The Magic Lands (50 page)

"The best I can do is to say
that it very much like a lesson, and we are among the students in a
vast classroom. We strive for understanding, but you cannot know
all there is to know on your first day at school. Now, finally, we
near graduation, and yet we still have to pass our exams."

Jack shook his head in despair,
struggling to comprehend. "I don't know," he muttered, "I think I
know what you're going on about...I just wish it made more sense to
me that’s all."

"Keep studying," the animal
advised him.

Jack sat on the edge of his
bunk with his head in his hands and for a moment neither one of
them spoke, the boy thinking hard about what had been said, the
badger watching him.

"So what about the rest of the
poem?" asked Jack, returning to the task at hand. "What does that
mean?"

"Yes," pondered Mo, "I am
afraid the rest is not quite so transparent. On to the very edge
must certainly refer to the edge of the world. If we sail far
enough we will reach it eventually."

Jack stared at his friend in
disbelief. "Now wait a minute," he blustered, finding it impossible
to believe that the badger could be so foolish, "everyone knows
that the world is round. You can't sail off the edge of the world!
If you go far enough you'll just come back to where you started!"
To Jack's further surprise, Mo laughed warmly, his dark eyes alive
with mirth. "What's so funny?" he questioned, his mouth tight,
feeling he was the butt of a joke.

"My young friend," said the
animal, containing his laughter, "you must realise that already you
have travelled beyond the edge of your own world. All that you
knew, or thought you knew, has been made redundant. All you ever
learnt has been shown to be only a glimpse of the truth."

The badger was right of course,
Jack saw. He could no longer depend on what he had been taught in
the past. The laws were different here. Everything was different.
He had never believed in magic before, although many times in his
life he had wished it could be real. But now he found that real
magic did exist, that it was an intrinsic part

of these strange lands into
which he had stumbled. Anything could happen. The Wolf saw to
that.

Wherever Tom was, Jack
understood that he too would be subject to this new reality.

They were both aliens in a
realm of spurious design and once more, this bound them together.
Being apart could not change that.

"Make sail!" Captain Welles
cried, initiating a flurry of activity from his crew as they set
about readying The Spiritwalker for her voyage.

Dredger stood on the high
forecastle deck, staring out at the mild ocean. There was barely
enough wind to propel them toward their destination, but the
warrior had no doubts that they would get there. The Beast expected
him to come. And Dredger would not disappoint his foe.

Two immense sails were hoisted
up, each with a separate motif impressively stitched onto the
canvas, one with an enormous eye, a golden coin as its pupil,
whilst the other pictured a monumental crucifix, attacked by a
giant serpent rearing up from a volatile sea.

"Captain," Dredger called,
approaching the seaman as he issued instructions from the upper
deck. "Remember we will make only a brief stop at the island, then
we must make full speed toward the edge. There must be no needless
delays."

The Captain nodded his consent.
"And you remember, friend, that I have cargo to deliver at Chimeria
before we make off on this fool's errand. We can pass The Seventh
Step on route, although I can't imagine what you expect to find
there."

The warrior chuckled at this,
ignoring the man's final remark. "You do not believe we will find
the abyss?"

Captain Welles spat at the
ground and then began to fill his pipe. "The abyss!? I have sailed
these waters since I was no more than a pup and I'm telling you
there is no such thing. But you're paying me a handsome enough sum
to ensure that I'll sail you anywhere you want to go. And when
you're tired of looking, I'll sail you right back to

land where you belong!" The
seaman puffed on his pipe for a moment before adding. "And anyway,
it's not as if you're asking me to sail my ship and crew right over
the damn edge of the world, now is it?"

A cryptic smile played about
Dredger's lips. "No," he acknowledged. "At least not unless it
becomes absolutely necessary."

Captain Welles laughed roughly
at this and running a large hand across his chin, spat upon the
deck again. "You've got a good sense of humour, man, I'll give you
that!"

"Indeed," Dredger agreed
easily, "it is well for you that I have, or I might take offence at
your poor manners." He nodded toward the saliva splattered close
beside his boots.

Welles grinned at the warrior
through his beard, but his passenger's face was impassive and the
old seaman knew just by looking at the man, that this was not going
to be an uneventful voyage. But even though a bargain had been
struck, he would never put his ship at risk. It was his livelihood
after all and more importantly, his life, all that he had ever
known. No, he would not risk that for anything or anyone. If the
truth be told, he didn't like this warrior very much and that meant
he didn't trust him either. To Welles, Dredger was the type who
thought himself superior to ordinary working men, but then warriors
were always the same from his experience, too big for their
britches, all swagger and no heart, and he had no doubt that the
same went for this one's fair-haired companion too. If either of
them caused any trouble with him or his crew, pay or no pay, then
they would soon find out what real fighting was all about.

Although the dream seemed
distant now, it still preoccupied Tom. He and Lisa were playing
with the lambs ruffling their woolly necks, the sheep in turn
snuggling up against them, trusting completely in the benevolence
of the boy and girl.

"Are you happy now?" Lisa asked
him.

"Yes," he answered, but
something in his tone or expression must have given him away, for a
dark cloud appeared to pass over her face, an unfathomable sadness
in her eyes.

"Why are you still sad?" she
questioned, and though he thought hard, trying to choose the words
that would make her understand, Tom found that he could not speak.
"Don't you want to be with me?" she asked him, the glimmer of a
tear forming at the corner of her eye.

Taking her hand, Tom shook his
head. "It's not that," he said urgently, "it's just that I know I
should be somewhere else. There are people depending on me."

"I depend on you now," Lisa
told him, moving closer.

"There are things I have to
do," he countered, hating this conversation and wishing he could
just forget everything but her.

"But why you?" she wanted to
know, her distress obvious and Tom found that he didn't really have
an answer to this.

"It's just the way things are,
I suppose," he said inadequately.

"So you're going to go away and
leave me?" There was accusation in her voice, her dark eyes
watching him carefully, and beneath her gaze Tom felt utterly lost,
incapable of saying anything that might hurt her.

"I never want to leave you," he
managed to say, meaning it, and saw Lisa smile.

She edged closer still, until
he felt the warmth of her body against his. "And I don't want you
to ever go away," she whispered, placing her head on his shoulder,
her arms encircling his waist tightly.

Remaining silent, caught in her
embrace, Tom drifted away into memory again, his mind summoning
pictures from his past. He had known both good times and bad. But
even in the happiest of days, a part of him had felt incomplete, as
though he had always been searching for something that now, at
last, he had found. Being here with Lisa, his troubles seemed
remote and far less important than they had before and he wanted
nothing else. There were others who could do what must be done.
There had to be. Why did he have to bear responsibility for the
safety of the world? It was ridiculous!

Why couldn't he just be like
everyone else and just be left alone? Was that really too much to
ask?

Jack stood on the poop deck and
watched the crew as they went about their appointed tasks,
displaying an ease and familiarity that came from many years spent
upon the open sea. Above, the rigging creaked mournfully and the
sails rippled in a gentle breeze as they moved leisurely through
calm waters. Pelagian lay far behind them, the daylight fading and
already they had passed three of the small islands that comprised
The Seven Steps.

Once more in human guise, Mo
stood in deep discussion with Dredger, the two men alone at the
stern of the ship and Jack moved closer in an attempt to hear their
conversation, and although the men kept their voices low he still
was able to make out some of what was said, the sound carried to
him on the wind.

"I think I should be the judge
of that," Dredger reacted angrily and Jack saw the fair-haired man
make some reply, facing his companion so that the boy could not see
his face, or make out what it was he said. "I need not heed your
advice, friend," Dredger snapped back, eyes flashing, then quite
clearly, Jack heard Mo's voice calmly answer.

"Use your new wisdom well, for
even those who command great power are not infallible."

The other man responded with a
flicker of a smile. "Whichever way the table is turned," he said,
"I will do what I must." This appeared to end the exchange and
Dredger walked briskly away across the deck.

For Jack's part, it only served
to make him more uneasy about their decision to put to sea in the
first place and approaching Mo with this in mind, he studied the
man who it seemed could take any form he wished, the ultimate
stranger and yet Jack's closest ally now that they had lost
Tom.

"Is something wrong?" he asked,
coming up beside Mo, who leant upon the rail and gazed out at the
sea.

Glancing down at him, the man
smiled briefly, strain and weariness etched upon his face. "The
Wolf works its vile sorcery in many ways," he said quietly, "and I
fear that often even the wise can become fools."

"Do you think things are going
to turn out all right?" Jack wondered, the sigh of the water and
the groan of the timber a tenuous comfort.

"In the end all
will
be well. But the wounds of the
heart that many have to endure before then, is the greatest test
ever conceived. Each of us is asked to leap into a pit of darkness
where vipers writhe in obscenity, armed with only our faith.
Sometimes I wonder if it is asking too much."

"Maybe that's the whole point,"
Jack suggested, surprised at himself, finding it strange that he
should be the one who was trying to offer consolation.

Mo patted the boy's shoulder
affectionately and then looked back toward the horizon. "Still
night does not descend. Only twilight for us. It is a sign."

"A sign?" Jack questioned.

"Yes," nodded Mo. "The Beast is
watching and waiting. It knows the game very well, but even the
Wolf is merely another player, as are we. And we shall need all of
the courage and guile that we possess, if we are to defeat it. We
must guard against its trickery. Perhaps we shall need to be as
cunning and ruthless as the Wolf itself if we can ever hope to
win."

"You make it sound as if we'll
have to become beasts ourselves," Jack said anxiously.

Again Mo nodded. "There are
those who believe that is the case."

"And is that what you think?"
the boy asked, troubled by this statement.

"It doesn't really matter what
I think, Jack. I am, after all, only one. Each must decide for
themselves."

"Well I don't think we need to
be like the Wolf to win," Jack declared, "I'll never believe in
that."

Looking at him steadily, Mo
smiled, this time without reservation. "Let us pray that in our
hearts, all believe as you do."

"What about Dredger?" probed
Jack after a moment's pause, curious about the heated words he had
overheard. "Is he all right?"

"Dredger is unto himself,"
replied the man. "He lives by his own code, but since his journey
to Hydan, he has changed in many ways. He has become far more
powerful than even he yet realises, but in other ways he is far
weaker and far more vulnerable. There are few things the White Wolf
does not perceive, few things it cannot turn to its advantage."

"But there are some things it
doesn't know?" Jack said hopefully.

"Some," conceded Mo, "and yet
its knowledge is vast and there is little that has escaped its
understanding…except perhaps the significance of true love.” There
was a wistful look in the man’s eyes now. “But then, few can claim
to know such things."

Jack thought about this for a
while and hesitated only briefly before asking another question.
"Does love like that really exist?"

The man did not answer at once.
His eyes scanned the dark water and when he finally spoke, his
voice was as gentle as the waves. "Some say that it exists in the
heart, but it can only abide in the mind and in the soul. Many
think that they love, yet it is no more than a fantasy or a dream.
It does not last. Only when you have learned the truth about
yourself, can you truly find love, because nothing can grow out of
ignorance, nothing

except fear, the killer of
truth. True love is never shallow. It is broad! And it shall
encompass the community of all living things."

"But I don't really understand
what love is, or goodness for that matter," Jack said, wanting so
much to be given answers that would make sense to him. "I know that
I'm not a good person…after all that I've done."