D. MacHale - Black Water

Other images I didn’t recognize. There were two giant men who looked like twins, running across the sky. They looked powerful, though somewhat stiff, as if they were mechanical. I saw a vast field of people wearing nothing but rags. They were all raising their open hands into the air in some common gesture that looked like they were cheering. I also saw a huge, spotted jungle cat charging across the field of stars.

None of this was scary. In fact, it was kind of cool. It was like kicking back and watching a bunch of weird movies projected in space. But the more I saw, the more it bothered me. Why was it happening? What had changed? What did the strange images mean? I couldn’t help but think back to what Saint Dane had warned. He said that once the first territory fell, the rest would fall like dominos. I didn’t want to be paranoid or anything, but since Saint Dane had finally toppled a territory, I worried that there might have been some grand, cosmic change in Halla.

I didn’t get the chance to stress about it for long because the musical notes began to play quickly. I was at the end of my trip. My thoughts turned to Eelong. Was I about to be dumped into a pool of water, like on Cloral? Would there be quigs waiting for me, licking their chops because the dinner bell had just rung?

A few seconds later the flume gently deposited me on my feet. Nothing dramatic at all. That was the good news. Bad news was that I was instantly engulfed in a tangle of thick, sticky ropes. At least I thought they were ropes. For all I knew it was a massive web and the quigs on Eelong were hungry spiders. But I didn’t want to believe the worst, so I pushed my way through the dense tangle of ropes. I came out on the far side to find myself standing in a cave. A quick three-sixty showed me it was a grand, underground cavern with a high ceiling. Light leaked through random cracks high above. The ropes I had pushed through turned out to be a curtain of thick vines that cascaded down from the ceiling and covered the mouth of the flume.

“Roots,” I said to myself.

Roots were good. Way better than spiderweb. The cavern was full of these long, green sticky roots that covered the rock walls. I took a few steps toward the center, still on high alert. But there were no gangsters, no quigs, no pools of water, and no Saint Dane. So far, so good. I looked back to the flume to see it was hidden by the dense curtain of roots. I dug an arrow into the dirt floor with my heel, pointing to it. I wasn’t taking any chances if I had to bolt out of there fast.

In the dead center of the cavern was a large flat rock. Lying on it was something I wasn’t happy to see. It was a pile of clothing. As you know, acolytes put clothing at the flumes for visiting Travelers. According to the Traveler rules, I had to dress in these clothes. No problem, right? Wrong. The clothing on this rock was nothing more than a pile of dirty rags. I’m not exaggerating. At first I thought that’s what they were. Rags. But when I lifted one up, I saw that it was a crudely made pair of cloth pants. It wasn’t exactly soft, either. It felt like rough burlap. I picked up what looked like a shirt. I wasn’t really sure at first, because I saw one sleeve and a hole that I thought would go around your neck, but the rest was in tatters. Not exactly something you’d find on the rack at the Gap. And they smelled, too. Like bad BO. (Is there such a thing asgoodBO?)

I also found some crude shoes made of cloth. I knew they were shoes because they were sort of foot-shaped with extra layers on the bottom. This was not good. I looked around, hoping there might be some other clothes that were a little less nasty, and saw something that made my heart jump. Lying on the ground next to the rock, neatly folded, was a black suit with a white shirt and a large pair of leather shoes.

“Gunny,” I said out loud.

These were the clothes he’d worn when he left me on Veelox. There was no mistake; I was in the right place in the wrong clothes. I had to change. Those were the rules. I reluctantly took off my comfy green jumpsuit from Veelox and folded it next to Gunny’s clothes. I then did something I absolutely hated, but didn’t have a choice about. I had to lose my boxer shorts. In the past, no matter what territory I visited, I kept on the boxers. I figured that if the future of Halla rested on my choice of underwear, it was beyond saving. But these Eelong clothes were so raggy and threadbare, my boxers would have shown! There was no way I could wear them without arousing suspicion. Or at least looking like a total dork. I wanted to scream. It was the final injustice. I had to wear these rough, itchy, torn-up rags, without boxer protection. They were smelly, too. Did I mention that? I already felt like I was on Eelong for too long.

I put on the rags as best as I could, but they hung on me like, well, like rags. On the rock I spotted several strips of thin, braided vine about two feet long. I used them to tie up the cloth in places where it hung too loose. I used these vines on the cloth shoes, too, wrapping up both my feet to keep the ratty material on. After a while I felt like a Thanksgiving turkey, all trussed and ready for the oven. It was awful. Compared to these putrid rags, the leather skins on Denduron were like soft pajamas.

And they smelled, too. I must have mentioned that.

Now that I was all dressed up (or down) the next step was to find the gate and get out of this cavern. I figured the way out must be hidden by the hanging roots. I walked to the side and stuck my arm out to brush aside the dangling vegetables. I walked along, pushing aside the vines, peering beyond to look for something that might be an exit. I saw that the walls weren’t entirely made of rock. There were thick sections of roots that had grown into and around the rock. I figured there must be some serious vegetation on the surface.

I had gotten more than halfway around the cavern when I started to worry that I might have missed it. That’s when I saw something. Beyond the thick curtain of hanging vines, there was a vertical crack in the rock wall. This had to be the way out. I took a step through the vines and immediately tripped on something. I stumbled forward, hit the wall, and face-planted into the dirt. Ouch. When I opened my eyes, I was face-to-face with… a human skull!

“Ahh!”

I rolled away fast. When I got the guts to look back, I nearly retched. Lying on the dirt floor in front of the crack in the wall was a pile of bones. Human bones. I had seen enough horror movies to recognize people bones when I saw them. I couldn’t tell how many victims these bones belonged to, and I wasn’t about to do inventory, but I’m guessing they were the remains of about six poor souls. They must have been there for a while, because there was nothing left of them but bones, and raggy clothes like I was wearing. Their clothes actually looked a little better than mine, but I wasn’t about to make a swap. Ick.

I began to question whether the opening in the rock was the way out, or the path to a gruesome death that would land me back on this pile. I saw crudely fashioned stairs, leading up. They looked to have been carved out of the root material that snaked through the rock. Better, I saw a faint hint of light coming from above. Light was good. I decided to take my chances. I gingerly stepped over the bones because the idea of stepping on something and hearing acrackwould have pushed me over the edge into gak-dom. With a quick hop I was over, and slid through the opening in the rocks.

The steps were narrow and steep and wound around like a spiral staircase. I could smell fresh air coming from above, so my confidence grew. I really, really wanted to be out of here. This place was starting to feel more like a crypt than a gate to the flumes. After climbing for a few minutes, I got to the top of the crude stairs and found myself in a dark space. I couldn’t see the walls, and the ceiling was so low I couldn’t stand. What now?