The Pilgrims of Rayne

IBARA

It was the first unique sound I’d heard since we’d landed at Rubity. Strike that. Rubic City. We were on Veelox. It was impossible. It was the truth. It made no sense. It didn’t matter. At least not just then. We weren’t alone. That mattered. The sound was a sharp swish, followed by another and another. I was still too far out of my mind to register what was happening. Reality charged back quickly. ‘Ahhhh!” screamed Twig.

The small girl was pulled to the ground and dragged across the debris-strewn street by a group of Flighters. We finally found them. Or maybe I should say they found us. They were on the attack. There were lots of them too. Way too many for us to battle.

“Help!” she screamed in terror.

The swish sounds were made by ropes. Lassos. The Flighters were throwing ropes to snare us. They reeled Twig in like a helpless fish. Loque dove for her, sprawling across her body and preventing her from being pulled any farther. I jumped to yank off the rope, but felt the quick tightening of a lasso that snapped around my neck so fast I didn’t have time to react. I was jerked forward and pulled to the ground. The rope tightened, choking me. All I could do was grab it and pull back. Hard. The Flighter attached to the other end must not have expected that, because I pulled him off his feet. Idiot. He should have let go. It gave me time to loosen the rope and slip it off.

The Flighters were grouped together, looking like a bunch of zombies, fresh from the grave, complete with rotted clothing. They had the same vacant, emotionless looks as the Flighters I had seen on Rayne. On Ibara. The island. Not the territory. I was on Veelox! They wound up their ropes, ready to try and snare us again. I was ready to charge them, but more kept showing up. They flooded from a building like rampaging rats after ripe garbage. We wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight.

Loque freed Twig. Siry knelt by me, bringing his blowgun up to his lips.

“Don’t bother,” I shouted. “Run.”

I didn’t have to tell him twice. He helped me to my feet and the four of us took off, back the way we had come. It was a mad sprint to get away from our attackers and back to the ship.

We didn’t get far. A handful of Flighters appeared ahead of us, climbing up and over a pile of rubble. We ran right into them. I pulled out the wooden blowgun and held it low, ready to whack the first Flighter who got within whacking range. I expected to get pounced on by a gang, but only one of them came at me. The guy wasn’t a fighter, but he was fearless. He charged with no regard for his own safety, swinging his arms wildly, hoping to land a lucky punch. I backed off, easily blocking everything he threw. He drove his head into my chest and pumped his legs, driving me backward like a tackling dummy.

I had no trouble pivoting and using his own energy to throw him over my hip. The Flighters were relentless, but they didn’t know how to fight. I looked quickly toward the others and saw both Siry and Loque fighting one Flighter each. That didn’t make sense. I saw at least ten of them jump off the pile of rubble. Why were they coming at us one at a time? I sprinted toward Siry and launched myself at his attacker, driving both my feet into his rib age. The Flighter grunted and dropped away.

“Twig!” Siry shouted with such fear it made my heart clutch.

The next few seconds were painful. The Flighters’ plan came clear. They weren’t as clueless as I’d thought. Siry and Loque and I were attacked by one each because the rest had jumped Twig. They were going to take us out one at a time. Poor Twig was the first target.

“Siry!” she shouted desperately. “Help!”

She was swarmed by several Flighters who dragged her back toward… somewhere.

I had to make a snap decision. It was one of the toughest things I’d ever done. Siry made a move to help her… and I stopped him.

“No!” I shouted. “You can’t help her.”

“Pendragon!” he protested desperately.

“Look!” I said, pointing beyond the group that was dragging poor Twig away. The mass of Flighters that had first attacked us was growing. There must have been fifty of them headed our way. If we went after Twig, it would be over. For all of us. Siry understood. It didn’t make it any less painful, but he understood. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror on Twig’s face as she was dragged away from us. I could only hope she’d survive the ordeal and we’d get another chance to save her.

“We’ll help her, but not now,” I said to Siry.

The look on his face was gut-wrenching. This was way more than he bargained for when he set out on a grand adventure with his friends to explore Ibara.

No, to explore Veelox.

“C’mon!” I shouted to get him moving.

Siry reluctantly backed away. We both turned to run. Loque had shaken the Flighter who had attacked him and ran with us. We were down to three. Who would be the next target? Ahead of us to our right, more Flighters poured from another building, cutting off the street and our route back to the ship.

“This way!” Loque shouted, and turned left, headed toward one of the derelict buildings.

It was a dangerous move. There were three of us and dozens of them. If we were clever, and lucky, we might be able to lose them inside one of the empty buildings. If we weren’t lucky, the building would collapse on our heads. If we stayed in the street, they’d have us. Jumping into a building was the only move we had. Loque knew it. Siry and I weren’t far behind. We followed the blond thief through the first door we came to. Inside was a mess of crushed furniture and broken shelves. It might have been a store at one time. It might have been an office. It might have been a zoo for all I cared. All I wanted was to get through and shake the mass of Flighters. I quickly realized I was with the right guys. They may not have been warriors, but they knew how to dodge the authorities. They had plenty of practice running from the security force in Rayne. To them, running through the twisted labyrinth inside this building was no different than blasting through the dense tropical jungle near their home. I had trouble keeping up with them as they jumped over piles of junk while always looking ahead for the best route.

The Flighters had even more trouble keeping up. There were too many of them. Being only three was definitely an advantage. Loque led us through several rooms of debris. It was almost as if he knew where he was going. Finally he blasted through a doorway that led to a huge, empty atrium. After running through a maze of dark, junky rooms, it was a breathtaking surprise to suddenly land in such a huge space.

It was a giant, glass building. The ceiling and two of the walls were made of colorful stained glass. At one time it might have been some kind of cathedral. The spectacular mosaic pattern was a seascape, complete with schools of fish, coral, whales, and vibrant plant life. The colors were incredibly vivid, made more so because the sun shone through to make them come alive. The whole mosaic was amazingly intact, though there were hundreds of places where sections had fallen out to let unfiltered sun shine in, creating laserlike beams of white light that crisscrossed the entire space. The three of us stood beneath this spectacular glass dome, staring up in awe, trying to catch our breath. It was an awesome sight that I would have appreciated a whole lot more if we hadn’t been running for our lives.

“We’ve got to go back,” Siry said, gulping air. “They’ve got Twig.”

“And they’ll get us, too,” I said. “We’ll go back, but on our terms.”

“I shouldn’t have brought her,” Siry cried. “I shouldn’t have brought anyone!”

“It was our choice,” Loque said. “There were plenty of chances to back out.”

“Guys, not the time to second guess,” I cautioned. “You can beat yourselves up all you want later. Let’s shake those goons first.”

Crash!

The sound came from the room we had just run through. The Flighters were smashing their way through. I did a quick scan of the immense atrium, looking for the best escape route.

“We won’t make it across this space in time,” I concluded. “I say we dig in somewhere and hope they miss us.”

There wasn’t time to debate. Loque took off again, running along the wall until he found another doorway. He jumped inside. We followed. It was a small room with no light and no exits. If the Flighters found us, we’d be trapped. But there was no turning back, because the Flighters had entered the cathedral.

Siry jumped behind the wreck of something that might have been a cabinet. Or a desk. Loque and I followed, trying to make ourselves invisible. I got down on my belly behind the ancient piece of furniture and found a small opening to peer through. I had a perfect view out the door. No sooner did I settle in, than I saw several Flighters running through the cathedral to the far side. It looked like our plan had worked. They thought we’d kept going. But there were a lot of them. They could have spread out to search the cathedral. We had to be absolutely sure before moving.

It was burning hot in there. Sweat poured down my face. I was about to reach up and wipe my nose, when a shadow crossed the doorway in front of us. I froze. A Flighter crept past silently, on alert. They were searching for us. I didn’t even want to breathe, for fear he’d hear me. I didn’t put my hand back down either. That’s how nervous I was about making the smallest sound. The Flighter barely glanced into the room and kept walking. I kept still. Good thing. Right behind him was another guy who poked his head around the corner and looked directly into the room. Could he see us? Did it matter?

Not if he called a couple of his scurvy pals to come in and turn the place inside out. I mentally prepared myself for that, imagining them entering the room and calculating the best moment to leap up and attack.

The Flighter took a step inside, scanned around, then stepped back out, and kept walking. I figured those guys weren’t all that brave on their own, that’s why they traveled in such big packs. I didn’t dare look to either side to see where Siry and Loque were, for fear I’d make a sound. Another Flighter stalked quietly past the room, glancing in. Then another. I saw several more Flighters in the middle of the cathedral, searching for us. My hopes started to rise. If they hadn’t come in this room yet, they might not at all. As the minutes passed, I saw fewer and fewer of the grungy guys walking by the door or out in the atrium. Still, I didn’t dare move. For all I knew they were waiting together outside the door for us to stupidly walk into an ambush. Without saying a word we all knew we’d have to wait long enough to make sure they were gone.

Time passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes. I lost track. After not seeing or hearing a Flighter for the longest time, I finally risked turning my head to look at the others. Siry was a few feet from me. He wasn’t even looking out the door. He sat with his back to it, his legs curled up. He hugged his knees tightly, staring ahead, unseeing. He looked bad. Not scared, but worse. He looked stunned. I could guess why. His glorious quest had turned into a terrifying odyssey. Twig had been captured. She was probably the must vulnerable of the group. Now she was in the hands of the Flighters. It was anybody’s guess as to whether or not she was still alive. Were the Flighters that evil? Would they actually kill someone in cold blood?

I felt someone touch my shoulder and nearly yelped in surprise. I sat up fast and hit my head. It didn’t hurt, but the sound seemed as loud as an explosion. Did anyone hear? It was Loque. We sat there, frozen, waiting to see if the Flighters had heard. A few minutes passed. Nobody showed up. It actually gave us more confidence. If nobody heard that loud bang, they were probably gone.

“I’ll take a look outside,” Loque whispered. “If it’s clear, I’ll signal, and we can start out.”

I nodded. Siry didn’t move. Loque gave me a quick smile. “Don’t worry, we’re going to get out of here and get Twig back.”

Siry didn’t respond. Loque gave me a worried look and quietly left. He was the perfect person to go. Judging by our earlier stealthy jaunt through the jungle, Loque would be able to make this a quiet scout. I’d probably trip over something and make a huge crash that would bring the Flighters running back.

“You okay?” I whispered to Siry.

He stared ahead, unseeing. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said softly. “I know.”

“I’m not leaving this horror city without Twig,” he added.

I didn’t argue with him. What for? Events would tell us what to do. Hopefully that would include rescuing Twig. As much as I wanted that, I was smart enough to know it wasn’t a lock. One thing at a time. I left Siry and snuck to the doorway. Kneeling down, I cautiously peered out to the cathedral. I scanned the whole floor until I saw Loque creeping along the wall to my right. He moved quickly through the piles of junk, making himself nearly invisible as he surveyed the vast space.

Siry joined me, kneeling down and peering out from the other side of the door. We made eye contact. He gave me a nod and a reassuring smile. He looked like a scared little kid, which meant he looked like I did a few years back. Or now.

Loque skirted the immense room, moving closer to the wall that was made entirely of stained glass. The huge mosaic started at the floor and stretched all the way up until it joined with the massive, glass-domed ceiling. It was beautiful. I felt a sudden rush of sadness for the loss of an entire city and its people. This was Veelox. Saint Dane had beaten us here. Were we in the future of that time? Was this what happened to a territory when Saint Dane won? There were so many questions, but they would have to wait until we were safely out of there. Hopefully with Twig.

My eyes traveled over the incredible, huge mosaic of glass. I couldn’t say if the artwork was a masterpiece. I’m no judge of that. But the fact that it took up an entire wall that was half the size of a football field made it seem pretty impressive to me.

Loque was halfway along the base of this massive wall. My confidence grew with each step he took. The Flighters were gone. They were looking for us elsewhere. Or maybe they’d lost interest and sank back into whatever rat hole they came from. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that we had dodged a pretty huge bullet. But we weren’t safe. We still had to find our way back to the ship and decide what to do from there.

Loque stood about eighty yards away from us. He looked so tiny beneath that gigantic wall. He stood up, took one more look around, then waved to us. All was clear. He wanted us to follow. I looked to Siry. He was already getting to his feet. I stood to follow… and saw something that made me freeze.

“Wait,” I whispered harshly.

Siry stopped. I stood and looked at the giant mosaic. It may have been a wall, but it was still made of glass. I could see through it. Something was moving outside the building. Something big. It was impossible to tell exactly what it was, because the colored pieces of glass camouflaged things pretty well. It moved slowly from left to right. Whatever it was, it was solid. I didn’t see any natural movements. I pointed to it, trying to get Loque to take a look, but he wasn’t watching me. I didn’t want to chance screaming at him. It might have been nothing, and I didn’t want to risk giving ourselves away.

The sun grew brighter. The detail of the strange shadow became clear. The object was taller than Loque. I made out a slender, horizontal streak that seemed to float in the air. It was a silver streak that might have been mounted on something vertical. The horizontal line pivoted, making the sun reflect off its surface. That’s all I needed to see. In one horrifying instant, I knew what it was.

“Get away!” I shouted to Loque, running to the center of the cathedral. I no longer cared about getting caught. “Get away from the window!” I waved my arms frantically, trying to get Loque out of there.

Loque motioned with both palms down, as if to say, “Calm down. Be quiet.” He even made a “shush” gesture with a finger to his lips.

There was no way I’d calm down or be quiet. Siry ran up beside me and tried to grab my arm to stop me. “Stop!” he whispered urgently.

I didn’t listen. “Run this way! Now!” I screamed at Loque.

Loque glanced around in confusion. He had no idea why I was going off like that. He slowly started walking toward me. Too slowly.

“What’s the matter?” he called. “They’re gone.”

“No, they’re not!” I yelled. “They’re outside and they’ve got a-“

Boom! A shot was fired. I’d heard the sound before. It was one of the cannons from the military boat, like the one that fired on our ship. The Flighters weren’t gone. They knew we were in that cathedral.

They wanted to make it our tomb.

A split second after the gun fired, the giant stained-glass window exploded into a million brilliant flashes of light. It would have been a spectacular sight, if it hadn’t been so horrifying. It was like standing inside an exploding firework skyrocket. Tiny bits of glass whizzed past us. But we weren’t the ones in danger. Tons of sharp glass shards rained straight down, directly on Loque.

“No!” shouted Siry. As if that would do any good.

I had the presence of mind to stop running, grab Siry, and pull him back. We weren’t totally safe from flying glass. Siry was too stunned to resist. I pulled him away as quickly as I could and shoved him back into the small room where we had been hiding. Once inside, we both turned to look back.

It was a wondrous, magical, horrifying sight. At the sound of the explosion, Loque had stopped in surprise. Or maybe curiosity. It was the worst thing he could have done. He looked back as the glass wall exploded over him. He didn’t run. He didn’t cower. I think the reality of what was happening didn’t hit him, and that was a good thing. Siry and I watched as Loque gazed up in wonder at the spectacular, colorful waterfall of glass… that was falling right for him. Seconds later tons of sharp glass hit the blond thief. Siry’s best friend. I couldn’t watch. I had to bury my eyes in my arm. The sound was enough. It was deafening, like a million shrieking birds. I heard the weight thunder, followed by the constant, sharp sounds of tons of glass shattering on the floor.

I felt the sting of a thousand tiny shards that dug into my arm as the storm of glass hit us. I should have ducked behind the wall for protection, but I was too stunned to move. I let it hit me. I wanted to feel the burn.

The sound of crashing glass continued for several seconds before settling down. When

I felt safe enough to peek up, the first thing I thought was that somebody had turned on a ton of floodlights in the cathedral. They hadn’t. With the stained-glass wall gone, the sunlight wasn’t filtered anymore. What once had been an immense wall of color, was now a jagged hole of bright white light. At its base was a pile of broken glass that had to be fifteen feet high. I stared at the sparkling mound. I wanted to see Loque walk away from it. I wanted to see him pull himself out of the mess and jog back toward us. He didn’t.

Siry ran out of the room, headed for the pile of glass.

“Loque!” he screamed, anguished.

“No, wait!” I shouted.

Siry would not be denied. All I could do was run after him. He sprinted to the pile, desperately scanning for any sign of his friend.

“We can’t stay here,” I pleaded with him. “Look!”

Through the hole, we now saw the gun clearly. It looked exactly like the cannon that was mounted on the bow of the Flighters’ gunboat. Surrounding the gun were Flighters. They knew exactly what they were doing. They couldn’t find us, so they decided to bury us. The only one they got was Loque.

Siry gasped. He was looking at something on the floor. My gaze followed his, and I saw something that made my knees get weak. It was a sandal. Loque’s sandal. Siry went for the pile of glass, as if ready to dig with his bare hands. I had to stop him or he would have shredded himself.

“We have to go,”I yelled. “Now!”

The Flighters were already gingerly poking around the damage. They were headed our way, probably to find proof that we were finished.

Siry was nearly in tears. He had lost two of his trusted Jakills. Loque was his friend. Probably his best friend. The chances of rescuing Twig were remote, but at least it was a possibility. Not so with Loque. I didn’t want to think of what shape he was in under that massive, crushing load of glass. I realized that the sandal might be the only recognizable thing left of the blond thief. I had to shake that image, fast.

“Now, Siry.” I said softly, but with force.

Siry took a shaky breath, looked up at the oncoming Flighters, then turned and ran back the way we had first entered the cathedral. I was right behind him. I had to force the horrifying memories of the past few minutes out of my head. I’ll never forget the images of Twig being dragged away and Loque dying under the waterfall of glass. They’ll be with me forever. We couldn’t let those memories crush us. We could mourn later. We could try and rescue Twig later. But not if the Flighters got to us first. It was about our survival. I hoped Siry was thinking the same way.

I didn’t know which was more important: speed or secrecy. The longer we were in that city, the better the chances the Flighters would find us. Getting back to the ship was crucial, but if we weren’t careful, we could easily run right into another bunch of those rats. There was no telling where they were. The city suddenly felt like an old house that was infested with termites. You couldn’t see them, but you knew they were there. By the thousands. They could have been watching our every move. Siry and I left the cathedral, running back along the route we had first come through. I hoped the Flighters wouldn’t expect that. After dodging through the labyrinth of rooms, I stopped at the doorway out to the street, on the far side of the building. I didn’t want to jump right back into another ambush. We crouched down to rest and make a plan.

“I hope they think we’re dead,” I said, gulping air. “It might give us enough time to get back to the ship and shove off.”

Siry’s eyes were glassy and vacant, as if he were in shock. “They killed him. They killed my best friend. Why did they have to kill him?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about them.”

“Was it revenge?” Siry continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “All we ever did was protect our home from them. They’re the ones who attacked. Not us.”

I grabbed Siry and gave him a rough shake. He focused on me, surprised.

“Stop!” I seethed. “Keep it together. If we stay here, we’re dead too.”

“I’m starting not to care,” he said quietly.

“What about the other Jakills?” I snapped. “Do you care about them? They’ll come looking for us, you know. Unless we get back to warn them, they’ll walk right into the same trap we did.”

My words hit home. Siry focused, fast.

“We should keep close to the buildings,” he said, back in charge. “Less chance of them seeing us.”

“No,” I said quickly. “These buildings are full of Flighters. If we stay close, they’d be on us before we had a chance to react.”

“So what do we do?”

“Run. Fast as we can, right down the middle of the street, as far away from the buildings as possible. That way we can see them coming.”

“And what if they see us coming?”

“They will. But if we’re in the middle of the street, we’ll have a few seconds to react.”

I could sense the wheels in his head turning, calculating the possibilities. Slowly his head bobbed in agreement, and continued to bob as he got himself psyched up. “One… two… three… GO!” He jumped up and blasted out the doorway.

I was right behind him. Together we sprinted away from the derelict skyscraper, toward the center of the wide street. From there we turned left and kept on running. The large buildings loomed over us as we tore down the center of the street, headed for the ocean. We kept scanning ahead, looking for signs of movement that would say the Flighters had seen us. Every time we passed another pile of rubble, I mentally braced myself for a group of Flighters to leap out and attack.

We were almost to the end of the final block before hitting the wide expanse between the buildings and the pier. My legs burned. I had a stitch in my side. I had trouble getting enough air, but we kept going. Only two days before I had been lying in bed, recovering from a massive bee attack. Now I was sprinting for my life. The run didn’t seem to test Siry at all. He didn’t even breathe hard. We ran past the final buildings and into the hot sunshine. It was so bright I was nearly blinded. It didn’t stop us from running. We were away from the buildings and the dangers they held. My confidence rose. We were going to make it. I was so confident that my thoughts shot ahead to our next move. Getting the ship away from the pier was the most important. Once out to sea, we had to decide on what to do about Twig. I knew that Siry would be all about that, and the other Jakills would surely agree. I wanted to find Twig as well, but there was more in it for me. I needed to learn about Rubic City, and what had happened to Veelox. I’d yet to find Saint Dane. I felt his presence in everything around me. One way or another, I knew I’d be back in Rubic City.

There were several large mounds of debris between us and the pier. They were so high that they blocked our view of the ship. But we were almost there, so I thought it was okay to ease up. We’d been sprinting for a mile in tropical heat. Once the adrenaline wore off, the fatigue set in.

“Let’s slow down,” I gasped.

Siry didn’t argue. He was finally tired out. The two of us slowed to a jog and then a quick walk. We didn’t say anything. We were too busy gulping air. All I could think about was getting onto that ship and getting away before anything else happened.

Siry was the first to see the smoke. “Look!” he gasped, pointing.

Over the top of the large mound in front of us, in roughly the direction of the pier, was a billowing cloud of black smoke. We stopped to stare for a quick moment, then looked at each other. Rest time was over. We broke into a dead-on sprint. Suddenly we didn’t feel so tired. Siry and I dashed toward the last large mound and skirted around it to see the pier… and the horror.

Our yellow ship was in flames. Floating offshore were two gunboats with Flighters aboard. We watched in stunned silence as both boats fired their cannons at our doomed ship, point-blank, blasting away at the already burning hull. Another shot was fired that hit the forward mast at its base. I heard a sick, wrenching sound as the mast toppled forward, crashing onto the deck, sending up a shower of sparks. The boat listed to its side. It would only be a matter of minutes before it was on the bottom with all the other wrecks.

“Where are they?” Siry croaked, barely able to get the words out.

I didn’t have that answer. The Jakills were nowhere in sight. Had they gotten off before the attack? Or were they consumed by the flames? All I could do was stare at the doomed ship.

“Why would the Flighters do this?” Siry asked. “They’re… animals.”

I had a theory. Or at least an idea. Everything about these Flighters made me believe that somehow, someway, they were being influenced by Saint Dane. I still didn’t know why. I didn’t know who they were or what they thought they were going to get by targeting the people of Rayne. But I would find out. I had to. It was my job.

“We’re trapped,” Siry said. “My friends are gone and we’re trapped.” He looked at me and added, “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to stay safe,” I said. “And get answers.”

“How?” Siry asked.

“We’re going to be Travelers. It’s time you accepted that. It’s the only hope you have.”

(CONTINUED)