The Merchant of Death tpa-1

by D. J. MacHale

  Rellin watched the action from behind the spear carriers. His worst fears were coming true. The Milago had used up most of their tak bombs, yet the Bedoowan were still a mighty force. Soon they would be out of tak altogether and the Bedoowan would overrun them. Their only hope of victory was to strike while the Bedoowan knights were still back on their heels. Rellin needed to summon every bit of courage he had in order to do what must be done. He stood up behind his miners, grabbed a spear, and shouted, “Freedom!”

  The miners screamed in defiance and ran across the field toward their enemy. The Bedoowan commander seemed stunned that these peasant miners would have the audacity to challenge his vaunted knights. But if a fight was what they wanted, he was willing to oblige. He motioned for his spear carriers on horseback to come forward. With a sweep of his hand, he sent the knights charging toward the oncoming Milago.

  Alder and Uncle Press watched in horror as these two tribes ran to meet each other in the center of the field. Queen Kagan jumped up and down, giggling with delight. Only one thing was certain.

  It was going to be bloody.

  In the mine below, Saint Dane waited for our response to his offer. He had asked us to join him in his mad quest to control all that exists and threatened that our loved ones would die if we refused. It seemed as if we had run out of options. The guy scared the life out of me. I hated looking at him, so I looked down at the ground.

  What I saw there started me thinking.

  I saw rusty tak dust stuck to the Bedoowan shoes I had been wearing. I kept my head down and looked around the small cavern to see that tak dust was everywhere. It coated the floor and the walls and even seemed to hang in the air.

  That’s when I remembered something. It was something I had done a while ago without thinking. I didn’t know it at the time, but it might turn out to be the key to saving Denduron. My mind raced. If I was going to make a move, it had to be now. I had no idea what was happening in the battlefield above, but after what Saint Dane had said, it really didn’t matter. This wasn’t about the Bedoowan or the Milago. This was about a horrible weapon that would change the course of a peaceful territory and send it to ruin. If anything must be stopped, it would have to be the supply of tak.

  To be honest, it scared me to think about doing what I was about to do. But I didn’t see any other choice. I wasn’t even sure if it would work. I might end up looking like an idiot. No problem there, I was used to that. But if it did work, there was a good chance that Loor and I would die. Neither outcome was exactly a good one, but it was clear that I had to give it a try.

  “Saint Dane,” I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking with fear. “I believe you.”

  Loor shot me a surprised look. She didn’t know where I was going with this…yet.

  “I can’t explain why we’re Travelers, or how it’s possible to travel through flumes, or how you can do the things you do, but I’ve seen enough to know that it’s all real. I don’t know if you have the power to bring down the universe, or Halla or whatever you call it, but I do believe that you can cause a hell of a lot of trouble. If toppling Denduron is the first part of your plan, then I can’t let you do it.”

  I could feel Loor stiffen next to me. She knew I had something in mind and she wanted to be ready.

  Saint Dane watched me with a smug smile and said, “And how do you plan to stop me?”

  “I’m not,” was my answer. “I’m going to stop the supply of tak.”

  That’s when I reached into my pocket and pulled out the little ball of tak that I had taken out of the ore car in the stadium. I had put it into my pocket before closing the door to the quig pen. Now this little piece of explosive clay could be the only hope for Denduron. As I wrote before, I wasn’t sure if this would work. But what I saw next made me think that it just might. For as soon as I pulled it out, I saw something that I didn’t think was possible.

  Saint Dane blinked.

  The smug smile dropped off his face and I saw something in his eyes that made my heart leap. I saw fear. Up until then he had orchestrated everything that happened on Denduron. But things were about to change and he knew it. Seeing this in his eyes gave me a shot of confidence. I looked to Loor. She nodded. She knew what might happen to us, but she also knew that it was the only way. We were seconds away from salvation-or doomsday.

  The battlefield above had erupted into a clash of bodies and clubs and horses and steel. The Milago were driven by their hatred and anger, the Bedoowan by their training and strength. It was going to be an even fight, which meant both sides were going to suffer huge casualties. The worst of the fighting was about to begin.

  Saint Dane made a move to stop me. “No!” he shouted in panic.

  But before he could take a second step, I threw my little ball of tak down at the ground. There was an explosion. Not a big one, but big enough. The small ball of tak erupted and shot out a blast of flame. The explosion didn’t do much damage, but that didn’t matter. It was the flame I was counting on. That small, hot burst of fire ignited the tak dust on the floor. Instantly, the tiny little bits of tak began to burn. It looked like a Fourth of July sparkler on the floor of the cavern as the dust ignited and shot up into the air. But more important, the eruption began to spread. With each passing second the fizzing and popping circle of sparks grew larger. There was so much tak dust on the floor and in the air that this fire had plenty of fuel to burn.

  Saint Dane jumped at the expanding ring of sparks and desperately tried to stamp it out with his feet.

  “No! No!” he shouted at me in anger.

  For all his ability to manipulate people and twist them into doing his dirty work, he was powerless against this simple, growing fire. There was an unlimited amount of fuel and as soon as it grew big enough, the sparkling ring of fire would ignite the large vein of tak that ran through the mine. Once that happened, well, we’d all find out soon enough.

  Saint Dane gave up trying to stop it and shot me a look of hatred that froze the blood in my veins. “This isn’t the end, Pendragon,” he seethed.

  “Don’t be sad, Saint Dane,” I said. “This is the way it was meant to be.”

  Saint Dane looked as if he were about to erupt with anger. His icy blue eyes flashed with hatred. I must have pushed a pretty raw button to get him that ticked off. Loor thought he was going to attack us because she took a threatening step toward him, daring him to charge. I think he might have done it too, but he took a quick look around at the rapidly growing fire and decided to back off.

  “Until next time,” he said, then turned and ran out into the Milago tunnel.

  The sparkling ring of tak fire was growing larger by the second. It was like a fuse that couldn’t be stopped as it got closer and closer to setting off the mother of all bombs. I had no idea how much time we had, but if we had any hope of surviving we had to get out of there.

  “The flume!” I said and ran toward the tunnel. Loor was right after me. We hit the mine tunnel and ran straight for the gate that led to the flume. The wooden door was already open because Saint Dane had the same idea. As I was about to turn into the doorway I heard Saint Dane inside.

  “Cloral!” he yelled into the flume.

  We ran inside the gate in time to see the sparkling light that was Saint Dane disappear into the depths of the flume on his way to…

  “What is Cloral?” I asked.

  “It must be another territory,” Loor answered.

  “Let’s not go there, okay?” I said. “We should go-” Before I had the chance to say another word, we both saw something in the flume. The sparkling lights and musical notes were heading our way. Was Saint Dane coming back? As the lights grew closer, I heard a sound that didn’t make sense. It sounded like…water. We took a curious step closer to the flume and saw that it wasn’t a Traveler headed our way at all. It was an actual rush of water coming through the flume. What was Saint Dane doing? Was he trying to put the fire out?

  The answer was no. He was trying to prevent
us from escaping through the flume. But it wasn’t just water he was sending back. There was somethingin the water, and it had teeth. Swimming toward us through the flume was a giant shark! As impossible as it sounds, the thing must have been twenty feet long and was headed straight for us, jaws first. There was one other thing I remember: It had vicious, glowing yellow eyes.

  We didn’t have time to move and were both hit with the crushing wave of water. The force hit us so hard that it sent us both hurtling back out of the gate and slammed us against the far wall of the tunnel. That force of water was the only thing that saved us. If we had stayed at the mouth of the flume, we would have been rudely introduced to shark teeth. I got my head together, grabbed Loor and pulled her to the side just in time because the huge yellow-eyed shark was propelled out of the gate and it smashed, head first, into the far wall of the tunnel. It was now a fish out of water, literally. It squirmed and thrashed in the mine tunnel and its giant jaws bit at the air only a few feet from our heads. I tried to crawl away, but saw that Loor was unconscious. She must have smashed her head when she hit the wall. I grabbed hold of her and was able to drag her farther back into the tunnel and safety.

  Did I say safety? We may have gotten out of range of the monster shark, but the fuse was still burning on the tak mine. We had nowhere to go. We couldn’t get to the flume because there was three thousand pounds of thrashing shark in the way. We couldn’t get back through the small tunnel to the Bedoowan castle because of the cave-in. The only place we could go was deeper into the mine. To make things worse, if that was possible, Loor was unconscious.

  I tried to shake her awake, but it was no go. Her lights were out and I was looking down at a deadweight. It’s amazing what adrenaline will do, because I stood up and was actually able to pick her up and get her on my back in a fireman’s carry. I had no idea how much time we had left, but moving slowly was not an option. I tried to run with her, but it was hard. I couldn’t get very far this way. We got past the entrance to the tak mine and I glanced in to see that the entire floor was ablaze. The place looked alive with mad fireflies as the tak dust sputtered and burned. I didn’t take the time to stop and admire it though. I had to get us farther into the mine.

  That’s when I saw something that could help. It was the wooden ore car. If this thing still moved I could put Loor inside and push her the way Alder had pushed us before. With Loor still on my back I gave the car a kick. It moved! Yes! Without worrying about being gentle, I dumped Loor into the empty car. I didn’t think she’d mind a few bruises under the circumstances. I quickly jumped to the back of the car and pushed. It moved slowly at first, but with each turn of the small wheels it picked up speed. I kept both hands on the car while pumping my legs like a football lineman hitting a blocking sled. I went from a crawl, to a walk, to a jog, and finally to a run. I had no idea where this tunnel would lead, but we were on our way.

  The thought flashed through my head that we might hit a piece of damaged track that would send the car crashing into the wall. I also feared that the tunnel would reach a dead end that we’d hit at full speed. That would hurt. Or a wheel could fall off. Or…or…I thought of a million other things that could derail our escape, but none of them mattered. This trip wasn’t about caution, it was about speed. If we had any hope of surviving, we had to get as far away from that burning vein of tak as possible.

  And then I heard it. It started as a rumble and quickly grew like an earthquake. It felt like a freight train was barreling up from behind, but I knew what it was. The burning dust had finally reached the large deposit of tak. The chain reaction had begun. The rumble was actually a series of small explosions, and those small explosions would set off bigger explosions. And bigger and bigger until…well, there would be a very big bang. I didn’t stop to think about it. If anything it made me push harder. I could feel the ground shudder. The finale of this baby was going to be a thousand on the Richter scale.

  On the battlefield the miners and the knights felt it too. Alder described it as the ground beginning to move under his feet. The fighting continued until they realized the shaking wasn’t going to stop. One by one they dropped their weapons and backed away from each other. There was now a more frightening enemy.

  Queen Kagan stood on her throne and threw a fit because the fighting had ended. Before she had the chance to order anyone to continue the battle, the ground shook and knocked her throne over. She tumbled down right along with it, and lay flat on the ground, scared to death. The rest of the Bedoowans and the Novans did the same thing. They all fell to the ground in fear. The fun and games were over.

  Uncle Press and Alder didn’t move. They knew it was futile to seek shelter, so they stood together and waited for the end. They weren’t going to have to wait long.

  The rumbling grew louder. It began to sound more like deep, booming explosions. As I pushed the cart with every bit of energy I had, I began to feel heat at my back. The tak mine was probably a blast furnace by now. I’m sure the shark was already roasted. It wouldn’t be long before the whole mine blew.

  Up ahead the tunnel was growing brighter. We were reaching the end, but I had no idea what that meant because I was crouched down behind the ore car pushing for all I was worth. Still, whatever was up there meant we had a shot at getting out, so I dug down even deeper and pumped my legs even harder. The faster we moved, the brighter the tunnel became. We were definitely nearing the end. Now the tunnel was shaking so violently that I was afraid it would throw the ore car off the track. If we didn’t get to the end soon, it would definitely be the end for us.

  I don’t know why I realized what was about to happen when I did, but I did. It hit me about three seconds before-hand. Maybe it was some kind of survival instinct, but whatever it was, those few seconds prepared me. As we were hurtling down that tunnel with the force of the exploding tak at my back, I remembered about the layout of the mines. We were flying along a track that ran parallel to the tunnel under the Bedoowan palace. I knew where that tunnel ended, and that meant this tunnel would end the same way. This was a ventilation tunnel that led to the ocean bluffs. We were about to be launched out of the end where there was nothing waiting for us but a long drop to the sea.

  And that’s exactly what happened. Without breaking stride I pushed the ore cart off the end. One second I was running, the next second we were falling. I tumbled out of control, not knowing which way was up. I was desperate to see the water and get my body in a position to take the impact. If I hit head first, I’d break my neck. So I corkscrewed into a position to avoid that. Splashdown was a second away. Believe it or not, the last thought I had before hitting the water was, “Loor can’t swim!”

  There’s only one word I can use to describe the feeling of hitting the water at that speed. Rude. It was just plain rude. I was able to twist myself around so I hit on my side rather than my head, but the impact still knocked the breath out of me. What a jolt! It was worse than when I beefed it off the sled into the snow after the crazy sleigh ride down the mountain. But I didn’t lose consciousness this time. Good thing. I didn’t want to drown. After all we’d been through, that wouldn’t be fair. I came to the surface and looked back up at the opening to the mine. The fall was a big one, maybe thirty feet. But that’s not what concerned me at the moment because I also saw that the entire wall of bluffs was shaking. Remember, these were cliffs. It was like looking up at a wall of skyscrapers. If this thing came down, we’d be buried.

  I looked around quickly and was relieved to see that Loor was floating near me. She must’ve fallen out on the way down. I swam to her and listened to her breathing. She was alive, but I didn’t know how badly she was hurt. All I wanted to do was swim as far away from the bluffs as possible. I also found the wooden ore car that had been our transportation out of there. It was floating right next to us. Luckily it hadn’t hit either of us when we fell. So I got Loor on her back, brought her over to the floating ore car and grabbed on. We had a better chance of surviving with this life
boat than by my swimming skills alone. I wasn’t sure what direction to go in, but I soon realized I didn’t have a choice. There was a swift current running parallel to the shore that swept us along. We weren’t moving farther out into the ocean, but we were moving steadily away from the mines. It was a good thing too because that’s when it happened.

  Ignition.

  The whole world exploded. The sound was like a deep, powerful growl from a giant demon trapped below ground and struggling to force its way to the surface. A second later, the ventilation shafts along the bluffs blew out, spewing huge blasts of flame that shot over our heads like rocket engines on full power. There must have been twenty openings, all breathing fire that streamed a hundred yards out over the ocean. The water began to churn and roil. It took everything I had to keep Loor and myself afloat. The bluffs themselves seemed to be out of focus. But that was because they were shuddering from an immense force that was tearing them apart from within. My thoughts went to Uncle Press and to Alder. They were up there somewhere. If the top blew off like a monster volcano, they’d be done.

  Mark, Courtney, what I saw then will haunt me until the day I die. The eruption had begun a good thirty seconds before, but the powerful flames continued to jet from the holes in the bluff with incredible intensity. I allowed myself one small bit of hope that most of the force from the exploding tak would be funneled out through these openings. Maybe these man-made openings would act like release valves to get rid of the force of the explosion before it destroyed the land above, and every living thing on it.

  That’s when I heard the sound.

  It was different than the rumble from the explosions. It sounded more like something was cracking. If you’ve ever heard the sound that a big tree makes in its last moments as it falls to a lumberjack’s ax, that was what it sounded like. It’s a horrible, screeching sound as the tree tries to hold on to the last sinews of its trunk. That high-pitched tearing sound was what I now heard, only multiplied by about a million.