“So what happened when the tak exploded?” Siry asked.
“I told them that when they felt the ground rumble, that was the sign. When it came, they did not hesitate. They dropped their weapons and ran back. The ground felt as if it were growing under our feet. It threw us forward like a wave, but I do not believe there were any serious injuries. We were lucky.”
“And the dados?” I asked.
He led us to a huge mound of sand and rock that hadn’t been there earlier. The three of us climbed to the top to get a better view of the battlefield. Or what was left of it.
The smoke hung like a spooky haze over all we could see.
When the tropical breeze thinned it enough to make out detail, my mind wouldn’t accept what I was seeing. I thought there must be some mistake.
“It’s gone,” Siry gasped in awe.
The village of Rayne no longer existed. In its place was a mess of destroyed huts and fallen trees. Directly in front of us was a huge blast crater.
“They were directly over the tak,” Alder said. “Thousands of them. Many more pushed up from the rear. I believe they no longer exist. I do not know the word for it.”
“Vaporized,” I said.
“Yes,” Alder agreed. “Those who were not vaporized were blown into small bits. Perhaps some escaped back to the sea, but there could not have been many.”
Siry looked at me, and spoke as if in a daze. “Is it possible? Did we destroy an entire army?”
“That is exactly what we did,” Alder declared. “Ibara is safe.”
I stepped away from them and looked over the remains of the village. Yes, we had won. Against incredible odds. I should have felt like celebrating. I didn’t. I was relieved, sure, but I wasn’t in the mood for throwing any high fives. The battle was over. Saint Dane was defeated. But at what cost? Rayne was destroyed. It would take generations to bring it back. Just as important, the second turning point of Veelox had gone the wrong way. As dramatic as the dado battle was, it was not the turning point. The turning point had been when the Flighters destroyed the pilgrim ships. The rest of Veelox could not be rebuilt for a good long time. To me it felt like a case of winning the battle, but losing the war.
Most troubling of all was knowing what I had to do to win this battle. I had lowered myself to Saint Dane’s level by using technology and elements from other territories. Was it all worth it? Was Ibara a win or a loss? As I stood there looking at the destruction, I wasn’t so sure.
I heard the sound of a sharp caw! overhead. Looking up, I saw a large black bird sailing over the village, as if inspecting the damage. I knew who it was. He had lost his army, but he would fight again. What would his next evil plan be? And the next? And the one after that? Was this war going to continue until he finally found the way to bring about the Convergence that would put Halla under his control? And after that, what? What did he mean by Halla being “the beginning”? What else was out there? It all felt so incredibly hopeless.
As I stood on that mound, surveying the results of a questionable victory, I realized that the battle wasn’t over. There was more to do on Ibara.
“We’ve got to get back to the mountain now,” I said to Alder and Siry.
“Why?” Siry asked. “It’s over!”
“No, it isn’t.”
“What are you saying, Pendragon?” Alder asked.
I looked my friend dead in the eye and said, “We’re going after Saint Dane.”
The three of us ran as quickly as possible through the rubble of Rayne, headed for Tribunal Mountain. We worked our way through the scores of wounded archers to find the last remaining crate of tak. While Alder carried it outside, I instructed Siry to get the remaining dado weapons. Finally, I took a bow from one of the wounded archers, along with two of his arrows.
“What is your plan, Pendragon?” Alder asked me.
“First we get to the flume.”
When Siry returned with the weapons, we set out for the beach. Moving through the remains of the village was depressing. So many years of work had been destroyed in seconds. By me. I wasn’t proud of myself. We took turns carrying the crate of tak, because it was awkward and heavy. When we got to the beach I was surprised to see that the rocky cliffs that contained the flume were still intact. The power of the explosion hadn’t touched them. The dygo was parked at the mouth of the newly drilled tunnel, right where we’d left it.
I took a moment to look out onto the ocean. The blue-green waters were as calm as ever. It was hard to imagine that not long ago an armada of dados had come across it. It actually gave me hope that at some point, Ibara could be returned to its original beauty. Hopefully the same could be said for the rest of Veelox. It was that hope that convinced me I was about to do the right thing.
“First we’re going to return these things to their own territories,” I said. “Siry, can you drive the dygo?”
“Absolutely!”
“Bring it back to Zadaa. Alder, you bring these weapons back to Quillan. Leave them at the gate. Same thing with the dygo. Leave it at the gate and get out.”
“Does the tak stay?” Siry asked. “Is that how we’re going to get Saint Dane?”
“Yeah,” I said. “The tak stays.”
“Why is this so important, Pendragon?” Alder asked.
“It was bad enough that we brought this here in the first place,” I answered. “I want it gone now. All of it.”
“What about the dados? And the skimmers?” Siry asked. “We’re not going to send all the skimmers back, are we? And it’ll take forever to clean up the dado parts.”
“We didn’t bring those,” I answered quickly. “I want whatever we brought gone.”
Alder and Siry exchanged looks. They thought I was crazy. They weren’t far off.
“All right,” Alder said. “If that is what you feel is right.”
Siry went for the dygo. He was psyched to take it for a spin. As he was about to board, I called, “Siry!” He looked back at me.
“Your father would have been proud of you.”
Siry gave me the kind of warm smile I didn’t think he had in him. He entered the dygo and in no time got it rolling through the tunnel, headed for the flume. Alder and I walked behind him with the tak and the Quillan weapons. Alder kept glancing at me. Something was bothering him. I wasn’t surprised. Alder was a smart guy.
“What are you thinking, Pendragon? You have been strangely quiet since the battle.”
“Just trying to get my head around all that’s happened.”
Siry stopped the dygo short of the break I had drilled through the circular pool that was the mouth of the flume. He held open the hatch and said, “Anybody want to come? This should be fun.”
He suddenly seemed like a normal fifteen-year-old kid.
“Enjoy the ride,” I called out.
He closed the hatch, then opened it back up again and shouted out, “Zadaa!” He looked at me and added, “See? I’m learning. I’ll be right back.”
The flume came to life. The water swirled. I waited until the musical notes were at their loudest, then motioned for him to drive forward. Siry hit the throttle. The dygo rolled up and into the stone circle of water. It leaned forward and seemed to fall into the flume. A moment later it was gone.
“Your turn,” I said to Alder.
The knight picked up the remaining weapons. “What is next?” he asked.
“Like I said, we’re going after Saint Dane.”
Alder nodded but his heart wasn’t in it. He knew something was wrong. “You know I will always be there for you.”
I nodded in thanks, though I swear I almost cried.
“Quillan!” he called out, and the flume came back to life.
I hugged him. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you will think twice before doing something you may regret.”
I didn’t answer that. Alder looked into my eyes. He was searching for some clue as to what I was thinking. I looked away. It killed me. A
lder stepped up to the edge of the pool.
“Good-bye, my friend,” he said. The sparkling light filled the cavern, and he was gone.
I didn’t know how much time I had before they would be back, so I moved quickly. I ran for the crate of tak and lugged it into the cavern. I placed the heavy explosives gently in the sand, directly against the stone ring of the flume. Without wasting a second, I scooped up the bow and the tak arrows and sprinted out of the tunnel. When I reached the mouth, I turned back and dropped to one knee.
“Caw!” came the familiar cry from overhead. Looking up, I saw the dark bird circling high above me.
“It’s just you and me now,” I said to myself. Or to him. I looked at my Traveler ring. It was still sparkling. I picked up the arrow, nocked it onto the string, and aimed into the tunnel. I closed my left eye, looking down the length of the arrow shaft until I saw the flume.
“Good-bye, guys,” I whispered. “Good luck.”
I let the arrow fly and dove to the sand. The shaft whistled as it flew into the dark tunnel. There was a small explosion. then a hiss, followed by an eruption. I jumped up and ran toward the ocean, ahead of the fireball that blasted out of the tunnel. The concussion knocked me to the sand. I hit hard, feeling the heat on my back. I lay there, afraid to move. Bits of rock rained down on me. I covered my head in case something bigger than gravel was coming my way. The sound of the immense blast echoed away. I waited. The gravel stopped falling. I cautiously looked up to see what was left of the rocky cliff.
There wasn’t much. What had been a tall, steep cliff face, was now rubble. The tunnel was gone, buried under tons of rock. I looked at my ring. The sparkle was gone. It was once again gray stone. It was the proof I needed.
I had destroyed the flume on Ibara.
Saint Dane was not going to leave this territory.
Neither was I.
(CONTINUED)
IBARA
I’m writing this journal from a small room somewhere deep within Tribunal Mountain. It has become my home. I hope what happened hasn’t shocked you, Courtney. It’s been a while since I destroyed the flume, so I’ve had time to think about it. Now that the emotion and excitement have died down, I still believe I did the right thing.
I’ve given everything I have in the battle against Saint Dane. I’ve made lots of mistakes, but I’m only human. At least, I think I’m human. Actually, I don’t think I’m human at all, but you know what I mean. Since the loss on Quillan, I haven’t been the same. Quillan took a lot out of me. From the beginning I always felt as if there would be an end to this quest. Especially since we seemed to be beating Saint Dane on most territories. Quillan changed things for me. I began to feel as if this battle would be endless. Who says that every territory has only one turning point? What’s stopping Saint Dane from returning to any of them to try and turn things his way? On Ibara he convinced the Flighters to attack the pilgrims of Rayne, which was classic Saint Dane. But what about the dados? There was no turning point involved there. It was flat-out war. What’s to stop him from doing the same kind of thing on another territory? He could assemble another dado army on Quillan or march down Stony Brook Avenue.
That’s why I took such a drastic step. The flume here on Ibara is history. Saint Dane is trapped. If that’s what it took to end this war, it was worth it. I haven’t seen any sign of him since I blew up the flume. But I will. I’m sure of it.
Of course, destroying the flume means that I’m trapped here with him. This is hard to admit, especially to you, but I think that’s a good thing too. Truth is, I’m done, Courtney. I feel as if I’ve lost sight of the values that Uncle Press said were so important. Seeing the wreckage of Rayne was hard. Sure, we stopped the dado army, but we might have taken the heart from this territory in the process. I was out of control. My obsession with beating Saint Dane was all I cared about, when I should have been worried about the welfare of a territory. Saint Dane manipulates people to bring about their own ruin. I’m afraid the person he manipulated on Ibara was me. I made the choices. I changed the destiny of Ibara by mixing territories.
Neither of us can do that anymore.
Instead of fighting an endless battle to prevent chaos, I want to be positive. I want to look forward. I want to build something. I see that chance here on Ibara. The village was destroyed. Many people were killed. Rebuilding will take decades. I want to be a part of it. And the Flighters are still out there. That conflict hasn’t gone away. The defenses here are now weak. If the Flighters decide to attack, the people of Rayne may not be able to stop them. That’s another reason that I’m happy to stay here. I want to protect these people better than I did before. They’ve even asked me to be on the tribunal. Can you believe that? I wonder if they’ll give me a title? My mandate will be to carry out the vision of Aja Killian. Maybe that was always the way it was meant to be.
Telleo has become my good friend. She reminds me a lot of you, Courtney. She’s strong. She has opinions. She doesn’t take grief from me. That’s probably why I like her. We spend hours at night talking about the past of Veelox and the future of Ibara. I don’t think I’ll tell her about the Travelers. It has no importance here. Not anymore. Especially since I am no longer a Traveler.
I miss Siry. In many ways I think he should be here with me, with his people. He would want to help them build their new lives. It’s exactly what the Jakills set out to do. But I didn’t want to trap two Travelers. My hope is that he will stay with Alder, or join with Loor. Together maybe they can learn the real truth about Travelers, and their own lives. They deserve to know that. We all do.
I don’t know if you will ever meet Siry, but if you do, please tell him something for me. Days after the dado war, I was sitting alone on the beach, staring at the sea beyond the bay, thinking of nothing for a change. It felt good. On the horizon I saw a dot. It was a skimmer, moving fast, headed for the opening to the bay. My first instinct was that it was a group of dados or Flighters, and I was about to rally the security force. As the skimmer drew close, I saw that it wasn’t a dado at all. Four people were on board. I thought I was seeing ghosts.
Flying over the water were four of the Jakills. One of them was rat boy, whose name I still don’t know. There was another guy and two girls. The girl driving the skimmer was Twig. They had been hiding in Rubic City and finally managed to steal one of the few skimmers that the dados didn’t use to attack Rayne. All I could do was stand there in the sand and laugh. I took it as a sign that there was real hope for the future of Ibara.
Of all the difficult things I’ve described in these journals, what I am now about to write is the hardest. But it’s reality. I don’t think I will ever see you again, Courtney. Or Mark. You are my best friends. You will always be my best friends. My biggest regret over what I’ve done is that I won’t know if Mark is all right. I think that will haunt me for the rest of my life. But I take comfort in the fact that by doing what I’ve done, I have saved Halla. Saint Dane said some disturbing things. The idea that Halla was only the beginning for some even grander plan of evil was too much for me to accept. It was the final straw in making my decision. Saint Dane is done.
So is Bobby Pendragon.
I will still write to you every so often, to let you know how things are going here. I hope you don’t mind. It’s the only way I can think to hold on to a little bit of my old life. I think of you and Mark every day. I remember the fun we had, before all this started. I never want to forget that, even though remembering makes me sad. But I’m not alone here. I have Telleo, and her father. It’s time to start a new life, and help these people find their own.
I don’t know if this is the way it was meant to be, but it’s the way it’s going to be.
I miss you both. I love you both.
Remember me.
END OF JOURNAL # 32
Courtney had to read the last journal from Bobby Pendragon alone in her “cell,” back in the isolation ward of the Queen Mary. Dodger was alone in his own “cell” acro
ss the passageway. Until she was released and reunited with Mark and Dodger, she would have to deal with the news on her own. She felt as if the term “isolation ward” could not have fit her situation any better.
She didn’t cry over the loss of her friend. She wasn’t elated over the saving of another territory. She didn’t take solace in the fact that Saint Dane may have been defeated forever. She felt numb. Empty. Being Courtney, her mind naturally raced ahead to the next challenge. What would the next impossible hurdle of their mission be? The strange reality was, there were no more hurdles. There was nothing more to do. Yes, there were questions. Why hadn’t the dados ceased to exist once Mark destroyed Forge? If Saint Dane was trapped on Veelox, what did that mean for Andy Mitchell? Was he gone? Or maybe it didn’t make a difference, because First Earth existed in another time from Veelox. Or maybe Andy was stuck here, because if he traveled anywhere else it would create a time paradox. Or maybe… or maybe…
Courtney tried to stop thinking. There were no answers. None that mattered, anyway. There was only the empty feeling of knowing Bobby was gone from her life forever, and their mission was over. She felt as if she should be thrilled, because it meant Halla was saved. Her home on Second Earth was saved. But she wasn’t thrilled. She felt overwhelmingly sad.
She spent the next three days in that cell. Alone. With no contact from anyone she knew. It was torture. The room was comfortable enough and they fed her well, but she was going out of her mind because of the isolation. Her only view of the outside world was through a single porthole. Not that there was much to see except ocean, but it kept her from going totally out of her mind.
On the fourth day there was a knock on the door at the usual breakfast time. When the door opened, instead of a steward wheeling in her morning meal, Mark Dimond stepped into the room.
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