Chapter 18

The White Woman

- She walks the rope again, falls, but never dies -

"Who or what are you?" asked Thon, speaking to the white woman. He walked cautiously toward her, unsure of what she was and what she would do.

But the woman remained looked at him balefully, her eyes luminous, saying nothing.

"I do not mean any harm. I merely wish to cross", said Thon, holding his hands out before him in a gesture of peace.

Suddenly, the woman spoke. Her voice echoed with a strange rhythm.

"If you intend to cross, you must kill me", replied the woman sadly. Dark circles hung under her eyes.

"Kill you?" asked Thon, his eyes widening. "Why?"

"This you must do if you wish to cross," replied the woman again, staring balefully at Thon, who shook his head, at a loss for words.

"That I cannot do. Shall we not cross together?" proposed Thon, unsure of what to do.

"Nay. I am bound to this bridge. And there is only room for one person. You must push me off."

"I will not do such a thing", said Thon, his jaw tightening.

"Then you cannot cross and will be stuck here for all eternity", she said, almost mockingly. "Come do what you must."

"Why do you wish to die?" asked Thon, trying to make sense of the situation. He did not understand the woman’s wish at all.

"I do not. But you intend to cross."

"I cannot do this."

"Push me over boy, and cross freely," said the woman, and she looked sadly at Thon again.

"Never!" cried Thon and he moved toward the woman and made as if to help her to cross. But the woman drew back and swung her hand with great force, delivering such a stinging slap across Thon’s cheek that he almost fell off the narrow pathway. He hastily retreated, clutching his cheek, staring at the woman in shock. Thon rubbed his cheek, which was now bright red and throbbing painfully from the slap. The woman looked at him defiantly, her eyes challenging.

Glancing across the walkway, he saw McMillian, standing at the same place, unmoving, the same smile plastered on his features, red hair blowing in the wind and twirling his scepter.

He will not help. I must accomplish this myself.

Anger surged through Thon and he sought to calm himself.

If this woman did not want to be helped, he would force her to help herself!

Thon moved toward the woman again. As expected the woman drew back, raising her hand as if to give him another stinging slap but Thon moved in quickly, grabbing her hand, preventing the slap. With his other hand, he spun the woman around and wrapped his arm around her waist in a bear hug, locking both her arms in the process. Thon proceed to half-carry half-drag the woman across the narrow pathway over the chasm. The woman was strangely light and made no sound in protest. However, she struggled savagely, and on several occasions, it seemed as though the two would fall down to their deaths together, but each time, Thon managed to regain his balance, righting himself in the nick of time.

On one occasion, the woman’s arm broke free and she managed to give Thon another powerful slap across his face. This time, Thon cried out in pain as her palm connected with the same reddened cheek. But he pressed on. To his delight, the bridge widened and there was more room to walk. Thon carried her forward with a renewed ferocity. The woman was strong and she struggled fiercely such that, twice more, Thon found himself fighting for balance.

Finally, Thon dragged the woman to the other side of the chasm and lay her down onto the floor, exhausted from the exertion.

However, as soon as he placed the woman down, she sprang to her feet immediately. Gone was the sad face with dark circles beneath her eyes. Instead, he was greeted by an angelic face and a beaming smile. Even her white dress gleamed brilliantly in the moonlight. So swift was the change that Thon was at a loss for words.

"My thanks to you child."

Thon managed to nod. But the woman’s smile disappeared and she turned to walk back toward the bridge.

"Where are you going?"

"I am afraid that in order for you to cross, I must die. Though you have done an admirable thing, I must fall into the lake of fire below."

"No! Stop! Why do you do such a thing?"

"My master has designed me so."

"Please stop!"

"May you overcome the challenges placed before you by my master."

"Wait!"

"Fare thee well."

He leapt at her in an effort to stop her but the woman dodged him and ran onto the narrow bridge. Upon reaching the middle section of the narrow bridge, she shot Thon a final weary and mournful glance at Thon and then, threw herself off the bridge.

Thon watched, his body frozen, his eyes wide in shock, as the woman spiraled downwards into the chasm, her body like a ragged doll in the wind, white robes swirling about her. She made no sound and his eyes followed her until she burst into purple and pink flames and was no more.

Dropping to his knees, Thon felt his arms and legs shaking uncontrollably. His stomach heaved violently and he felt nauseous. All his effort in trying desperately to save her was for nothing. But taking a deep breath, replaying the scene again in his mind, he knew he had done the right thing,

The sound of someone clapping hands together brought Thon back from deep within his thoughts.

"Well done. Well done. Well done," repeated McMillian, clapping his hands together and whistling loudly. The bells on tip of his hat jingled cheerfully. "I always knew you could do it, Thon. What a masterful display of…courage…and… of…kindness," said McMillian dramatically and mockingly. "Oh, I cannot bear it." And McMillian blew his nose and wiped his eyes as he made as if to sob quietly to himself, his shoulders heaving and shuddering. The white paint on his face began to run in grey smudges as the man sobbed uncontrollably. Thon’s eyes narrowed.

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My master has designed me so.

"You are her master are you not?"

"Indeed. What a sad, sad lady she was."

"So, either way she would have died?"

"Either way, my dear Thon. And there was nothing you could have done about it."

McMillian flashed a brilliant gleaming smile and Thon saw the madness in his reddened tearful eyes. He decided that he did not like this man very much.

"Listen here…", began Thon, anger rising within him.

"Anyway," interrupted McMillian, looking up, his white-painted face completely dry of tears, "the poor woman is dead now. Incinerated by the lake of fire I created moments ago. Did you like the pink and purple flames? My favourite colours you know. Now, onwards!" And McMillian pointed his ruby-encrusted scepter toward the horizon and marched forward.

"Wait,” said Thon. “You created the lake of fire? What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? What do you mean I mean? I mean what mean, so listen closely to the man and what he has to say!" warned McMillian, wagging a finger at Thon. Raising his ruby-encrusted scepter, the man’s eyes narrowed and his eyes shone with a sinister quality. "In this world, McMillian, the man himself, rules and reigns," replied McMillian with a sickening grin, revealing his long white tusks. "McMillian is King. And you are my subject. You shall do my bidding until I say you may leave my service. So, come along now. We have a great many things to do. Worlds to remake and destroy."

The man is utterly mad, thought Thon. Why am I following him? He will only lead me to my doom.

"You have no choice my dear boy", said McMillian looking straight at Thon, as if reading his mind. He cocked his head to the side, looking Thon up and down, as if studying him. "You could give up of course. Or, you could face the challenges ahead, with a chance of conquering them. A slim chance indeed though."

As he completed his sentence, another winding path sprang before him, leading into the horizon. And McMillian sped off again, following the path. Though his legs moved, his feet floated over the ground, like a stone skimming the surface of water, barely making any sound, completely effortless. This time, Thon was ready and he bounded after the man himself, determined to keep him in sight.

McMillian appeared to go faster at times, looking over his shoulder at Thon with the same eerie smile, and Thon began to feel as though the man was deliberately trying to leave him behind. Thon smiled to himself. I shall follow you to the ends of the earth if I have to. You will not succeed in shaking me off.

It seemed as though McMillian heard his thoughts even as Thon spoke them, for the man himself increased his speed drastically creating a growing distance between himself and Thon. Keeping the image of McMillian’s dark red shirt and purple pants in front of him, Thon began to close to gap between the two, his legs moving quicker than before.

McMillian turned to smile at Thon again, tilting his head to the side, making as though to look at something behind Thon. "Just so you know, Thon," said McMillian conversationally. "You will die if you are left behind. But please do not worry! It will be completely painless, this I assure you!"

Wondering what the man meant by this, Thon followed McMillian’s gaze and risked a glance behind. To his horror, a black void of nothingness followed behind closely. Like a vacuum, it swallowed up the winding path and everything around it into its empty maw. Turning back to the front, Thon pressed on grimly. Minutes passed into hours. Still the two ran on, seemingly in circles, always following the same winding path. Like the expanding universe, each time it seemed like the path would come to an end, always it would extend and stretch into the distance again, lowering Thon’s spirits. Gritting his teeth, Thon ran on. He was breathing heavily now. Doubt was starting to creep into his mind and he wondered how long more he could sustain running at this speed. McMillian turned around and grinned at Thon again, not saying a word to him. He was not panting at all and Thon grew despondent.

Time passed and Thon began to tire. Panting deeply, he ran on, struggling to keep the dark red of McMillian’s back within sight. But he knew that he could not keep this up for long. McMillian was starting to pull away now and Thon found that despite his efforts, he could not close the gap between him and McMillian. Risking a glance behind, Thon saw that the black void was nearing him. Worse, he could feel a slight pull in its direction. Let go. Give in. Fall into my depths, it beckoned and called out to him. Thon felt his strength being sapped from him. His mind grew faint and the red of McMillian’s back seemed to be so far away now…

Suddenly, just as his strength was about to fade, the pathway widened to form a wide avenue that eventually ended in steps to a giant archway made of red and black coloured stone. Thon slowed his run to a jog as the ground beneath his feet transformed into smooth concrete. Turning behind, Thon saw, with great relief, that the black void of nothingness was gone. He stood there for a while, bent over, hands on knees, struggling to catch his breath which came out in great shuddering racks and coughs. Remarkably, he felt energy slowly returning to his body.

Once more, he heard the sound of clapping as McMillian strode into view.

"Well done. Well done. Well done," said the man himself with a gleeful smile, congratulating Thon with mock applause. "Come now," he said, gesturing for Thon to follow him. "There is something ahead. Another challenge maybe."

Following McMillian closely, Thon moved cautiously, his body tensed and eyes alert for any sudden movements and surprises the man might make. Coming to stand under the large red and black stone archway with strange symbols inscribed in the stone, Thon saw beyond, a flat misty square as far as his eye could see, and further beyond, in the center, steps leading to a building that looked like an ancient temple with spiraling and curved horn-like structures on its rooftop. Beside the archway under which he stood, Thon saw, to his left and to his right, two towering identical statues of black and red stone.

"My dear Thon, do you recognise these statues?" asked McMillian, conversationally, coming to stand before Thon, raising and lowering his scepter to the ground with each step he took toward Thon. The bells on his four-pointed hat jingled merrily and his red eyes gleamed maniacally. McMillian pointed to the statues on Thon’s left and right with his scepter. Turning his attention to the statues of stone, Thon saw that they resembled some kind of strange-looking creature that seemed vaguely familiar. The statues were magnificently imposing and had an almost life-like quality to them. A faint image began to surface from the deep recesses of his memory but just as it was about to break the surface of his mind, a shadow entered his thoughts and the image faded. McMillian smiled gleefully at Thon.

"I thought not," he said with a smug grin, before turning to look out across the landscape, throwing his arms wide open, as if trying to measure the vast expanse of landscape before him. "My, my," said McMillian to himself, putting a finger to his chin. "This is a truly desolate place, is it not Thon?"

The land beyond the archway was dark and eerie. Nothing moved across. The skies were overcast with grey clouds and muffled light. Something here did not feel right and Thon was uneasy, for the place was quiet. Too quiet.

"What am I to do here?"

But he received no reply. Looking around, Thon saw that McMillian had, frustratingly, disappeared again. Walking past the archway into the square, Thon gazed out at the horned temple in the distance.

That must be where I am supposed to go.

Suddenly, as if the scales fell from his eyes, Thon noticed that the entire land beyond the archway was thinly carved into small square tiles on which were inscribed strange symbols similar to those inscribed into the archway stone. On some, Thon saw what looked to be depictions of animals, while on others, he saw strange carvings that he took to be words, but written in a language he did not understand.

Realisation struck him.

This was a giant grid. This was another game to be played. But how was the game to be played? Curse that man, he thought.

He took a step forward, stepping on a tile with what looked like an image of a beast inscribed. Almost immediately, he felt a growing pressure under his foot and retreated swiftly, stepping back. A split-second later, without warning, the beast tile on which he stepped, exploded upwards with a such a powerful shuddering blast that Thon was lifted several feet into the air. He fell onto his back, hard, and was completely winded. Rolling onto his side, Thon pushed himself to his feet. He crept toward the smoking tile, which was now charred rubble. Interestingly, he observed that the other tiles around it were not affected. It was as though the damage had been contained within the tile he had stepped upon.

Then he understood.

There was only one safe passage across the grid. But the challenge lay in finding a safe path through the deadly grid. In doing so, he had to identify safe tiles on which to step upon. But there were hundreds, no thousands upon thousands of tiles spread across the giant grid. If he tested every tile, it would take too long. It must be something to do with these symbols, pictures and signs inscribed upon each tile, thought Thon. That is the key.

He walked up and down the edge of the grid and began to closely inspect each tile and the symbol or image that was inscribed. An image of a lion, a strange symbol, a strange-looking beast, an image of some kind of bird, the smoking tile on which he had previously stepped, another image of some kind of winged-creature, an image of the sun, another strange symbol, an image of a different-looking beast than the first beast, an image of a weapon of some sort, an image of a man, and many more different kinds of images and symbols. This is hopeless, he thought. There were too many different images and symbols.

Then, an idea occurred to him. And his heart raced in excitement.

Could it be?