Illengond Page 22

  A shout drew Bandor’s attention. Braga was back near the edge. One of the ropes was coiled up at his feet. He stood trying to pull the second one up. Bandor looked at Tienna who stood across the fire warming her hands. “You haven’t told him yet?” he asked.

  “It was your idea. You should get to tell them.”

  “Tell us what?” Theo asked.

  “Come and see,” Bandor replied. “And bring Keet also.”

  Bandor left the fire and walked to where Braga struggled with the rope. “I’m sorry to leave my few climbing pins in the rocks,” he complained. “I don’t want to lose my rope.” He turned to Bandor. “You were the last one up. What’s it stuck on?”

  Several other companions now gathered around Bandor. Tienna was smiling. The others looked curious. “It isn’t stuck,” Bandor replied. “It’s tied to the boat. Tienna and I thought we might want the boat up here.”

  Bandor described his idea to the rest of his company, as Braga translated. He saw a few skeptical expressions, but most seemed excited. “We can at least try,” Cathros suggested. “But is it really worth it? Has anybody walked upstream to see how much farther the river is navigable?”

  “A few hundred yards or so, while I was looking for dry wood,” Theo replied. “From what I saw, we could take the boat some distance further.”

  Braga smiled. “It sounds like the only way I’ll get my rope back. Well let’s get to it.”

  Together Bandor and Braga organized the others in a line. The first bit would be the hardest because they had only about thirty feet of rope above the cliff. But the more they pulled, the more rope would be accessible and the more hands could join in. “Don’t try to walk backwards,” Bandor said. “I don’t want anybody tripping and losing a grip. Pull the rope up hand over hand.”

  Braga relayed that message to the Undeani. Then they put their hands to the rope. Namha stood closest to the cliff, but he was still ten feet or so from the edge. Braga, Bandor, Cathros, Noab, and Aram lined up behind him. Keet and Breanga looked on eagerly, and several of the Undeani along with Noaem, Falien, and Lluach waited to grab rope as soon as more came up.

  Bandor gave a signal and they began to haul. The rope went taut and drew slowly upward. Every time another three feet of rope appeared at the end of the line, somebody else stepped in to help. They drew it thirty feet and then stopped. Bandor could feel his own burden lessen from the extra hands, but he kept a grip on the rope so it wouldn’t slip back down. “I guess the stern now rests on the water and the boat is sticking straight up,” he told the others. “It will get heavier when we lift again. But we have more hands.”

  “Is the bottom face out so it doesn’t get banged on the rocks?” Keet asked.

  Bandor’s heart sank. He hadn’t thought of that. They could only hope. “Heave!” he called out.

  Hand over hand he pulled on the rope. He could hear those in front and behind grunting and straining. The rope was moving. He didn’t look back, but he guessed at least a dozen of them were on the rope now. “I’ve got it around a tree,” Theo yelled from behind. “This should keep it from slipping back.”

  Keet and Amark ran to the edge and looked carefully over. “It’s more than halfway already,” Keet called back excitedly. “And the bottom is facing out!”

  Still Bandor and the others pulled. “Fifty more feet,” Keet called back. Then, “Thirty”, “Twenty”, “Fifteen”, and finally, “Hear it comes.”

  Even as he spoke, the bow of the ship peaked over the top of the ledge. They hauled in another length of rope until the cross-support to which the rope was tied appeared at the top. Now five feet of the boat was above the rocks, pointing precariously skyward. But Bandor had yet given thought to what they would do next. They could not pull the ship any higher without a rope tied to a lower point. They would have to find a way to lift it over the lip by hand. He looked back upriver to see how well the rope was secured. Theo was already in the process of lashing it to the trunk of the tree just above the ground. It looked plenty strong enough to hold the boat.

  Bandor turned back to the boat in time to see Keet and Amark, both standing right at the edge of the cliff, grabbled the gunwales about chest high, a foot or so below the bow. Bandor guessed what they were trying to do, and realized at the same time both that it wouldn’t work and that the effort would be risky. “Careful,” he shouted. “Not that way!”

  Keet and Amark ignored him, or simply didn’t hear him over the falls. They both pulled on the boat. The effort managed to swing the bow of the boat an inch or so inward, but they lacked the strength and leverage to pull it further. “It needs to be lifted higher,” Keet shouted over his shoulder.

  One minute Bandor was looking at Keet. Then there was a loud bang as the boat’s stern slammed back against the rocks. And then Amark wasn’t standing there anymore.

  A horrible pause of time followed—a moment in which nobody moved. The only sound was the roar of the falls, and a very faint scream that faded almost as soon as Bandor heard it.

  Then Braga, who stood directly in front of Bandor, yelled in terror, let go of the rope, and ran toward the edge of the cliff. The rope slipped in Bandor’s hand. For an instant he feared the boat would go crashing down. Then the knot on the tree held and the boat stopped.

  Everybody started yelling or speaking at once. The Undeani all shouted in their own tongue. Tienna raced to the edge beside Braga. She turned and began shouting something back at Nahoon. Keet was in such a panic he almost fell over himself. Tienna grabbed him and pulled him away from the edge.

  Bandor let go of the rope as soon as it was secure. Panic growing in his chest, he strode quickly to the edge, and peered over. He saw nothing but mist and swirling water. No sign of Amark. He could hear the confused and frightened shouts around him. Nobody knew what to do.

  Then the commanding voice of Namha the Amanti rose above all the turmoil. It was a voice one did not refuse. Even Bandor, though he did not understand Namha’s tongue, turned expectantly, ready to obey. But Namha was shouting at Nahoon who did understand. Nahoon looked terrified as he ran to Namha’s side. Namha dropped his outer tunic and his collection of knives into Nahoon’s arms. Then he ran toward the cliff just five feet from where Bandor stood.

  “Wait!” Tienna shouted.

  Over the cliff the Amanti sprang, arms spread wide. For a moment he hung poised in flight. Then he plunged down into the mist.

  24

  EVEN THE AMANTI FAIL

  Bandor stared down the two-hundred-foot cliff face toward the swirl of water and mist where Namha had disappeared. For an instant he stood there, paralyzed. How had his plan come so quickly to ruin?

  Then he sprang into motion. “The rope,” he yelled. “Namha will need it to get out of the water. There’s nothing down there to hold on to.”

  Braga still stood frozen, staring into the water where his nephew disappeared. Without his instructions, the other Undeani seemed lost. Bandor realized this. He ran to where Braga had left the coil of rope, calling for Theo as he went. “Take this end. Tie it to the tree. Quick, quick!”

  Theo raced to Bandor’s side and took an end of the rope, and then bolted toward the tree peeling off coils as he went. Bandor gave Theo some more slack, and then ran back with the rest of the coil to the cliff. He slowed as he approached, careful not to tumble over himself.

  The boat still dangled there, a fifth of its length peaking up above the cliff and the rest dangling down toward the distant water below. It was Bandor’s idea to haul it up. It was his fault that Amark had fallen. His fault that Namha was gone also. He had to do something.

  Tienna and Theo now both lay on their bellies peering over the edge on the left side of the boat. “Right here,” Tienna shouted over her shoulder.

  “There, there,” Theo yellowed excitedly.

  Bandor stepped to the other side of the boat knelt down beside the
m, clinging to hope the same way he had been holding on to the rope only a few minutes earlier. The loss of Amark was tragic enough. The company could ill afford to lose Namha too. “Where are they? I must climb down and help?”

  “No,” Tienna said. “Namha surfaced. I saw him. He’ll be okay. But he dove back under again. He must be looking for Amark.”

  Elynna knelt beside Tienna though she did not look over the edge. “Does he have a chance?”

  “He is Amanti,” Tienna answered, but she had a catch in her voice.

  Theo shouted again. “There.”

  This time Bandor didn’t see anything. Braga called out in a desparate voice. “How many?”

  Theo paused a long moment, then he turned around with a white face. “Only one.”

  “What chance does he have in that?” Bandor asked. The water looked black now. A minute later he saw a tiny dot appear on the surface, maybe thirty feet from the cliff. It hovered in the current for a minute. Long enough for another deep breath, and then disappeared. Bandor threw the coil over the edge and watched it tumble and unfurl as it fell to the water. Another minute passed. Again a head and arms appeared. Again it was just one head. One person. Each moment Bandor’s hopes faded.

  An hour later Namha emerged at the top of the cliff, pulling himself over the ledge on the rope Bandor had dropped. The last of the Amanti looked tired and defeated. Bandor did not need Nahoon to interpret. To the side, Braga and the Undeani woman were both weeping. The rest of his people stood around them consoling them.

  Bandor felt a pit in his stomach. He turned to Tienna. His voice was quiet, full of the guilt he felt. “Come. I wish I had never had the idea. Yet the boat is here now. We must finish the job.”

  Tienna looked at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it and just shook her head sadly.

  “How?” Theo asked.

  “I will climb down and attach another rope closer to the bottom of the boat. If we do that on both sides, we should be able to haul it up. We can use the rope on the bow to keep it from tipping the wrong way.”

  It took Bandor a few minutes to find two more sections of rope, and then to secure himself in with Braga’s climbing rings to the rope still hanging there. Then, very cautiously, he lowered himself down over the edge of the cliff. It took him several more minutes to tie a rope onto the oar lock closest to the stern. Eventually he had to let go of his own rope with both hands to do the task, trusting the climbing rings to keep him from falling. His heart was racing when he made it back to the top. And then he had to go down on the other side and do the same thing. Theo volunteered, but Bandor would not let him.

  Finally, they were ready. Spread out between the three ropes, the somber company hauled on the two ropes tied at the bottom end of the boat until two thirds of the length of the boat towered up over the top of the cliff. A small tug on the middle rope tipped the boat forward. Those closest to the cliff face reached up and slowed the fall. Several others leapt in and caught it by the gunwales before it crashed to the rocks. They carried it a dozen steps up the shore and set it down.

  Then Bandor and several others returned to the edge of the cliff. Bandor peered over, taking one last vain look for Amark. The pool kept swirling as before, constantly changing, and not changing at all. Water rushed toward the great lake many miles downriver, maybe carrying Amark’s body away. Or maybe it swirled somewhere down in the depths waiting to be coughed up.

  It took all of Bandor’s will to rise from his knees. A few others—Theo, Keet, Beth, Tienna—still lay or knelt by the cliff staring down. Others stood by the fire, warming their hands. Their lips moved, but Bandor could not hear what they were saying. The Undeani still gathered around Braga consoling him. Bandor went to the fire. “We should carry the boat upriver farther from the falls to load it. Then we must continue on.”

  “Continue on to what?” Aram asked.

  “Away from Golach. Away from the Daegmons. Or toward Thimeon,” Bandor replied. “Whichever way you want to think about it. It’s all the same now.” He turned and looked again at Braga, wondering what to say. How could he tell him now that he needed to pack his gear and continue on as though nothing had happened?

  As Bandor stood wondering about this, he heard wailing rise over the roar of the falls. It took him a few seconds to realize that the sound came from the Undeani. They were lifting their voices in collective grief. The sound made Bandor cry. It went on for only a minute. Then it stopped. Braga emerged from among his people. He walked over to Bandor, where he stood beside Tienna and Elynna near the fire. “Thank you for your patience,” Braga said. His eyes were red from weeping, but his voice stayed steady. “We are ready.”

  Aram, Cathros, Noab, and Noaem, Nahoon and Lluach had already carried the boat several hundred feet upstream above the falls. They stood beside the boat awaiting the rest of the company. Bandor and the others now followed, and reloaded their gear in the boat. Midday had passed, but behind the heavy clouds he saw nothing of the sun, nor of Illengond, nor of anything above the rim of the gorge. They climbed into the boat and began their journey upriver once more.

  With six oars working against the strong current, they were able to maintain a pace Bandor guessed would have matched somebody walking briskly along the shore. Taking turns at the oars as they had done before, they made steady progress upriver for the next two hours. The water grew gradually shallower as they went, however, and by the time those two hours had passed it was only about twenty inches deep. Twice they got stuck on sand or bars and had to rock the boat and leverage the oar blades against rocks to get off. Bandor and Braga considering abandoning the boat when they came to a stretch of river where the gorge grew narrower again. The cliffs once more came all the way to the water’s edge, and for a while the water was again deep enough to navigate without difficulty.

  A short time after passing through this narrow stretch of gorge, they came to a deep pool where a smaller river poured down over a sixty-foot waterfall on the north wall. Upstream from where the falls poured away, the river grew shallower again. They held another brief discussion about how much longer they could stay in the boat, but at present nobody wanted to get out and start walking. They took a short rest on a gravel bar beside the pool, then continued on. They had not gone far before the river grew even shallower with rocks sticking up. Navigation grew almost impossible. Finally, they reached a spot where the main channel was just wide enough for the boat to pass up, but beside the boat was too shallow to dip the oars into the water.

  “We could pole,” Elynna suggested. “We often use poles to navigate up the Lienford river near my home.”

  The lakeside dwelling Plainsfolk stared at her blankly, but Bandor knew what she meant. He was near the back of the boat. “Hand me an oar,” he called out. One of the stern oars came back to him. He stood up, turned the oar blade side up, and thrust the other end into the rocks behind the boat. It took a strong effort, but he felt the boat lurch forward. At once he pulled his oar out of its lock and showed the other rowers how to use it as a pole, and they began to push their way upriver.

  This worked well for a time, and they covered another mile of river with almost no trouble. But eventually they came to a difficult section of rapids and twice almost flipped the boat before Cathros, Bandor, and Braga together concluded it was impassable and could be dangerous even to try. It was late afternoon. By consensus, they pulled ashore on the north bank and climbed onto dry land. While the others rested beneath some trees, Tienna and Namha took a scouting trip upstream to see if portaging was worthwhile. They returned with word that the rapids were short—a hundred yards at most—and that the river was navigable above. With some reluctance, the companions decided to haul the boat around the rapids rather than abandon it. By the time they unloaded the boat, lugged it up the narrow rocky path, and reloaded it, nearly an hour had passed. The winter sun was near to setting. Down in the gorge, with the cloudy s
ky above, darkness fell quickly.

  They had gone about a half mile upstream of the first rapids when they reached another stretch of white-water, this one even wilder. With nightfall approaching, they pulled ashore. Tienna and Namha prepared again to scout ahead again, but Bandor called them back. “We won’t be able to continue by water any farther tonight. Either we rest here, or go on by foot. Perhaps it is time to abandon the boat. It has served us well,” he added. He looked at Keet as he said this, but he was thinking of Amark. If they hadn’t hauled the boat up the cliff, Amark might still be with them. He didn’t want to make that same mistake. But neither did he want Amark’s loss to be in vain.

  “It may be more of a burden than an aid,” someone said.

  Bandor guessed that was true, but he said nothing.

  By this time, the companions had all disembarked and were standing on dry ground about thirty feet from the boat. Some of the Undeani looked for scraps of dry wood that might be used for a fire in case they choose to bivouac for the night. Others gathered around as Bandor, Braga, Cathros, Elynna, and Tienna discussed their next step. The conversation went on for several minutes with no resolution. Bandor sensed an underlying tension mounting. It had been a difficult day.

  “How much farther?” Beth asked. “I mean, until we meet Thimeon?”

  “I don’t know,” Tienna replied. “We’ve already passed through the foothills and are now on the western slope of the Mountain—or very near it. I can sense its great weight all around us.”

  “What do you mean?”