‘Veltan didn’t want them to take you people off to be slaves, so we came down here and burned their ships. Did any of them ever say anything about just why they all ran off like that?’
‘Nothing that made any sense to me,’ the villager replied. ‘Of course, a lot of things have been happening here lately that haven’t made any sense. As closely as I could tell, they all got very excited about something going on up to the north.’
‘There’s not very much on up to the north of here but farmland,’ Torl said. ‘If you go on up farther, though, you’ll reach the mountains.’ Torl frowned. ‘Did you happen to hear any of them talking about gold?’
The villager’s face went sort of blank. Then he began to speak in a peculiar way as if he was reciting something that he’d memorized a long time in the past. ‘It was long, long ago when a man of our village grew weary of farming,’ he began, ‘and he went up into the mountains far to the north to look at a different land. He came at last to a mighty waterfall that plunged down from out of the mountains to the farmland below. Then he found a narrow trail that led him up into the mountain-land, and there he beheld a wonder such as he had never seen before. It was beyond the mountains that he saw a vast area where there were no trees or grass, for the land beyond the mountains was nothing but sand, and that sand was not the white sand of the beaches when Mother Sea touches Father Earth. The sand beyond the mountains was bright and yellow and it glittered in the Wasteland with great beauty, and now all men in the Land of Dhrall know full-well that the sand of the Wasteland is pure gold, and it reaches far beyond the distance that the eyes can reach.
‘And having seen what was there, the adventurous farmer returned to his home and never again went forth to look for strange new things, for he had seen what lay beyond the mountains, and his curiosity had been satisfied.’ Then the villager stopped, and his face seemed sort of puzzled. ‘I don’t think I know what you were talking about, stranger,’ he said.
‘It’s not really all that important, I guess,’ Torl replied as if he wasn’t very interested. ‘Thanks for the information, friend. Whatever it was that got the Trogs all excited probably isn’t very significant - except that it made them pack up and leave.’
‘That’s all that really matters, I guess,’ the villager agreed.
Something very peculiar had just happened. It seemed that the villager didn’t even know that he’d just recited a story that was really coming from somebody else’s mouth, but what exactly had set him off? ‘It must have been something I said,’ Torl muttered, ‘but as near as I can remember, all I asked him had to do with gold.’ Then he blinked. ‘Of course! he exclaimed, ‘it was the word “gold” that blanked out his mind and set him off.’
There was another villager standing not far away, so Torl walked over to the man. ‘Hello, there, stranger,’ he said. ‘Why don’t we talk about gold?’
The villager’s face immediately went blank. ‘It was long, long ago when a man of our village grew weary of farming,’ he began.
Torl walked away and left the villager talking to himself.
Another villager came out of one of the makeshift huts.
‘Gold,’ Torl said.
‘It was long, long ago—’ the villager began.
Torl went on back down to the beach chuckling to himself. He privately admitted that it had been nothing but pure luck, but he’d just stumbled over the reason for the sudden departure of the Trogs.
‘I wonder—’ Torl mused. He looked on down the beach. There was another village no more than a mile away. ‘Let’s try it and find out,’ he said to himself.
The sun was going down when Torl and his men returned to the Lark.
‘Well, Cap’n,’ Iron-Fist said, ‘did y’ find out what happened t’ all them there Trogs?’
Torl shrugged. ‘They went north,’ he replied, ‘and I was lucky enough to find out why they did that. We might want to drop by a few more villages, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary. Somebody - and I don’t have any idea of just exactly who - did something very strange to the people in five different villages that I visited today. Just as soon as I mentioned the word “gold” every single villager I met today started to tell me exactly the same story - and they all used exactly the same words. I’ve heard it so many times now that I could probably recite it myself - and I wouldn’t make a single mistake.’
‘Now that’s what I’d call real strange, Cap’n,’ Iron-Fist said, a bit dubiously.
‘ “Strange” only begins to describe it,’ Torl said. ‘I wish I knew just who’s behind this. I think whoever did it is on our side, but I wouldn’t want to swear to it. I hope he’s on our side, because he can do things that I’ve never even heard of before. We definitely don’t want to cross that one.’ Then Torl laughed. ‘I’m fairly sure that this’ll drive cousin Sorgan right straight up the wall, and I don’t think Veltan’s going to be very happy about it either. I’d say that this game just got very interesting.’
‘You’re just making this up, Torl,’ cousin Sorgan said a day or so later when the Seagull returned to the bay where Torl was waiting.
‘If you don’t believe me, go try it yourself. All you have to do is say “gold” to any villager anywhere along the coast of this bay, and he’ll tell you exactly the same story - and he won’t even remember that he said anything at all.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘Go try it.’
‘I’ve never heard such nonsense before.’
‘Go try it.’
‘You’re just clowning around, Torl.’
‘Go try it.’
‘All right, I will, and when it turns out that you’ve been lying through your teeth, I’ll whomp all over you.’
‘I’m not even a little bit worried, cousin. I know exactly what you’re going to hear every time you say “gold”, because I’ve tried it myself a few dozen times.’
Sorgan snorted and went on out of Torl’s cabin on the Lark, slamming the door behind him.
He came back several hours later with a stunned sort of expression. ‘That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever come across,’ he declared. ‘I told you that was what was going to happen, cousin,’ Torl said smugly.