Redfalcon, page 16
After making a formal farewell, Yattuy raised a majestic hand over us and spoke a blessing in his own Berber tongue. It was a humbling moment and when he turned to stride back to his precipitous village we felt all too keenly the loss of his presence. I could not shake off the notion that our new friend was somehow kin to the great prophets of old and had seen us through hardship and danger like a modern-day Moses.
‘I still say he’s a wizard,’ muttered Dougal. Hands on hips, he surveyed the surrounding terrain. ‘All right, we’re here, but what the devil is the eye of the sun supposed to be?’
‘Perhaps some sort of crystal,’ I suggested, though how we were to find it was beyond me.
‘Well, this isn’t a bad spot to camp while we figure it out,’ said Jaikie, slipping off his pack.
‘The instructions do say that we’re to pass the night here,’ Karrie agreed. ‘Maybe the meaning will be clearer in the morning.’
Lasalle nodded his weary assent, and we settled ourselves down, breaking out some food and drink. After days of near ceaseless exertion, it felt good to enjoy a few hours of simple relaxation.
Once he had eaten his fill of bread and tinned sardines, Dougal leaned back against a bank of moss and fell into a deep slumber. His low, rhythmic snoring was somehow strangely restful. Karrie and Lasalle were engaged in a deep conversation in French about what sounded to me like some rather obscure archaeological controversy. Jaikie had pulled a book from his pack and was absorbed in one of Haggard’s well-spun yarns.
I toyed idly with Blenkiron’s worn deck, rehearsing almost absent-mindedly some of the card tricks I had learned as a boy. When the queen of hearts flipped over between my fingers I could not help but think of Mary and that smile I so longed to see again.
We spent the night wrapped in blankets against the cold. When the dawn came, I cracked an eye and saw the neighbouring crags silhouetted against the sun’s first rays.
Rolling out of his bedding, Dougal hauled himself upright and stretched his stiff limbs. ‘Well, we’ve followed orders,’ he yawned. ‘So what do we do now? Search about for this daft eye?’
Jaikie was already on his feet, his brow furrowed as his eyes fixed on the broad eastern landscape. There was a tension about him, as though his well-honed traveller’s instincts had alerted him to something none of the rest of us had guessed at.
Suddenly he stiffened. ‘I think we’ve found it,’ he breathed. ‘Look!’
The whole party surrounded him and followed his pointing finger. Some miles to the east, almost in the dead centre of a distant mass of rock, the dawn was shining bright crimson through a round hole, gleaming at us like a dragon’s baleful eye.
‘You are right, my young friend!’ exclaimed Lasalle, clapping Jaikie on the back. ‘That is the sign we are looking for.’
‘I don’t suppose there can be any doubt?’ I wondered, scarcely able to believe that the meaning of the mysterious phrase the eye of the sun had manifested itself so clearly.
‘It must be,’ said Karrie, her face shining with sheer delight. ‘We are to go there and peer through the hole. That will show us the way to Kedesh.’
We downed our breakfast with haste and set off across a rocky valley towards our beckoning goal. By now the sun had risen above the level of that wondrous portal, but the position of it was fixed in all our minds. Jaikie in particular, I felt sure, could make his way directly towards it, even if he were blindfolded and spun around three times.
Having found the eagle’s beak, and with the eye of the sun directly ahead of us, our confidence was now high that this was no mere game of riddles, but a map that would lead us to the destination we sought. A few hours of rough hiking brought as to the base of the great crag and we all stood staring upward.
‘There!’ said Lasalle, pointing at the round opening that was only just visible in the face of the rock. ‘I must get to it!’
So saying, he slipped off his pack and attempted the climb before anyone could stop him. Almost at once his boots slipped and he slithered down the few feet he had attained.
Jaikie steadied him with a gentle hand. ‘Here, doctor, that looks like a treacherous climb. You’d better let me have a go.’
Lasalle accepted the inevitable with obvious reluctance while Jaikie slipped off his encumbering gear and set off up the rough wall, feeling out the handholds and fixing his feet carefully on solid outcroppings. The historian chafed impatiently, and to him, I was sure, our young friend’s progress must have seemed painfully slow. In fact, however, it did not take Jaikie more than ten minutes to make the ascent. Gripping the edge of the portal with both hands, he hoisted himself up and thrust his head and shoulders into the gap.
‘What do you see?’ Lasalle called out eagerly.
I hoped his question would not distract Jaikie, who was still poised upon a perilous height. Seconds later he had disappeared from view, drawing his feet in after him. After some anxious moments we saw him reappear and commence a careful descent. Back in our midst he took a deep breath and consulted his compass while we gathered eagerly around him. Lasalle was by now almost bursting with anticipation.
‘Did you see it?’ he demanded. ‘Did you see the way to Kedesh?’
‘What I saw,’ Jaikie reported, ‘was a waterfall a few miles across the next valley. A real beauty it is.’
‘Then the settlement must lie somewhere beyond that,’ Lasalle concluded, smacking a fist emphatically into his palm.
‘Can we make it through that hole, do you think?’ Dougal asked, scowling up at the height.
Jaikie shook his head. ‘It narrows as it goes, clearly framing that one exact spot in the distance. It’s too tight even for me. We’ll have to go round. But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ve got my bearings fixed.’
Once again his unerring sense of direction proved a blessing, and by evening we stood at the foot of a waterfall that cascaded down the mountainside in a crystalline flurry of frothing waters. I cupped my hands to catch some of it, and when I drank there seemed to be a striking sweetness about it – though I was ready to concede that this might simply be because it had brought us so close to our goal.
Dougal peered dubiously at the curtain of tumbling water. ‘I don’t see any sign of a doorway,’ he grumbled.
‘It must be up there,’ said Karrie, indicating a steep trail leading to the head of the falls. It promised to be a hard climb.
‘It will be difficult, no doubt,’ Lasalle conceded in a cracked voice, ‘but we must go.’ The unhealthy fever we had seen grip him before appeared to seize him yet again, so that he began to shake spasmodically.
‘No, sir, it’s nearly dark,’ Jaikie cautioned him. ‘It would be sheer folly to attempt so hard a climb without the sun. We don’t want to lose anybody when we might be so close.’
Lasalle chewed his lip in frustration, and I moved close enough to grab him should he be mad enough to start off on his own.
‘We will go in the morning,’ Karrie promised quietly, as though reassuring a child. ‘Then you will be the first to see the wonders of Kedesh.’
‘Yes, in the morning,’ Lasalle agreed, his body finally sagging from the day’s long hike.
Weary as I was myself, I could well understand his impatience. Soon we would know at last what awaited us and whether the legendary knight had left us a treasure worthy of our long journey.
In the morning, once the sun had cleared the eastern peaks, the light sparkled over the waterfall that marked our way upwards to our hidden destination. We exchanged glances of thrilled anticipation as we gathered for this final effort.
Jaikie, who was certainly the most sure-footed among us, took the lead, his keen eyes probing ahead, and his steady tread testing the steep ground. Dr Lasalle went second, a privilege to which he was justifiably entitled. In spite of the lapses of health we had all witnessed, he now seemed fired with a fresh vigour.
After him came Dougal, whom I judged to be the most capable of supporting or catching the Frenchman should he slip or fall. Karrie suppressed her own hunger for discovery to take up the position directly behind the red-haired Scotsman, to whom she had become increasingly attached, as evidenced by her frequent playful teasing of him.
I brought up the rear so that I could follow the trail picked out by the others while still being alert for any signs of danger or pursuit in the surrounding landscape.
Jaikie clambered up skilfully, shrewdly assessing which route would prove easiest for those following. Occasionally he reached a narrow shelf where he could stand straight and scan the rock face above, mapping out in his head the most promising passage.
The downward rush of the waters cast up a cool spray that dappled us like a welcome dew as our aching limbs became soaked in perspiration. Occasionally a stone knocked loose by one of those above came clattering past me, and I flashed an anxious glance upward to check that none of my companions was in distress. Sometimes Jaikie’s voice would waft down with words of advice on the best way to negotiate a particularly tricky part of the slope.
I lost all sense of time as I concentrated on the rough, mossy surface directly in front of me. I was an experienced climber, to be sure, but never before had I been tested with so arduous a journey, not even when I had the unquenchable strength of youth on my side. Determined not to fall behind, I drove the pain and fatigue from my mind even as I wiped the beads of sweat from my eyes with the edge of my sleeve.
Finally there came a whoop of triumph from above to announce that Jaikie had reached the summit of our climb. He hauled Lasalle up after him and called down the good news.
‘It’s easy going from here! There’s a path behind the waterfall!’
Soon we were all gathered on a ledge just large enough to accommodate us. Every one of us was panting, our faces flushed with exertion and excitement. As Jaikie had said, there was a path, wide enough for a man to walk along, vanishing into the shadowy depths behind the roaring cataract.
Taking a deep breath of the chill, high air, I said, ‘Well done, Jaikie. I suppose now comes the moment of truth.’
‘If there’s nothing ahead but a rock wall,’ said Dougal, ‘I for one will be properly scunnered.’
‘Dr Lasalle,’ said Karrie, ‘you should be the one to lead the way.’
The Frenchman’s smile shone through all the weariness of his tired, sick body. ‘Thank you, Karrie.’
‘On you go, sir,’ said Jaikie, gesturing towards the path.
Lasalle nodded gratefully, and took his first tentative steps into the unknown.
26
HOLY GROUND
As we followed the passage through the rock, the roar of the waterfall behind us echoed down the tunnel like thunder. When I emerged from the darkness to join the others, I found we were perched on a wide shelf over-looking the far side of the mountain, where a wondrous sight greeted our eyes.
It was an enormous basin surrounded on all sides by high, sentinel peaks. Great ructions in the earth had thrust the mountains upward and hollowed out this sheltered valley, like a fragrant garden cupped in a hand of stone. To the east was a small lake surrounded by willows and reeds. The waters were dotted with outcroppings of rock from which herons, wildfowl and lapwings launched themselves into the air.
On the flat ground to the west were a score of dwellings formed of rocks and pebbles with roofs of wood and slate. None looked inhabited and all had fallen into some degree of disrepair. They were overgrown with ivy and gorse, and lush grass carpeted the ground between them. At the far end of the valley, the high cliff wall was dotted with caves and birds’ nests.
So this was Kedesh, where those fleeing Christians believed they had found a place of refuge under God’s protective wings. Clearly the place was long abandoned, but it retained a lush, Edenic beauty.
‘You were right, Armand,’ said Karrie in breathless wonder. ‘It really exists.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Lasalle nodded. ‘I wager no human foot has trod this ground in centuries. We are the first to uncover it.’
Dougal grinned and ran his fingers through his tousled red hair. ‘I admit I had my doubts, but here we are right enough, in our own little Lost World.’
‘I hope not,’ said Jaikie. ‘After all we’ve been through, the last thing I want to do is tangle with a dinosaur.’
Gazing out over the deserted settlement, I tried to work out where Redfalcon’s tomb might lie, assuming that part of the legend was also true.
‘We’d best get down there,’ I suggested. ‘We won’t achieve much by standing here gawking.’
An easy slope led down to the valley floor and we spread out across the abandoned village. I was drawn towards the most distinctive structure, a small stone-built chapel topped by a slated roof and a simple carved cross. Karrie was by my side as I drew near the open doorway. It was clear that at least some of the original settlers had been French, for inscribed on the lintel was the name of the little church: Notre Dame des Montagnes – Our Lady of the Mountains.
The interior was dimly lit by the sunlight filtering in through the thin lancet windows. Empty alcoves were evidence of statues and vases removed, and the vaulted ceiling was pitted with holes. A series of worn benches faced a plain stone altar behind which hung a large wooden cross. An age-worn image of the suffering Christ had been painted upon it in a few simple colours which rendered it all the more striking. Here the Saviour kept vigil over his abandoned realm, patiently awaiting the return of the faithful.
Crossing herself, Karrie bowed before the altar and murmured a melodious Greek prayer. When she rose I followed her outside and once more took in our surroundings. Here by rock and foes surrounded, by desert and wind beset, here amid the cedars and the running waters, those Christians of old had built their sanctuary. Though the settlers were long gone, I had a sense that some faint trace of their presence still lingered, like incense hanging in the air.
I heard Karrie speak in a soft, musical voice.
‘Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.
It may be, could we look with seeing eyes,
This spot we stand on is a Paradise.’
She looked at me with a smile. ‘Christina Rossetti.’
‘I thought I recognised the words.’ I was somehow gratified that her thoughts so closely echoed my own.
She seemed relaxed and happy here, as if this was where she belonged, her true home: the past. Indeed, despite the dilapidated dwellings, there was a timeless serenity about the place, a freshness in the mountain air and a quiet barely disturbed by the piping of the birds and the sighing of the breeze. It felt like an oasis of peace, a million miles and a dozen centuries from the war being waged far beyond the mountains.
On a patch of ground beside the chapel was a small cemetery, each grave being marked with a block of stone inscribed with a cross. Certainly none of these could be taken for a knight’s tomb, and there was no sign of a sepulchre as far as the eye could see.
Lasalle was scurrying from place to place, examining first the empty cottages, then the edge of the lake and finally the ground beneath his feet.
‘This soil is too dry to support much in the way of agriculture,’ he informed us when we joined him, ‘and the ground is too rocky to provide pasture for more than a few animals.’
‘It couldn’t support much of a population, then,’ I surmised.
‘No. If the original settlers took in more outsiders,’ said Karrie, ‘or even had children of their own, their resources would soon become stretched.’
‘On top of that,’ said Lasalle, waving at the lake, ‘the bands of dried sediment around the shore are clear evidence that the lake has been shrinking steadily over the years. The diminishing water supply would also set a limit on the population.’
‘I can’t say I’ve spotted any signs of burning or looting,’ commented Dougal.
‘As a Viking you would notice such things, of course,’ Karrie stated with scholarly seriousness.
‘All I’m saying,’ Dougal pressed on, undaunted, ‘is that it doesn’t look as if folk were driven out by force.’
‘I judge that many of these dwellings were already abandoned when the final inhabitants departed,’ said Lasalle. ‘My guess would be that their numbers had dwindled to the point where their community was no longer viable. Perhaps in imitation of the knights, they decided to put their fate in God’s hands and set out to find a route back to their Christian homelands.’
Karrie gazed about her, as though her eyes could penetrate time and behold those past events. ‘I suppose we’ll never know if they succeeded, or died in the desert or the mountains.’
‘It will take years of close study and much digging to unravel the complete story of this remarkable site,’ said Lasalle.
‘Fascinating as all of this is, I see no sign of a tomb,’ I said.
‘Maybe Jaikie’s found something,’ Dougal suggested, looking about for his friend. ‘Hey, where’s he flitted off to?’
As if in answer, we were hailed by a loud cry from the far end of the valley. While we had explored the village and its environs, Jaikie had gone scampering up into the heights, drawn by the allure of the mysterious caves. He was waving to us from one of the paths that zigzagged their way up the cliff face.
‘I think you’ll want to see this!’ he yelled. ‘And you’d best bring a lantern!’
Spurred on by his obvious excitement, we hurried across the valley floor and clambered up the track after him.
‘There’s not much in these caves,’ he told us, ‘but from the markings on the walls, I’d guess that when the first Christians arrived they took shelter here before building their cottages down on the valley floor.’
‘But you’ve found something more interesting, my young friend,’ Lasalle prompted him eagerly.
‘I have that,’ Jaikie confirmed.
He led the way further up the slope and halted by a flat slab of stone that covered the entrance to a cave, the only one that had been shut off in this way.
