D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

“Pendragon,” Alder said calmly. “This is not a negotiation. My place is with you, battling Saint Dane. Why would you refuse that, unless you question what it is you are doing?”

“Of course I question what I’m doing,” I shouted back. “I’m trying to figure it out as I go along. If something happens to me, to us, what will happen to the Travelers? It’s why I didn’t contact Loor. If three of us don’t make it through this battle, and with Gunny and Spader trapped on Eelong, that would only leave Patrick, Loor, Aja, and Elli from Quillan. They would need you, Alder. We can’t risk it.”

“If this battle is as important as you say,” Alder said calmly, “it would not matter how many Travelers were left. The war would be over.”

“Agreed, but I don’t want you to be part of this.”

“Why?” Alder asked. “What is the real reason? Is it because you fear I will be hurt? Or because you have doubts about what you are doing?”

“I don’t have doubts,” I said adamantly.

“Then my position is not negotiable,” Alder said with finality.

I was stuck. I tried desperately to think of another reason for him to stay home, but came up blank.

“I kind of like the idea of him coming along,” Siry added.

“Fine,” I finally blurted out. “You’re in. I’m against it, but you’re in.”

Alder said, “Or maybe you could say that you are happy I will be there to help.” “Yeah, that too.”

I realized I was sounding pretty ungrateful. Alder was putting himself on the line for me again. He was a good friend and Traveler. I shouldn’t have been so angry.

“I’m sorry. Alder,” I said, softening. “I’m glad you’re going to help us. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Alder stood and put a hand on my shoulder, saying, “From what you tell me, the best way to make sure nothing happens to any of us is to beat Saint Dane on Ibara.”

It was getting late. We needed rest. Alder found us comfortable beds in the knights’ quarters in the castle ruins. It kind of creeped me out to be back in that castle, considering I was the one who blew it up in the first place. Sleeping was tough. The task ahead was going to be difficult and dangerous. I’m not talking about the battle with Saint Dane. I’m talking about the task on Denduron.

Alder got up early the next morning to make preparations. By the time Siry and I woke up and got something to eat. Alder had already gathered a group of twenty volunteers from the Milago village. We met them in the clearing between the village and the castle ruins. I recognized some of the men. The biggest difference from when I was there before was that they looked healthy now. Back then, all the men had the same gray look of death, from working in the mines and breathing the poisonous fumes that were emitted when glaze was torn from the rock. Now they looked strong and well fed. I felt bad for what I was about to ask them to do.

Leading these volunteers was a man I remembered well. It was Rellin, the chief miner and leader of the revolution against the Bedoowan. He was now the leader of the Milago. He was as powerful and confident a leader as I remembered. The one thing missing was the anger he once held. He was now at peace with his world. I hoped I wasn’t going to disrupt that too much.

“You’ve grown up, Pendragon,” he said while giving me a warm hug.

“I can’t believe what I see here/’ I said to the man. “It’s a whole new village.”

“It is, in great part thanks to you and Press. I was sorry to hear of his passing.”

I nodded in appreciation.

“In his memory, and because of the part you played in creating a new world for us, we are willing to do what you ask,” Rellin said. “There will be danger. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I do,” I said. “I wouldn’t be asking for help if it weren’t so incredibly important.”

“And what makes it so?” he asked.

I knew I’d have to answer that question at some point. I couldn’t tell Rellin the whole truth, of course. But he deserved to know some form of it.

“There is a village a long way from here that needs my help. Like the Milago, they are in danger of being destroyed by a powerful, evil force. I am trying my best to help them.”

“You are quite the adventurer, Pendragon,” Rellin said. “It is a noble but dangerous calling to become involved in such conflicts.”

He pretty much nailed that one square on the freakin’ head.

“Yes, but it’s the right thing to do,” I said. “Then for you and your noble calling, I will send my men back down into the mines in search of tak.” “Thank you,” I said sincerely.

These were brave guys. I wished I could tell them how they would be mining the tak to protect their own future as well.

Rellin said, “You understand the veins of tak were buried deep below the ground. It will take much effort to uncover them.”

“Not as much as you think,” I declared. I led Rellin and the miners to the dygo. Siry walked alongside me.

“What’s so special about tak?” he whispered. “It’s a natural substance they discovered while mining for glaze. It’s a soft, red dirt you can roll into balls, like clay.” “What is it, poison?”

“It’s an incredibly powerful explosive. A tiny dot could blow one of those huts off the face of Denduron. The miners were going to use it against the Bedoowan, but it would have changed the evolution of the society. With tak, the Milago would have become warriors. After defeating the Bedoowan, Rellin was going to try and conquer other areas of Denduron. This peaceful village would have become a city of warriors. They never got the chance. After the explosion the tak mines were buried too deep for them to get to.”

“Except with a dygo,” Siry said.

“Exactly. I want to blow Saint Dane back to wherever it was he came from. With a weapon like tak, we’ve got a chance against his army. Without it…” I didn’t finish the sentence.

Siry said, “But once we dig a tunnel, won’t the Milago be able to keep mining it?”

“No, this is a different place,” I said quickly. “They aren’t at war anymore.”

Siry looked troubled. “I just hope we don’t blow the people of Denduron back to where they came from too.”

“We won’t,” I snapped.

Siry didn’t say another word.

Rellin and the twenty miners were in absolute awe of the dygo. No big surprise. I gave them a story about how it came from a city on the far side of the mountains. I knew they had plenty of questions, but I didn’t give them the chance to ask. Siry and I boarded the sphere and rolled toward the castle. There was no way of knowing where a vein of tak might be located. I stopped the machine at a remote spot that wouldn’t interfere with the normal routine of the village. As the miners watched in awe, I engaged the drill and dipped it toward the ground. With a push on the foot pedals, the drill bit into the ground. We were under way.

Digging the mine was simple. Finding tak wasn’t. My plan was to dig several shallow tunnels and have the miners inspect them for tak. If we came up empty, we’d dig a new tunnel. And another and another until we found what we came for. It was a laborious process. We spent several days on Denduron with no luck. We found small deposits of glaze, but the miners didn’t dare dig it out. They had seen enough of the blue gem to last a few hundred lifetimes.

While we dug, other miners constructed crates for us to transport the explosive. The crates were critical. Tak dissolved when mixed with water. Since our entry to Ibara was through a pool of water, the crates needed to be watertight. The miners also built a large, flat sled we could use to drag the tak up and over the mountain. Of course, they didn’t know we were only going halfway.