Garlthik outdistanced him, and by the time J'role caught up, the ork stood at the top of the hill trying again and again to move forward. Each time, at the same place, he came to a dead stop as if running into a wall, then took a few awkward steps back.
"What is this?" Garlthik cried. "We FOUND it!" He turned toward J'role, gesticulating wildly. "There's a huge fissure in the city wall, but I can't get through!"
J 'role started at this announcement. He had not seen a fissure. The city had-been intact.
Garlthik dropped to his knees and began weeping. He begged to the sky to be allowed in.
"It's empty," Garlthik cried. "Just bones and ruins. Ours for the taking."
Lightly, J'role placed his hand on the ork's shoulder. Garlthik looked up sharply, but his expression softened when he saw J'role. J'role held out his hand, and with slumped shoulders, Garlthik handed over the ring.
J'role placed it on his finger.
Towering white walls stood before him blazing with the light of a thousand stars. Nearby were the gates of the city- also made of the white stone and held in place with massive gold bolts and silver hinges. His mouth began babbling again, the uncontrollable descriptions pouring out. He walked up to the gate, desperate to get inside, and put his hand against the stone to test how heavy it was. Drawing closer he heard the racket of countless voices from the other side of the wall.
His fingertips touched the edge of the massive gate and then passed through. His hand, and then his arm up to his elbow disappeared into the stone. Beyond the gate he felt a kind of nothing. Not the cool air of night. Not the cool air of anything.
He turned toward Garlthik, who only stared at him in confusion. "What do you see?” he asked. "The city? Are you seeing something?”
J'role nodded. He turned back to the gate. Could he get in? He stepped closer, pressing-his other hand through it, then a leg. His chest. The creature in his thoughts began to breathe faster, hungry. Anticipation. Then J'role pressed his face toward the gate …
And stopped.
He could get no further. It was not like encountering a solid wall. It was more that his muscles seemed to freeze up and refused to move any further. He drew up all the strength he could muster and tried to make himself move forward. His arms began to shake, and he felt his neck muscles tighten and tighten. He gasped even as descriptions of the city continued to flow from his mouth. He heard himself speak of fountains made of flowers that produced wine as pure as the sky, and of wizards that floated about on magic carpets while traveling within the city walls. All he had to do was get inside. They'd be able to cure him! They could cure his father! He knew it had to be true. They were miracle workers. They could do anything!
He felt himself crash to the ground. Immediately he opened his eyes, expecting to see the wonders of the city surrounding him. But all he saw was Garlthik, staring down at him, framed by the night sky. "Sorry. It looked … as if you had stopped breathing. I was frightened."
J'role jumped back up and charged the gate, then felt himself slammed out just as his body began to enter. Over and over again he tried to enter the city, and soon the creature in his head was screaming and wailing in his thoughts, screeching for J'role to do something until J'role stopped speaking of the city and began screaming and wailing as well.
He lost all sense of time and place and was startled to-find Garlthik shaking him. "We have to go. You've made so much noise, and Mordom might be near. We have go to now."
"No," said the creature in his thoughts. J role felt it sliding quickly in his mind, fidgety and desperate. "Don't go. Wait for the wizard. If he comes he'll show you how to get in.
He'll know how."
"No. He'll kill me."
"No, he won't. Just wait."
"We have to go now," Garlthik said again.
The longing consumed J'role now, and he wanted only to get into the city. Everything -
everything-he'd ever wanted waited within its walls. His voice. His mother's love. A father he could count on. If only he could get in.
He shook of Garlthik's hand and began to walk the length of the wall running east from the gate.
"What are you doing?" asked the ork.
Looking for some kind of entrance, J'role made his way along the walls pressing his hands into the permeable stone, so cold to the touch.
Something! He glanced up every few feet, scanning the towering walls for a window or a mark. Seeing nothing, he continued on. At certain spots he placed his hand through the surface of the wall, but as before, he could feel nothing beyond the wall.
He thought suddenly of his father. But the creature in his thoughts said, "If you're going to search, search. Keep moving!
"Yes," he thought and turned his attention back to the wall. Large stone blocks, about one yard by one yard their joints nearly imperceptible, formed the wall. He knew little of stonework, yet the perfect cuts and joints of the stones could not be ignored; whomever had built the city must have used magic in cutting the stone and building the wall.
Admiration for the monumental achievement spurred him on, for again he appreciated the power of the people living inside the walls of the city. But how to get in? Why didn't they come out?
His mouth was going numb, and despair drifted into his soul. He slipped the ring off his finger. The city, the road. . everything vanished from sight. He stood near the top of a wide, flat hilltop, Garlthik dozens of yards away.
He ran past where the road would be if he could have seen it, and then put the ring back on.
Now he saw nothing but what he had seen before. He ran forward, toward Garlthik.
When he had gone far enough to be outside the walls of the city, the city's brilliant light glowed from behind him. He collapsed to the ground in frustration.
"Someone is coming," said Garlthik, walking up to him. "We can't get in. I don't think Mordom can either. But we have to go." In the distance J'role saw a group of people approaching, one of them carrying the torch. At some point it had become night.
He scrambled up and ran down the hill to find his father, which took much longer than he would have liked. The man sat silently on the ground staring at the stars, tears in his eyes.
All the while J'role was searching, the creature insisted that he wait for Mordom to arrive.
"No," he shouted back in his thoughts. Then he and Bevarden met up with Garlthik and they stole off into the night.
They had gotten only a quarter of a mile away when Garlthik whispered harshly, "Down.
Get down." J'role dropped to the ground, dragging his father behind him. Bevarden, who had been shaking for some time, gave out a startled gasp. The three of them rolled into the base of a shallow ditch. J'role looked over the lip of the ditch, staring back toward the hill where they had seen the city.
The orange flame of torches bobbed in the distance. "It's them," Garlthik said softly. "I know it's them. I knew I should never have trusted that wizard. Something about him.
Never stops. I hate people like that."
J'role looked up at Garlthik in surprise.
"Except myself, of course," he said with a smile. "Come. We'd bests get a move on. It's dark. They won't spot us as long as we stay in these gullies. We should be able to stay ahead of them."
The boy touched the ork's shoulder, then shrugged, then pointed.
"Ah, where are we going?" Garlthik asked, voicing J'role's silent question. "Well, I think I know where we might get some help finding out about the mysterious city. I don't know for sure, but it's worth a try. Down south of here."
He got up, but J'role caught his arm, and shrugged once more. "Who are we going to see?" the ork asked. "Let's just leave that as a surprise for you, lad."
J'role shook his head. He'd had enough mystery since meeting Garlthik. '