans,' the man said, pointing at Gheshtick's broadsword. 'Rigba, filyo-ne uy-Sesana!'
Xan shook his head and spread his arms wide, protesting the others accusations. 'We are not brigands!' he shouted, searching his mind for the words, 'Filyo uy-Sesana! Filyo! Ne rigba ous! Ne!'
'Bandaga!' the man said coldly, waving his arms to dismiss Xan's words.
There were nearly two-dozen other men standing nearby, half of them already occupied either with detaining the elves or with snooping through their belongings. Agonas' dwarf-made sword was brought to the leader's attention. 'Skathwi,' the man in the green cape said with a tone that betrayed his amazement. When he noticed Agonas' look of anger he shouted again, saying 'Bandaga!' The others hastily brought forth cloth and rope to bind and blindfold the elves. 'Adto Sesanao!' he said, and darkness took them for a great many days.