To reach the Hero’s Chamber, the river Cups must be crossed three times. The only way this can be done safely is by anchoring and securing ropes across it. The Wanderer can either do this herself after she arrives at the Kingdom with her Travelers, or she can signal ahead. By signaling ahead, the Wanderer in the desert, if she’s lucky, can catch one of her sisters before she takes down the ropes and leaves the area.
There are three crossings involved when ‘stringing the river’ and each one requires three lengths of rope. The first length, the one just above the water, is for feet, and the two higher lines are for hands. When done properly, they create an unstable, but functional bridge. Since swimming across the Cups could easily kill the prospective Hero, it was decided long, long ago that the effort of ‘stringing the river’ was justified.
Uncovering the ropes from their hiding spots, dragging them into place and securing them on both sides of the river usually takes two days. It also requires the Wanderer to walk a dangerous, hidden pathway almost the entire distance to the Hero’s Chamber. Once the job is complete, she returns to the Travelers base camp and leads the prospective Hero or Heroes to the Chamber.
It is customary to have three or four Wanderers in the desert around the Kingdom at any one time. Once a Wanderer’s group has left the area, or died, it is her responsibility to stand lookout for seven days. If a signal from another Wanderer is seen when the sun is at its highest point, the ropes remain in place. If no signal is spotted, they are taken down on the seventh day, stowed in their proper places and the Wanderer departs.
The day before she led her group from the foothills, Kaya had left her shelter spot early in the morning. She walked for several hours until she climbed up and out of the vast, confusing network of ridges and ravines.
Standing at the outer rim of the Valley of the Crescent Moon, she nimbly climbed the only rock in sight.
Reaching around to her backpack, she removed a piece of folded fabric. With careful fingers, she unwound it until she held a small, round, silver circle in the palm of her hand. She looked down into the mirror that had been in her family for generations.
“I hope this works,” she thought.
Through the gauzy material of the Shadow Cloak, she saw the sun directly overhead. Looking down, her shadow made a perfect circle. She was just in time.
Pushing her hand outside the long sleeve of her cloak, the little mirror flashed as it caught the mid-day sun. She tilted it north toward the Kingdom and gave the signal.
The message traveled through the waves of heat radiating off the valley floor and across the vast distance.
She waited patiently, staring into the distance, but there was no response.
She tried again, rocking the mirror to the north three times. Moments later bright flashes of light shimmered across the distance. When the message was complete, she flashed back twice indicating she had received the message and understood it. Kaya wrapped up the precious mirror and tucked it back into her pack.
On her way back to her shelter spot, she couldn’t help thinking about the message. “One dead, one dying, one left. Ropes up.” Kaya wondered how long it would be before she would be sending the same message.
The next night Kaya, Mr. Miller, Connor, and Andrew slowly emerged from the foothills. The hard-baked dirt turned back into soft sand, and once again the Travelers slowed. As they took to the higher ground, their course turned due north. Their view of the horizon would have returned if it hadn’t been for the towering Spire Mountains. Even from this distance, they had to look up to take in the snow-covered peaks.
The moon was little more than a sliver, making the landscape difficult to see. It was one o’clock in the morning when they finished eating and resting. Andrew got to his feet, and asked Mr. Miller, “That’s the outer wall, isn’t it?”
Connor jumped up spraying sand onto Mr. Miller, shouting, “Where? Where’s the outer wall?! I don’t see anything!”
Mr. Miller ignored Connor, and calmly replied, “It is. We’ll be there tomorrow.”
Connor was looking around wildly. “Where is it, Andrew? I don’t see anything.”
“Look to the north,” Andrew said in an exasperated tone. “We’ve been looking at it since we came out of the foothills.”
Connor turned from west to north, and said, “All I see are the mountains.”
“See the dark spot at the base of the mountains?” Mr. Miller said, without looking up or turning his head. “That’s where we’re going.”
“Wow, I didn’t think that was anything!” he said turning back to Andrew. “Can you believe it?! We’re almost there!” He slapped Andrew on the back, and said, “We’re almost there!”
“I know.” Andrew said unenthusiastically, “I know.”
“How can you not be excited?”
“I don’t know,” Andrew confessed, half wondering himself. “I guess it just doesn’t seem real yet. Why are you so excited? Just yesterday, you said we were all going there to die.”
“Never mind about that,” Connor said. “We’re almost there.”
Mr. Miller tipped over his small bowl, letting the last few drops hit the sand. Squatting down, he rubbed sand in it and stood up.
“It’ll seem real enough in another twenty-four hours. In the meantime, let’s get going. Connor, you take the horses and the rear. Andrew and I will keep an eye on our guide.”
“All right, let’s go,” Connor said, a little too enthusiastically.
Andrew just shook his head and stepped behind Mr. Miller. Kaya took point, and they all marched off into the distance.
“I wouldn’t be that excited if I was them,” Kaya thought, wondering what it would be like when the Chamber lit up the night sky.
She had been to the Chamber on each of her trainings, but she had never been there when a man had entered. She had never seen the blue-white Light pouring from every opening, nor had she felt the heartbreak described by her people when the Hero failed. As the thought of the broken man emerging from the Hero’s Chamber settled into her mind’s eye she thought, “I just want to get this over with and get home. I’m glad I don’t have to string the river.”
With each step, the towering pieces of the once mighty outer wall became clearer.
Well before first light, their guide disappeared, and Andrew was the first to spot the small glowing pile of mushrooms.
Turning to Mr. Miller, he asked, “What? Why are we stopping? Why don’t we just get there already?”
“Yeah, this doesn’t make any sense! It’s right there. We could make it in another couple of hours easy,” Connor protested.
Mr. Miller picked up the pile of glowing mushrooms. Holding them in front of Andrew and Connor, he said, “It’s farther than you think and there’s no point in walking during the day. We’ll get there soon enough. Let’s just make camp, get something to eat, and get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
That morning, as the sun began to heat the little tents, Connor thrashed and jerked in his sleep. He mumbled half words, tossing and turning as his dream began to take form.
It was the same dream he had been having over and over since Mr. Miller told him he would be the first to enter the Chamber.
Connor saw himself high up in the foothills of the Kingdom on a cloudless night. Andrew stood behind him wearing a heavy cloak with an oversized hood. Half of his face was covered in shadow while the other half was pale and lifeless. He seemed smaller than he should be and menacing, almost evil.
The dreamscape of the foothills shifted with sharply contrasting areas of light and dark. It was as if clouds filtered the moonlight, but the sky was clear. A steady wind blew against Connor’s back, filling his ears with its muffling sound. He wasn’t dreaming lucidly, and there was no controlling what transpired.
From out of the shadows, a dark building emerged blocking everything else from view. The building was round, made of stone, and when Connor looked up into the darkness, he could just begin to see the curved wall tapering to a point.
He stepped back from the building, but strangely he was no further away. He stepped back again, but there was no avoiding what he had come to do.
He glanced back at Andrew, but Andrew was gone. Turning back to face the building, he was confronted by a massive wooden door. It was easily five feet wide and twelve feet tall.
Connor watched as a large letter ‘D’ appeared in the door. The poorly chiseled letter defaced the flawless wood.
“That’s better,” he said, with an air of satisfaction.
He stood before the enormous door with his chin up, and his chest held high. The shadows and moonlight moved across his chiseled features, the wind whipping playfully at his hair.
Re-appearing from the shadows, Andrew stood behind Connor. He reached up and pulled back his hood, revealing dark eyes and sunken cheeks. The wind did not blow his greasy, matted hair and the shadows of the dream made him look sinister and sickly.
Glancing back over his shoulder, Connor said, “Don’t worry Andrew, I’ll be right back.”
In a nervous, shaking voice, Andrew asked, “Do you need me to hold your things, Connor?”
“If you must, but honestly, I’ll be right back.”
Slipping off his small pack, Connor handed it back without looking and dropped it into Andrew’s waiting hands. Fumbling with the pack, he clumsily slunk back into the shadows.
In the dimly lit scene, Connor watched himself reach for the large, golden, intricately carved doorknob. His hand easily wrapped around it, twisting the ancient handle until he felt the heavy bolt slide open inside the thick wooden door.
With a light push, the huge door swung open and banged against the inside wall of the Chamber.
“Good luck,” Andrew whispered from somewhere behind Connor.
Connor nodded in acknowledgment, but it was a wasted gesture. He was already focused on his prize. Stepping boldly across the threshold, he walked to the center of the room, folded his arms and waited confidently. It came as no surprise when the Light appeared from a corner of the dark room, and he watched impatiently as the blue-white Light flickered across his face.
Floating in the Light of the Chamber, Connor watched as his life full of good deeds was reviewed. He basked in his own glory and smiled contently as the Light of the Kingdom evaluated his worthiness to be King.
The Light slowly faded from the chamber, but it did not leave him in darkness. Instead, it was replaced by a new source of Light and that Light was coming from Connor.
With great pride, he watched himself step out of the Chamber wearing a magnificent suit of gleaming white armor. On his arm, he carried the shield crafted by Celeste for her father and on his waist, he wore the crystal sword.
Andrew re-emerged from the shadowy background of the dream and knelt before Connor, bowing his head to the ground.
Connor’s eyes widened, his pulse quickened, and Andrew faded from view as mountains of gold appeared for as far as he could see. Sprinkled throughout the golden mountains were jewels and countless precious glittering things, enough to buy the world ten times over.
Connor kicked in his sleep and mumbled, “King.”
That afternoon they were on the move far earlier than expected. The sun was still up, but the shadow of the mountains gave them plenty of shade.
They were all fidgety with excitement and nervousness as they approached the towering rubble.
When they were about a mile from the outer wall, Connor said, “Look at it. It’s way bigger than I thought it would be.”
“Me too,” Andrew agreed. “It’s like the wall touches the sky.”
“What are you talking about? You both stood next to it when you were in the book. It hasn’t changed,” Mr. Miller insisted.
“I know, but it just feels different, doesn’t it?” Andrew said, turning to Connor.
“Yeah it does, and we’re not even there yet!”
Mr. Miller stopped and so did Andrew and Connor. He looked at them and briefly repeated the instructions he had given them just before they broke camp. “When we get to the outer wall, we’re gonna set up camp by the Portal. We’ll go over the plan one last time. I’m sure you’ll both be leaving tonight for the Chamber. We’ll need to be quick when we get there. Got it?”
“Got it,” they agreed.
Kaya led the way to where the men would need to make their base camp and stopped. Under the protection of her Shadow Cloak, she quickly untied the small stick with the white flag that had been on her pack for more than a year. With butterflies in her stomach, she stuck it in the sand for the first time.
Mr. Miller saw the little flag and urgently started fumbling to remove his backpack. It was only halfway off when his knees gave out and he threw-up on the sand.
Andrew and Connor were staring at the little flag when Mr. Miller fell to his knees.
“That’s not good,” Connor whispered to Andrew.
Andrew walked up to Mr. Miller and offered him his hand.
“Thanks, but I’ll be all right,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and standing up.
His legs wobbled a little as he walked over to the horses and pulled his waterskin out of a saddlebag. After taking a moment, he turned to the boys, saying, “Let’s get everything off the horses, this is base camp.”
With only the tents and a tack line to set up, they were done in only fifteen minutes.
Mr. Miller gestured with his hand to get Connor and Andrew to come sit with him. When they were all sitting together, he said, “All right, let’s go over the plan one last time. Since we have a guide, the river should be easy to cross. That means it shouldn’t take any more than a day and a half to get to the Chamber. Remember not to go in when the sun is up, it’s always done at night, always. I’ll be right over there sitting in front of the Defender’s Portal and trust me, I’ll see it start up when you enter.
Let’s do it like we agreed. Connor’s going in first, and I’ll have the shield. With that thing on my arm, I’ll be able to defend you like nobody’s been defended in two thousand years. You’ll see, it’s gonna go just fine.”
“What if it isn’t?” asked Andrew.
Connor shoved Andrew, and said in a sarcastic tone, “What could go wrong? The plan is perfect.”
Mr. Miller looked at Andrew, and said, “You already know the answer, but I’ll say it again just so I’ve said it one last time. If things don’t go as planned, then one or both of us,” he nodded toward Connor, “will be dead or dying. It will be up to you to decide what happens next.”
Andrew looked down at the sand, and said, “I’m glad you didn’t talk about this part of the plan before we came all the way out here because I’m not sure I would have come.”
Mr. Miller clapped him on the back, and said, “Don’t worry. This is gonna work. I know it is, or we wouldn’t have come. In two days, you’ll be standing inside the City of Light, the Kingdom itself. You’ll see.”
Andrew raised his head, looked him in the eyes, and said, “I hope you’re right, for all our sakes.” He pushed himself up, and they all stood together one last time.
“Take one waterskin each. You can refill it out of the river. You don’t need to carry anything else but food.”
“What about the tent?” Connor asked.
“The next time you close your eyes you won’t need a tent.”
Connor’s eyebrows went up, and Andrew just shook his head.
“Get the bags we packed last night with your food in it and get ready to go. It looks like your guide is ready.”
The boys had started to go when Andrew dropped his bag, turned around and walked up to Mr. Miller. He hugged him and to his surprise, Mr. Miller hugged him back.
“Good luck Mr. Miller.”
“We don’t need luck Andrew, you’ll see.”
Andrew backed away, and Connor stepped up, holding out his hand. Mr. Miller took it, and the two shook.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“I’ll be the one with the giant shield. Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you and we’ll see this thing through to the end.”
He gripped Connor’s hand tightly and pulled him in for a hug.
The last sliver of the old moon was still shining overhead, and Andrew thought he saw tears in Mr. Miller’s eyes, when he said, “Get going now and be safe. I’ll see you both inside the Kingdom.”