Shana drew back slightly, seeing if they would release the pressure on her knees. They did, but only slowly, reluctantly.
‘And what if I don’t?’
‘Then you will stay here with us forever and ever. And we will find new ways to play with you.’
Shana looked down on the strange pair with growing distaste. Was that a veiled threat? She decided that she must agree to their demands for the time being. Surely they could mean her no harm. Why would harm have suddenly come into her life? There was no harm in the Land below. And then a thought occurred to her. No harm in the Land. But what if you were a food fish? She shuddered ever so slightly and then threw the thought off.
‘Let’s play,’ she said.
The creatures looked briefly at each other and then ran around each other, clapping their translucent hands.
‘There,’ one said to the apparently identical other, ‘I told you she would play!’
Shana stared at her new companions and felt an odd sensation as if small things were crawling under her skin. Once again she had learned a new word without thinking about it and this new word was: Danger. There had been no danger in the Land – but now there was.
Her mouth was dry when she finally said: ‘What do I call you?’
The one to her left said, ‘I am Zarka.’
The one standing hungrily to her right said, ‘I am Akraz.’
And then they said, ‘And you are Shana.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Oh, we know you. We have watched you down in the soft green lands.’
Impossible, Shana thought, it is too far away. But her sense of unease increased.
Her mouth was even drier now and she had difficulty forming the words but finally she said, ‘And what do we play?’
The two looked at her with eyes of pellucid crystal. Crystal that had no discernible depth; that might have been endlessly deep or trivially shallow.
‘Name us.’
‘That’s easy,’ Shana began, ‘you are …’
She stopped; the little beings had suddenly begun to race around her in dizzying circles. Then they suddenly stopped and took up what seemed to be their original positions, looking up at her with their unnatural, fathomless eyes.
‘Name us.’
Shana felt her heart give a little shudder. She stared at them. Were there any differences?
There were. The one on the left had a mouth that reached slightly farther around its head. But which one?
She had to decide… She pointed to the left hand one and said: ‘You are Zarka.’
‘Wrong,’ the one on the right said. Was there a slight tone of satisfaction in that thin, high-pitched voice? All at once they moved forward and began pinching the soft flesh of her thighs with their hard fingers. She cried out and moved backwards but they followed, pinching, pinching. And then they stopped.
‘Every time you get something wrong we will pinch you,’ the one with the shorter mouth said.
Shana stood her ground, panting. Once again she was experiencing a new sensation and this time the word was – Anger. What right had these creatures to torment her like this? Nothing had ever behaved like this before so why now?
‘And if I get the play right will you let me go?’
‘Of course.’
‘Then let’s have the next game.’
‘Very well. Here in the hills we are great admirers of logic. Do you know of logic?’
‘I know what you mean but I have had little use for it.’
‘You will find you need it here.’
Another veiled threat? Shana’s mind was torn between anger and alarm.
‘Get on with it.’
One of the little creatures moved forward slightly.
‘Here in the hills we are of two types: one type always speaks the truth and we call them Truthers. The other type always lies and we call them Liars.’
Shana stared down at what were now clearly revealed to be her captors. What madness was this? Why would any being deliberately lie?
‘And so?’ she finally demanded.
They once again did their dizzying circling of her and once they had stopped one pointed to the other and said, ‘I am a Liar but my companion is a Truther. Now decide what is our reality.’
Their captive stared at them in growing horror. This was not what she was accustomed to; this was not a pleasant nap in the green skyshine or a relaxing walk by the gurgling river.
Think! Think! What could be determined from what the thing had said?
Slowly, thinking as she spoke, she said, ’If you were a Truther then what you said would be true. So, you must be a Liar. But if you are a Liar then all of what you said must be a lie so – so – ‘… The answer was there, she knew it! Just think carefully!
She had it!
‘So, all of what you said must be a lie. So, your companion is a Liar also!’
Her statement ended on a rising note of triumph. She had it!
Silence fell. The creatures did not move and simply stared at her.
Then one spoke.
‘That is correct. You may go.’
There was no emotion in the voice. No disappointment, simply a statement of fact.
They turned and the wall swung open to receive them.
She was alone.
Seven
She stood there in the tunnel and found herself shivering. Partly it was the cold but partly it was not. She had just had a profound shock and her mind was still whirling from the implications of her current situation; all of them unpleasant it seemed.
She had to get out of this place! She turned back to the slab of rock that had barred the entrance to this world and scrabbled vainly at it, breaking her soft, shaped nails in the process. Useless. She could not possibly even scratch it. She was trapped.
For a brief moment tears misted her eyes. Why had she come? Why had she not stayed in the safe and sheltering womb of the Land? There had been this strange compulsion to explore but where had that come from?
Abruptly there was no more time to ponder. She realised that where she stood, next to the unyielding mass of stone, the light was fading. And yet at the other end of the cave or tunnel, whatever it was, the light was growing stronger. Clearly, she was being directed further into the bowels of the hills, deeper into its maw.
There was nothing more she could do here; she would have to follow the unspoken command and move further in, to whatever was now planned for her.
She walked for some time, followed by a creeping mass of darkness as if being stalked by a horrific black beast. Her surroundings never changed significantly from the dispiriting melange of black and yellow.
And then she came to the end of the tunnel and was faced by a great wall of impenetrable grey stone. She stared at it in despair. Was this to be her end – to starve to death in the guts of these awful hills? She stood and stared at the wall as if willing it to dissolve and evaporate. And then she noticed that near the bottom of this wall there was the faint but unmistakable outline of a door.
She approached, somehow fearfully and hopefully simultaneously. If there was a door there must be something beyond it – was that not logic? She ran her torn fingers over the rough surface until she found that there was a small protrusion on it; one she could get a grip on.
She pulled it and although made of rock the door opened easily, soundlessly, smoothly. She stepped through.
Disappointment hit her at once – it was just the same as the other side. Bare rock, lit by a foetid, sulphurous light. No hope.
She stood there motionless, overcome by the hopelessness of her situation. Time passed. How long? It was impossible to say in an environment where nothing changed.