PART 5
Flight of the Life-leaf
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Creepers?" chuckled Eldin when the three stood in the hills and watched the Tree's tendrils rapidly retreat northward, drawn back by their mighty master. "I reckon he should call them runners!"
"How can you be humorous in a charred loincloth?" Hero asked, then shrugged and decided that perhaps Eldin was right. He turned back to face Thalarion, holding his hands out to the distant blaze. "Cozy little fire, isn't it?" he said.
"Eldin, you were wonderful!" said Aminza, standing on tip-toe to kiss the older dreamer.
"Um," Eldin grunted in agreement. "That'll teach them to fool around with Eldin the Wanderer!"
"Not to mention David Hero," said Hero, slightly miffed.
"Who mentioned David Hero?" Eldin asked. "What did you do that was so wonderful?"
"Ho-hum!" yawned Hero, examining his rather grimy nails. Carelessly, with an air of it-doesn't-really-matter, he held out the wands for inspection. "And who was it risked his neck, in the middle of all that was going on, to take back Thinistor's wand and lift Lathi's at the same time? After all, that's what we came for-among other things."
"Personally," said Aminza, "I think the Tree deserves more thanks than all three of us put together." And the dreamers could find no fault with her statement.
So they stood together and watched Thalarion burn, and soon the city was reduced to a fine white ash which the night winds would quickly disperse. The eidolon Lathi's city was no more; the menace of the Ter-men and maids and their monstrous Queen was removed forever from the land of Earth's dreams, "Why 'eidolon?' " Aminza thought to ask as they began to make their weary way back to the Tree under dreamland's star-strewn skies.
Eldin frowned and shook his head.
Hero said: "An eidolon is an image or a representation; not the real thing. Well, neither was Lathi the real thing." And remembering what he had seen in that hideous bridal-chamber behind the throne room, he shuddered and fell silent.
In the morning they found a stream and bathed, washing away all of their accumulated aches and pains. Afterward they got their things together and Aminza did a little repair work on the men's clothing. Through the early afternoon they laughed, joked and talked with the Tree. He would soon begin to "walk" again, to turn and head east now that the threat was past. His strength would rapidly return and he would live to a ripe old age.
As the day wore on the adventurers played hide and seek amongst the Tree's leaves and great branches, and later they made a fine meal of fish caught in the stream; but in the late afternoon their massive host began to sense their restlessness, and it was then that he sprang his big surprise. He broached the subject as they lay side by side on their backs, with their hands under their heads, across one of his mightiest branches.
Hero sat up at once. "What was that, Tree? Did I hear you right?"
"Certainly. Before I attacked Thalarion, I prepared the life-leaf. I knew that if I failed to rescue you-even if I succeeded-Lathi would destroy me. I believed I would be destroyed, burned down. Therefore, long before his time, I prepared the life-leaf. Once I had fed him the special juices he required to begin his separate life, then there was no stopping the process. Before morning, in only a few short hours, the life-leaf will detach himself and fly free. He will be a complete being in his own right, the life-force from which a new tree shall grow."
"A clone," rumbled Eldin.
"Eh? What's a clone?" asked Hero.
Eldin frowned and after a moment said: "Dunno, but I once knew-I think."
Hero and Aminza snorted simultaneously and gave their attention back to the Tree. Aminza asked, "And are you seriously suggesting that your life-leaf should carry us on the next leg of our journey?"
"Why not? He is the largest and loveliest leaf I shall ever produce, and unique in his ability to fly. Normally he would seek out his own place, find a land of warm suns, soft rains and fertile soil, but this time you will do it for him. Somewhere, between here and your destination, there must be such a place. There shall the life-leaf take root and grow into a Great Tree."
"And we can, er, ride him in safety?" questioned Eldin a trifle uncertainly.
"Assuredly. I should perhaps state, however, that life-leaves are full of the natural joys of youth. The journey may well be a little-exhilarating?"
"The more I hear of this," said Hero enthusiastically, "the more I like the idea. To ride a life-leaf through the night-skies of dreamland! Why, it's the chance of a lifetime, something no one ever did before-"
"Or ever will again," said the Tree.
"Exhilarating," Eldin repeated the word thoughtfully, a little worriedly. "He's not likely to go looping the loop, is he?"
"Nothing like that," answered the Tree with a mental chuckle. "Not with you three aboard."
"And he'll follow the route we wish him to take?" asked Aminza.
"Of course. That shall be my last instruction to him."
"Amazing!" observed Eldin. "Godparents to a tree!"
'To a Great Tree," the Tree reminded.
"Eh? Oh! Of course, yes," mumbled the older dreamer apologetically.
'Tree," said Hero, "some time ago you offered to show us this life-leaf of yours. Now I'd like to take advantage of your offer."
"Me too," said Aminza.
"And me," added Eldin.
"It grows late," answered the Tree, "and soon you'll feel the effects of my sleep pollens."
"There's time enough," said Hero, "and light enough, too!" And he produced Lathi's wand from inside his shirt. The golden glow of the wand was like the light of some mighty firefly guiding them through the gloom as the Tree immediately swept them aloft to that secret heart-place where grew the life-leaf.
And they were properly hushed when the Tree gently deposited them in that network of protective branches in his uppermost regions, where the life-leaf lay unfurled, huge and soft-edged, his pockets filling with buoyant gases from the parent Tree's great trunk, his tracery of veins a-throb with those special juices which had awakened him. Big as a large carpet, the life-leaf-big and beautiful and alive!-a pulse of joy which drew its strength, its seeds of knowledge, its ancient ancestral heritage from the Great Tree, whose pride was a tangible thing in the night.
Silently the three stared, for long and long, and the glow of Lathi's wand lent the scene a properly magical air. Finally, almost as one person, the three spoke to the Tree. Not wishing to destroy the moment, they spoke in whispers, even Eldin.
'Tree," the older dreamer said, "it's time for bed." "Yes," Aminza agreed. "A little sleep won't go amiss." "Especially," added Hero, pleased that he was to have the last word, "since we're to go a-riding tomorrow!"
Two hours before dawn the Tree awakened them. It was time. He lifted the three and their packs back to that secret place in his highest branches, and there invited them to step aboard the life-leaf. Gingerly at first, then putting their faith in their gigantic host, one at a time they stepped onto the wide, ribbed platform and settled down in the carpet of long, soft hairs which covered it. The leaf's surface gave to their weight with a gentle resilience, its gas-sacks molding to their shapes and its furred edges curling up a little to form a shallow boat shape.
Hero sat in the "prow," Thinistor's wand in hand, holding it lightly and allowing its knob to point... westward! Westward, along the coast of the Southern Sea. The faces of the three glowed golden in the light of Lathi's wand, which Aminza held in her lap like some cold, wonderful torch. They were tense now and a little afraid. Each looked to be on the verge of speaking, but no one said anything. Then-
"It's time!" said the Tree.
There came a great soughing of leaves as he lowered his closest branches downward from his trunk to form a sort of ramp, and the adventurers held their breath as a soft tearing sound reached them from the spot where the life-leaf grew from its massive parent body. The sound came again and the life-leaf gave a shudder and tilted slowly downward.
"Ah!" said the Tree. "Farewell, my friends, farewell!"
The three would later argue whether or not they actually answered him, but not one of them would know for sure. For now they were in motion, feeling the flow of air against their faces as the life-leaf launched himself down a ramp of branches, hearing the swish of soft leaves giving way beneath them to ease the life-leaf's passage. More steeply yet the living carpet tilted and faster its forward, downward rush until, with the very gentlest of bumps-
They were airborne!
And no sooner were they in the air than the life-leaf moved beneath them, shifting and balancing its mass to form an amazingly efficient airfoil. A light wind blew off the sea to greet the oncoming dawn, and the life-leaf sought out its currents and rode them, rode high, until soon the hills, valleys and rivers were left far, far below.
Round and round in a wide rising spiral flew the life-leaf; and his passengers sat, hair streaming, flesh tingling, and gazed down wide-eyed on all the vastly improbable lands of Earth's dreams. Far out over the Southern Sea they spotted the lonely fights of fishing boats and other craft, and away to the east the first rays of the sun were dusting the edge of dreamland with a glow to challenge that of Lathi's wand. Somewhere in the dark, distant curve of the west a city's lights showed momentarily, and in the north the writhing wraiths of aurora borealis performed their ghostly dances.
But by now they had reached those uppermost limits of atmosphere beyond which the life-leaf dare not ascend, for to do so would be to penetrate realms inhabited by the flopping, shapeless and namelessly monstrous larvae of the Other Gods. Here the flight of the life-leaf levelled out and gradually his "prow" came round to point westward. Then, following the way pointed out by Thinistor's wand, the life-leaf began the long, gentle downward glide which would take the three adventurers to their destination.
Now, because of their altitude, the sun seemed like a blade of blinding light on the horizon far behind them; and as they drifted lower so its dawning rays turned dreamland's rivers and streams to ribbons of silver. Their speed was enormous, and towns, cities and mountain ranges passed beneath almost as quickly as they could be counted. As yet neither the light nor their orientation was such that the adventurers could name for a certainty the territories over which they passed, though certainly there was something very familiar about many of the bays and ports of the Southern Sea.
It was only when they sailed lower still and the mountains reached up toward them that they began to pick out specific places remembered of earlier wanderings. Then in the dawny distance the men of the waking world spied that winding, flashing snake of water which could only be the Tross, and they saw near its mouth the mist-wreathed city of Theelys.
Why, this was where it had all started for them! Right here in Theelys ...
Down, down floated the life-leaf, its buoyancy gases streaming out from pockets which emptied themselves, and as if to match or guide the leaf's descent so the knob of the wand in Hero's hand dipped lower and lower. Twice they circled high over the turrets of a castle on Theelys' outskirts, then tilted steeply toward the great gardens within the castle's low outer walls.
The adventurers held on grimly as the life-leaf skimmed trees and tall shrubs, gritted their teeth as it stalled and slipped sideways, and finally sighed in unison as it gentled to the ground and came at last to rest. As they climbed shakily from the settled leaf, slender coiled tendrils like long white worms fell from its stem, burrowed deep into the soil and immediately took root.
"Not the sunniest place in Earth's dreamland," said Hero, peering closely at the leaf where it now began to wilt upon the grass. "Still, I suppose he knows what he's doing."
"I shouldn't worry too much about him, my lad," said Eldin, the hint of a warning in his deep growi. "Not just yet, at least. I think we've one or two problems of our own. Look where your wand's pointing-"
Hero looked-and his hand instinctively flew to the hilt of his sword.
For the knob of Thinistor's wand pointed directly at the massive gates of the looming castle, and atop the high inner wall stood a figure in rune-inscribed gown and conical cap, his eyes fixed firmly upon his visitors and the shadow of a strange smile upon his wizard's lips....