D. MacHale - Raven Rise

Alder also knew that the triptyte came from mines on land that was controlled by the Lowsee.

“Why would they withhold the triptyte from us?” Alder asked.

“Because we are no longer mining glaze,” was his answer. “The triptyte was paid for by glaze. Once the Milago stopped mining, we could no longer trade with the Lowsee and-”

“And now we are going to war to take what we need,” Alder said gravely, finishing Graviot’s thought.

“It is a wonderful opportunity!” Graviot said enthusiastically.

“How can war be wonderful?” Alder asked, incredulous.

“Once we defeat the Lowsee, we will not stop there. Glaze has been discovered in the lands beyond the Lowsee. Once we control those lands, the glaze will be ours.”

Alder shot a harsh glance at Graviot. “You are saying that we plan on mining glaze again? How can that be? It is deadly to mine that mineral. Have you forgotten?”

“Of course not,” Graviot scoffed. “But we will not be mining it. That will be the task of the Lowsee…once they have been conquered.”

“And whose plan was this?”

“King Rellin’s of course!” Graviot answered, as if it were a ridiculous question to ask.

Alder winced. It was coming full circle. Rellin once began a revolution to fight the barbaric practice of forcing his people to dig and die in the toxic glaze mines. Now that he had achieved power, he was willing to go to war to force another group of unfortunates to do the exact same thing.

Alder looked at Graviot and said sadly, “So dying for glaze is acceptable, as long as it is somebody else who is dying?”

Graviot shrugged. “The strong survive, Alder.”

Alder wanted to scream. All they had been fighting for on Denduron, all they had achieved was about to be wiped out.

“Why do you look pained?” Graviot asked. “You should be proud! None of this would have been possible if not for you and Pendragon.”

Alder gave Graviot a steely glare.

“Do not be modest,” Graviot chided. “You and Pendragon brought that wondrous machine to unearth the tak. If not for the tak, none of this would be happening. Besides, it may save your life.”

“Save my life?” Alder asked, stunned.

“We are about to go to war,” Graviot announced. “You have been branded a deserter. I fear you will be tried for treason, old friend. It is very possible that you will be executed. Or perhaps sent to the new glaze mines. You should hope that Rellin has mercy, because without you, we never would have recovered the tak.”

Alder struck without thinking. He uncorked a punch that Graviot never saw coming. The unsuspecting knight probably didn’t even know he had been hit. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. Alder felt a twinge of regret. Not that he had decked Graviot, but that the attack had come from an outburst of emotion. It wasn’t professional. Alder was a professional. He wouldn’t let emotions rule his actions again. There was too much at stake. He had work to do.

He dragged the unconscious knight back into the trees, away from curious eyes. There he stripped the knight of his new, modern armor. He took off his own armor and lashed on Graviot’s. It was good that they were the same size. Now Alder could walk among the Bedoowan without attracting unwanted stares. Remaining hidden was suddenly more important than he had realized. He had been gone a long time… too long. Enough time to be charged with desertion and treason. He couldn’t be arrested. That would be disaster, because he had a mission and he could not fail.

The Traveler knight stopped for a moment and took a breath. He was tired. He had just fought a war against an army of dados. There was nothing he wanted more than to sit down, sleep, and heal. Alder was strong. He knew he could keep going physically. It was his mental state he was more concerned with. Would he be able to bring himself to do what needed to be done to save his territory? The tak mine had to be destroyed. If he was successful, the Milago village might be destroyed along with it. Could he bring himself to do that?

He didn’t have a choice. The future of Denduron was at stake. The future of Halla was at stake. He had to go into battle once again. He picked up the long wooden stave that was the weapon of choice for Bedoowan knights, spun it once, and held it close to his side. He was on familiar turf. He left the trees and headed for the village, prepared to destroy all that was left of his former life.

He wished Pendragon were with him.

(CONTINUED)

The first part of Alder’s plan was simple. He had to make his way into the new tak mine. He had no doubt there would be guards. Guards didn’t worry him. He had the element of surprise on his side. They wouldn’t expect an attack to come from a Bedoowan knight.

The second part of his plan wasn’t as simple. He had to destroy the mine. Igniting the tak wouldn’t be the problem. Being somewhere else when it erupted would. He didn’t have much time. That fact was made all too clear when he moved past the rows of knights who were listening to King Rellin’s speech. Now that he was closer, he heard some of what Rellin was saying. Rellin was pontificating, using words like “glorious victory,”

“spreading the empire,” and “triumph of the superior tribe.”

Empire? When did the little world of the Milago and the Bedoowan become an empire? It chilled Alder to hear how the power of tak had completely corrupted Rellin. He was once a good man. He had fought for his people and against injustice. Now he was about to fight for power and glory.

Alder shuddered when he realized that Saint Dane’s prophecy was about to come true: The first domino of Halla to fall would be Denduron, just as he had predicted several years before. It may not have played out exactly as Saint Dane wanted, but what did that matter? Or maybe this was exactly what Saint Dane wanted. Maybe this was how he’d planned for his grand scheme to unfold all along, and the Travelers were only going along for the ride. There was no way to know. There was only the mission. Alder had to stop the war. To do that, he needed to destroy the tak.

As he hurried past the assembled knights, he could feel tension radiating from the masses. They had their game faces on. They were ready for battle. He knew the feeling. It was bloodlust. This wasn’t an exercise. They were about to march on the Lowsee. From what Alder remembered, he guessed it would take the rest of the day and into the night to move the army of knights up and over the mountain and into attack position. Just moving the cannons would take most of the night. His guess was that they would take up positions under cover of night and attack at first light. Alder knew he didn’t have much time. If he was going to stop this war, he would have to destroy the tak before the army left. He not only had to seal the mines, he had to find a way to destroy whatever they had already dug out of the ground.

Alder’s journey brought him through the Milago village, past farmland and toward the field where the Bedoowan knights were training with tak. He wanted to see how they were using the explosive. What he saw didn’t calm his fears.

He peered over a tall berm of dirt built up to contain flying shrapnel. It was definitely needed, because there was a lot of shrapnel flying around. Alder saw several cannons to his right. Each were manned by three Bedoowan knights. They seemed to be practicing. One knight packed a small amount of the red-clay tak and gently lowered it into the muzzle of the six-foot-long black cannon barrel. The second knight loaded a round cannonball on top of that. The third knight aimed the cannon. Their target was a wall of hay bales set up nearly fifty yards in front of them. At least, it used to be a wall of hay bales. It was now a mass of burning debris, surrounded by huge crater holes from the cannonballs. The tak was very effective.