D. MacHale - Black Water

And we were on our way. The last sound I heard from Eelong was a shriek and a hugeboomas the flume disintegrated behind us. I braced myself, expecting the entire flume to collapse. But it didn’t. All the damage was done at the gate. The rest of the flume was intact.

I don’t remember much about the trip to Zadaa. Kasha andIsailed along side by side. I held her in my arms, cradling her head. Blood was starting to blossom through the black fur above her left eye, turning it slick. Iput my hand over the wound, thinking direct pressure might stop the bleeding, but thenIwas afraid of putting too much pressure on her damaged skull.

“Kasha?” I said.

She opened her eyes, but couldn’t focus.

“We’ll be there soon,”Iassured her. “Loor can get us help.”Iwas scared to death. I knew that Loor would do what she could, butIhad no idea what the doctor situation was on Zadaa, let alone if they would treat a giant predator cat. I wondered if they had such things as veterinarians. AllIcould do was hold Kasha tight and wait for the trip to end.

It only took us a few minutes to get there, but it felt like days. Finally the musical notes grew faster and I felt the tug of gravity. I held Kasha tight to help ease her down once we arrived. Moments later I carried her out of the flume and into the large, underground cavern made of light brown stone-the sandstone of Zadaa. I laid Kasha down on the floor as gently as I could, then turned my thoughts to helping her. I quickly realized how tough that was going to be. To get out of this cavern, we needed to climb up through a cleft in the rock using footholds that were dug out of the stone. There was no way I would be able to climb out of there with an unconscious, two-hundred-pound cat. I decided to leave her and go for help.

“Pendragon?” Kasha whispered.

Her eyes were open and barely focused.

“Don’t talk,” I said. “I’m going to find somebody to help you.”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“But if I don’t get help-“

Kasha cut me off by squeezing my arm. One look into her eyes and my heart sank. Her once-sharp eyes were becoming glassy. Blood flowed from her wound. The grim truth was that Kasha didn’t need help. She needed comfort. I sat down next to her, lifted her head and put my hand under it, to act as a cushion against the hard, dirt floor.

“Tell me again,” Kasha whispered.

“About what?”

“Tell me what your uncle Press said,” she answered weakly. “I need to hear it.”

It took every bit of courage I had to keep it together, and answer. “Uncle Press was a lot like your father,” I said, my voice cracking. “People loved to be around him because he was the kind of guy who never had problems, only challenges.

He never gave reasons, or excuses why things couldn’t be done. He just went out and did them.”

“Just like Seegen,” Kasha whispered.

“And Uncle Press was a Traveler. He taught me a lot about what being a Traveler meant, but he didn’t even scratch the surface. He knew a lot more, but never got the chance to tell me. The last thing he said, as he was dying, was not to be sad because one day I’d see him again. He promised. He never broke a promise to me and I don’t believe he’s going to now.”

“I wish I knew him,” she said.

“I wish you did too.”

Kasha swallowed and said, “Am I going to see my father now?”

I almost lost it. “Yeah,” I said. “You are.”

“I’m proud to have known you, Bobby Pendragon. And to have been a Traveler.”

“You’ll always be a Traveler,” I said.

Kasha smiled, closed her eyes, and died. I felt the life go out of her as her head slumped into my hand. I kept staring at her, refusing to believe it, hoping that her eyes would open. But they didn’t. The harsh reality landed like a heavy weight on my shoulders. Another Traveler was gone. I knew of others who died before her: Osa, Seegen, Spader’s father, and of course, Uncle Press. But this was different. Kasha was the first Traveler from my generation who died. The last generation.

Saint Dane’s true purpose on Eelong was suddenly coming into focus.

“Hello, Pendragon,” came a voice from deeper in the cavern. I knew who it was without looking. “Hello, Loor,” I said.

The tall, dark-skinned warrior girl stepped out of the shadows and stood over Kasha and me. “I knew you would be coming,” she said softly. “But I did not expect this.”

“Nothing is the same, Loor,” I said, trying not to let my emotions take over. “We saved Eelong. The territory is safe. But I don’t think Saint Dane cares one way or the other.”

“Then what was the point?” Loor asked.

“He wants to change the way things were meant to be,” I answered. “Saint Dane is doing all that he can to tear Halla apart. On Eelong, we helped him.”

“Please explain,” Loor said.

I gently laid Kasha’s head down, stood up, and walked to the mouth of the flume. I took a step inside and called out, “Eelong!”

Nothing happened.

Loor stepped in and tried herself. “Eelong!”

The flume remained quiet.

“The gate on Eelong is destroyed,” I concluded.

“How did Saint Dane do that?” Loor asked.

“He didn’t. We did. Uncle Press always said that mixing the territories was wrong. What happened on Eelong is proof. Saint Dane may have lost a territory, but we lost three Travelers.”

I saw the surprised look on Loor’s face. She was too stunned to ask what I meant by that. I walked back to Kasha’s body and knelt down. Gently I took the Traveler ring from around her neck. “Kasha was the Traveler from Eelong,” I said. “Since we’re the last generation, Eelong no longer has one.” I put the cord that held Kasha’s ring around my neck and stood to face Loor. “And since the gate on Eelong is destroyed, Spader and Gunny are trapped.”

For the first time ever, I saw surprise in Loor’s eyes. “But they are safe?” she asked.

“I think so. But they aren’t going anywhere. Saint Dane said the rules have changed, but they haven’t. He’s just decided not to follow them.”

Loor and I brought Kasha’s body out of the cavern and smuggled it through the twisting caves and tunnels beneath the city of Xhaxhu. I had been here twice before and remembered the route. But there was one very big difference. Xhaxhu was an oasis city surrounded by a vast desert. Its water supply came from a complex series of underground rivers. These rivers were the lifeblood of Xhaxhu. Without this water, the city would dry up and blow away. We had to pass one of these rivers on our way out of the tunnels, but when we came to it, I was stunned to see that the river was absolutely, totally dry. Instead of the fast-flowing waterway that I remembered, I saw a deep, empty trough with a few inches of dry dirt in the bottom. I rested Kasha’s body down and stood on the edge of what had once been a deep canal. I was speechless.

“This is why I knew you were coming,” Loor said. “But now is not the time. We must complete our task.”

I shook off the image of the dry riverbed. We picked Kasha up to continue our journey. When we climbed up into the city, I saw that it was the dead of night. The streets were empty. That was good. It would have been tough to explain what we were doing. We brought Kasha to the ceremonial center where the fallen warriors of Zadaa were cremated. Since the klee tradition was to cremate their dead, I thought it was the right thing to do. We wrapped Kasha’s body in a white cloth and gently placed her inside the stone structure where the fire would be set. Loor took on the tough task and lit the ceremonial fires. I had to step outside until it was done. I didn’t have the strength to gut this one out. It didn’t take long. Soon after, Loor came out of the crematorium carrying a silver urn that held Kasha’s ashes. I took it, felt its weight, and made a promise to Kasha thatIwould do all I could to one day scatter her ashes from Seegen’s perch, high above Leeandra.