D. MacHale - Raven Rise

“Ask her everything,” I said to Loque. “Everybody knows the truth about Ibara now. It’s what the Jakills wanted all along.”

Loque asked, “What about Siry?”

I decided to go with the story that was commonly accepted. “He’s missing,” I answered somberly. “Nobody knows for sure what happened to him. I’m sorry.”

“He was my best friend,” Loque said sadly.

“He’s a hero and so are you. Don’t forget him.”

I then told Loque that I was going to Rubic City to destroy the mine. He got all worked up and said it was suicide. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I didn’t back down. I asked him to tell me how I could get into it. At first he wouldn’t tell me. He said he wanted to show me. He wanted to go with me! I convinced him that as much as I’d want him to come, between his injuries and his eyes, he’d make the trip that much harder. He started to argue, but gave up quickly. He knew I was right.

“It’s hard for me to say exactly where it was,” he finally answered. “They brought me back and forth in the dark, and my vision wasn’t very good to begin with. It seemed close to the big black triangle building where the Flighters lived. Maybe a short walk. We entered something that looked like a red arch, then immediately went down a ladder. At the bottom of the ladder was the mine tunnel.”

Loque sat up and added, “You can’t hide. They’ll know you don’t belong.”

That gave me an idea. I grabbed the clothes Loque had worn when he was in Rubic City. They were perfectly disgusting. The idea was to make myself look like a Flighter. I could always make myself dirty; the trick would be to get that rancid Flighter smell going on. I figured a day out on the ocean under the sun would take care of that.

I was about to head out when Loque grabbed my arm and said two simple, sincere words. “Come back.”

“That’s the idea,” I said with more confidence than I actually had.

I started for the door when he asked, “Is everything all right with Telleo?”

How was I going to answer that? The truth was, Telleo was dead. The real Telleo. I didn’t think Nevva would be coming back.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I guess I kind of weaseled out. I left Loque with more questions than answers, but I believed the full answers would have been harder to take than the mystery of not knowing the truth. It made me realize something else I didn’t want to deal with. Genj. What would I tell him about his daughter? His real daughter. He had to know the truth, but I couldn’t think of anything to tell him that he’d understand. What could I say? He wouldn’t believe me, especially since I started acting all crazy the night before. He might even try to come up with his own logical explanation for why his daughter disappeared and prevent me from leaving.

I couldn’t let that happen, so I made a tough decision. I decided to not tell Genj that his daughter was dead. I felt horrible about it. All he’d know was that his daughter had disappeared. He’d have no idea why. My silence would condemn him to the agony of uncertainty and wonder. I promised myself that when I returned I’d tell him everything, even if it meant revealing the existence of the Travelers and Saint Dane. At least I’d be able to give him closure on Remudi, too. Yes, that would be the right thing to do. But not just then. Daybreak was too close.

I gathered a few supplies for the trip. My plan was to make the voyage back on the skimmer that Loque brought from Rubic City. It wasn’t a very big craft, so I couldn’t exactly load up on gear. I took four canteens of fresh water and some dried fruit, along with a bow and a quiver full of arrows. I didn’t know what I’d do with the weapon, but at least it gave me a small feeling of security, as false as it might have been. The final task was to get rid of my lightweight green shorts and shirt and put on Loque’s dirty, torn rags.

After putting the shirt over my head, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about faking the bad smell thing. The clothes were plenty foul enough.

I walked through the quiet, sandy streets of Rayne, headed for the shore. I didn’t hurry. It wasn’t that I was having second thoughts; it was more because I wanted to take a good look at what I helped create. I passed newly built huts and many more that were in various stages of construction. The roads were clear. Water lines were being buried. Some homes already had flowers growing around them. It was a beautiful thing. I was proud of this village and its people. I was one of them. I wanted to do right by them. That last walk to the shore gave me the final gut check I needed. One way or another I had to protect this village from Saint Dane and the Flighters.

The skimmer was still onshore where I had beached it. I loaded up my small provisions under the deck and pulled it out onto the water. I had the brief fear that it wouldn’t have power. That went away as soon as I started toggling switches and the engines hummed. Skimmers ran on water power. There was plenty of that around.

The sky was already turning from black to blue, extinguishing the stars. A thin line of light appeared on the horizon that said the sun wouldn’t be far behind. I needed the sun to get my bearings. Between that and the small compass, they would be my only guides to Rubic City. It was a good thing it wasn’t a cloudy day.

I lowered the pontoons into the water. As soon as they submerged, I could feel the power of the skimmer growing. I hesitated. This was really happening. I was going back to Rubic City. I was going to meet Saint Dane. It was something I thought would never happen again, but there I was, poised to go. I took a look back at Rayne and Tribunal Mountain. It was a tropical paradise. I vowed to keep it that way. I looked ahead and throttled the engine. With a quick lurch I was off.

The warm, tropical waters of Veelox were glassy calm, allowing me to fly over the surface. I had made this trip before on a skimmer, in the opposite direction. I knew I was in for a long day, so I settled in and tried not to get bored. A few times I actually broke out in song. Why not? Nobody could hear me. I sang a little Green Day, and in honor of my dad, some Beatles. I’m not a good singer. It didn’t matter, unless you were a fish.

I can’t tell you how many hours the trip took, because I didn’t have a watch. It was many. It took most of the day. That’s the best I can say. I kept my eye on the compass and on the movement of the sun, to make sure I was headed in the right direction. When I wasn’t rechecking my heading, I stared at the horizon, hoping to see the beginnings of the skyline of Rubic City. It was torture. It didn’t help that I was alone. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, the razor-sharp edge of ocean slowly grew jagged. I knew what that meant. I was seeing the tops of skyscrapers. My first reaction was relief.

My second reaction was fear. I was really going to do this. Was I ready? The answer was no. I had no idea how to prepare myself. To say I was going to wing it would be an understatement. Ready or not, it would soon be showtime. It took another hour or so before I was close enough to make out details of the decaying city. The sun had already traveled across the sky and was heading down. The late afternoon light warmed the cityscape. Things looked pretty much the same as when I’d been there months before. At one time this had been a busy, thriving city. Now it was a hollow, rotting place of the dead. Beneath the water, I could make out the shadowy hulks of ships that had been sunk and left to rust over many generations. You’ve heard of ghost towns? This was a full-on ghost city. Actually, the only thing I didn’t have to be afraid of was ghosts. At least I didn’t think so.