The Sword Bearer (13 page)

"They can both see me from above," he thought. "Aguila will be able to see me and perhaps the Changer can too. Maybe he does exist." He paused a little. "I must keep a lookout and wave if I see Aguila. We could all meet right here."

He put the puzzle of how Oso could penetrate the lair out of his mind and for the time being ceased to worry about what Old Nick was doing. He would keep watch for the eagle. Carefully he looked around to make sure he could not be seen from below and to be sure that old Nick was no longer around too. But there was no sign of him. The ferns that sprouted round the edges of the rock would curtain his bed.

The rock on which he lay was crinkly with soft dry moss. He lay back on it and gazed up at the blue heavens. He would have felt nervous and resdess, except that as he rolled onto his back to look up, something strange happened. He heard again, or thought he heard, the Changer's laughter far above. And the memory of that laughter, the laughter he and the Changer had shared together, the laughter that had seemed to link them, brought a sense of shame to him. He tried to put the matter out of his mind.

The slow circling dot above grew larger as Aguila weaved downward, her wings stretched wide. A minute later she lighted on the rock beside John. "Oso is coming along the path," she said. "I told him where you were, and he'll be here soon."

The tension began to mount as they waited for Nicholas Slap-foot to return. Oso pattered on all fours to and fro on the rock. Sometimes he would raise himself to his full height and turn slowly, ponderously looking this way and that. Aguila sailed up into the sky several times. At last she turned, saying, "He comes. He approaches from the east. He will be here before we know he's upon us."

Oso stepped with surprising grace from the rock to the ground; then he stood upright beside the rock, being partly covered by a wall of ferns. "Me first crack," he said. Then turning to Aguila he ordered, "You next."

John dropped on his stomach, crawled forward and peered through the ferns. Aguila remained far above. Nothing moved. No birds sang. The unnatural silence began to oppress John again. He became conscious of his own breathing and his beating heart. He was only too glad to let Oso have the "first crack"

Then came the dreadful sound as the slap, slap, slap of Old Nick's flipper feet began to break the silence. At first the trees hid him. When John eventually saw him, he seemed to be walking toward them with no concern, apparendy unaware of their presence, ignorant that a towering giant Oso was waiting to strike him down and kill him.

John held his breath. He was fearful of what he would see, yet too fascinated to turn away. He desperately hoped Oso would kill his enemy for him. In less than a minute Old Nick had reached the rock turned his back to where Oso stood and stepped toward the cleft from which he first emerged.

As he turned, Oso lifted himself to his full fifteen feet and with a terrible growl rushed forward, flashing one of his mighty forepaws downward as if to knock the creature to the ground. Yet even as he moved he shrank in size. Before John's eyes, he was transformed in the fraction of a second from a terrifying grizzly to a small and petulent bear cub, chasing behind the demonic form of Nicholas Slapfoot like a puppy stumbling after its master.

Old Nick swung round with a laugh. He lifted the struggling little creature into his arms and disappeared into the cleft with him.

Events had taken place too quickly for John to take it all in. One moment Oso had towered above the rock itself. The next, he was a small cub carried off by a scaly goblin whose laughter still echoed faintly from between the rocks. Then silence descended again.

John was stunned. He was alone. Oso, Oso who had magical strength, was helpless before the powers of Old Nick Even the grizzly's weight and strength were useless—gone.

John stared at the space between the rocks as if his staring could change matters, as if it could bring them both back again. What would happen? Would they come back? Horrified, he watched the truth take shape in his mind. A bear cub could never kill someone so formidable as Old Nick And if Oso could not kill Old Nick, Old Nick would certainly destroy Oso.

John groaned, groaned from fear, from rage, from despair. He glanced up at the sky, once so reassuring with its echo of the Changer's laughter, now so bare and silent. Where was the Changer? Was he just a dream as Lord Lunacy had claimed? Was the laughter merely a hallucination? Where was Aguila? Had either seen what had happened? Would Aguila come back? Or would she from the skies hunt the evil demon herself?

Half sobbing, mainly with anger but also with fear, he scrambled madly down the rock, flung himself into the cleft that faced him and forced himself once more along the pathway leading to Old Nick's lair. He never knew what made him do it, only that he felt a desperation he had never felt before. In seconds he had reached the narrow section, squeezed himself through it and broken through into a sandy opening before a cave mouth.

He hesitated for a second, then stepped boldly and angrily into its cool dimness. Almost at once he encountered water that filled a narrow cave. It seemed to become deeper the farther the cave went back But lying on his side half in the water and half on the damp sand of the cave floor was the huge body of Oso, his fur matted and bloodied.

"Oso!"

John's shriek echoed hollowly. He dropped to his knees beside the bear and stared into the half-opened eyes. His eyes were glazed, but something told John that Oso could see him. "Oso, are you all right? What can I do?"

A barely perceptible sigh escaped the bear. He was still alive.

Not knowing why he did so, John ran to the cave mouth, flung back his head and lifted his face to the sky. "Changer!" he screamed. "Changer who never changes! I thought I heard you laughing before! Where are you now?
Where are you?
"

He continued to stare upward, his fists clenched, his feet planted wide, but the sky was empty and silent.

He drew in a breath and stared into the cave mouth beyond the body. Was Nicholas Slapfoot farther in? Had he heard his shouts? Was it now up to John to use the sword and kill him? For the first time in his life he felt his knees knocking together and knew what real fear was. His mouth was dry and the blood was pounding in his head. He could hear the rhythmic rush of it in his ears. The passage ahead was dark, but trembling he stepped round Oso's body and waded into the shallow water, gripping his sword hilt as he did so.

The tunnel narrowed and took a bend. Beyond the bend an evil red light glowed. John followed it cautiously, taking care to make no sound. The tunnel widened into a sizable cave whose roof was reflected in the still waters. He searched it with his eyes but could see no one. The floor beneath him was firm and sandy and the water shallow.

With infinite caution he moved forward into the cave. The farther he proceeded, the deeper the water became. Soon it was up to his hips. A horrible thought crossed his mind. What if Nicholas Slapfoot were waiting for him
beneath the water ?
What if he were to be seized by the ankles and dragged into deeper water?

Farther ahead, in the center of the cave, a rock rose above the water. He would be safe if he could clamber onto it Better still, a sloping ledge on the righthand side of the cave led to a sort of rocky platform about ten feet above the surface of the water. He waded to the ledge, pulled himself onto it and climbed up to the platform. He was obliged to crawl, for the roof of the cave was only a few feet above him. He squatted awkwardly on the ledge, uncertain what to do next

If Nicholas Slapfoot was not there, then John could not kill him. A wave of relief swept over him. Perhaps, after all, he should leave the cave.

He was still shaking, partly from fear and partly from cold. He felt he had been very courageous to have come this far. And he certainly had been. It takes a lot of courage to do things you are scared of doing.

Suddenly his eyes were caught by a gleam of blue light beside him, the same color of blue that had surrounded the Changer. When he groped to feel the source of the light, his fingers encountered a stone the size of a pigeon's egg. Excited, he laid the stone in the palm of his hand, and as he did so he both felt and saw the thin chain attached to it that was draped over his hand.

The stone radiated light, a strangely reassuring light that filled him with hope.

Curious, he fingered the chain and let the stone hang from it, delighting in the beautiful light that reflected on his body and that glittered in dancing blue specks of light on the walls of the cave. He slipped the chain over his neck Instantly everything changed.

He was at once filled with terrible shame and a sense of unbearable guilt. His fear of Nicholas Slapfoot was gone, and in its place there was a terror of the Changer. Suddenly he
knew,
knew with absolute certainty that the Changer existed, knew also with horrifying clarity that he would have to hide from the Changer if ever he encountered him in the future.

What came as an even greater shock was the discovery that he was invisible. His body had disappeared. He knew he was still there. He could feel the cold rock beneath him and the inrush of air into his nose as he breathed in. But when he brought his hand in front of his eyes, there was no hand to be seen.

It was distinctly unpleasant The sense of shame and guilt the fear of the Changer and the unnerving invisibility made a dreadful combination. He pulled the chain over his head, and at once the shame and guilt fell from him, and to his relief, he could see his own body again. Curiously, the power of the blue stone did not surprise him. He was growing accustomed to magical powers.

The chill of the cave now seemed to enter his bones. He was shivering all the time now, and he decided to leave the cave. He glanced at the water below and as he did so, terror gripped him. Nicholas Slapfoot was sitting on the rock in the center of the pool. John lay flat on his stomach on the platform and peered cautiously over the edge. The creature was staring at something in his hand. John saw again the dark fish scales that clothed his body from the chest down. The arms were light in color, and like his face, his neck and his shoulders seemed to be covered with human skin. The lower limbs terminated in large webbed feet The light was too dim for John to see clearly what Old Nick was staring at It looked like a feather.

The silence was broken by the sound of his voice. "So that's the end of you. There's just the boy now. An' I'll get 'im sooner or later. Eh, Aguila, my sweet? There'll be no more feasts at your magic table!" He continued to stare thoughtfully at the feather.

But John was filled with dismay. What did he mean? That was the end of whom? Of Aguila? Had something happened to her? Plainly "the boy" that Old Nick talked about was himself. And just as plainly Old Nick was unaware of his presence in the cave.

What was he to do? He realized at once that with the blue stone he had found there was a good chance of escape. He could become invisible. But once he was invisible he could also behead Old Nick Which was it to be? Escape? Or kill his ene-my?

Now that he faced the possibility of killing the creature that sat only yards away from him, he felt sick with fear. Silendy he slipped the chain over his head and at once the sick fear was gone. His heart leapt He would kill Old Nick! Somehow he would get back to the camp and he would be a hero! He was the Sword Bearer.

The sense of his own evil was strongly with him now. He was ashamed, but he despised the shame. Silently he crawled from the platform, making his way very cautiously down the ledge. When he reached the water, he was able to stand upright. He turned to look at Old Nick, and to his surprise saw that the upper part of Nick's body had been transformed. The head was now the head of a shark, the great mouth slighdy ajar, with one unseeing eye staring vacandy at John. The arms were gone, replaced by two small fins.

John knew, without being told, that he was seeing Nicholas Slapfoot for the first time as he really was, seeing him by the power of the blue stone. Fascinated, he stared. He thought of the bowler-hatted man with the red neckerchief and the greasy black suit. He remembered the thick-soled boots and realized that the three-inch soles must have been hollow so webbed feet could be folded in.

Then resolution filled him. He gripped the sword hilt firmly and pulled. But the sword refused to leave the scabbard. He pulled again, tugging at it with all his strength. But it might as well have been welded into the scabbard. "It couldn't have been rusted that quickly," he thought, "even if water did get into the scabbard." Then he remembered Mab's words, "No one can make you drink the wine of free pardon. You must want to drink it yourself. And until you do, John the Sword Bearer, your sword will prove useless to the cause."

So that was it He was not to be allowed to kill the Goblin Prince. Magical power was holding the sword in the scabbard. His excitement sank to nothing, and in its place came the sense of shame and guilt that he had felt when first he had placed the stone round his neck

The shark-headed creature on the rock stirred, shook itself and dived smoothly into the water, leaving scarcely a ripple. A minute passed, then another. No sound broke the oppressive silence. Was the creature lurking below the surface? Or had it retired to a deeper level in the lake? "Well, at least I'm invisible," John thought And buoyed by the courage the stone gave him, he entered the cold water cautiously, paused, then made his way slowly toward the passage. A minute later he was at the cave mouth, having clambered over the body of Oso to stand dazzled in the sunlight. Only then did he remove the stone from around his neck and loop the chain through his belt. As he looked back at Oso's body, dismay filled him. He was sure the grizzly was not dead. But what could he do? The Changer would surely take pity on him. He began to talk quietly, almost to himself.

"Changer, it wasn't his fault. Don't blame him for what I did."

A quiet voice spoke three times before he heard it, "I am not he. But I am here!"