D. MacHale - The Rivers of Zadaa

It felt like a last meal and a celebration rolled into one. Training was over. We were on the same team again. I knew that we were all thinking about how we would now have to turn our sites toward our real enemy, but after working so hard for so long, we deserved a vacation, even if it was only for a couple of minutes.

“To Pendragon!” Alder said while lifting a canteen to toast.

“To Pendragon!” Loor and Saangi echoed. “I have one request,” Loor said. “What’s that?” I asked.

“You must remain true to who you are,” she said. “You have new skills; it does not mean you must use them.”

“Believe me,” I said, “if I never had to fight again, I’d be a happy guy. All you’ve done is give me a better shot at surviving. For that, I can’t thank you enough. All of you.”

I raised my own canteen to them, and we drank a toast. After drinking, Loor pulled something out from beneath one of the bunks.

“You now fight like a Ghee,” she said. “With your dark skin, you almost look like a Batu. Almost.” We all chuckled.

She continued, “Therefore, you should dress like one.”

Loor handed me the clothes I would be wearing from then on-the lightweight leather armor of a Ghee warrior.

“Are you sure?” I asked with surprise.

“You are not a Rokador,” she said. “There is no longer any sense in pretending to be one.”

“Thank you, Loor,” I said. “I’m honored. I really am.”

I took the clothing reverently. With a little help from Saangi, who had to explain exactly how to put it on, I donned the armor of a Ghee. I guess calling it armor is misleading. It was more like black clothing that had leather pads to protect vital areas like the chest, kidneys, and of course, the groin. Always gotta protect the groin. The sleeves and pants were short, but there were extra pads for the forearms that reminded me of the braces I used to wear when street skating. Same with my knees. It was all pretty comfortable, and I could move easily. I even liked the sandals. They had more protection than the open, Rokador variety. And I could keep on my boxers. That was key.

When I was dressed, I stepped back and said, “How do I look?”

Alder smiled and said, “Intimidating.”

“Yeah, right,” I said sarcastically. But the truth was, wearing this armor made me feel a little more formidable. Who knows? Maybe I had actually come a little closer to my fantasy image of a fierce warrior. Or maybe I was kidding myself.

“You look good,” Saangi said. “Nothing like a Ghee, but good.”

She was humoring me. That was okay. All I cared about was not looking like a little kid wearing my daddy’s armor.

“You will also need this,” Loor said.

From under the bunk she pulled out the last piece in the puzzle. It was an official stave, the wooden weapon used by Ghee warriors. It was around six feet long and a few inches thick. It got thicker toward either end so it looked sort of like a long, double-ended club. It was pretty worn, too. This weapon had seen action. The wood was stained dark from sweat, and for all I knew, blood. No question, this weapon had a ton of history. As it turned out, I was absolutely correct.

Loor held the stave out reverently and said, “This was the weapon of my mother, Osa.”

My throat clutched. Osa. The Traveler from Zadaa before Loor. The last time I saw her, it was in a battle to defend me. She saved my life, and lost hers. I didn’t feel worthy to take her weapon.

“I can’t,” I said.

“You can,” Loor said firmly. “I believe this is the way it was meant to be.”

I hesitated, but one look in Loor’s eyes told me she truly wanted me to have it. I tentatively reached out and took it. Of course, it was heavier than the bamboo poles I had been fighting with. More important, I felt Osa’s spirit in this weapon.

I looked at Loor and said, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you will honor the memory of my mother,” Loor said.

“I’ll do my best.”

Loor nodded. It was a bittersweet moment.

I looked at Alder and said, “By coming here you may have saved my life. I’m really grateful.”

“You say that as if I am about to leave,” he replied.

“You’ve done your part,” I said. “You should return to Denduron.”

Alder picked up the short, metal rod that was the Rokador weapon. With his size and white skin, he still looked very much like a Rokador. There was no sense in dressing him like a Ghee.

“I am a Traveler,” Alder said. “That is reason enough. Loor helped us save Denduron; it is time to return the favor.”

I looked to Loor. She nodded.

I took Osa’s stave and flipped it over my back until it was firmly wedged into the leather harness that Saangi had fitted to me. I’d like to say that I felt all sorts of menacing with my armor and weapon, but after all the grueling training I had been through, the one thing nobody prepared me for was walking around with a big old stick strapped to my back. Talk about awkward! It took me a while to figure out how to position it so I could turn around without whacking somebody. The first time I moved, I nearly beaned Alder.

He laughed and said, “We are on the same side again, remember?”

“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed. Yeah, I was a badass warrior all right. I felt more like one of the Three Stooges. “Why didn’t you guys teach me how to deal with this?” I said, turning around comically, nearly hitting Loor and Saangi, deliberately. Both ducked out of the way and laughed.

“This is a whole nother skill,” I said, laughing. I spun quickly. Alder had to duck or he would have gotten hit. He laughed. “Oops, sorry!” I said, joking. I turned to help him up, nearly hitting Loor and Saangi again. I spun back to them. “Oh, I’m sorry!” I was having fun, for the first time since I could remember. We all were. Even Saangi. To be honest, it wasn’t all that funny, but when you don’t have much else to laugh about, you take the yuks where you can get them. I spun around the room a few more times, pretending to apologize to one person for nearly hitting them while nearly whacking another one behind me until finally, I hit Alder. He lurched forward, overdoing it. We all laughed. He staggered a few steps, and we all kept laughing until I registered the look on Alder’s face. He wasn’t laughing. This was no joke.

“Jeez, man, I’m sorry,” I said. “Did I really nail you?”

Alder’s eyes were wide with shock. He fell to his knee, and turned until we all saw something that made the party stop as quickly as if somebody had flipped off a light switch.

Sticking out of Alder’s shoulder was a steel arrow.

The four of us froze. It made no sense. I hadn’t seen anything like this on Zadaa before. But Loor had.

“Tiggens!” Loor shouted. “We are being attacked!”

Zing! Another arrow flew through the doorway, whizzed across the room, and imbedded itself into the far wall. “Down!” Loor shouted.

We all hit the ground. Loor tackled Alder, making sure that he was out of harm’s way.

“Is this it?” I asked in a strained whisper. “Has the war begun?”

“No,” Saangi answered. “I was in Xhaxhu this morning. There was no plan to attack.”

“Then maybe the Rokador are striking first,” I said.

“That would be suicide,” Loor answered. “And even if they were, why would they attack us out here in the desert?”

Good point. Whoever was attacking, this wasn’t about the conflict between the Batu and the Rokador. This was about us. Oh joy.

“I am all right,” Alder said, though I could tell he was gritting his teeth in pain. I could see a blossom of red spreading out from the arrow, soaking his white Rokador tunic. “Leave me here,” he said. “Take the battle to them.”