D. MacHale - The Rivers of Zadaa

I had to smile. “Where did you find this girl, Loor?” I asked. “She’s incredible.”

Loor said, “I did not find her. She is my sister.”

I sputtered out, “Your sister? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Shall we discuss this now?” Loor asked.

Enough said.

The three of us followed Saangi back through the building and out the far side. As soon as we emerged, we were confronted with a horrifying sight. The island was shrinking. The water’s edge was now a good half mile closer than it had been when we arrived. Gone was the beach and the trail. It wouldn’t be long before the water reached the central building.

The water was strangely calm. There were no waves or whitecaps. It just kept rising and rising. On the surface were dozens of boats, all full of Rokador. I saw one boat that had all ten of the Rokador elite. Another had the engineers. Many were full of Tiggen guards. It looked as if they were doing all they could to help the other Rokador escape. They were doing their duty till the end. The whole scene looked eerily like lifeboats leaving a sinking ship. Except in this case there would be no rescue ship coming by. I could only hope that they had enough knowledge of the underground that they would find an escape route to the surface. “Down here!” Saangi said.

We ran down a rocky slope where we saw, hidden behind a large boulder, another silver boat like the one Loor and I came across the water on. The four of us lifted the craft and quickly carried it to the waterline that was growing closer by the second. We launched the boat, jumped inside, and kicked over the engine as…

Boom!

The roof blew out of the central building. Jagged pieces of metal rocketed high into the air, along with multiple geysers of water that spewed from the massive pipes, now totally ruptured under the incredible pressure. Some chunks flew so high they ricocheted off the rock dome above.

“Look out!” I shouted.

I grabbed the tiller and made a sharp turn as a chunk of metal splashed down into the water a few feet from us. Before it sank beneath the surface, I saw that it was a piece of the master control panel. For the next few minutes metal and water rained down around us. It was a miracle we weren’t hit. Once the deadly storm ended, our thoughts went ahead to the next step.

“There aren’t a whole lot of options,” I said. “I think our best chance of getting out of here is back through the city. At least we know that way.”

Everyone agreed, so I steered the boat back in the direction of the abandoned city. Nobody said anything, but I knew we were all wondering how high the water had gotten. The southern gates were under the city. If the Rokador engineers were correct, eventually the water pressure would be so great that those gates would collapse, sending the millions of tons of water careening through the tunnels of the underground. After seeing the master water controller explode so violently, I had no doubt that the engineers were right, and those gates would soon be history. The only real question was, how much time did we have?

If it had already happened, we were dead. The underground would be flooded and there would be no way out. If it hadn’t happened yet, we had to hope that the water level hadn’t risen too high for us to find the opening into Kidik and make it up the wide stairs that led back to the main street. If we were lucky enough to make it that far, it would be a race to get out.

We soon drew closer to the massive stone cliffs that held Kidik City. When Loor and I were here before, we were able to see the lights of the landing at the base of the stone cliff. I held my breath. Had the water risen so high that it covered the opening to the landing? A few tense minutes later, Saangi pointed and said, “There!”

It was a thin sliver of light at the base of the cliff. The opening wasn’t underwater, and the lights were still on. But it was much thinner than when we had left. The water had definitely risen higher, I gunned the throttle. Right now speed was everything. When we got to the stone wall, we saw that the opening was barely high enough for us to steer our boat inside without ducking down. This had once been a thirty-foot-high opening. Still our luck was holding. If we could maneuver our way inside and find the stairs, we’d have a chance of climbing up onto the dry ground of Kidik, and begin the race back to the surface. Our luck didn’t hold.

No sooner had we cleared the entrance of what was now a watery cave than the lights flickered. A moment later the lights of Kidik went dark. The power was gone. We were in pitch darkness, miles underground, with the water rising.

“Don’t panic,” I said. “We can find our way through.” I had no idea if that was true or not, but it felt like the right thing to say. It wasn’t like we had a whole lot of options. I tried to hold a mental image of where we were when the lights went out. I had to compare that to my memory of this launch area when Loor and I were here before. It was next to impossible. In seconds my sense of direction was totally gone. I couldn’t tell up from down, left from right. “Careful!” Saangi shouted.

Bump! The bow of the boat crashed into a rock wall, making us all lurch forward.

“That’s good!” I shouted. “Put your hands on the wall. We’ll make our way along. Eventually we’ll hit the opening that leads to the stairway.”

Alder and Saangi sat on the left-port-side of the small boat with their hands out on the wall. I motored ahead slowly, so they could keep their hands in contact with the rock surface. My memory of the launch area was that if we could continue on like this, we would come upon the opening to the cavern at the base of the stairs. Nobody spoke. As we moved along in the total darkness, I began to worry about something else. I tried to visualize what the archway to the stairs looked like. The stairs were really wide, which meant the opening to the stairs was also wide. But width wasn’t what we needed. It was height. If the water had risen to the top of the opening, we could be right in front of it and not know it. Even if the water level had risen to only a few inches higher than the opening to the stairs, we’d miss it. After puttering along for several minutes, my worry turned to fear. I felt sure we should have found the opening by then.

My fear didn’t last long. That’s because it gave way to panic.

“Ouch!” Alder shouted.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I… I hit my head,” he said soberly. “We are out of room.”

The water had risen so high that it nearly filled the launch area. There was no way we would find the opening to the stairs now. Soon the water would reach the ceiling-and we would drown.

“I’m going to try and get back out to the ocean,” I declared. I had no idea what we’d do once we got out there, but staying in here meant death. “Keep your hands on the wall,” I ordered. “It should bring us back around to the entrance.” My fear was that this launch area was so huge that taking this roundabout route would take too long. But it gave us a better chance than if I simply took a guess as to where the opening to the ocean was and gunned it. We could easily go in the wrong direction and be lost. I knew that we might have to do that at some point, but I wanted to hold off for as long as possible.

“We do not have much room left, Pendragon,” Alder warned.

He was the tallest on the boat and had to duck down to keep from scraping his head against the rocky ceiling. Soon the tops of all our heads were grazing the ceiling. We were out of time. I had to take a chance.

“This is taking too long,” I declared. “I’m going to make a guess and go for it.”