Chapter 16
The Womb of the Earth
Outside Utica, Kingdom of Hannibal
After putting some distance between himself and the city, Tobias was still keeping an eye over his shoulder for pursuers. It was not that he distrusted Captain Bomilcar's offer but rather that he fully expected men under the Captain's command to act on their own to capture him. Surely the Captain knew Tobias was not going to simply hand himself over and his men were likely thinking the same thing, only they did not have a father's pity holding them back. Zeal for the Queen, ambition, petty jealousy, any number of reasons would compel them.
"You need not be so anxious, Tobias," Tym'r said. "We are not being followed."
"How do you know?" Tobias asked.
"I would smell them well before you could see them and hear them coming even before that."
Tobias relaxed a little but remained on his guard.
"Where will you go?" Tobias asked. "Will you not return to your own country?"
"My business in this land remains unfinished," he said, "though now I do not know what to do next."
"What business? Were you not a slave?"
"By design," Tym'r replied. "I believe there are traitors among my people selling our young into slavery to you humans, so I allowed myself to be taken that I might learn more from the others who have been taken as slaves. I had just been brought to that city when those creatures attacked. It would not be so easy to go back now, and so I will travel with you for the time being. Perhaps I can learn things that I would not learn otherwise."
"I'm a wanted man, Tym'r," Tobias said. "All the Queen's men are hunting me. When I rejoin my companions, I will be making my way to the sea and out of this kingdom. I can't help you with your purpose. I will only expose you to greater danger."
"All the same, I will travel with you," Tym'r said, unmoved by Tobias' efforts to discourage him. "It is not danger I fear but failure."
"I can't imagine you finding any success while you're with me."
"Perhaps not, but the guidance of the spirits is strange. They brought us together, gave us victory. Who can say where they will lead us next?"
Changing the subject, Tobias said, "You speak our language well. Where did you learn it?"
"When I was young, my village was attacked by you humans," Tym'r replied. "I was taken and made a slave. For three winters I served in the estate of some lord until I escaped and returned to my homeland. Few of my people escape when they are taken and fewer still succeed in crossing the River."
"So that's how you know about the slave markets?"
"Yes."
Tym'r abruptly stopped and looked ahead of them, his ears turned forward and his shoulders arched.
"What is it?" Tobias asked.
"I do not know," Tym'r replied. "It smells like a human, but there is something about it... something I have never felt before..."
"My companions should be just ahead," Tobias said. "If something has happened to them..."
He spurred his horse onward.
"Wait, Tobias!"
It was too late. Tobias was already galloping forward to where Tellus and Shoshanna were supposed to be waiting. When he got there, though, there was no one or nothing else besides the two of them. They were sitting down resting against a tree, but with Tobias' rushed arrival, Shoshanna rose with a start.
"Tobiyah, what is it?" she asked.
Before Tobias could reply, she held up a hand. It took Tobias a moment before realizing that she was gleaning the answer directly from his mind. Once she did so, she relaxed her shoulders and simply said, "Oh. I see."
"See what?" Tobias asked.
There was the sound of Tym'r running up behind him. He came to a stop but did not say anything.
"Greetings, Tym'r na Ty'ha," Shoshanna said. "Please be at ease. There is nothing to fear here."
Tobias turned to see Tym'r with his fur standing on end, looking on warily.
"What... is that?"
Shoshanna looked down to Tellus and said, "This is Tellus. She is... a special girl, but you need not fear her. She is quite harmless to those who mean her no harm."
"There is... power to her... Great power..."
"Yes, I know," Shoshanna said. "She doesn't truly understand it herself and it is far beyond anything I have ever seen before."
Tym'r looked to Tobias and asked him, "How can you sit there so calmly?"
"Tobiyah ben Yishak's senses are not so keen as yours or mine, Tym'r na Ty'ha," Shoshanna replied. "He can't feel her power as we do."
"Tobi... yah?"
"It is his name among our people—well, my mother's people. In this tongue he is more commonly called Tobias."
"How do you know my name?" Tym'r asked. "Surely Tobias did not have the time to tell you."
"You told me," Shoshanna replied. "After a fashion."
"I did not."
"Shoshanna can read the hearts of men," Tobias explained, "and beastmen too, it would seem."
"The two are not so different, Tobiyah ben Yishak," Shoshanna replied. "In fact, one might say they were the same."
"Well, don't let anyone else hear you say that," Tobias said, "or you'll find yourself tied to a stake again."
Tym'r cocked his head.
"I do not understand."
"When I found Shoshanna, she was condemned to be burned as a witch by the priest of Baal," Tobias said. "Obviously, I didn't let that happen."
"A witch?" Tym'r asked. "Do you mean a spirit-caller?"
"Something of the sort," Shoshanna replied. "I have not properly introduced myself. I am called HaBasselet HaSharon Shoshannat Ha'Amakim."
"Shoshanna," Tobias said.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," she concluded with a slight bow.
"You are... different," Tym'r said. "You do not smell the same as the other humans. There is something else... like sunlight on the waters..."
"That would be because I am not quite human," Shoshanna replied, briefly exposing one of her ears, "though I have never heard my scent described quite like that before. Have you always been so poetic, Tym'r na Ty'ha?"
"What's this 'na Ty'ha' thing?" Tobias asked.
"It is the name of my clan," Tym'r replied. "I did not wish it to be known, but it would seem I can conceal nothing from this Shoshanna."
"Very little at the least," Shoshanna said.
Tellus stepped out from behind Shoshanna and started to approach Tym'r. Even though she was just a small girl, he immediately was on his guard. Tobias was not sure what might happen and was about to intervene for both their sakes when Shoshanna said in a calm voice, "It's okay. There's nothing to fear."
Tobias did not know if she was talking to him or to Tym'r. Perhaps both of them. Tellus continued to approach, lifting up her hand and reaching out to tentatively touch Tym'r's fur. Though he did not seem particularly receptive to being touched, Tym'r did not move, nor did he growl or make any other noise.
Tellus started to run her fingers through Tym'r's fur more confidently and she smiled, perhaps the first real smile Tobias had seen from her since he first met her. Little surprise, of course, given their experiences so far.
"I think she likes you, Tym'r na Ty'ha," Shoshanna said.
Apprehensively, Tym'r said, "Better to find favor with such a one, I suppose."
* * *
A day and a half had passed since Tobias reunited with Tellus and Shoshanna. His plan was to head eastward and make for Jbeil, find a ship and sail as far from Hannibal as he could. Apparently in pursuit of the mysterious call, Tellus became quite insistent that they cut across the plains. It was probably just as well that they stayed off the roads for a while and because they were still heading in the general direction Tobias meant to go, he did not see much reason to object.
However, the farther they went, the more Tobias wondered what was the source of this call that compelled Tellus so. Shoshanna could tell him nothing more about it because Tellus herself did not seem to know. In the back of his mind, Tobias feared they were walking right into danger, but so long as Shoshanna was with them, he was fairly confident that she would detect any threat before it came upon them. Tym'r's keen senses would no doubt prove helpful as well to that end.
As they were riding, Shoshanna said, "You know, Tobiyah ben Yishak, just because you don't give voice to a question doesn't mean I can't hear when you ask it in your heart. Every time."
This was not the first time she had made a complaint like this, nor would it be the last, surely.
"Can you not close your sight beyond sight the way a man closes his eye?"
"It is not so simple as that, Tobiyah ben Yishak," she said. "I can quiet the voices if I focus but never silence them. And for some reason your voice is harder to quiet than others."
"So as a spirit-caller your power is to hear the voice of the heart in your head," Tym'r said.
"And I can feel as others feel," Shoshanna said, "I can see past and future with a touch, among other things. Honestly, I haven't tested the limits of my power. I discover new abilities by chance and then I have to try to control them. I don't dare go deeply when exploring my... gifts I guess you would call them."
"Why not?"
"Because it is dangerous and mistakes have... consequences."
Tobias thought it best not to inquire into those mistakes or their consequences.
"I appreciate that your curiosity does not overtake your discretion, Tobiyah ben Yishak."
Before he or anyone else could say anything further, Tellus started fidgeting more than usual.
"What is it?" Tobias asked.
"We are close," Shoshanna said.
Tobias looked out ahead of them and realized where they were.
"I think we're near the Pit of Athirat," he said. "I've never been there myself, though."
"There aren't many who have," Shoshanna said.
"What is the Pit of Athirat?" Tym'r asked.
"Well," Tobias said, "before the Mad King renamed the kingdom after himself, before it was called Baalzabul, it went by the name of Boreas, after the Greeks' god of the north wind. The first king called himself Boreas too, even went so far as to claim he was the very god whose name he took. He demanded worship and had a great temple built in his honor in what was called the New Capital.
"However, Balteshazzar, the high priest of Baal, challenged the King's claim to godhood. They say that Balteshazzar prayed to Baal seven days and seven nights, without food, drink or sleep, and then the mouth of the earth opened up to swallow the King's temple and much of the city. The King fled into exile and his concubine, the daughter of Balteshazzar, was crowned Queen and her descendants rule to this day."
"A fair telling of the story," Shoshanna said, "but how much of it is true, I wonder."
"I certainly wouldn't attribute any power to the idols of the nations," Tobias replied, "but clearly something happened here all those centuries ago."
They passed through the well-worn ruins of the ancient city and approached the massive crater at the center. At the base of the crater was the Pit of Athirat, roughly as wide across as the breadth of Hannibal Castle. As Tobias drew nearer to the ridge at the edge of the crater, Tym'r fell back, barely suppressing a low growl.
"This is an ill-omened place," he said. "We ought not be here."
"I share your unease, Tym'r na Ty'ha," Shoshanna said, "but the voice that calls to Tellus... it is too strong to resist."
"Do you sense any danger?" Tobias asked.
"There is no malice... none that I can feel... It is gentle but... urgent..."
As if to respond to that urgency, Tellus hopped off Tobias' horse and began navigating her way down the ridge.
"Tellus, wait!"
Of course she did not stop and so Tobias dismounted and followed after her. The ridge was not too sheer, but the footing was poor, which made it rather difficult to go after the surprisingly nimble Tellus. She practically glided down to the base while Tobias stumbled along, trying desperately not to slip and end up tumbling down to the bottom. By the time he reached the base, she was already halfway to the Pit. It would seem that whatever was calling her was doing it from there.
When Tellus reached the edge of the Pit, she stood there looking down into the vast emptiness below. They said the Pit of Athirat had no bottom, that it continued on into the infinite void. Tobias certainly did not want Tellus to find out firsthand.
"Tellus, come back!"
She turned to look at him. There was no sign of fear or apprehension in her eyes. It was like she was exactly where she was supposed to be. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and then fell backwards.
It took Tobias a moment to realize what had just happened. Once the realization did sink in, he broke into a sprint toward the Pit, crying out, "TELLUS!"
There was nothing to see but empty blackness. Tobias felt a similar emptiness within himself. It was true that he had not known her for very long, but he had sacrificed much for sake and now she was gone. It was like everything he had done was for nothing.
Tym'r and Shoshanna caught up to him. Unused to such exertion, Shoshanna was short of breath and barely able to remain on her feet. Tym'r was still on edge, warily glaring at the Pit.
"What happened?" Tym'r asked.
Tobias struggled for the words.
"Tellus... She's... She's gone..."
Shoshanna was struggling for her words for an entirely different reason. Panting heavily, she said, "She was... following... the call... There was... no fear... She seemed... happy..."
"After what she's been though, jumping into a bottomless pit rather than face more of it would be bliss," Tobias said angrily. He did not know exactly who he was angry at, though.
"She is beyond the reach of the enemy," Tym'r said. "Is that not what you wanted?"
"I..."
Tobias did not know what to say. He wanted Tellus to be safe, but this was not what he had in mind. Was there no other way? Was that why she did it?
"There has to be something more to it," Shoshanna said. "She came to this land answering the call that brought her here. If she was only looking for a way to escape, she would have never come here in the first place."
"But what was it that called her?" Tobias asked. "What if it was just something that wanted her power?"
"I don't know," Shoshanna said. "I could never hear the voice myself, just the echo of it in Tellus' mind, but if it intended ill for her, I don't think it could've concealed it so completely."
"What do we do now?" Tym'r asked. "There is nothing more we can do here, am I right?"
Tobias was not sure. Did they wait in the hope of Tellus returning somehow? Did they just give her up for lost? The whole purpose of their journey was to keep Tells safe. With her gone, what was left? Shoshanna could probably go anywhere but Utica without fear. Tym'r could not easily search for his people who had been sold into slavery, but perhaps he could return to his country even if he had failed in his mission. And for Tobias, he could still leave Hannibal, but perhaps he would do just as well to surrender himself to the Queen's justice.
"Tobiyah ben Yishak, you—-"
Whatever Shoshanna was going to say, she was interrupted by the ground shifting under their feet. Although the crater was entirely barren, roots burst forth from the ground, working around the three of them like ropes. Tobias reach for his sword to cut them away, but the moment he grasped the hilt, his whole body went numb. As all sensation left his body, his vision faded. It would seem this was a trap after all.
* * *
For Tellus, it felt like she would keep falling forever. Was this what she came all this way for? If so, she wished she could have said something to Tobias, not that he could understand her. Well, Shoshanna could communicate her feelings, but she wanted to tell him directly. She supposed it was too late for that, though.
She must have fallen asleep at some point because she was jarred awake by something shaking her. It did not have the crushing finality of the ground or else she would not have woken up at all. It was something like vines or roots slowing her fall and easing her to the ground. Apparently she found the bottom.
She had fallen so far that of course no light from the sun could reach, so she could not see anything. They ground seemed to be rock and there was a dull thumping like the sound of a beating heart. And then, as they say, there was light.
It started with a cluster of crystal near her feet, followed by another and another until it was like the night sky with its countless stars spread out all around her. In the pale light that shone in the darkness, she saw a great knot of roots extending upward as far as she could see. It was as big around as a house—no, like the great tower from her homeland.
She made a cautious step toward the knot of roots when other roots rose up from the ground underneath her, lifted her up and carried her over to the center.
The knot of roots parted for her as she was brought closer and inside she found the body of a woman tangled in the roots. The roots were all over and around her, going through her... coming out of her? Tellus could not tell for sure.
And there was something else as well, thin, squirming black vines that moved like worms and gave her an ill feeling. This ill feeling got stronger and it was nearly too late when she realized that the black vines were surrounding her, but the roots rose up to shield her. Then, with haste, the woman—who Tellus had taken for dead—reached out and drew Tellus in to kiss her.
There was a sudden shock like being woken from a deep sleep. Her eyes were opened, but she had no time to truly understand what had happened as the rooted pulls her away and carried her upward. 'Carried' was too gentle a word, though. She was thrust upward like she was on the tip of a spear, like an arrow loosed into the sky. There was nothing for her to do but cling for dear life, even if the roots were holding her rather securely.
* * *
How can you describe such a sense of peace? Like a babe sleeping at his mother's breast, perhaps. Tobias was so overwhelmed that he could scarcely form any conscious thought, or at least nothing coherent, nothing that lasted more than a moment before melting away. Was this death? If it was, people wasted much in fearing it.
Time had lost all meaning, so there was no saying how long or how short it had been, but amid this sea of numb, soothing warmth, there was a point of distinct sensation, a small, warmer place that drew everything into focus. And just like that, the warmth and peace were stripped away and Tobias opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw as his eyes focused was Tellus standing there looking him right in the eye. The roots that had ensnared him him withdrew back into the ground. He let go of the hilt of his sword, which he had been grasping this whole time, however long it was. Long enough for his fingers to have gotten stiff. He then turned to see Shoshanna and Tym'r, still wrapped up in the roots as he had been. They seemed to be unconscious, no doubt experiencing the same thing as him.
Tellus went over to Shoshanna, then climbed up on the roots and kissed her. Shoshanna's eyes opened and the roots retreated. Tellus then did the same for Tym'r.
Now that the three of them were were free, Tym'r was the first to speak.
"What has happened?"
"It would seem that she did not want us to leave," Shoshanna said.
"'She'?" Tym'r asked. "Who is 'she'?"
"My mother," an unfamiliar voice said. "She told me where we have to go."
It was Tellus.