Free Gaal the Conqueror by John White Page A

up he saw that in fact a giant hand had descended from the sky above.
    With a yell of terror he awoke to the greater terror of the
elms. Eleanor woke too, and like John she sprang to her feet
and dived for what seemed like an opening between two of the
trunks. "Authentio! Authentio! Something's happening!" Authentio scrambled to his feet, and like the children, immediately sought a way out. But it was useless. Again and again as they
flung themselves toward a space between two trunks, their exit was blocked. Authentio gave up quickly and began studying the
movements of the trees.

    Finally exhausted, gasping with breathlessness and terror,
John and Eleanor gave up. "What can we do?" Eleanor sobbed.
    "The treasures," Authentio muttered to himself. "Perhaps
they can-" Then with a cry he flung himself at the foot of two
elms where their bundles were rapidly disappearing as the two
trees advanced past them. He seized the nearest ones, dragging
them from the grip of the trunks on either side of them, and
pulled them back to the ashes of dead fire in the middle. "The
treasures-" he gasped. "They have power. It may be-"
    Fortunately all three treasures were among the bundles he
had pulled back. With feverish fingers Authentio tore from
Eleanor's bundle the key and the orb, holding them uncertainly
in his hands, fiercely muttering, "How shall we tap the power?"
    But John was tugging the great old book of the laws and
history of Anthropos by its straps, and as he did so it fell open.
A blinding flash of brilliant and dazzling blue light filled all the
forest. Instinctively they covered their eyes. At once the trees
shuddered, and with groans disentangled their boughs, drawing back. By and by they were able to look, watching the strange
slow wading of the retreating trees in stunned fascination. "Just
look at the other trees," Eleanor said. "They-they actually
know what's happening!" No tree impeded the elms' progress.
Instead trees bent their trunks and boughs away from them to
give them clear passage.
    Authentio reached forward and closed the book and predawn darkness descended once more. "My lord and lady, I am
sure we need no longer fear," he said.
    They gathered more wood and rekindled the fire, sitting and
talking agitatedly as dawn slowly crept across the sky. "I have
heard of such things," Authentio said, "but never so far from
Bamah." He frowned. "There was one who told me about it. He
repeated a rhyme, and told me it protected against the trees."

    I did not watch.
    My body lay
    And slept the careless
    Hours away.
    The crime is mine.
    I cannot pay.
    To Gaal the merciful
    I pray.
    "It sounds like you're not supposed to sleep," John said,
frowning.
    "Had this happened in the woods near Bamah, I would have
understood," Authentio said. "That it should happen here has
grave purport."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean that Shagah has been at work, my lord. He planned
your death."
    "Our death?" John said.
    "Anyone trapped in the circle dies, unless the spell can be
broken."
    "But how could he know we were coming this way?" Eleanor
asked.
    "He may not have been sure, even though this is the shortest
route. But he has spread his net widely. Doubtless it hovers over
many routes. I suspect you are going to see more of him." He
drew in a breath. "The rest of your journey is likely to prove
perilous. It is as well that you have the treasures with you."
    "Yes," John murmured. "That's what Ponty must have meant.
He said they had been entrusted to us for our own protection
as well as theirs. I knew we had to protect the treasures and get
them into the tower, but I didn't quite see how they could
protect us. I guess I see now."
    But Eleanor's face had turned pale. "I'm not sure I like the
idea of a perilous journey with more nights like tonight happening," she said.

     

    In the great Temple of Bamah, Shagah the Sorcerer and the
Lord of the Angeli, Lord Lunacy, were together again, but this
time the