Black Water

EELONG

(CONTINUED)

The sunbelt had clearedthe horizon. It was full daylight on Eelong.

The riders bringing the antidote tanks to Black Water were close to the end of their journey. They had made it to the rocky, switchback trail that snaked up the side of the steep mountain. Gunny was still in the lead, followed by Boon and Mark, then Courtney and Spader. They were nearly at the crevice that would lead them to the crater of waterfalls. Every rider was exhausted, sore, and still terrified that another tang would attack, but the higher they climbed the more they felt as if Spader was right-they had made it. Looking back down into the barren valley they had just galloped through, they could see the beginnings of the first wave of gars that were still far behind, hours from Black Water.

“We’re nearly there,” Gunny called back to the others. “It’s time to think about what we’re going to do once we arrive.”

“How about a Jacuzzi?” Courtney shouted. “My butt’s killing me.”

Nobody laughed.

“Just kidding,” she added.

“Boon, stay close to me,” Gunny said. “They don’t trust klees.”

“Understood,” Boon said.

Gunny was first to arrive at the split in the rock that led to the narrow fissure in the mountain.

“This is it!” Gunny exclaimed. “Stay in single file. We’ll talk on the other end.”

Gunny entered the crevice. Boon and Mark were right behind. But as they entered the fissure, something spooked Boon’s zenzen. The animal reared up on its hind legs, whinnying out a complaint. Mark grabbed tight around Boon’s middle, or he would have fallen off.

“Whoa! Easy there!” Boon coaxed.

“What’s the matter with him?” Mark asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t like tight spaces.”

Boon regained control and steered his zenzen into the crevice. Courtney followed, then Spader. They traveled along the tight corridor, trying their best not to scrape their knees against the rocky walls. Boon was having a tough time keeping his zenzen under control. The animal kept shying, not wanting to go farther.

“This is making me nervous,” Mark said.

Courtney started to have problems with her zenzen as well. The animal stopped dead in its tracks, refusing to take another step. “C’mon!” she commanded. “Giddyap. Let’s go.” The animal didn’t budge.

Boon and Mark kept moving. Spader stopped behind Courtney and said, “They might be tired. We’ve been riding them pretty hard.”

“I’m tired too,” Courtney said. “You don’t see me resting. C’mon, zenzen, we’re almost there!” She gave the animal a kick, but the zenzen stood firm.

Mark turned around to see they were leaving Spader and Courtney behind. He called back, “Maybe if you got off and walked him, he would follow-“

Something hit Mark on the top of his head. It didn’t hurt, it was only a small pebble that had fallen from above. But it was enough to make him look up to see where it came from. What he saw nearly made him fall off the zenzen.

Looking down on them from high above was a band of tangs. At first Mark was so stunned, he couldn’t speak. But when he saw the tangs pushing large boulders close to the edge, his brain kicked back into gear.

“TANGS!” he shouted.

The tangs pushed the boulders over.

Everybody looked up to see an avalanche bouncing down the steep walls toward them. One boulder careened right for Mark. He leaned forward into Boon and the boulder barely missed hitting him in the head, but it bashed into the tank strapped to his back, knocking him off balance. He started to fall off the zenzen, but Boon grabbed him.

Gunny shouted, “Move!” He kicked his zenzen and galloped through the narrow crevice to escape the rockslide. Boon and Mark shot after him. Their zenzen took off so fast that Mark nearly fell off again. More boulders crashed down. Courtney didn’t know what to do. If her zenzen decided to go forward, they’d be crushed by the avalanche. But there was no reverse on a zenzen. She was trapped.

“Jump off!” Spader ordered.

Too late. The boulders hit the ground in front of them, causing Courtney’s zenzen to rear up. Courtney wasn’t ready for that, and she tumbled off the animal, hitting the ground, tank first. The hard tank dug into her back, making her squeal with pain. Spader jumped off to help her scramble away from the tumbling boulders.

The tangs continued pushing heavy stones down on them, but that wasn’t the worst problem. Courtney’s zenzen was out of control. It kept rearing up in the narrow space, whinnying and stomping in fear as the boulders crashed down in front of it. Courtney and Spader were in way more danger of being stomped by the frantic zenzen than hit by a boulder. The animal reared up, twisted its body, and came down facing Spader and Courtney.

“Get up!” Spader yelled, and pulled Courtney to her feet. The zenzen charged, desperate to escape from the avalanche. Spader pushed Courtney roughly to the side. They flattened themselves against the rock wall, bracing to be slammed by the rampaging zenzen. The animal brushed by them and ran straight into Spader’s zenzen! Both animals wrestled and whinnied. Spader’s zenzen went up on its back legs, using its front legs to defend itself. Spader and Courtney were trapped between two huge boxing animals on one side, and an avalanche of boulders on the other.

Courtney’s zenzen would not be denied. It fought through Spader’s zenzen, knocking the poor animal onto its back, and galloped back toward the entrance of the crevice. Spader’s zenzen kicked frantically at the air. It finally rolled over onto its feet, with its head pointed toward the entrance. Once the animal realized it was back in control, it took off, leaving Spader and Courtney alone in the crevice… with more boulders thundering down on them. Dust was everywhere, making it hard to see.

“We have to move!” Spader shouted over the roar of falling rocks. Courtney nodded. She had her wits back. She and Spader backed off, away from the danger zone, out of harm’s way. Moments later it was over. The thunderous, grinding sound stopped. Spader and Courtney, bruised and cut, stood still, waiting for the thick cloud of dust to settle.

“It was a trap,” Courtney said, coughing. “They were waiting to drop those rocks on us!”

“No worries,” Spader announced. “They missed.”

The dust settled, revealing a sight that was hard for even Spader to put a positive spin on.

“Yeah, they missed all right,” Courtney said in a shaky voice. “But I don’t think they were trying to hit us.”

So many boulders had fallen, the crevice was completely sealed off. There was no way Courtney and Spader could follow the others. Black Water had been cut off from the rest of Eelong.

“Now what do we do?” Courtney asked.

That’s when they heard one more sound. It was as if one more boulder had fallen. But this one was behind them.

“Uh-oh,” Courtney said. “Are they gonna try to trap us in-“

Courtney and Spader slowly turned around to see that it wasn’t a boulder that had fallen. It was a tang. It stood with its teeth bared, blocking the way out.

Gunny pulled his zenzen to a stop, still inside the crevice. Boon and Mark stopped right behind him.

“It was the t-tangs!” Mark gasped. “If I hadn’t looked up…” He let the thought trail. They all knew what would have happened. It would have been ugly. They all looked back into the crevice, expecting Spader and Courtney to ride up.

Gunny jumped down from his zenzen and said, “Wait here.” He squeezed past Boon’s zenzen and jogged back the way they had come. It didn’t take long for him to arrive at the dead end that had been created by the avalanche. He knew there was no getting past, so he hurried back to the others.

“Wh-Where are they?” Mark asked.

“The crevice is sealed off,” Gunny answered.

Mark’s panic was rising. “A-Are they okay?” he squealed. “Courtney’s zenzen wouldn’t move! She could have been-“

“I don’t know what happened, Mark,” Gunny said firmly. “I think there’s a good chance they’re okay, but stuck on the other side.”

“You know what that means?” Boon said nervously.

“Yes,” Gunny said as he remounted his zenzen. “It means we’re down to only one tank of the antidote and it’s not doing any good out here. Let’s go!”

Gunny gave his zenzen a kick and trotted toward the crater of waterfalls.

Boon looked back to Mark and said, “Guard that tank with your life.”

Mark was faced with a frightening truth. The future of Eelong and quite possibly of Halla, was strapped to his back. His stomach did a flip.

Bobby and Kasha quickly gained altitude as they flew out of Leeandra. Bobby had a flashback to the last time he was in the air. It was with the pilot Jinx Olsen on First Earth, in her rickety Coast Guard seaplane. He was happy that the gig was actually a lot more comfortable than his last flying experience. The rotors overhead whirred, but it was a pleasant sound, like a fan. It was nothing like bouncing under the seaplane engine of 1937 Earth. He and Jinx had to scream at each other to be heard over that monster. By comparison, the gig was like hovering along in a skilift gondola. He saw that as Kasha moved the joystick, all five rotors moved slightly. The positioning of the rotors is what steered the gig. In all, it was a very pleasant experience…except for the fact they were in pursuit of another gig that held enough poison to destroy a territory.

Bobby hadn’t said much since they took off. He wanted Kasha to concentrate on flying. But now that they were under way, things needed to be said.

“You remember the route to Black Water?” Bobby asked.

“No problem,” Kasha answered.

Bobby nodded. He really didn’t want to ask the next question.

“What are we going to do when we catch up?”

Kasha made a few adjustments and checked over the side to see if they were on course. Bobby wasn’t sure if she was busy, or didn’t have an answer. Or didn’t want to give the answer she had.

“You did your job, Pendragon,” Kasha finally said. “What do you mean?” Bobby asked.

D. J. MacHale

Black Water

“I mean you convinced me. It took a while, but I get it. I know we have to stop Saint Dane.”

“That’s good. So…how do we do it?”

Kasha cleared her throat. While still looking ahead she said, “I’m going to catch that gig and crash it. The poison will do whatever damage it does to the jungle, but at least it won’t be used on Black Water.”

Bobby nodded. “Okay, good plan. But…how? This gig doesn’t have any weapons, does it?”

“Let me ask you something, Pendragon,” Kasha said, avoiding the question. “How important is this? I mean, if the worst happens and Saint Dane destroys Eelong, what does that mean for the rest of Halla?”

Bobby shrugged. “I don’t exactly know. I think Saint Dane got more powerful after wrecking Veelox. I can only imagine that he’d get stronger still if he won on Eelong, and it would be that much harder to stop him.”

“And if he isn’t stopped? I mean, if he gets what he wants and takes control of Halla. What does that mean?”

“I’ve asked myself that question a million times,” Bobby said. “I’ve only heard bits and pieces, so I don’t even come close to understanding it all, but I believe there’s a more powerful force at work in Halla. It’s a positive force. I think it’s what makes things right. Don’t ask me what I mean by that, because I’m not sure myself. But I think that’s what the war with Saint Dane is all about. I believe he’s trying to destroy whatever it is that makes things right. It’s way bigger than the problems of any one territory. I think if Saint Dane takes control, there will be no more order. I’m not even sure what that means, but it won’t be good.”

Kasha thought about his answer for a moment, then said, “So if you’re right, stopping Saint Dane is the single most important task in the history of everything.”

Bobby nodded. “I guess you could say that.”

“Then it’s worth dying for,” Kasha said.

Bobby snapped her a look. In that one moment he came to a realization. Kasha may have been the most difficult Traveler to convince of the importance of their mission, but now that she understood, she saw it more clearly than any of them. Nobody had put it out there as plainly as that. Kasha wasn’t in it for the adventure, or for revenge, or because she wasn’t given a choice. Of all the Travelers, Kasha now believed in their mission so wholeheartedly, she was willing to die for it. The question immediately sprang to Bobby’s mind: Was he willing to do the same?

“Does this mean you don’t know how to bring down that gig without getting us killed?” Bobby asked nervously.

Kasha looked ahead. Her eyes narrowed. “There it is,” she announced.

Bobby scanned the sky. He soon made out a small speck of yellow in the distance. They were catching up.

The tang had Spader and Courtney backed into a dead end. They both smelled the putrid odor it gave off when it was ready to feed.

“Two on one,” Courtney said.

“Could be worse,” Spader said bravely.

Three more tangs dropped down from above, making Courtney jump back in surprise.

“Just got worse,” Courtney said weakly.

The tangs stood in twos. They slowly stalked forward, their vile smell making Courtney gag. “Is it gonna end here?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“If it does,” Spader said, “it won’t be because we didn’t give ‘em a go.”

With one quick move, Spader reached both hands back over his head, grabbed the shoulders of his harness, and pulled it up and over, tank and all. He bashed one end of the tank on the ground, hard enough to smash off the nozzle. A jet of high-pressure liquid shot from the broken valve like a portable water cannon. The chemical spewed at the tangs, making them scream and back away. The surprised beasts waved at the rush of chemicals with their lizard arms… and fled.

“We got ‘em!” Spader shouted, and took off in pursuit. Courtney followed right behind. Spader kept the spewing tank aimed at the squealing lizards. When the tangs reached the mouth of the crevice, they kept going and jumped right off the ledge, tumbling down the side of the steep mountain to escape from the attack. Spader kept the high-pressure tank aimed down at them until the chemical finally ran out.

“That was awesome!” Courtney yelled. “How did you know it would work?”

“I didn’t,” Spader answered with a chuckle. “Lucky us.”

Spader tossed the empty tank aside and said, “Except now we’re down to two tanks.”

“Wrong,” Courtney corrected. “We’re down to one tank, and Mark’s got it. The tank on my back’s no good if we can’t get it to Black Water.”

Spader put his hands on his hips and looked back into the crevice. He stared into the opening, then his eyes traveled up the craggy face of the mountain.

“What are you thinking?” Courtney asked.

“Those wogglies got up there somehow.”

“You’re kidding?” Courtney said. “You want us to climb over this mountain?”

“Well, like you said, this tank’s not doing any good out here.”

Courtney glanced up at the mountain, imagining what it would be like to climb up the rocky face. She had been to the climbing gym back in Stony Brook many times, and was pretty good at it. But that was always with a rope for safety. And a big thick pad on the floor.

“If you can’t make it, I can go myself,” Spader said.

Courtney Chetwynde never, ever backed down from a challenge. She wasn’t going to start now.

“I’ll lead,” she said, and began climbing up the craggy face.