Black Water

by D. J. MacHale

  Mark and Courtney didn’t know how to answer that one. They had figured out answers for most every question that could have been thrown at them, but not that one.

  “Excuse me?” Courtney asked tentatively.

  “The library,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “Weren’t you guys going to the library?”

  “You mean, like a month ago?” Courtney asked.

  “I mean a half hour ago when you left the house,” Mr. Chetwynde said, confused.

  Mark asked, “Courtney left here half an hour ago? Was I with her?”

  Mr. Chetwynde frowned at Mark. “Unless you’ve got an identical twin. Am I missing something?”

  Courtney said, “Well, yeah! We’ve been—”

  “No!” Mark jumped in. “You’re not missing anything. The library was open, but we were starved so we went to McDonald’s first and ended up getting our work done there. It didn’t take as long as we thought.”

  “Oh,” Mr. Chetwynde said, satisfied. “Not exactly a long story. I’m sorry to hear it though.”

  “Why?” Courtney asked, still trying to understand what was happening.

  “It’s not good to eat junk food for dinner. It’s not good for your health.”

  Mark and Courtney gave each other a sideways look. “I can think of a lot of things bad for your health,” Courtney said. “Burgers aren’t high on the list.”

  “Don’t be a wise guy. You know what I mean,” Mr. Chetwynde said with a half smile.

  Mark tugged on the back of Courtney’s shirt and said, “Uh, I left something on my bike I meant to give you.”

  He tried to pull her away from the door, but Courtney stood firm. “Bike? You don’t have a—”

  “Yeah!” Mark interrupted. “The bike I left out front so we could walk together.”

  Courtney was reeling. Nothing was making sense to her.

  “C’mon, Courtney,” Mark said vehemently through clenched teeth. He turned quickly and hurried away from the house.

  “Be right back, Dad,” Courtney said, and jogged after Mark. When she caught up, Mark kept walking. “What’s going on?” Courtney said under her breath.

  Mark’s answer was to show Courtney his hand. The center stone of his ring was glowing.

  “Oh man,” Courtney gasped.

  Mark clapped his hand over the ring to hide the pyrotechnics. When they got to the street and out of Mr. Chetwynde’s sight, Mark ran next door and ducked behind a huge bush in front of the neighbor’s yard. By the time he got the ring off, it was already growing. Mark placed it on the ground and stood next to Courtney. The two watched it grow to Frisbee-size, opening up the conduit between territories.

  “This is too much. I’m going mental,” Courtney gasped.

  The bright light shot out of the hole inside the ring, along with the sweet musical notes. With a final brilliant flash, the event ended and the ring returned to normal. Lying on the ground next to it was a rolled-up piece of parchment paper. Mark moved to pick it up, but Courtney stopped him.

  “Wait,” she said. “One thing at a time. Did my father snap or what? That was not what I expected from a guy whose daughter was missing for a month.”

  “Because I don’t think we were gone for a month,” Mark answered.

  Courtney gave Mark a blank look. “No way. That wasn’t some Wizard of Oz dream we had. I’ve got the black-and-blue marks to prove it.”

  Mark laughed. “No, we spent a month on Eelong, but I think we were brought back here only a few minutes after we left.”

  Courtney shook her head, confused. “You mean, like time stood still while we were gone?”

  “No. I think we went to a territory that existed in another time. When the flume brought us back here, it was to the same time we left.”

  “So . . . we’re not in trouble?”

  “Not with our parents, anyway.”

  The implication was there. Parents were the last thing Mark and Courtney had to worry about. They both looked down at the rolled-up parchment paper.

  “That was fast,” Courtney said.

  “For us. Who knows if Bobby wrote it in the past, or the future.”

  “Don’t go there,” Courtney scolded. “My brain already hurts.”

  Mark picked up the parchment. It was crunchy brown paper, wrapped and tied with leather twine. Mark’s hands were shaking as he untied the knot.

  “What happened to the flume, Mark?”

  “Maybe this will tell us,” he said, unrolling the pages. He took a deep breath and glanced at the first page.

  “From Bobby?” Courtney asked.

  “Uh-huh,” Mark answered.

  “Where is he?”

  JOURNAL #19

  ZADAA

  It was a trap.

  Everything that happened from the first moment I set foot on Eelong was about leading me into it . . . and I went. The poison from Cloral, Seegen’s death on Second Earth, Saint Dane’s boasting to me that he would wipe out the gars, the attack on Black Water; everything! It was all about setting the trap. The thing is, I felt certain that Saint Dane was up to something more, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.

  Now it’s too late.

  I’m real good at looking back and putting the puzzle pieces together. It’s looking ahead that I’m not so hot at, and we paid the price. Mark, Courtney, I want to go back and tell you exactly what happened from the moment you left Eelong for Second Earth. You need to hear it all. Be warned, this is going to be tough to read. I wish I didn’t have to tell you. But you’re in this now, more so than ever. We’ve had a lot of victories over Saint Dane. For that, we deserve to be proud. But we’ve also made mistakes, and we have to accept those, too.

  This is what happened.

  “Run in!” I shouted to you guys as the flume crumbled around us. “Meet the light!”

  I saw that the flume light was coming and wanted to make sure you’d make it, so I gave you both a shove to go deeper into the flume. That’s when the tunnel started to break up. On the ground between my legs a huge crack appeared. If I hadn’t thrown myself to the side, I might have fallen in. I hit the bottom of the flume with my shoulder. The pain shot all the way down into my leg, but I couldn’t worry about it just then, because above me the rocks of the flume were breaking up and falling down . . . on me. I rolled out of the way just as a boulder hit the ground where my head had been. But I nearly rolled right into the crack in the floor that was already a couple of feet wide, and growing. I grabbed on to the edge and stared down into nothing. Absolutely nothing. That crack may have opened up a hole to the center of Eelong for all I knew. I tried to crawl away, but the floor crumbled beneath me. One second it was solid, the next I felt it break loose, and I fell with it.

  “I’ve got you!” shouted Kasha. She had fought her way through the curtain of vines and into the crumbling flume. It was a good thing, because she snagged the back of my clothes with her claw, just in time. She saved my life. Again. I was able to twist around and grab on to the craggy ledge of rock. Beneath me the crumbled ledge fell to oblivion.

  “I got it,” I told her as I pulled myself up.

  The horrible, wrenching sound got louder. It was like being inside a thundercloud. Rocks were being torn apart by some incredible above-ground earthquake.

  “Get out of there, Pendragon!” Spader shouted.

  I looked to see that he and Gunny were outside the mouth of the flume.

  “Stay back!” I shouted. But I didn’t need to. Another crack appeared in the floor in front of Spader and Gunny, cutting them off from the flume. But worse than that, it kept Kasha and me from getting out. All around us, the flume was falling down and the ground was crumbling away. We were moments away from being crushed, or plunged into the dark pit. There was only one way we could escape.

  “Zadaa!” I shouted into the flume.

  The light sparkled from deep within, coming to our rescue. It would be a race. Would the light get us out of there before the flume collapsed on our heads?

>   “Run!” I shouted to Kasha.

  She tried to help me to my feet, but it was like trying to stand up inside a washing machine. We both fell again. I heard the musical notes coming closer.

  “Hurry, Bobby!” Gunny shouted from outside the flume. “Run toward the light!”

  Everything changed in a single second. One second. A second is nothing. A tick on the clock. Seconds pass all the time and we never think about any one of them. But a second can be an eternity. I got back on my feet and reached down to help Kasha up. I had her hand. I was a second away from pulling her to her feet. One stupid second. If I had been a second earlier, the falling rock would have missed her.

  I wasn’t.

  Before I could pull her to her feet, a chunk of rock fell down from the ceiling and hit Kasha square on the head. It was so loud in the flume that I didn’t hear the sound it made, and I’m glad for that. But I will always remember the sight. Kasha’s head jerked to the side, and her body went limp.

  I didn’t allow myself to think about what had happened. I pulled on Kasha’s furry hand, knelt down on one knee, and draped the big klee over my shoulders. I was operating on pure adrenaline.

  “Go, shorty, go!” Gunny shouted.

  I took a quick look back to see Gunny pulling Spader away from the mouth of the flume. They disappeared back through the curtain of hanging vines. Safe.

  The floor of the flume was rumbling so hard, I nearly lost my balance again. But through sheer force of will I was able to stay upright and put one foot in front of the other. I was desperate to get us deeper into the flume and away from the destruction. The light blinded me . . .

  “Hobey-ho, Pendragon!” I heard Spader yell.

  And we were on our way. The last sound I heard from Eelong was a shriek and a huge boom as the flume disintegrated behind us. I braced myself, expecting the entire flume to collapse. But it didn’t. All the damage was done at the gate. The rest of the flume was intact.

  I don’t remember much about the trip to Zadaa. Kasha and I sailed along side by side. I held her in my arms, cradling her head. Blood was starting to blossom through the black fur above her left eye, turning it slick. I put my hand over the wound, thinking direct pressure might stop the bleeding, but then I was afraid of putting too much pressure on her damaged skull.

  “Kasha?” I said.

  She opened her eyes, but couldn’t focus.

  “We’ll be there soon,” I assured her. “Loor can get us help.” I was scared to death. I knew that Loor would do what she could, but I had no idea what the doctor situation was on Zadaa, let alone if they would treat a giant predator cat. I wondered if they had such things as veterinarians. All I could do was hold Kasha tight and wait for the trip to end.

  It only took us a few minutes to get there, but it felt like days. Finally the musical notes grew faster and I felt the tug of gravity. I held Kasha tight to help ease her down once we arrived. Moments later I carried her out of the flume and into the large, underground cavern made of light brown stone—the sandstone of Zadaa. I laid Kasha down on the floor as gently as I could, then turned my thoughts to helping her. I quickly realized how tough that was going to be. To get out of this cavern, we needed to climb up through a cleft in the rock using footholds that were dug out of the stone. There was no way I would be able to climb out of there with an unconscious, twohundred-pound cat. I decided to leave her and go for help.

  “Pendragon?” Kasha whispered.

  Her eyes were open and barely focused.

  “Don’t talk,” I said. “I’m going to find somebody to help you.”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t want to be alone.”

  “But if I don’t get help—”

  Kasha cut me off by squeezing my arm. One look into her eyes and my heart sank. Her once-sharp eyes were becoming glassy. Blood flowed from her wound. The grim truth was that Kasha didn’t need help. She needed comfort. I sat down next to her, lifted her head and put my hand under it, to act as a cushion against the hard, dirt floor.

  “Tell me again,” Kasha whispered.

  “About what?”

  “Tell me what your uncle Press said,” she answered weakly. “I need to hear it.”

  It took every bit of courage I had to keep it together, and answer. “Uncle Press was a lot like your father,” I said, my voice cracking. “People loved to be around him because he was the kind of guy who never had problems, only challenges. He never gave reasons, or excuses why things couldn’t be done. He just went out and did them.”

  “Just like Seegen,” Kasha whispered.

  “And Uncle Press was a Traveler. He taught me a lot about what being a Traveler meant, but he didn’t even scratch the surface. He knew a lot more, but never got the chance to tell me. The last thing he said, as he was dying, was not to be sad because one day I’d see him again. He promised. He never broke a promise to me and I don’t believe he’s going to now.”

  “I wish I knew him,” she said.

  “I wish you did too.”

  Kasha swallowed and said, “Am I going to see my father now?”

  I almost lost it. “Yeah,” I said. “You are.”

  “I’m proud to have known you, Bobby Pendragon. And to have been a Traveler.”

  “You’ll always be a Traveler,” I said.

  Kasha smiled, closed her eyes, and died. I felt the life go out of her as her head slumped into my hand. I kept staring at her, refusing to believe it, hoping that her eyes would open. But they didn’t. The harsh reality landed like a heavy weight on my shoulders. Another Traveler was gone. I knew of others who died before her: Osa, Seegen, Spader’s father, and of course, Uncle Press. But this was different. Kasha was the first Traveler from my generation who died. The last generation.

  Saint Dane’s true purpose on Eelong was suddenly coming into focus.

  “Hello, Pendragon,” came a voice from deeper in the cavern.

  I knew who it was without looking.

  “Hello, Loor,” I said.

  The tall, dark-skinned warrior girl stepped out of the shadows and stood over Kasha and me. “I knew you would be coming,” she said softly. “But I did not expect this.”

  “Nothing is the same, Loor,” I said, trying not to let my emotions take over. “We saved Eelong. The territory is safe. But I don’t think Saint Dane cares one way or the other.”

  “Then what was the point?” Loor asked.

  “He wants to change the way things were meant to be,” I answered. “Saint Dane is doing all that he can to tear Halla apart. On Eelong, we helped him.”

  “Please explain,” Loor said.

  I gently laid Kasha’s head down, stood up, and walked to the mouth of the flume. I took a step inside and called out, “Eelong!”

  Nothing happened.

  Loor stepped in and tried herself. “Eelong!”

  The flume remained quiet.

  “The gate on Eelong is destroyed,” I concluded.

  “How did Saint Dane do that?” Loor asked.

  “He didn’t. We did. Uncle Press always said that mixing the territories was wrong. What happened on Eelong is proof. Saint Dane may have lost a territory, but we lost three Travelers.”

  I saw the surprised look on Loor’s face. She was too stunned to ask what I meant by that. I walked back to Kasha’s body and knelt down. Gently I took the Traveler ring from around her neck. “Kasha was the Traveler from Eelong,” I said. “Since we’re the last generation, Eelong no longer has one.” I put the cord that held Kasha’s ring around my neck and stood to face Loor. “And since the gate on Eelong is destroyed, Spader and Gunny are trapped.”

  For the first time ever, I saw surprise in Loor’s eyes. “But they are safe?” she asked.

  “I think so. But they aren’t going anywhere. Saint Dane said the rules have changed, but they haven’t. He’s just decided not to follow them.”

  Loor and I brought Kasha’s body out of the cavern and smuggled it through the twisting caves and tunnels beneath the
city of Xhaxhu. I had been here twice before and remembered the route. But there was one very big difference. Xhaxhu was an oasis city surrounded by a vast desert. Its water supply came from a complex series of underground rivers. These rivers were the lifeblood of Xhaxhu. Without this water, the city would dry up and blow away. We had to pass one of these rivers on our way out of the tunnels, but when we came to it, I was stunned to see that the river was absolutely, totally dry. Instead of the fast-flowing waterway that I remembered, I saw a deep, empty trough with a few inches of dry dirt in the bottom. I rested Kasha’s body down and stood on the edge of what had once been a deep canal. I was speechless.

  “This is why I knew you were coming,” Loor said. “But now is not the time. We must complete our task.”

  I shook off the image of the dry riverbed. We picked Kasha up to continue our journey. When we climbed up into the city, I saw that it was the dead of night. The streets were empty. That was good. It would have been tough to explain what we were doing. We brought Kasha to the ceremonial center where the fallen warriors of Zadaa were cremated. Since the klee tradition was to cremate their dead, I thought it was the right thing to do. We wrapped Kasha’s body in a white cloth and gently placed her inside the stone structure where the fire would be set. Loor took on the tough task and lit the ceremonial fires. I had to step outside until it was done. I didn’t have the strength to gut this one out. It didn’t take long. Soon after, Loor came out of the crematorium carrying a silver urn that held Kasha’s ashes. I took it, felt its weight, and made a promise to Kasha that I would do all I could to one day scatter her ashes from Seegen’s perch, high above Leeandra.

  “You must grieve for your friend,” Loor said. “I will grieve as well, for we have lost a Traveler. But we must quickly put it behind us, for there is much to do.”

  “Saint Dane is coming here,” I said.

  “Tell me something I do not already know,” Loor answered. “The war that I have feared for so long has begun. You saw the dry river below. The Rokador and Batu tribes have already spilled blood to control the rivers of Zadaa.”

  There would be no time to rest. No time to grieve. No time to think back on the meaning of all that had happened and recharge our batteries for the next encounter with Saint Dane. I wasn’t surprised.