Quest for the King by John White

herself planned," Gaal said, still smiling.
    "Why not?"
    "I told your Uncle John to send his computer over either to the
Chois' or to the Chans'." Wesley's eyes widened, but Gaal continued.
"You see, he once had a proseo comai stone that he stored in a glass
jar in the attic where he kept his computer system."
    "I know," Kurt said gloomily. "It disappeared, and he thought one
of us might have taken it."
    "So now you will be able to tell him what happened! One day Mrs.
Janofski put water into the jar and stuck some flowers in it. The stone
dissolved."
    He paused, and the children stared at him, their mouths open,
waiting for him to go on. Gaal looked at each of them in turn and
then continued.
    "Later the same day Mrs. J. brought some hot water upstairs and
washed, among other things, the attic window. She also, rather nervously, washed the screen of the new laptop computer your uncle had
bought, but seemed worried with the result. So she took the flowers
out of the jar, poured some of the water from it over the washcloth
and squeezed it out a couple of times. Then, unaware of the extraordinary power in it, she gave the screen a final wipe, and turned it into
a doorway to Anthropos."
    Lisa shook her head in wonder but said nothing. Wesley said, "I
couldn't figure out why Uncle John would bring it to Hong Kong! It
has a hard disk, but he'd never bothered to transfer his stuff onto it.
I see now..." He began to laugh. "Poor Mary! This has been a rough
time for her."
    "It's time she grew up," Lisa said.
    But Kurt said, "Gaal, why have you brought us here?"

    Gaal rose to his feet, and the children did the same, hoping that
he was not going to leave them, and wondering what would happen
next.
    "I shall send you on to Anthropos to rescue a young king."
    Kurt asked, "What young king?"
    But Gaal just went on speaking as though he had not heard him.
"Listen carefully. You will arrive in Playsion and will meet three men
on horseback. With them will be three saddled horses and two pack
mules. They will stop and discuss whether to hire you or not. You are
to let them see that you will be willing to be of service to them, but
if they ask questions of you on the first day or so, you must tell them
you are on the secret business of a Great King, and that he has
requested you to be silent."
    "Won't they be suspicious?"
    "Yes. At first, certainly."
    "But they'll hire us?" Wesley's voice had its usual worried note
    "They will hire you."
    "How can we be sure it's them?"
    "They will be the first persons you see after your arrival."
    "Where will we be?"
    "You will meet them beside a road in the southern forest of Playsion. The road leads from the port city of Risgah in Playsion to Bamah, which is, as you know, the ancient capital of Anthropos. You will
be two or three days' journey from the frontier of Anthropos."
    "Bariah?" Kurt wondered. "Did they rebuild it?" But before he
could ask his question Lisa spoke.
    "About the young king. Where will we find him, and what are we
to do?"
    "You will know all that when the time comes for you to know it.
Trust me. I will have my eye on you every moment. Your story begins
as you meet the three men."
    There was no sound, no sense of rushing through space, nothing
to tell them that they were being catapulted into another world. All
they were aware of as the mist lifted was a forest of spruce and pine, with a few huge and ancient oak trees. They stood at the side of a
dusty, rutted road running through the forest, but at first they saw little
of it, for they were looking mainly at Gaal. Curiously, they were wearing the clothing of people associated with the royal court. Lisa wore
a long white dress. There were expensive silk shirts on the boys, and
silk hose. From the boys' shoulders satin cloaks hung, while Lisa's was
pulled around her shoulders.

    "Remember, I shall be with you all the way," Gaal said, bidding
them farewell.
    "Don't go! Please don't go!" Kurt cried. But