Secret Of the Sighing Mountains (The Quest Trilogy) (6 page)

“What happens to the people once they become these…” Diego looked around and shuddered, “these
trees
.”

“I suppose they live as long as their human life span would have been. Then they die and make way for another gullible one such as themselves.” Stal said ruefully.

Diego looked down, drowned in contemplation while Sierra slowly picked up his fallen bowl of cereal and began to clean up. Diego watched him in amazement. Something had finally managed to pierce through Sierra’s appetite and kill it. He turned back to Stal.

“Why are some of them covered in pinkish flowers and others in that ghastly blackish- blue?” he asked.

The barks of the trees were indeed covered with flowers. Some a pretty orange-pink color and others in a dark, blackish hue.

“That is the essence of the person. Those who were good people are covered in orange blossoms, while those who were evil got covered in the black ones. Mark was covered in orange blossoms. And thank goodness for that, because the black flowers give out a stench so bad even insects avoid them.” Stal said, scrunching up his nose at the memory. Diego let out a low whistle.

“Man,” he said, “this place is something else.”

They saw a woman approaching them and stopped talking.

“Hello, I’m Sapphire. We’re playing a game of volleyball, would you like to join us?” she said.

Diego and Sierra were in no mood to indulge in any games but Stal jumped at the offer.

“Of course, of course! Pleased to meet you Sapphire. I’m Stallion. You can call me Stal.” he said, extending a hand to shake Sapphire’s outstretched one.

He motioned towards Diego and Sierra who were sitting. “These are my sons - Diego and Sierra. We would love to join you in your game. Please lead the way.”

Sierra stood up to follow but Diego remained seated. Stal spoke from the corner of his mouth.

“Come on, Diego. Distraction will do your lot some good.”

Stal turned to make his way towards Sapphire’s camp, followed reluctantly by Diego and Sierra. It turned out, however, that Stal was right. They soon got involved in the game and began having fun despite themselves. The mountain and its terrifying-yet-fascinating secrets forgotten for the time being.

****

CHAPTER 6

The first week went by with everyone in a state of tense anticipation. When nothing happened, they slowly started to relax. By the end of the second week, they had all settled into their own routines. The third week, too, went by without any event. By this time the happy campers at the Seekers Field were beginning to get restless and grumpy.

Whisperings like ‘it’s never taken so long before’ and ‘maybe it isn’t going to happen this year’ began doing the rounds. Only Stal seemed unperturbed by what was going on.

“Don’t listen to them,” he said, “idle minds are a devil’s workshop.”

Finally, on the twenty-fourth of December, the second last day of camp, a cold frost crept over the mountains and a hush descended upon the surrounding forests. No birds twittered, no insects chirruped and no animals could be heard scuttling about.

Even the humans at the field grew silent as though by an unspoken command. Everyone knew not to talk and just to listen. As the night wore on a mellow, fragrant wind began to blow. It picked up tempo steadily until it began to collide with the mountains resulting in a pattern of sounds like whispered breaths falling steadily.

“The mountains have started to sigh. its time.” said Stal, in a grave voice.

All three of them were huddled around a small fire built by Stal, rubbing their palms together and hunching low, trying to keep themselves warm. Nobody slept that night - partly out of excitement and anticipation, and partly out of fear, because the sighing noises continued all night long.

Everyone was up at the crack of dawn the next day. Nobody slept much anyway. Diego and Sierra were in the process of dismantling their tent when Stal came running towards them.

“It’s there….” he panted, “The Seekers Pass has been revealed! Let’s go.”

They quickly finished packing and pulled on their backpacks.

“Is it the same as when you went?” asked Sierra.

“No, wouldn’t be much point in revealing it then, would there? The location changes every time.” said Stal.

They reached the crowd of excited people at the mouth of the waterfall and Stal turned to face them both.

“This is it, boys. You take good care of yourselves.” he patted Sierra’s arm. His voice was gruff with emotion as he spoke to them “Your mother would have been proud. Just as I am. Now go.”

Both Diego and Sierra stared at Stal as though he had gone mad.

“Where
is
this Seeker’s Pass?” said Sierra. “I don’t see anything. Just the waterfall.”

“Oh, yes! I forgot to mention. The pass is behind the waterfall. You just have to walk through it.” said Stal.

Sierra looked at him skeptically. He turned to look at the waterfall. People were hugging each other, saying their goodbyes and then, just as Stal had said, walking through what appeared to be only a curtain of water. Sierra gulped, blinking rapidly to disperse the moisture that had collected in his eyes suddenly.

“Guess this is it, then. Love you, Dad.” he said, fighting to keep the emption from showing in his voice and giving Stal a quick, awkward hug and then letting go abruptly. He stepped back to see that Stal’s eyes were red with unshed tears, too.

“You boys are all I had.” He said thickly. “And now I don’t know when I will see you again …”

“You’ve been a good father.” Diego said, nodding stiffly to Stal.

“We’ve had our share of up’s and down’s … but you have been exceptional sons.” replied Stal, and though he knew Diego wouldn’t like it, he pulled him into a hug anyway. “Take care of your brother.” he advised as he let him go, and then added, “I mean, in a good way.”

“Aw, shucks!” joked Diego. “And here I thought you were giving me permission to take care of him for good!”

“Wouldn’t that just make your day.” Sierra drawled sarcastically.

They turned around to head towards the waterfall when Stal’s voice stopped them.

“Oh, wait!” Stal called, quickly lowering his backpack and rummaging through it frantically. “How could I forget? Rayva was right. I am such a forgetful creature.” he muttered, removing a dull yellow leather belt with two long zippers on each side and handing it to Sierra.

“Remember how I promised the two of you on the night of your eighteenth birthday that I would give you a rare, magical item each? Well, here it is, son. Sierra …this is the Belt of Halion. If you want to hide something, anything….just put it inside one of the zippers and it will be hidden from one and all. When you need to use any of the items you have hidden, just put your hand in the right zipper and think of what you want. You’ll find it’s in your hand, ready to be pulled out.” explained Stal thrusting the belt towards Sierra.

Sierra took the belt gingerly, holding it with reverence.

Stal turned to Diego.

“And for you, son, I have this ring.” he began to remove the ring that he always wore on his left hand. It had a nondescript, red colored stone in its centre.

“Take this.” he said, placing it in Diego’s open palm. “This is the Ring of Gera, and much of the reason why you both have been unable to defeat me in any race or arm-wrestling matches till date.” he winked. “Anyone who wears it will have his strength increased tenfold. Never remove it from your finger and keep it safe.” he patted Diego’s fist, which had closed around the ring protectively.

“Why didn’t you ever mention you had all this cool stuff?” Sierra asked in surprise. “And why didn’t you give these to us earlier?”

“I didn’t mention them,” Stal said, raising his eyebrows in a challenging look, “or give them earlier, so that you wouldn’t be tempted to misuse these items.”

“What made you think we would misuse these?” Sierra asked, eyes darting suspiciously.

Stal gave Sierra a telling look, and Sierra grinned guiltily. “Okay, at least tell me where you hid it all these years.”

“It was inside the safe in my cupboard, along with the letters your mother wrote for the two of you.” answered Stal.

“The one that you always kept locked. No wonder.” muttered Sierra.

“Okay, I’m done now. You boys are ready to go. Good luck.” said Stal, stepping back. His eyes shone with pride as he watched Sierra put on the belt and Diego slip on the ring.

“I don’t feel any different.” said Diego, turning his hand and observing the ring.

“What were you expecting? Being blitzed with a wave of power?” Stal asked. “It doesn’t work like that. The power will grow on you slowly. Takes about a month’s time to reach its full potential. Besides, if your strength increased that much right now, the first thing you’d do would be to punch Sierra.” Stal said, matter-of-factly.

Diego smiled and shrugged his shoulders in acceptance of Stal’s statements, and then turned to Sierra.

“Let’s get going brother.”

They turned and waded into the shallow pool of water. Stopping at the mouth of the waterfall, they turned to wave at Stal. Then they walked through the thin curtain of water and, like the others, disappeared from view.

*****

Stal stood where he was for almost an hour. He had done it. He had sent his sons off on their Quest’s. He hoped the day would come soon when he would see them successfully return from their Quest.

“I hope you’re smiling up there, wherever you are, Rayva my love.” he whispered.

He turned and headed back; out of the clearing, down the mountains, and back home.

*****

CHAPTER 7

Diego and Sierra walked side by side in silence for a long time, just hearing the sound of footsteps- theirs and other’s- echoing in the cave. As they walked deeper and deeper into the cave, the musty smell that had pervaded the air when they had entered began to fade and it began to get brighter. The brightness increased steadily until a point came when Diego and Sierra could no longer see anything. Not the ground they were walking on, not the people ahead and behind them, not even each other.

They stopped walking, unsure of what to do. They had taken a step towards an extraordinary journey, and they did not know what lay ahead. But there was no turning back now. Nothing lay behind, the Pass had closed. That was always the rule from the beginning. Finish the journey or die trying.

Both stood still for a moment, taking in their situation and working out a solution. The light was blindingly bright, but it also did not hurt at all. Sierra reached out his hand and caught hold of Diego’s hesitant one. And they started walking ahead together; taking slow, cautious footsteps. With their free hands outstretched so that they wouldn’t bump into anybody else, they made their way ahead. After an unaccounted amount of time, their legs hit the bottom of what felt like a step. Bending down and feeling with their hands, they climbed the steps one by one, counting a total of five hundred and sixty when finally, they saw the dull black outline of a circle ahead. They moved through it, and the light began dimming until it was a normal white- the white of early dawn. Their eyes adjusted and they realized that they had just successfully made it through the Seekers Pass and were now standing on a great, grassy field. On checking their watches, they were stunned to realize that they had been walking for almost six hours now.

They looked around, stumbling a little as other people walked through the opening and bumped into them.

They were on a plateau as big as seven football fields situated on a mountaintop. They could see the edges where the plateau ended and beyond it, where many more mountains were visible on the horizon. They were surrounded by smoke, which they only just figured were clouds floating by.

Realizing that they were still holding hands, Diego jerked his hand out, rubbing his fist as though trying to erase the memory. Sierra clenched and unclenched his, feeling awkward.

“Look at that, D.” he said, pointing ahead at an enormous structure made of red and gold bricks. It had several pristine, ivory colored, multi-tiered roofs, like layers of a cake that were stretching up towards the sky in a point. On either side of the structure, trees bloomed with flowers, painting a very pretty picture.

“It looks like a monastery.” said Sierra.

Diego grunted, and then started forward towards the monastery.

They were greeted at the gates by tall bald men in maroon robes with a thick golden border, who ushered them into a great hall where several others had gathered along with them. As soon as the bald men left, Sierra slumped down on his backpack with a huff. Diego leaned against one of the huge pillars with ornate paintings of dragons breathing fire, looking around at all the weary faces and occasionally pausing to glare at anyone who dared to make eye-contact.

Soon the rest of the campers had filed in and the doors of the hall were closed. A ceremonial horn was blown by two men standing on either side of a raised dais and from behind a heavy gold curtain emerged a small, frail looking man with Asian features. He, too, was bald but his robes were much more opulent, with a beautiful, sweeping design of a waterfall skillfully woven into the satiny fabric. He wore a thick, gold band on his right wrist. As a matter of fact, every one of the bald men present here and some of the women standing discreetly to one side seemed to be wearing one.

As the gaze of the man on the dais took in the crowd before him, everybody consciously straightened themselves. Those who were sitting stood up and those who were disheveled quickly straightened their clothes and smoothed their hair. The man undoubtedly had an air of command. He stood in the middle of the dais and waited for the murmurs to die down.  Once the hall was as silent, he opened his mouth to speak. Surprisingly, he spoke in a warm and friendly voice that was in direct contrast to his austere, commanding presence.