D. MacHale - The Rivers of Zadaa

Loor reached outside the doorway and retrieved my familiar, worn stave. Osa’s stave. She hadn’t forgotten to bring it. I felt its weight, flipped it over my shoulder and into the harness. I was ready to go.

“This is gonna be tough,” I said. “A Ghee and a half aren’t going to be welcomed by the Rokador with flowers and songs.”

“We will reach Kidik,” Loor said confidently. “Have faith. You have learned from the best.”

I had to smile. Loor’s confidence was infectious. It was starting to rub off on me a little too.

Saangi said, “I will say again, I should come with you.”

Loor actually softened and said, “Saangi, I wish you could. I truly do. But Alder is in danger here. As soon as he is able to move, you must get him back to the flume. The battle against Saint Dane is not about Zadaa. It is about Halla. Alder must be kept safe.”

Saangi nodded. She hated to, but she nodded.

“It has been an honor to serve you,” Saangi said to Loor.

“You have my eternal thanks,” Loor responded.

“Whoa, time out,” I said. “Don’t go saying that like you’re never gonna see each other again. We’ll be back.”

I thought I caught a small tear forming in Saangi’s eye. Truth was, she might not see Loor again. Not if we got caught in the middle of this war. My words didn’t comfort her in the slightest. They sounded kind of hollow to me, too.

“Pendragon,” Saangi said, “I may be short in my manner, but I want you to know that I believe in you. If there is a chance of stopping this war, you and Loor will find it.”

“Thanks for that, Saangi,” I said. “And for everything.”

I gave Alder a quick touch on the shoulder. I didn’t want to wake him. He needed the sleep. I wished he were coming with us.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We were soon jogging through the dark, rainy streets of Xhaxhu, headed for the building that would lead us down into the depths of the Rokador tunnel system, near the flume. It was a familiar route. Loor didn’t have to direct me. We found the building, entered the doorway, and descended down the spiraling ramp that brought us into the underground. Once we were below, the concept of day and night went away. The lighting was always the same. The domes embedded in the walls gave off the same, soft yellow light whether it was midday or midnight. We didn’t stop to talk until we had walked through the abandoned water-control station, and emerged into the vast chamber that used to hold the raging river. Even with all the rain, there was only a small bit of water trickling along the dry riverbed. I had to admit, this looked bad for the Rokador. I was now convinced that they really were playing games with the water.

“Do we have a plan?” I asked Loor.

She took out the map that Bokka had given us. I took another look at the complicated labyrinth of tunnels and the route marked in red.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing to several unique sketches that showed up every so often along the route. They were all different. Some were slashes across the tunnels. Others showed what looked like small structures off to the side.

“I do not know,” Loor answered. “But we will find out.”

“Which way?” I asked.

“Bokka’s route begins at the crossroads,” she said. “We must go through those large doors to begin our journey.”

“So right off the bat, we’ve got to go through a team of Tiggen guards who were assigned to make sure nobody goes through those doors because there is a major water transfer-control machine on the other side?”

“Yes.”

“Just checking.”

We started off, retracing the route that Bokka had led us on when we first went to the crossroads. I got confused pretty quickly. There were many turns and options. But Loor knew where she was going. I followed as if I did too.

“If we meet with resistance,” Loor said, “listen for my commands.”

“No problem, you’re the pro,” I said.

I was actually feeling pretty confident. When we were attacked by the Tiggen guards before, I did all right. I was getting more used to Osa’s stave, so I felt sure I could put a little more “oomph” behind it this time. On the other hand, there wasn’t much we could do to defend ourselves if that assassin were there and he started shooting those steel arrows. We had to watch out for that dude. In a few minutes we arrived at the final tunnel that opened out into the large cavern called the crossroads. My heart sank when I saw that there were three Tiggen guards in front of the door. The road to Kidik was through those guys, and the doors they were guarding. The only good news was that the guy with the crossbow was nowhere to be seen.

“They are not alert,” Loor whispered.

“How do you know that?” I whispered back.

“From the way they are standing,” she answered. “Either they have been on duty for a long time, or they do not believe they will be attacked. Possibly both.”

“Tell me what to do,” I said.

“Fight,” she said, and took off running for the guards.

Just like that. No plan. No sneaking around. No coordination. No signals. Just an all-out, frontal attack. I pulled out my stave and followed.

I shouldn’t have doubted Loor. She actually did have a plan, and it was the only one possible. The crossroads was a large, empty cavern with nothing but the two huge wooden doors that were being guarded, and a number of tunnels that led off to other points. The tunnel we had come out of was directly across from the wooden doors. There was nowhere to hide. No place to sneak and get closer without being seen. Loor made the only choice possible. She ran quickly and silently for the guards. If she was right, and they were not alert, we’d get pretty close before they even realized what was happening. If she was wrong, well, ouch.

Loor was right. She moved so quickly and so quietly that she was nearly on the first guard before he knew it. He never even got the chance to go for his weapon before Loor swung her stave. She knocked him to the ground with one shot, out cold. The other guards were just as slow to react. Loor targeted the next guy while I took the third. Neither of them even reacted to their buddy getting beaned. I figured my guy would pull out his steel baton and wait until I got close enough so he could dig it into my ribs and zap me. I didn’t give him the chance. Just before I reached him, I dropped to the ground and swung my stave at ankle level. I was hoping to get him to reach down to protect himself, but it turned out even better. The stave hit his ankles and the guy toppled. He was on his back before I finished the swing. I brought the stave back, ready to drill the guy when I heard, “Pendragon, stop!”

It was Loor. I froze, but kept my eye on the Tiggen guard. I didn’t want him to pull a sneak attack when I was looking away. Ihad learned my lesson, over and over again, that I had to keep my eye on my opponent. As I stood there with my stave raised and ready to strike, I saw something odd. The Tiggen guard still hadn’t moved. As he lay on his back, he didn’t even turn to look up at me. Ifigured he might have hit his head on the way down and been knocked senseless.

“Relax, Pendragon,” Loor said calmly. “They will not give us trouble.”

A closer look at my opponent revealed something eerie. His face looked frozen. Almost…dead. My heart raced. HadIkilled the guy? There was no way. All I did was sweep out his feet. Loor walked over to the guy, reached down, and yanked back the white hood that covered his head.

“Dummies!”Iexclaimed.

His face was a cloth mask. A quick look back showed me that all the guards were fake. They had been propped up to look as if they were guarding the doors. From a distance, the effect was pretty good. Now I knew how we got so close without them reacting. The word that came to mind was “scarecrows.”