D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

The last step before leaving the pyramid was a grisly one. Remember I wrote about the sticks we kicked aside in the long corridor on the way in? Now that the lights were on, we saw what they were. Bones. Human bones. Lots of them. I knew they were human because there were a load of skulls, too. Siry froze. He’d never seen anything like that before. Come to think of it, neither had I. The closest I’d ever come was in the quig pen under the Bedoowan castle on Denduron. I’ve been calling Rubic City a place “of the dead.” Until that moment we’d never actually witnessed the physical remains of those who didn’t make it. I’d just as soon have gotten out of there without having had that pleasure.

“This is Saint Dane’s grand plan for remaking Halla,” I said. “Do you need to see any more?”

Siry’s eyes were glassy. He gingerly stepped through the scattered bones, trying hard not to disturb them. Moments later we were back out in the warm sunlight of Rubic City.

“I didn’t think we’d make it,” Siry said.

“We haven’t,” I cautioned.

“So how do we get back to Ibara?”

“That’s the easy part,” I said with a smile. “There’s a flume in Rubic City. C’mon.” I took off running.

This was a no-brainer. The flume could put us back on the island in minutes. I’d never traveled within a territory, but since the flumes always put us where we needed to be when we needed to be there, I was totally confident that we could step into the tunnel in Rubic City and step out on Ibara. Okay, maybe it was more like semiconfident, but we had to try. The more time the people of Rayne had to prepare for the attack, the better. All we had to worry about was getting past the quig-bees. Oh, that. One step at a time.

By my clock it had only been a few years since I’d been to Veelox, so I remembered exactly where to find the manhole that led down to the underground train tunnel and the flume. We jogged quickly along the deserted city. I wasn’t even afraid of being jumped by Flighters, because we looked like them now. Idiots. In no time we arrived at the street that held the flume. There was only one problem.

The street was gone. Well, not exactly gone, it was probably still there, only it was buried under the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper. I looked around, thinking-no, hoping- we were on the wrong street. I quickly realized it wouldn’t have mattered. The whole block was under a three-story pile of broken stuff.

“Maybe we can dig to it,” Siry suggested.

“With what? Our hands?”

We stared at the warlike ruins of what had once been a street lined with pretty brownstone buildings and trees. The flume was a no-go. We both knew what we had to do. Without another word we took off for the pier. It was Plan B time. We had to find a boat to get us back to Ibara. We quickly ran to the block where we had first entered the streets of Rubic City and got a view of the pier. Tied up alongside it was our yellow pirate ship. Though it wasn’t yellow anymore. It was a smoking, charred-black wreck that listed hard to the right, with its bow sticking up as if gasping for air. Siry and I stood at the edge of the buildings, staring at the sad remains.

“Do you think any of them are alive?” he asked.

“They could be,” I answered with absolutely no confidence.

“We didn’t find Twig, either,” he added sadly.

“We were lucky to get out ourselves. When this is over, we’ll look for them. All of them.”

Siry said, “When this is over, Rayne could end up like Rubic City.”

We exchanged grim looks. “Let’s find a boat.”

The rusty gunboats that had attacked our yellow ship were gone. I scanned the harbor, looking for any other usable craft. There was nothing. Zero. Not a ship in sight. Besides the pier with our smoldering ship, two more piers jutted into the harbor. Neither had any boats tied alongside.

“This makes no sense,” I said thoughtfully. “If Saint Dane’s going to send thousands of dados to attack Ibara, how are they going to get there?”

Siry’s eyes widened. He took off his belt with the pouch that contained Aja Killian’s ancient map. He unfolded it for both of us to see.

“We’re here on this peninsula,” he said, pointing to the map. “According to the map, the coast looks pretty rugged on either side.”

I scanned the harbor. The water was flat and calm. “Why would they keep their ships anywhere but right here where it’s close?” I wondered out loud.

Siry said, “It would take a very big ship to move those dados. Probably more than one. They could tie them right up here to the piers.”

The piers. I looked at all three. Something was off. Two looked the exact same, but the one to our far right looked slightly different. It was built higher. Where the other two piers had steel pilings beneath that could be seen when the tide was lower, this pier looked more like a solid structure, with sides that reached down under the water.

“I want to get a closer look at that pier,” I said, and started walking.

We moved quickly across a few hundred yards of debris. The closer we got, the more the pier looked like an enclosed structure.

“There could be something in there,” I declared. “Inside the pier.”

Siry was skeptical. “Like what? It’s not tall enough for a ship.”

The mystery deepened a few seconds later. Two Flighters appeared from behind a pile of debris at the beginning of the pier. I grabbed Siry and pulled him down behind a pile of twisted steel. The Flighters continued to walk casually along the width of the pier.

“What are they doing?” Siry asked.

“I’ll bet they’re guarding whatever’s inside.”

Siry took a cautious peek at the pier. “There really might be something in there.”

The only way for us to find out would be to get past the Flighters. I needed a weapon. There was nothing around but piles of rubble… and lengths of ancient steel. I grabbed a section of pipe around six feet long and a few inches thick. I tested its strength, felt its weight, then spun it around and snapped it back into fighting position. Perfect.

“Whoa,” Siry gasped. “Where did you learn that?” “Long story,” I said.

It was time to put my Loor skills to work. With the pipe clutched at my side, I crept silently forward, dodging between the mounds of wreckage for cover. The Flighters weren’t exactly a crack security team. The two were in some kind of argument. Over what, I didn’t know or care. The two started shoving each other. It wasn’t violent, just heated.

It was about to get very violent. I was about to drop in.

Their attention was so focused on each other that they didn’t see me creeping toward them. It was perfect, for about ten seconds. I snuck forward and hid behind the final pile of rubble, looking at twenty yards of open ground between me and my quarry. I couldn’t get any closer without being totally exposed. Siry crept up right behind me.

“Once the fight starts,” I whispered to Siry. “Run for the pier.”

He nodded. His eyes were wide and scared, but he was ready.

There was nothing left for me to do but attack. I leaped out from my cover and sprinted toward the Flighters. I was in the open. All they had to do was turn their heads and they’d see me. Luckily, they were focused on each other. I figured I had a good shot at jumping them before they even saw me.

I was wrong.

I was five yards away. The pipe was pulled back, ready to take these guys out, when one of them saw me. The surprise on his face was almost funny. Almost. This was very serious.

“Ahhh!” he screamed, and turned to protect himself.

I went for the guy who turned. I feinted, as if to swing the pipe one way. When he threw his arms up to protect himself, I flashed the pipe the other way… and totally whiffed. The guy ducked and rolled. He was quicker than I thought. Oops. But it was okay. He didn’t jump up to fight. He ran away. I’m serious, he turned and ran. I realized that my back was to the other Flighter, so I spun quickly, ready for his attack. It never came. He was running away too. Both of them sprinted to get the heck away from me. Not exactly dedicated guards. It was the easiest fight I’d had in, well, ever. They were running scared. I figured we had free access to the mysterious warehouse/pier.