The Soldiers of Halla

  “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 fiel
ds.

  “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.”

  JOURNAL #37

  29

  How long?” I asked.

  “How long what?” Boon replied.

  “Since you saw them the last time!” I shouted. My heart was pounding. I had the sick feeling that we were too late.

  “Yesterday. Maybe the day before. I don’t remember.”

  “It’s a long day’s ride to the mountains that surround Black Water,” Kasha reasoned. “I believe an army the size that Boon described would take at least twice as long to get there.”

  “So if they left two days ago, we’re too late,” I snarled.

  “Let’s hope they left yesterday” was Kasha’s reasoned answer.

  “We’ve got to get there,” I said. “Before they do.”

  “There’s only one way to do that,” Kasha offered.

  I knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t about going back to Solara and hoping that the spirit would send us back to Black Water.

  “You think you can still fly?” I asked.

  “No!” Boon shouted in protest. “You want to steal a gig?”

  I shrugged. “We’ve done it before.”

  “Things have changed, Pendragon,” Boon argued. “The Ravinian security is much tighter. Leeandra is on a war footing.”

  “Good,” I said. “Then they won’t be surprised when we bring the war to them.”

  “You do not have to help us, Boon,” Kasha said sincerely. “You have already done far more than I should ever have asked for.”

  Boon looked back and forth between the two of us. “Wait,” he said. “Do you think for one second that I would not come with you? I am your acolyte, Kasha. And in case you did not understand, I have no love for the Ravinians. Trust me, I want to do everything I can to stop them. If that means trying to steal a gig and landing in the middle of Black Water, so be it. I just want you to know the risks.”

  Kasha smiled. “Thank you, Boon. We understand the risks.”

  “Then when do we leave?” he asked.

  “How about yesterday?” was my obnoxious answer.

  The three of us made our way quickly across the sky bridges, headed for the tree that housed the hangar where the gigs were stored. Kasha and I had flown one of the small, two-seater helicopters to Black Water once before, and ended up in a dogfight over the jungle with other, more-experienced gig pilots. We won. I hoped that she was just as sharp with her flying skills as she’d been back then. No, what I really hoped for was that she wouldn’t have to use those skills again. An uneventful flight would be just fine. But first we had to get a gig.

  The trip back was easy. I kept the tarp over my head and couldn’t see much. Kasha and Boon more or less led me along. I’m sure we got plenty of strange glances, but nobody stopped us. The gig hangar was in the same spot as I remembered, but as with the rest of Leeandra, it had changed. My memory of the place was that it was a massive space hollowed out from one of the monster trees, high in the air. One whole side of the tree was open, under which a launch platform was built out over the city. Launching a gig meant wheeling it out from inside the tree and onto the platform, and taking off from there. All of that was the same…but there was more. The first change I noticed was that when we reached the doorway that led into the back of the hangar, there were no guards.

  “What happened to the increased security?” I asked.

  Boon shrugged. “I don’t know, Pendragon. I clean sewers. They don’t discuss those details with me.”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry.”

  “Perhaps they don’t need security anymore,” Kasha said soberly. “The gigs may all be gone to support the army.”

  “Let’s find out,” I said, and dropped the tarp for the last time. I hoped.

  I boldly went for the wooden door that led into the hangar. Opening it cautiously, I was met with darkness.

  “I don’t get it,” I said softly, for fear there were Ravinians inside. “Are we in the right place?”

  “Yes,” Boon answered. “There is no other hangar.”

  “Then why is it dark? The opening where they launch the gigs is huge.”

  Kasha didn’t wait for the answer that Boon didn’t have. She pushed past me and into the hangar.

  It was definitely the same hangar, but with one big difference. The opening through which the gigs were launched now had massive doors that looked to be made from bamboo. They were closed. I waited for my eyes to adjust, which was something Kasha and Boon didn’t have to worry about. After all, they were cats.

  “The gigs are here,” Kasha whispered.

  My eyes hadn’t adjusted enough to make out any detail, but I could sense that the room was full. That was a relief. At least the klees weren’t planning another aerial attack on Black Water. The gigs were there for the taking. But it wouldn’t be easy. Not only were the giant doors shut, the helicopters were powered by crystals fueled by light from the sunbelt. Good news was that it was daytime, without a c
loud in the sky. Bad news was that it wouldn’t matter how much light there was outside if we couldn’t open those doors to get at it.

  “Look,” Kasha said, pointing high above.

  I saw a room two stories up, built out from the hangar wall. It looked like a control room with an open balcony surrounding it. My guess was that it was a flight tower where they coordinated the gig launches. A light was on inside the room. I clearly saw a klee sitting inside.

  Kasha continued, “I would guess the hangar doors are controlled from up there.”

  My eyes had adjusted enough to see that there was a set of open stairs built against the wall that led up to the control room. The way to go seemed obvious.

  “Find a gig,” I said to Kasha. “Boon and I will go up there and open the doors. As soon as the light comes in, power up.”

  “You cannot fight a klee,” Kasha warned.

  I grabbed Kasha’s forager weapon that she always had strapped to her back. It was a long wooden stick much like the ones Loor and the Batu warriors used.

  “I can fight one klee,” I said.

  “And I’ll be with him,” Boon added.

  “Even so, we can’t fight a bunch of klees,” I cautioned. “Once things start getting nasty, we’ve got to get out of here fast.”

  Kasha nodded. There wasn’t any more to be discussed. I tapped Boon on the back and motioned for him to head for the stairs. We wound our way through the gigs, trying to hide from the eyes of the klee up above in the control room. If there was one thing we needed, it was surprise. If that klee thought he was being attacked, I’d bet anything that there was an alarm he could sound and bring others running. We had to be quiet and fast and out of there before he knew what hit him, which hopefully would be the end of Kasha’s stick.

  At the bottom of the stairs I stopped Boon to strategize.

  “Get him to come outside onto the balcony,” I instructed.

  “Are you sure?” Boon asked, uncertain. “I know you’re brave, Pendragon, but you’re not a warrior.”

  I almost laughed. I probably would have if I hadn’t been afraid of alerting the klee.

  “Boon,” I whispered. “A lot has changed since we were together. Just get him outside.”