The Transall Saga

Mark and Sarbo decide to continue toward Trisad by themselves. Sarbo suspects that their attackers were Samatin, a repressed group of half-Tsook people who are considered “racially lesser.” He also tells Mark that the Merkon shares his Earthen features.

Mark and Sarbo cross the Death Sand, a barren and waterless desert. Sarbo tells Mark that the Merkon claimed to have come from “a tribe of metal workers from across the great waters” (166). Mark draws a map of North America in the sand; Sarbo believes it resembles Transall. Sarbo vows to help Mark reach the light and return to his own time.

Mark and Sarbo realize they are being pursued by a group of mounted, armed Samatin. Fortunately, they manage to reach the walls of Trisad ahead of the group. Sarbo explains that this place is sacred to the Samatin, so they will not attack them within the town’s limits.

Trisad is abandoned and run-down, with only a few beggars. Sarbo leads Mark to the home of a man he knows, Short Man. The brash, portly warrior gives Sarbo and Mark water and soup. Mark defends Short Man’s enslaved person, Yonk, when Short Man goes to beat him for spilling soup. Sarbo asks about the shaman in Trisad, and Short Man says that no such man exists. Sarbo pretends that he and Mark came to acquire a new beast. The pair go to sleep.

Short Man’s enslaved person, Yonk, wakes Mark and motions for him to follow him quietly. Yonk warns Mark that there is a bounty on him, and that Short Man is hoping to keep him at his home long enough to claim the reward.

Sarbo arrives as Mark pushes Yonk to fetch the shaman (who does, in fact, exist, contrary to what Short Man said). Yonk returns with an old, bedraggled man named Pet, who tells Mark that Mark is “one of the carriers of the long death” (177). Pet ambiguously tells Mark that “many suffered through the long death,” that “everything was changed in the blood sick,” and that he himself is the last keeper of this knowledge (178). Mark doesn’t understand any of this. Pet refuses to reveal anything he knows of the light in the jungle.

Mark and Sarbo accost Short Man at sword-point and demand to know who is offering the reward for Mark’s capture. Short Man describes a man who sounds like the Merkon or one of his companions. Yonk readies Mark and Sarbo’s animals. He asks if he can accompany Mark, explaining that he can cook and is good with animals. Mark allows Yonk to join them.

Yonk celebrates the group’s evasion of the Samatin, but Mark and Sarbo are concerned that their escape from Trisad seemed too easy. Confirming their fears, they are attacked. Sarbo is shot with an arrow; he loses a great deal of blood, and Mark is tied up. They are led to the Samatin’s township, which is located in the crater of a volcano.

Mark is publicly beaten and laughed at; he manages to kick and trip an attacker despite having his hands bound. He is put into a wooden cage where Samatin people spit and jeer at him.

Yonk is imprisoned and put in a cage next to Mark. Mark remembers an explosive reaction he learned about in science classes involving sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal.

Yonk’s hands are tied in front of him, whereas Mark’s are tied behind his back. Mark instructs Yonk on how to open the cage mechanism, which he’s been studying. Yonk escapes his own cage, jumps down, and lowers and opens Mark’s cage. Mark instructs Yonk to retrieve his knife from his pouch, and they cut the ropes binding them.

Yonk is keen to escape, but Mark mixes dirt to try to create an explosion. Mark rescues Sarbo, who is badly injured and has trouble walking, and instructs Yonk to help the latter escape while he creates a diversion. Mark makes an explosion, which draws the guards away; Yonk and Sarbo successfully escape. Mark makes another explosion and runs to join them.

Mark instructs Yonk to help the injured Sarbo back to the Tsook town. He begins to make his way to Listra, the Merkon’s base. As he lies down to sleep, he considers the strange events of the previous weeks and thinks about Megaan. Mark resolves to see her once more before trying to return to Earth again.