The Soldiers of Halla

Chapter 28

In order for us to get inside the walls of Leeandra, I had to die. Sort of.

“Gars are no longer allowed inside the city walls,” Kasha explained. “At least, not by their own choice.” “What does that mean?” I asked.

Kasha didn’t answer. She was nervous. That wasn’t like her. At least, it wasn’t like the confident Kasha I knew. The two of us crouched in the jungle, just before the clearing that surrounded Leeandra. I’d guess there was a stretch of about fifty yards from where the jungle ended until the big wall that protected the tree city of Leeandra.

“Forgive me, Pendragon,” she said. “I’ve seen things since my return that have been quite disturbing. I’m having trouble understanding it all.”

“Tell me,” I said.

“When I returned, I arrived inside the walls of Leeandra. But the village had changed so drastically, it took me a while to realize it. The structure of the city had been altered dramatically. I tried to find Boon, but had no luck. I even tried to contact him through my Traveler ring. After all, he was my acolyte. But the ring no longer functions.”

“I hadn’t even thought about the rings,” I said. “They probably went dead when the flumes exploded.”

“That’s my guess. I asked anyone who would listen if they knew him, but got nowhere. Finally, I found someone who said that Boon had gone on an expedition to one of the outlying farms. That’s why I was on the outside. To look for Boon.”

“Did you find him?”

“No. The farms are no longer where they used to be. I came back, for fear of getting lost. That’s when I stumbled on the tang attack, and you.”

I nodded. “What else did you find in the city?”

“I roamed about, trying to get my bearings. It was nearly impossible. That’s when I realized that I had been sent to a time that was further in the future than when I had lived here. It was the only explanation as to why the city could have changed so.”

“You said something is about to happen to the gars. That must be why we are here now.”

“I believe it is.”

“So? What is it?” I asked.

Kasha fell silent. Something was obviously bothering her.

“You discovered something, didn’t you?” I asked.

“I saw something. Something I never thought would happen, yet it has. I walked to the part of the city that the foragers used as their base, hoping to find someone I might know. It is still there. Mostly as I remembered it. The foragers still function. They still leave the city to gather food. But…”

She couldn’t continue. Whatever she’d seen had really disturbed her. I didn’t push her, because I knew she’d eventually open up. Though she was a klee, I could read her expressions as clearly as if she were human. Her dark fur glistened, as if she were sweating. Kasha was definitely off balance.

“There was a group of foragers inside the barracks. They were eating and talking, and laughing about how their jobs would soon be so much easier. They said there would be no more lurking through the jungle. No more worrying about tangs. No more guarding those who harvested fruits and vegetables at the farms. It was a celebration of sorts. It was all about how their lives would soon change because they would no longer have to forage in the jungle.”

“So then, what are they going to do for food?” I asked.

“They didn’t say,” Kasha said. “They didn’t have to. I saw.” She swallowed. Hard. The memory was a tough one. “One of the foragers was chewing on a bone. He finished and threw it onto a pile that had been building near the door.”

I felt as if I knew where this was headed, but I still had to hear.

“What was he eating, Kasha?”

“It was a leg bone. A gar leg bone. All of the bones were gar bones. It’s happened, Pendragon. Gars have become food. They’re on the verge of repealing Edict Forty-six. It’s going to be legal to eat intelligent creatures! The foragers’ jobs will no longer be about finding food in the jungle. I believe they now will be in charge of gathering the gars for… for…” Kasha had to work hard to hold back her emotions. “It’s a step away from cannibalism.”

I looked toward the high walls of Leeandra, with its flapping Ravinian flags. Knowing the truth, the fantastic village in the trees took on a whole new feeling for me. It was no longer a wondrous village of talking cats. It was a slaughterhouse.

“Kinda makes me not want to go inside,” I said.

“I do not believe the issue has been decided yet,” Kasha said. “They spoke as if it were something that was about to happen, but had not yet occurred.”

“But they were eating gars!” I shot back.

“Foragers always lived above the law,” Kasha explained. “They feel the rules of the common klee do not apply to them. There is arrogance among the foragers. I know. I was one of them. One of the worst.”

“But you never ate gars.”

“No. It was something my father instilled in me. I suppose at one time it would have been acceptable, but since we discovered that the gars were intelligent, it could no longer be justified. How is it possible that after such great strides were made, the klee took such a giant step backward?”

I pointed up to the flapping Ravinian flags.

“Ravinia” was my answer. “Fueled by Saint Dane’s vision. Power to the powerful at the expense of the weak. That’s pretty much what he’s spread throughout Halla. It doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“I’m devastated,” Kasha said, her head down.

“Don’t be,” I said quickly. “We’re not done yet. We’re here to protect the exiles, and given all that you told me, I think I know what the Ravinian klees have in mind for them.”

The thought was sickening.

“That’s why we need to get inside Leeandra,” Kasha offered. “We need to learn when the edict will be repealed. That will tell us how much time we have before the exiles are in danger.”

I looked at the tall wall again. I didn’t want to go in there. I really didn’t want to go in there. But Kasha was right. We needed to know when Edict Forty-six would fall. Once that happened, it would be open season on all gars.

And exiles.

“There’s no way I can get through those gates the way I did last time,” I said. “Not if gars are banned from Leeandra.”

Kasha gave me an uneasy look. “Some gars are allowed inside.”

“Which ones?” “Dead ones.”

I stared at the cat for a good long time, trying to figure out what the heck she meant by that. I soon found out. A few minutes later I found myself lying on the bottom of a four-wheeled forager wheelbarrow. Kasha was pushing. A dirty tarp was over me. The plan was simple. As far as anybody would know, she was wheeling in a dead gar to be eaten by her fellow foragers. Yeah, how sick is that? I lay there, trying my best to act dead. I had taken off my Ravinian shirt and dirtied up my pants, so that it wouldn’t be obvious I was wearing the uniform of a Ravinian guard. I didn’t think that would go over too well if I were discovered by a klee Ravinian guard. They might think that I had stolen it from one of their guards and, well, I figured their revenge might be messy. I kept the boots, though. Kasha pointed out that klee boots were very different from what gars wore, so nobody would suspect that I had gotten them from a Ravinian guard. So that’s how I was wheeled toward Leeandra-naked from the waist up and covered in mud to make me look like lunch.

I looked out through a fold in the tarp that gave me a narrow view ahead. Kasha quickly pushed me along the base of the wall until we came upon one of the huge gates that led into the village of Leeandra. Guarding the entrance were two large, scary-looking klees wearing red Ravinian guard uniforms. They each had spears strapped to their backs. As scary as it was entering Leeandra the last time I had been there, it didn’t compare to this. I was food. Simple as that. I hoped that the klees inside were civilized enough that they wouldn’t all pounce on me and start chowing. To say it was an uneasy feeling is a pretty big understatement.

“What is in there?” one guard asked Kasha gruffly.

“None of your concern,” Kasha answered just as sharply. She tried to move forward, but the guard stopped her.

“Stop,” he commanded. “It is our duty to inspect all items entering the city.”

“I’m a forager,” Kasha said impatiently. “I’m not governed by the same pedestrian laws as the other klees.”

From under the tarp I got a good view of the guard. He was a red-furred cat, with sharp, green eyes. Bad kitty. He stared at Kasha, as if deciding whether or not to make an issue out of it.

“You foragers are all alike,” he snarled. “You think you are above the law. Those days are past. Everyone is beholden to Ravinia. And Ravinian law says that we are empowered to inspect anything and everything that passes through these gates. If you would like to take this up with the circle, I would be more than happy to detain you until the next meeting.”

It was a standoff. Who was going to blink? An instant later I felt the tarp being pulled off me. I went into dead mode, whatever that is. I definitely held my breath. I had the fleeting thought that it was a good move to have dumped my Ravinian uniform. There was a long moment of silence. It killed me not to be able to open my eyes to see what the guards were doing.

“For my fellow foragers,” Kasha said. “Or would you rather we chose not to bring food back for the likes of you anymore?”

For a second I feared that the guy would grab my arm and take a bite. I had all I could do to keep still.

I heard the klee growl, as if trying to maintain some kind of dignity. “You are all alike,” he snarled. “Move on!”

Kasha threw the tarp back over my head, and we started moving again. We were in. Kasha and the corpse.

“Stay still,” she half whispered. “I’ll say when you can move.”

I was only too happy to play dead. The idea that we were surrounded by vicious cats, who could pounce on me and start chewing any second, was terrifying. I wondered if they were like dogs. Could they smell fear? If so, I must have smelled pretty rank. As much as I wanted to see the transformed Leeandra, I didn’t take the chance to try and peek out through the folds in the tarp.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“Shhh,” Kasha scolded.

I shushed. A talking corpse would arouse suspicion. And after all, cats had pretty good hearing. I tried to relax and be dead. Kasha wheeled me along for several minutes. After a few bumps we stopped, and T sensed that we were rising up, which meant we were in one of the elevators that brought klees from the ground into the village buildings that were built at all different levels in the giant trees. The elevator bumped to a stop and Kasha wheeled me off. We moved along for a few minutes more, the wheels of the cart chattering over what I figured were the wooden boards of the bridges that soared between trees. With one final bump, we stopped.

“It’s safe here,” Kasha said. “We can’t be seen.”

I cautiously pushed the tarp aside. Since I was on my back, I found myself staring up into the thick canopy of foliage. I saw that we were on a large platform built around a tree. This was exactly like the Leeandra I knew. When I stood up, I got a view of a Leeandra I didn’t.

I walked to the railing to look out over a changed city. It was still built within impossibly massive trees, but the structures themselves were totally different. Gone were the huts that were erected on sturdy limbs. Now Leeandra was a city of buildings. They were wooden buildings, but modern looking. The wood planks were obviously milled. The designs were varied. Some were round. Others soared high into the sky, rivaling the trees they were built next to. The roped walkways that had connected the trees and buildings were replaced by solid-looking bridges.

When I was there before, very few buildings were on the ground. That was a precaution against tang attacks. Now buildings were everywhere. Hundreds were still in the trees, but many rose from the jungle floor as well. Powered vehicles passed below us on wide streets. There were wooden sidewalks, traffic lights, and even giant billboards that didn’t advertise products, but instead displayed interesting works of art.

As different as it was from the Leeandra I remembered, it made total sense. This was the Eelong version of the Conclave of Ravinia on Third Earth. This was Utopia for the privileged.

Kasha said, “It is like looking into the future of my own time.”

“It is the future of your own time/’ I corrected.

“With no gars whatsoever,” she added.

With that in mind, I looked around to try and spot one. Of course klees were everywhere. Leeandra had become a busy city. I saw them walking along the streets-some on two feet, some on all four. Elevators rose on the outside of buildings, loaded with klees. Klees were even driving the powered vehicles. Not a single gar was in sight. Though they had been treated as slaves and pets, my memory of Leeandra was that there were almost as many gars as klees. They may have been on leashes, or forced into performing the worst menial labor, but they were very much a part of Leeandra. Not anymore.

I also saw several klees, dressed in the red uniform of the Ravinian guards, stationed on street corners. Ravinia was a part of life in Leeandra now. I wondered if they were living klees, or dado klees that had been built on Third Earth.

“Do not move!” came a harsh voice from behind us.

Uh-oh. We weren’t alone after all. I tensed up, ready for a fight. I looked to Kasha. She looked surprisingly relaxed. No, it was stranger than that. Kasha was smiling.

“Who are you?” the voice asked. “What are you doing in my home with that gar?”

I figured I should let Kasha handle this. After all, who would listen to a talking dinner?

“Is that any way to welcome back a tired Traveler?”

Huh? Kasha knew this guy?

“Kasha?” the voice gasped in disbelief.

Kasha turned and faced the klee.

“Hello, Boon,” she said. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you.”

The light brown klee stood there for a moment, stunned.

He then ran to Kasha and threw his paws/arms/hands/ whatever around her. The two hugged like long-lost friends, which was exactly what they were.

“I–I don’t understand,” Boon mumbled. He was in tears. “I saw you die. In that tunnel.”

Kasha glanced to me. I wondered how deep an explanation she was going to offer her friend.

“Obviously, I didn’t. I was able to escape and was nursed back to health.”

Smart move.

“Do you remember Pendragon?”

Boon looked at me and his eyes grew even wider.

“Pendragon!” he screamed, and leaped at me.

It was kind of scary. After all, klees ate us tasty gars now. But Boon wrapped his furry arms around me and gave me just as big a hug as he’d given to Kasha.

“You shouldn’t be here, Pendragon!” he exclaimed. “It’s too dangerous!”

“I know, Boon, it’s okay.”

Boon was just as full of energy and enthusiasm as I’d remembered. He pulled back from me and held me at arm’s length to size me up.

“You’ve grown,” he declared. “You are stronger.”

I shrugged. He was right.

“What about Spader and Gunny?” he asked. “I haven’t heard from them since… since…”

“Since the klees kicked out the gars?” I asked.

Boon nodded. “Yes. Are they all right? Are they still in Black Water?”

“No,” I said.

He relaxed. “That’s a good thing.” Alarms went off in my head.

“Why’s that? Has something happened to Black Water?”

“No,” he answered. “Not yet.”

Kasha and I exchanged looks.

“Tell us what’s happening,” she said to Boon.

Boon took a quick look around, as if to make sure nobody was watching.

“Come,” he said. “Into my home. It would not be good to be seen by a Ravinian guard.”

Ravinian guard. Unbelievable. It didn’t matter what territory or what race or even what species was on a world, the Ravinians’ control of Halla was complete.

As it turned out, Kasha had brought us to the platform that led into the tree where Boon lived. It was a small, old-school Leeandra apartment structure built into the hollow tree. There were old, crumbling chairs and threadbare rugs on the floor. Boon didn’t live in luxury. We made ourselves comfortable, and Boon gave us some sweet drink that re-energized me. He also gave me one of his old cloth shirts, so I didn’t have to walk around half naked.

“So much has happened since you two left,” Boon told us. “I don’t know where to begin.”

I wanted to learn it all, but I was much more concerned about the future. About Edict Forty-six and what it would mean to the gars and the exiles in Black Water.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Things were going really well between the klees and the gars. Once the klees understood that the gars were intelligent, they began to accept them, and a new society began to emerge. But then came Ravinia.”

Boon sat down on the floor next to me.

“How could you know?” he asked.

“The same kind of thing has been happening all over Halla. The Ravinians promise a better way of life, but in order to achieve it, they only reward those who provide something they consider valuable to society. Those who don’t make the cut are cast aside or reduced to slavery. I’m guessing that Ravinia was the beginning of the end for the gars here in Leeandra.”

“That was exactly it!” Boon exclaimed. “The Circle of Klee had become just ‘the Circle,’ to allow the gars to be part of it. Now it is called ‘the Circle of Ravinia.’”

“Of course it is,” I said with a sarcastic huff.

“The rights of the gars were reduced instantly. They barely had time to get used to being equals when the Ravinians began tossing them out into the jungle.”

“Why weren’t they kept around to perform the menial jobs?” Kasha asked. “Like before?”

“Because there were plenty of klees to do that,” Boon answered. “Ravinia separated those klees they considered special from those who did not contribute. The chosen were given incredible houses and positions of power, while everyone else was forced into building the new city.”

“And I’m guessing the gars were considered beneath even them, so they were cast out. Right?”

Boon nodded.

“What happened to you, Boon?” Kasha asked.

Boon dropped his head. He looked ashamed. “I was just a lowly forager, and not a very good one at that. I thought the part I played in bringing the gars from Black Water would allow me to be part of the elite. I was wrong. Actually, I think it hurt me. They saw me as a gar sympathizer. I’m no longer a forager. My job is to clean the sewage lines that carry waste from the new buildings. I am easily replaceable, as they tell me each day. Look at this apartment. I’m lucky to still have it. Soon this will be taken over by the Circle of Ravinia and knocked down, and another mansion will be erected. I’ll have to live in the outskirts of the city, at a place they call the Horizon Compound. I hear that klees live four to a room there, with little food and even less comfort.” Boon sighed. “The future for Eelong seemed so bright.”

“Until Ravinia,” I said.

“Yes, until Ravinia.”

Kasha added, “And now Edict Forty-six is about to be repealed. It sickens me.”

Boon shook his head. “Oh, no. Edict Forty-six was rescinded long ago. Gars are regularly killed and eaten for food.”

Kasha shot me a surprised look. Then to Boon she said, “But I overheard some foragers say that something important was about to happen that would make the hunt for food so much easier. I assumed they meant the repeal of Edict Forty-six.”

Boon’s expression turned even darker. “Something is about to happen to make the hunt for food easier,” he explained. “But it isn’t the repeal of Edict Forty-six.”

“Then what is it?” I asked.

“It’s why I asked about Gunny and Spader,” Boon answered. “The klee army has been massing and training for a long time now. They play their maneuvers out on the old wippen fields. I have never seen so many soldiers assemble in one place.”

“What are they training for?” I asked nervously.

“I am not supposed to know, but as a worker, I turn up in many places that most would never expect. I have heard the plans.”

“What, Boon?” I demanded.

“The army is going to march on Black Water,” he stated flatly. “Whatever gars are not killed in the strike will be captured and kept alive-” “For food,” I said, numb.

Boon nodded. “The army is immense. The gars won’t stand a chance.”

“Do you think they know of the exiles?” Kasha asked.

“What exiles?” was Boon’s answer.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “The klees won’t know the difference between a gar or a human. Or care.”

“What’s a human?” Boon asked, confused.

“Show me, Boon,” I demanded. “I need to see this army.”

“Can you do that?” Kasha asked Boon.

Boon thought a moment, then nodded. “Yes. I know a trail through the trees, along a route that is off-limits to most, but I have the combinations to the locks, since I clean everywhere. I can show you the entire klee army.”

“Now,” I said. “I want to see them now.”

“Why?” Boon asked. “They train the same way in the same location every day.”

“I want to know what we’re up against” was my simple answer.

“Up against!” Boon said, aghast. “You cannot stop this army!”

“Let me be the judge of that,” I said boldly.

Kasha stood up. “I’m sorry if this is difficult for you, Boon, but it’s important.”

Boon pounced to his feet. “You don’t have to convince me. I’m happy to be back in action!”

I took the tarp from the forager wheelbarrow and draped it over my head in case we were spotted by a Ravinian guard. Or any other hungry klee, for that matter. Since Edict Forty-six had already been repealed, there were no restrictions on

Bobby-chow. Boon led us on a journey along the catwalk pathways that snaked across the treetops of Leeandra.

“Most klees don’t come up here,” Boon explained. “Only the workers. We’re able to move equipment and supplies without having to bother the klees below.”

“Typical Ravinians,” I scoffed. “They want everybody to do their dirty work, but don’t want to see how it’s done.”

“That’s pretty much it,” Boon agreed.

Every so often we’d hit a doorway that had a complex lock made from twisted bamboo. They were primitive combination locks, and Boon knew all the combinations.

“I’d get lost up here,” Kasha said.

“I have. More than once.” Boon chuckled. “How do you think I learned my way around?”

We traveled for at least twenty minutes, moving from bridge to bridge, level to level, until we drew near the large, grassy wippen fields.

“Just past this last tree,” Boon explained. “That’s where you’ll see them. Be careful; once we’re over their heads, we can be seen.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to be eaten,” I said.

“That would be the least of your problems,” Boon said somberly. “This army is training to invade the gar stronghold. If they saw a gar spying on them from above, I don’t think there’d be enough of you left to eat.”

Oh. Thanks for that.

We cautiously approached a thick tree. The pathway continued through the center of it. All three of us entered into the dark of the tunnel. Boon stopped us before we could exit out the other side.

“Now be careful, and quiet. No sudden moves. When you pass through that opening, look down. We’re directly above the wippen fields. The armies are below. Hopefully they’ll be in the middle of one of their mock battles and won’t notice us. You still want to risk going out there?”

“I have to, Boon. We have to know what the gars are up against, because we’re going to have to try and stop them.”

“Oh,” Boon said. “Then I suppose you really are a spy.”

“Absolutely.”

“Good. I will go first and signal for you to come if it is safe.”

Boon padded quietly (which was easy for him since he was a cat) out and onto the bridge that continued beyond the wide tree. Cautiously he peered down over the edge. Kasha and I watched nervously, waiting for his signal.

It didn’t come.

“What is he waiting for?” Kasha whispered nervously.

Boon stood on the bridge, looking down. His body language changed. He no longer kept low to make himself less visible. He stood up straight on his back two feet.

“What is it?” Kasha called to him.

Boon looked back to us. There was no expression on his face. He slowly lifted his paw and motioned for us to join him. Kasha and I crept forward quickly. We stayed low and quietly stepped out onto the bridge. I held my breath. We were about to see the enemy. The army below was gathered, organized, and trained to march on Black Water. It was a gruesome hunt for food that could end up wiping out the last hope for the salvation of Halla. Did Saint Dane know that? Was this his doing? If the invasion succeeded, he wouldn’t need the dado army on Third Earth. He wouldn’t need to use any of his dark power to create another flume. Halla would be his.

I prepared myself for the worst. Would the army be mechanized? How would they be armed? Would this be a primitive army of cats? Or had Ravinia somehow developed more deadly weapons? Maybe most important, would we find that the army was filled with dados? As we crept out onto that bridge and looked below, I expected all of those questions to be answered.

They weren’t. What I saw below was far worse than anything I could have imagined.

“I don’t understand,” Boon said, sounding as dumb as I felt.

What we saw below was… nothing. The wippen fields were empty. The armies were gone.

“I do,” I gasped. “They’re on their way. They’ve already left for Black Water.”