Fruits of the Garden, Volume 2

Fruits of the Garden

by Indoril Karath

Sandil and Salvu Climb to the Peak

It was on a day when the young wards of Indoril Karath were more devoted to wrestling (as was Salvu's preference) or arguing (as was Sandil's preference), than to their studies, that the wise teacher, divining that the youths needed to be run as guars for the taming are, devised a competition for them that would bring to his chapel less of din and disarray. So he said to his wards "This is the highest peak in all the Mephalan Vales, and on a clear day, as it is today, one can see from its height to the peak of Red Mountain which is the heart of our country. See which of you can climb to it first, and tell me if the Mountain is showing its strength in great gouts of flame, or showing its pride in a great pillar of ash, or hiding from the world both its faces."

At this command did both young men leap to their feet and race from the room of learning, at first shoulder to shoulder, and then separate, for while Salvu's feet took him into the cool, clear air of the morning, he observed that Sandil followed him not, and ran instead deeper into the warrens of the chapel.

"Fool Sandil," Salvu thought, "He knows not where the mountain is." And then, as the sharp gravel of the mountain bit at his feet and the rough stone tore at his hands in the ascent, he thought "Weak Sandil. He runs thither seeking his sandals and his gloves."

Thus did Salvu climb, and though his feet bled and the skin fell from his fingers like spider's webs, he was like the great fire which leaps skyward, and the clerics in the chapel below looked up agape at him, and they saw that his face was stern and grey and fierce, and he showed no pain. And he was wise and knew the paths of the mountain, for he was of the Mephalan Vales, and had climbed in their crags in all the days of his whelping, like the spider. And he thought "Laggard Sandil. I will surpass him and reach the mountaintop first, for I am stronger than he, and I am taller than he, and he is of the island of Gorne and knows not the mountain paths as I do, and I have a head start."

Confident thus in his victory, Salvu permitted himself to climb the last few lengths to the peak slowly, as his breath was now shallow and hoarse and his heart was racing, so quickly had he ascended, as quickly as a man running the same distance on a level, it is said. Then at the final stretch he saw proffered to him in aid the skinny arm of his rival.

Sandil sat on the peak, not at all short of breath, wearing his sandals and his gloves and a netch-leather coat to withstand the harsh gusts of the high places.

And though he spoke not, Salvu in his eye must have asked "How?", because with neither scorn, nor great cheer, nor any expression at all, did Sandil explain how he had mixed the powdered plume of a cliffracer with the liquid essence of the trama root, and so had made a potion and flown from the chapel's inner walls to the mountain's peak, unnoticed by Salvu in his furious climb.

"I have not yet looked to the mountain," Sandil said.

And so they turned together and looked, and saw in the azure skies that Red Mountain was hiding its face.

Between them they had shared the remainder of Sandil's potion and begun to descend gently to the courtyard of Aamul where Salvu could wash off the mountain's dust and grit in the fountain, when Salvu said "The Indoril instructed us to climb to the peak, yet only one of us did so, and it is he who truly won the race."

And Sandil said, "He who first reached the peak is the winner, for though he did not climb on rocks, he grasped the cold wind and stood atop the clouds to make his ascent." And in that manner they bickered for the rest of the way down.